Monthly Archives: January 2013

The Surprising Science Behind Motivation

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As a leader, one of your primary tasks is to achieve organizational goals through other people.  Since you can’t do it all alone (really, you can’t-I’ve tried that and have failed miserably), part of your job as a senior executive is to motivate members of your team.  In the “bad old days”, managers and leaders relied on their formal authority roles (I’m the boss-do as I say) as the predominant way to motivate people.  That didn’t work, as any parent of a child over 3 years old can tell you. In today’s work world, many times you are working on a team that has people from various parts of the organization who band together in an ad hoc work group to accomplish a goal, then disband.  How do you help motivate people who don’t report to you?

In this 18 minute video from TED, Daniel Pink gives some surprising science behind motivational theory.  Grab a cup of coffee, soda, or water, and listen in on his TED talk. Mr. Pink is a journalist, who has written extensively about people in work, motivation, and trends in human behavior.

What parts from Mr. Pink’s presentation do you agree or disagree with?

 

 

How Leaders Use Culture in their Organizations to Reinforce Areas of Emphasis

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Last week, I was talking to a local senior executive who was discussing the importance of culture in his organization. He mentioned how important it was for leaders at all levels to understand the key elements of culture when one rolls out a new initiative, reinforcing certain behaviors to accelerate momentum, and to grow one’s team.

He noted, “Nobody is going to change anything simply because you think it is a good idea.  You have to set up and find ways to embed elements of your current culture into your daily work and into the work of your team.  Find ways that your current culture supports what you are looking to do and build on your current strengths.”

How do you do that? One of the leading researchers on culture, Ed Schein, outlines some primary elements and mechanisms that leaders use culture to embed and reinforce areas of emphasis:

  • What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control regularly
  • How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises
  • How leaders allocate scarce resources
  • Deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching
  • How leaders allocate rewards and status
  • How leaders recruit, select, promote, retire, and excommunicate organizational members

Secondary reinforcement mechanisms include:

  • Organizational design, structure, systems, procedures, rites, rituals.
  • Stories, legends and myths about people and events
  • Physical space, buildings, and facades
  • Formal statements of organizational philosophy, values, and creeds
    (Source: The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, p. 98, Schein, 2009)

How have you seen leaders in organizations use culture to embed culture to reinforce areas of emphasis?

How Great Leaders Inspire Action: Simon Sinek on TED

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I saw this  18 minute TED talk by Simon Sinek on  how great leaders inspire action.  When I listen (and listen again), I am inspired on how this three circle concept that he articulates helps shape and guide decisions on a daily basis.

When you are either leading or a key contributor to any improvement effort, you want to maintain your core values in your daily decisions.  What I see as important is that the three circles help you  frame and guide decisions you make on a daily basis.  Whether you are working in a non-profit or commercial organization, this model can help serve as a filter for the decisions you make, especially when you are trying to improve in certain areas of your work or personal life.

Which key point from Mr. Sinek’s talk do you find most powerful?

How have you seen this work (or not work) in your work?

 

How the Shelton Leadership Center exemplifies Porter’s management classic-What is strategy?

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Dr. Michael Porter, in his 1996 Harvard Business Review classic, “What is Strategy?”, outlines a key difference between strategy and operational effectiveness. Doing things well and effectively is necessary but insufficient as a strategy.  Strategy focuses upon unique activities or same activities done in a unique and value creating manner (quicker, better, or cheaper). These differentiators make an organization valuable, rare, and hard to imitate.

At the Shelton Leadership Center, we invest in and grow values based leaders across  the generations. Our award winning Shelton Challenge launches each June for a week-long life changing experience for both high school youth who attend and the collegians who serve as mentors, counselors, and peer leaders.

We provide educational scholarships for deserving high school seniors and NC State students who exemplify the center’s mission, “to inspire, educate and develop values-based leaders committed to personal integrity, professional ethics, and selfless service.”

We provide executive education for emerging and current leaders in organizations who want to focus their leadership team upon values-based leadership.  Our signature event, the annual Shelton Leadership Forum, has had over 600 attendees for the past several years, ranging from senior leaders to those who are emerging leaders at the collegiate level or in the early parts of their career.  We also provide customized executive education in partnership with NCSU’s Poole College of Management for our clients who want a values-based approach to practical executive education.

One of the hallmarks I’ve learned in my short time here at the Shelton Leadership Center is that three of our differentiators from others who focus upon leadership development are that:

(A) we clearly articulate, focus, and embed the five values that GEN Hugh Shelton outlined as cornerstones of values-based leadership:

  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Compassion
  • Diversity
  • Social Responsibility

(B)  the impressive focus and energy from our Board of Advisors. Each board member is focused on how they can contribute to the greater good of helping implement the  Shelton Leadership Center mission.

(C) The way those who serve as a part of the Shelton Leadership Center live the values that we espouse. I’m singularly impressed by the level of passion, drive, and focus that our team has to ensure that we are providing.

It’s an exciting time to be here as a part of the Shelton Leadership Center

 

Welcome to the Shelton Leadership Center Blog

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Welcome to the Shelton Leadership Center at North Carolina State University. This blog is a tool for values based leaders who want practical tools on various values based leadership topics. It also serves as a community commons to share lessons learned on their continuing practice of values based leadership.

The Shelton Leadership Center focuses on inspiring, educating, and developing values based leaders committed to personal ethics, professional ethics, and selfless service. We focus our work on emerging leaders and current leaders,  ranging from high school students to senior executives.

We look forward to continuing the conversation.