Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Conquer the Chaos at Work

Let's be real and honest about the work day--the feeling of seeing an email inbox that is always filled with new messages on top of older, unread messages.  Now add the work day surprises--resignations, emergencies (real and fake), new minefields of changes to deadlines, and a general sense of uneasiness.

In MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR WORKDAY, author Mary Camuto challenges you to actively manage and make the most of your work day possibilities and problems.  With drive, determination, and optimism, she offers solutions to work day predicaments.  You can take control; you don't have to wait for leaders, people, or circumstances to change. 

Camuto begins with six common scenarios and how you can handle them.

"I want to stir you up so that you decide to not go home disheartened every day, but to fall back, regroup, reframe, and bounce back with new strategies," explains Camuto.  "It is a personal challenge for readers to take some control back, and not just wait for leaders, people, or circumstances to change."

Source:  Mary Camuto: Make the Most Of Your Workday: Be More Productive, Engaged, and Satisfied As You Conquer the Chaos at Work

What Happens Now?

Few leaders will admit it, but time and again the growth of their organizations outruns their skills.

The same approaches and capabilities that once helped them succeed in their careers no longer apply as organizational challenges get more sophisticated, requiring leaders to change the way they think and act.  With these changes come unfamiliar questions, and inevitably even the most seasoned leader can hit a wall.

In WHAT HAPPENS NOW? leadership experts John Hillen and Mark Nevins identify and assess seven common stalls that every leader will almost certainly face in their career--and offer pragmatic solutions to conquer the unfamiliar territory by radically changing their mindset, behaviors, and skills to reinvent themselves as "sophisticated leaders."

Hillen and Nevins identify seven common stalls most leaders will face in their career.  They highlight the warning signs to look out for, along with clear and tangible tips and tools for assessing and over coming these stalls with practical solutions that are realistic and easily executed.

Source:  John Hillen: What Happens Now?: Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You

Corporate Security

Whether a high-profile target for organized terrorist groups, cyber terrorists, and lone wolf terrorists, or the target for  non-politicized violence such as the recent shooting at YouTube headquarters, domestic and international corporations are at a security crossroads.

CORPORATE SECURITY CROSSROADS, by political science professor and author Richard J. Chasdi, PhD, explores the root causes of the different sectors of terrorism and how businesses can develop strategies to defend against these threats.

In creating a counter terrorism strategy, it's crucial to distinguish between threats based on advancing the political motives, such as industrial espionage, cyber-crime, and workplace sabotage.  Threat types can be categorized along a continuum that reflects different mixtures of nonpolitical and political factors.

Threats can be analyzed at three levels:

• The international political system level
• The nation-state level
• The individual/small group level

This three-level analysis provides a framework to assess basic threats.  All three levels need to be taken into account for a complete and accurate analysis of the likelihood that threats can occur.

Source:  Richard J. Chasdi: Corporate Security Crossroads: Responding to Terrorism, Cyberthreats, and Other Hazards in the Global Business Environment