There are plenty of books and quite a few blogs that focus on good leadership. They talk about what needs to be done and when, they discuss decision making, strategy, team building and collaboration. But what about bad leadership? It seems that when it comes to bad leadership, there is very little to be found.
However, [...]
Almost 30 years ago, Michael Porter identified the five competitive forces that shape business strategy. This ground-breaking work was a holistic way of looking at industry/business. Porter focuses on the need to step back from the details of running your business so that you can identify the strategic objectives that will deliver value across your [...]
Leaders exist at all levels of an organization. From the newest interns to the most seasoned executives, leaders can be identified by their drive, their passion and their willingness to take responsibility. But sometimes a leader needs to be unearthed, provided with opportunity and given the support to express their “inner leader”. Others may have [...]
Seth Godin has an interesting post about the process of reading. He points out that there are important differences in the way that we read different types of books. Think about it yourself. When I read fiction I go along for the story. I want an experience that I cannot find anywhere else. But a [...]
In good times, it is rather easy to keep employees motivated to “ride the wave.” This goes without saying. However, business leaders are not hired to lead only during good times. In fact, true leadership reveals itself in times of difficulty. Martin Luther King Jr. put this perspective into great words when he stated, “The [...]
One aspect of leadership that is often overlooked in the rush to achieve quarterly or year-end results is succession. The myopia that can affect even the most experienced leaders can have a significant impact not only on personal, divisional or even company-wide performance — I believe it has the potential to affect entire industries.
Now, when [...]
Bad sight
Originally uploaded by rore
Are we, as business leaders, being driven to make decisions we might not otherwise make? What I mean by this is, are businesses, especially those that participate in the capital markets, making decisions that address short-term financial performance at the expense of looking at the long-term best interests of the company?
With [...]
My post on Comfortable Misery seems to have struck a chord with a number of people. Chris Young connects the impact that comfortable misery has not only on the individual but also on the company that they work for. Chas points out that it pays to do work that you love and Gattosan asks us [...]
mirror, mirror
Originally uploaded by Emu stardust
Tom Davenport writes a blog over at Harvard Business Online, called The Next Big Thing. His latest post talks about the Wall Street Journal’s Top 50 Business Gurus that I wrote about here, and responds to the criticism around the lack of women represented in the list. And while this [...]
misery at work
Originally uploaded by milktummy
When it comes to jobs, far too many people are in a state of comfortable misery. This is the state wherein, according to Daniel Johnston’s book Lessons for Living, “you are miserable, but you have gotten used to it.”
We all know the feeling of sticking with something beyond its productive [...]
