Leadership style

Is your leadership style fitting with the digital era?

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

In the attached article we can find a very interesting reflection on how the leadership style has changed over the years. Command and control, we know, does not work anymore an open approach is now needed.

"Advancement in digital technologies has disrupted everything, including leadership styles, according to Barry Libert, Jerry Wind and Megan Beck Fenley. Employees want more ownership rather than to follow instruction; customers want to participate in the marketing and development process; and leaders are finding that open and agile organizations are able to maneuver more effectively than organizations where “all insight and direction comes from the top. In short, the autocratic Commander, whether brilliant or misguided, just won’t cut it anymore,” they write in this opinion piece."by "World economic forum"

Read more here

Leadership skills: networking

Some tips on how becoming a "pro" at networking 
By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

We all know networking is not necessarily easy: entering a room full of people we do not know, understand how to approach people that are already talking and  trying to say something without being too embarrassed....
The attached article gives some interesting tips on how to handle all this. If curious: 

Read more here

People management - Does your leader make you feel safe?

How to build trust

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek in this TED video suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility. Watch the video

People management

How to help others to shine

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Our responsibility as leaders is to help our team members to grow, but it is not a easy task.

Read more on this article, you will find some interesting reflections. 

New free training with edx: for change makers and coaches

U.Lab Transforming Business, Society and Self

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Otto Sharmer has announced a new session of U-lab: transforming society, business, and self.

I already watched several videos used in this training, read papers and exercises and i think this is really a fantastic learning opportunity for change makers and coaches. 

I strongly recommend it.

AGENDA

• September 10: Week 0: Launch, orientation and local co-initiation 
• September 17: Week 1: Live session 1 — Co-initiating our U.Lab journeySeptember 24: Week 2: Suspending and listening
• October 1: Week 3: Co-sensing from the edges of the system
• October 8: Week 4: Live session 2 — Presencing: connecting to Source
• October 15: Week 5: Crystallizing the emerging future
• October 22: Week 6: Co-creating to prototype the future
• October 29: Week 7: Live session 3 — Co-evolving prototype initiatives
• We will then reconvene for a 4th live session:
• December 17: Week 7+7: Live session 4—Sharing results, co-shaping the journey ahead

Listening levels

The new level of listening: the generative one

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Otto Sharmer in this video explain what real listening means.
Extremely clear and powerful.
Useful for all leaders.

To see the video click hear ULAB and ULAB2

How to leverage bad feedback and coaching

Bad feedback hurts

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Sometimes we receive from our manager a feedback we do not agree on.
How to deal with it, do not break the trust relationship and turn it to useful coaching?

Read more on: Forbes

APRIL 21th - Public speaking training on line - free of charge

MOOC Training

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Today there are many free resources for skill development. Why not taking advantage of it?

The training you can find opening the below link has a title and contents which seem interesting and there are many others published in the website.

If you try let me know if it is worth.

Read more on: training

Leadership - Difficult conversations

How to have a performance conversation with an employee

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Having a honest and candid conversation with your team member is never easy especially when you have to address a poor performance. How to make it professionally without risking to lower your staff engagement? 

On HRBartender Sharlyn Lauby gives useful tips - read more on HRbartender

Books on Leadership

Which are the best books on Leadership of all times?

Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

I was reading a book on leadership "Jack Welch and the 4E's of leadership" -Jeffrey Krames and I was wondering which could be considered the best books on leadership of all times. Searching on the web I found some lists on the following website:

• Goodreads
• Amazon
• CEO.com

What is your opinion? Which are the best books on leadership you have read?

Leadership competencies: performance management

End of the year: 
Time for performance review and objective setting

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

      We are almost there. The end of the year is coming.  Time for budget, performance review and objectives setting for the new year coming. 

Time to refresh some tips for evaluators, because we all know, performance management is important.

Do

·    Make it clear at the beginning of the year how you’ll evaluate your employees with individual performance planning sessions

·    Give your employees a copy of their appraisal before the meeting so they may have their initial emotional response in private

·    Deliver a positive message to your good performers by mainly concentrating on their strengths and achievements during the conversation

Don’t

·       Offer general feedback; be specific on behaviors you want your employee to stop, start, and continue

·    Talk about compensation during the review; 

·    Sugarcoat the review for your poor performers; use the face-to-face as an opportunity to demand improvement

Read more on Harvard Business Review

Leadership - Presentation skills

The three Essential Elements of a Great Presentation

By Zhuang Le & He Yuan Marco Polo Consulting

Delivering a great presentation is a crucial professional skill for leaders. A killing presentation can inspire audience and make them more likely to embrace ideas or opinions of the speaker. However we may be confused on how to make a compelling talk.

Are you tired of listening to some tedious presentations made by others? Are you sure that your speeches are attractive to your audience?

Gail Zack Anderson in this article gives advice on delivering a terrific speech and organizing the structure of a talk: the three essential elements are the speech opening, body and closing. Read more on Management help blog

Leadership

 

Situational leadership

 

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

 

Our leadrship style cannot be the same with team members (followers) with different maturity/competence and engagement/committment . Let's see how using the approach of Situational Leadership

 

 

 

 

 

Manager vs leader

Leader= Manager with leadership

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

Often Manager and Leaders are compared as two opposite concepts (as in the picture below) and somehow the "manager" is considered the negative part. Actually for me the 2 are not in opposition, just leader is something more than manager. Leader is a manager -who manage the current situation in a positive way (planning, organizing, evaluating results, not blaming, dictating etc) - but also lead to the future, engaging, inspiring towards the change.

 

                                                   NO                                             YES

 

 

 

 

+

 

Motivation quote

"Appreciation is thanking, recognition is seeing, and encouragement is bringing hope for the future" by Martin Webster 

Leadership competencies: emotional intelligence (Being humble)

“It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.”

By ZhuangLe & HeYuan Marco Polo Consulting

It was generally believed that people are supposed to be prideful and competitive to be good leaders,nevertheless,we often ignore that humanity virtue and being humble is a crucial factor in managing, besides professional skills. We all experience hardships. Some people can bounce back easily and learn from losses,  but the others don't. What is the difference between these two kinds of people? John C. Maxwell believes that  not pride but humility is what that allows us to learn from mistakes. See how did he learn from a T-shirt gift with the sentence "It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am." on it.

John C. Maxwell is an internationally respected leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold more than 18 million books. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP, a non-profit organization that has trained more than 5 million leaders in 126 countries worldwide. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell has written three books that have sold more than a million copies. Read more on success.com

Leadership competencies: emotional intelligence

The importance of emotional intelligence: for the leader and the company performance

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting


Interesting article by Harvard Business Review about the impact of Leaders' mood on staff members. Easy to say difficult to learn how to manage emotions.

What most influences your company’s bottom-line performance? The answer will surprise you—and make perfect sense: It’s a leader’s own mood.

Executives’ emotional intelligence—their self-awareness, empathy, rapport with others—has clear links to their own performance. But new research shows that a leader’s emotional style also drives everyone else’s moods and behaviors—through a neurological process called mood contagion. It’s akin to “Smile and the whole world smiles with you.”

Read more on HBR

Are you a leader or a manager?

Leadership and management - Differences

By Giorgia Madonno - Marco Polo Consulting

It is a classic definition, but still it helps....

Management	Leadership
MANAGE THE STATUS QUO	TRANSFORM
Is viewed as implementation of the leader's vision and changes introduced by leaders, and the maintenance and administration of organizational infrastructure	Is viewed as involving the articulation of an organizational vision and the introduction of major organizational change; provides inspiration and deals with highly stressful and troublesome aspects of the external environments of organizations
Focuses on the tasks (things) when performing the management functions of planning, organization and controlling	Focuses on the interpersonal (people) leadership management function
Planning. Establishes detailed objectives and plan for achieving them	Establishes directions; develop a vision and the strategies needed for its achievement
Organizing and staffing. Sets up structure for employees as they do the job the way the manager wants it done	Innovate and allows employees to do the job any way they want, so long as they get results that relate to the vision
Controlling. Monitors results against plans and takes corrective actions	Motivates and inspires employees to accomplish the vision in creative ways
Predictable. Plans, organizes, and controls with consistent behaviors. Prefers stability	Makes innovative, quick changes that are not very predictable. Prefers change.
Managers do things right	Leaders do the right things
The focus is on stability, control, competition, work, and uniformity	The focus on change, empowerment, collaboration, people, and diversity
The focus is on short-term view, avoiding risks, maintaining and imitating	The focus is on long-term view, taking risks, innovating and originating

Source: Leadership - Theory, application, Skill development -Lussier & Achua

Organizational culture

Organizational culture as described

by E. Schein

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting


Today I was surfing the blogosphere and I stepped by Chad Renando's blog. He posted a quite clear explanation of culture, summing up the book of E. Shein.

I expecially liked the model

Continue to read on: sidewaysthoughts blog

or look for the book




Find book on Amazon

Leadership competencies - Building higly effective teams - Recommended book

The FIVE dysfunctions of a team - P. Lencioni

 

By Giorgia Madonno Marco Polo Consulting

 

When, in our consultancy projects, we support teams to improve their effectiveness, we often recommend Leaders to read this book.

 

The book become a common ground of discussion during the working sessions where we help the team to overcome the 5 dysfunctions of a team highlighted by Lencioni.

 

Helpful reading for all leaders and team members.