Practical Leadership in Our global knowledge-based Economy - by Linda Hatcher
While doing research for the free on-line Leader Guide Magazine (CLICK HERE) , it suddenly dawned on me that I had become too comfortable in the ideas and technology of yesterday. So I set out to learn as much as possible about cutting edge Information Communications Technology (ICT) so I could pass it along to our many readers who are a a bit "rusty" in this critically important area.
I started with our featured leader last month, Tom Peters. He is ALWAYS with it and cool, and, of course, his website reflects the same: http://www.tompeters.com. I noticed all the links and tools he offered, and I began following those threads in an effort to get with it. This led to the story “The Changing Tools of Leadership and Knowledge Management” CLICK HERE. As I followed link after link in what often seemed endless strands in a tangled ball of leadership development yarn, I discovered exciting, modern leadership wisdom in one of the tools reported in the previous article: the leadership blog. This became the subject of another article in which we review 10 great blogs that provide the latest trends and ideas for “practical ways to do the right things, right.” CLICK HERE for “Leadership from the Blogosphere.” Of course Tom Peters is a natural born blogger, but even without putting him on the top 10 list (simply because we just featured him last month), I found incredibly helpful leadership insights over the course of several days research and blog reading. While blogging is actually getting to be old news, its importance continues to grow daily.
Here is an excerpt from one of the blogs I encountered, which illustrates the hidden nuggets of leadership wisdom to be mined: “I have been at Quadrus for over six years and I enjoyed my role there tremendously. Someone very wise (Christopher Avery) once told me that when a relationship comes to an end that you should always End with the Beginning in Mind such as remembering the reasons why the relationship started in the first place and focusing on these points when wrapping up. Not only is “end with the beginning in mind,” a great twist on Stephen Covey’s "begin-with-the-end-in-mind,” it is also very wise advice I wish I had appreciated when I was much younger.
Every leader of every age owes it to their followers to employ the most current trends of the time to continually improve productivity and skills. I think of a leader who recently made it mandatory that people switch from accessing the company website for their emails to using Outlook because of its sophisticated efficiency tools, like scheduling reminders, etc. Many of the followers grumbled at this edict, but have adjusted happily to the enhanced productivity allowed by the discomfort of a change. The same leader made mandatory training on the latest computer and technology applications of their field.
There is no excuse for any of us to be like I was initially when receiving that Facebook invitation: reluctant to “get with it.” Tom Peters knows and loudly proclaims what the rest of us need to heed: there has never been a more complex, competitive time in which to make our way as leaders and organizations. We have to stay with the modern ways people access and present information, and we have to use technology to its highest advantages to overcome its paradoxical disadvantages.
INSPIRING LEADERSHIP QUOTE: “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can not blow an uncertain trumpet.” Theodore M. Hesburgh
LEADING CHANGE: The year is 2006. The world has changed in about 364 significant ways since you started reading this sentence. Ed Northstrum
