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Leadership Q&A:The Experience That Matters

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The line between what is typical, standard and expected and what isn’t is not thin but as wide as ocean.

The difference is the experience.

What, then, constitutes a genuine, authentic, transformational experience?

How do leaders create these experiences?

These are questions that I’ve been tracking on for almost a year as I’ve worked with a group of local leaders to create a leadership workshop for our community.

It is simple enough do a workshop. I get invites all the time to these things.

Recruit some presenters, secure a site, set a date and market it. People show up. The presenters do their seminars and when done we all go back to the office with a pad full of notes.

Then, when asked about the event, participants talk about the ideas on their notepads, not the experience shared. Within days, maybe hours, the urgency of doing something with those ideas is gone. And they begin to look for the next workshop to get their idea fix. Continued…

Posted in General Leadership, Leadership Q + A.

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Imagine Leadership video by XPLANE and HBS’ Nitin Nohria

XPLANE bills itself as “the visual thinking company.”  Here’s a video they collaborated on with Nitin Nohria, Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration, and Co-Chair of the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School.

Launched back in mid 2009 and here’s the story behind the video.  This video reminds me of Professor Michael Wesch’s Web2.0 The Machine is US/ing US which was really the standard setter in this genre of video.  If you haven’t watched it or A Vision of Students Today, you should! We’ll make it easy for you: Continued…

Posted in General Leadership, Video.

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Leadership via The Sunday New York Times (February 28, 2010)

Here are a few articles that we found interesting from a leadership perspective in the Sunday New York Times:

Paterson’s Ability to Lead Is Questioned

With New York grappling with enormous problems, some key Democrats were debating whether such a damaged and distracted leader could run the state. (Front page)

Unlikely Activist Who Got to the Tea Party Early

Keli Carender, 30, is credited with holding the first protest that bloomed into the Tea Party movement. (Front page)

The Accidental Lieutenant

Richard Ravitch has been New York’s Mr. Fix-It for as long as anyone can remember. As lieutenant governor under a stumbling governor, he may be in the role again. (NY Region)

Where Scott Brown Is Coming From

Getting to know a very, very new Republican senator by Frank Bruni. (Magazine)

Race in the South in the Age of Obama

James Fields is an African-American Democratic state legislator in a nearly all-white Alabama county that voted overwhelmingly against Barack Obama. Is he an anomaly or the future? (Magazine)

Talk to Me. I’ll Turn Off My Phone.

Tachi Yamada, president of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says “every moment counts, and that moment is lost if you’re not in that moment 100 percent.” (Business – Corner Office)

A Family’s Vision

Ricardo Poma credits his relatives and his family history with inspiring him professionally. (Business – The Boss)

The Koons Collection

Jeff Koons is working at a role he has never assumed in his three-decade career: curator of other people’s art. (Arts)

Posted in General Leadership.

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Twitter #Leadership #FollowFriday Project (@zappos @BarackObama @aplusk)

Week 5 of the Weekly Leader Twitter Leadership Follow Friday Project has some heavy Twitter hitters.

Tony Hsieh (@zappos) of Zappos has really set the bar pretty high for other corporate CEO’s on Twitter and he’s been doing it for a long time. He originally joined in June of 2007 and his honest, open approach to using social media has gained him nearly 1,700,000 followers.  Hsieh has updated his Twitter account a little over 2,000 times and follows nearly 400,000; so while he might follow you back, don’t expect to have him pay too much attention to where you’re going to dinner tonight. If you want to learn from a corporate leader who knows how to use social media, follow @zappos.

President Barack Obama (@BarackObama verified) Okay we know that he doesn’t actually type out his own updates and he most likely doesn’t even know his own password to log in. But he is the President and he derserves our respect and attention so follow @BarackObama for God and country. President (then Senator) Obama joined on March 5, 2007 (the first person in this project who pre-dates me), has nearly 3,500,000 followers, follows 737,321 and has 584 updates.

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk – verified) is probably best known to boomers and X’ers as Mr. Demi Moore and to Y’s as the Punk’d dude. Last year Kutcher challenged CNN to a contest to see who could hit 1,000,000 followers first. Guess who won. Katie Hood (@kahood) contributed a great post to Weekly Leader on this cultural phenomenon and I’ll leave it to her to tell you why Kutcher’s a leader worth following. (Leadership Lessons via Ashton Kutcher on Twitter?) Kutcher joined Twitter on January 16, 2009 and has 4,500,000 followers! I’d say that’s some kind of leadership. Follow @plusk because Katie says so!

Do you have any favorite Leadership Tweeter? Leave us a comment and if you’d like to guest host the column some Friday, let me know.

Posted in FollowFriday, General Leadership.

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Weekly Leader Podcast Episode 40 – Getting Things Done Leadership

Earlier today I learned that my friend Carl passed away suddenly last evening. Carl was not a “leader” in the way we too often visualize the term in people like President Barack Obama or GE CEO Jeff Immelt or the Dali Lama to name a few. But Carl always “exercised leadership” at work and in the community and he will be sorely missed by all.

In his honor, I decided to replay part one of Kansas Leadership Center CEO Ed O’Malley’s interview. Ed talks alot about “exercising leadership” and the importance of making things happen and getting things done. Carl was a guy who always got things done.

Ed O’Malley’s original interview can be listened to on episodes 22 (Part 1) and 23 (Part 2).

Music

Posted in Podcast.

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