Trust is essential in any relationship and vitally critical in business leadership.
A trustworthy leader fosters a positive and productive work environment, promotes transparency, and makes informed decisions. When trust is present in business leaders, it inspires confidence, respect, and loyalty in their team members.
Read my article in CEOWorld Magzine:
I was featured on the Center For Optimism site with my take on what makes me an optimist.
Here is what it says:
“I was lucky to be born an #optimist, and I sustain that #optimism with three practices. One, by being #grateful for all I have. Two, by #imagining the possibilities of all good things that can happen. And three, by listening to #music that inspires me (Beatles, anyone?). I would say that I am a #realistic optimist and acknowledge that life is not without challenges.”
That’s what Shantha Mohan Ph.D. told me when I asked her what makes her optimistic.
Shantha is an #entrepreneur and author with over 30 years of experience running distributed #engineering teams worldwide. Shantha is a mentor and project guide at the Integrated Innovation Institute at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley. She is “passionate about humanistic #leadership, using artificial intelligence in innovative solutions, gender equality, and sustainability.”
In an essay, “Optimism: What Every Leader Needs Today,” Shantha wrote, “Optimism is contagious. When a team hears a leader say something can be done, and we can do it together, the positivity energizes the team members to pull together and deliver the best for the organization’s success. Balancing optimism by acknowledging the challenges creates a realistic environment that promotes actions and results.”
Shantha writes, “Leaders also need a healthy dose of realistic optimism, which requires acknowledging the challenges while feeling positive about making an impact.”
Shantha refers to the Beatle’s Song “Getting Better,” which is on our Music for Optimism playlist.
“In my book, Leadership Lessons with The Beatles, I devoted a chapter to optimism and titled it “Getting Better,” one of The Beatles’ songs. A friend asked me why I didn’t choose “Here Comes the Sun,” a song that conveys the essence of hope, as the title. You need hope, but we cannot expect things to be taken care of automatically. We need the drive, commitment to improving, and conviction to succeed. We need action, and we need innovations.”
Thank you, Victor Perton!
In this 15-minute interview with Angela Kochuba, who is the Managing Director of Federal Training Academy, I answer the following questions about leadership and “Leadership Lessons with The Beatles”
Continue readingLeaders need a healthy dose of realistic optimism, which requires acknowledging the challenges while feeling positive about making an impact.
Read my article in CEOWorld Magzine:
In our quest for lifelong learning, there are times when we are learning something new. Sometimes we may have to unlearn what we learned and relearn it to become innovative.
Learning, unlearning, and relearning all require us to be curious.
Read my article in CEOWorld Magzine:
Here is a handy list of the resources included in the book.
Continue readingA best practice is a process or method generally accepted as the best among the alternatives known. Do the assumptions that went into creating the best practice hold in your situation? Should you adopt a best practice without probing to see if it will work for your organization? Some best practices created decades ago may not hold up any more in our current environment.
Read my article in CEOWorld Magzine:
In 2019, the count of worldwide knowledge workers exceeded one billion. According to statistics, the US has a high percentage of knowledge workers—60%. As the digital age advances, we are going to be seeing more proliferation of knowledge work. Knowledge workers require careful consideration in how they are rewarded.
Read my article in CEOWorld Magzine:
You may wonder what George Martin, the English record producer, has to do with L&D leaders. Well, the Beatles wouldn’t be here if not for Martin, who took them under his wings at EMI Records, nurtured them, coached them, and helped them blossom into musical leaders.
Read my article in Corporate Learning Network:
The Power of Coaching in a Leader’s Journey: Why You Need a George Martin
In their song, “Hello, Goodbye,” Lennon and McCartney wrote,
“You say, ‘Yes’, I say, ‘No’
You say, ‘Stop’ and I say, ‘Go, go, go’
Oh no”
McCartney was the primary writer, and he wrote the song when meeting with an assistant of The Beatles’ manager, asking for opposites to the words he came up with, such as stop for go, yes for now, and hello for goodbye. In the biography, “Many Years from Now,” McCartney said that the lyrics address duality, reflecting his astrological sign of Gemini. He added: “It’s such a deep theme in the universe, duality – man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write.”
Opposing forces create tensions, and exceptional leaders understand every action has its pros and cons. Balance is the key to managing these tensions and to the everyday behavior of leaders. The pandemic brought enormous challenges to leaders in how to pay attention to the business while leading their teams to stay healthy, safe, and motivated. We saw many leaders rise to the occasion.
Read my article in CEOWorld Magzine:
Shantha Mohan 