Presence

… Others Most Certainly Are

Some 150 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”  
 
What Emerson was saying is that the way you show up, your presence, can so over power what you say that your words have little or no impact or perhaps even a negative impact. That’s not a very pretty picture.
 

Daniela Aivazian is the author of today’s Tuesday Reading.  She is an Organizational Effectiveness Specialist in Stanford University’s University IT organization.  Her essay first appeared as a leadership program reflection earlier this year.  [Dani may be reached at daivaz@stanford.edu.]
 

Our MOR experiences were transformational, and we hope it’s the same for each of you!

Today’s Tuesday Reading is Nancy Koehn’s Whiteboard Session, The Ingredients of Great Leadership (a 4 minute video).  Professor Koehn, a historian, is the James E.

So, what do I do now?

We all make mistakes.  Sometimes they are small and personal like forgetting to put the trash at the curb to be picked up.  Or, larger and embarrassing, like writing the amount differently in numbers and words on a check.  Or, sending a critical email to the wrong addressee.  Or, being the only one to show up for a meeting because you failed to send a notice of the meeting around to the expected attendees.  Or, you crash an application server because you didn’t stop and check the command before you entered it.  Or,

Correcting a Bad One

Several weeks ago, the Tuesday Readings featured a series of essays on neuroscience –Neuroscience and Change – Part 1, 

Keep that “elevator speech” fresh!

Overcoming a Bad One

The very first exercise we do in the MOR Leaders Programs is one on first impressions.  Sit or stand in a circle, take notes on the first impression you have of the individuals in your circle, add some notes about the first impression that you think you create, and share.  For most individuals, this can be a scary moment since most people have never considered what impression they make on others or the impact it has on building a future relationship with that individual.
 

You can find many lists of leadership competencies.  Some result from a careful examination of the work in a particular job family or from role descriptions.  Some come from discussions about what it takes to be a really good leader in a mid-level position at, say, an education institution.  Other lists are developed based on a particular leadership model.  Still other lists are represented by 360 feedback instruments such as the MOR Associates instrument used in the Leaders Program or the Zenger Folkman model described in their Harvard Business Review article, Making Yourself Indispensible

Today’s Tuesday Reading, Giving Credit, is an essay by Anna Lynch, Manager, Online Instructional Design, eLearning Design & Services, and Julie Parmenter, Manager, Enterprise Decision Support Services, at Indiana University’s University Information Technology Services.