Sondra Barbour is the chief information officer and senior vice president of enterprise business services at Lockheed Martin. She’s a company veteran and change leader who has taken on increasingly responsible positions over the course of her career.
This past weekend I traveled to Cambridge, Mass., for the 25th reunion of my graduating class at
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. (Just writing that makes me feel old.) I had the good fortune of graduating in a year that was the 350th anniversary of Harvard and the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy School (and its predecessor, the School of Public Administration). So, this year, as all of you mathletes have figured out, marks the 375th and 75th anniversaries, respectively.
This is one of those titles that when you read it, you might be saying, “Really?” Yes, really. There’s a big difference between talking to people and talking with people. If you’re the designated leader in your organization, that difference has a multiplier effect that can cut in either direction.
For the past couple of years in
Next Level leadership workshops, I’ve asked the participants to do a lot of peer coaching exercises with each other. The coaching is always focused on real life issues the participants are dealing with and the conversations are intentionally brief. They’re brief because they more or less flow from three questions that the “coach” is asking their partner:
As the proverb says, a fish rots from the head down. The person at the top ultimately owns the culture that informs the way the people in the organization think, decide and act. Of course, News Corp. is not the only organization in the news lately for scandalous or criminal behavior. The story of Murdoch and his top managers offers, though, a helpful set of questions to use as a test to determine whether or not their boss is fit to lead.
Your seat at the table positions you so you’re the next to last executive to report out. Eight people ahead of you so that gives you about 40 minutes to do what? That’s right – not listen to a word that anyone else is saying. That’s because...
I collect a lot of feedback from executives’ managers, peers and direct reports. Culling through the data for patterns that underlie high performance, I’ve come to a conclusion. The best leaders spend less time transmitting and more time receiving. The transmitters are so focused on driving their agenda and goals that people eventually tune them out...
Where will we find leaders who can thrive in this rapidly changing, high tech, constantly connected, global environment? One place we should look is to the digital natives. Generation Y are the folks who have been connected their entire lives. People over 40 grew up in the command and control model of leadership; people of my sons’ generation have grown up using technology to connect, collaborate and get stuff done.
I know of federal agencies that aren’t even providing free bottles of water or coffee during training events. Honestly, I can’t think of any of my private sector clients that spend the kind of money that Jeff Neely authorized. But I can think of three questions that any leader – public sector or private – should ask themselves before authorizing a mega-bucks budget...
With a seemingly impossible shot off the pine straw, Bubba Watson set himself up to win the Masters on Sunday. After he sank the winning putt in a playoff, he stood on the green, hugged his caddy, hugged his mom and wept. Work is fun when you win. But that's not the same thing as happiness. No one wins all the time. If winning is the only thing that matters, what are you left with when you don’t?
