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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

I’m pleased to announce the launch of our free custom search engine to help people find free online courses, guides, videos, e-books and audiobooks. With the exception of audiobooks all of the contents in the search engine should link to learning materials, from free university courses, right down to short instructional videos. We love it, and we think you will too. Feel free to play with it, and come often because we’ll be updating very regularly. Relieve the frustration of navigating spammy results in general search engines.

Bonus: If you are a webmaster and want to add this engine to your website or blog to provide an extra attraction, you can do so easily and quickly by adding the code here to your page(s)

I’m pleased to announce the launch of our free custom search engine to help people find free online courses, guides, videos, e-books and audiobooks. With the exception of audiobooks all of the contents in the search engine should link to learning materials, from free university courses, right down to short instructional videos. We love it, and we think you will too. Feel free to play with it, and come often because we’ll be updating very regularly. Relieve the frustration of navigating spammy results in general search engines.

Bonus: If you are a webmaster and want to add this engine to your website or blog to provide an extra attraction, you can do so easily and quickly by adding the code here to your page(s)

Leadership from the Boardroom to the Classroom by Jeffrey Shames

There is no single style of successful leadership, says Jeffrey Shames, but in fact lots of good ways to approach the job. The key is understanding what type of leader you are. Shames cites six categories of leader described by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence: the coercive leader (‘my way or the highway’); democratic leader (‘what do you think?’); the visionary; pacesetter; coach; and happy workplace shaper. Shames counts himself in the final category. He fell into management after being named the head of investment at an “old Boston Brahmin firm” at the callow age of 32. He had never managed anyone before, and was suddenly responsible for 100 people older than himself and for an area of the organization that generated 90% of its revenues. But, he says, “Most CEOs will tell you they learned the most when thrown into a situation they were unqualified for,” and it was true for Shames. He led the company from $100 million in revenues to $1.2 billion, and transformed MFS Investments into one of Fortune Magazine’s top 100 companies to work for. His advice to newly minted MBAs: lose your “negativity bias” and “spread confidence in an organization — communicate that people can accomplish anything.”

You can access this free program on leadership, in either video or audio format by clicking here

This is a free audiobook weighing in at about 6 hours. Download it and you are all set. Here are a few endorsements.

The intention of The Art of Original Thinking – The Making of a Thought Leader by Jan Phillips is to inspire thought leaders who are willing to be visible, vocal agents of evolutionary thinking for the global good. Personally, I couldn’t put the book down, and I predict you will be as encouraged as I to continue combining visionary thought leadership with responsible business practices.

Truly an inspiration! KEN BLANCHARD Coauthor of The One-Minute Manager® and The Secret

If we are to overcome the problems that threaten our well-being and our very survival on this planet, we need a quantum leap in the condition of human consciousness. Thought leaders are those who pioneer and catalyze this evolution until it creates a critical mass that can tip current breakdown-oriented trends into a breakthrough direction. Jan Phillips provides a precious guidebook helping all of us to become thought leaders – and thus healers and redeemers of the planet. ERVIN LASZLO, PH.D.,Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2004; Founder and Director of the General Evolution Research Group

With the passing of Peter F. Drucker, the consummate thought leader, we all need to read Jan Phillips’ book and adopt as our own her challenge to free ourselves from illusions and create a better life and business. KEN SHELTON, CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Executive Excellence Publishing

Click here to get your free audio book

There is no single style of successful leadership, says Jeffrey Shames, but in fact lots of good ways to approach the job. The key is understanding what type of leader you are.

Shames cites six categories of leader described by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence: the coercive leader (‘my way or the highway’); democratic leader (‘what do you think?’); the visionary; pacesetter; coach; and happy workplace shaper.

Shames counts himself in the final category. He fell into management after being named the head of investment at an “old Boston Brahmin firm” at the callow age of 32. He had never managed anyone before, and was suddenly responsible for 100 people older than himself and for an area of the organization that generated 90% of its revenues. But, he says, “Most CEOs will tell you they learned the most when thrown into a situation they were unqualified for,” and it was true for Shames. He led the company from $100 million in revenues to $1.2 billion, and transformed MFS Investments into one of Fortune Magazine’s top 100 companies to work for. His advice to newly minted MBAs: lose your “negativity bias” and “spread confidence in an organization — communicate that people can accomplish anything.”

View the free video on leadership by clicking here.

Perhaps the reputation of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE is overblown, but there is no question that he is a management and personal icon in the business and management world. There’s a fair amount of material about him, and by him. This is a 60 minute audio-visual program at MIT Sloan covering some of the lessons he learned at GE.

Here’s the description:

When Jack Welch was a young manager, he blew the roof off one of General Electric’s factories in a chemical accident. Summoned to a company VP, Welch received comfort rather than harsh words and a pink slip. This episode proved seminal to Welch’s philosophy and subsequent corporate career, and serves as one of many pithy lessons he offers in a lively conversation at MIT Sloan. “From that day forward, I never berated anybody when they were down,” says Welch. Other lessons learned from his life at GE: Never hire people (or acquire other companies) whose corporate culture doesn’t match your own. “No matter how good the numbers look, culture matters as much as financial profile.”

He advocates frequent employee evaluations — he gave his own division heads four reviews a year. “Never give anyone a raise (or stock option or bonus) without a small sheet of paper on how well they did or how they can improve,” says Welch. He admits some of his personnel ideas make people uncomfortable: in particular, his notion that 10% of employees will never succeed, and should be shown the door as expeditiously as possible. “You’ve got to believe that the team that fields the best players wins. If you tell the bottom ten where they stand, that it’s time to look for something else, that’s considered cruel management.” But, says Welch, it’s far crueler to let people hang on and then get cut later in their careers when they’re less likely to find other work. His ultimate advice to wanna-be managers: “Err on the side of the bold. … Take swings, have fun.”

Get your copy of this free audio offering by clicking here.