While reading the book "Strengths based Leadership" which builds on the StrengthsFinder assessment, I came across this very intriguing and applicable section titled "What strong teams have in common".  The topic is very close to my heart, so I had to blog about it and obviously create a mindmap!

Mind Map: What strong teams have in common?

I have been reading the book “Influencer: The Power to Change Anything” off and on for a few weeks now. 

One of the sections about influencing emphasizes identifying and changing vital behaviors.  And I could totally relate to the example on how just identifying a few vital behaviors will tremendously impact your quest for losing weight.  Here goes the list:

• Exercise more days than not (i.e. >= 4 days a week)
• Eat Breakfast everyday
• Weigh yourself daily
• Plan where and what to eat during lunch
• Make a grocery list in advance and don’t shop while you are hungry

As simple as that!  The National Weight Control Registry identified these vital behaviors by tracking people who lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for a minimum of 6 years.  So, this definitely for the long-term…

As I was reading the December 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review, a small but prominent article on page 21 caught my eye.  The article was titled “The Best Advice I Ever Got“.  This article is an excerpt from an interview with Hans-Paul Burkner conducted by Daisy Wademan.

Hans-Paul Burkner, President and CEO of The Boston Consulting Group starts off by saying that good advice often comes in the form of deeds, not words.  He goes onto talk about his role model, Tom Lewis and his leadership style.

The best part of the article, for me, however, was Tom’s subtle articulation of team-building philosophy.  Hans-Paul quotes several examples in the article about how Tom lead extremely diverse and opinionated team members to great success against all odds, even as a very modest and empower leader.

This article is a must read for any developing leader!  Unfortunately, this is copyrighted material from Harvard Press.  So, you can either buy a copy of this article for $4.50 here or borrow a copy of the December 2007 issue of HBR from your local library.

I came across this wonderful and very insightful interview with Sandra J. Sucher in the latest edition of Harvard Business Interview.  In the interview, Sandra shares some very thoughtful and interesting views on how and why bringing executives together to read and discuss literary works can be a potent leadership development tool.

This interview is very relevant to what we do every time we meet and what we hope to accomplish through the book club!

Here’s the link, one more time: http://tinyurl.com/27f7dn