Characteristics of the Creative Leader (versus Authoritative Leader)

I made this chart for my presentation at Davos World Economic Forum on "Creative Leadership" in January 2009. Since it has been requested ... here it is. I hope it's useful. -JM

Authorative Leader		Creative Leader
Symbol of Authority More Sticks Hierarchical Linear Path Plan and Execute: Launching with 1.0 Sustaining Order Yes or No (clear) Literal in Tone Concerned with Being Right Think like a General or Conductor Delegates Actions Closed System One-Way Close the Ranks Follows the Manual Loves to Avoid Mistakes Reliability Orchestra Model Community in Harmony Wants to be Right Open to Limited Feedback Your Opinion Matters		Symbol of Inspiration More Carrots Networked Nonlinear Path Iterate and Do: Living in Beta Taking Risks Maybe (comfort with ambiguity) Metaphorical in Tone Concerned with Being Real Think like an Artist or Designer Hands-On Driven Open System Interactive Permeable Improvises when Appropriate Loves to Learn from Mistakes Validity Jazz Ensemble Community in Conversation Hopes to be Right Open to Unlimited Critique What are You Really Thinking?

PS Here it is in the original visual form.

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Source: Creative Leadership

Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking, Nick Morgan

Why is most public speaking so awful? You know what I’m talking about because you’ve been there, sitting in a meeting room with 50 other hapless colleagues—or 375 other disheartened conference-goers—and listened with increasing desperation as the speaker droned on, reading from Power Point slides so detailed that you couldn’t make out the words, talking about a subject so filled with jargon and clichés that the topic got less and less clear as time went on... and on... and on. It’s a near-death experience. Why is most public speaking so awful? Why do we subject our fellow human beings to this form of torture when there are so many better things we could all be doing, like cutting our toenails, baking snickerdoodles, or watching re-runs of The Prisoner?

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Has your company’s bottom line taken a serious hit because of today’s lousy economic climate? Has your company tried to fix the situation by undergoing a round or two of layoffs, only to see your productivity plummet because of reduced morale and your better performing employees jumping ship to other companies or surfing the internet for job postings on your time? If so, would you like to turn your situation around instantly—as in overnight? If you think something like this is impossible, think again. The secret for turning things around is to tap into the discretionary effort of your employees—get them excited about coming to work and applying every bit of energy, creativity and passion they have toward performing their jobs instead of doing only what they have to do to in order to stay employed. How important is discretionary effort to the success of a business? Towers Perrin looked at 50 global companies over a 12 month period and found a direct relationship between discretionary effort and company performance. They found that the companies that received high levels of discretionary effort from their employees had a 19 percent increase in operating income and nearly a 28 percent increase in earnings per share.

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Many reputable institutions issue regular economic forecasts that are widely cited in the international press. And yet, how accurate are these forecasts? Should we really trust them? In April 2008, for example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that global economic growth would slow to 3.7 percent in 2008, and remain broadly unchanged in 2009. In addition, it predicted that the U.S. economy would tip into a mild recession in 2008 as a result of mutually reinforcing cycles in the housing and financial markets, before starting a modest recovery in 2009. In October 2008, the IMF stated that the world economy was entering a major downturn and that economic growth would slow substantially in 2009 with a modest recovery to begin only later in the year. In January, 2009 the growth forecast was cut to 0.5%. In February it was further reduced to 0.0%. And in March it slid into the negative for the first time since the 1940s.

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The Small Revolution - Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval

Change It’s a word we’ve all heard a lot this year. We’re looking for change in Washington, in our environment, in our culture, and in our economy. Hey, these days, even change for a dollar would suffice. The need for change spurred the election of a new President and brought together a nation divided in ideologies. The desire for change is great, but sometimes it feels as if our problems are greater still. In the face of our individual, national, and global challenges, change can feel impossible. When we try to change the world all at once, we become overwhelmed with the vastness of our problems. Debts are too large to pay, jobs are too scarce to find, and life is too stressful to conquer. In times as complex as these, however, the answer is surprisingly simple. We have to start thinking SMALL. Now is the time for the SMALL revolution. When tackling problems, we are often told to think big. We filter out life’s seemingly insignificant details in order to concentrate on the greater issues. After all, big ideas yield big results, or so the assumption goes. Certainly, no one wants to be thought of as the person who “can’t see the forest for the trees.” But many times, these very same little details are the ones that can serve as the real catalysts for change in our own lives and in the lives of others—if we only start to recognize their potential.

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