Leadership Roundup: Identifying Innovators and Promoting Innovation

Looking for a potpourri of content to help you strengthen your leadership, management, and communication skills? Look no further than this month’s roundup to gain insights on managing others, managing yourself, and tips on innovation and sustainability.

• Team-based decision making is all the rage, but can it lead to disaster? Bob Frisch, in a Fortune article, offered some compelling arguments for why the CEO is here to stay.
• What lessons can corporate executives learn from entrepreneurs? Rajeev Peshawaria shared the experience of a friend who took the leap from corporate executive to technology entrepreneur in 2000. Read his Forbes post to learn the four key revelations — surprise, they all involve emotional intelligence — that his friend’s journey surfaced.
• Are you struggling with intergenerational workplace management or looking for tips to better understand and manage Millennials? Gain some perspective from this FINS post by Kelly Eggers, which is based on her interview with Bruce Tulgan of Managing Generation X fame.
• If you’re anything like me, procrastination has become second nature. In a CIO article, Meridith Levinson explained why we procrastinate even though we know better and offered tips for what to do about it.
• Are you really too busy, or are you just not spending your time wisely? In this Wall Street Journal article, Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours, shared her perspective on how to achieve work-life balance without sacrificing results.
• Do you ever clam up in small group settings? Read this Wall Street Journal article by Elizabeth Bernstein to learn about new research from Virginia Tech that explains why this can sometimes happen to the best of us. The researchers also offered some helpful tips for the tongue-tied.
• Looking for some succinct lessons in leading innovative projects? Scott Eblin recently blogged about three lessons on fostering a culture of innovation that we can learn from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) .
• How can you distinguish the ordinary worker from the innovator? An article in Inc from noted researcher Geil Browning explained the six critical questions to ask during the interview stage.
• Wondering whether putting effort into sustainability will pay off in real dollars? Learn from Stonyfield Farm’s experience in this interview-based Business Insider article authored by Dina Spector. The company trimmed $18 million in expenses and demonstrated how focusing on impacts can also reduce costs.
• Reevaluating your IT infrastructure and telecommuting policy can cut both energy and costs. Read this Washing Post article by Jason Oh for some practical tips to get a better handle on your energy consumption costs.
• And one last one just for fun — this month’s tech geek-out. Have you heard about Google’s new goggles? In a New York Times article, Nick Bilton opined on the product expected to launch later this year. Will they become as ubiquitous as wireless headsets? Will they change the way we relate to each other or just provide another advertising revenue stream?

Hopefully this month’s roundup featured something of interest to you — if not, drop me a line, and I’ll cover it in the next round up.

For more news and trends, visit the Leadership, Management, and Communication Skills Community of Practice.