5 questions to get the most from anger

1. What wrong do I want to right?
2. What am I willing to do to make things better?
3. What am I missing?
4. What do I want for us?
5. What can I do today to move toward better?

Bonus: What behaviors will make me proud tomorrow?

Anger is one of the most powerful human emotions. Suppressing or ignoring it is dangerous. Learn to leverage anger’s power by focusing it on positive behaviors.

Dan Rockwell

"How to Let Yourself Be Angry" Leadership Freak. 1/18/2015

asking for feedback

Of all the research assistants I’ve worked with during my 30 years in academia, the ones who stand out hold one thing in common: each approached me within two weeks of starting to ask how they were honestly doing. Regularly reaching out to others—colleagues, peers, superiors, direct reports—is critical to recognizing messages you may be sending (sometimes unknowingly) that may inhibit your ability to lead....

Asking for feedback demonstrates to others that you value their perspective. It humanizes you and stamps out a counter-productive image of over polished perfection. If people become comfortable sharing feedback—good, bad and ugly—about your personal performance, they are more likely to do the same when it comes to critical business issues.

Hal Gregersen

"What VW can learn from Gen. Stanley McChrystal about imperfect leaders" Fortune. 10/14/2015

authenticity

[A]s [Director Baltasar] Kormákur addressed the 3-D goggled audience before the start of the [premier of Everest]... he made it abundantly clear that he “didn’t want to sanitize the people and the events.” Rather, he hoped to “humanize them and make them real.” He went on to explain that he shot in temperatures as low as -22F and at altitudes of 16,000 feet. He said he took the cast and crew as high as any insurance company would allow them to go. He wanted his actors to feel the stress and discomfort that’s associated with being up high, because that was the only way he could make sure that what came across in the final cut did indeed feel authentic.

They filmed a great deal of the movie in Nepal, with the balance filmed in the Dolomites in Italy and on a sound stage. I caught up with actors Michael Kelly and Jason Clarke (separately) after the screening, and talked to them about what it was like to film at altitude in the cold temperatures. They both mentioned how difficult it was to be flown right to the shooting location. They didn’t have time to properly acclimatize and were plagued with the headaches, nausea and insomnia that commonly accompany altitude sickness. Bummer for the actors, but another brilliant Kormákur move as far as “keeping it real,” since Everest climbers deal with these ailments on the mountain.

So, how did Kormákur get his celebrity cast and crew to deal with such uncomfortable conditions on top of an already-grueling shoot schedule? He did what any good leader would do: He went through the hardship with them. In his own words: “I think what’s helpful is that I will stay right there with them, in the same conditions, show them what they need to do…So they are more likely to work with you than if you’re sitting someplace warm and telling them, ‘Keep going.’”

Bingo. It’s important for leaders to show their teams that they’re willing to make the same sacrifices and endure the same hardships as everyone else. As a leader, you can never expect the people on your team to be willing to endure anything that you are not willing to endure. By getting out there with his cast and crew, Kormákur was building trust and loyalty—two incredibly important aspects of high-performing teams. And he needed these actors to perform, because they were re-creating scenes that would require them to withstand some of the most physically challenging conditions they had ever experienced.

Alison Levine

"Here's what you can learn about leadership from 'Everest'" Fortune. 9/20/2015

doing one thing really well

All success starts from doing one thing really well, but you’ll recruit better with a broader vision so you can sell the dream.


Eric Schmidt 

"Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on leadership and success" by Benjamin Snyder. Fortune. 10/19/2015

Originally published as "CS183C Session 8: Eric Schmidt" by Chris Yeh. Meduim. 10/15/2015

most effective leadership development

According to a Boston Consulting Group survey... "improving leadership development" and "managing talent" are top priorities for the companies surveyed, yet the respondents--more than 4,000 senior business leaders from around the world--also ranked these two areas as their greatest weaknesses.

Debbie Lovich, the leader of BCG's Leadership and Talent Enablement Center, says the trouble is that training become separated from companies' objectives.

"Senior executives often think that they must focus on the business and delegate talent development--which they see as 'training'--to HR or someone else without continued involvement," Lovich said in a press release. "With that approach, leadership development instantly becomes disconnected from the business priorities. The training that employees receive does not develop the skills that will enable them to have a meaningful impact on colleagues, customers, and business results."

The main reasons leadership development seminars, events, or workshops do not produce results is the same reason cramming for a skills-based test doesn't result in you mastering a skill.

BCG found three main reasons leadership and talent development programs do not produce results:

1. Many companies have one-off events and workshops, but "true capability is developed over time and regularly reinforced."
2. Programs that are aimed at "broad, generic themes" like success or leadership do not help to develop specific skills. Instead, programs should focus on two or three areas that your employees can work on.
3. The success of most programs is measured by attendance and attendee satisfaction. The best way to see if a workshop was successful, however, is to assess the skills attendees developed.

"People don't develop skills from simply reading a book or going to a one-off workshop," Lovich said. "They build skills by having to do something, failing, and trying again and again."

The most effective leadership development involves daily in-the-field experience with opportunities to practice and reinforce new skills, Lovich said. Regularly practicing new skills while working helps to make training relevant to the company's business.

"A few simple things done consistently well across daily routines can drive cultural change," she said. "By teaching through practical daily routines and providing simple tools to practice and observe leadership at work, organizations can give their people a practical way to improve every day."

Will Yakowicz

"3 Reasons Leadership Training Is a Huge Waste" Inc. 10/20/2015