wberman
wberman
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP BY WBERMAN
If You Don’t Say It, It Doesn’t Exist
Richard Wolfe, author of Revival, The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House”, spoke this morning on NPR Morning Edition about the communications problems in the Obama White House. …
Read ArticleUp and Out, In and Down (Part 1)
Rick’s Experience One of my clients named Rick was brought into a finance organization that, for all intents and purposes, was broken. The company had grown rapidly through both acquisition…
Read ArticleIn and Down, Up and Out (Part I)
Rick’s Experience One of my clients (I'll call him Rick) was brought into a finance organization that for all intents and purposes was broken. The company had grown rapidly through both acquisition…
Read ArticleLeadership Paradox III. Who is it about?
New leaders often do not know how to talk about themselves - should you use "we" or "I" when talking about your results, your benchmarks, and your achievements? The answer is simple - use "we" when talking about successes, use "I" when taking responsibility and accountability for your efforts.
Read ArticleThe Leadership Paradox II: Strategy v. Execution
Leaders are expected to manage the details, and also understand the strategy. These opposing skills are difficult for many managers to master - most tend to lean one way or the other. The best managers do both, by conceptualizing the strategy and drilling into the details to ensure the strategy is being followed, and the execution is successful.
Read ArticleNew Leaders, Leadership Style and Self-Awareness
New leaders often think about how they present to others, and many are using coaches to improve their leadership style. The most successful CEOs are interpersonally aware, can read people quickly, are effective judges of people, and build inspiration and motivation. But research and experience indicate that self-awareness and interpersonal sensitivity are not particularly important.
Read ArticleThe Leadership Paradox, I: Managing Potential
One of the many paradoxes of great leadership is the dialectic of developing people versus upgrading talent. Great leaders are able to do both, primarily by intuitively assessing potential. This blog talks about what it is and how it is judged.
Read ArticleImproving Meetings
Let’s talk about Meetings. Why not? To paraphrase the great Samuel Clemens, “Everyone talks about meetings, but no one does anything about them.” Meetings are the stuff of life for…
Read ArticleObama, Leadership and His First Day
OK, this is only the 24,000th blog written about Barack Obama's speech yesterday. And I'm sure there are politicos and historians who will wax much more eloquent than me (for example,…
Read ArticleManaging the Toxic Team Member
One of the comments I received after my last post was that I was waxing too philosophical.Guilty as charged, and I was unabashedly so. But I don't want this blog…
Read ArticleDecision Making When It Matters
At the end of the year, I’d like to shift gears and not talk directly about leadership or onboarding. I would like to share some thoughts about decisions and decision-making. …
Read ArticleEnsuring Intentions Lead to Results
Professor Harry Martin wrote in Monday's Wall Street Journal that there are several ways to improve on-the-job application of training and development programs. Writing an action plan, having objective performance…
Read ArticleLeading Up and Out, Managing In and Down (Part I)
Rick’s Experience One of my clients named Rick was brought into a finance organization that for all intents and purposes was broken. The company had grown rapidly through both acquisition…
Read ArticleUsing Stories to Communicate
Telling Stories It is well known in politics that stories are essential ways to communicate with others, and are critical tools for influencing, persuading, and convincing people of your point…
Read Article