When Fredrick Winslow Taylor designed the world’s first modern assembly line and forever changed industry, persuasion was the last thing on his mind. Taylor believed assembly line workers simply needed clear direction on how to execute prescribed tasks. His belief, which manifested in both physical design and organizational structures during the decades that followed, was that the human factor should be removed from the production equation to the greatest extent possible. Stopwatch and measuring tape in hand, Taylor designed and advocated for systems that maximized efficiency and predictability through vertical integration and top-down control. And with that, the 20^thcentury’s great quest for bureaucratic efficiency began.

https://hbr.org/2015/05/why-special-ops-stopped-relying-so-much-on-top-down-leadership

Here are the six biggest myths about empowerment:

1. The route to empowerment is a program.
2. You empower people.
3. Empowerment is enough.
4. Your picture of empowerment matches your team’s.
5. During a crisis, it’s appropriate to revert to traditional top-down command and control.
6. Blowing up your hierarchy will result in empowered people.

https://hbr.org/2015/05/6-myths-about-empowering-employees

Blog post from Peter Fuda that identifies that aligning your time, money and resources to your articulated goals will accelerate you towards them because it provides evidence of your integrity; people quickly realise that you say what you mean, and mean what you say.

http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/psa-skin-prep-solutions-may15.pdf

We’ve all encountered people who say less but what they say matters more; people who know how to use silence to dominate an exchange.  So having influence means more than just doing all the talking; it’s about taking charge and understanding the roles that positional power, emotion, expertise, and nonverbal signals play. These four aspects of influence are essential to master if you want to succeed as a leader.

1. Positional Power
2. Emotion
3. Expertise
4. Human Interaction

https://hbr.org/2015/05/understand-the-4-components-of-influence

The art of persuading by winning hearts is about connecting people emotionally to your idea or position. In any persuasive dialog, you need to connect with others to some degree. However, this approach is highly effective in certain circumstances such as:

• Introducing a new idea and trying to pique interest.
• Gaining support for a decision that’s already been made.
• Raising the bar on performance or commitment.
• Leading a team that is struggling with discord or conflict.
• Aligning with creative colleagues, like those in design or marketing.

https://hbr.org/2015/05/focus-on-winning-either-hearts-or-minds

How would you be perceived in your organization’s meritocracy? Ask yourself if you command respect because people have to respect you or, rather, because you’ve truly earned respect. Many people aspire to titles because that forces others to respect them. But, to me, this is the lowest form of respect, especially if the person you’re receiving respect from is more junior than you or works at a lower rung in the bureaucracy. Respect has to be earned. It’s not about a title.

https://hbr.org/2015/05/how-to-earn-respect-as-a-leader

In both our social and professional interactions, we commonly focus on managing the impressions that others form of us, especially when these others do not know us well. In fact, when we first approach these situations and stakes are high (such as during a job interview, a meeting with a new client, or an important first date), we often receive the same advice from colleagues, mentors, and friends: try to make a good impression. After all, making a positive impression on others often translates into important long-term outcomes, such as getting the job or starting a romantic relationship. Though this is generally good advice, our intuitions on what types of strategies will create a positive impression are often wrong.

https://hbr.org/2015/05/the-right-way-to-brag-about-yourself

Have you ever had a problem that refused to go away? No matter what you did, sooner or later it would return, perhaps in another form.

Stubborn and recurrent problems are often symptoms of deeper issues. A “quick fix” may seem convenient, but it’s really just a temporary solution and it may solve only part of the problem.

To solve it properly, you need to drill down through the symptoms to the underlying cause. This article looks at Sakichi Toyoda’s 5 Whys technique – a simple but powerful tool for quickly uncovering the root of a problem, so that you can deal with it once and for all.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_5W.htm?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=19May15#np

Have you ever heard the story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody? It’s called “That’s not my Job,” and it goes like this:

“There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”

No one in this story took responsibility for the job. As a result, they accomplished nothing. Similar attitudes are common in companies that lack a culture of accountability.

In this article, we’ll explain what holding people accountable means, and suggest strategies you can use to encourage them to take ownership of their work.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/holding-people-accountable.htm

This report draws on the experiences of 10 senior leaders to look in depth at the skills needed to be a system leader. The 10 individuals are from different backgrounds and work in different contexts, and give some very candid reflections on their successes and failures. There was consensus among those interviewed that much more needs to be done to develop system leaders. This could include ‘buddying’ younger, less experienced managers and clinical leaders with more experienced counterparts, and doing more to protect whistle-blowers. But there was some debate as to whether system leadership can be taught, or needs to be learnt the hard (and long) way.

http://kingsfund.blogs.com/health_management/2015/05/the-practice-of-system-leadership-being-comfortable-with-chaos.html