Leader's Digest April 2008
From PLN
Leader's Digest April 2008
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by Leslie Dillon, published May 1, 2008
April 7, 2008
Harvard Business Review
The April 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review is interesting both for its content and its presentation. The first article I've summarized can be used as a multimedia toolkit. This is the second month in a row with an article like this in HBR, and, again this month, it looks as if the articles are free on the HBR website. Is this a forecast of things to come?
Be a better leader, have a richer life
Based on a program called Total Leadership, the article describes how to “integrate work, home, community, and self” so that you can become “a more productive leader and a more fulfilled person.” Friedman believes that it actually makes more sense to pursue excellence as a leader in all four domains—work, home, community and self —rather than to trade off one for another. You can find mutual value among them. He calls this achieving “four-way wins.”
You begin ”by taking a clear view of what you want from and can contribute to each domain of your life.” Next, you systematically design and implement “carefully crafted experiments.” You don’t need the workshop if you follow the process outlined in the article.
- Getting started:
- Think, write, and talk “with peer coaches to identify your values, your leadership vision, and the current alignment of your actions and values—clarifying what’s important.”
- Identify “key stakeholders.”
- Design “experiments and then try them out…”
- Next steps:
- Design the experiments to produce a change that will fulfill multiple goals benefitting each domain of your life (four-way wins.)
- Think of as many possible experiments as you can.
- Then choose a few that will give you the best return on your investment, help you practice desired leadership skills, be fun, and move you forward.
- Set up your own scorecard. Develop metrics that will work for you.
- Keep the experiments small/manageable to minimize risk.
Don’t try this at home (or at work) without reading the full article and checking the worksheets! You'll find worksheets and blank versions for downloading here. For more a more comprehensive set of online tools, videos, and blogs, (and some testimonials on the workshop) go to www.totalleadership.org.
(Stewart D. Friedman, "Be a better leader, have a richer life," Harvard Business Review, April 2008.)
So you think you're a good listener
Research by the authors of this article shows that, not only do “managers have skewed perceptions about their openness…” but also the “gap between managers’ self-evaluations and colleagues’ assessments is widest” when managers gauge their receptiveness to hearing about difficult issues.
That’s because bosses overestimate their openness and underestimate how much “the power difference discourages subordinates from speaking their minds. Put simply, managers often unwittingly signal that they don’t want to hear bad news…and subordinates tend to censor themselves.”
Managers’ misperceptions create barriers with both their peers and their subordinates. These barriers “inhibit the flow” of “useful bad news” and also of “positive ideas for improvement…”
What should managers do?
- Assume you’re “less open to unwelcome messages than [you] think—and recognize that [you] may be sending subtle signals that discourage frank input.”
- Use 360 degree surveys “to uncover general impediments to communication. … The data that those tools generate are specific to individuals, making it hard for managers to deny that the findings apply to them.”
(Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan, So you think you’re a good listener," Harvard Business Review, April 2008.)
Do you really want to be a leader?
Frequently, executives’ "ambivalence about their jobs leaks into…conversation.” Paul Hemp, a member of the editorial team at Harvard Business Review, believes that’s “partly because a lot of people…simply aren’t cut out to be a leader or manager. They lack the requisite analytic or people skills; dither when making decisions; don’t have the stomach to fire people; or would simply prefer to spend their energies on creative rather than managerial tasks.”
Some companies are helping non-managers decide if management is right for them. That’s good, but organizations also need to think about how to deal with the ambivalence among existing leaders, even those who are successful. They may not be comfortable promoting organizational goals that conflict with their values, or they may suffer from burnout.
Creating temporary leadership roles can help people avoid burnout. Methods for sharing leadership, e.g., encouraging “collaborative responsibility for decisions” can make leadership more appealing.
(Paul Hemp, "Do you really want to be a leader?," HBR Editors’ Blog, Harvard Business blogs, Mar. 27, 2008. This post generated a number of very interesting comments, by the way, so you might want to read more.)
- Editor's note: Are leaders always managers? Some of us would argue otherwise, that you can be a leader without having "the stomach to fire people." We might even argue that most thought leadership comes from creative people. Oddly, the first sentence in the post itself is "Do you really want to be a manager?"--and that may be a different question. See Directors, leaders and work-life balance for more discussion.
Outsell issues forecast report on libraries
Libraries are successfully changing their models to stay abreast of the new information world paradigm”, according to Outsell, Inc., “which forecasts a 3.1% compound annual growth rate for content spending from 2007–2010, from $22.5 billion to $24.7 billion.”
The report includes data from “government, public, academic, school, corporate, and other special libraries.” Trends and findings include the following:
- While overall library investments are increasing, the proportion devoted to almost all content segments is shrinking, with the exception of “education/training allocations, which have increased from 4% in 2004 to 11% in 2007.”
- “Libraries of all types are creating original content…” Self-publishing and syndication enable increased “user-generated and institutionally generated content that, in many cases, displaces commercially published content.”
- “Most content spending (21%) is going toward scientific and technical content … followed by educational information (11%), news (11%), and legal/tax/regulatory (10%).”
Outsell is a research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries. The report is available here for $895.00. (Note from Leslie: The audience for this report is really publishers and information providers that sell to libraries.)
("Outsell issues forecast report on libraries," Information Today Weekly News Digest, Apr. 3, 2008.)
Young bosses and older direct reports
Have you ever worked for someone much younger than you, or have you supervised someone who’s much older? Then this article’s for you!
The author, Tammy Erikson, describes the importance of having “approbation” for colleagues—approbation being “an expression of warm approval.” Approbation is essential to building a strong relationship “between people of significantly different ages…” And these relationships will become increasingly prevalent as our graying workforce increases.
How can older people work effectively with younger bosses??
- Figure out how the younger boss likes to communicate and do your best to adapt. Younger employees typically interact often, so don’t interpret frequent messages from the younger boss as a lack of trust. A younger boss may use ”less face-to-face communication than an older boss would have. Again,…it’s a generational difference.”
- Go out of your way to signal that you recognize and respect what the younger person brings to the party. Research shows that “lack of respect and a patronizing attitude are the two most annoying and destructive (and unfortunately common) behaviors when older workers interact with younger bosses… Be open to learning new tricks and, most importantly, bring a spirit of approbation--warm approval--to the dialogue.”
How can younger managers work effectively with older staff?
- Ask lots of questions. Avoid “coming in with preconceived notions.” Listen carefully to those in your new group.
- Signal that you recognize and respect the way it’s always been done. Don’t imply “that the old way has no value.” The old ways may need to change—but it’s worth understanding why things were done this way. “Approach any change from the perspective that you will be adding to the strengths of the past…”
- Demonstrate your skills. Don’t try to convince your older staff ”that you have the necessary skills and experience--demonstrate that you do.” And develop relationships with older staff “through a spirit of mutual approbation…respect and shared learning.”
(Tammy Erickson, "On young bosses and older direct reports," Across the Ages, Harvard Business blogs, Mar. 26, 2008.)
The future of libraries?
As part of a recent feature on the future of the (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, an interview of distinguished journalism professor Philip Meyer captured my attention. In my second reading of the article, I substituted the word “library” for the word “newspaper” and found that a lot of what he said applies to libraries as well as newspapers. Here are several excerpts from the interview; I’ve substituted the word “library” for you. See what you think—does this fit?
- Libraries “need to move aggressively online, attract younger readers and create niche products to serve segments of the market.” There isn’t any way to do business as you’ve always done it.
- Move ”as much content as you can…to the Internet.”
- Libraries ”need to find jobs that consumers need done and then they need to to invent a product that will get that job done.” For example, picture two photographs: one of someone sitting on a subway snoozing, with nothing to do; the other of the same person reading a free newspaper [or book/magazine?] he picked up at a subway stop. ”[F]illing that time usefully is a job that he needed to have done.”
- “There will always be somebody to supply the reader the information that he or she needs.”
- We “can’t have democracy without” libraries. They create a sense of community; if sense of community fails, democracy fails.
(Mark Schultz, "Expert voice, What is the future of the N&O, The News & Observer, Mar. 30, 2008.)
April 22, 2008
Buying and selling eContent
I thought you might be interested in a few excerpts from John Blossom's report on the recent Buying and Selling eContent conference:
- Elsevier Vice-Chair Y. S. Chi emphasized that the content industry must move toward providing experiences and not just content. Elsevier is using a wiki platform to enable medical practitioners to develop a medical knowledge base--an important step forward for Elsevier to compete with other scientific publishers experimenting with social media.
- The Special Libraries Association panel gave an utterly stale list of complaints about content vendors. SLA members have been disconnected from much of the "experience"-oriented content generation in their organizations. If they allow themselves to focus too much on licensing agreements, their careers will be tied to their vendors (whose main revenues come through licensing content) and their organizations tied to ever-weakening vendor business models.
- The stalemated vendor "dance" on licensing is dragging down both vendors and their clients as they try to justify pricing schemes that don't bear on the ROI required to justify content acquisition costs.
- It's time to come up with new, more automated content licensing that will meet the increasingly "just-in-time"demands of institutional content buyers. In the meantime, SLA needs to become more visionary and to start participating in the development of standards for automated licensing already under way.
- Stephen E. Arnold pointed out that the enterprise search engine market is booming but failing to pull together all the content resources needed to create the most valuable and comprehensive content collections. With a growing audience for content via mobile devices and a widening array of publishing services from technology providers, it's not clear what the solution for content providers is. Publishers simply haven't reacted to what's available out there.
- The same theme appeared repeatedly at the conference: the increasing polarization of publishing caused by the rise of social media. Some publishers such as Berkshire Publishing Group are trying to balance traditional forms of publishing while exploring innovative social media outlets. But many publishers are challenged by the need to both balance traditional revenue streams and invest in social media technologies, which push their business model ever further from their core expertise.
- The rise of social media content uncurated by information professionals is also seen as a challenge. The rapid rise of WikiAnswers, the online Q&A community from Answers.com, is an example of how social media can create "social knowledge"--increasingly competitive aggregations of expertise that will likely eclipse traditional sources.
- Social media challenge publishers and institutions to come up with new skills and new inventories; most publishers have nothing that can be repackaged into social media. The rise of a new parallel content industry in a now-familiar medium has caught publishers yet again by surprise.
(John Blossom, "Buying and Selling eContent 2008: Soaring highs, crashing lows," ContentBlogger, Apr. 16, 2008.)
Search smarter; find a person
Among the nine business trends featured in the April 2008 issue of Wired magazine is "The human touch: Algorithms are terrific, but to search smarter, find a person." Suffering from a bad case of information overload, Jeremy Brosowsky created Brijit, which uses people to produce 125 daily summaries and ratings of online and offline content--articles, audio and video programs . "Brijit is your well-read friend," says Brosowsky. He's not alone in turning to human sources; there's also Mahalo, ChaCha (from Amazon) and Squidoo. And don't forget Google's knol. "These ventures have a common goal: to enhance the Web with the kind of critical thinking that's alien to software but that comes naturally to humans."
OCLC's George Needham asks (in a recent post on It's all good) where libraries are in all this. "Is there a way we can begin to capitalize on the fact that the web magnifies the importance of personalization? Why do we keep the vast majority of our services on such an impersonal level? The old verities simply don't hold water any more."
(Brendan I. Koerner, "Algorithms are terrific, but to search smarter, find a person," Wired, April 2008 via It's all good, Apr. 10, 2008.)
Do you want to make more effective presentations?
If you're looking for ways to improve your presentations and make panel discussions you participate in more effective, here are a couple of items I ran across that you might be interested in.
Changing the traditional triad
John Windsor, an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management, urges us to be wary of the standard advice about presentations--tell them what you're going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you've told them.
While this approach "is not without value," the potential for poor results is "huge": you risk not engaging your audience, not involving them and talking down to them.
What to do instead:
- Address their interests at the start. "Make it clear from your first slide...that this is about their needs, interests and goals."
- Paint a picture of how things can be. Give them as rich an image as you can early on.
- Give them a compelling reason to respond. "Every presentation should have a specific objective..."
(John Windsor, "Presenting smart: What's the worst presentation advice?" Sales & Marketing Management's Manage Smarter, April 1, 2008.)
- Editor's note: "From your first slide"? Speaking of tired now-traditional presentation habits, must every presentation use "slides" (more probably PowerPoint pages)?
Pecha Kucha
Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha), Japanese for the sound of conversation, is a patented system for a series of fast-paced presentations. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each--giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise and the interest level up.
It was used in a panel discussion at the recent Computers in Libraries conference, and an ARL library is sponsoring a Pecha Kucha series to feature the work of outstanding students.
(Eric Schnell, The medium is the message, Apr. 9, 2008.)
Internet blamed for drop in book circulation
- In this technologically savvy society, students seem to be relying more on electronic resources and less on books when it comes to research.
- According to circulation statistics, from July 2006 to June 2007, University of Rhode Island students and faculty members checked out 53,227 books. Twenty years ago, students alone checked out more than twice that amount. In fact, students were checking out more and more books each decade until the mid-1990s when the use of the Internet became more widespread.
(UWire via ResourceShelf, Apr 14, 2008.)
What today's leaders can learn from tomorrow's
"Being a leader" isn't a priority among children, according to a recent study of boys and girls ages 8-17. In fact, leadership ranks behind “fitting in,” “making a lot of money” and “helping animals or the environment.” John Baldoni believes that this shouldn't be a cause for alarm though. "Kids are reacting against the label of leader but not the concept of leadership." The next generation demonstrates leadership, and we can learn some lessons from them:
- Be transparent. "Kids are an open book."
- Do the right thing. "Kids know right from wrong."
- Stick up for your peers. "The worst thing a kid can do is squeal on a peer..."
Of course, like adults, kids don't always live up to these virtues.
But there was "encouraging news" in the study: 80% of the children surveyed believed that men or women could lead equally well.
(John Baldoni, "What today's leaders can learn from tomorrow's," Conversation Starter, Harvard Business blogs, Apr. 1, 2008.)
