Leadership

Effective sponsors can help catapult junior talent into top management tiers, and good proteges can greatly expand the reach and impact of senior leaders-but...

It's not the only startup to make that mistake.

Instead of focusing on who’s “ahead,” focus on who’s actually best-suited to the top job.

The corporate president stared out the window of his skyscraper office. His forehead was furrowed in anger and puzzlement. His fingers drummed the arm of his chair with a speed that signified intense frustration. The other executives in the room waited expectantly. Each had said his piece. Each had come to his and her own […]

Tell them a compelling story.

With nervous, but mostly eager, anticipation I walked up to the C-suite floor to meet with a senior manager at Merrill Lynch. When I'd initially met him...

Hitting the hiring bull’s-eye is one of an executive’s most important—and most difficult—responsibilities. Ten common mistakes can get in the way, but a pointed and systematic approach can virtually guarantee success.

Last week, there was a wonderful essay in The New York Times about a leadership program created by the old Bell System back in 1952. The all-powerful telephone company worried that its executives needed a broader perspective, not just on business but also on society, even life itself. “A well-trained man knows how to answer […]

On this blog, I’ve speculated on the factors that lead to highly talented women dropping out of their once-chosen careers and thus not being available to take the next step, leading to one consequence that these folks are not available in the pool of candidates for top jobs. With this as backdrop, it was fascinating […]

They keep things fresh and fair.

To get yourself and your team off to a good start for the new year, focus on progress. Our research discovered that fostering progress in meaningful work is the most important way to keep people highly engaged at work — even if that progress is a “small win.” We call this phenomenon the progress principle; […]

You never know what’s going to inspire you to think about leadership? In particular, I was surprised that a Dolly Parton record did it for me. Her new song, “Better Get to Livin’,” offers insights that every leader ought to keep at the ready. The song, the lead track of her latest album Backwoods Barbie, […]

Lt. Col. Todd Henshaw, director of leadership studies at the United State Military Academy at West Point, recently spent two months in Afghanistan helping to create the National Military Academy of Afghanistan (NMAA). In the second of two posts, Henshaw explains the challenge of finding and developing leaders in Afghanistan. His comments are in quotation. […]

Help is not coming.

Most companies say they're committed to advancing women into leadership roles. What they may fail to recognize, though, is that systemic barriers are...

“After 18 months our troops will begin to come home.” – President Obama speaking to the nation on his strategy for Afghanistan, December 1, 2009 In his West Point speech about the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, President Obama did four important things. First and most importantly, he took personal responsibility for winning the […]

Few activities in a workplace polarize like performance reviews. Some see them as subjective and ungrounded, one-sided and boss-dominated and something we should do away with entirely, an opinion put forth most recently in a Wall Street Journal article. Others find them an invaluable tool to develop employees and move the company forward. Our view? […]

Diagnosing and dealing with difficult directors.

Embrace the complexity.

Is your company unintentionally keeping your most senior people from getting the feedback they most need? It can easily happen as an unintended consequence of success. Consider these situations: Senior executives at car companies drive only the newest models: For decades, the top executives at America’s leading automobile manufacturers always drove models fresh from the […]