“Improving daily work is even more important than doing daily work” Gene Kim You never have enough time and resources, so you throw everything at the task at hand – getting the product shipped or the problem fixed. We have all been there. It is very, very easy to focus relentlessly on getting your work […]
Category Archives: leadership
August
09
Leadership hack 024 – is getting better more important than getting work done?
posted by Max
August
03
Leadership hack 024 – balancing discovery and delivery
posted by Max
“Improving daily work is even more important than doing daily work” Gene Kim It is very, very easy to focus relentlessly on what you are trying to accomplish. Time and resource constraints conspire you to throw everything at getting the task done, the product shipped or the problem fixed. Attack the constraints. A constraint is […]
July
30
What you could learn from ‘Agile at Scale’ this months HBR (May/Jun 18)
posted by Max
In brief analysis of the top articles in the most recent Harvard Business Review.
July
27
What you could learn from ‘Agile at Scale’ this months HBR (May/Jun 18)
posted by Max
In brief analysis of the top articles in the most recent Harvard Business Review.
July
27
Leadership hack 023 – setting team norms
posted by Max
Consistency has been shown again and again to be an important facet of leadership (see Google’s Project Oxygen and the CEO Next Door). Agreeing on a set of team norms can have several potential advantages: Consistency aa Here are some norms my teams have created in the past: The customer is always right, everyone […]
July
26
Leadership hack 023 – setting team norms helps your team perform after the honeymoon has ended
posted by Max
Building great teams is notoriously difficult. Setting an agreed list of team norms can help teams become more productive faster. Teams take time and investment to become high-performing (see here). The most challenging phase is what Tuckman called the ‘storming’ phase. Once the team has formed and after the honeymoon period is over, team members soon get […]
July
23
What you could learn from ‘Beyond Measure’ by Margaret Heffernan (2015, 100 pages)
posted by Max
Creating a culture that allows constructive conflict to flourish will lead to better solutions, more value for customers and more value for your business. In her book ‘Beyond Measure’ Margaret Hefferman suggest that there are many small changes to improve your company’s culture. Difference makes a difference. Teams need to include people with differences in […]
July
23
What leaders can learn from Google’s Project Oxygen
posted by Max
Google ran an experiment to prove that managers are unhelpful. What they found was the opposite – that managers are helpful. Google established the 10 Oxygen behaviours of Google’s best managers (behaviours 3 and 6 have been updated and behaviours 9 and 10 are new): Is a good coach Empowers team and does not micromanage […]
July
16
What you could learn from ‘Thinking fast and slow’ by Daniel Kahneman (2012, xxx pages)
posted by Max
What is intuition? How do humans think? Are humans rational or irrational and can we predict them? Historically economist built models that assumed that human beings are perfectly rational (joking called ‘homo economus’). Daniel Kahneman showed that humans are highly irrational, but often the irrationality is predictable. Daniel proposes that there are two decision-making systems […]
July
12
Leadership hack 021 – getting out of the comfort zone
posted by Max
Encouraging your team to adopt a ‘growth mindset‘ will benefit you, your team and your bottom line (see HBR article here). When Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft’s CEO spent considerable time and energy encouraging those around him to adopt a growth mindset (see this HBR article), and while he has also made some great strategic decisions (e.g., Azure, reducing Windows’ […]
July
12
What you could learn from ‘The CEO next door’ by Botelho and Powell (2018, 250 pages)
posted by Max
What makes a successful CEO? By studying 2600 CEOs, the Botelho and Powell suggest that there are four defining behaviours that separate successful CEOs from the rest.
October
27
What you could learn from ‘Lincon on Leadership’ by Donald Phillips (1992, 173 pages)
posted by Max
In his book ‘Lincon on Leadership’ Donald Phillips uses examples from President Abraham Lincoln’s life to explore the type of leaders Lincon was, and what lessons are there to learn. The book is split across four chapters: People, Character, Endeavour and Communication. The main lesson articulated in the book are: Get out of the office. Lincoln […]
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