Archive

• What Am I Missing?

  This entry was contributed by Vaughn Upshaw on September 1, 2016 at 9:41 am and is filed under Collaborative Leadership, Group Process, Implicit bias, Leadership Development, Tools and Practices.

  

  Pierre-Auguste Renoir -La Grenoullere (1869)

   

  Try an experiment. Grab three or four people and ask them to look at this painting for 30 seconds then close their eyes and describe what they saw. Don’t be surprised if each person sees the painting in ways others do not.

  If we see things so differently, what might each of us missing? Leaders need to be continually aware of what they and others may be missing. Our brains are constantly painting a picture of the world around us. Leaders need to understand what others do and do not see in order to tap into and shape a common picture of the future—whether that means convincing people to launch a new business or take action to protect the environment. Effective leaders look for ways to bridge their own and others’ mental pictures so everyone shares a sense of why their work is important, how they will get things done, and what they will accomplish.

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• We Have To Stop Meeting Like This!

  This entry was contributed by Vaughn Upshaw on April 24, 2015 at 8:08 am and is filed under Board Governance, Collaborative Leadership, Group Process, Tools and Practices.

  

  Some meetings really are a waste of time. A recent survey reports American workers spend up to 9 hours a week preparing for and attending general status meetings. Status meetings are defined as a meeting in which team members update one another on completed and active work tasks.

   

  I’d rather have a root canal! More than half the respondents (60%) said they spend more time planning for status meetings than they spend in the meetings themselves. Such meetings undermine productivity. Nearly half (46%) say they would prefer doing any number of unpleasant activities, such as watching paint dry, getting a mullet hairstyle or commuting 4 hours to and from work, than sit in a status meeting.

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