Leadership
Traveling ranks high among the best learning opportunities available. Crossing borders, oceans, and cultures naturally broadens our horizons as we are forcibly pushed out of our comfort zones. There is an excitement that stimulates our learning when confronted by new sights, sounds, and smells. For the traveler on vacation, the goal is often to fill the schedule to experience as many once in a lifetime moments as possible.
However, that is not necessarily the approach of the most seasoned of travelers, the travel writer. They do not book their journey just looking for the…
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Leadership
It hardly seems worth noting that the last four years have been turbulent. But a statement by the authors of the article, “The Five New Foundational Qualities of Effective Leadership,” in Strategy + Business did create a moment of pause. They stated, “numerous leaders who were at the top of the CEO succession list in 2019 are no longer deemed fit-for-purpose by company directors. In the 10 to 15% of organizations we have worked with in which the 2019 top successor is still viewed as the best choice, those executives have often made significant, overt shifts in…
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Leadership
Book stores are full of titles promising to provide the guaranteed formula for achieving success. Usually there are five to ten action items cleverly phrased to make them memorable because they are basically common sense ideas. Ron Friedman in Decoding Greatness focuses more on the process for discovering the formula. The book’s subtitle reveals his recommended approach – “How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success.”
Identifying someone who has become successful in an area you desire and carefully studying what makes them successful seems like another common sense idea. Friedman breaks down…
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Leadership
Every March, college basketball in the US takes center stage with a series of conference, regional, and finally national championship tournaments. Typically, following each game there is a quick interview with the winning coach and a player who performed exceptionally well. The interviews generally offer an opportunity to share the joy of the victor and hear some well worn post game cliches.
Sometimes it feels like the players have been watching each others’ interviews as certain terminology begins to be used over and over. My assumption is the players are often repeating what the…
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Leadership
Sports fans often believe they are just one superstar away from fielding a championship team. The same can be true for business executives. Some studies show that the “superstar” software engineer is 10 times more productive than the average one. And it is not uncommon for salespeople to deliver 2-3 times the results of their colleagues. It seems logical to recruit as many highfliers to your organization as possible.
However, some studies have discovered that too much talent can negatively affect performance. A Columbia University study made an important distinction from studying the impact…
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