Reading Source: HarvardBusiness.org

Summary:
John Baldoni’s article is centered around his thoughts on a David Brooks column he read.  His basic thoughts are that leaders who want to inspire their workers can effectively use humility to show our humanity and empower a successful team.

Thoughts:

• I have continually stated that leadership and management are two separate things and that most people in leadership positions tend to merely manage.  I think this article does a good job of summarizing one of the biggest differences I find between leadership and management. Leaders understand the strengths of their team and help each member perform to their utmost ability whereas managers most often dictate tasks and ignore individual differences and strengths.

• Too often “leaders” are not humble, think they know better, and stifle growth of their subordinates. One statement from the article makes this point abundantly clear: “Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman note in their seminal text, First, Break All the Rules, that a characteristic of successful managers is their ability to promote others, sometimes to positions higher than their own.” Without humility you cannot recognize that someone is better than yourself at something. Leaders need to realize the end goal is not to control everything, rather organize resources to achieve goals.
• In an information age with rapid change talented team members are more important than ever. During my time running the operations of a company I quickly realized I did not have time to overview every thing that happened. Not only did I not have time, but I was not the most knowledgable on many of the situations.  It took my understanding that I had a knowledge gap on certain topics (my becoming humble) and empowering my team to make decisions in areas of their core competency that allowed for effective decision making and growth.  One of the biggest changes in business is the speed with which change happens.  It is more important now than ever before that leaders allow their talent to thrive.
• Being humble is fun. Power is stressing. As much as I initially hated losing control of certain things I ultimately realized:
  • I couldn’t effectively control everything anyway
  • I hadn’t really lost control.  If someone made decisions detrimental to the success of the company I could always replace them.

The results were something great.  Employees felt more respect, more pride in their work, and productivity went up.  Lines of communication open up when people feel respected in their areas of expertise.  As personal humility, respect, and communication increased so did pride in the company and the goals we were trying to achieve.

Not sure about you, but I would much rather give up some personal pride and replace it with pride in accomplishments of a team.  When you become a humble leader, one who leads with respect and actions, I believe success will come more often and you’ll have a great team to enjoy it with.

Hrm…

This article makes sense in theory, but I have two questions/prodding thoughts:

• Are you telling me I actually need to lift weights to get good at working at a desk?
• The day off thing is hard to achieve.  As a contractor and business owner it is very difficult to find time to take a break.  I think most business people would agree.  That day of rest thing doesn’t exist in our society or culture.  In fact I just read an article from Harvard Business talking about how “practice days” were non-existent for entrepreneurs.

So is it hustle hustle, or lift and relax?

I am not sure at all that Microsoft will get a win in Windows 7 because of this ad, but it is pretty good.  The ad and Windows 7 that is.

“You can have the world’s greatest features (e.g., the Zune, the Palm Pre), but you will see the SUCK-SUCK unless you make your prospects/customers feel good/happy/awesome/[insert-any-positive-emotion-here].”

I agree 100%, but also know something that many marketers/brand experts fail to remember.  If the product has “suck-suck” you can only cover it with great marketing for so long.

And the phone search continues.  Here are the front runners.  Give me your thoughts:

• Nokia N900 (specs)
  • Maemo OS:  A nice linux OS gets polished.  I loved my N800, but was missing the phone. Pretty much a mobile computer.  I even used an Apple bluetooth keyboard for some heavy text editing. Could it replace a laptop? GOOD
  • T-Mobile: I have had great reception and service with T-Mobile and this would take advantage of 3G (not here yet though). GOOD
  • No UMA:  My Blackberry has UMA allowing free calling on WiFi, this wouldn’t. BAD
• Motorola CLIQ (specs)
  • Android:  I haven’t used Android for an extended period of time, but it looks very very nice.  GOOD
  • T-Mobile, but no UMA: Same service, but no UMA. DRAW
• Apple iPhone
  • Gaming:  I am increasingly loving playing games on my iPod touch.  They are getting better and better.  The catalog is expanding, the quality going up, and the price staying low. GOOD
  • Syncing:  I love the way my iPod syncs, but if I have data service will this matter? DRAW
  • ATT: Don’t really like.  Enough said.  BAD
• Blackberry 9700
  • Current system:  I like my Blackberry now. I don’t have data, just email and so it has great function, but no flair.  Not sure how heavier apps will work, but overall I like it. GOOD
  • App Catalog:  Not as large as the iPhone and I am not sure that it will take off.  I don’t know how to develop for the Blackberry, but from some reading it seems like a more difficult process than developing for the iPhone, Android, or a Linux Platform. BAD
  • T-Mobile and UMA:  Good service and my free(with Hotspots at home) calls. GOOD.
• Palm Pixi
  • WebOS:  Again, not an expert here, but it seems promising. GOOD
  • Processing Power:  From the Engadget read, this seems like a real nice device. GOOD
  • Sprint: I haven’t liked my service with Sprint before, but the Everything Data Family Plan is cheap. I mean cheap. Real cheap.  Looks like $20/month or more saved. They have 3G here too.  Tenative and hesitant GOOD

Time for thoughts.  Since only the iPhone has been released and I have time on my contract still I will wait and see, but I really would love to hear what your thoughts are of any of the operating systems or carriers.  I will be using it for business and pleasure, even gaming would be cool if any of the platforms ever develop in that way.

• No, I didn’t watch the VMA’s
• Yes, I feel a little sorry for Taylor
• Yes, Kanye is an ass… or is he?

I like this short write up on the effects of Kanye’s newest outburst.  If Ms. Swift can get over the onstage humiliation and look at dollars she has a reason to be happy.  Of course if I were Taylor Swift I wouldn’t care about more money, I would just want to dent Kanye’s skull with my new award.  Either way… interesting read.

“P&G invests heavily in innovation, outspends the competition in R&D, and targets emerging markets with growth potential. But to execute, P&G is redoubling emphasis on its culture and values.”

Debating climate change?