Interesting Articles

21
May

Leadership in Public Management

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

To support our work with public agencies like the Cities of Palo Alto, Richmond or Benicia, we explore their trade associations and publications to keep current on their issues.

The most recent issue of Public Management, a trade magazine put out by the International City/County Management Association, had a nice article by Quint Studer on the mindset any worker needs to better engage with his or her superiors, especially elected officials. We find it translates pretty well to all types of employment.

But when you do, have a solution ready!

Mr. Studer called the list a “skill set.” We think it goes beyond that: These skills need to become second nature, where you act in positive, engaging, forward-thinking, action-oriented way as a matter of course. This is a personal leadership mindset that applies to every interaction you have with bosses, peers, constituents, citizens, customers.

Here are some of the mindset aspects we most like from the article:

“Never let yourself be the hold-up of an assignment.”
“When you bring a problem to elected officials, always bring a solution.” Continue reading →

17
May

Of Lollipops and Leadership

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

Our gal in Houston, Kris Hermes, sent the video you can click to watch below in a staff e-mail to remind us of the true essence of leadership:

It is a day-by-day process that can lead to grand one-time events, but doesn’t have to or need to have such grand moments. Indeed, such highlights can distract you from the nuts and bolts of a real ongoing leadership mindset.
It goes on without limit. You can have results that mark milestones, and wonderful successes that everyone notices. But leadership goes right on through those and must keep thriving in the shadows of those great events.
And it can be as simple as connecting two people with a lollipop to break the ice and open the door to engagement (in all sorts of ways!)

Leaders are not the source of productivity and innovation. Their people are. Leaders are the catalyst that unlocks the people’s energy and gets it focused in the right direction.

Watch the video, which features a speaker named Drew Dudley speaking at a TEDx talk in Toronto a few years back. Let us know what you think! Spot on? Too simplistic?

14
May

HubSpot and Netflix Offer Insights on Building Productive Organizational Cultures

Posted by klewis (1) Comment

We find useful information about talent management and corporate culture in all sorts of places. Just this week our marketing guy got an e-mail from a marketing company he follows called HubSpot. It surprised him with this headline:

“Advice on Corporate Culture From Netflix’s Former Chief Talent Officer”

Wait. What? Why is a marketing company like HubSpot sharing thoughts on corporate culture?

The answer is simple, and informative: HubSpot takes its culture very seriously, and feels that all their clients (small companies for the most part) could benefit from the productivity gained by building their own consistent, transparent organizational culture. Continue reading →

15
Apr

Raise the Meaning Quotient for Employees to Raise Productivity

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

We have been writing over the last week about the top leadership skill articles read in the First Quarter of 2013 in the McKinsey Quarterly, the online newsletter of management consultancy McKinsey. We are always struck by how many of these articles are focused on people skills and leadership. Clearly these issues remain perennial challenges for senior executives (and leaders at all levels).

In this post, we explore the fifth most popular article: Increasing the Meaning Quotient of Work. (Free registration may be required to read the full article.)

Our first response to this article was “What the heck is a “meaning quotient?” Next, we thought “Here we go again with extra buzzwords that repackage old knowledge.” But, just as the readers who put this article in the top ten found it worth reading, we also found something useful here.

Employee Engagement Demands Meaningful Work

The authors of this article, Susie Cranston and Scott Keller, have spent a lot of time researching work environments “that inspire exceptional levels of energy, increase self-confidence, and boost individual productivity.” Continue reading →

11
Apr

Employees Can Only Manage Their Time if the Organization Lets Them

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

This is the second in a series of posts about the most read articles in the McKinsey Quarterly, the management consultancy’s free online business magazine. (Free registration is required to view the articles.)

OK, now fit two more projects into this day.
image source: mftrou.com

This article, ranked second on the most-read list, takes a new angle at the eternal Time Management issue by pinning the blame not just on the individual, but on the organization. We work with clients constantly on individual time management skills, but we do see the authors’ point: Employees can operate at the peak of time efficiency, and still not always successfully manage the endless number of projects that keep piling up.

The Organization Assumption: Every Employee’s Time is Limitless Continue reading →

10
Apr

Social Media Collaboration is Shaking Up How Employees Engage with Each Other

Posted by klewis (1) Comment

The McKinsey Quarterly has released it top online articles for 2013’s first quarter, and four of the ten focus on interpersonal skill development. This confirms once again that senior executives are focusing on better engaging their human assets as a profitable area for investment.

Let’s take a quick look at the top-rated article that is focused on human asset management. It argues that old-fashioned hierarchical oversight and control must be replaced by a lighter, more trusting leadership style.

Wikis, jams and blogs make collaboration more productive

The explosion of social media tools that are available within an organization to foster and manage collaboration has started to shake up management control of knowledge, and challenges the assumptions that underpin past collaborative practices, according to Don Tapscott, a professor at the University of Toronto. Continue reading →

17
Mar

May the road rise to meet you on this St. Patrick’s Day.

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

Every St. Patrick’s Day, we go back and reacquaint ourselves with this wonderful old Irish blessing for those we can’t be with each day. Our best wishes that its uplifting message sends you on your way with a lift in your step today!

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand. Continue reading →

15
Mar

QBQ works well with the Bovo-Tighe Foundations of Excellence philosophy

Posted by klewis (1) Comment

In our work with clients, we give people tools to make them more productive at work every day. We help them discover their own strengths, and how to become a transformational leader, regardless of their professional status within their organization. Our mission is to make everyone more productive, supportive and collaborative in both professional and personal lives. To that end, we borrow useful tools from collaborative partners that help our clients succeed.

One of those is a concept called QBQ, the Question Behind the Question, created by a friend of ours, John Miller. It is a very simple, direct method for keeping yourself on track when “practicing personal accountability at work and in life.”

QBQ complements our Foundations of Excellence approach very well because it focuses on the day-to-day job of leadership: How do you move your team and yourself forward with energy and enthusiasm towards the accomplishment of your mutual goals? Continue reading →

4
Mar

Leadership Tales from Top People – Courtesy of LinkedIn

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

We recently found a list on LinkedIn of short advice columns written by successful people. A lot of what they wrote echoed what we teach everyone we support in our work:

Working with PEOPLE is the center of everyone’s success formula.
Keep your own energy forward-focused and action-oriented.

These are not mutually exclusive, either: One feeds off of the other. Let’s explore three of the advice columns at random to see how these two themes pop up.

Richard Branson:

“The amount of time people spend looking back on failed projects has always astounded me. If we were to add up all of the hours spent regretting mistakes and use that time to develop new ideas, who knows how many brilliant new businesses would be created.”

At Bovo-Tighe, we like to say your time is limited, but the energy you pack into that time is unlimited. Richard offers a great caveat to that: How do you use all the energy you pour into your time? Are you forward-focused and action-oriented? Or do you actively dwell on “what might have been?” Continue reading →

17
Jan

Employee Engagement Runs Throughout McKinsey’s Top Ten Articles for 2012

Posted by klewis (0) Comment

We follow McKinsey’s quarterly reports pretty closely, as their articles reflect the concerns of senior executives. Every January the consultancy lists the articles that had the most views by their readership in the past 12 months.

We find it highly instructive that seven of the ten most popular articles in 2012 had employee engagement at their core. (The remaining three dealt with social media and China, which is also not surprising!)

See for yourself using the links below to open the seven human-focused articles. Find out which may relate to issues you face on a daily basis. Note: You will have to register with McKinseyQuarterly.com to access these thought pieces.

We are going to explore just under the surface of the first on the list, and let you continue the journey through the rest of the articles at your own speed:

How leaders kill meaning at work
“Senior executives routinely (and inadvertently -ed.) undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees in four avoidable ways.” Continue reading →