MOR Insight

If you are leading a change initiative, then you must be an influencer for that initiative to be successful.  Yet studies have shown that only one in five leaders are able to influence positive change in a way that it lasts.  What’s going on?

Today’s reading is “The Influencers:  The Top Five Reasons Leaders Lack Influence”.  In this piece, Ron McMillan and Joseph Grenny, the authors who also wrote “Influencer:  The Power to Change Anything,” provide five reasons why leaders lack influence:

Every time you begin a change endeavor, it’s quite natural to ask “am I prepared and ready?”  Is my team/organization prepared and ready?  Are the stakeholders ready?

Today’s Reading is Preston Cline’s ”Leadership Lessons from Mt. Kilimanjaro“ which appeared in the November-December issue of the Wharton Leadership Digest <http://leadership.wharton.upenn.edu/digest/index.shtml> and is reproduced below by permission.

Todays reading, Jennifer Kahnweiler’s “Why Introverts Can Make The Best Leaders” comes from Forbes.com.  Kahnweiler is the author of “The Introverted Leader:  Building on Your Quiet Strength” and is president of AboutYOU, an Atlanta based leadership consultancy.

Welcome to 2010!  I trust that each of you had a wonderful time with family and friends.  Just before Christmas Roger Schwartz published “Giving and Receiving Gifts in Conversation” in his Fundamental Change newsletter.  I found the article so thought provoking that I have published it here as this week's reading  by permission.

Two Decembers ago, I wrote about giving and receiving gifts. Many readers found it helpful as they prepared for the holidays, so I have begun sharing the article each December:

One of my sons acquired a new Flip MinoHD digital camcorder just before Thanksgiving.  This gave all the family ample opportunity to appear in living color and HD.  And, as I watched myself later on the video, I realized that what others were seeing was not what I necessarily expected or, in many cases, wanted them to see.

For over two decades William Bridges has helped organizations and individuals deal more effectively with change.  Today’s Tuesday Reading is a short piece by Bridges – “Reorientation + Renewal = Revitalization” <http://tinyurl.com/yet24s4> (download) – which focuses on how to revitalize a team after it goes through a difficult time of change.

Bridges focuses on teams which fall into any one of three natural groupings-

1.  A team that is not able to let go the past.

Having heard a number of people talk about "leading-up, I decided to do a Google search on the words.   This led to far more references than I had time to explore.  However, I found one -- "Leading Up"  The Art of Managing Your Boss" a review of Michael Useem's 2001 book, "Leading Up:  How To Lead Your Boss So You Both Win" -- that is very helpful.

Today’s Tuesday Reading is the Conversation Starter by Larry Senn “Lead from the Top of the Mood Elevator” from Harvard Business Publishing.  Senn is the founder of Senn Delaney and an authority and practitioner in the field of culture shaping.

Nancy Lublin, CEO of Do Something, is the author of this week’s Tuesday Reading, “How to Write a Mission Statement That Isn’t Dumb”.  Her article appears in the December 1, 2009 issue of FastCompany.