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Leadership Inspirations – Listening

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“Think of all the times in your life when you learned something, when you discovered something new. When this happened, were you speaking or listening?”

Lucas Ives
Consultant
Verizon Wireless

When speaking, you are providing information and when listening, you are receiving information. It may be nothing new, but then again, it may be new, important or even life changing. Take the time to listen and maybe, the next time you really do need to speak, the information you provide will be new to the listener. It may actually be important to them, or even life changing.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 5 – An Interview with Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 5 – An Interview with Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes examines the equal but different intelligence of men and women. During our discussion, Michael Gurian, author of Leadership and the Sexes and co-founder of the Gurian Institute, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • the intellectual differences between men and women and the impact these differences have on how each gender leads
  • the quantifiable impact of an organization’s gender intelligence on the bottom line
  • how executives and managers can assess the gender intelligence of their organizations

Additional Information

Complimenting the tremendous insights Michael shares in Leadership and the Sexes and this special edition podcast, are the additional gender intelligence materials and resources found on his website, Gurian Institute (www.GurianInstitute.com). Michael’s book, Leadership and the Sexes, can be purchased by clicking here.

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Michael GurianMichael Gurian, New York Times best selling author of Leadership and the Sexes, is co-founder of the Gurian Institute, a training organization focused on helping corporations, educators, parents, and communities understand of how the male and female brain operate differently. He has spearheaded a national effort to provide communities and corporations with training in brain based gender issues. Michael’s pioneering theory has been featured in leading national media including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Time, and Newsweek. To read Michael’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:52 — 47.9MB)

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Leadership Inspirations – Incompetence Begets Incompetence

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“Incompetency begets incompetency. The last thing a guy who isn’t sure of himself wants is a guy backing him up who is sure of himself.”

Lee Iacocca
former President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board, Chrysler Corporation

The sad fact is that this situation occurs all too often. Instead of nurturing their rising stars, insecure executives and managers feel their positions and reputations are threatened by these top performers and act to:

  • take personal credit for the rising star’s performance output and results
  • hide the star performer from the view of other executives and managers by preventing their participation in cross disciplinary initiatives, public presentations, and interaction with other executives and managers
  • diminish the star’s performance evaluation ratings with claims that the star intimidates seniors and/or is too aggressive

These behaviors disenfranchise star performers; resulting in reduced output and elevated attrition. The net result, of course, is diminished organizational performance and value creation, the exact opposite of what the executive or manager is charged to achieve.

Insecure executives and managers fail to recognize that they are not competing with their subordinates. Executives and managers are evaluated on their ability to lead others to the achievement of superior results, their subordinates on their ability to perform the tasks from which those results are derived. Therefore, subordinates’ superior performance does not place executives and managers at risk. To the contrary, a subordinate’s superior performance is often attributed to the capable leadership of the individual’s manager. Competent executives and managers understand this concept and surround themselves with superstar performers. Incompetent and insecure executives and managers do not recognize this fact and subsequently surround themselves with even less competent subordinates; condemning themselves and their organizations to inferior performance.

You Asked… We Responded! Introducing Reader Choice – StrategyDriven’s New Look

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Podcast and website reviewers praised us for our bold Traditional Black look. However, several StrategyDriven readers told us they had difficulty reading white text on a black background.

At StrategyDriven, we did not see our readers’ differing needs as an either/or crossroads, a choice between who to serve. Rather, we viewed this challenge as an opportunity to better serve all of our readers; to more completely fulfill our mission goals by making StrategyDriven articles accessible to a larger audience.

We are proud to offer you a choice. Introducing StrategyDriven ‘s new look, Contemporary White. You, the reader, can now choose between our Traditional Black background with white text or our new Contemporary White background with black text. Both provide you with the same great content formatted to your reading preference. And once chosen, StrategyDriven will ‘remember’ your preference; returning to your selected format every time you visit our website.

To select either Contemporary White or Traditional Black (the default format), scroll down until you see Choose StrategyDriven’s Appearance in the sidebar, then click on the title of the background you prefer. It’s that simple!

I would like to personally thank all those who have helped us better serve our community by providing us with their insights on StrategyDriven ‘s readability. Because it is only through feedback that our community grows larger and stronger, I invite you to share your thoughts with me by email at [email protected] or by voicemail at (678) 810-0892.

Again, I’d like to thank you for your ongoing support of StrategyDriven and hope you continue to enjoy and benefit from our many articles, podcasts, whitepapers, and models.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven



StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 4b – An Interview with Tony Simons, author of The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word, part 2 of 2

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 4b – An Interview with Tony Simons, author of The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word, part 2 of 2 continues our exploration of the concept of behavioral integrity; the perceived pattern of alignment between a manager’s words and deeds. During our discussion, Tony Simons, author of The Integrity Dividend and Associate Professor at Cornell University where he teaches organizational behavior, negotiation, and leadership, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • the manager’s dilemma, where managers find themselves in a position of having to promote a senior’s position that is seemingly misaligned with the organization’s and/or their personal values
  • the impact of generational differences on realization of the integrity dividend
  • the magnitude of the impact and how to recover from a perceived misalignment between a manager’s words and deeds

Additional Information

Complimenting the tremendous insights Tony shares in The Integrity Dividend and this special edition podcast, are the additional Integrity Dividend materials and resources found on his website, Integrity Dividend (www.IntegrityDividend.com). Tony’s book, The Integrity Dividend, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Tony SimonsTony Simons, author of The Integrity Dividend, is an Associate Professor at Cornell University where he teaches organizational behavior, negotiation, and leadership. Tony is also a business consultant and speaker who focuses on trust in leaders, executive team member trust, and trust in supply chain relationships. To read Tony’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:04 — 29.0MB)

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