CorpU Weekly Digest: Leadership Development (2012-Apr-23)

Topics: Leadership

Here are this past week's headlines in leadership development: 

• (1) A new approach for your leadership development programs? MIT Sloan Prof Gauthier's idea of relational intelligence, which encourages diversity and innovation by building relationships between different and even antagonistic entities ;  
• (2) Adaptive Leadership and Business Impact: BCG study shows how much impact this leadership development approach improves business performance ; 
• (3) Leading effectively with crowdsourcing: Prof Tom Davenport's latest article in this month's Harvard Business Review ; 
• Books: The 3 Power Values: How Commitment, Integrity, and Transparency Clear the Roadblocks to Performance and The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics ; 
• Webinars ; and
• Conferences

 A new approach for your leadership development programs? MIT Sloan Prof Gauthier's idea of relational intelligence, which encourages diversity and innovation by building relationships between different and even antagonistic entities.
Prof. Valérie Gauthier (MIT Sloan and HEC Paris) writes in an essay on "Teaching savoir-relier or 'relational intelligence'," that business schools need to help aspiring managers strike a better balance between the rational and the sensitive. She suggests that schools also must train established managers to combine analytical and intuitive ways of thinking. She has developed a management approach called savoir-relier™, roughly translated as relational intelligence. Savoir-relier is defined as the capacity and resolve to build sensible, positive, and trustworthy relationships between entities — people, ideas, jobs, cultures, generations — that are inherently different, opposite or antagonistic. Unlike egocentric, charismatic leadership models, savoir-relier is a category of leadership that is marked by humility and intuition. Managers can learn to lead with savoir-relier through a three-step training process, she says. "The savoir-relier method involves an in-depth introspective self-portrait, interpersonal exercises including work on reliance, resilience and sense, and the creation of a leadership action plan to bring this newfound understanding into day-to-day decision making." The idea may suggest some new angles for your leadership development programs. Read the MIT Sloan Review article, "The Value of Leadership 'Marked by Humility and Intuition'".

 Adaptive Leadership and Business Impact: BCG study shows how much impact this leadership development approach improves business performance 
While it may require significant effort to cultivate a high-performing and adaptive leadership team, the work delivers a strong payback. A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Strategy Institute study titled "The Value of Adaptive Advantage" shows that more-adaptive companies generate powerful economic and financial gains. These companies consistently outperform their industry peers during periods of volatility, and they sustain superior performance over time, whether it's 5 years or 30 years. The results also show a strong correlation between a company's adaptability index score and total shareholder return. The study reaffirmed that the basics of effective teamwork still apply. Adaptive teams lay the groundwork by adhering to the following principles.

• Distributed Leadership: the team leader believes in the value of sharing leadership at the top and developing leaders at every level. 
• Optimal Talent Mix: the team is not only composed of the top talent representing key positions and disciplines but also has the chemistry that comes from the right combination of backgrounds, styles, and perspectives. 
• Clear Charter: the team has defined goals, roles, ground rules, and accountabilities. 
• Mutual Trust: team members are able to express divergent views and let down their guard to acknowledge when they need help.

Read the BCG Perspective article, "The Five Traits of Highly Adaptive Leadership Teams" 

 Leading effectively with crowdsourcing: Prof Tom Davenport's latest article in this month's Harvard Business Review.
Dispatches from the fields of behavioral and cognitive science, meanwhile, prove how biased and emotion driven we are in making decisions. And anyone paying attention to business knows that the penalties for making bad ones are growing worse. But the good news is that the more we encounter the cognitive limitations of individuals, the better it is for business judgment, because it helps us shed the myth of the lone wise leader. An example comes from WGB Construction, a small home builder west of Boston. When an important judgment call has to be made there, perhaps because a particular property isn't selling, Greg Burrill, the president, asks all those with relevant knowledge or a stake in the outcome—from demographers to deck builders—for their thoughts. This canvassing recently led to a decision that not only sold a house but also inspired a new floor plan that appealed to a whole segment of buyers. Multiple perspectives are one antidote to individuals' flawed decision making. Another is the amount of information a committed organization can compile. Chances are you work in an organization that employs diverse thinkers and collects extensive data. What else is needed to produce good organizational judgment? Two things: clear processes to ensure that both are called upon appropriately, and a culture strong enough to keep people pulling in the same direction. Read Prof Tom Davenport's latest article in Harvard Business Review, "The Wisdom of Your In-House Crowd".

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 The Business of Learning: New Major Products, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

No major news in mergers, acquisitions, or product releases.

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 Books To Read

A healthy corporate culture is the secret to an organization's performance. The good news is that employees already embody the values needed to propel the organization to its goals, but institutional roadblocks get in the way. All too often leaders don't know how to diagnose their culture in order to clear these roadblocks to performance. The latest book from David Gebler, The 3 Power Values (to be released May 1, 2012), presents a breakthrough model that permits leaders to measure and manage culture. To create a fully aligned high-performing culture, leaders need only focus on nurturing three catalyst values: Commitment, Integrity, and Transparency. The book offers leaders at all levels a unique and accessible approach to identifying the behavioral challenges that are hindering their corporate culture and to removing them effectively. Buy Now 

The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics is a comprehensive treatment of the field of business ethics as seen from a philosophical approach. The volume consists of 24 essays that survey the field of business ethics in a broad and accessible manner, covering all major topics about the relationship between ethical theory and business ethics. The chapters are written by accomplished philosophers who offer a systematic interpretation of their topics and discuss various moral controversies and dilemmas that plague business relationships and government-business relationships. Readers are thus presented with the major views that define the topic of the essay with critical discussions of those views, as well as topical bibliographies that identify key works in the field. In addition to philosophers who work in this area, the volume will be of interest to those in business and society seeking an up-to-date resource on this vital field. Buy Now

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 Webinars 

The Human Capital Financial Statements Webcast Series
Date: N/A
Presenter: Jeff Higgins Register now

How to Facilitate Live Online Training - Techniques for Adult Learning Engagement 
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 12:00 - 1:00 PM CT
Presenter: Traci Adolph and Erica Angel Register now

Practicing Authentic Leadership and Ditching the Drama
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 11:00 AM PT
Presenter: Anne Bruce and Stephanie Montanez Register now

Mobile End User Experience
Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 11:00 AM ET
Presenter: Aternity Register now

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 Conferences

Delivering the Strategic Role of HR
Date: May 2, 2012 
Location: New Zealand Register now

Global Management Conference: Fourth Annual Conference on Globalization, Sustainability and Development, 2012
Date: May 2-5, 2012
Location: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil Register now

First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Education and Training
Date: May 7-10, 2012
Location: Tunisia Register now

1st Annual People Effectiveness @ Work Conference
Date: May 8, 2012
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa Register now

HR Summit 2012
Date: May 9-12, 2012 
Location: Singapore Register now

The Mining and Resources Accelerated Learning and Workforce Development Conference 2012
Date: May 15, 2012
Location: Australia Register now

Corporate University Xchange's Global Leadership Congress
Date:  May 15-17, 2012
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA Register now 

Social Recruiting Strategies Conference
Date: May 22-25, 2012
Location: Chicago, IL, United States Register now

National Institute on the Assessment of Adult Learning
Date: June 6-8, 2012
Location: Atlantic City, NJ, USA Register now

Leading Across Generations: Workforce Challenges and Opportunities
Date: June 13-15, 2012
Location: Berlin, Germany Register now

The Talent Management Summit
Date: June 14, 2012
Location: London, UK Register now

Gamification Summit
Date: June 19-21, 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA, United States Register now

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