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The Transformational Leader: Compass to a New World, part 2

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Inspire

A pure fact of transformational leadership is that you can accomplish only a small portion of the requisite forward movement on your own. Therefore, if you are to transform a company you must inspire others to follow you. What are the qualities of a leader that inspire others and impel them to follow?

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About the Author

Mahesh Rao, a dynamic, creative, and highly-skilled executive consultant with more than 20 years of business experience, holds 14 US and international patents. Some have been industry-shaping. In 2005 he won the Japanese government’s Most Valuable Patent award. Mahesh has received numerous corporate, client, and industry accolades for coaching senior executives at Fortune 100 companies to become successful transformation leaders and organizational innovators. He has also founded startups that were taken through acquisition. His work with large global companies, including Mitsubishi – and his wide exposure to numerous industries, schools of thought, practices, organizational needs, and corporate responsibilities – account for his consummate ability to advance a vision through strategizing, planning, and execution on a global scale while managing risks. Mahesh Rao’s extensive travel and keen cultural awareness, along with his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, contribute to his ability to see processes clearly, from the big picture to the details. To read Mahesh Rao’s complete biography, click here.

To contact the author write to: [email protected].

Alternative Development Warning Flag 1 – Developing Business Cases First

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All business leaders are human and some get overly enamored with and excited about a particular business opportunity. These business leaders then direct either a business case or project plan to be developed which is immediately funded; circumventing the organization’s business planning process. In these cases, the initiative’s ability to meet the organization’s business objectives and goals remains uncertain and consideration of competing opportunities is forfeit. In some organizations, entire portfolios are determined in this fashion; leaving leaders blind with respect to their ability to optimally achieve the organization’s mission goals.

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Additional Information

The following StrategyDriven recommended best practices are designed to reduce the likelihood of circumventing the business planning process:

Additionally, StrategyDriven‘s Strategic Organizational Alignment model reveals the typical executive and managerial responsibilities associated with the business planning process.

Is Your Team Failing Elegantly? Seven Leadership Mistakes That Wear Away at Your Company’s Will to Win

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No one wants to lose. That’s true whether you’re talking about the Super Bowl, a friendly basketball game with the neighbors, or a footrace between eight-year-olds. Yes, the desire to win is embedded in the human psyche. So why is it that in the business world the ‘win or (almost) die trying’ principle seems to falter? Why do so many talented, well-led teams, enterprises, and organizations – many of them with clear, reasonable goals – fail to win victories that should have been easily within their grasps?

It’s because they’ve been infected with a disease I call ‘failing elegantly.’

Failing elegantly is a very sophisticated and veiled set of coping behaviors by individuals, the purpose of which is to avoid the oncoming train of embarrassment when the cover comes off the lousy results that we’d prefer no one ever see. In other words, it’s a fancy way to lose.

Essentially, this debilitating syndrome sets in when people stop believing they can be successful and start devoting their energy to how best to lose.

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About the Author

John Hamm is one of the top leadership experts in Silicon Valley. He was named one of the country’s Top 100 venture capitalists in 2009 by AlwaysOn and has led investments in many successful high-growth companies as a partner at several Bay Area VC firms. Hamm has also been a CEO, a board member at over thirty companies, and a CEO adviser and executive coach to senior leaders at companies such as Documentum, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, TaylorMade-adidas Golf and McAfee. John teaches leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. To read John Hamm’s full biography, click here.

The Transformational Leader: Compass to a New World, part 1

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Five centuries ago, conditions in Europe were perilous for many. Some muddled through bleak circumstances and took what came. Others had the imagination to see that a brighter future might await them in the New World. Leaders emerged whose navigational equipment, skills, and personal qualities gave others the courage to follow them across a sea of unknowns in search of a more promising place.

Just as the courageous, skillful sea captain of long ago took up a compass, charted a course, and led others across the unknown, so must today’s captains of business and industry.

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About the Author

Mahesh Rao, a dynamic, creative, and highly-skilled executive consultant with more than 20 years of business experience, holds 14 US and international patents. Some have been industry-shaping. In 2005 he won the Japanese government’s Most Valuable Patent award. Mahesh has received numerous corporate, client, and industry accolades for coaching senior executives at Fortune 100 companies to become successful transformation leaders and organizational innovators. He has also founded startups that were taken through acquisition. His work with large global companies, including Mitsubishi – and his wide exposure to numerous industries, schools of thought, practices, organizational needs, and corporate responsibilities – account for his consummate ability to advance a vision through strategizing, planning, and execution on a global scale while managing risks. Mahesh Rao’s extensive travel and keen cultural awareness, along with his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, contribute to his ability to see processes clearly, from the big picture to the details. To read Mahesh Rao’s complete biography, click here.

To contact the author write to: [email protected].

Seven Strategies for Managing Workplace Internet Usage

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As social media and personal email continue to be many individual’s primary forms of communications, it becomes harder to keep them focused at the workplace. An increase in usage of media-rich sites can place a considerable strain on limited bandwidth, which can hurt the performance of critical business tasks. The challenge is establishing a proper workplace balance that allows some personal internet usage without a related drag on business efficiency.

As a business owner or IT manager, you need tips and tactics on striking the right balance. We offer seven strategies:

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About the Author

Keith RossKeith Ross is product manager for Networking products at Black Box Corporation. His product line includes Ethernet switches, media converters, network security, and WAN optimization products. Keith has over 10 years experience in telecommunications and data networking. He worked at FORE Systems, Marconi, and Ericsson previously. Keith has a BSEE from Carnegie-Mellon and an MSEM from Stanford University. To learn more about Black Box, click here.