Notes #13 Leading at a Higher Level

Ken Blanchard, who is a well know author of various leadership development works, including the One Minute Manager, Situational Leadership II, High Performing Teams (his term for the Team Development & Team Leadership Models), Situational Self Leadership and more, has a relatively new book out.

Leading at a High Level is billed as the definitive work by Blanchard on leadership, based on his 25 years of work in the area.  It has several chapters on leadership topics, co-written by members of his organization.  Several of these topics are, of course, covered in more detail in one of the several works from Blanchard & co, but this book brings all these topics together into one work, and does give additional information, sources, etc.   It doesn’t lose the style of writing used in these other books, or the great examples, but unlike them, you get footnotes and further sources.  Recently, a revised and expanded edition came out, with some new chapters and rearrangement of the others.  (the first version came out in 2006, the new one in 2010).

Notes #12 The Committee Structure: Getting Everyone Involved

(part of the parliamentary procedure subseries)

One problem facing many organizations is that most people think there are two types of within their group: the officers and everyone else. The officers are usually expected to do all the work of the organization (planning and organizing stuff), and everyone else just participates.

Usually this results in burnout and frustration on the part of the officers, as they have to shoulder all the work of keeping the organization running; and everyone else slowly drifting away because they don’t feel fully involved in the group.

How do you solve this problem?

Simple. Use the “Committee Structure”, as I call it.

But what is that and how does it work? (and does it work?)

Notes #11 Servant Leadership Works of Larry Spears

For many years, Larry Spears was the executive director of the Robert Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership.  Upon his retirement from that position, he soon went and started up his own group, the Spears Center forServant-Leadership.  While at the Greenleaf Center, he oversaw several publications, most notably, new collections of Greenleaf’s works and a series of 4 anthologies on servant leadership that drew from articles and speeches on the topic from a wide range of writers and experts in leadership.  The Center expanded under his leadership, doing annual conferences and the like.  I think in many ways, Larry Spears was responsible for the spreading of the ideas of Greenleaf.

The new Greenleaf collections were already covered in the Leaders Notes on him.

Notes #10 Meeting Minutes

(part of the parliamentary procedure subseries)  

Meeting minutes are too often an overlooked part of group meetings. Few understand their importance; fewer still know how to handle them. This is a mistake, because minutes are an important part of your organization’s records. They are the information on the decisions your group makes. In fact, with many organizations, the minutes of their national boards are important enough that they are put on-line or provided in their national magazines so that all members are aware of them.