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Author: Joan V. Gallos
It’s resolution time. I’ve made my list and share five suggestions for yours to boost creativity in 2012.
Times are tough, and every industry is rethinking how it does business. Creativity and the capacity to think deeply and flexibly can pull an organization ahead of the crowd. How can you enhance your capacities and help your organization claim its competitive advantage? Suggestions to boost your innovation brainpower:
1. Read more fiction. There are plenty of benefits. Build new neuronal circuits. Deepen your knowledge of the human condition – and learn about yourself as your reflect on your responses. Improve your vocabulary, beef up those communication skills. Expand your cultural intelligence. Leadership is all about influence, communication, relationships, and seeing the simplicity on the other side of complexity.
No time for major tomes? Try The Art of the Novella Series: short novels by some of literature’s greatest – Melville, James, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Twain, and more. The tiny classics tuck easily into a brief case, purse, or pocket – and their colorful contemporary covers are great conversation starters.
My first was a holiday gift – The Dialogue of the Dogs by Cervantes. Turns out the creator of Don Quixote also wrote the first talking-dog story. Ever wonder what your pet is really thinking, and what Fido can teach you about ethics and fairness? I loved it: a quick read and deep ideas. I was hooked on the novella.
The Duel by Heinrich von Kleist (a 19th century German author I knew nothing about) was next. Read it, and let me know how your thinking about loyalty, everyday assumptions, and trust have changed.
I’m on The Lifted Veil by George Eliot now — her only work in the first person with eerie similarities to Eliot’s claiming her public identity as a woman author. Next in line The Lemoine Affair by Proust — and a look at why humans are so easily conned! Think shades of Bernie Madoff.
2. Discover the power and joy of quiet. We live in a world of 24/7 stimulation and news. We text, email, surf, and sit in front of screens (computer and TV) more and more (and Nicholas Carr in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains paints a dire portrait of the neurological, intellectual, and cultural consequences). Creativity requires quiet – the time and space to think. Find ways to build that into your day. Mindfulness is not a luxury for strong leadership.
3. Break the work addiction. All work and no play makes for dull, burned-out people – and maybe even dead ones. The Chinese pictograph for “busy” is two characters: “heart” and “killing.” Loving your work isn’t the same as being a slave to it. You’ll work better and smarter when refreshed. Play is productive.
4. Think gray. It’s simple and counter-intuitive: train yourself to not make decisions quickly. You’ll fall into your regular thinking patterns easily: you need to push yourself to think slowly and carefully about what you’re not thinking about. That’s where you’ll navigate through the shades of gray to identify the best course of action. It’s hard to think gray: humans love binary, right-wrong, yes-no, black-white thinking. The concept comes from Steven Sample (the highly successful president emeritus of the University of Southern California) and is developed in his chapter in Business Leadership.
5. Embrace the novice role. Experience the world with new eyes. It’s good for mind and soul. A good way is to try something you’ve never done but have always wanted to or that you know you don’t do well. The process of learning slows life down, encourages mindfulness, and fine-tunes your skills as a reflective practitioner – a definite leadership plus. You might discover a new talent or passion in the process.
Onward to a creative 2012 for us all!
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A Gift for the New Year
Happy New Year to you! May 2012 be a time of growth and great leadership for you.
Thank you for following me this year – and for your passion and commitment to make a difference in our increasingly complex world. We need your leadership and work to make it a better place. We need your efforts to help steer the ship to fruitful and safe harbors. The leadership professor is glad to play a small part in supporting your professional development and important contributions.
My holiday gift is a suggestion for a powerful read: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, the recent winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize.
The book’s jacket claims it is so compelling a novel that it begs to be read in a single sitting. I found that to be true – and that’s exactly what I did (although it wasn’t my plan when I began). And when finished, I reread the first chapter – and will probably reread the entire book again soon.
It’s an amazing story (and a short, “precise” novel at 162 small pages) that goes to the heart of leadership: how we understand and make sense of ourselves and our place in the world – and how time and happenstance ask us to return to our past, rethink the story we have told ourselves about it, and revise memories in preparation for a different future.
[Want more about the connections between sense making and leadership effectiveness? Check out posts on it in the blog archives. It’s a foundational set of understandings.]
Quite simply, we lead best when we know ourselves and understand what drives our choices and their consequences. Self-reflection and personal growth are the path to get us there.
So take an afternoon for a terrific read — and think about who you are, how you lead (or could), and why.
You’ll be rewarded with beautiful prose – I plan to reread the book with notebook in hand to record some great quotations. You’ll strengthen your leadership by learning important things about human nature and probably about yourself.
A teaser from early in the novel to whet your appetite: We live in time – it holds us and moulds [sic] us – but I’ve never felt I understood it very well. . . . And yet it takes only the smallest please or pain to teach us time’s malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing – until the eventual point when it really does go missing, never to return.
Onward to great accomplishment in 2012!
A powerful article in this morning’s New York Times by Catherine Rampell (“Instead of Work, Young Women Head to School”) identifies in interesting shift: for the first time in three decades, there are now more young women in school than in the work force.
The women’s choice is deliberate: a good job can be tough to find in this economy, so take time now to upgrade skills and prepare for a better one down the line. It also stands in sharp contrast to their male counterparts who seem more likely to take the job they can find.
To quote Rampell: “The longer-term consequences, economists say, are that the next generation of women may have a significant advantage over their male counterparts, whose career options are already becoming constrained.”
I salute the young women for their commitment to professional development and their proactive stance toward career self-management.
The knowledge economy requires it – and the world is changing so fast, the only way to prepare for the jobs of the future is with advanced education that cultivates critical skills that will last the test of time like how to learn, how to work well with diverse others, how to manage change, how to be creative and embrace innovation, how to think more deeply and more flexibly, and how to lead from the head or the foot of the table.
Young women, continue your studies! I like what I see.
Young men, reconsider the wisdom of your choice. How can you better prepare for the work world that lies ahead?
NPR had a fascinating interview on Science Friday with Oliver Sacks (professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and author of 10 books on the mysteries of the human mind including my favorite Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain), Connie Tomaino (executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in the Bronx), Joke Bradt (associate professor in the creative arts therapies department at Drexel University in Philadelphia), and Andrew Rossetti (music therapist in the radiation oncology department at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York).
The program explored the use of music for responding to a host of complex medical and neurological challenges, like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer, the aftermath of strokes and brain injury, autism, stress, and more. The impact was amazing.
Gabby Giffords, for example, regained her capacity to speak after her traumatic brain injury by singing the lyrics of her favorite songs – and you can hear Gabby’s spirited rendition of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” [Salsa dancing and the Houston Symphony helped, too.] The program also provides a music therapy demonstration and why music therapy is more than just listening to music.
Made me think about changing careers – or at least, singing a happy song. The human mind has tremendous capacity for healing with music – and we want to remember that when we need it for ourselves or loved ones!
Sacks also has a new book out that I’m hoping to find in my holiday stocking: The Mind’s Eye.
Quote’s Amazon: With compassion and insight, Dr. Oliver Sacks again illuminates the mysteries of the brain . . . and shows us that medicine is both an art and a science, and that our ability to imagine what it is to see with another person’s mind is what makes us truly human.
May we all learn the grace and compassion to better see the world through another’s mind! Happy holidays to you and yours.
The Harvard Business Review recently dubbed this a classic visual that changed business. It certainly has changed the way we look at markets, competition, and potential customers.
It’s from Clayton Christensen and Joseph Bower’s reminder sixteen years ago that staying close to the customer may be sound advice for meeting current customer needs. That stance, however, can blind us to: (1) new markets no one is serving, (2) opportunities for challenging established players by offering their customers lower-priced, simpler offerings that meet customer needs (and save them money), and (3) strategies to improve the quality of those simpler products so as to bring a better product into an expanding market.
Take a look at their HBR classic: "Disruptive Technologies: Catching The Wave," HBR January–February 1995.
Bottom-line whatever our industry: Markets are out there. No one can be complacent in an increasingly competitive global world. We are all well-served with a split-screen approach to our work – how to serve today’s customers while looking creatively toward tomorrow’s.
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A Random Act of Culture
TGIF. It’s been a busy week, complicated by a day of flu. Click and enjoy a Random Act of Culture to prepare you for the weekend. Thank you, Knight Foundation. Onward!
Advice abounds for how to interview well, as if the process is a one-way street. Your new boss will play a large role in the quality of your daily work life and in your career future. Are you looking carefully at that?
Stephanie Taylor Christensen in ForbesWoman Online had great advice on assessing your new boss. I repost below. Take a look before you leap!
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5 Ways To Spot A Bad Boss In An Interview
A boss can literally, make or break your career. Here are five ways to spot the bad ones before they become yours.
A great boss can make you feel engaged and empowered at work, will keep you out of unnecessary office politics, and can identify and grow your strengths. But a bad boss can make the most impressive job on paper (and salary) quickly unbearable. Not only will a bad boss make you dislike at least 80% of your week, your relationships might suffer, too. A recent study conducted at Baylor University found that stress and tension caused by an abusive boss “affects the marital relationship and subsequently, the employee’s entire family.” Supervisor abuse isn’t always as blatant as a screaming temper tantrum; it can include taking personal anger out on you for no reason, dismissing your ideas in a meeting, or simply, being rude and critical of your work, while offering no constructive ways to improve it. Whatever the exhibition of bad boss behavior, your work and personal life will suffer. Merideth Ferguson, PH.D., co-author of the study and assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor explains that “it may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members.”
There are many ways to try and combat the effects of a bad boss, including confronting him or her directly to work towards a productive solution, suggesting that you report to another supervisor, or soliciting the help of human resources. But none of those tactics guarantee improvement, and quite often, they’ll lead to more stress. The best solution is to spot a bad boss—before they become yours! Here are five ways to tell whether your interviewer is a future bad boss.
1. Pronoun usage. Performance consultant John Brubaker says that the top verbal tell a boss gives is in pronoun choice and the context it is used. If your interviewer uses the term “you” in communicating negative information ( such as, “you will deal with a lot of ambiguity”), don’t expect the boss to be a mentor. If the boss chooses the word “I” to describe the department’s success—that’s a red flag. If the interviewer says “we” in regards to a particular challenge the team or company faced, it may indicate that he or she deflects responsibility and places blame.
2. Concern with your hobbies. There is a fine line between genuine relationship building, and fishing for information, so use your discretion on this one. If you have an overall good impression of the potential boss it may be that he or she is truly interested in the fact that you are heavily involved in charity work, and is simply getting to know you. On the other hand, the interviewer may be trying to determine whether you have too many commitments outside of work. The interviewer can’t legally ask if you are married, or have kids, so digging into your personal life can be a clever way to understand just how available you are.
3. They’re distracted. The era of email, BlackBerrys and smartphones have made it “okay” for people to develop disrespectful communication habits in the name of work. Particularly in a frenzied workplace, reading email while a person is speaking, multi-tasking on conference calls and checking the message behind that blinking BlackBerry mid-conversation has become the norm of business communications. But, regardless of his or her role in the company, the interviewer should be striving to make a good impression—which includes shutting down tech tools to give you undivided attention. If your interviewer is glancing at emails while you’re speaking, taking phone calls, or late to the interview, don’t expect a boss who will make time for you.
4. They can’t give you a straight answer. Caren Goldberg, Ph.D. is an HR professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University. She says a key “tell” is vague answers to your questions. Listen for pauses, awkwardness, or overly-generic responses when you inquire what happened to the person who held the position you are interviewing for, and/or what has created the need to hire. (For example, if you are told the person was a “bad fit,” it may indicate that the workplace doesn’t spend much time on employee-development, and blames them when things don’t work out).
You should also question turnover rates, how long people stay in given roles, and what their career path has been. All of these answers can indicate not only if the boss is one people want to work for, but whether pay is competitive, and employees are given a career growth plan.
5. They’ve got a record. Ask the potential boss how long he or she has been at the company, in the role, and where he or she worked before coming to it to get a feel for his or management style, and whether it’s what you respond to. For example, bosses making a switch from a large corporation to a small company may lead with formality. On the other hand, entrepreneurs tend to be passionately involved in business, which can be a help or a hindrance, depending on your workstyle.
Goldberg also recommends searching the site eBossWatch, where you read reviews that former employees have given to a boss. If you’re serious about the position, she also suggests reaching to the former employee whose spot you are interviewing for, and asking for their take on the workplace. (LinkedIn makes this task easy to do). The former employee’s recount may not necessarily reflect your potential experience, but it can help you to determine whether his or her description of the job and company “jibes” with what the potential boss said.
48 years ago last week, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on a clear and sunny day in Dallas, Texas. Standing beside the motorcade as the fatal shots were fired was a lone man dressed in black holding an open black umbrella.
Who is the umbrella man?
Take a look at New York Times best-selling author (Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography) and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris’s new short.
Then let me know (a) what have you learned from it about how humans make sense of their world, and (b) how will understanding all that make you a better diagnostician and a better leader?
This week in the U.S., many gather with family and friends to give thanks for our many blessings.
In today’s rough-and-tumble work world, it can be easy to lose sight of things for which we can be thankful. The global economic downturn has made work and life tougher – no doubt about it. The bottom-line matters more when there is less margin for error. And everyone is being asked to do more with less.
Leaders can balance the strain with a conscious focus on positive sentiments, like hope, enjoyment, compassion, and thankfulness.
Health and wellness research consistently confirms the physiological benefits: immediate positive changes in heart rhythms, as well as neural, hormonal and biochemical reactions that drop blood pressure, muscle tension, and stress hormones. Scientists at UCLA found that optimism strengthened immune functioning. And, forgiveness – letting go of resentment for a perceived offense (including forgiving yourself for not being perfect or where you thought you’d be at this point in your life) – decreases blood pressure, cortisol, and other hormones associated with heart disease, immunity disorders, and more.
Feeling good helps you weather the storms you face – and make progress on things important to you.
Need a little help given where things are in your life? Try the following reasons to be thankful:
Take time and celebrate: Yes, 80 is the new fifty! U.S. Census figures have confirmed that the number of people living to age 90 and beyond has tripled in the past three decades and will quadruple by 2050. Stay healthy – and the odds are with you to have plenty of time to accomplish what you want to accomplish. Take pressure off yourself to have and do it all now, and celebrate where you are.
Let legendary pop singer Tony Bennett be your model. His new album "Duets II" – which is darn good, I might add – soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, a first for Bennett in his career and making him at 85 the oldest living act to reach No. 1. [Click on the album title and listen to a sample.]
Get moving and be smarter: The literature on exercise is conclusive: moderate amounts of regular aerobic exercise produce chemical changes that promote new brain cells in the part of the brain essential for learning and memory. Yahoo, positive news for aging brains! Anyone can get smarter!
Indulge and avoid guilt: Analysis of seven studies (with more than 100,000 subjects) found chocolate consumption associated with lower rates of stroke, coronary heart disease, blood pressure, and other cardiovascular conditions. The British Medical Journal reported chocolate eaters had decreases of 37% in risk of cardiovascular disorders and 29% in risk for stroke, but warned chocolate’s benefits come when eaten in moderation. A prescription to eat chocolate – thank you, doctor!
Relax and enjoy: NPR has a super series of Tiny Desk Concerts for a quick break in a long day. Last week they posted their best ever. Take a few minutes, click on the link, and enjoy. Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile And Stuart Duncan: Tiny Desk Concert Notice the musicians’ joy and passion for their work. May you find yours!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!