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Leadership
and
Management
on Squidoo
Leadership Style
Every person is born with the power to
influence those around them. However,
just as each person has a unique
background and personality, everyone has
a different leadership style. This
personality quiz will tell you what your
leadership style is according to
something called the Leadership Compass.
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Pivotal Book
Review
Influencer:
The Power to Change Anything
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by Kerry Patterson,
Joseph Grenny, David
Maxfield, Ron McMillan,
Al Switzler
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From the
reviews
The power to influence others is probably the most important skill
in management and leadership.
Unfortunately, its development
is nowhere near as advanced as
it should be. In this
interesting, easy-to-read guide
to building one's ability to
influence others and to thereby
create constructive change, the
authors provide an essential
toolbox for all of us. Building
upon the work of Albert Bandura,
Stanley Milgram, and other
psychologists who specialized in
social learning theory, the
authors of Influencer: The
Power to Change Anything
went hunting for people, all
over the world, who were able to
accomplish major tasks by
influencing people to change
their behavior. The authors then
analyzed what these expert
influencers did, so as to give
the reader ideas on how to exert
influence in more effective
ways. The authors also included
several examples of major
efforts to bring about change
that failed dramatically, and
gave their view of what was
missing in those change
campaigns.
Learn how some of the world’s
most powerful influence masters
have risen to the top by
employing a relatively simple
set of practices and attitudes.
Eric Conger takes us easily from
Bangladesh to San Francisco and
South Africa, deftly placing us
in the presence of some of the
finest change agents of our
time. His charming and
authoritative voicing amplifies
the intrinsic power of this
work.
So, what did the authors find? Most persistent problems that seem
immune to change efforts, have
one, or both, of two factors in
common: the people involved do
not feel capable of making the
change; the people involved do
not feel that the proposed
change would be an improvement.
In other words, the factors are
ability and motivation. The
authors also looked at three
different levels, for each
problem: the individual, the
social group, the environment of
the situation. Thus, if you want
to influence people to make a
change, there are six basic loci
for change input: individual
ability (i.e., skill training),
individual motivation (e.g.,
incentives), group ability
(e.g., increase networking),
group motivation (e.g., modeling
and healthy competition),
environmental assets (e.g., make
the necessary components more
readily available), and
environmental feedback (e.g.,
improve the consequence system
for success and for failure).
In order to explain how these
six different modes of, or
targets for influence, can be
affected, the authors use a
handful of examples to
illustrate what they mean. They
keep returning to these
examples, and the reader gets to
know them well. The two best
ones are probably the Delancey
Center in California, where
oft-convicted drug-abusing
felons are helped to step out of
that way of living and, with a
high success rate (according to
this book) become employed,
law-abiding, drug-free citizens;
and the Carter Center's efforts
to eradicate a horrible
parasitic infection that was
once widespread in Africa and
Asia, called the guinea worm. By
repeatedly returning to these
examples, the reader not only
understood the complexity of the
approach needed, but also how it
was done, without tremendous
cost, using all six of the
influence factors.
The book is written in a
friendly, almost familiar,
conversational tone. While that
might not fit every non-fiction
book, it worked well here, as
another example of how to
present information in a
listener-friendly manner. It was
also quite clear that the
authors believe in what they
say, passionately.
“Far and away one of the best
business books of the year.”
This book is available from
Amazon
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FREE RESOURCES
in an ezine
Leading
in Times of Transition
12 Leader Competencies: What It Takes In Times
of Transition
For many leaders, managing the business and
addressing the needs of workers are at odds.
They ask, "How can I make the tough decisions if
I have to focus on the emotions and concerns of
my employees?" The answer isn't about choosing
either the people or the business, according to
CCL's Kerry Bunker. Instead, the answer lies in
being authentic and building trust.
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