Do Men and Women See Leadership Differently? Generalization is risky. But we humans cannot resist searching for patterns. And there are interesting patterns around women and leadership and gender and leadership. Gender Some of you have already noticed that I said “men and women” in one paragraph and gender in the next. Gendered perspectives and […]
The Dream As a child, I dreamed of owning a horse. But those dreams went dormant with the realities of life: making a living, raising children, feeling trapped in a city. I set the dream aside. But I also lived frugally and craved a life where I could hear frog and bird songs, and see […]
On Being Authentic We often hear that leaders should be authentic. One key element of authenticity is voice. When we know ourselves, our strengths and our values, we become stronger. When we learn to translate that self into our writing and speaking, our voices become stronger. This is true in our professional and personal lives. […]
Should leadership for pro football, preschool, and open source software development look the same? Of course not. And leadership for knowledge-intensive work shouldn’t look like leadership for assembly lines. The Ark Group has just-published a new report: Successful Knowledge Leadership: Principles and Practice in which I authored the chapter: Knowledge Leadership on the Edge. The executive […]
On April 12, I (@4KM) was guest facilitator for an online twitter chat about boundaries. Specifically, we looked at whether the topic of boundaries is underplayed in leadership development and what that might mean for organizations, communities and the world. If you care about the nature and implications of boundaries. The chat was hosted by […]
Are you a systems thinker? Do you regularly encounter pressure to fragment? Do you get questions like “But what is your area of specialization?” Or comments like “But that project was never intended to include THAT.” I do. So–even though I rarely write blog posts–I started a new blog: www.IslandHealth.Info It’s explicitly about things like […]
In organizations, we strive for specificity and certainty. Set a goal, carve into objectives, document metrics, and watch for progress. We know what we find, but what do we miss? Since moving to the country, I have adopted a different approach in my personal life (or perhaps I’m simply more aware of it now). For […]
Yesterday I tweeted that authors of a blog post about knowledge management had managed to push my buttons. I assume that in writing their piece http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/social_media_versus_knowledge.html they researched through a number of sources. Perhaps they read the “knowledge management” literature driven by software vendors that many of us dismissed in the 90s. If the relationships […]
I’ve been exchanging tweets with Matthew Loxton about whether communities of practice (CoP) and projects are a good fit. He’s sceptical; I suggested it can work, depending on context and on definitions of a project. I haven’t written specifically about this before, so thought it was worth sharing preliminary thoughts in a blog post. First, […]
For over 12 years, I’ve been involved with problem-based learning processes in which mid-career professionals present their ideas to executive panels. The settings and my roles have varied, but there are common threads: intense learning environments; current, complex or wicked challenges (problems); and client panel members who drop into the situation without the lived experience […]
I help people in organizations and communities gain new insights, adapt to changing environments, lead and learn.
