He or she is the leader who is constantly thinking about tomorrow – not the next week, the next month, the next quarter or even the next year. The future these leaders envision is the one they choose to create; their tomorrow will be a business ‘lotus land’ that is poles apart from an unwelcomed […] Read more… Read More»
I don’t need to look into a crystal ball to see what will be required of leadership in the 21st century. I only need to look around and see what is happening in the world right now. Driven by technology, our interconnection and inter-dependence as individuals, as companies, and as countries is expanding exponentially. Most […] Read more… Read More»
Thirty years ago, I first met Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Records. His reputation was reclusive, perhaps even aloof. People knew about him, but they didn’t know about him if you follow. I had directions on how to find his houseboat moored on a canal behind some trees in North London. It was a cold, still day […] Read more… Read More»
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am the crash-test dummy of careers. Waiter, CEO, nonprofit leader, salesman; teacher… My adult life has been rife not just with different jobs, but different careers. As long as I’m getting “my Three Things,” though, these various careers make sense – at least to me. […] Read more… Read More»
How do we mobilize people in new ways? The old way – give orders A NY Times article recently noted, ‘Beijing continues to practice the alchemy of authoritarianism.’ Good for the Chinese people who tolerate it and think it works! Trouble is, authoritarian works fine when things are growing – you can paper over the […] Read more… Read More»
To succeed in today’s competitive marketplace, organizations must give internal communication the priority that it deserves. They must view it as an avenue to release the creative genius of an organization, not as a bothersome chore. After all, communication acts as a powerful agent of change, a source of continuous improvement, and a catalyst for […] Read more… Read More»
You’ve probably heard the story of Mao Zedong, who when asked in the 1950’s about the impact of the French Revolution 150 years earlier, replied “It’s much too early to tell”. Apocryphal as the story may be, the perspective it affords on the future of leadership is a useful one: leadership is as leadership was. […] Read more… Read More»
We must evolve our leadership ability in our organizations. We have let the messiness of humanity get in the way of relating to employees as people. Take a look at HR policies that too often include a too long a list of don’ts that reject modern day realities. And let’s not forget that we’ve designed […] Read more… Read More»
“Culture trumps strategy.” Ever hear that one? It’s a notion that has been percolating in some business circles for a while now. As a proponent of the power of culture, I buy this claim implicitly, but it’s controversial as all hell – indeed, you may find yourself jeering at the soft-headedness of the idea even […] Read more… Read More»
Is the large corporation a relic of the 20th Century, destined for extinction? From the term popularized by science and, indeed, thrust into the mainstream by one line of Apple iPods, “nano” is a futuristic word for tiny. In science fiction, for instance, a “nano-bot” is a robot only several molecules large that can be […] Read more… Read More»
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