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7 must-reads for best leadership practices

A journalist’s job is to read first and write second. I review about 200 web articles a month in preparation for writing blogs for you, to stay abreast of the best tips, trends, and emerging business practices. Here are links to the seven articles I bookmarked as “best” this past month under the category of “leadership”. See if these tips and practices could help you become the best professional version of yourself!

Take control of your own [human] story. Braveshift.com offers four concrete tips to help CEOs reclaim and retell personal success stories, with suggestions for how to then carry that story out into the public. This is a good read for any professional, regardless of title.

Career conversations: How managers can show they actually care. Radical Candor goes beyond the buzzword approach to get to the heart of what really matters in this article that explains how to maximize career conversations. From listening to life stories, to eliciting dreams, to planning for the present, this article offers a common-sense approach to fully engaging your direct reports.

Why and how to do a mid-year business review. Wharton Magazine published an informative article last month on the test and purpose of a good mid-year business review. John McAdam provides a chart to help you decide whether you want a goal review, sales & money review, or comprehensive review, with the who/what/where/when/and why questions answered.

Pick the brain of a brigadier general. Retired Army brigadier general Bernard Banks is now a clinical professor of management and associate dean for leadership development at the Kellogg School.  In this interview with KelloggInsight, he shares his views about military leadership and the parallels he sees with quality business leadership. Specifically, he shares four strategies for cultivating internal leadership.

Remember what not to do in business communications. SwitchandShift.com provides 11 “don’t” tips, many reminding how to divorce our emotional responses during difficult business encounters. John Stoker (DialogueWorks) suggests how to elicit collaboration, contribution and cooperation versus pushback. Most comments are obvious, but others may give you pause to reflect on your own style.

CMOs – insights to why (and whose fault it is) that they have the highest C-Suite turnover rate. A survey by the Fournaise Marketing Group revealed that 80% of CEOs don’t trust, or are unimpressed with, their chief marketing officers. This Harvard Business Review article really takes an in-depth look at the reasons for the disconnect and how to address it. Regardless of your own position or title, the four-step approach to better aligning expectations, authority and outcomes is a good read.

Talking trash motivates… your competition. Want a diversion from all this heavy reading? Wharton’s Jeremy Yip and Maurice Schweitzer discuss the findings of their research on the effect of trash talking, and how it may work to motivate better performance … from your competitors. Latch onto this leadership or marketing style at your own peril. Thought provoking article!

What’s your favorite business read of the month? Tell us in the comment section.

 

About Jody Glynn Patrick

Jody is President of Glynn Patrick & Associates, which provides management consulting, executive coaching and strategic planning services. She is Publisher Emeritus of In Business magazine, which she published for 17 years. Selected as the “U.S. Business Journalist of the Year” in 2007 in Washington, DC, by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Jody has been a business reporter, editor, radio talk show host , and has won other state and national journalism awards. At the same time, she has helped corporate clients grow their businesses -- the basis for her practical coaching advice here. She also was the 2005 Athena Award recipient for her leadership role in mentoring other professional women. Jody will be talking with you weekly on TDS’ blog to share her insights and tips from the C-Suite perspective. Follow on G+.

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