Anyone taking the time to delve into the literature of strategy quickly realizes that there are two fiercely opposed camps.

In the red corner we have the “positioning school” (TPS) and in the white we have the “resource-based view of the firm” (RBV). Michael Porter is credited with (or more often accused of) creating TPS in 1980—positing that a firm should think about positioning itself in its industry in a way that enables it to achieve competitive advantage.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/strategy-is-about-both-resources-and-positioning

By becoming more strategic and operating with an edge, corporate HR departments can boost their effectiveness and shed their bureaucratic reputation.

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/getting_beyond_bureaucracy_in_human_resources

Anyone trying to come up to speed on emotional intelligence would have a pretty easy time of it since the concept is remarkably recent, and its application to business newer still.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/how-emotional-intelligence-became-a-key-leadership-skill

Of all the ways to test for emotional intelligence, the marshmallow test might be my favorite. You put a child in a room, set one marshmallow in front of her and explain that, if she’s able to wait 10 minutes before eating it, she’ll get an extra marshmallow to enjoy. Then you leave her alone.

If the child can hold off, it means she has is able to self-regulate — a key component of emotional intelligence. And, as psychologist Walter Mischel has famously shown, this translates into long-term benefits. Kids who delayed gratification at age four grew up to be more organized, efficient, dependable, resilient, and successful teenagers and adults.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/how-to-look-for-emotional-intelligence-on-your-team

Ask anyone in technology. Sometime soon, the world around us will be smart. Everything from mugs to mailboxes will be context-aware. Our email inboxes will guide us to the highest priority action items. Online investment portals will automaticallyadvise us to optimize our tax returns with the accuracy of the best financial advisor.

Despite the inevitability of this “smart” future, today only a small portion of businesses regularly merge data and physical products. Most large companies struggle to get the most out of the vast amounts of data they’ve collected. That’s because even after they determine the right ways to use information to delight their customers, managers must address one equally important challenge.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/old-management-systems-stifle-new-business-models

Conventional thinking has suggested that leadership positions go to those who aggressively plan their careers with a keen eye for building the right skills to reach top jobs. Others believe that leaders are born, not made. But according to research one of us (Julia) conducted for her book Pivot Points, the key differentiator between the career arc of someone who becomes a successful business leader and the average person is consistency in how the person makes major decisions.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/how-you-make-decisions-is-as-important-as-what-you-decide

You know the feeling: You’re about to give a big presentation (maybe it’s not even that big), and your nerves set in. You feel pressure in your chest. Your breathing gets shallow. Your blood pressure increases. And suddenly it seems inevitable that you’re going to mess this up — and everyone will see.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/conquer-your-nerves-before-your-presentation

Think about how challenging it would be to juggle a dozen balls at once. You’d have to keep your eye on all of them, and know when to catch each one. If you missed just one, this could spoil your whole performance.

Project management is similar to this. To complete a project successfully, you must control a large number of activities, and ensure that they’re completed on schedule. If you miss a deadline or finish a task out of sequence, there could be knock-on effects on the rest of the project. It could deliver late as a result, and cost a lot more. That’s why it’s helpful to be able to see everything that needs to be done, and know, at a glance, when each activity needs to be completed.

Gantt charts convey this information visually. They outline all of the tasks involved in a project, and their order, shown against a timescale. This gives you an instant overview of a project, its associated tasks, and when these need to be finished.

In this article, we’ll look at why they are so useful, and we’ll see how you can use them to organize projects and keep your team informed of progress.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_03.htm

This report summarises the theory and evidence behind asset-based approaches in health care and wellbeing and gives details of six case studies, describing these approaches in action. It sets out some of the opportunities and challenges in adopting asset-based approaches for improving health and wellbeing and explores some of the key principles for developing health assets and the evidence and mechanisms of impact on health outcomes of asset-based projects in the UK.

http://kingsfund.blogs.com/health_management/2015/04/head-hands-and-heart-asset-based-approaches-in-health-care.html

What does it take to create a successful management team?

The answer is complex, and everyone will have their own opinion. However, one thing is certain: the most effective management teams function as cohesive, cooperative units. Each person completes certain tasks or fills a specific role, and supports and complements the others within the group. Defining these roles, however, can be challenging.

In this article, we’ll look at the PAEI Model, which outlines four distinct roles that your management team needs in order to be successful.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/paei-model.htm