Monday, October 8, 2007

Developing the Leader: Influence, Priorities

Influence

There is no leadership without influence (and power)

McKinsey's 10 methods of influence:
  • Explaining
    • Legitimizing
    • Logical reasoning
  • Asking
    • Socializing
    • Appeal to friendship
    • Consulting
  • Inspiring
    • Role modeling
    • Appeal to values
  • Stating
  • Exchanging
  • Alliance building
McKinsey's sources of power (organizational):
  • Resources
  • Reputation
  • Role/title
  • Information
  • Network
McKinsey's sources of power (personal):
  • Knowledge
  • Attraction
  • Character
  • Empathy
  • History
The book talks about 5 levels of influence/leadership
  1. Position/rights
  2. Permission/relationship
  3. Production/results
  4. People development/reproduction
  5. Personhood/respect
  • To excel at level 1 (position): Exceed expectations with your job; accept responsibility
  • To excel at level 2 (permission): Make those who work with you more successful; see things through others' eyes
  • To excel at level 3 (production): Initiate and accept responsibility for growth; develop accountability for results, starting with yourself; communicate strategy and vision of org
  • To excel at level 4 (people development) : Place a priority on developing people; be a model for others to follow; attract other winners/producers to a common goal
  • To excel at level 5(personhood): Your followers are loyal and sacrificial; you transcend the organization
Priorities

Success: progressive realization of a pre-determined goal
Said a different way--focus, concentration of effort
Too many people are distracted from their goals, or try to take on too many goals and do not succeed in achieving any of them.
Leaders have the ability to focus, concentrate their efforts, prioritize on a small number of goals--and knock them out of the park

Methods of prioritizing:
  • Pareto Principle (80/20 rule)
  • Importance v. urgency prioritzation
    • High importance, high urgency - do first
    • High importance, low urgency - set aside time to do these
    • Low importance, high urgency - find quick, efficient ways of getting done; delegate to a "can do" assistant if possible
    • Low importance, low urgency - put it off as long as possible, indefinitely if you can; if it must be done, batch it up so that you can get it done with all at once
  • Initiate, don't react (or said another way, "act, don't be acted upon")
    • Don't let other people set your priorities/fill your calendar
    • You initiate, you lead, you set your own priorities
  • You can't have it all--focus on few priorities
  • Time deadlines force us to prioritize--set them for yourself

Notes from Developing the Leader within You

10 key principles:

  1. The definition: influence
  2. The key: priorities
  3. The most important ingredient: integrity
  4. The ultimate test: creating positive change
  5. The quickest way to gain leadership: problem-solving
  6. The extra plus: attitude
  7. Developing your most appreciable asset: people
  8. The indispensable quality: vision
  9. The price tag: self-discipline
  10. The most important lesson: staff development

Transactional searches

Great post on Jeremy Liew's blog about the nature of searches (http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/monetizing-search/)

There are 3 types of searches:
  1. Informational (50%)
  2. Transactional (30%)
  3. Navigational (20%)
All of the monetization comes from transactional searches. Vertical search engines (shopping, health, local, travel, and video) see a higher proportion of transactional searches than general search.