A few weeks since our first Fortune Roundup, and a lot more great content out there! Here's the best of the web that we've come across.
Be sure to read the last two articles. What do you think of their conflicting conclusions?
What Managers Can Learn from Comedians When Onboarding
By Dan Bingham on Halogen Software's Employee Performance & Talent Management Blog
A comedian draws parallels between performing stand-up comedy and onboarding employees. Some of the key insights: learn some personal tidbits about your new hire so you can relate them to the rest of your staff, be enthusiastic (even when communicating the mundane), empathise with their first-day jitters, and be honest.
Idea Deficit Disorder - Treating Yourself
By Wally Bock of the Three Star Leadership Blog
From an early age, our educational system teaches us that there's only one correct answer to every problem. As such, we lose the interest to be creative as we get older. But we're all creative; Wally argues that it's "a natural part of being a human being." As leaders, we need to find out how, where and when we're at our most creative, and go out of our way to recreate those situations.
Driving School For Leaders
By Scott Eblin of the Next Level Blog
As a leader, what are your unconscious competencies? Unless you actually sit down to think about them, you probably don't know. In this post, Scott Eblin encourages leaders to do just that, and then pass those tasks off to your staff, because what you may be so proficient at will be challenging to them. This in turn gives you time to concentrate on new tasks that will stretch your comfort zone. As Scott says, "Everybody learns, everybody grows."
Low Hanging Fruit Is Uninspiring
By Jason Seiden of Fail Spectacularly
Jason challenges the commonly accepted notion that "low-hanging fruit" is a good thing. He argues, "Human beings are born looking to the skies. Up makes us wonder. Up inspires us. Up is where our potential lies." So as a manager, it's your responsibility to take care of the low-hanging fruit yourself and allow your people to grow by reaching upwards.
What do we think of Scott's and Jason's differing viewpoints? They both agree that one of your responsibilities as a leader is to foster your people's growth. But while Scott argues that you can do this while supporting your own personal growth, Jason seems to imply that you have to do so at the expense of your personal growth. Can we have our cake and eat it too? Or do we just have to let our people eat the cake?
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