Most people in the workforce know a story (or two) about a highly intelligent, highly skilled candidate who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail. Many also can tell a story about someone with solid—but not extraordinary—intellectual ability and technical skills who was promoted into a similar position and then soared.
In other words, it can seem like identifying individuals with the right stuff to be leaders is more art than science, says author Daniel Goleman. After all, different leaders’ personal styles vary widely: some are subdued and analytical; while others spend more time promoting their agendas and themselves. Just as importantly, different situations of course call for different types of leadership.
Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist who lectures frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college campuses. Emotional Intelligence remained on The New York Times bestseller list for 18 months. The Harvard Business Review called emotional intelligence “a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea”. The book was named one of the 25 “Most Influential Business Management Books” by TIME Magazine. In addition, The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Accenture Insititute for Strategic Change have named Goleman among the most influential business thinkers.
When you wake up in the morning, what fuels you to begin the day? Are you passionate about your work? The triggers that motivate people to achieve are unique for everyone; for some it’s money; for others, it’s wanting to make a difference, writes Glenn Llopis in Forbes.com.
Motivation has been studied for decades, and leaders often use motivational books and other tools to get employees to increase their performance or get them back on track. But if you’re a leader, it’s critical to get to know your employees, and to be specific about how you help each of them achieve their goals, desires and aspirations. To help one another and to accomplish that, you must identify those motivating factors. In this piece from Forbes.com, see the nine things that ultimately motivate employees to achieve.
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Greater IBM, what do you think of these nine motivators? Please share your own story and perspectives by commenting.
In the last few weeks, you might have noticed that a lot of our stories, social media posts, tips, and resources have focused on one essential idea: leadership.
After all, the start of a new year is a great time for assessing your life and career and for making new commitments. If one of your goals is to become a better leader, then here are some of the recent posts at The Greater IBM Connection around our central theme, for inspiration.
What are YOUR favorite leadership tips or quotations? Share them with your fellow community members in the Comments.
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IBM Connect 2013 – You still have time to sign up
Get Social. Do Business. IBM Connect 2013 is almost here. This large-scale annual event, January 27 – 31 in Orlando, combines the deep technical content that you’ve loved for 20 years with the learning you need to accelerate your move beyond social media to drive real business value with social and collaborative technologies. And there’s still time to register.
At IBM Connect 2013, you’ll have opportunities for:
1:1 executive connections
Peer to peer connections
Exchanging best practices
Networking and partnering
What’s in it for me?
You’ll leave IBM Connect with a clear path on how to go beyond social media and embrace social technologies to drive tangible business value and results. You’ll be ready to start using key technologies such as collaboration, portal, Web experiences, content management, analytics, process management, and commerce to go from simply ‘liking’ on social media to truly leading.
How to register:
Register for this event and identify yourself as an IBM alumnus – we’ll let you know about special alumni networking opportunities at and around this event. When registering, you’ll be asked how you heard about the conference. Select “Other”, and then in the open field, be sure to include the code IBMALUM13. That’s all there is to it.
Don’t miss this new Web lecture, From Liking to Leading(Note: may require a one-time sign-in)
In this brief video, learn more about what social business means to you and your business:
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What’s new around The Greater IBM Connection
The beginning of the year can be especially busy, with catching up on work missed over the holidays, setting goals for the new year, keeping resolutions. In case you missed these, here’s a roundup of some of the most widely read stories on The Greater IBM Connection blog:
Randy MacDonald, IBM Senior Vice President of Human Resources
As featured in IBM’s Global Careers newsletter, two IBM senior executives share their perspectives on leadership. Randy MacDonald, IBM Senior Vice President of Human Resources, shared with Fortune magazine what it takes to be a leader at IBM, which includes the importance of business acumen, collaborative skills, and aspiration to create new things. He includes emotional and intellectual stamina as being important leadership characteristics since being a business leader in the world today is 24/7.
Diane Gherson, IBM Vice President of Talent
In an article published by Chief Learning Officer Magazine on leadership development, Diane Gherson, IBM Vice President of Talent, weighed in with perspectives about IBM’s effort to create leaders who can lead with transparency. That is, think outside their comfort zones, embrace diverse opinions, tap into capabilities from around the globe, and collaborate to get things done. In today’s ambiguous business environment, it’s critical for leaders to be willing to try new things and help their teams do that too.
–Posted by Julie Yamamoto, Program Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
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The January 2013 theme for The Greater IBM Connection is ”leadership”, and The Greater IBM Connection will be sharing various tips, tools, and resources on this topic.
(Forbes, March 2012) In 1955, Tom Watson Jr. gave Louis Mobley a blank check to create The IBM Executive School, and one of the first things he did was to hire a testing firm to identify the skills that make great leaders great. The results were a bit astounding in that the only thing the great leaders seemed to have in common was that they had nothing in common. What Mobley realized over time was that unlike supervisors and middle managers, what successful executives shared were not skills and knowledge but values and attitudes. For example, great leaders thrive on ambiguity and blank sheets of paper and are secure and believe in themselves. Here are the 10 Leadership Lessons that Mobley identified.
–Posted by Julie Yamamoto, Program Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
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The January 2013 theme for The Greater IBM Connection is ”leadership”, and The Greater IBM Connection will be sharing various tips, tools, and resources on this topic.
Have you heard of Coursera.org? They have partnered with 33 leading universities around the world, including Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, University of London, to name a few, to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. Their vision is to provide everyone in the world with a world-class education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in. Here are some of the upcoming classes that Greater IBMers may be interested in:
Starts Jan 28 (6 wks): (University of Maryland) Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies by Dr. James V. Green (Director of Entrepreneurship Education at Maryland Enterprise Institute. Previously held roles at multiple start-ups including WaveCrest Labs, Cyveillance, and NetMentors.Org)
Starts Mar 5 (8 wks): (Vanderbilt University) Leading Strategic Innovation in Organizations by David Owens, PhD (Professor at Vanderbilt’s Graduate School of Management, where he also directs the Executive Development Institute. He has also consulted for leading organizations such as NASA, The Smithsonian, Nissan, Cisco, and done product design work for well-known firms such as Daimler Benz, Apple, Dell, Corning, while working at IDEO Product Development)
–Posted by Julie Yamamoto, Program Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
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The January 2013 theme for The Greater IBM Connection is ”leadership”, and The Greater IBM Connection will be sharing various tips, tools, and resources on this topic.
It’s been quite a year for leadership lessons. Any number of the major world events for 2012 could serve as a showcase for how to, or not to, be a great leader…..the London Olympics, Hurricane Sandy, Facebook IPO, Rover Curiosity lands on Mars. Great leadership seems to grow from great vision, but basics like having a plan and respecting the competition are also key. Here is a round-up of some of the top leadership lessons from 2012.
“Excellent leaders recognize the more information they have, the better the solutions they can come up with. One important way leaders get their information is by actively listening.
“Listening is an active skill, so you need to do several things if you want to excel. Listening skills are not things you can’t do. For example, I often tell workshop attendees I can’t dunk a basketball. Never could and it’s not likely at 48 years old, standing just 5’9 tall, that I ever will. Jumping high enough to dunk a basketball is a skill I don’t have and can’t acquire no matter how hard I work. If someone told me my career depended on dunking a basketball, I’d start looking for a new career.
But that’s not the case with listening skills! Each of the five pointers I’ll share is within your power to do if you’ll just make the choice to employ them.”
Do you consider yourself a good listener? What would you add to this list?
This post comes from Thoughtleaders LLC contributor, trainer, and speaker Brian Ahearn, who is an expert on the subject of ethical influence. His blog, Influence PEOPLE, has followers in 180+ countries.
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