A series of experiments at Harvard Business School by Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon, and Dan Ariely, found that people value products more when they have put work into assembling them. In one experiment, participants each assembled an item of IKEA…
Ethical Fading: Why Good People Do Bad Things
‘Ethical Fading’ happens in decision-making when we focus so much on other aspects of the decision that we forget about the ethical implications, as if they were fading from our view. Ethical fading has been applied to explain the actions…
Make Sure Your ‘Emotional Bank Account’ Is Not Overdrawn
In The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey suggests that you have an “emotional bank account” with your team members. Any time you listen to them, offer them support, acknowledge them or ask for their ideas, you make…
Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important For Good Leadership
A useful reminder in this short interview with Daniel Goleman of why Emotional Intelligence is vital for good leadership. Also, why the most important strengths of emotional intelligence may not be the most visible ones, and why Self-Awareness is the most…
Why You Need To Put More Effort Into Empathy As A Leader
Or, How Power Turns You Into A Jerk – And How To Guard Against It The higher up the management ladder you get, the less you care about or even notice how other people feel. Most of us don’t have to…
Leadership And Expressing Emotion
Authenticity In Leaders Is Not Enough For Their Followers Some thoughts inspired by the discussion about ‘Are Leaders Getting Too Emotional?’ between Gautam Mukunda of Harvard Business School and Gianpiero Petriglieri of INSEAD on the always excellent HBR IdeaCast. There is a…
14 Leadership And Innovation Lessons From David Bowie
Some initial thoughts on leadership and innovation prompted by David Bowie’s life and work, and reading various obituaries and think-pieces about him: 1. What you are is as important as what you do, and more important than what you say.…
Are Your ‘Autopilot’ Reactions Reducing Your Effectiveness?
A great post by Lee Newman on the Harvard Business Review blog turns the spotlight on our default reactions in challenging interpersonal situations. For example, how would you respond if someone attacks your cherished pet project at work? Some people’s default reaction…
Peter Drucker On Strengths and Leadership
“The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.” – Peter Drucker, quoted by David Cooperrider in the foreword to The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive…
How To Heal ‘Us And Them’ Rivalries
Ideas for eliminating ‘us and them’ thinking and damaging rivalries between teams and divisions within the same organisation. (Note: this article does not deal with worker/management mistrust, as the power relations involved add a whole other dimension, although some of…