Leadership

Investors don't weigh reputations equally.

They become more disengaged and more likely to leave.

A four-step process.

And not just in turnaround situations.

Don't try to completely assimilate.

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 […]

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 […]

Bill Clinton's appeal to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday reminded us that Haiti's crisis is far from over. He urged the...

“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? […]

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 […]

How to figure out what's truly valuable.

They're all the result of bureaucracy.

The other day a good friend of mine called to express the frustration he was feeling about working with his current IT vendor. My friend is in the pre-launch...

This time, what's good for GM really is what's good for America.

I spend a great deal of my time coaching executives on how to become more effective leaders and managers. An important part of this work is to help them...

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.

The gap between CEO compensation and that of the average worker continues to grow at an astounding rate. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, CEO compensation in the United States was approximately 40 times greater than that of the average worker in 1960 and is now over 400 times greater (a much larger gap […]

For the most part, Glamor-a-Go-Go's board has been thrilled with CEO Joe Ryan's performance. Ryan, after all, had transformed the private-label cosmetics...

Values matter most when they're least convenient.