Have a listen below to the continuing (Mis)adventures in Consulting starring Stanton Newhouse III, senior partner at Marginal Profit Partners.
In this video, our Clueless Consultant decides that, to become a better leader and learn the “truth” about what is happening in the business, he’s going to apply to be on the television show, Undercover Boss.
In a post earlier this week, I talked about the findings from a global, multi-year study by James Kouzes and Barry Posner on the characteristics that people look for in their leaders.
Of the 20 leadership characteristics that Kouzes and Posner use in their study (see below), year after year, four consistently rank at the top of the list of desirable leadership attributes. Which four did you pick as the top ones?
| What Are the Top 4 Leadership Characteristics? | |||
| Independent | Competent | Ambitious | Determined |
| Cooperative | Self-Controlled | Loyal | Dependable |
| Honest | Straightforward | Supportive | Mature |
| Intelligent | Forward-Looking | Caring | Courageous |
| Fair-Minded | Imaginative | Broad-Minded | Inspiring |
Well, the four leadership characteristics selected most frequently are:
Of course, all 20 of the characteristics included in the study are important. But when people are asked to pick the most important leadership characteristics, the same four come out on top.
If you want to learn more about the authors, you can read the interview I conducted with James Kouzes.
I interviewed Ann Handley, author of the fast-selling new book, Content Rules, How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.
Ann is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, which provides strategic and tactical marketing know-how for hundreds of thousands of marketing and business professionals through a full range of online media. We talked about the concepts in her new book, with an emphasis on the specific tactics any of us can implement to build a more effective content.
Photo by Eric James Sarmiento
One predictable outcome of the slumping economy: executives slashed budgets for in-person training events. For many companies, that was an easy target for the budget axe. Even though their budgets were smaller, managers still had an urgent need to continue training people. So they moved parts of their training programs online.
In 2008, 8 percent of employee training was delivered in virtual environments. In 2010, that went up to 13 percent, according to researchers at Bersin & Associates, authors of the Corporate Learning Factbook 2011.
Training budgets are slowly rebounding, but it’s inevitable that our clients will continue to ask for online training alternatives for some of their education programs. Consultants who can develop training content for delivery online can ride this wave. But achieving success is far more complex than simply offering a webinar-based version of your live training events.
Instead, look for strategies that allow your clients to choose the learning channels that make sense for their organizations. For example, some clients will ask for audio sessions, others will want video, and some will want webcasts. Some of your online programs could be pre-recorded and others offered as live events. You could deliver content at an in-person meeting, via computer, or on devices like iPads.
To play in this market, you’ll need a strategy that allows you to accomplish two goals for your clients. First, reach as many of each client’s employees as possible with highly targeted content at a reasonable cost. Second, offer an approach to measure the impact of the training sessions on the attendees’ work performance.
It’s unlikely that the trends in online learning are going to reverse themselves. It’s a great time to consider if (and how) you can add an online learning element to your service offer.
Photo by Les Chatfield
It took less than two minutes after the speaker’s introduction before a familiar pattern played out across the room: Blackberries, iPhones, and laptops lit up as the audience got busy with email, texts, and other work.
After the presentation, most people I asked said that they could anticipate the direction of the speaker’s presentation, so it wasn’t really an interruption to fire off a quick email during the speech. “I need to excel at multi-tasking given everything I need to get done,” one person told me.
At first blush, that perspective seems right. Most of us believe we can follow a speaker’s train of thought even while doing something else. In reality, we can’t. When we try to do multiple tasks at the same time, research shows that our productivity drops by as much as 40 percent. That means we make mistakes, have to redo tasks, and forget to do some things entirely.
When we try to do more than one thing at a time, we’re not actually multi-tasking. Instead, we’re really switching between tasks quickly. Every time we switch back and forth, we have to reengage and that results in lost time–and productivity.
People will tell you that multi-tasking takes lots of practice before you can master the skill, but studies suggest that’s also an illusion. In fact, those who are heavy multi-taskers are less competent at completing tasks.
If you’re sitting in a boring presentation, you may need to check email or send a text just to stay awake. But if you think that you’re really accomplishing two things at once, you’re probably not doing justice to either task.
Try abstaining from multi-tasking for a few days. You’re likely to find that you’re accomplishing more, feeling less stressed, and being more creative. Focus on one thing at a time, and you might be surprised by the results.
Have a listen below to the continuing (Mis)adventures in Consulting starring Stanton Newhouse III, senior partner at Marginal Profit Partners.
In response to questions about how we manage our email list and deliver Management Consulting News, I thought I’d give you a review of the service we use, Constant Contact.
I started using Constant Contact more than five years ago to manage this newsletter list and the one for my other newsletter, The Guerrilla Consultant. We use the service to sign up new subscribers and to send out the newsletters each month.
Overall, I’ve been very satisfied. When it comes to technical skills, I know just enough to be dangerous. Even so, I’m able to manage most aspects of my list maintenance and newsletter delivery without any trouble.
The Constant Contact system is cost-effective, easy-to-use, and it can handle most any sized email list with ease. You can test every email before you send it, the email delivery reports are comprehensive, and your options for cleaning up your list are good.
You can probably find a less expensive or more feature-rich system, as there are lots of choices on the market. For me, Constant Contact has one unbeatable feature: it’s reliable. Since I started using the system, I’ve had only one minor problem that Constant Contact caused.
Like any such service, Constant Contact isn’t perfect. There are some annoying “features,” but that’s to be expected. Over the years, I’ve found three areas that could be improved.
Constant Contact offers a library of newsletter templates that you can use as a starting point. Most of those design templates are pretty cheesy. You could use one of these off-the-shelf designs, but it’s likely that you’ll be happier–and so will your readers–if you design your own. Also, be aware that if you use your own newsletter template, the Constant Contact support staff won’t be able to help you with HTML issues.
Second, the support for the system is about as good as you could expect for a high-volume operation. I always get answers to my questions, either by phone or via online chat. But sometimes the response is slower than I’d like. You’ll probably be satisfied with the support process if you don’t need help with a complex question ten minutes before you have to publish.
Finally, when I first converted my list to Constant Contact, the service treated my existing subscribers as though they had signed up via a single opt-in process, even though they had done a double opt-in. This meant that Constant Contact hosted my initial list on a server with other single opt-in lists, which had a higher probability of being blocked by ISPs. I understand the company’s policy, but it was a nuisance.
Still, I’d recommend Constant Contact for email list maintenance and delivery. My needs aren’t overly complex, so the system works well for me. It’s easy to learn, the cost is reasonable, and the support is good. Constant Contact offers other services, including event marketing and survey management. Since I haven’t used those services, I can’t comment on their quality.
Don’t get me wrong–I really like Twitter. It’s a great platform to learn from others, share ideas, and, in some cases, waste a little time.
As I’ve witnessed how some people use Twitter to build their businesses, though, this short parody suggested itself to me.
Hope you enjoy it.
For the January issue of Management Consulting News, I talked with Maureen Broderick, author of The Art of Managing Professional Services: Insights from Leaders of the World’s Top Firms. In the book, she draws on more than 130 in-depth interviews with top firm leaders to find out what it takes to build a highly successful practice. I asked Broderick what surprised her the most in her research, and about the key challenges firm leaders face today.
Get our podcast interview with Maureen Broderick.
With so many books on the market about leadership, I thought I’d share the four that top my list. The first two, written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, are among the best research-based books on this topic. These books are well-written and full of practical advice.
The other two books on my list are focused on the challenges of leading teams of professionals. They both highlight the unique issues leaders must address in their efforts to build productive teams of professionals.
Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.
The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.
Leading the Professionals: How to Inspire and Motivate Professional Service Teams, by Geoff Smith.
When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance, by Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro, and Robert J. Lees.
If you are interested in learning more, have a look at my interviews with James Kouzes and Thomas DeLong for Management Consulting News:
Read my Interview with James Kouzes.
Read my Interview with Thomas DeLong.
 |
|---|
Michael McLaughlin is an advisor to organizations and individuals who offer high-value services to their clients. Read more.. |
Stay in Touch