How leaders create and use networks

According to Herminia Ibarra, successful leaders have a nose for opportunity and a knack for knowing whom to tap to get things done. These qualities depend on a set of strategic networking skills that nonleaders rarely possess.

She talks about importance of networking. She says, "typically, managers rise through the ranks by dint of a strong command of the technical elements of their jobs and a nose-to-the-grindstone focus on accomplishing their teams’ objectives. When challenged to move beyond their functional specialties and address strategic issues facing the overall business, many managers do not immediately grasp that this will involve relational—not analytical—tasks. Nor do they easily understand that exchanges and interactions with a diverse array of current and potential stakeholders are not distractions from their “real work” but are actually at the heart of their new leadership roles."

Read full article as it appeared in the Janaury 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review

Typically, managers rise through the ranks by dint of a strong command of the technical elements of their jobs and a nose-to-the-grindstone focus on accomplishing their teams’ objectives. When challenged to move beyond their functional specialties and address strategic issues facing the overall business, many managers do not immediately grasp that this will involve relational—not analytical—tasks. Nor do they easily understand that exchanges and interactions with a diverse array of current and potential stakeholders are not distractions from their “real work” but are actually at the heart of their new leadership roles.

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=R0701C&ml_page=1&ml_subscriber=true

Leadership has nothing to do with titles

J. Frank Brown, the Dean of INSEAD has just published a marvelous book called the The global business leader. In this book he says he has met a lot of CEOs in his two-and-a-half decades in business and many of them are little more than LINOs – Leaders In Name Only.

Read more at the following url: http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/FrankBrown.htm

Brown believes there are seven hallmarks of a great leader. “I think the most important one is how you communicate and how you listen because if you’re going to be a successful leader you’ve got to be a really aggressive learner,” he said.

In his book, The Global Business Leader: Practical Advice for Success in a Transcultural Marketplace, Brown lists the hallmarks of leadership: openness, integrity, humility, a view of the present and the future, an optimistic outlook, the proper use of authority, and an understanding of personal and organisational objectives.

Finally people are understanding the philosophy behind the One Laptop per Child

A big thank you to David Pogue of New York Times who very eloquently has explained the philosophy behind the One Laptop per Child programme. Read his article at the following url: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/04/technology/04pogue.php

He is absolutely right in saying that "clearly, the XO's mission has sailed over people's head [cynics] like a 747".

People should better educate themselves and instead of criticizing, let us CONTRIBUTE!

Follow the mantra "Get 1, Give 1" http://www.xogiving.org/