Posts tagged as:

Alignment

We have talked about vision in previous posts such as Can You Taste It?, Energize, Mobilize & Guide, Shared Vision, Align Your Vision and Own Your Vision.  As a follow up to the whole series, let’s do a short check to see how you’re doing at deciding what’s most important.

As the leader of your team, you make choices every few minutes.  Even as a contributor, more and more these days, you have some control over how you spend your time.  You decide to attend meetings, write software or return customer calls or talk with a team member about some deliverable.  You make literally hundreds of choices per hour.

What is Urgent?

Some of the things you choose are important and some are urgent.  You know the urgent choices — the ones that must be done right now.  Important tasks take longer to identify and complete.  Often the most important tasks are the most strategic; requiring time and coordination to implement.  Urgent problems demand attention.   [click to continue…]

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We have talked about vision in previous posts such as Can You Taste It?Energize, Mobilize & Guide, and Shared Vision.  Now we need to check to make sure your vision is aligned.

Do you know the purpose of your team?  Can you articulate the strategic reason your team exists?  Does your team’s vision align with your organization’s vision?

Say you’re in a technical support role.  There is a strategic benefit your company receives from paying your salary and giving you a place to work.  You may never talk to customers or make a sale, but you contribute a key function to the overall mission of your organization.  [click to continue…]

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Positive Office Politics

February 10, 2010

This is part of a series of posts organized and arranged by Jane Perdue. You can find the introduction here and the post on networking by Jennifer V. Miller at her blog The People Equation. I also posted on Sincerity and Office Politics and Susan Mazza followed with a great post on the [...]

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Random Acts of Motivation

February 3, 2010

This is part of a series of posts organized and arranged by Jane Perdue. You can find the introduction here and the post on networking by Jennifer V. Miller at her blog The People Equation. I also posted on Sincerity and Office Politics.  This week, we’ll discuss Susan Mazza’s great post on the [...]

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Sincerity and Office Politics

January 26, 2010

This is part of a series of posts organized and arranged by Jane Perdue.  You can find the introduction here and the post on networking by Jennifer V. Miller at her blog The People Equation.  Next week, Susan Mazza will post on the political side of agendas at Random Acts of Leadership. The question before [...]

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Jennifer V. Miller

Office Politics and the People Equation

January 20, 2010

Yesterday, Jennifer V. Miller posted a great article on networking, relationships and office politics.  The article is titled Networking Inside the Company Walls and it’s posted on Jennifer’s blog, The People Equation. It’s the first post in a series initiated by Jane Perdue that will also include Susan Mazza and myself. The idea is that [...]

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Leadership or Office Politics Series

January 18, 2010

Jane Perdue of The Braithewaite Group and the Life, Love & Leadership blog has introduced a challenging topic with a post called “Politics are Necessary but Not Necessarily Evil” where she introduces the idea that many of the core characteristics of quality leadership are also the central tenets of office politics.  The only difference is [...]

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Futility

Futility

November 9, 2009

I just disabled Windows Update for some of my “important” security updates.  It’s a lengthy story; but the whole ordeal drove home some important leadership lessons. Let’s discuss the lesson first and provide details for the interested later.
Can you recall ever feeling helpless? There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing that you can’t accomplish what you [...]

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Mount Rushmore

The Call of a Manager

August 18, 2009

As a manager, what’s the best thing you can do for your organization?  Is your highest goal making money?  Is it the financial largess of your organization, or the praise of your customers?  Have you ever wondered how noble it is to help a very few people make a lot of money?  What is the [...]

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Leadership and Technology Career Paths

May 7, 2009

Not much is written today about technology career paths. Reduced optimism and reduced consumption caused the economic downturn. As a result, many businesses must reduce expenses, which often means people get laid off. As people get laid off, survivors subconsciously (or consciously) hunker down a bit too. Career survival takes priority [...]

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