Assessing a situation before acting may seem like common sense. After all, many languages have an equivalent of the English proverb: ‘look before you leap’. However, people rarely apply this in their daily working lives; we seldom make time to stop and reflect on our processes, and most teams and organizations are action-orientated. If you […]
Subject: Team Building and Teamwork
Video Games for Learning and Development
From the Atari arcade games made popular in the 1970s-80s, to Angry Birds on iPhones across the world, video games have grown significantly in popularity and sophistication over the past few decades. This year sees the 65th birthday of the first patented video game, the ‘Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device’. Most of today’s workers have […]
The Cost of Rudeness and Incivility at Work
"One-half of all employees reported being on the receiving end of rudeness at least once a week — compared to only one-quarter 1998." Christine Pearson of Thunderbird and Christine Porath of Georgetown have been researching rudeness and incivility in the workplace for many years, and in 2009 published a book about their research called The […]
How Evolving C-Suite Structures Affect Performance
What do we know about the structure of a typical C-Suite? Most corporations are run by one, but the formation of them and the roles that comprise the C-Suite have changed considerably and are continuing to do so. Notably, top management teams have been doubling in size since the mid-1980s. The composition of an organization’s […]
Read More… from How Evolving C-Suite Structures Affect Performance
Leadership to Reconcile Team Diversity or Conflict
Both conflict and leadership influence the way ‘values diversity’ moderates team effectiveness. Leaders who are more oriented toward task-focused leadership create a strong situation that restricts team members from expressing their individual values, and lessens the extent to which values diversity might lead to team conflict. On the other hand, leaders who are more person-focused […]
Read More… from Leadership to Reconcile Team Diversity or Conflict
Leadership Dyads: Beauty, Disaster, and the Big Five
In 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it attempted to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The disaster was found to have been caused by a piece of foam insulation that had broken away and struck the left wing during launch. Further investigations revealed that some of the NASA engineers had suspected the damage when the […]
Read More… from Leadership Dyads: Beauty, Disaster, and the Big Five
Communication and the Science of Great Team Building
What we usually consider to be ‘elusive’ group dynamics that characterize high-performing teams, such as; energy, creativity, and shared commitment – are actually observable, quantifiable, and measurable qualities. And as such, teams can be taught how to strengthen them. The key lies in understanding the patterns of communication associated with productive teams, which include; energy, […]
Read More… from Communication and the Science of Great Team Building
Ensemble Leadership: Lessons from the Orchestra Pit
What is ‘shared leadership’? How is it fostered and developed, and what insight can be taken from musicians about this phenomena? This Idea looks at the performance practices of musicians and the leadership challenges that arise in this field to explain why a single responsible leader within a hierarchical system can lead to problems within […]
Read More… from Ensemble Leadership: Lessons from the Orchestra Pit
How Women Leaders Can Avoid the Gender Trap
The image of an effective leader has traditionally embodied an archetypal male; displaying traits such as assertiveness, competitiveness and self-confidence. The problem for women who seek to project those traits is that people judge men and women very differently. There exists a ‘dual standard’. We have different ‘thresholds’ for these traits, and crossing them can […]
Chief Information Officers: Secrets to Success
What is it exactly that makes a Chief Information Officer (CIO) successful? Setting out to examine the factors that determine growth and acceleration in a CIO’s career, the authors of the white paper referenced here looked at both the personal characteristics of 14 CIOs, and the environmental factors that enabled them to seize and achieve […]
Read More… from Chief Information Officers: Secrets to Success