Eclectic Change

Rethinking Leadership

The first follower is an underestimated leader. To be a leader - you may have to be the first follower. The populous believes that you can't be a leader without having followers.  I hate this premise - even if I don't have a good argument to dismiss it. While watching people trying to figure out how to get home in spite of all the airplanes not flying due to volcanic ash, it was clear there was no leader of the pack. Nor was it any individual frenzy.  Everyone took personal responsibility f...

Case Study Humor: The New CEO

Morris had just been hired as the new CEO of a large high tech corporation. The CEO who was stepping down met with him privately and presented him with three envelopes number 1, 2 and 3. "Open these if you run up against a problem you don't think you can solve," the departing CEO said. Things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, sales took a downturn and Morris was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wit's end, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out...

Free Leadership Article Collection from MIT Sloan

MIT Sloan Management Review has chosen three recent leadership articles designed to help you address a number of common leadership challenges. In these challenging economic times, the effectiveness of leadership in corporations is increasingly becoming a source of concern. They claim that insights in this complimentary collection will help you make effective decisions about leadership recruitment, promotion and development strategies. MIT SMR De-Mystifying Leadership Collection, sponsored by He...

It is true: It is lonely at the top . . . but so what?

The Economist last week had an article entitled "Sympathy for the Boss".  It is a poor title for an interesting piece based on some of the findings of Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave in their book "The Secrets of CEOS: 150 Global Chief Executives Lift the Lid on Business, Life and Leadership".  Are we really suppose to care that around 50% of the chief executives interviewed said they found the job “intensely lonely” and did not know who to turn to for advice?  Perhaps not but the book (with a fore...

Be a Better Leader – HBR April Issue Online

Special limited time offer: Access the entire April issue of Harvard Business Review free of charge, this month at HBR.org. While the feature article on Google is an interesting read, we recommend Stewart D. Friedman's article (video below) and Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? by David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad: It’s a dirty little secret: Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone els...

Follow-up on Tolle: Who we choose to be in the world from a scientific perspective

I look closely when things appear coincidental for I suspect synchronicity is at play. Whether or not it is popular - I do believe that The Universe unfolds as it should. And so when the following 19 minutes video was sent to me, I paid attention. Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understandin...

A Personal Note . . . A New Earth

Each morning when I get up, I have the unique privilege of looking out my bedroom window to see if the Mont Blanc can been seen. It is only 100 km away and the weather has been excellent these past three days. I never cease to be amazed of its magnificence and I have been reminded of the work I am doing with Echart Tolle's "A New Earth". Tolle writes about flowers being the representatives of the spiritual realm. Due to their fragile and ethereal nature they represent one of the best access p...

Volunteer on your Vacation? Great idea but why can’t we find the same joy in our own work?

When the following Forbes article by Rebecca Ruiz "Eight Hot Spots For Volunteer Travel" arrived in my Outlook, I was intrigued. The teaser read: These trips will improve your cultural literacy and likely make you a better business leader. Could we be looking for something bigger than our daily lives and jobs? A Travelocity survey of 1,017 people in late 2007 found that 17.7% of respondents had previously taken a vacation with a volunteer or philanthropic component. Of those, trips with a foc...

Harvard Business Review Introduces Interactive Case Studies

For quite some time, HBR has offered some interesting case studies. A list in order of popularity can be found at this search. Traditionally, just four experts are invited to comment on the case. With the new interactive version however, HBR invites you to contribute your solution. Besides seeing this short introductory interview video with the author, you can read the case, and then: Contribute your commentary on the case Read others' contributions Compare your perspective with the exp...

CEOs’ Seven Common Leadership Complaints

BlessingWhite Press Release - October 16th, 2007 Chief Executives make seven classic complaints about their leadership team, according to BlessingWhite, a global consulting firm based in Princeton. The complaints are clear signs that the senior-management team is not functioning well, the firm said. "As a rule, such gripes or comments made by the President or Chief Executive Officer reflect underlying interpersonal issues confronting the leadership team," said BlessingWhite CEO Christopher Rice...