Sara Canaday: Leadership Unchained: Defy Conventional Wisdom for Breakthrough Performance What if the leadership practices we've worked so hard to master are now getting in the way? In fact, what if they are actually holding us down and preventing us from leading for growth and innovation? Forget "what if." It's happening. So what's the solution? Unfortunately, it's not as simple as throwing out the old competencies and learning new ones. It's about recognizing which approach will maximize our performance in a particular situation. We need to develop the insights to know when to follow the co ..read more

How do senior leaders, in their own words, describe the most effective leaders--the ones that get results, grow the business, enhance the culture, and leave in their wake a trail of other really effective leaders? After surveying more than one million leaders worldwide, co-authors Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams have drawn on their research to define leadership that works, in their upcoming book SCALING LEADERSHIP. Analyzing over 1,350 pages of written comments about leaders' strengths, skills, and challenges, Anderson and Adams' research team sorted the data into 77 categories of ..read more

"I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then."  Lewis Carroll We grow in tiny bursts of new awareness that push us forward until the next lesson comes along.  If we miss or ignore these lessons, we don't get to pass GO or collect $200.  We get the lesson served back to us by the universe until we master that level. As you gain new awareness about yourself and how you placed inordinate value on accomplishment, you have a big "A-ha!" moment at first discovery.  But following that took many reminders of the same new idea as you adjusted to the new rule ..read more

When low can't go lower, eventually you hit a bottom, and bottoms, personally and professionally, are profoundly important. Everything gets rearranged at the bottom: your hopes, your dreams, your memories, and most importantly, your ego.  As lonely as the bottom is, you are not alone.  You are with your two wolves.  In the depths of the bottom, your truest nature, with all its complexities and contradictions, is revealed and you are left to grapple with yourself. It's at this absolute bottom where you learn who you really are, and what you're truly made of. Source:  Bi ..read more

Over his four decades focusing on high-level executives, Fred Halstead has come to recognize and understand the distinguishing traits of high-performing leaders. In "Leadership Skills that Inspire Incredible Results", Halstead emphasizes the power and payoff of sharpening fundamental leadership abilities, including: Listening actively Asking more on-target Inspiring others Delegating wisely Developing a culture of accountability "Leaders who truly want others to succeed are the ones who achieve the greatest personal success," Halstead notes. Great listening leads to great questions. Great qu ..read more

Leaders schooled in rational, left-brained thinking need to adapt to changing political, social and technological forces. This requires not only the ability to drill down into details, but to look across the horizon and make right-brained connections, say leadership experts Chris Lewis and Pippa Malmgren in The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st Century. Based on consultations and interviews with hundreds of global leaders from business and government, and highlighted with the authors' insights and thought leadership; the book holds that today's leaders need to develop 'situa ..read more

Damien Chazelle stood face to face with a chunk of the moon.   The triangular moon rock was held in a vise, under glass: chicken-nugget-size and light gray, with glimmering specks of crystal. "That's really cool, Chazelle said, leaning in.  He was in town to talk about his new film, "First Man," about Neil Armstrong's voyage to the moon. He scanned an informational placard, which said that the rock was basalt, formed by cooling lava more than three billion years ago, and that it had been retrieved on August 1, 1971, by the Apollo 15 astronauts James Irwin and David Scott.  ..read more

Writing a book is a journey throughout our careers, where we have encountered situations and had experiences that have now been incorporated into the "The Manager's Answer Book". There is always something new to learn in your work to become the best manager possible.  For example, you're on the right track to see what can be done to maximize the time spent in meetings because they're a fact of life in today's collaborative workplaces. Here are some ideas for making meetings more efficient and productive: *Develop ground rules, such as, "Everyone has an equal voice in meetings." *Invite th ..read more

What do you do when someone asks you a question?  If the words "answer it" formed in your head, you're WRONG! "You should respond to a question," argues co-author James O. Pyle. "Responding to a question is better than answering it. Your response to any questions can pack much more power and meaning if you start to 'see into' the question and better understand what information the other person wants." In "CONTROL THE CONVERSATION" Pyle teams up with co-author Maryann Karinch to guide you in crafting responses that are multi-dimensional and include relevant and compelling information ..read more

One of the most difficult leadership positions in business today is also the most common: the "leader in the middle."  If you lead people and answer to someone else--a boss, shareholder, customers--you are among the millions of "leaders in the middle." "Leaders in the middle too often serve down to their people and defend up to their bosses, instead of serving up to their bosses and coaching down to their employees," says author Nathan Jamail, who has spent decades managing and coaching top performing teams. "It's time challenge the traditional notions of servant leadership and learn to s ..read more