Showing results by author "Karen Dillon" in All Categories

Every organization has its share of political drama: Personalities clash. Agendas compete. Turf wars erupt. But you need to work productively with your colleagues - even difficult ones - for the good of your organization and your career. How can you do that without compromising your personal values? By acknowledging that power dynamics and unwritten rules exist - and navigating them constructively.

Clayton M. Christensen, the author of such business classics as The Innovator’s Dilemma and the New York Times best-seller How Will You Measure Your Life, and coauthors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon reveal why so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity and offers a groundbreaking solution for true and lasting change. 

On a recent business trip to London, I surprised the conference organizers by turning down the opportunity to stay at the posh hotel hosting the conference in favor of a rather modest Airbnb flat. The hotel was clearly much more luxurious. The flat would require me to take the tube or an Uber to the event. Who in their right mind would make such a choice?

When I first became a manager — an unexpected promotion soon after taking a new job — I found myself feeling awkward about the fact that I had been elevated above my peers. Still, my team was in the middle of a complex first-time project, so I wanted to impress my boss with my handling of it. My immediate instinct was to make it no one’s problem but mine. I worked longer hours and assigned myself all the tasks that I was afraid to ask my former peers to do.