Leadership

Leading into the Unknown

How a retired army major's Adaptive Leader Methodology can teach anyone about how to lead and manage others.

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Learning to Delegate to Employees

The first person you have to convince that your small business can run without you is you.

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People Don't Hate Change, They Hate How You're Trying to Change Them

People don’t hate change; they hate corporate change programs. How can we fix that? By Michael T. Kanazawa

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Benjamin Zander on Leadership

Here Benjamin Zander delivers a nice insight in to what makes well-performed classical music a sublime aesthetic experience.  But what impressed me so much about Zander's talk was his message of leadership being about making eyes bright.  This is a truly moving TED talk, and an informative one as well.

(Video )

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How to Develop Your Management Goals

If leadership development is where you're heading, here are some detailed steps to take.

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Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon: Leadership in a Decentralized Company

Consumers tend to associate Johnson & Johnson with Band-Aids and baby shampoo, but those well-known products are only part of a much larger picture, according to William Weldon, chairman and CEO of the New Brunswick, N.J.-based firm. In fact, Weldon has the mind-boggling task of overseeing more than 200 operating companies across three sectors, including consumer products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. On June 18, Weldon spoke at the 2008 Wharton Leadership Conference about the challenges of running the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, he elaborated on how J&J's decentralized structure informs his leadership style and what he sees as key issues for the health care industry in the coming decade, among other topics.

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Get out from behind your desk to survive the downturn

Chatting to your team about how things are going can easily fall by the wayside in a downturn as everyone simply scrambles for results. But if you want to ride out a slowing economy, walking about and reassuring your employees needs to become more important than ever.

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How to be a good manager: Be generous

[T]he first rule, and probably the only rule of management, is to be respectful.

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H-P's Ann Livermore Keeps Eye on 'Team'

02 JUN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

[D]espite deals that cut into her territory, she keeps her focus on the big picture, on the challenges at hand, and on new opportunities for growth. It's all part of knowing that "business is a team sport," she says. That sentiment isn't common among business leaders these days. Many senior executives are more focused on their individual well-being than on furthering their company's goals. They're quick to jump to new employers when they don't feel appreciated. (Subscription required)

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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Why Failures Can Be Such Success Stories

Many great business leaders have faced failure at some point in their careers. Psychology experts say they share a learnable trait called self-efficacy.

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Yes, It Really is That Simple

The contrast between the scene at the Southwest gathering and the American Airlines shareholders’ meeting, held just an hour earlier down the road in Dallas, is striking. While attendees of the AA meeting had to cross a picket line of angry members of the flight attendants’ and pilots’ unions (customers soured on the airline’s recent announcement of a $15 charge for checked baggage presumably hadn’t had time to organize yet), Southwest’s pilots not only joined other shareholders in giving the departing chairman a rousing standing ovation, they took out a full-page ad in USA Today celebrating Kelleher. It was, as Nocera puts it, "the love fest to end all love fests."

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Art of Persuasion Becomes Key

19 MAY 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Managers say they increasingly must influence -- rather than command -- others in order to get their own jobs done. The trend is the result of leaner corporate hierarchies and the erosion of division walls. Managers now work more often with peers where lines of authority aren't clear or don't exist. (Subscription required)

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Being a CEO has its perks, but tenure isn't one of them

11 MAY 2008 from the Boston Globe | Read the full story»

The tenure of chief executives, those richly compensated princes riding herd on America's publicly traded companies, ranks among the shortest of any professional group. And it's continuing to be whittled down, according to recent data from consulting firms. Forty percent last no more than two years in the corner office.

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The secret of enduring greatness

21 APR 2008 from Fortune | Read the full story»

In an age of turmoil, corporate stars rise and fall. How many will survive? A bestselling management expert makes the case for well-founded hope.

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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How to Make Meetings Matter

They're a crucial part of the business process, but if your meetings are planned on autopilot, you're probably not sending the right message.

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Can anyone run Citigroup?

21 APR 2008 from Fortune | Read the full story»

We know this banking giant is too big to fail. But is it also too big to manage?

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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Keeping Morale Up in a Downturn

Business Week Columnists Jack & Suzy Welch say that by leaving your people out of the loop, you risk losing the trust and positive energy your company needs now, more than ever. (Audio)

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How a Pope Leads

The transformation from Cardinal to Pope is not so different from what business leaders experience when they assume a top job.

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Saatchi & Saatchi's Kevin Roberts: 'It's All about Getting to the Future First'

Kevin Roberts has been CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi since 1997, and in the space of 11 years has cemented the ad agency's reputation as one of the most successful and creative companies in the industry. Roberts is perhaps most well known for an idea he came up with called "lovemarks" -- which means creating a brand for which the consumer has "loyalty beyond reason." During a visit to campus last week, he talked with Knowledge@Wharton about lovemarks and other initiatives. In addition, as part of the Wharton Leadership Lecture series, he spoke about the skills needed to be a successful marketer, what consumers really want, his personal management style and the need to have a dream.

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The trouble with Steve Jobs

05 MAR 2008 from Fortune | Read the full story»

Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk.

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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The man who must keep Goldman growing

05 MAR 2008 from Fortune | Read the full story»

Lloyd Blankfein has a lot on his mind. The chief of Wall Street's most successful investment bank has to outsmart treacherous markets while balancing the firm's interests with those of its clients.

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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Speed Is Key Question As New CEOs Remake Team

10 MAR 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Determining whether and when to replace lieutenants is a key decision for new managers. Timing is critical. Move too fast and managers risk dumping valuable institutional memory. But move too slow and they may delay much-needed changes. (Subscription required)

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Driving Lessons: Dieter Zetsche's Experiences behind the Wheel of Daimler-Chrysler and Beyond

The toughest leadership task for Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, was engineering last year's breakup of Daimler and Chrysler. But the experience taught him valuable lessons, such as the importance of making timely decisions and the need to avoid information overload. Leadership, Zetsche told his audience during a recent Wharton leadership lecture, isn't always "fun and games."

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Dee Dee Myers: 'Why Women Should Rule'

A former White House press secretary for President Bill Clinton makes the case for the talents and skills of women in her new book. Dee Dee Myers looks at women in leadership roles -- and how their choices differ from men. (Audio)

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Buffett's Plan for Successful Succession

Drucker would applaud Berkshire Hathaway's leader, whose approach to finding a replacement is rational, virtuous, and free of "force, fraud, or favoritism."

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A Little Tough Talk Can Carry the Day

12 MAR 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Maybe it's time for more corporate bosses to cut loose. Too many strong-willed chairmen and chief executive officers have lost the power of the bully pulpit, for fear of saying anything controversial in public. (Subscription required)

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The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage

07 MAR 2008 from ChangeThis | Read the full story»

I want to share something with you I’ve learned over the last decade of my life that I believe can be as helpful to you as it has been to me. In a nutshell, one of the most powerful and least understood aspects of business is how an emotional connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage. Unless the people who are part of a business feel a sense of connection –an emotional bond that promotes trust, cooperation and esprit de corps – they will never reach their potential as individuals, nor will the organization.

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Corporations threaten democracy

Commentator Charles Handy says American corporations are run more like totalitarian states than pillars of democracy. He hopes they can restore their reputations as forces of economic good. Last in a series.

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Taking Work-based Learning to the Next Level

In the mid-1990s, a new C-suite title was born when General Electric CEO Jack Welch dubbed Steve Kerr the company's "chief learning officer." Since then, CLOs have sprouted up at major firms in several industries. But what does this new breed of "learning leaders" bring to the table that traditional human resources departments and employee training programs do not? How does an increased emphasis on learning improve an organization? And do new technologies, like distance learning, simulations and online portals, enhance or impede work-based education? To answer these questions, Knowledge@Wharton spoke with Ed Betof, former vice president of talent management and CLO at Becton, Dickinson and Company, who is a senior fellow and academic director of Wharton Executive Education's Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership; Mike Barger, vice president and CLO at JetBlue University; and Ann Schulte, vice president of global learning at MasterCard Worldwide.

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Bridging Your Goals with Their Goals: A 'Context-driven Approach to Leadership'

While changing jobs and shifting careers is hardly unusual in today's business world, Russ Palmer is somewhat unique in that he has been the leader of three very different organizations over the past several decades. He was CEO of Touche Ross (now Deloitte & Touche) for 10 years, dean of Wharton for seven years, and now owner, chairman and CEO of The Palmer Group, a corporate investment firm. Each of these positions required very different skills and the ability to adapt to a unique set of challenges -- what Palmer calls "a context-driven approach to leadership." In his new book, Ultimate Leadership: Winning Execution Strategies for Your Situation, Palmer describes how today's leaders can adapt to, and succeed in, any business environment.

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You Can't Learn Management in a Classroom

25 JAN 2008 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

A leading management thinker argues that MBAs need more real business world experience in their education.

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The essential job of a leader

How do you learn to lead in the world of high-stakes corporate affairs? Author Warren Bennis says it all comes down to one thing: Good judgment. He talks with Kai Ryssdal about his new book. (Audio)

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New Challenges in Leading Professional Services

The book's "integrated leadership model" is built on 4 management activities: setting direction, gaining commitment to the direction, execution, and setting a personal example.

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John Morgridge, Former President, CEO and Chairman of Cisco Systems

John Morgridge was the 34th employee at Cisco Systems when he joined as President and CEO in 1988. Morgridge joined the company despite its notoriously toxic culture and revenue of only $5 million annually. By the time Morgridge concluded his tenure as CEO in 1995, he had grown sales to over $1 billion and 2,250 employees worldwide. (Audio)

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Management Leaders Turn Attention to Followers

24 DEC 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

In "Followership," a book being published this winter, Ms. Kellerman argues that a big organization's fate can be surprisingly dependent on how well it understands thousands of low-ranking employees, and makes them more effective... Among these authors' precepts: companies should look for passionate employees, keep them informed and give them room to carry out useful projects. (Subscription required)

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Ownership: The Ultimate Motivator

Encouraging employees to take ownership of their work will result in better customer service and a stronger company.

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The Learning Glass Ceiling (or, is your leader a Know it All?) – Part 1

Working as a consultant with senior leaders in major corporations for the last 25 years I’ve observed a disturbing pattern: once they get to the top (CEO and other C-suite level positions), many of them refuse to participate in learning...

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Guest essay from Ram Charan

We're pleased to feature an essay from Ram Charan, author of Leaders at all Levels. Here, Charan discusses the impact profit and loss has on the balance sheet and overall health of an organization, especially when a leader is...

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Manager's Diary: The New Guard Weighs In on Women in Leadership

Being in charge isn't nearly the daily battle it was for women of her mother's generation, but this 34-year-old sales director says there are still plenty of challenges.

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Military vs. MBA

"We find that military people really understand managing multiple priorities, and overall customer satisfaction. They have a real go-get-it attitude. They are self-starters who won't leave until the job is done right."

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Teaching The Moral Leader

What do Sir Thomas More, Chinua Achebe, and Sophocles have to offer today's business leaders? For MBA students in HBS professor Sandra Sucher's course, The Moral Leader, great literature helps them find their own definition of moral leadership.

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Breaking the Grass Ceiling Coaching High-School Football

Susan Myers quit her job as an investment banker and became one of the nation's few female high-school football coaches.

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Tough CEOs Often Most Successful, a Study Finds

19 NOV 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

What are the traits that chief executives of successful companies share? A new study suggests that hard-nosed personal virtues such as persistence and efficiency count for more than "softer" strengths like teamwork or flexibility. (Subscription required)

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Leadership: Watch for Reactions

Carl Bass of AutoDesk was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that when he became CEO, "My IQ jumped 10 points and I became much funnier." What Bass discovered is that proximity to power can have unintended effects on people.

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Creating a Turbo-Charged Work Force

In part 1 of a 3-part series, learn how to make work feel like play for your employees.

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C.E.O. Evolution Phase 3

10 NOV 2007 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Now, management experts and longtime watchers of corporate America say the current environment demands, and is attracting, yet another kind of chief executive: the team builder. (Subscription required)

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Lessons in Shakespeare, From Stage to Boardroom

13 NOV 2007 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Shakespeare has been a staple of management training for a long time. But only in the last few years have programs been started that use Shakespeare’s works to teach chief executives the vulnerabilities to which the powerful are susceptible. (Subscription required)

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Magic Shop

"You get a different view from the ground floor than from the corner office." Alex Frankel, author, Punching In

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Developing the 3-Dimensional Leader

Too many leaders today are one-dimensional, narrowly focused on business results. Today’s complex business challenges require the full development and expression of a leader’s capabilities; we need three-dimensional leaders!

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Google Goes Globe-Trotting

12 NOV 2007 from Newsweek | Read the full story»

To train a new generation of leaders, the search giant sends young brainiacs on a worldwide mission.

Hat tip: John Battelle's Searchblog

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Corporations Slow to Groom Successors

Citigroup and Merrill Lynch recently announced that their CEOs were stepping down but neither had an immediate replacement in sight. Succession is not an event but a process that takes place over a number of years, experts say, because of the scale and scope of major corporations. (Audio)

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Leadership, Patagonia-style: Changing the Criteria for Success

Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, pulled no punches with the audience attending her recent Wharton Leadership Lecture. Tompkins said that when she began working full-time at Patagonia in 1972, she didn't understand how the actions of the business world as well as the behavior of individuals "affected the very underpinnings" of the individual, the family and the community. "You know that now," she said, and "the choices you make count more and more." People who can manage "the tough decisions and incorporate" difficult issues into their lives, she said, "are the future leaders."

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A Different Animal Seeks The Chief Executive Post

The gap between No. 1 and No. 2 in a company is often bigger than many realize. Here's a look at some of their differing traits.

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The Seven Secrets of Inspiring Leaders

11 OCT 2007 from BusinessWeek via Yahoo! | Read the full story»

American business professionals are uninspired. Only 10% of employees look forward to going to work and most point to a lack of leadership as the reason why, according to a recent Maritz Research poll. But it doesn't have to be that way. All business leaders have the power to inspire, motivate, and positively influence the people in their professional lives.

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How to Identify Future Workplace Leaders

Up until fairly recently, most people subscribed to the idea that good leaders exhibited specific traits, such as charisma and gravitas, that inspired loyalty and hard work. It turns out that isn't true.

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Why We Can--And Should--Teach Leadership

05 OCT 2007 from Forbes | Read the full story»

Whether one is born a leader or not, I have no doubt that leadership can be taught. And, most importantly, it can be learned. The transformation of EMBA programs now focusing on real-life leadership scenarios has taken the degree from a launching pad for success to a simulation of real-world challenges, preparing executives for the day-to-day operation of a business.

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Define Yourself--or Others Will

BusinessWeek columnists Jack & Suzy Welch say that you should never let the members of your team guess about your principles or why you make tough calls the way you do.

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Sometimes, Moving Up Makes It Harder to See What Goes On Below

15 OCT 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

The higher executives climb, the less likely they are to know what is and isn't working at their companies. Many are surrounded by yes people who filter information; others dismiss or ignore bearers of bad news. (Subscription required)

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It’s Not About You

AUG 2007 from the Stanford Graduate School of Business | Read the full story»

The minute you move from being a task-oriented professional to being a manager of people, it stops being about your individual talents, your successes, and starts being all about coaching, motivating, teaching, supporting, removing roadblocks, and finding resources for your employees. Leadership is about celebrating their victories and rewarding them; helping them analyze when things don’t go to plan.

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Can't Run, Can't Hide: New Rules of Engagement for Crisis Management

The corporate apologies are piling up. Mattel CEO Robert Eckert apologized on September 12 for lead paint found in millions of the company's toys. TD Ameritrade CEO Joe Moglia apologized on September 14 for a database breach. Apple CEO Steve Jobs apologized on September 6 for cutting the price of the high-end iPhone. Dell executives apologized in August for delayed deliveries of certain models. Jetblue apologized in February for canceling flights leaving passengers stranded during an ice storm. While executives moved quickly to stem damage to their companies' reputations, it takes more than speed to manage a crisis. As Wharton experts and others point out, the rules governing crisis management have changed.

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This Is Your Brain on the Job

20 SEP 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Neuroscientists are finding that business leaders really may think differently. (Subscription required)

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The Issue: A.G. Lafley's Judgment Call

13 SEP 2007 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

A.G. Lafley, Chairman and CEO of Procter&Gamble, skipped over 78 general managers with more seniority in making a key staff appointment without even consulting the rest of his management team. Lafley says “there was almost a revolt” over his decision. What could Lafley do to win back the support of his team and engage them in a process that was just about completed?

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Leadership: Lasting Lessons

So what can a retired collegiate football coach who has not coached a game since the 1989 season teach us about leadership? Plenty, if you are Bo Schembechler, head coach at the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1989.

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High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet

Why would a business school professor want to write a case study about a string quartet? The answer was easy for Robert Austin, a scholar with research expertise in the management of innovation... It seemed a perfect opportunity to explore the process of creative collaboration, a central theme not just in music but in knowledge-intensive businesses.

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Why is Everyone Smiling?

One of Paul’s key management practices is "Employees should always expect fun just around the corner." Below are ten practices Paul believes can ensure that fun is just around the corner for employees. You’d be wise to read them and act upon them.

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Have Strong Opinions...But Be Willing to Change Them

"Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American author, minister, & activist

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Talking with the Receptionist, Pausing When You Speak and Other Secrets of Leadership Success

"[A] receptionist is a corporate concierge. They will talk to more important people in a day -- suppliers, customers, even CEOs -- than you will talk to all year." Harrison, speaking at the recent 11th annual Wharton Leadership Conference, contends that small acts like this are part of what makes for an ethical corporate culture.

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The key to commitment

Forget all the management babble. According to new research, if you really want to create a successful, productive workplace, all you need to do is to build trust, a sense of purpose and strong human relationships.

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The Art and Science of Measuring CEO Performance

The long-term performance of a company's stock may be the ultimate test of a CEO's talents. But that's not the only measurement used by boards of directors to gauge how well the boss is doing. Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that companies use many different metrics -- all of which can be fine-tuned to fit a company's circumstances.

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A Vacationing Boss Should Take a Break; Let Staffers Step Up

20 AUG 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

It's vacation season -- but many executives not only limit themselves to breaks of just a few days, they also continue to check in with employees and issue directives from yachts, beaches and mountain resorts. Their refusal to turn off their cellphones and BlackBerrys means they are never relieved of work pressures no matter how remote or luxurious their vacation destinations. In addition, those executives who can't disengage from the office and delegate authority undermine employees' confidence to make decisions and be creative. (Subscription required)

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A love affair with micro-management

Most organisations have the wrong type of managers. They reward the wrong type of people for doing the wrong type of things. Yes, despite all the damage they do, organisations still seem to have a love affair with micro-managers.

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How Much Does the President Really Matter?

Studies show that individual CEOs and baseball managers have less of an effect on their organization's performance than conventional wisdom assumes. So couldn't the same logic be applied to the President?

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Leading for the Next Act: Why CEOs Must Evolve or Step Aside

The secret to long-term CEO success, according to David Nadler, is conceiving of a CEO's tenure as a performance with a series of distinct acts. "Each act requires the CEO to lead, think and behave in fundamentally different ways. The successful ones are those who are able to make the transitions," says Nadler, a consultant to boards and senior executives, who spoke during the recent 11^th annual Wharton Leadership Conference.

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The Right and Wrong Way To Critique Employees

Punishing a worker is one of the most difficult aspects of being a manager. See these five strategies for delivering effective, even-handed evaluations.

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How Will Millennials Manage?

There seems to be a fixation these days on millennials as employees. But what kind of managers will they make?

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Niall Ferguson on history and business leadership

Professor Niall Ferguson tells Des Dearlove why an ability to think historically and make sense of the past is an indispensable business skill and why leaders have to acknowledge their fallibility.

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Behind Microsoft's Bid To Gain Cutting Edge

30 JUL 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

As the man designated to replace Bill Gates as Microsoft Corp.'s long-term strategic thinker, Craig Mundie is at the center of a daunting corporate challenge: positioning the company to survive and thrive in the post-Gates era. (Subscription required)

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Attitude is Contagious

We implemented an "I caught you doing something good" policy in her division. Nothing like hearing that from your boss, right? Their collective attitude changed. They’re now speaking to the best in each other and getting more of it.

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How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater?

[Pfeffer] concludes that it may be quite important for leaders to perpetuate the myth of having significant control over performance. As employees, we expect it of our leaders. In our behavior, we defer to leaders. And that reinforces their tendency to act like what we expect of leaders. According to this line of thinking, it may require that a leader act out the role, concealing real feelings in the process. In short, it suggests that some part of leadership is theater that perpetuates the half-truth that leaders are indeed in control.

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Leaders with Disabilites

Why is it that we do not see more CEO's and Presidents of companies with disabilities? Is it because they don't exist or are they not disclosing? Is it because, as a world, we are still un-accepting of disabilities and the ability of those who have them to lead?

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Talking leadership

If you haven't discovered our Working Week podcasts yet, now is a good time to start. This week our host and columnist, Wayne Turmel, is joined by Chetan Dhruve to discuss his contentious theory that all bosses are, by definition, programmed to be dictators. (Audio)

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Lead Like Fonzie

As a leader, how should you behave in a stressful situation that affects your whole team?

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Be Sure You Really Want Honest Answers

MAY 2007 from Stanford Graduate School of Business | Read the full story»

Business leaders—CEOs especially—need help from everyone around them. A leader’s success depends on getting honest answers, Bewkes said.

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Overseeing Workers Who Are Closer in Age to Your Parents

Twentysomething bosses often must make an extra effort to earn the respect of older employees who report to them. Here's how to assert authority without ruffling feathers.

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One Firm's Mission: Coaching Men on How to Mentor Women

A senior partner at a large accounting firm discusses training men to help women advance in their careers.

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Careers: Lessons from LeBron James and Michael Jordan on Teamwork

I think we’d all agree that Michael Jordan wasn’t surrounded by great players. Yet he still won six titles. If the "no I in team" adage is accurate, how did he win? I’d like to think part of his success was based on his greatness, but I’d also like to think part of his success was based on the fact that everyone on the team knew, embraced, and refined their roles.

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How Successful Leaders Think

JUN 2007 from the Harvard Business Review | Read the full story»

We look for lessons in the actions of great leaders. We should instead be examining what goes on in their heads—particularly the way they creatively build on the tensions among conflicting ideas. (Subscription required)

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The New ‘Age’ of Leadership: The Power and Practices of Maturity by Harriet Rubin

What do Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdock have in common with Titian and Bach? Just as artistic skill is honed over years of hard work and many a masterpiece was created late in an artist’s life, these Late-Style leaders are rejuvenating leadership instead of handing off their power.

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People Tend to Support What They Help to Build

People tend to support what they help to build, so how do you translate mandate, focus, and vision for an organization into projects that engage staff as key players in the future success of each one?

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Business leaders take a dim view of HR

Although people issues dominate the business agenda across the globe, few business leaders think that their human resources teams are up to the task of delivering on key strategic challenges.

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Why We Can Manage Staffs But Not Our Own Families

A common mistake is thinking that practices used in the office will work just as well at home, says Jared Sandberg.

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Ten universal principles of the workplace

What it is that makes an excellent workplace? The answer could fill a library, but I also believe that some central truths exist that apply to just about any business.

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Boards flex their muscles as CEO turnover stays high

Boards are now quick to replace underperforming CEOs and are focusing more on grooming in-house leaders as those imported from outside continue to disappoint.

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Please don't tell me to improve communication

I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone in an organization say: "Our communication needs to improve." Although it may well be true, that's about as useful as standing in the rain saying, "our clothes are getting wet."

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Leadership strategy

There's a natural lifespan for human beings which seems to be accompanied by a natural leadership span. That's why top managers are seldom as effective in their older years.

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Seeking a New Company Leader, Some Boards Skip the Top Dogs

When one firm set out to replace its CEO, directors passed over certain contenders as too expensive, identified back-up candidates and hired lawyers to negotiate details, says Joann S. Lublin.

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Lead well and prosper

Managers need all the help they can get. And one of the best ways you can help yourself as a manager is getting back to basics. Focusing on these 15 fundamentals will help you thrive in these challenging times.

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Which flavour are you?

If you've ever wondered what your employees were saying or thinking about you, Bossbitching.com could give you some clues.

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Company Leaders Are Spending More Quality Time With Customers

Making the standard yearly visit to only big clients is no longer sufficient for maintaining business relationships, says Carol Hymowitz.

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Workplace Loyalties Change, but the Value of Mentoring Doesn't

In Homer's poem "The Odyssey," Odysseus had a tough time finding his way home after the Trojan War, what with all those monsters threatening to derail his journey. But Odysseus at least had left a wise and trusted fellow named Mentor to be the guardian and teacher of his son, Telemachus. Modern employees need mentors as much as Telemachus, especially in these times of upheaval.

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Talent shortage? How to win with what you've got

In a tight talent market, most of us don't have the luxury of moving along those "less spectacular" performers. So we have to learn to work effectively with what we have. Here's how.

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New Study Reveals Why Meetings Are So Unbearable

Interruptions, cell-phone use, and a lack of bathroom breaks are among the many complaints.

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The Key to Managing Stars? Think Team

What contributes to an individual's ability to remain a star? To what extent does past star performance predicate future star performance? And to what extent does a key organizational factor—colleague quality—help or hinder the ability to sustain star performance?

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The Hitmen

"Leaders create conditions for people to succeed."

-John Baldoni, Leadership Consultant

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The New Breed of CEO: Lower Profile, Shorter Leash

Three new big-company leaders represent a post-revolutionary generation of power in corporate America.

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Can a Business Be Run As a Corporate Democracy?

Operating a company democratically sounds like a recipe for anarchy but one software firm's leaders insist that it works.

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Fast Talk: Threat Reduction

"Authentic leaders understand that leading is about serving others."

-Bill George , Professor at Harvard Business School

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Directors Now Favor Internal Candidates for CEO Positions

Directors are increasingly looking within their company's ranks for CEOs.

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Recognition Makes Dollars and Sense

Leaders need to show support for their people. Recognition for a job well done is a leadership mandate.

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Marshall Goldsmith on executive coaching

Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world's best known ? and best paid ? executive coaches, talks to Des Dearlove about his methods and how he helps successful leaders get better.

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CEO Forum: Microsoft's Ballmer having a 'great time'

It's a good thing that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has so much energy.

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Being a Servant

Let me begin with our office setting: If you haven't heard about our work environment (or have yet to stop by and say hi), here's an introduction.

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Change management a growing headache