Posts tagged as:

Purpose

No great leader initially set out to be a leader

1 February 2009

 

Street Studio NYC by moriza 
 
Leadership is a means of personal expression. Leaders find ways to express who they are, what they believe, which inspires them take action towards their vision. Leadership is personal expression, in that their vision causes them to strive to bring about something that hasn’t existed before. In this sense leadership [...]

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Leaders as stewards of purpose

25 January 2009

 

Photo by Billingham
 
In the book “It’s not what you sell, it’s what you stand for” (the books website is here) by Roy Spence Jr. with Haley Rushing, is an interesting chapter, “stewards of purpose” which discusses the importance of purpose in leadership…
“The primary responsibility of a leader in a purpose-based organization is to build, [...]

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How much time are you investing in developing a shared vision?

25 January 2009

 
 

 
The January 2009 edition of the Harvard Business Review has a piece titled “To Lead, Create a Shared Vision” by James Kouzes and Barry Posner discussing the importance of a shared vision for effective leadership… 
“Being forward-looking—envisioning exciting possibilities and enlisting others in a shared view of the future—is the attribute that most distinguishes [...]

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Does Your Strategy Have A Purpose?

19 June 2008

A the post "Does Your Business Strategy Have A Purpose?" on Idris Mootee’s blog Innovation Playground Idris makes the following point:
…“’purpose’ is bigger than ‘strategy’. Way much bigger. At best, strategy is just a number of smart ideas to take advantage of a market opportunity or re-configuration of the value chain. But purpose is different, [...]

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The Myth of Leadership Ability—You Either Have It or You Don’t?

8 June 2008

One of the greatest leadership myths I come across is that people believe leadership is an inborn gift or trait possessed by a lucky few. In the post “Leadership Ability—You Either Have It or You Don’t” by Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay discusses the following limitations that people place on themselves by believing this myth:

It prevents those who [...]

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The three aspects of good leadership

15 April 2008

Dr. Jay Conger Professor of Leadership Studies, Claremont McKenna College, discusses the following three aspects of great leadership, authenticity, branding and followership.
“We’re swimming in advice about how to be good leaders. Bookstores hold remarkable portraits of Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Jack Welsh and others. They all have advice for us. But how many people can [...]

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Leader as social architect…

24 March 2008

The need for effective "social architectures" within organisation is critical if we are too ensure that we develop future leaders, to drive innovation and to create an organisation that has a great legacy. If we examine our leadership, I’m sure we’ll find that meetings are where we do much, if not most, of our leading. [...]

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Leader: Are you purposely shaping your culture?

16 March 2008

An organisation’s culture can be a source of competitive advantage or a huge obstacle to achieving it’s objectives. The importance of culture really struck me after reading Lou Gerstner’s book "Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?" In his book Lou Gersner, the former CEO and Chairman of IBM, reflects on the turnaround he orchestrated during his [...]

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Focus your communication on the why and less on the how….

16 March 2008

Kevin’s Eikenberry has a great post that caught my eye titled "What to Communicate" discussing the importance of communication to leaders. I really believe that we do not spend enough time figuring out the why before we move on to figure out the how. Kevin reminds us of this principle by providing the following rule [...]

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Landmarks for Leaders in Times of Uncertainty….

26 February 2008

Rapid change whilst facing uncertainty, requires great courage. I found the article in the Pegasus newsletter titles “Landmarks for Leaders in Times of Uncertainty and Chaos” by Bob Stilger very insightful. The article discusses how community leaders are creating change inspite of the uncertainty around them.
“All around the world, people are stepping forward in new [...]

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