Tag: leadership

How Tightly Should You Manage Your Team?

December 5, 2011 Blog no comments


Should you control your subordinate’s every move? (courtesy of River Empowerment)

There are two major schools of thought in leadership and management.

The first approach is the older “Command and Control” style. Here, an authoritative leader uses a clearly domineering way of getting things done. Charging ahead like a bull, he/she will steamroll over anything – or anybody – who gets in his or her way. Instructions given are clear, specific and often unidirectional. Its “my way or the highway”.


The 5 Skills of Great Innovators

October 13, 2011 Blog, Business and Management no comments


Steve Jobs (bless him) associated calligraphy with beautiful fonts in the Macintosh (source)

Ever wondered how disruptive innovators like Steve Jobs (Apple), Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) and A.G. Lafley (P&G) behave?  What are the traits of these great entrepreneurs and business leaders?

According to INSEAD Professor Hal Gregersen (who co-authored the book “The Innovator’s DNA” with Jeffrey Dyer and Clayton M. Christensen), they have what are called the five discovery skills as follows:


Executing with Strategic Speed

August 24, 2011 Business and Management no comments


Achieving speed doesn’t just mean being fast (image source)

You’ve heard of the saying “more haste less speed”. Apparently, this is true not just in life but in management.

Ed Boswell, former CEO of the Forum Corporation, shares in this clip from Harvard Business Review (HBR) that the most efficient firms pay attention to speed, pace themselves well, and take care of the people factor. By doing so, they can achieve up to 52% higher profit and 40% higher sales than the rest.


Employee Engagement: Lessons From Universal Studios

July 20, 2011 Business and Management no comments

Universal Studios Grand Opening - 28 May 2011
Managers should lead by example and be there when it matters (Universal Studios Singapore)

Leadership and management are two of the most difficult tasks any manager needs to do in today’s organisation.

The new rules of work mandate that hierarchical ways of bossing people around will no longer work. Against such a backdrop, how can you and your leadership team engage your team members more effectively and impactfully?


Head or Heart? Dilemmas in Management

November 5, 2010 Blog no comments


Source

One of the most difficult and perplexing challenge facing leaders and managers today is the trade-off between using one’s head and one’s heart. Should decisions be made purely on a bottom-line basis, or should they be done in the interests of all stakeholders?

As you would have guessed, there are no easy solutions to this, considering the dynamics of the modern organisation and its multiple demands.