The Best This Week

Here are several posts that caught my eye this week.

Slacker Manager Bren offered The Guiding Principles of Slacker@Work. Sound suggestions - here's my favorite:

• Be curious.
• Pursue other pursuits.

And I would say these can be very related. I struggle with this myself because I tend to have too many diverse things going on at once. But this is also the spice of my life. But I need to balance. But I am so curious. But I need to say no more. But I want to do new things. But life's too short to take on so much. But, but, but....

Here's some great info from WrittenRoad about a Netflix type service for books. I have not checked it out yet ('cause I got too much going on, see previous point) but it seems interesting.

Church of the Customer linked to a post from Marketing Prof about 1 percenters - motorcycle gangs. Folks who "stir the embers." Hmmm, when I was riding my bike everyday and all year round (in the cold and rain), we had a different definition of the 1 percenter. They were mythical beings and highly regarded. And yes, they stirred the embers, too. The 1 percenter was the guy or gal who rides their motorcycle exclusively - they have no car and ride the bike for all purposes. In pouring rain, snow, searing heat, and to do the Costco run (can you say bungee ties?). Either way, the notion of 1 percenter is thought provoking, but check out the post. Personally, I have some aspirations of being a 1 percenter (my definition, not the gang member) on a hybrid motorcycle of the future (the technology is not quite there yet). Of course, I would not live in a snowy place, but that'd not my preference anyway.

Businesspundit Rob writes about whether we women hold each other back more than our male counterparts do. Interestingly, I have seen this - felt this - and sadly, even perpetuated this. He quotes research findings that say:

Women bosses are significantly more likely than men to discriminate against female employees, research has suggested. The study found that when presented with applications for promotion, women were more likely than men to assess the female candidate as less qualified than the male one.

Rob notes that the research is a bit suspect because it originated in Spain. That said, I think this is not uncommon. 

Here's why I think this occurs: As a business community, we still do not fully see or understand feminine models of leadership. Please to hate mail here, I am not saying that women can't lead in familiar ways, clearly many do. But we also know that there are some differences.

I think this issue will improve in time. When I was learning how to lead, the model for success was to act like a man (80s and early 90s). When I judge leadership, I still have a bit of this model in the back of my mind, however much I think I have progressed. Admittedly, my leadership style is somewhat masculine. Over that last several years, I have made big strides in opening myself up to my own femininity and can see and appreciate this in others. And I think millions of others are going through the same process. And the women graduating college today are not expected to act like a man to be successful (I think this is true, let me know if you disagree).

On a lighter note, travel expert Scott Ahlsmith tells us that the Ritz Carlton is now offering spa services to dogs. I love the Ritz. I never stay there, but hope one day that I have the overflowing cash flow that would allow me to stay there and take my favorite pooch for a massage and toenail painting.

Rob from Adventure of Strategy shares the World Future Society's predictions for the next 25 years. Here's an interesting one:

Forecast #7:    A snail may save your life. A non-addictive painkiller one thousand times more potent than morphine could soon be on the market, thanks to research on conotoxins, the distinct set of chemicals found in tropical cone snails. Future medicines from the snails may help treat heart disease, depression and spinal cord injuries, among other ailments.

Cool. Snails to the rescue.

George's Employment Blogs share this funny video called, When I Grow Up I Want to Work in HR. Very funny. The music in the background makes it even better.

Rajesh at Life Beyond Code has been offering up several "Quoughts" from a variety of people to get us thinking about the new year. He defines a quought as a question that provokes thought. Love that word. Anyway, he asked me for a quought - here it is, but check them all out. I have been enjoying getting them in my aggregator each morning.

Business Writing expert Lynn offers an email related New Year's resolution that I think would be helpful for us all. Oh, the moments of embarrassment we could prevent!

Mike DeWitt, writing for the Slacker Manager, took my concept of leadership iridescence and offered up an excellent perspective. A snippet:

Outstanding leaders are by their very nature iridescent. Like the iridescent animal or plant, the iridescent leader is a many-layered entity, but instead of iridescing (is that a word? Somebody call Al Hague.) through the interaction of light, the object, and your eye, the leader iridesces through the interaction of circumstances, goals, the leader and your perception of what that leader wants you to do.

I love Dwayne's posts about travel hacks. He's a great travel warrior. Here he offers a few great links for finding the highly coveted WIFI while on the road.

Speaking of road warriors, I have gone to the dark side, or black side, or blackberry. I lost my cell phone returning from a business trip this weekend. I had a basic phone - no email, no frills, just a phone. Sooooo, I have jumped farther into the world of always on and ordered a Blackberry 8700. Why this model? My research tells me that this is the best for syncing with my Mac. There is a new version of PocketMac for Blackberry that does everything I want. We shall see. Fingers crossed.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.
I will not let the Blackberry run my life.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Re: women hold each other back.

I have seen and experienced some of this in my earlier days and have refused to accept it by behaving in similar ways, both towards the perpetrators and my reports.

Leadership Coach Marshall Goldsmith once told me: "The good news is that women make better leaders than men. The bad news is that men don't care." I would venture that the 'care' part is the most important.

We should care. And when we do, we allow others to rise above the behaviors they feel to insecure to bypass on their own.

The other very important observation Goldsmith made was that women carry a lot of other people on their backs-- because they feel they should. To all women out there: stop carrying others and start carrying yourself in a way that is consistent with your values. You'll see a tremendous different. And that doesn't mean you don't care anymore, by the way.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Valeria - great points, thanks. Funny, I have heard Marshall say the same things and I think he is right about some of the different dynamics that challenge women leaders. We should care, you are right, because we have so many important opportunities seize and pressing poblems to solve and we need to tap into everyone's leadership potential to progress as a society and in each business.