Innovative Leadership in Times of Compelling Changes


Book Description

This book focuses on the need of leaders in professional and personal realms to understand the importance of innovative thinking to safeguard sustainability and enhance satisfaction and motivation among stakeholders in organizations. It provides professionals with a set of reflective stances, cautionary points, and roadmaps that enable them to do the right thing. From crisis management to spiritual practices, and from pro-social concepts to social responsibility and sustainability: the common denominator is a collective and concerted effort to develop leadership behaviors and strategies to safeguard generations to come.




Digital Leadership


Book Description

Lead for efficacy in these disruptive times! Just as the digital landscape is constantly evolving, the second edition of Digital Leadership moves past trends and fads to focus on the essence of leading innovative change in education now and in the future. As society and technology evolve at what seems a dizzying pace, the demands on leaders are changing as well. With a greater emphasis on leadership dispositions, this revamped edition also features New structure and organization emphasizing the interconnectivity of the Pillars of Digital Leadership to drive sustainable change Innovative strategies and leadership practices that enhance school culture and drive learning improvement Updated vignettes from digital leaders who have successfully implemented the included strategies New online resources, informative graphics, and end of chapter guiding questions Now is the time to embrace innovation, technology, and flexibility to create a learning culture that provides students with 21st century critical competencies!




What Matters Now


Book Description

This is not a book about one thing. It's not a 250-page dissertation on leadership, teams or motivation. Instead, it's an agenda for building organizations that can flourish in a world of diminished hopes, relentless change and ferocious competition. This is not a book about doing better. It's not a manual for people who want to tinker at the margins. Instead, it's an impassioned plea to reinvent management as we know it—to rethink the fundamental assumptions we have about capitalism, organizational life, and the meaning of work. Leaders today confront a world where the unprecedented is the norm. Wherever one looks, one sees the exceptional and the extraordinary: Business newspapers decrying the state of capitalism. Once-innovative companies struggling to save off senescence. Next gen employees shunning blue chips for social start-ups. Corporate miscreants getting pilloried in the blogosphere. Entry barriers tumbling in what were once oligopolistic strongholds. Hundred year-old business models being rendered irrelevant overnight. Newbie organizations crowdsourcing their most creative work. National governments lurching towards bankruptcy. Investors angrily confronting greedy CEOs and complacent boards. Newly omnipotent customers eagerly wielding their power. Social media dramatically transforming the way human beings connect, learn and collaborate. Obviously, there are lots of things that matter now. But in a world of fractured certainties and battered trust, some things matter more than others. While the challenges facing organizations are limitless; leadership bandwidth isn't. That's why you have to be clear about what really matters now. What are the fundamental, make-or-break issues that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead? Hamel identifies five issues are that are paramount: values, innovation, adaptability, passion and ideology. In doing so he presents an essential agenda for leaders everywhere who are eager to... move from defense to offense reverse the tide of commoditization defeat bureaucracy astonish their customers foster extraordinary contribution capture the moral high ground outrun change build a company that's truly fit for the future Concise and to the point, the book will inspire you to rethink your business, your company and how you lead.




Think Outside The Building


Book Description

Over a decade ago, renowned innovation expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter co-founded and then directed Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative. Her breakthrough work with hundreds of successful professionals and executives, as well as aspiring young entrepreneurs, identifies the leadership paradigm of the future: the ability to "think outside the building" to overcome establishment paralysis and produce significant innovation for a better world. Kanter provides extraordinary accounts of the successes and near-stumbles of purpose-driven men and women from diverse backgrounds united in their conviction that positive change is possible. A former Trader Joe's executive, for example, navigated across business, government, and community sectors to deal with poor nutrition in inner cities while reducing food waste. A concerned European banker used the power of persuasion, not position, to find novel financing for improving the health of the oceans. A Washington couple enticed global partners to join an Uber-like platform to match skilled refugees with talent-hungry companies. A visionary journalist-turned-entrepreneur closed social divides by giving fifty million social media users access to free local education and culture. When traditional approaches are inadequate or resisted, advanced leadership skills are essential. In this book, Kanter shows how people everywhere can unleash their creativity and entrepreneurial adroitness to mobilize partners across challenging cultural, social, and political situations and innovate for a brighter future.




Covert Processes at Work


Book Description

The first and only guide to diagnosing and dealing with the hidden or covert factors that can ruin even the most meticulously planned change processes. Organizational change initiatives often fail because they focus exclusively on the rational, overt aspects of change, overlooking the powerful role played by concealed or irrational factors. It’s well known that these covert processes—such as hidden agendas, blind spots, office politics, tacit assumptions, secret hopes, wishes and fears—frequently sabotage change efforts, but up until now nobody has offered a rigorous, consistent way of identifying and dealing with them. Drawing on over thirty years of experience as an organizational change consultant to global corporations and government agencies, Robert J. Marshak shows precisely how to bring these hidden processes to light and deal with their negative impact. Marshak identifies five different dimensions of covert processes, presents an integrated model to explain the ultimate source of all of them, and shows how to diagnose whether any covert processes might be at work in your organization. He then offers specific tools and techniques for engaging and managing these “under-the-table” processes and for creating the kind of organizational environment in which such hidden dynamics are unable to flourish. Covert Processes at Work is a comprehensive and practical guide that managers, leaders, and consultants can use to deal with the hidden dynamics that are often at the root of many organizational problems. “Adding these tools…will take both your practice and your clients to a whole new level of capability and impact.” —Karen Boylston, PhD, Managing Director, Duke Corporate Education




Leading Change


Book Description

From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.




Innovative Leadership Workbook for Nonprofit Executives


Book Description

Leadership and innovation are two of the most compelling topics in business today. Yet despite the volume of resources exploring both topics, most approaches provide directional solutions that are merely anecdotal and lack sufficient information to actually allow leaders to make measurable change.




X-Teams


Book Description

Why do good teams fail? Very often, argue Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman, it is because they are looking inward instead of outward. Based on years of research examining teams across many industries, Ancona and Bresman show that traditional team models are falling short, and that what’s needed--and what works--is a new brand of team that emphasizes external outreach to stakeholders, extensive ties, expandable tiers, and flexible membership. The authors highlight that X-teams not only are able to adapt in ways that traditional teams aren’t, but that they actually improve an organization’s ability to produce creative ideas and execute them—increasing the entrepreneurial and innovative capacity within the firm. What’s more, the new environment demands what the authors call “distributed leadership,” and the book highlights how X-teams powerfully embody this idea.




Leading Through the Turn: How a Journey Mindset Can Help Leaders Find Success and Significance


Book Description

THE JOURNEY MATTERS AS MUCH AS THE DESTINATION. Scrap the map and go full throttle. Most leadership books tell you how to set and achieve goals. This one is different. This one is written by a communications leader who’s as passionate about riding motorcycles as she is about running her business. Her name is Elise Mitchell, and she wants to tell you about her journey—from starting her own agency to building a world-class brand to enjoying the ride along the way. But mostly, she wants to talk to you about your journey... Ask yourself: WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO? Pick a destination. Not just for your career, but for your life. Answer this: HOW DO YOU PLAN TO GET THERE? Look at the road ahead. Then plot your course. But be prepared for some major twists, turns, and detours. Most importantly: ARE YOU ENJOYING THE JOURNEY? If not, maybe you need to throw away the map. Restart your engine. And get ready for the ride of your life. Whether you’re just stepping into leadership an accomplished leader seeking something more, or simply stalled along the way, Mitchell’s refreshing approach to modern leadership will help you navigate the curves and pit stops on your own path to fulfillment. You don’t need a motorcycle. You just need to get revved up for the road ahead.




Total Innovative Management Excellence (TIME)


Book Description

Dr. H. James Harrington and Frank Voehl have gathered together the thoughts and ideas of more than 20 of the most creative innovation thought leaders from business, professional practice, and academia in this compelling book. The thought leaders look at innovation from almost every angle – their statements offer an unparalleled view of innovation and provide a depth of insight that is extraordinary. Harrington and Voehl’s reflection on each chapter, and on the sections within the book, provides useful links between themes and reinforces the relationships between many of the ideas. Anyone interested in innovation (practitioner or researcher) will benefit from this global thought collection. The contributors' multiple perspectives, models, practical examples, and stories provide a sense of innovation that no single writer could ever capture. A company’s future growth will only come through successful innovation. This book is organized around Dr. Harrington's innovation pyramid, which consists of the 16 building blocks required to bring about significant improvements in an organization’s ability to deliver creative products. It highlights the principles and recommendations in ISO's new innovation standard 56002 and provides many new concepts that are not included in the standard. It includes a free, powerful, and valuable online customized innovation maturity analysis. Following three unassailable facts will strike you as soon as you read this book: 1. Innovation is the new mantra; whether you're involved in a not-for-profit, for-profit, service sector, or governmental organization. 2. Understanding that innovation and creative activities penetrate into every part of an organization requiring multiple perspectives that drive a new way of thinking and working that impacts the organization's culture, social operations, and commercial context that impacts the total organization, and not just new products or services. 3. Innovation is an exciting adventure. Total Innovative Management Excellence (TIME): The Future of Innovation (978-0-367-43242-3, 340635) draws on insights from around the globe in order to be competitive in fast-moving technologies.