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Do Leaders Have to Be Confident?
What's the role of confidence in leadership? Is it a requirement for being an effective leader? How confident…
Leadership
Most of the widely disseminated information on leadership is just plain fluff or borderline useless, disconnected from the reality of what practicing managers and leaders face on a daily basis.
I try to cut through the noise and uncover actionable, proven frameworks that lie further upstream.
99 posts
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Why Netflix Leads with Context not Control
Control was the dominant management paradigm in early twentieth century industrial factories. A century later, in many modern workplaces it…
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MBWA : The Lost Art of Managing by Wandering Around
Managing effectively using data is all the rage today. But most of it is shallow "hard data". The…
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Still In Search of Excellence — Attributes of the Best Run Companies
According to one estimate, around 12,000 business books are published every year. But back in 1982 this was not…
Why We Copy Leaders — A Complexity Point of View
Leaders are often cautioned to watch their actions and behavior because it sets an example and gets replicated through the…
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Warren Bennis on Self Invention and Authenticity in Leadership
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
— Leo Tolstoy
Leaders are often mentioned in…
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Leadership as More a Decision than Skill or Ability
The default way of looking at leadership ability is in terms of skill, style, or talent, which in turn drives…
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Gen. Stan McChrystal: The Leader as Gardener
How do you view your role of leader or manager? Is it as a chess master or a gardener?
The…
James MacGregor Burns on Self-Actualization, Self-Esteem and Effective Leadership
Can you teach leadership? What is the link between self-esteem, or the lack thereof, and effective leadership? What about Maslow&…
Creative Leaders vs Controlling Leaders
In his classic The Adult Learner, Malcolm Knowles makes the distinction between creative leaders and controlling ones. By understanding teams…
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Barbara Kellerman on the Blindspots of Leadership Courses and Programs
The leadership industry and its proponents (including yours truly) can almost come across as religious fanatics and preachers spreading the…
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The Case for Naive Leaders over Clever, Sophisticated Ones
Being naive has a default negative connotation —ignorant, uninformed, incredulous, or even incompetent. One class of people who exclusively avoid…