Monday, October 25, 2010

10 Things Good Leaders Do!!

I've had good and bad leaders influence my career. I've thought about all the qualities that make up a good leader, and while its hard to always do them I've got the top ten. Everyone has different experiences so these are based on my own experiences, good and bad.

  1. Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but respect must be earned.
  2. Inspire your people. Inspire people by sharing your passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.
  3. Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
  4. Build team spirit. Great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
  5. Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great leaders; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
  6. Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every leader delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers. Good leaders delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
  7. Tell it to people straight, even when it’s bad news. One of the most important things any leader can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
  8. Manage up … effectively. Good leaders keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
  9. Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
  10. Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. People learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.
These are my top ten, any thoughts??

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Innovation featured on Fox Morning News

Some of the work I'm doing in Cloud computing has resulted in the development of two innovative mobile applications. BiometricID, a biometric enabled identity management application and Open911, an open source incident reporting and emergency management application will be featured on WTTG channel 5 Washington, DC morning news, Thursday October 21, 5:30am - 10am. Reporter Holly Morris will highlight the advanced technology associated with these Cloud applications and demonstrate how they solve real problems. Holly will report on this demonstration as part of the first National Science and Engineering Festival and Expo (www.usasciencefestival.org) on the national Mall in Washington, DC

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Quest for Innovation

Organizations express a desire to be innovative. It is the oft-cited statement from countless corporate leaders who evoke it in mission statements and look to it to drive growth. But like many corporate goals, innovation is often more a vague, conceptual symbol that a clearly define process. On closer examination, few organizations truly commit to innovation in a measurable way with head count, process management, or funding. Gartner research recently identified five myths that threaten to derail even the best laid plans. They are:

1) Innovation just happens
2) Innovation only happens in R&D
3) The best innovation comes from inside
4) The more innovative ideas we generate, the better
5) We have lots of smart people, so innovating will be no problem

Dealing with the new economic normal of doing more with less, organizations need to offset the effects of this uncertain business environment and address these innovation myths.

Innovation will require structure and planning focused at recovery, return to growth and the resolving of the organizations most critical challenges.

By addressing the myths about innovation and by developing a new model for leadership organizations will be better positioned to achieve these objectives.

Innovation outside of R&D in areas like process, service management and user interface that  will increase the success rate and speed of new product, process and service development and deployment.

Organizations will continually look to outside collaborative innovations sources. strong leadership will harness innovative technologies to drive deeper more meaningful business relationship. New business models will be developed that increase business flexibility and speed to market.

Welcome to the 21st Century Leadership and Innovation Blog

Webster’s defines leadership as the office or position of a Leader; the capacity to lead; the act or an instance of leading.  While the fundamental meaning of leadership has not changed much since the beginning of recorded history, this blog will focus on the new 21st Century definitions of leadership. We will discuss some of the key challenges leaders face today including:
  • Knowledge Driven Age
  • Rapid Change
  • Organizations without boundaries
  • Inter-Group Leadership
  • Impact of Knowledge Workers
Leadership in the 21st century is no longer a fixed role.  Today’s leadership operates in a fluid, dynamic environment where innovation rules and leadership can come from any direction including outside the group. 

Innovation, which is different from invention – developing great ideas, can be defined as ideas applied successfully in practice. Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, entrepreneurship, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. While innovation is usually associated with the output of the process, this blog will tend to focus on the process itself, from the origination of an idea to its transformation into something useful, to its implementation and its impact on the system within which the process of innovation unfolds.
So please join me in the discussion of what makes 21st leadership and how the innovation drives the continual evolution what it means to be a leader.