Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change) Review

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Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change) Review"Successful corporate transformation depends on effective decision making and leadership from three distinct but inter coonected entities: the CEO, the top management team, and the board of directors. The CEO is the executive who has overall responsibility for the conduct and performance of the firm; clearly his or her mindset, imagination, and behavior will have a defining effect on corporate adaptation. Ultimately, however, senior leadership is a shared endeavor, extending beyond the CEO to other top executives. Thus, the senior management group, widely referred to as the top management team, also has a central role in formulating and executing corporate transformation. The top management team is not simply an aggregation of individual executives. Rather, the dynamics and complementarities that exist within the team greatly influence corporate outcomes. Finally, the board of directors has legal responsibility for the governance of the firm...All three of these leadership entities are critically important to effective corporate adaptation under conditions of turbulence. This book examines all three, including their interconnections to one another and, particularly, their roles in designing and navigating effective corpotate change" (from the Preface).
In this context, in Chapter 6, Paul A. Allaire, chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, discusses in depth the role of the senior management team in bringing about a major transformation at his company. He argues that "Effective teamwork harnesses creativity and unleashes brain power; it leads to better solutions, better decisions, and improved business results through more effective implementation." In this invaluable article, after describing the centrality of teamwork at Xerox, and teamwork at the CEO level-the top management team, he concludes with some lessons from experience on what works and what doesn't work as following:
* Self-managed senior teams don't work.
* Remotely located teams work less well than teams in physical proximity.
* Laissez-faire or consensus leadership doesn't work.
* Ill-defned team objectives, processes, and rewards hamper performance.
* Teamwork starts with the CEO.
* Total Quality Management tools and processes can enhance teamwork.
* Roles, responsibilities, and expectations must be clarified.
* An effective governance process must be in place.
* Outside counsel and assistance helps.
* Teams need to be explicitly launched and then maintained over time.
Finally, Allaire writes that "Those are my insights on teams at the senioe executive level. I should also point out that there is no free lunch. No matter how deep your commitment, teamwork does have some negative aspects. Teams are time-consuming. You utilize more of the time and energy of top management than if you dictate a solution or a direction. You also run the risk that a tendency toward groupthink may develop...Continuous improvement means a continuous team approach to solving problems and staying on the right course. Team members need to know how valuable their contribution is. That's why at Xerox we not only teach teamwork, we celebrate it."
Strongly recommended.Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change) Overview

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The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition Review

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The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition ReviewI've read a large number of books on leadership and management over the years. The Kouzes and Posner "The Leadership Challenge" does a good job of providing an easy to read overview which helps leaders in all levels of an organization learn and grow. It's important to note that this is not meant to be a "solutions for specific situations" handbook. Rather, it provides that core level of understanding to give you a foundation, so that as you progress and pick up other "how to" books you have that base support beneath you to keep you grounded in a healthy, productive direction.
There are many first person stories in here to illustrate their points. They are presented with a variety of individuals from different backgrounds and management levels. This is great - it means no matter where the reader is in their career, they can relate directly to at least some of the stories. Sometimes books are tempted to only interview CEOs of gigantic companies, which might be cool for status reasons, but it does little to help the majority of their readers with their actual issues. The Leadership Challenge makes the stories accessible to all.
The key practices laid out in this book are:
* model the way
* inspire a shared vision
* challenge the process
* enable others to act
* encourage the heart
If you sit down with a hefty challenge that leadership has faced in your company, and then compare the progress of the challenge against these five practices, you can see very powerful correlations between what went well and poorly and these practices. There are not just touchy-feely "nice to have" ideas. It is clearly demonstrable that working to build a common purpose with the team, celebrating the small victories as you move along a project, building a climate of trust between managers and employees, and recognizing employees when they do an outstanding job are critical to the short term and long term success of an organization. They can often spell the difference between success and failure on a project.
Well recommended not only for managers and leaders but also for any employee who wants to find more satisfaction in their job. There are many situations where someone who is not "technically" a leader still provides leadership and mentoring activities to his or her coworkers. This book can help anyone succeed and become more enthusiastic about their work and life.
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Awakening the Leader Within: A Story of Transformation Review

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Awakening the Leader Within: A Story of Transformation ReviewKevin Cashman's book is a classic. It combines his soulful insights about authentic leadership with a gripping and realistic tale of the realities confronted by a contemporary executive torn between the bottom line and what's really important in leadership and life.It addresses the greed seeking, short term focus and trends so prevalent in executive suites today. If you are a father and a results driven executive you'll weep when you read this book. I did. IT'S A SINGULAR CLARION CALL JUST WHEN WE NEED IT THE MOST.Awakening the Leader Within: A Story of Transformation Overview

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Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week Review

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Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week ReviewThis book is an amazingly thorough, dense, content-packed work that should be on every business person's bookshelf. It is a tremendous resource for business consultants and coaches as well as the business owner. Dave Lakhani offers an effective system to implement not just change, but mastery in your business and personal life.
That being said, this book is not for everyone. In some ways, this is a difficult book. The exercises that Dave leads you through are thorough and and you will end up asking yourself some hard questions. Fortunately, you only have to tackle it an hour at a time. Dave doesn't do things half-way; his attitude seems to be "Why wouldn't you want to be the best in whatever you do?" The man is ferocious.
In that regard, I think this book is brutal and will weed out all but the people most determined to get their businesses and their lives to a level of excellence. And maybe that is okay. Too many people are happy comparing themselves favorably to mediocre competition. Let the slackers read the feel-good, warm-fuzzy books. This book is designed for people who work on a level of excellence and demand more from themselves and their lives.Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week Overview

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Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) Review

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Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) ReviewWhile this is the third book written by Quinn in a trilogy on the process of helping individuals and organizations to make deep change, I happened to read this one first. I then eagerly read his other two books.
It is human nature to find a comfort zone and then try our hardest to stay in that zone. We feel safe, secure, and in control in our comfort zone. Sometimes, however, we try so hard to stay in the zone that we exert more energy than it would take to change. So why not change? Change is difficult and necessitates giving up power. Prior to reading the book I felt it was almost admitting failure. Change can be especially difficult when we are acting in the role of leader, and trying to move a large group of individuals toward the fulfillment of a goal or vision. How, then, do we lead and manage change? How do we transform an organization?
Leadership is a state of being, which Quinn calls the "fundamental state of leadership". This is a state in which we are open to personal change, and consequently draw others to us by our change in behavior. In the book Quinn gives a detailed explanation of this new model of leaderhip and thoroughly examines the personal nature of change. He gives examples ordinary people who have led extraordinary change efforts. These stories motivate, they bring heroic efforts within reach of the ordinary individual.
Executive, middle manager, associate, student, father or mother - all will benefit from this book.Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) Overview

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Leading at the Speed of Growth: Journey from Entrepreneur to CEO (Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership) Review

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Leading at the Speed of Growth: Journey from Entrepreneur to CEO (Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership) ReviewCommentary, August, 2001. This is an important book for several audiences. First, it should help entrepreneurs understand the skills and experience that are required to move from start up, or as the authors put it, from "initial growth," through "rapid growth," and finally into "continuous growth" phases. Thoughtful entrepreneurs will ask of themselves: "Do I have those shills - if not, what must I do to gain them? And, do I have what it takes to do so?" If they are truly honest with themselves, a good number will realize that it will take different individuals with different skills and experience to lead their creation through these phases, and act accordingly.
The second group range from board directors, especially if venture capitalists are among them, and trusted personal advisors, especially if the entrepreneur does not have a true board comprised of some seasoned executives or consultants with requisite experience. These are the individuals who are in the best position to make these kind of judgments.
Many years ago, I was in the office of the head of one of the more successful venture capital firms in Boston...let's call him Mr. D. The purpose of our meeting was to discuss a possible collaboration with one of his ventures. As the discussion unfolded, it was clear that his attention was elsewhere, so I asked him if this was the case. He seemed relieved, and emotionally stated that he had just concluded a phone conversation with the outside directors of a promising venture in which he was the lead investor. The venture, with annual revenues over $20 million, was pioneering a new, important technological field. The outside directors were aware of the leadership problems, and were not surprised that Mr. D. was recommending the removal of the founder and his replacement an individual Mr. D. believed had the skills, experience, and desire to lead the company well into the rapid growth phase profitably. This was in spite of Mr. D's several frank one-on-one discussions with the firm's founder that revolved around his bringing in a new CEO, thereby permitting the founder to concentrate on the R&D efforts that were so essential for success. The founder refused to relinquish total control of his baby.
The founder's loss represented a serious setback for the investors, but one if not taken put the venture at extreme risk. It took several years before the company got back on its rapid growth phase while retaining its leadership position in its markets.
Would the entrepreneur have acted differently if he had read Catlin & Matthews' book with its real life examples? I can't tell, but he might have accepted his new role...after all, it would have been in his own self-interest - he owned about 30% of the stock.
Another example. I was on the board of a company facing the same kind of problem. The company had grown from $800,000 in revenues to somewhat over $5 million in 15 months. The CEO confided in me that the joy of building his creation was being displaced by too many operating details. First he brought in a solid COO, but soon thereafter asked us the board to find his replacement. He gave us enough time to do this as we worked out ways we could collaborate with him in the near future.
Similar stories repeated time and time again. Catlin & Matthews offer constructive advise to help entrepreneurs make it through their growth phases - or to counsel them to face reality. Bravo, Katherine and Jana; may your book gain widespread use.
Catlin & Matthews at least spell out for entrepreneurs the nature of the game they are in. To ignore their advice seems, to me, to be foolhardy.Leading at the Speed of Growth: Journey from Entrepreneur to CEO (Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership) Overview

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Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life Review

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Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life ReviewI took two intercontinental flights recently and took the time to go through the "Total Leadership" program. And, before I begin my review, I want to say that over the past ten years or so I've seen an absolute avalanche of "leadership" books come out - most of them gimmicky and useless. This is not one of them and in fact I believe the title may deter people from purchasing this; do not be one of them.
"Total Leadership" is about finding your way when you have multiple responsibilities tugging you in different directions. Until now, I've often felt family pulling me one way, only to find the more time I spend with them the more I resent the time it takes away from work. Similarly, on business trips for example, I fight with feelings of guilt for being away from my family. And that's not to mention the the toll all of this takes on my health, when I'm too busy to exercise or just watch the game with friends. I'm here to say this book can help, like finding the long lost manual and finally figuring our how to do new things with a product, this book acts as a guide to finding a semblance of control in your life. It's not about sacrifice, and it's definitely not found in the idea of "balance", this book advocates a powerful third way: overlapping your domains and drawing boundaries.
What makes this book especially effective are the exercises the author puts the reader through. The reader is asked to define the issue, starting with the multiple responsibilities and challenges s/he faces, then it moves on to defining your domains, where is it that you spend your time? Most of the readers (including myself) would find four areas: self, family, work and community. Then, with domains defined, you can identify stakeholders in each domain and begin the process of finding ways "to live your life in accord with what really matters to you." The reader is asked to discuss his/her vision for a future life (post-change) with trusted individuals s/he has previously identified. A particularly effective step is then speaking with others about living your life differently, such as: your boss, significant other and friends, and getting their opinion and feedback on your plan, and as difficult and challenging as this may be it ends up providing the most powerful incentive to change through accountability and stakeholder buy-in. In many cases, I found that as much as I was building bridges between domains in my life, I was also creating boundaries (for example, no longer do I check my blackberry or the Internet between the hours of 6pm - 9pm.) But some of the biggest changes are personal ones that are for me and my family, other readers will likely find similar decisions they make without necessarily sharing them.
This book is not about easy decisions, or difficult ones, its about drilling down to what's most important in your life and building from there.
Ultimately, this book is required reading once, in my opinion, you are put in a position of responsibility. It is effective in maintaining a mindset conducive to responsible living, it provides a non-cookie cutter approach and it creates change in your life through practical exercises.
For these reasons, this reviewer highly recommends "Total Leadership."Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life Overview

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Bury My Heart at Conference Room B: The Unbeatable Impact of Truly Committed Managers Review

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Bury My Heart at Conference Room B: The Unbeatable Impact of Truly Committed Managers ReviewThis book captures what so many hearts struggle to express. I know this content can have a profound impact on the leadership ethos of large corporations, but I've also been challenged to bring it to life in the small space I inhabit. Putting family and integrity at the top of the list with my clients, employees, family and friends is a tough challenge. I've been rejuvenated to keep on trying by this pragmatic, sarcastic, bad boy/good guy book.
Rare is a book that is both inspirational and practical. This one is. It goes on my leadership shelf next to The Power Principle, Principle-Centered Leadership, A Leader's Legacy and The Making of A Leader. Select company. Well-deserved.
Thanks, Stan.Bury My Heart at Conference Room B: The Unbeatable Impact of Truly Committed Managers Overview

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Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World Review

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Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World ReviewWomen Lead the Way is a powerful analysis of the status of women in the world. But it is truly groundbreaking in one way that many previous books of its type are not:
it provides a concrete guideline as to how EVERY women, regardless of where you are in your life - student, homemaker, career woman, or retiree - can impact the status quo and contribute to the advancement of women. Each reader should pay special attention to the "This Week I Will..." boxes. Easy tips on how each of us can make a difference.Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World Overview

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