Ward Off "Brain Fry" From Use of AI

AI can accelerate productivity across your organization – but if you’re not careful, it can also lead to what researchers call “brain fry.”

Read on to see how you can manage AI-induced "brain fry," redesign work for human and AI collaboration, set clear expectations about workload and more. 

Building Your Own AI Assistant

Gen AI can save you time, but once you’re using it frequently, the process of repeatedly uploading the same background files and re-entering prompts for common tasks can really eat into your efficiency gains.

That’s why many generative AI platforms allow you to create custom AI assistants: what ChatGPT calls a “custom GPT,” Claude calls a “Project,” and Google Gemini calls a “Gem.” These assistants store elements of a prompt that you might want to use over and over so you don’t have to include them every time you ask the platform to help you with your recurring tasks and challenges. 

Listen and learn more here.

Giving Feedback As a Leader

Giving negative feedback is a critical component of effective leadership — but while the benefits of receiving constructive criticism are clear, it’s less obvious how giving such feedback impacts leaders. While some leaders enjoy giving negative feedback (I'm not one), one survey found that 44% of managers find it stressful or difficult. 

Here are several strategies for organizations to better support both high- and low-empathy leaders, including encouraging more-empathetic leaders to take breaks after giving negative feedback and training less-empathetic leaders on techniques for delivering feedback more compassionately.

Gary Hamel and Harnessing Everyday Genius

We are big fans of Gary Hamel.  He spoke at a WPO Annual Conference in Chicago back in 2006.  What an event, filled with extraordinary insights, energy and over-the-top learning.

And now Gary is still at it with his high level intellect.  He, along with Michele Zanini, talk about Harnessing Everyday Genius for Harvard Business Review..

The crux of the article:

This workplace alchemy—turning dead-end jobs into get-ahead jobs—doesn’t require new legislation or billions of dollars in public spending. It just takes commitment to building organizations that kindle the spark of everyday genius in each human being.

Read it all, here.

Why Collaborative Work Looks Different Depending on a Variety of Factors

As Renee Cullinan, chief executive officer and co-founder of Stop Meeting Like This, says in the Harvard Business Review: "In any organization, people apply unspoken rules and understood norms to get collective work done — in other words, they collaborate."

The value people place on relationships is a strong influencing factor on whether and how they collaborate. Relationship-heavy cultures are marked by inclusion, personal connection, and relationship-based decision making. They tend to be friendly, warm places to work. 

Read more how in collaborative work cultures, women carry more of the weight.

Why Diverse Teams Perform Better

According to Harvard Business Review, "diversity — both inherent (e.g., race, gender) and acquired (experience, cultural background) — is associated with business success."

Find out why.  Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable -- and That's Why They Perform Better

Are You a Good Listener?

If I were to make a bet with you and ask whether you are a good listener with my bet placed on you not being a good listener, who would win?  That's not a trick question.

Most people when asked whether they are a good listener typically say "yes."

But, according to Harvard Business Review, here's how you really access whether you are a good listener.

Read more:  What Great Listeners Actually Do

Now, tell me, who would have won our bet :-)?

How to Turn Ideas Into Actual Innovations

Who doesn't want to run a business where ideas abound whether your own or your employees?  But the truth of the matter is that ideas tend to be worthless unless you turn them into actual innovations.

According Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic for Harvard Business Review:

When it comes to creativity, organizations are a lot like people. They have no problem generating ideas, including some that are potentially useful and novel. Furthermore, they are also generally able to access creative ideas generated by others. Where they fail, however, is at turning those ideas into actual innovations. Indeed, few creative ideas ever become innovative products or services.

Read more:  Maybe Your Team Doesn't Need to Be More Creative

Note:  Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, a Professor of Business Psychology at University College London, and a faculty member at Columbia University.

Are You Defining Performance by a Single Number?

According to David Rock and Beth Jones, a few years ago, they noticed around half a dozen courageous companies beginning experiments to remove ratings from their performance management systems.  Is your company one of them?  Companies were still differentiating performance in various ways, and still using a pay-for-performance approach, just not through a simple rating system.

Rather, companies prefer to emphasize ongoing, quality conversations between managers and their teams.

Learn more:  Why More and More Companies Are Ditching Performance Ratings

A Friend's Support Along With WPO Can Make Women Better Entrepreneurs

According to Harvard Business Review, the people we choose to surround ourselves with often matter a great deal to our success — especially when we are trying to thrive as entrepreneurs.

That’s because spending time alongside other motivated and successful people -- fellow WPO members, for example -- can have positive effects on our own success.

Read more:  A Friend's Support Can Make Women Better Entrepreneurs

Article of Interest: Female Entrepreneurs Go Beyond "Cookies and Crafts"

Dr. Marsha Firestone (pictured), Founder and President of the Women Presidents' Organization, writes a telling article for the Harvard Business Review.  Here's an excerpt:

•  The membership of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), a nonprofit peer-advisory group for women with $2MM-plus gross revenue, itself accounts for $19BN in aggregate revenue and over 142,000 jobs, stemming directly from its 1,700+ female business leaders. In the WPO, the largest number of businesses are in manufacturing and distribution and 25% of members generate over $10 million annually.

Read the entire article:  Female Entrepreneurs Go Beyond "Cookies and Crafts"  

Article of Interest: How to Build a Great Sales Team

Let's face it, we all want a winning sales team.  But why is it so many of us fall short of building one?  Is it "us" or is it "them?"  Or is it something else?

Clearly, the best sales forces have both excellent salespeople and excellent managers.  A team of ...

Read the entire Harvard Business Review blog post here.

A few interesting reader's comments:

•  You need to get the right person at the driving seat and let him or her run with it. A great manager will get great people working for him and ensure the organization is benefited.

•  Few organizations have any substantial programs for sales managers, much less real sales leadership.  Yet, sales team leaders and sales “managers” are the most critical element for success because they define and drive the culture for each sales person and the sales team.

•  What were great managers before they were great managers?  As far as I know, you don't just get promoted into a management role - you have to earn that right, build that experience and then win the position.  I would disagree and say that all great managers, at one time or another, were great sales people.  "You can't know where you're going, unless you remember where you came from."

 What's your experience?  How have you developed a best sales force?  We welcome hearing from you!

Article of Interest: How Not To Throw Your Business Plan Out the Window

Planning is a difficult process.  Business owners need to plan to launch new products, hit profitability goals and to attract funding.

Business moves fast: the product's features morph, new competitors emerge, or the economic climate shifts. When these changes occur, many people just throw their business plans out the window. For a plan to be truly valuable it needs to evolve with your company and stay relevant in the face of uncertainty.

Find out what the experts say about business plans, how to create one and how to keep it fresh.

Read:  Keeping Your Business Plan Flexible

Posted by:  Women Presidents' Organization Chicago

Article of Interest: Embrace of Power

As more high-achieving women -- such as the entire WPO membership base spanning across four continents -- grow their businesses to multimillion dollar + levels, they will continue to embrace power to get things done.

Read this controversial piece, "Women and the Uneasy Embrace of Power." Share your comments at the origin site and report back to us with your insights because we always like to hear from you.

The comments (33+) are worth a look.

Article of Interest: Powerful People Are Better Liars

Once in a while we have to take a chance at provoking (challenging) our readers. This is one of them. We read, "Defend Your Research: Powerful People Are Better Liars," by Dana Carney, published in the current Harvard Business Review and thought: Is this true?

Read it for yourself and let us know what you think. We all know the "type." They exist, unfortunately, everywhere but how do you deal with such a person, especially if they work for you or you work with them in some capacity at your business?

Article of Interest: Wise Up

Around this time of year, we tend to reflect on all the things we did well (or in some instances -- not so well) to keep our business thriving during turbulent times. And one issue I constantly challenge myself on and wonder if you do too, is this: How effective have you been as a top executive?

The late Peter Drucker can help us address this question. As I was I straightening out my office this week, I stumbled upon a June 2004 edition of the Harvard Business Review and came across his classic article entitled, "What Makes An Effective Executive." I re-read it on the spot. It's a magnificent piece and one that is a must-read for anyone interested in becoming a more impactful leader, especially when we are readying up to face a brand new year.

The article begins like this:

"Great managers may be charismatic or dull, generous or tightfisted, visionary or numbers oriented. But every effective executive follows eight simple practices."

And the eight simple practices are as follows:

1. They asked, "What needs to be done?"
2. They asked, "What is right for the enterprise?"
3. They developed action plans.
4. The took responsibility for decisions.
5. They took responsibility for communicating.
6. They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
7. They ran productive meetings.
8. They thought and said, "we" rather than "I."

Drucker throws in a bonus practice at the end of the article: "Listen first, speak last."

You can order an e-copy here.

In preparation for 2010, think about these eight best practices and how you might apply them as you grow your business. It only requires a healthy dose of discipline.

Article of Interest: Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

When you put all the pieces together, a new picture (the cartoon says it all) emerges for why women don’t make it into the C-suite (and, of course, why they start businesses). It’s not the glass ceiling, but the sum of many obstacles along the way.

Here's a quick clip:

In 1986 the Wall Street Journal’s Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt gave the world an answer: “Even those few women who rose steadily through the ranks eventually crashed into an invisible barrier. The executive suite seemed within their grasp, but they just couldn’t break through the glass ceiling.” The metaphor, driven home by the article’s accompanying illustration, resonated; it captured the frustration of a goal within sight but somehow unattainable. To be sure, there was a time when the barriers were absolute. Even within the career spans of 1980s-era executives, access to top posts had been explicitly denied. Consider comments made by President Richard Nixon, recorded on White House audiotapes and made public through the Freedom of Information Act. When explaining why he would not appoint a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, Nixon said, “I don’t think a woman should be in any government job whatsoever…mainly because they are erratic. And emotional. Men are erratic and emotional, too, but the point is a woman is more likely to be.” In a culture where such opinions were widely held, women had virtually no chance of attaining influential leadership roles.

Times have changed, however, and the glass ceiling metaphor is now more wrong than right.

Read more here at the Harvard Business Review article, Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership, authored by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli.

Let us know what you think.

Sound Advice: What Your Direct Reports Expect of You

Larry Bossidy, one of my personal favorite leaders (and author of a book I devoured, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done), penned a great article in the current Harvard Business Review entitled, What Your Leader Expects of You. You can download the electronic PDF file for U.S. $6.00 here.

The essence of the article is that success of an executive team depends heavily on the relationships the boss has with his or her direct reports. Yet the leadership literature has had little to say about what is expected in those relationships -- on either side.

Larry Bossidy, formerly the chairman and CEO of Honeywell, and before that of AlliedSignal, shares what he calls "the CEO compact," detailing the behaviors a leader should look for in subordinates and what they should be able to expect in return. A CEO's best people, he says, know these eight points:

1. When a situation calls for them to get involved.
2. They generate ideas -- remembering that some of the best ones may sound crazy at first.
3. They are willing to collaborate, putting the long-term good of the company above short-term goals of their divisions.
4. They step up to lead initiatives, even if the outcome is uncertain.
5. They develop leaders among their people, especially through direct involvement in performance appraisals.
6. They stay current on world events and anticipate how those events may affect the company and its competition.
7. They drive their own growth by exposing themselves to new people and ideas and by accepting demanding assignments.
8. And they sustain these behaviors in bad times as well as good.

On the other side of the compact, the boss should:

a. Provide clarity of direction; set goals and objectives;
b. Give frequent, specific, and immediate feedback;
c. Be decisive and timely;
d. Demonstrate honesty and candor; and ...
e. Offer an equitable compensation plan.

Executives who aren't lucky enough to have such a boss can create a compact with their own subordinates, Bossidy says, and demonstrate by example. The result will be to improve team and company performance and accelerate individual growth.

Are you a leader? Are you grooming your direct reports for leadership?