Chasing the shiny new things Last week in a tweet I mentioned fad-surfing and some of my followers were not aware of this and requested an article - so here it is! Fad surfers are the management or leadership equivalent of the magpie, they love collecting shiny new things from other people. A management or leadership style where there is a lot of sizzle but little substance What is "fad surfing"? In simple terms Adopting one fashionable management style or strategy after another. The … [Read more...]
A to Z of leadership
A to Z of leadership ideas Over the past few months I have slowly been releasing an A to Z of leadership tips/ ideas/ thoughts. I have been asked a few time for that list to be published in one place. The origional source for the list is below, our role was to find the list, adapt it to the 100+ characters that twitter could handle. A - Accessibility-find out what is really going on by getting out there to talk to everyone at every level B - Brains-half of the brains of the world are female … [Read more...]
Top Leadership Traits – Positive and negative
Because I What are the Top Leadership Traits we look for in our leaders? While looking for some material for a forthcoming leadership development programme, I discovered an interesting article and results on top leadership traits. In 2006 in Minneapolis Police Department undertook some research looking at Leadership Traits in their officers. The analysis of the data shows frequency of mention by other officers. The top 15 positive and negative traits mentioned are listed below. While not … [Read more...]
New situational based leadership 3.0 for 2010 and beyond
New situational based leadership 3.0 Until recently the old models around leadership were based on one-2-one relationships, when communication were focused on face-to-face discussion and in the main technology was limited to the telephone. Much of management and leadership was done in 'real time' and face to face, however here in the 'naughties' times, needs and expectations have moved on, but unfortunately management and leadership engagement approaches have not. With an increasingly … [Read more...]
Innovation, the first step – dare, change, take a risk
Innovation is about the first step Innovation is the buzzword of the late naughties, but what does it mean? "Innovation is the act of introducing something new" Often we focus on the act of creating, indeed many training and development programmes look to developing creativity in order to create innovative cultures. Is this right? Innovation can mean two very different things, I suspect that often we confuse the two. many organizations take innovation to be something to do with product … [Read more...]
Training and educational resources
The team at RapidBI are often developing resources, often these are put up as pages on our site, other times they are turned into downloadable products. If you are looking for PowerPoint resources for management or leadership training or coaching then look at our powerpoint set. If you are involved in team development then our card and communication exercise may well hit the mark. Remember you can also download and start using our Employee Engagement Survey or our Business Diagnostic … [Read more...]
2020 leadership – 4 steps to sustainable success for organizations
We cannot ignore the need for 2020 Leadership in our organizations. I have seen many discussions on HR and training forums about the needs of leaders and managers. These talk about leadership development and talent. As a result of my research recently, I have noticed that practitioners often talk about the contents of training. The style of the delivery. And importantly how cheap and quick we do this. Ignoring the fact that you cannot have high quality training that is quick and cheap. (I … [Read more...]
Developing entrepreneurial skills into business people
HAVE-DO-BE or DO-BE-HAVE? In business we often hear terms like ‘business person’ or ‘entrepreneur’, but what do they mean and can we train these skills. Let’s look at what these terms mean before we explore any route to development: Business person “a person engaged in commercial or industrial business (especially an owner or executive)” Entrepreneur “An individual who, rather than working as an employee, runs a small business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business … [Read more...]
Becoming an Innovative leader – the eight faces of innovation
Becoming an Innovative Leader When we take innovation away from the technologists and start to look at innovation as a set of behaviours that can drive change and culture, we start to look at innovation as a leadership model. Using the Creatrix from the Richard Byrd Co in MN USA, we can identify the eight faces of innovation. All have there place and strength in today’s organisation, however the balance and focus will need to adapt for each need the organisation faces. What type of … [Read more...]
Starting change from the bottom – or without support from the top
Starting change from the bottom - or without support from the top On a change management forum recently I come across this interesting post: Does anyone have any comments or experience about how it is possible to change the culture within a department without support from the top? In fact the very top may actually be part, in no way all of, the cultural problem. Cultural issues have been identified such as fear of top, lack of innovation, mistrust, low motivation, negativity … [Read more...]
How to receive feedback from your manager
How to receive feedback from your manager As my good friend @Quicklearn said on twitter a few days ago: "So much written on how to give feedback. What help is out there for those destined to receive it?" It promoted me to think.. in this light hearted reply (well it is the August silly season) lets look at the feedback methods and what they actually mean for you the recipient: The feedback sandwich: Praise (Bread) 'Feedback' (Meat) Praise (Bread) This approach is not to help … [Read more...]
Innovative Business Culture – a fresh perspective
Building an innovative business culture - a fresh perspective Introduction What is innovation? Ask people to define innovation and you're likely to get a diverse range of responses, new ideas, creativity, pushing the envelope, breaking new ground, developing new markets, the fruits of research and many more. The theme for many is newness, something fresh and of course that is part of the equation but it misses an essential component - risk-taking. Even a casual study of great innovators quickly … [Read more...]
Management and leadership skills: What is the difference?
As our organizations change and adapt so must the people running them - our managers and leaders. In the past, many organizations have neglected to develop and train this group, letting most find their own way to their own unique management or leadership style. The best organizations know that consistency is the name of the game for continued success. At the same time there has been much debate about methodologies - to train or to develop; to feed or to grow. I would define the difference … [Read more...]
From leadership to training & L&D
Your opportunity to request content on this site Over the past 12 weeks I have been posting many short 'nuggets' on leadership, while I have a number of these to go I am now planning the next series - Training or Learning and Development. So here is your opportunity to contribute - what would you like to see added? what do you want mini-blog entries on? I expect that many topics will be developed into full entries, but these mini blog pieces have proved very popular. Just add your thoughts to … [Read more...]
GROW into a coaching model
GROW -- Goals - Reality - Options - Will The GROW model in coaching has been around for some time. It was first made popular by Sir John Whitmore and described in his book Coaching For Performance in 1992. It is widely believed that GROW was originally developed by Graham Alexander, who worked with Whitmore. The GROW model has been used successfully by coaches in sport and business as well as by many organizations as part of a change towards a coaching style of management. How to use … [Read more...]
Leadership models
Leadership models and theories are tools that help to shape the way we think, manage and run our organisations. This is an old page, maintained for reasons of continuity, please visit our updated page here Leadership models and theories are tools that help to shape the way we think, manage and run our organisations. This page lists some of those leadership models found to be of value by the team at RapidBI. This is a historical page - our updated page can be found … [Read more...]
Flow – The formula for optimal success (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
Flow - The formula for optimal success (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) Flow is a concept developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his book "FLOW" he describes peoples experience of what makes an experience genuinely satisfying or what it is like to be in the state of flow. Flow is a state of consciousness which can be achieved on an individual path, providing optimal performance. In the book Csikszentmihalyi lists a number of fact which accompany an experience of flow: 1. Clear goals … [Read more...]
Pareto's Principle – The 80/20 rule
Introduction to 80-20 In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto's Principle or Pareto's Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help you manage … [Read more...]
Cut or increase innovation in a recession?
Innovation, is it a burden or opportunity when things are difficult? This morning I was reading an article in Business Week about the need for organizations to cut back on innovation (article). The article starts with the opening line "When times get tough, one of the first things we do is think about what we can do without, like cutting latte consumption from five a week to two" with which I totally agree. However an assumption in the article drives the reader to believe that INNOVATION … [Read more...]
Why Organisational Development often fails to deliver
Organisational Development (OD) is the name or label given to many HR and training related strategies, but it is more than that. Bennis in his early work "Organizational Development: nature, origins & prospects" defines OD as: "a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets and challenges" This is just as true today as it was in … [Read more...]
