SmartBrief is partnering with Big Think to create a weekly video spotlight in SmartBrief on Leadership called “VIP Corner: Video Insights Powered by Big Think.” This week, we’re featuring author George Dyson.
Alan Turing’s computer proved to be a tremendous challenge to translate into engineering terms for a functional, memory-capable device. But contrary to what we might expect, the rapid answers to this problem weren’t found at the big, famous and funded laboratories of the post-World War II era, says George Dyson, author of “Turing’s Cathedral.”
Those labs produced great innovations and inventions, and there’s been the argument recently that we need to return to the Bell Labs era. Dyson points out, though, that sometimes creativity and problem-solving cannot be managed merely by constructing a certain setting. Small groups without backing can do great things when left to their own devices.
“The lesson to take from that, in my view, is, you know, let these small, imaginative groups of people do what they want,” Dyson says. (read more…)
SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 170,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How do you feel about our next generation of leaders?
- They’re going to be better leaders than we’ve ever been: 24.25%
- They’ll be as good as we are: 39.34%
- They’ll be worse leaders than we are: 36.36%
We’ve got some work to do. A leader’s job is to create more leaders. The notion that 36% of you are worried that the next generation of leaders will be worse than we are is problematic. That’s a big number and a scary result. If you answered the question that way, remember you’re charged with turning those folks into better leaders than we’ve ever been. Coach them, train them, and develop them. The generation after them will be glad you did. (read more…)
If you’re like most of us, you see people get promoted over your head that are less talented and less capable. This is particularly frustrating when you’re trying to make the tough leap from a management to a leadership position.
What have the folks getting promoted over you have learned that maybe you haven’t? That a strong leadership presence is one of the keys to being hired into the executive and C-suite ranks. And that your leadership presence is at the core of your Invisible Resume that helps you land the executive job, and succeed once you’re there.
In this three-part video series, I cover several diverse aspects of your Invisible Leadership Resume, your global perspective and your leadership presence and your authentic leadership style.
Part II: Develop Your Leadership Presence
Your leadership presence may not be what you think it is. It’s not about what you do, it’s about how others feel when they interact with you. (read more…)
Part 1 of this series, “The state of K-12 education is miscommunication,” described how two recent conferences illustrate the divide in American K-12 education between education professionals and those outside the field. This post looks at the educator’s perspective and offers advice for all sides moving forward.
The educators I talk to speak mainly about their passion for helping young minds find a love of learning. They also talk of feeling stressed out, juggling too much responsibility, fearing layoffs, being required to practice methods they don’t support and having criticism heaped on them from every quarter — whether it be unsupportive parents, critical administrators and education vendors who fail to provide adequate product training.
Educators are developing a bunker mentality from feeling constantly under siege. We are in a new era of accountability in K-12 education, and many educators feel that the criteria for success are arbitrary, measure the wrong things, and — in the worst cases — are bad for kids. (read more…)
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. (If you missed my colleague James daSilva’s excellent coverage of the K-12 education and workforce track, you can read it.) It was fascinating, and a bit disorienting, to hear some of the wealthiest people in the country talking about issues I think about every day: namely, the state of K-12 education and the training and preparation of the next generations of the American workforce.
My next stop was the Software & Information Industry Association Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco, where I joined professional peers in hearing product-development news from some of the smartest minds in education. The two events were alike in theme but strikingly different in tone. The big take-away from hearing about the state of American education from education professionals versus non-education professionals is that the two groups appear to be talking past each other. (read more…)
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