Link: http://www.thoughtleaders.com.au/who_are_we.html

Thoughts to definitely ponder on, especially over the coming weeks, when you should be able to take time out to contemplate your navel... OK, well 2009 then.
You will find additional reading for many of the points noted (italic's for your searching pleasure!) by searching the blog content as well.

here's a great list to start you on your way...
(thanks Matt)

With Christmas and the start to 2009 just around the corner, I wanted to leave you with my 21 tips on Thought Leadership, in no particular order.

1. Be inspired!
A fish rots from the head down. It's impossible to engage people to your great ideas if you are not turned on. Manage your state so that you choose to be the energetic leader in all things you do.

2. Be a Thought Leader!
A Thought Leader helps people to see information or data in a way that is engaging compelling and meaningful. Put effort into explaining ideas to others so they want to entertain change!

3. Discover genius in the gaps!
You have to take time to think. Innovation is a challenge when you brain is full of 'busy'ness. Nearly all great innovations and thoughts have happened in the gaps between doing. So take a walk, have a break, stare out a window.

4. Listen in layers!
All ideas and thinking can be divided into 3 layers, the content (detail) of the idea, the concept (purpose) of the idea and the context (big picture) of the idea. Listen to ideas and ensure you have the detail, the purpose and the big picture aligned.

5. Develop a bias for action!
Ideas, innovations and Thought Leadership can lead to a lot of talk. Get active. Ask at each stage ‘How does this advance this project?'

6. Learn as a teacher!
The quickest way to learn is to approach everything from the mindset of ‘How would I teach this to someone else?'

7. Eliminate the competition!
Small minds see competition, great minds see collaboration. Look for complimentary alliances with those who at first glance you see as competitors.

8. Think like a futurist!
Craig Rispin author of Think like a futurist suggests that we can all develop the skill of foresight. See the patterns in trends and activities and learn to be ahead of the curve.

9. Channel Surf!
People listen, learn ,engage and make decisions through thinking preferences. Understand your personal bias and learn to flex your communication so that more people get more of what you say more of the time.

10. 100% out 80% ready!
A perfection mindset prevents us from taking productive action. Today the ability to bring your ideas to fruition is key to moving from simple creativity to effective innovation. Read David Allens Get More Done.

11. Fail Fast!
Sometimes a great idea that fails is the stepping stone to a brilliant idea that flys. Be ready to quit on the ideas that don't work. Read Seth Godins book The Big Dip.

12. There is no wisdom in crowds!
Try to look for ways in which you may be blanding your idea by trying to make them popular. Read Peter Sheahans book FLIP .

13. Play to your strengths!
There is an effortlessness to working the way that works for you. Discover your strengths and use them for the good of the team. Read Strengths Finder by Tim Rath

14. Be a Cosmonaught!
Peter Ellyard's book Cowboys to cosmonaughts outlines the key to modern day collaboration. Cowboys are admired for their rugged individualism but a Cosmonaught achieves so much more by working with brilliant teams.

15. Run MAP sessions weekly!
Don't play to the weakest link in your team. Have weekly meetings where people review what they said they would do and whether they have or have not. As each week rolls by those who do do, those who don't resign. You need to participate in this equally that's why it's are called a Mutual Accountability Project Meeting.

16. Develop clear intentions!
You may not always have clarity about what to do next, but you can always have certainty. One is powered the INTENT and a sense of what you want to achieve. The rest is detail. With clear INTENT you can always make better decisions.

17. Create value or don't create!
If you are continuously asking the question ‘How does this add value to some one else?' your ideas will always be relevant and profitable. Don't create cures for diseases that don't exist. Innovation is not about cool ideas, its about ideas that are profitable.

18. Be a YES But, YES and person!
Advances in idea exist in two domains the contribution to an existing idea or the contradiction. Build your ideas on the shoulders of giants.

19. Give it away!
One of the most empowering mindsets for creativity is to imagine you gave away your core business for free. How would you then make money. This ground zero thinking forces innovation.

20. Lead, follow or get out of the way!
A leader has three imperatives: one, turn fear into confidence; two, create clarity from confusion; three, mobilise others to get things done.

21. Attend the Thought Leaders Annual Conference
Join like minded individuals at the phenomenal Annual Conference on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 February 2009 where the community of Thought Leaders will come together to create Better Thinking, Better Business and a Better World.

Matt Church
thought leaders

Link: http://www.bkconnection.com/thefivesecrets/

I received this the other day, and whilst there's nothing new offered (so hardly a secret!) and nor is it the usual aCE offering, it is rather timely to reflect on such matters, especially given the time of year... so I share this with you...

I usually don't pass along most of the stuff that I get via the Internet -- it's too much "stuff" and much of it is either negative or sappy (or both!). The following, however, made me think.

I do recommend that you take a look at this 4 minute flash movie, taken from (fellow Berrett-Kohler author) John Izzo's bestselling book, The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die

http://www.bkconnection.com/thefivesecrets/

I try to live my life with no regrets -- that, whenever possible, I say to another what needs to be said, so that, at the moment of my death (5 minutes or 5 decades from now), I will not be running around, wishing I had said X thing to Y person.

At the bottom line, each of us must ask ourselves: "Am I living my life through FEAR or through LOVE?" (Yes, love, as I write my umpteenth memo, plan the next series of meetings, or nurse last night's mosquito bites.) And, by "love" I do NOT mean "nice" or "sweet". Yes, love sometimes is nice and sweet -- and sometimes it is like the total stranger in Uganda, putting his arm around my neck and yanking -- pulling me out of the way of an oncoming truck. (And not sticking around for me to thank him.)

Am I living my fear, my anger, my frustration... or my love? It really is a choice.

Choose wisely.

Peace,

Sharif
www.commonway.org

Link: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,24608514-14741,00.html

AS the Australian economy tilts towards recession next year, it may be instructive for generation Y to see how they are viewed.

Over the last month, Bernard Salt has run two workshops designed to elicit intergenerational views in the workplace. In both instances, he asked participants more or less the same question: describe the attributes of the perfect employee or manager.

The question as to the perfect employee was put to a group of 40 generation X middle-level managers mostly aged 30-45.

He wanted to create a truly mythical beast: the perfect Gen Y employee. What would such a person look like? How would they behave?

The suggestions came thick and fast... read on

This is well worth a read, and one which surprised me a little.
Although when you think about it, this generation are not going anything that previous ones have not either; mainly around maturity and really appreciating and understanding how humans operate work places, and how you work your role within such places...

Link: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/halfdozentrends2009/

December 2008 | Yup, it’s that time of the year again: time for endless predictions of what’s going to happen in 2009, most of which are rather dark and gloomy with economies around the world going downhill. Fortunately, there are still plenty of trends out there that are begging to be applied profitably, both now and long-term.

and they consist of...
1. "Nichetributes" (low cost, practical tributes to the zeitgeist)
2. "Luxyoury" (in 2009, YOU define what constitutes luxury)
3. "Feedback 3.0" (think we've reached full transparency?)
4. "Econcierge" (savings are the new green)
5. "Mapmania" (why maps are the new interface)
6. "Happy Ending" (the silver lining of every downturn)

Well worth the continued read...Enjoy!
I suspect it will be worth bearing these in mind when pondering the 2009 strategy, and beyond...

Note: This is trendwatching.com's free end-of-year Trend Briefing, highlighting half a dozen consumer trends for 2009. For those of you who are truly, deeply into trends and crave dozens of trends, we recommend you check out our newly-released, 150+ page 2009 Trend Report. More here »

Link: http://archives.subscribermail.com/msg/d8d6d33e7f644d9ab64fe5ce4695fe78.htm

In this recent edition of the TP Times, Tom Peters and his team are taking on the intensely topical subject of performance measures and the impact they have on peoples' behavior. "What gets measured gets done" as Tom himself has argued on any number of occasions, so the judgement about what to measure is all-important. You only have to look at some of the questionable decisions that have been taken in financial institutions over the past 10 years to see that judgement gets clouded when you get the targets wrong!

Here's a number of points of view on the vexing question of how measures drive performance, and how getting that right leads to the kind of performance we want from our people ... or not!

Also perusing tompeters.com for Tom's commentary on the subject of performance turns up these blog entries:
"The rarest of gifts: THANK YOU!"

And, a more recent one, in which the debate centers on whether markets need regulation to control excessive behavior. Very stormy! "Musings"

All links are well worth the time to read on, albeit they don't take long, especially if you are going to use the forthcoming "quiet time" to review your current performance measures... even if they are your own personal performance measures!