SkillInside

Leaders of world-changing movements, from social leaders such as  Martin Luther  King Jr. to business leaders such as Steve Jobs, persuade people to follow them into the unknown, the Unpredictable, the untested. Because change is both scary and difficult, they also help those followers Push through their fears and overcome big obstacles. I wanted to see if there was a method to that Magic, since it’s so critical for organizations to keep innovating and reinventing if they want to Survive over the long term. (Many companies, , have learned this the hard way as Core products and Services have matured beyond their sell-by date.) So my colleague  Patti Sanchez  and I studied the Most successful movements in business and society to look for common Patterns . Here’s what we found: The process mirrors the classic three-act structure of a story, with a beginning, A middle, and an end — and a lot of turmoil and triumph sprinkled in. All the great leaders we Stud...

We remember our teachers fondly. Your career choice probably got shaped by the teacher who you adored. Many of us did not pursue career options that involved the subject taught by a teacher who we did not like. In the workspace we call the teacher by different names – coach, mentor, role-model etc. But they are all essentially teacher-leaders in some way. If you look at the top fifty professionals of any function or even the CEOs of the top fifty companies you will see that they have all worked at the same organizations at some stage of their careers. They may have all worked for some of these exceptional teacher-leaders who have shaped not only their early years, but have continued to remain an influence in their lives long after they have changed jobs or even the organizations that brought them together in the first place. Teacher-leaders thrive in some ..organizational cultures. Why teacher-leaders matter now We all know that people join organizations and leave managers. Th...

Organizations today are in constant flux. Industries are consolidating, new business models are emerging, new technologies are being developed, and consumer behaviors are evolving. For executives, the ever-increasing pace of change can be especially demanding. It forces them to understand and quickly respond to big shifts in the way companies operate and how work must get done. In the words of Arie de Geus, a business theorist, “The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.” I’m not talking about relaxed armchair or even structured classroom learning. I’m talking about resisting the bias against doing new things, scanning the horizon for growth opportunities, and pushing yourself to acquire radically different capabilities—while still performing your job. That requires a willingness to experiment and become a novice again and again: an extremely discomforting notion for most of us. Over decades of coaching and consulting t...