1138 Posts Found

The man who can think but does not know how to express what he thinks is at the same level as he who cannot think.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Communication, Leadership, Thought

The sum of virtues, values and traits equals good character, which, in addition to competence and commitment, is one of the 3 ingredients that make a leader effective and respected. For many, however, virtues, values and traits remain indefinable, even elusive. These authors not only define them, they also de-construct them, in the process demonstrating how character fuels people in their personal journeys to become … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Gerard H. Seijts, Jeffrey Gandz, Mary Crossan | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Leadership

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.

Content: Quotation | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Leadership, Management

All around us there is a breakdown of values […] It is not just the […] overpowering greed that pervades our business life. It is the fact that we are not willing to sacrifice for the ethics and values we profess. For an ethic is not an ethic, and a value not a value without some sacrifice to it. Something given up, something not taken, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Ethics, Integrity, Leadership, Values

A lot of folks whom I talk to speak wistfully about what they would do if they were “in charge.” I’ve got news for them: If they’re willing to be in charge, people will put them in charge!

People are fascinated by folks who are willing to carry responsibility. All too often, people add their own burdens to those that their leader must already carry—but, in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Seth Godin | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

Examples of people who lead in good times and make things better are rare.

Content: Quotation | Author: Harriet Rubin | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Leadership

For various reasons, the management challenges ahead will require the skills of a collaborative leader. Many leaders, however, lack the required skills to collaborate meaningfully. Readers will learn what those skills are and how they can develop them in this article.

Content: Article | Author: Rick Lash | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Leadership

Are you a servant leader or a self-serving leader? Self-serving leaders are driven people, and driven people think they can own everything—possessions, wife, kids, everything. If you try to give a self-serving leader feedback, he’ll kill the messenger; they see it as a threat to their position. Servant leaders, on the other hand, are not driven but called. They are people who think everything’s on … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ken Blanchard | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subject: Leadership

By eliminating the bottom 10 percent every year, you’re losing a tremendous investment, because these people could change places and be used in other ways. You’re also sending the message up and down the line that your company is a military hierarchy. The Welch paradigm is, after all, a military paradigm; it is a Norman Schwarzkopf paradigm. What’s the difference between them? None to speak … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ricardo Semler | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subjects: Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

In his book The Will to Lead, Marvin Bower urges senior managers to abandon command-and-control structures and adopt a program to develop leaders, starting with themselves. In this excerpt, he explores the attributes of leadership.

Editor’s Note: for someone of the author’s experience and reputation, I expected more from this piece. I am not saying there isn’t anything of value, but much of it is … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Marvin Bower | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Let’s look more closely at the leadership versus management debate. […] [John] Kotter sees managers as being the ones who plan, budget, organize, and control, while leaders set direction, manage change, and motivate people. [Warren] Bennis views managers as those who promote efficiency, follow the rules, and accept the status quo, while leaders focus on challenging the rules and promoting effectiveness. Needless to say, I … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Julian Birkinshaw | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Leadership, Management

This article introduces cognitive ambidexterity, the way of thinking and acting that underlies entrepreneurial leadership. Cognitive ambidexterity presumes two different approaches to thought and action: prediction logic and creation logic. To be an effective entrepreneurial leader, one must be skilled in both prediction and creation logics and be able to cycle between them.

Content: Article | Author: Heidi Neck | Source: Babson | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Leadership

For executive leaders, character is framed by drive, competence, and integrity. Most senior executives have the drive and competence necessary to lead. But too often organizations elevate people who lack the moral compass. I call them “destructive achievers.” They are seldom evil people, but by using resources for no higher purpose than achievement of their own goals, they often diminish the enterprise. Such leaders seldom … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Warren Bennis | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Character, Integrity, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Action, Career, Leadership, Management

A leader’s failure to walk the talk is, arguably, especially conspicuous if that leader fails to make good on his or her talk about innovation. The promise to focus on innovation ends right there, with a promise. The inability or unwillingness to follow through on the promise creates what these authors call an Innovation Gap. In this article they suggest how leaders can close that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Claude Legrand, David S. Weiss | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Innovation, Leadership

Having interviewed many leaders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, I’m often asked, “What makes a great leader?” Specific characteristics may vary by industry and context, but one that consistently shines through is the ability to pose meaningful—and sometimes deceptively simple—questions. Here are six that apply to anyone hoping to hone his or her leadership acumen and impact.

Content: Article | Author: Eric McNulty | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Leadership, Management

It is practically a given that a company should have a formal vision statement. Like any leadership tool, it is only effective if it is done right. Research over the past three decades has consistently demonstrated that a vision statement can improve organizational performance as well as individual follower performance, but only if the vision contains certain characteristics.

Content: Article | Author: Shelley Kirkpatrick | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Have you ever worked for an organization where you doubted the leadership capability of your CEO, managing director, division president, or agency head? Have you ever been disturbed that your organization is not living up to its full potential in terms of its enterprise-wide performance management? Imagine that I am media journalist. How would you like to work for an organization whose leader answered my … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Gary Cokins | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Quiet managers strengthen the cultural bonds between people, not by treating them as detachable “human resources” (probably the most offensive term ever coined in management, at least until “human capital” came along), but as respected members of a cohesive social system. When people are trusted, they do not have to be empowered.

Content: Quotation | Author: Henry Mintzberg | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management

Nothing challenges leadership as much as managing the balance between the yeses—which everyone is happy to add to the balance sheet—and the nos, which no one ever volunteers for.

Content: Quotation | Author: Andrew S. Grove | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Leadership