Kent Blumberg

The Neuroscience of Leadership

I just read an article in Strategy+Business called The Neuroscience of Leadership (click here to read the full article).  The authors, David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz, provide a summary of two decades of research into how people change their behavior.  Their work adds depth to the basics of change I discussed in my last post.

11 Keys to Change

Over the years, I have collected a list of 11 keys to successful organizational change.

How to Mindmap

I have been using mind maps to help me plan and organize my work and life for the last ten years.  The benefits of mind mapping are nicely covered by Sean Tierney in his posting called "Why mindmapping works."  Here I want to cover how to do it.

Now Discover Your Strengths

According to Gallup Management Consulting, "The best way to develop people and net the greatest return on investment in their growth is to identify their talents, then help them add the skills and knowledge that build strengths -- the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance."  Their findings are presented in the book Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, Free Press, 2001.  I have found the concept extremely useful in developing myself and others.

Three sources of differentiation

There are three sources of differentiation for any business:  selling at the lowest cost, leading the market in product innovation, or becoming an integrator and customizer.  The third strategy is the most widely applicable to most businesses.

Wise use of consultants

Nine years ago, a couple of journalists published a book about the management consulting industry (Dangerous Company : The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin, James O'Shea and Charles Madigan, Penguin Books, 1997).  I still find their ten-point checklist useful whenever I am considering using consultants.

Staffing cuts - Macho Management or Reality

In his posting today, Carmine Coyote asks, "Would executives be so keen to cut costs by sacking people, if they considered how it might feel to be sacked themselves—without, of course, their elaborate golden parachutes? Would they take such a macho attitude to management if they suffered it in return?"  He goes on to suggest that top executives have a macho, winner-takes-all approach.  The implication is that staff cuts are evil deeds done by selfish leaders.  I don't agree.

Personal Goal Setting

"The best opportunities are the ones we create.  Goal setting provides for you the opportunity to create an extraordinary life."  -- Gary Ryan Blair

I am a firm believer in regular goal setting.  There are only so many minutes in each day, week, month, year and life.  I want to be doing the things that will sit well with me at the end of life, and I set goals accordingly.  Here's how I do it, along with a Word template to help you set your own goals.

Confronting Reality

One of the most useful books I have read lately is Confronting Reality : Doing What Matters to Get Things Right, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.  It presents a clear, concise and usable way of thinking about your business model and the environment in which you operate.

Giving Feedback

One of the greatest leadership development tools - and the one that probably generates the most fear - is feedback.  A few years ago at Carter Holt Harvey we developed two simple tools to help leaders give feedback.