We’ve long advocated for the use of blogs as internal communication tools … executive “from the desk of” blogs, project blogs, department blogs, there are many ways organizations can benefit from using the medium.
A recent column in Darwin managzine outlines some tips so “to ensure that your blog is read instead of inspiring facetious, cheeky t-shirts.” Their tips:
* Keep it conversational and light
* Know your audience and write to them
* Blogs are highly time-sensitive so currency is critical
* Anecdotes are encouraged and expected
* Use links to refer to relevant information
* Be succinct and break-up the text - which encourages “scanning”
You can find the entire article here…
I was once taught that great leaders are optimistic, and they find the good in everyone and everything. Under unusual circumstances, I found the time to read over the past few days, and wanted to share the good I discovered …
It’s a book called Freakonomics by economist Steven Levitt and NY Times reporter Stephen Dubner. It’s an entertaining collection of questions that turn conventional wisdom on its head. In addition to giving you great material for cocktail parties, the authors ask unusual questions, such as “Why do drug dealers still live with their mothers? What’s more dangerous–a gun or a swimming pool? What do teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
The authors describe a novel way of looking at things, making connections, asking questions, and measuring why people behave the way they do–all qualities of a great leader. It may not change the way you think everyday, but it will certainly make you consider connections you’ve never imagined.
Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, offers his five rules for better PowerPoint. All good advice. We’d also direct him (and you) to our principles of PowerPoint, and many of the .PPT-related posts that have graced this page over the past few years.
As I skimmed through the USA Today I found sitting outside my door this morning, I came across an interview with FedEx CEO Fred Smith.
The story of FedEx and Fred Smith has always intrigued me, so I checked it out. They focused most of the interview on Fred’s love of history and his view that you can learn more about leadership and business from history than from many popular leadership books. One of the leaders I admire most gave me the same advice a few years ago, so I thought I’d pass along Fred’s other tips:
Tips steeped in history from Fred Smith
* There are only about six business books worth reading. For enduring lessons, read history.
* The great conquerors of the past treated the conquered well. Remember that next time your company makes an acquisition.
* The most risky course is often inaction.
* When things go wrong, take responsibility.
I attended a talk last week where the focus was on the importance of good, solid interpersonal relationships to the bottom line. No one in attendance disagreed with this somewhat obvious idea, but one question by a young woman resulted in a lively discussion and debate amongst the group. She asked, “How do you know if it’s great relationships that affect the bottom line or that a great bottom line is the recipe for great interpersonal relationships? In other words, which comes first, the chicken (relationships) or the egg (performance)?
In my continual quest to report and link the best academic research with important practical questions, I told this woman about a seminal article written by Dr. Barry Staw, a leading management academic at the University of California, Berkeley. It turns out that the woman’s question has been asked before and the answer was not what the experts giving the talk were promoting. According to Dr. Staw, it’s high performance that leads to strong relationships and not vice versa. In his classic experiment, Staw gave teams false feedback about their performance and then asked members to provide “objective” descriptions of how member had interacted. Teams randomly assigned to the high performance conditions reported more harmonious and better communications than did groups assigned to the low performance condition. Conclusion: If you want your employees and teams to bond, focus on garnering great performance out of them before working on the intricacies of their relationships with one another. Seems like common sense in some ways……well yes, but sometimes we need reminding since as we know common sense doesn’t always lead to common practice.
