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A person’s ability to tap into their inner comedian on the spot is an indication that they might be a great fit — especially for your distributed team. You probably don’t look at new hires for their Abbott and Costello routine — but maybe you should. As laughable as it sounds, a person’s ability to tap into their inner comedian on the spot is an indication that they might be a great fit — especially for your distributed team. Improvisation (known as ‘improv’) is a form of spontaneous comedy that ditches pre-determined scripts. Instead, improv performers ad lib their way through the development of scenes during a live show. These skills don’t usually make it into the typical resume, but otherwise decorous businesses are increasingly looking beyond the same old interview questions to find contractors with a knack for improv. <> Not Just for Laughs: “It’s very, very fun!” said Berkowitz. ”Improv keeps your brain limber, makes it easier to think on your feet and keeps you in a positive frame of mind. Performing in front of an audience with no script, just the trust of your fellow actors, is amazing.” But improv is about so much more than comedy, as he readily admits. “There’s no script for life or work, so we improvise all day in everything we do. Using improv techniques can make it much easier to face unexpected challenges, deal with surprises and work better with others.” <> How To Strengthen Your Team’s Improv Abilities: ]o[ Keep moving forward with “Yes, and… ]o[ ”Shift mindsets from “me” to “us.” ]o[ Lead the charge by signing up for classes. ]o[ Give people creative breathing room. <> The Distributed Troupe: Aside from strengthening collaboration, a good sense of humor will help keep your distributed team connected; the lack of in-person interaction can be offset by the camaraderie of fun. Are you involved in improv? If so, what parallels do you see between comedy and business? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Post Image: http://bit.ly/14A5w05
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Project & Task Management for busy, productive teams. 100% Free. Sign up for a free account and improve your productivity! Simple & Lightweight Project Management Create project grids that give you a birds eye view of all your projects. Customize projects grids in ways that suit your team’s work style.
EVEN before Plato conceived the philosopher-king, people yearned for clever, dispassionate and principled government. When the usual run of rulers proves cowardly, indecisive or discredited, turning to the wisdom and expertise of a technocrat, as both Italy and Greece have done in recent days, is particularly tempting.... Government by experts sounds tempting, especially in a crisis. It can work. But brief stints have the best chances... Supportive: http://bbc.in/vwRdi7 Post Image: http://bit.ly/TVzTGT
The German general Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord is noted for saying that clever, lazy people were qualified for the highest leadership duties. But how do you manage staff who don’t need to try? Post Image: http://bit.ly/P0m1eO
Guest Post Project management sucks. Yet without it, we fall apart. Dealing with it has historically been an absolute nightmare for me, and my guess is it is for you too. ░░░░▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▄▄▄▄▄
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The old distinctions between leaders and followers are gone. Great followers follow by leading. Here’s 11 ways to make sure you do just that. ♔ Great Followers Seize the Initiative... ♔ Great Followers Create their Own Job... ♔ Great Followers are Coachable... ♔ Great Followers Anticipate... ♔ Great Followers are Great Communicators... ♔ Great Followers are Goal Driven... ♔ Great Followers Show Don’t Tell... ♔ Great FollowersEarn Trust... ♔ Great Followers Offer Solutions... ♔ Great Followers are Compassionate... ♔ Great Followers are Loyal... Post Image: http://bit.ly/V0wCEm
Leaders have the quality of emotional mastery, which gives you the strength and flexibility to tackle any challenge, even when all hell is breaking loose, as we covered in the previous blog post in this series. Now we’ll look at two other core qualities extraordinary leaders possess, RELATIONSHIP MASTERY and TIME MASTERY. Post Image: http://bit.ly/RQdJnr
How managers interact says a lot about the state of a company... ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up ❖ Teams on the way down ❖ Teams on the way up Post Image: http://bit.ly/PfwhkH
The leadership article,'Leadership Secrets for Challanging Times,' will give you 5 leadership techniques to becoming an effective leader, great motivator, and a person who leads people to accomplishing more and getting things done. § Integrity § Knowledge § Decisiveness § Vision § Unselfishness Post Image: http://bit.ly/R46zwe
“... if you don’t want to
have to care about
whether people are going
where you want them,
make sure they know
where to go and will
trample anyone who gets
in their way.” Post Image: http://bit.ly/P1DK62
“Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.” -- Tom Landry Imagine being asked to join an effort to create the very first strategic plan for the County in which you live, pay taxes, and vote for county officials. This request stimulated a conflicted
reaction. ...there had never been a collaborative strategic perspective applied to running our county and thrilled to be part of initiating such an effort. Where to Start? Who is the Customer? Post Image: http://bit.ly/Lxbkfa
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Adaptive techniques for solving problems are a combination of logic and common sense, and while not precise, can produce satisfactory solutions. If you cannot follow the complete problem solving process, use these techniques when you ♒ have little time for research ♒ don't need exhaustive analysis ♒ can accept the risks ♒ can make reversible decisions ♒ ♒ Strategies toward adaptive decision making ♒: ♒ Managing by exception: exercise... ♒ Managing by exception: text... ♒ Decision staggering... ♒ Exploration... ♒ Hedging... ♒ Intuition... ♒ Delay... ♒ Delegating decision-making or action to another person or group... ♒ Visioning... ♒ ♒ Barriers to effective decision-making ♒: ♒ Indecision... ♒ Stalling... ♒ Overreacting... ♒ Vacillating... ♒ Half measures... Post Image: http://bit.ly/13j6IRW
“When we study what followers follow, we will know what makes great leaders great …” ~ Paul Hunting "I have been watching people handle, ride ,and compete with animals who: Weigh in at half a ton or moreDon’t speak our languageHave prey-animal instincts that tell them to run a half a mile before they stop and look at what they think was going to eat them" Here are 3 Lessons of Leadership:
1. “You can judge the quality of your communication by the response you get…
2. Not everyone sees every situation the way you do...
3. Emotions are contagious...
Post Image: http://bit.ly/15MwNbS
Spanning the centuries women have played a massive role in shaping the world. Here is a list of 50 women who have shaped the world taken from the “Women Who Changed the World” by Ros Horton and Sally Simmons at Amazon.co.uk. Post Image: http://bit.ly/10iVoE7
A particular challenge for many sustainability practitioners working in organisations is that your senior leadership don’t have the same passion for sustainability that you have... This blog will explore how to generate momentum when you don‚’t have an inspirational leader such as Ray to help you deliver sustainable change... Post Image: http://bit.ly/XAUSSn
Forget vision, passion, and other B-school platitudes. Here are the nitty-gritty details on what makes leaders great. 1. Data comes and goes, but feelings last forever. 2. Great ideas are never found in presentations. 3. The "volunteer penalty" kills the flow of great ideas.
4. Sharing only the positive always results in a negative.
5. Data is accurate, but people are right.
Post Image: http://bit.ly/10X9ezx
Ecosystem management is a process that aims to conserve major ecological services and restore natural resources while meeting the socioeconomic, political and cultural needs of current and future generations. The principal objective of ecosystem management is the efficient maintenance, and ethical use of natural resources. Ecosystem management acknowledges that the interrelation of socio-cultural, economic and ecological systems is paramount to understanding the circumstances that affect environmental goals and outcomes. It is a multifaceted and holistic approach which requires a significant change in how the natural and human environments are identified. Several approaches to effective ecosystem management engage conservation efforts at both a local or landscape level and involves: adaptive management, natural resource management, strategic management, and command and control management.... http://bit.ly/bysyYu The management and decision-making process is required to be:
>>Strategic and value based:
- Purposeful and goal-directed, with the first step in planning and management being the description of a desired future state of the protected area based on scientific and societal needs and values.
>>Adaptive:
- In the face of uncertainty management actions are treated as an opportunity to learn by doing.
Management is planned as a learning experience and improves
through frequent review of policy and action.
>>Participatory:
- Meaningfully involving all stakeholders to serve their needs, access their inputs
and secure their cooperation.
- Governing cooperatively with other agencies to coordinate and integrate goals
and actions.
These principles draw on current theory and research on appropriate ecosystem and natural resource management approaches, in particular Adaptive Resource Management and its local derivative Strategic Adaptive Management (SAM). These approaches are outlined briefly, followed by guidelines on facilitating participatory decision aking within SAM... More: http://bit.ly/ShMDZ7 http://bit.ly/YdxlrN http://bit.ly/n06txo Post Image: http://bit.ly/ShMipl
Leadership in the 21st Century needs a paradigm change!
Organizations will only distinguish themselves - from others on the market - by high level of self-responsibility, (mental) fitness and a faster learning, innovating and realizing capacity. Therefore leadership reaches a new dimension once it ceases to lay down rules, to be restrictive and controlling, but instead starts to offer initiatives and support according to the respective situation, to offer scope of action and encourage environment visions. Constant learning from (project) tasks will become everybody’s goal - as well as - learning from errors.... Post Image: http://bit.ly/RUN5N1
The eleven skills of leadership are distilled from years of study. ❂ Getting and Giving Information... ❂ Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics... ❂ Knowing and Understanding Group Resources... ❂ Controlling the Group... ❂ Counseling... ❂ Setting the Example... ❂ Representing the Group... ❂ Planning... ❂ Evaluation... ❂ Sharing Leadership... ❂ Manager of Learning... Post Image: http://bit.ly/Sb00tl
Commemorating the four-year struggle that began April 12, 1861 can help leaders to grow in insight. Goodwin recalls a wonderful example of Lincoln’s wisdom that followed his promotion of Benjamin Butler to the rank of brigadier-general... Butler was a conservative Democrat and a political opponent of the president, and in accepting the commission wrote to Lincoln that he would be loyal, but would resign as soon as he felt he was no longer able to agree with what the Republican administration was doing.... Lincoln’s reply remains a seminal lesson for leaders in any field: …[W]hen you see me doing anything that for the good of the country ought not to be done, come and tell me so, and why you think so, and then perhaps you won’t have any chance to resign your commission.... Post Image: http://bit.ly/OCSx2p
How important is teamwork? There’s no doubt that teamwork and collaborative strategies are becoming a must for productivity, effectiveness and success in all kind of environments, enterprise, education, small/medium business, freelances and organizations. But are we ready to deal with conflict? How can we manage the ordinary issues with our teamwork individuality and personalities? We can start managing conflict when we set up the teamwork:
* defining teamwork tasks
* describe members: profile, tasks, personalities, training, roles…
* answer the most simple question to your team, why is teamwork more effective than individual work? Post Image: http://bit.ly/R1b1ze
National Crisis Management specialists providing crisis response, prevention, planning and training services. ♞ Definition of a Crisis:
Any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business, damage reputation and/or negatively impact the bottom line. ♞ Crisis Prevention / Response / Planning... ♞ Crisis Management Training / Presentations... ♞ Crisis Management Education... Post Image: http://bit.ly/THstcm
Interview with Clarke Murphy, global head of the CEO and Board Services practice at executive search and assessment firm Russell Reynolds Associates. . . . *Interviewer: So the skills for this crisis are actually even different from the skills in the last downturn? *Clarke: There’s no question. In the last downturn, people had more time to react, and they probably had greater certainty about liquidity, greater certainty about the strength of their partners and vendors, and now you don’t have certainty about who is strong and who’s not strong. . . . Post Image: http://bit.ly/RQnEeW
One of the most common issues faced by people in their lives and leadership is life happening. John Lennon's famously said "Life happens whilst you're making other plans." Some of you reading this are going to like this, others won't like this one little bit. Essentially, you have a choice. A very simple choice. You can either choose to create your future, or you can accept the one that you get. "But..." I hear many about to interupt... there are no 'buts'. Sorry about that. Yes, it is true that other people, the world, the circumstances around you may well prevent you from achieving your goal. So what are you going to do about it? Can you cause the world do something different? There are many things that you cannot change... the weather for example. Overcome the problem. Can you make another person do whatever is necessary? You cannot directly cause them to do something, though you can influence them..... "But..." I continue to hear....
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