GOOD LEADER, according to Dilbert

GOOD LEADER, according to Dilbert

BUEN LÍDER, según Dilbert

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

There are NO Superhero CEOs

Because many chief execs control so much money and we pay them so handsomely, we want to believe they deserve to be treated like stars. Most of the time, we are building ourselves up for disappointment. How to break the cycle

by Shelley DuBois

We want so badly to believe in superheroes. When it comes to business leaders, that can quickly turn into a liability. Many chief execs control so much money, and we pay them so handsomely, so we treat them -- and want to believe they deserve to be treated like stars.

In business, "the culture of celebrity is maybe as strong as it's ever been," says Zachary First, managing director of The Drucker Institute.

Several forces create a star CEO. For one, high-profile leaders tend to know how to work a room, and many may have learned to like the limelight. But also, employees, the market and the media want strong leaders, and sometimes strength becomes conflated with infallibility. Star CEOs are not inherently bad for business, though they can be. J.C. Penney (JCP) CEO Ron Johnson, for example, is dealing with a particularly tight margin of error at the struggling retailer partly because of his especially impressive performance as senior VP of retail operations at Apple (AAPL).

A couple of organizations have tried to mitigate dependence on one central leader. W.L Gore and Associates, the company behind the high-tech, waterproof fabric GORE-TEX has what is called a "flat lattice" leadership scheme. They've created an entire language around this: they call bosses "sponsors," and have no employees, but "associates." The company holds that leaders will naturally emerge when groups form to accomplish certain tasks.

MORE: Super-talented employee driving you crazy? How to deal.

But a non-hierarchical structure requires a tremendous amount of work, says First, and even functional flat companies have founders and CEOs. "To look up the social hierarchy and not see anyone at the top is an extremely stressful position for companies to be in. We want to know that somebody's in charge, that there is an authority."

It takes a village to make those authorities stars. "They're only celebrities because a lot of people choose to go and sit in the audience to hear them," First says.

Celebrity can become a crippling distraction from good leadership, but it doesn't have to play out that way. Leaders can be both self-obsessed and humble, claims David Waldman, a management professor at Arizona State University. His research suggests that some capable business leaders are what he calls "softer" narcissists. "Okay yeah, they like to be the subject of the limelight, they have high self-regard, and a degree of hubris. But they also recognize that other people around them deserve a lot of praise."

It's an idea he first read about in Michael Maccoby's 2000 Harvard Business Review article about the pros and cons of narcissistic leaders. "Throughout history, narcissists have always emerged to inspire people and to shape the future," Maccoby writes in the piece. The ones who lead companies to greatness, he suggests, are those who can recognize their own limitations.

There are a couple of ways to keep a clear head in the face of CEO stardom. Pay is one. In a study of Waldman's that he is currently submitting to peer-reviewed journals, he found that in the United States, CEOs with salaries close to those of their next top managers tend to be more humble than CEOs at companies with large pay gaps. Those management teams tend to be more effective, he says. "[They] engage in exploration and new learning and also exploit existing knowledge quite well."

Star CEOs can also stay humble by creating less physical distance between themselves and employees. One example is Alfred Sloan, who was CEO of General Motors from 1923 to 1956. "Sloan was the first celebrity CEO," said David Farber, author of the biography Sloan Rules, in an interview with the University of Chicago Press. Sloan certainly believed he was destined for greatness. But he also worked with employees in the field. In a 1992 book called Managing for the Future, management scholar Peter Drucker wrote that Sloan would leave headquarters every three months and work openly as a salesman at GM (GM) dealerships across the U.S. Seeing the CEO hawking Buicks probably humanized him for his employees, First suggests.

MORE: How HP's Meg Whitman is passing the buck

Solid succession planning can also temper star power. "If you believe that you are superman, there's no need to wonder who is going to fill your shoes," First says. CEOs with a good grip on their limitations will think about a successor early on in their tenure. Humble CEOs can also see the benefits of choosing a successor who has different strengths. It takes a degree of healthy perspective to see that companies need different things from leaders at different times in their history. "The question is not great leadership period," First says,  "it's always great leadership by whom for what."

And there is the crux. Star CEOs grow dangerous when they see their success as destiny, their place at the head of the pack as the only path possible, rendering all of their choices justified. The best leaders might enjoy the red carpet, that's fine, as long as they understand that being the best fit for the CEO job is a relative status -- relative to the needs of the rest of the people in an organization at a specific moment in time.

And fame, no matter how great it may feel, does not equal infallibility. "There is no superman," First says. "Those people are not there. Everybody's making tradeoffs."

Fuente: CNNMoney - FORTUNE

RUDE, according to Dilbert

RUDE, according to Dilbert

GROSERO, según Dilbert

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

A PATH TO SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS GROWTH.

Sustainable Business Growth comes from doing more of what really creates growth and less of what you get pulled into in the name of growth.

Your business doesn’t care how you spend your day – only you can determine the most profitable use of the only unrenewable resource available – your time.

But the incredibly tricky part is determining what should and what should not get your attention. There are many things that seem important, feel important, and look important that simply shield you from what is important.

If you are ever going to grow your business beyond what you can contain in the grasp of your outstretched arms, you’ll have to let go of a great deal of what you do to fill each day.

Take a mental trip back over the last few days at your business. Or better yet, create an hour-by-hour time sheet and recount the activities that consumed your day. If you can’t remember what you did, other than the fact that you were busy, start today and jot down notes about the activities you engage in over the span of the next few days.

Now for the fun part. Try to assign a dollar value to the work you did. In other words, what would it cost if you had to pay someone else to do the work. Experience suggests that your list contains plenty of $10, $20 and $30 an hour work.

The problem with this reality is that to make a decent living you need to earn about $125 an hour for every hour you put in.

So, if you are making a decent living from your business then what’s really going on is you are doing a bunch of $10/hr work mixed in with the occasional $500/hr payoff.

I know this is pretty simple math and I also know that all this stuff you’re doing needs to get done. But, it also robs you from doing more of the highest payoff work.

The equation for true growth is pretty darn simple. Do more high payoff work and less low payoff work.

The path to adopting a high payoff mindset is understanding and creating the priorities for your work, defining the highest payoff activities and then letting go and allowing yourself to focus on them.

Define your activities

Sit for a while and sift through everything you do in your business and see if you can highlight the three of four highest payoff activities that you do. You know, the place where make your money. Think about what it would mean to your business if you focused on little else in your business but those activities. It doesn’t mean you know right now how you could free up the time to them, but acknowledging them is the first step.

Every business is different, but generally the highest payoff activities are things that fall into the strategic work in categories such as selling, creating new products and services, and marketing.

Note the word strategic above – mining LinkedIn for leads, proofreading copy for the new service agreement and designing ads all fit into the categories above, but as tasks better handled as low payoff work.

Create your list of three of four activities and lock down your commitment to find a way to focus more time on those activities while delegating or outsourcing everything that frees you to do this.

Get serious about getting free

As you make your to do list today mentally make note of this question and pose it each and everyday. Could I get someone else to do this task?

Once you get serious about this mindset you’ll start seeking ways to get it done. There so many ways to get tasks accomplished by people more proficient and less costly than you that it’s almost a crime not to do it.

Find virtual assistants experienced in proofreading, bookkeeping, social media management, blogging and research and get these things off your plate. Explore project based services like Fiverr and Fancy Hands to do those things you’ve been meaning to get around to.

Create and protect space

The final step in your high payoff transition is to take your priority list and, well, make it a priority. The best way to do this is carve out a day or two each week and make those your “high payoff activity only” days.

That means during those days you map out a plan to work on the highest payoff work and leave the rest alone. No email, no tweaking your website, no meetings – unless these are truly high payoff.

For some, two entire days for this might seem like more than they can afford, so start with two afternoons. The point is if you don’t create a protect time for this, it won’t happen.

What you work on during your high payoff days will change based on what’s going on, but when you identify the priorities you can plan each week with these days and priorities in mind and know that you are growing your highest payoff work space and ultimately growing your business with a high payoff mindset.

Fuente: Duct Tape Marketing

HUMOR: PROBLEM SOLVING, according to Dilbert - RESOLUCIÓN DE PROBLEMAS, según Dilbert.

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

GOOD LEADERS KNOW WHEN TO BE PASSIONATE.

In the business world, management and leadership positions are sometimes confused as one similar entity, but when looked at more closely, it becomes clear the two are not one in the same. A manager’s duties is focused on organization, coordination, and delegation.

Great leaders go above and beyond their duties, ultimately motivating and inspiring the entire team.

While not all managers are great leaders, all leaders are great managers.

Recently, DJ Patil, data scientist from Greylock Partners, was briefly featured in Fast Company and gave an intriguing response to changing the strategic direction of a business. “People think they have to grab the steering wheel and turn the car. I think a better way to think about is, actually, how do you lead through inspiration? Who do you look to for inspiration? ” he said.

Great leaders who inspire their teams have the following traits:

1. Passion

The kind of passion involved in leadership isn’t overbearing and loud; it’s a deep unwavering commitment to an overall mission. A truly great leader is deeply passionate in the company vision, mission, and values. This sort of passion portrayed by a leader is easily shared and emulated by employees, co-workers, and any other individual that comes in contact with a leader. A passionate leader easily connects the dots of the big picture for their company and helps to reinforce the message of its existence to employees.

2. Integrity

No great leader is without integrity. Honesty and consistency of values are vital to the functionality of a company with inspired, innovative employees. An individual who leads with integrity doesn’t need to boast about beliefs and values because they are woven through every action. Companies that value integrity often have a workforce that deeply believes in company values and strives to represent them to the fullest.

3. Engage, listen, empathize

Strong leaders place a high value on the people of their company. Whether it’s by showing interest in their day-to-day activities or by listening to their needs, leaders respect and inspire their employees by remaining connected. The standard for internal communication is generally set by the leader; their personable stance on employee engagement allows for the building of a strong company foundation.

When inspirational leaders aren’t communicating, they’re taking time to listen to the feedback of their employees. True leaders are valued for their ability to empathize.

4. Innovation

If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, then a company is only as innovative as its leader. Inspiring innovation throughout a company is a task that many managers often fail to accomplish. A truly innovative leader doesn’t just stay ahead of the times with an open and forward-thinking mindset; he or she sets the standard for employees by being a thought leader. This alone is sure to create an awe-inspiring movement toward internal innovation.

5. Energy

An inspiring leader leaves employees feeling motivated and confident. This kind of energy isn’t something that can be created or faked. It’s something that can be felt through an entire brand. Truly passionate and driven leaders are more than motivational speakers, their workforces are usually positive, level-headed, and oozing with passion.

A workforce inspired by excellent leadership is sure to be creative, forward-thinking, and motivated toward the company mission. While not all employers express great leadership qualities, it’s important to take time to recognize and learn from those who do.

What leadership traits do you feel are the most successful when it comes to inspiring innovation?

Fuente:  Leadership traits that inspire and innovate, by Joanna Riley Weidenmiller para SmartBlog on Leadership

HUMOR: RELY ON INTUITION, according to Dilbert - CONFIAR EN LA INTUICIÓN, según Dilbert.

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office