The most recent act of executive ultra-stupidity brought down not only Brian Dunn, Best Buy’s CEO, but also Richard Schulze, its founder who was CEO for 40 years and Chairman for ten.

All over what was, according to Dunn and the 29-year-old woman subordinate, a platonic friendship, albeit one with some very tasty perks for the gal.

Schulze is out because he learned about it last December, but didn’t mention it to his board, HR or ethics officer. (Hell of a way to cap 50-plus years of amazing success.)

The report cited the effects of the relationship, including disruption in the workplace, damaged employee morale and perceived favoritism that undermined the employee’s supervisor’s attempts to manage her.

“Further, the C.E.O.’s relationship with this employee led some employees to question senior management’s commitment to company policy and the ethical principles the company champions,” the report said. “During interviews, some employees said that they felt that the rules appeared to apply to every employee except the C.E.O.,” it said.

When will they learn?

When will ‘but me’ be exorcised from executive/management thinking?

When will management learn the importance of walking their talk and that the higher the position the more important that becomes?

Three questions, but just one five-letter answer—never.

Image credit: unkown

April showers bring May flowers and the first Monday brings the May Leadership Development Carnival! Your own personal showers to help grow.

Art Petty presents The Cruel, Bitter And Crushing Taste of Dump Truck Feedback, from his Management Excellence Blog. Several metaphors were massacred in the writing of this post!

Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender, presents What Creates a High Performing Organization. Does social media play a role in developing high performance? This post explores the concept. I had a chance to meet Sharlyn recently at a conference, and she is the real deal!

Lolly Daskal is very passionate about the power of heart-based leadership, the value of personal integrity, helping people achieve their potential, and the importance of making a difference in the world. She’s also been a consistent Twitter supporter of Great Leadership. Here’s The Truth About Leadership, from her Lead from Within blog.

Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents Magical Bosses. Great bosses get results that often seem magical. But there’s method to the magic.

Last month’s Carnival host, Tanmay Vora, from QAspire Blog, presents Lifelong Learning: Lesson from a Cab Driver. “I once heard Tom Peters saying that if you are a business traveler, you learn the most not from the corporate executives but from the cab drivers. You really get a perspective about life. I experienced it first-hand!”

Jesse Lyn Stoner from Jesse Lyn Stoner Blog presents Five Pitfalls to Avoid When Identifying Team Values. If you want to identify the right team values and ensure they are lived, avoid these 5 common pitfalls.

Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation presents The KISS Model of Leadership Development.
Worn out by all the complex leadership development systems in your company? Jennifer Miller gives leaders a respite with a “keep it simple” approach to daily leadership development.

Mike Henry and Chery Gegelman from The Lead Change Group, presents Are You Making Choices That Matter? “I grew up in rural North Dakota and would occasionally see movies about events that are a part of our history but were not a part of my reality:  Movies about the civil rights movement or the Holocaust.   Watching those movies would instantly trigger my adrenalin, raise my heart-rate and make every cell in my 5’2 body feel as courageous as David taking on Goliath.   In those moments, I felt invincible and ready to kick some bully-butt…”

Mary Jo Asmus from http://www.aspire-cs.com/, presents What’s Best for Them? Managers everywhere are frustrated that their best employees aren’t moving ahead with the wonderful development suggestions they’ve been given. This post explains a simple way to change this.

Tanveer Naseer from Tanveer Naseer, presents How Are You Helping Your Employees To Be Your Organization’s Heroes?

David Burkus from LeaderLab presents Why Most Managers Are Ineffective?

How can we help leaders deal with complexity and respond to it with ethical behavior? Linda Fisher Thornton, from Leading in Context offers Leading Ethically Through Complexity.

John Hunter from Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog presents The Customer is the Purpose of Our Work. The quote from Gandhi embodies the spirit of servant leadership. Look at the purpose of the system and see how you can help. See others as the reason for your role existing not as a bother to be suffered through.

Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents Ducks in a Row: When Stupid Invades the Culture. What is going on; are people really getting stupider? No matter the arena, business, political, religious or role models in general, the operative question these days is ‘What were he/she/they thinking’.

Lynn Dessert from  Elephants at Work presents Why does executive coaching take so long? The urgency to get it done quickly often produces poor coaching results. When your personal readiness and the coaching process are aligned, your goals can be reached.

Guy Farmer from Unconventional Training presents The Overlooked Leadership Tool. Leaders sometimes forget that their employees have a wealth of ideas to deal with challenges in the workplace. Discover a valuable tool to tap into that brain power.

Nick McCormick from Joe and Wanda on Management presents Benefits of Working On-line. Debra Benton, author of The Virtual Executive, shares benefits and offers managers advice for using on-line communications.

Tim Milburn from TimMilburn.com presents How To Be A De-Motivational Leader. I wrote this post as a tongue-in-cheek look at what NOT to do as a leader. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed how many leaders do these exact things. Reading about de-motivational leadership is funny. Working for a de-motivational leader…not so funny.

Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents 5 Surefire Tips for Job Advancement .
Professionals who want more from their careers have to seize the initiative. Many of these individuals follow a series of intentional steps to career success to secure promotions.

Bernd Geropp from More Leadership, less management presents How are correct decisions made?
Many entrepreneurs and senior managers tend to work around the clock, but take too little time for the real leadership tasks.

Anna Farmery from The Engaging Brand presents My Auntie’s 10 Steps to Social Media Measurement.

Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group, presents What is your greatest strength? on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog where she talks about the importance of leaders acknowledging and building upon their strengths, and choosing to use them thoughtfully.

Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Is Your Way the only Highway? In this post, the author discusses problems with the my way or the highway mentality and introduces ways for leaders to avoid stifling creativity and innovation in those they lead.

Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents Out-of-the-Box Thinking About Corporate Culture. ” I discuss the unique “no-hour workweek” utilized at investment startup Betterment. They’ve found a terrific approach that honors the hectic, 24/7 pace of a startup and combines the realities of work/life balance – team members share the load, demonstrate trust & respect of each other, and don’t miss a trick. Very interesting culture”

Carol Morrison from i4cp’s Productivity Blog presents Executive Leadership: Trending Toward Trouble.

Jim Taggart from Changing Winds presents Thriving in a Boundaryless Organization: How People Can Make a Difference.

Finally, we’ll end with a last second submission from my friends at Talented Apps: Mark Bennett from TalentedApps – presents The New Crucible of Leadership. The old ways that leaders got to be in their position are being slowly eroded. Is that such a bad thing?
That’s it for this month’s edition!

Image credit:

Great Leadership

I’ve often cited Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers regarding right time/right place luck—often an accident of birth. For example Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Bill Joy and Scott McNealy were all born between 1953 and 1955

Another example of right time/right place is found in Harvard’s MBA class of 1974 as chronicled by Laurence Shames in The Big Time: The Harvard Business School’s Most Successful Class & How It Shaped America, originally published in 1986 and being republished now.

1974 was probably the most successful single group of MBAs ever graduated from any school; further, this class actually did stuff and built things, as opposed to shuffling money around.

But they also worked their tails off. They didn’t expect anything to be handed to them. They always asked for more work, not less. They were a very competitive, driven group. But, again, not only for their own monetary gains. They wanted to excel. They wanted to be leaders.

When the ’49ers graduated, I think there were 653 graduates. Only six guys went to Wall Street –less than one percent of the class. It just wasn’t considered where the action was or considered a place where you could make a meaningful difference.

Learning about that class makes you wonder what happened. Where did the drive for more than money go?

What happened between 1974 and 2008 that so changed the attitude of our best and brightest? Why did money gain primacy as the only thing that matters?

The funny thing is that if you ask the folks who actually are changing our world, such as Larry Page, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Kevin Systrom, they’ll all say the same thing—they didn’t do it for the money.

Flickr image credit: Patricia Drury

Seems like only yesterday, but here we are again; the first Monday of the month and the newest Leadership Development Carnival hosted this month at by Tanmay Vora at QAspire. Tanmay has dedicated this month’s Carnival to Earth Day on April 22.

Dan McCarthy guides us on How to Discuss a Problem with Your Manager. Dan was recently reminded by a younger employee how intimidating it can be for an employee to bring up an issue with a manager. In this post, he explains why it’s important to be able to address a problem with your manager and how to do it.

Jesse Lyn Stoner outlines 5 Important Leadership Lessons You Learned in Kindergarten. Whether you are facing challenges as a result of changes in the economy, new opportunities because of advances in technology, or already have a good idea you want to implement, these five leadership lessons can make the difference between a successful outcome and a false start. The good news is: you already learned them in kindergarten. All you need to do is remember to use them.

Mary Jo Asmus tells us “Don’t Leave Your Heart at Home”. Many leaders feel they need to be serious and tough at work. This post is an argument for the importance of leading with your heart as well as your brain.

In her post titled “Of Money, Trust and Elephants” Miki Saxon points that focusing on profits doesn’t make a company more profitable, while focusing on customer service usually does. Great customer service rests solidly on a foundation of trust and its lack is the elephant many bosses choose to ignore.

Wally Bock has been training and coaching first-time bosses for more than a quarter century and has learned some things along the way. Wally shares this wisdom in his post “What I’ve learned from 25 years of working with first-time bosses”

At Lead Change Group, Kate Nasser helps leaders question their values via her post “Leaders, Do Your Pet Peeves Disengage Employees?”. Pet peeves masquerade as values giving them hidden power over your leadership style.

Tim Milburn presents “Three Traits Of A Lifelong Leader”

In his post “Leaders, Change What You Pay Attention To”, Blanchard’s culture guru S. Chris Edmonds outlines why leaders should apply time, attention, messaging, and reinforcement of BOTH performance expectations AND values demonstration.

David Burkus at LeaderLab presents “How Good Leaders Become Bad Bosses” outlining leadership burn out and entropy.

Bret Simmons takes a fresh look at leadership and management in his post “The Difference Between Management And Leadership”

Leaders often think that enthusiasm alone will help them get their teams lined up behind a vision. Jennifer V. Miller, in her post “How To Gain Buy-In from Your Team” outlines why this isn’t true and describes two other key components needed to gain buy-in from team members.

Gwyn Teatro presents Leadership Lessons from Ernest Hemingway’s story “The Old Man and the Sea”.

Robyn McLeod at The Thoughtful Leaders Blog presents “Bucket filling as a leadership competency”. Bucket filling technique is used in schools to teach children the value of compassion, respect and kindness. This post looks at how leaders can be more effective by practicing “bucket filling” in the workplace.

Mary Ila Ward at Horizon Point Consulting presents a post titled “Queen Bee Syndrome” with an interesting take on women and leadership.

Flashing back to his days in the headquarters of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, Michael Wade of Execupundit.com outlines 10 key qualities of effective staff officers (equally applies to great leaders)

Art Petty at Management Excellence presents “At Least 10 More Things to Stop Doing if You’re the Boss”

Jane Perdue presents “7 Ways to Maintain Momentum”. The next time you’re cruising down the highway and see the road sign that reads “keep moving, change lanes later” – smile and follow these seven tips!

It is easy to feel victimized when your ideas are rejected by your Boss. Soon, you will be in a leadership position and people that are following you will start feeling the same. Rajesh Setty offers a fresh look at the problem in his post “Is Your Boss Killing Your Ideas?”

Laura Schroeder’s post “Think Moneyball” emphasizes on important fact that the war for talent is won from within.

Lynn Dessert at Elephants at Work blog presents How to introduce an assessment to the team.

In his post, Sustainable Means More Than Recycling, Mark Bennet nudges us to think what can happen when leadership is focused on how they manage talent and shape behaviors to the same extent it is focused on strategy and structure.

In his post “The Truth About Your Time”, Kevin Eikenberry dispels the myth that leaders don’t have enough time and challenges us to have a proper perspective of time.

Utpal Vaishnav states that if we learn to look beyond what’s normal, if we learn to be unreasonable, we can enter into realm of new possibilities and make a difference. Check out his post: Want to Make a Difference? Be Unreasonable.

Linda Fisher Thornton writes about “The Adaptability Paradox” – difficulty we have as leaders staying current and “learning through” change.

Many leaders are afraid of change rather than seeing it as an opportunity to move forward and build a stronger organization. Are You Ready for Change? by Guy Farmer provides some signs to assess “change readiness” of your organization.

Kurt Harden in his post “On Reaching Out” suggests that we speak clearly in business world rather than succumb to the urge to fall in the herds of business men and women who speak jargon.

Image credit: Great Leadership

That is green as in St Patrick’s Day. Host Dan McCarthy offers up a lot of gold to enjoy with your beer and some little people and shamrocks to enhance your luck. Enjoy them today or save some for your daily commute and anywhere else you been a brief reading break.

Shamrocks:
Mark Bennett, from TalentedApps, starts us off with Leadership and Thinking – What’s the Catch?
“What kind of thinking is best for leaders to exhibit vs. what kind of thinking do people want to see?”

Jennifer V. Miller, from The People Equation, gives us 7 Things Employees Want to Know In a Department Reshuffle.
As a leader, have you become blasé about seemingly endless company reorganizations? Your employees haven’t. Read Jennifer Miller’s post to get the low-down on how to get your employees on board with the latest reshuffling of the boxes on the org. chart.” Hint: it starts with the radio station WIIFM….

Art Petty serves up some Leadership Caffeine-12 Shots of Leadership Espresso from his Management Excellence blog.

Jane Perdue, from LeadBIG (new name and design) submits this post by Deb Costello: Just Get Up and Lead.
Deb using a moving story to illustrate that good leaders are a combination of three things; ability, integrity and compassion.

Miki Saxon, from MAPping Company Success gives us this 4 part series: Ducks in a Row: A Serious Downside to Always On.
How important is it that your people disconnect instead of being on 24/7? Is it the boss’s responsibility to make sure that happens? If so, what kind of example do you set?

And if you liked that last post, wait until you read Steve Roesler, from All Things Workplace, with  Master the Segue.
Leaders are databases of information. Successful leaders know how to tie that info together and connect the dots for their people. Here’s one really good technique to remember.

Pot ‘O Gold:
Welcome Chery Gegelman, from The Profoundly Simple blog, with her debut Carnival post Diamonds in the rough:  How to recognize your star employees, published in SmartBlog on Leadership.
“When I ask executives and hiring managers what their biggest challenge is, at least 90% of the time I get the same answer:  “People.”  Followed by a quick explanation about how hard it is to find enough qualified and caring people to do the work.  So here’s the challenge, if polished gems don’t grow on trees: How and where do you find them?”

Wally Bock, from Three Star Leadership, gives us So now you’re the boss.
There are some times in life when everything changes. Becoming a boss is one of those times.

Robert Tanner, from Management is a Journey passes along some wise advice from his Grandmother with In 100 Words: When Being Too Smart is the Problem.
Have you ever heard the expression that some people are too smart for their own good?  It turns out that there is much truth in this saying and leaders are often the biggest culprits.  Sometimes leaders are just “too smart” to effectively lead others.

Rising leadership blogging star Jesse Lyn Stoner, from Jesse Lyn Stoner Blog, gives us Characteristics of an Effective Vision: Create a DRIVING Vision.
What’s the difference between a vague, “pie-in-the-sky” vision and one that steers your team on a daily basis? This post describes the 7 characteristics of a DRIVING vision. It also includes a link to a quick (free) assessment that shows to extent your team is guided by a shared vision and provides advice on how to proceed.

David Burkus, from LeadersLab, gives us How Good Leaders Become Bad Bosses.

Melody Bridgewater, from The Thoughtful Leaders Blog gives us Lisa Kohn’s Leadership lessons from the Oscars…Silence deserves an award.
“I was reminded (and amazed) at how much we reveal with everything other than our actual words.”

Leprechauns:
A warm welcome to another new blogger Mary Ila Ward, from Horizon Point Consulting, who gives us The Priceless Handwritten Note.
“This blog post discusses importance of leaders writing handwritten notes in order to express to people that they are valued.  It highlights instances of where I’ve seen the handwritten note used and its impact as well as recommendations for getting started on writing handwritten notes regularly.”

Scott Eblin, from Scott Eblin’s Next Level Blog gives us  Does Your Team Really Know What You Want?
Executive coach and author Scott Eblin shares a quick overview and a video coaching session with three tips for leaders who want to get results by leveraging their team.

Eric Pennington from Epic Living Blog presents Does Your Corporate Team Look Like Urban Meyer’s.
In this post, Eric Pennington, explores what is missing from many organizational structures.

Mike Henry Sr., from Lead Change Group presents a post from Chad Balthrop, The Remarkable Power of Lists.
Chad Balthrop makes a compelling argument for the value and importance of lists, not as a substitute for leadership, but as a way to clarify vision, purpose and priorities.  Lists help us think and communicate and, like the monthly carnival, they help us eliminate the noise and focus on the important.

Anna Farmery from The Engaging Brand presents Do you know your augmentation gene?

S. Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents Cultivate Intelligent Disobedience
Blanchard’s culture guru, S. Chris Edmonds, describes  how organization’s can help talented staff do the right thing -    beyond policies & procedures.

Green Beer:
Mary Jo Asmus from Mary Jo Asmus, What is the Conversation You Need to Have?
Even leaders sometimes have a hard time knowing how to conceptualize and start a tough conversation. Some tips to get started from Mary Jo Asmus are in this post.

Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender seves up Leadership Isn’t About Being First.                               
Leadership is about knowing when to let others go first

Wayne Turmel w/guest Jay Jamrog from The Cranky Middle Manager Show gives us The top human capital needs of 2012.
What do the people who lead companies worry about when they think about their people? Research says leaders of good companies think a little differently than those just hustling to get by…..

Here’s Joel Garfinkle’s guest post on LeaderLab How Fear of Self-Promotion Can Kill Your Career
If you want to keep moving ahead in your career, it is absolutely essential that you overcome your fear of self-promotion.

Benjamin McCall from ReThinkHr presents We were not meant to work…
There is no doubt that more of us are feeling the pressure to work and perform. However, we also need to remember why we are truly here! Our sole purpose was not for us to work… We are meant to do more than just that…

Lynn Dessert from Elephants at Work presents Using Strong Interest Survey for Career Decisions
Whether you are at a career crossroads or are looking to validate your direction, assessments can assist in your decision-making process.

And to close out this Green edition of the Leadership Development Carnival, Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership presents the Muppets, with a tearful rendition of  “Danny Boy”.

Image credit: Great Leadership and YouTube

Happy President’s Day.

Sad to say that the quality of those in the office over the last 50 years has gone seriously downhill from the quality of the first 50.

Several years ago I wrote

We have no leaders, let alone statesmen, just ideologues, elected by like-minded ideologues, who care only about getting reelected, bringing government money back to their constituency and making lucrative connections in the event they aren’t reelected or are caught by term limits.

and have added to and reposted the full original a couple of times (be sure to check out the link to the original comments).

Based on the current political activity it’s not likely to improve any time soon (this applies to both Houses of Congress, as well as state, regional and local races).

Ideology is the primary lens through which all actions are viewed and any real value to the country and its citizenry is a distant second.

What are your thoughts? What can be done to change this?

Flickr image credit: Kurt Magoon

Can you believe it? January is gone, the Super Bowl is over and the Giants won (hooray)!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, it’s the first Monday of the month, which means it’s time for the Leadership Development Carnival. Last month a reader wrote me and asked if I really thought anyone had time to read all the Carnival posts. I agreed that it was unlikely, but suggested they are the perfect length when waiting for commute transportation, a meeting to start and, of course, bathroom reading.

With that in mind, let’s get right to the main event.

Wally Bock presents Fundamental Advice for a Young Leader posted at Three Star Leadership, saying “Noah Lomax asked me for ‘fundamental advice’ for a young leader. Here’s my best shot.”

Anne Perschel presents Manager or Leader – Which One is More Important? posted at Germane Insights, providing a case study and a story of two men, one is seen as a leader, the other as a manager. Which one is more important?

Tanmay Vora presents Fostering Autonomy in a Team: 7 Lessons posted at QAspire. People do their best work when they are “intrinsically motivated” and one of the most important intrinsic motivator for people is autonomy in work. This post outlines 7 lessons learned in building a self organized team.

Jesse Lyn Stoner presents No More Boring Meetings, Please! posted at Jesse Lyn Stoner Blog. The purpose of a team meeting is to create and tap into the collective wisdom. Holding a meeting to share information is not a good reason to meet. This post lists 7 good reasons a team should meet and 3 tips to determine whether a meeting is necessary.

Mary C Schaefer presents 3 Things Great Leaders Know About Managing Change posted at Lead Change Group Blog. Mary reminds us to appreciate resistance to change and to give people adequate time, tools and resources to prepare for change in order to give our organization the best chances for success.

Sharlyn Lauby presents The Inevitable Shift from Jobs to Skills posted at HR Bartender. Superb post about what is perhaps the most important issue of our time across the globe.

David Zinger presents 8 Powerful Approaches to Create Meaningful Employee Engagement posted at David Zinger Employee Engagement, providing an outline of how to weave meaning into work.

Lynn Dessert presents Have Performance Reviews run their course? posted at Elephants at Work, asking do Performance Reviews deliver their intent or has process gobbled them up?

Miki Saxon presents Ducks in a Row: Titles—Silly or Serious? posted at MAPping Company Success. It’s the report structure that moves new CXO titles from silly to serious.

Chris Edmonds presents Plot Your Path to Ethical Behavior posted at Driving Results Through Culture. His post was prompted by the World Economic Forum session in Davos, Switzerland last week. The founder, Klaus Schwab, was quoted as saying that the global economic crisis was prompted by excesses – and that the Davos session would focus on ethics and moral behaviors by economic and political leaders to serve society more fairly. His focus in the post is that ethical behavior starts with each of us, and by following a simple ethics check we can “hold our heads high” at the end of each interaction, each day.

Robyn McLeod presents 7 questions you must answer to strengthen your great idea posted at Thoughtful Leaders Blog. A client shares a set of powerful questions from the R&D world that will resonate with anyone who wants to get their great idea the attention it deserves.

Steve Roesler presents Where You Decide To Perform Matters posted at All Things Workplace. Everyone is talented in some way. Whether or not you are a star depends on where you choose to perform.

David Burkus presents The Least Important Question in Leadership posted at The Leader Lab. Won’t spoil it here – but the post is really about the question behind that question. Curious now?

Dan McCarthy presents A Performance Management Model posted at Great Leadership. Dan has developed A Performance Management Model as a follow-up to his recent “Are You Managing or Just Nagging?” post. Check it out and see which quadrant you’re spending time in: Managing, Avoiding, Nagging, or taking a well deserved Vacation.

Jane Perdue presents 5 reasons it’s OK to say “no” posted at LeadBIG. Telling people “no” doesn’t make you unlikable. Failing to say “no” when it’s appropriate to do so makes you a doormat. And the really ugly kicker here is that saying “yes” doesn’t necessarily make you likeable.

Nick McCormick presents Hiring People that Fit Your Culture posted at Joe and Wanda on Management. The key to hiring good people is to hire those that embody the unique attitudinal characteristics of your organization.

Anna Farmery presents Why Predictions Are Not Just For Christmas! posted at The Engaging Brand. Leadership is not about predicting what will happen; it’s about being prepared for what might happen, which means being open to diverse opinions on that very topic.

Jennifer V. Miller presents 7 Questions That Help Conversations Move Forward posted at The People Equation. If you are having the same conversations over and over with your employees, you’re probably having the wrong conversation. Here are seven ways to get unstuck from the “conversational mud”.

Guy Farmer presents If You Don’t Have Something Nice to Say… posted at Unconventional Training. Many leaders miss a golden opportunity to lead more effectively when they don’t communicate in a nice way.

Chase Dumont presents What is Leadership? The Definitive Answer posted at Chase Dumont, Rainmaker. Rulers, philosophers, and corporate middle managers have been defining and redefining leadership for millennia. In this post, Chase outlines 8 keys to leadership, with concrete examples to arm you with an unbeatable – and practical – understanding of how to lead.

Mary Jo Asmus presents 20 Things To Stop Waiting For posted at Mary Jo Asmus. A checklist of actions leaders do to create positive change.

Scott Eblin presents Is Being the Go-To Person Holding You Back? posted at Next Level Blog. Being the go to person is a great thing for leaders to be until it’s not. In this post, Scott Eblin offers tips and a video coaching segment for leaders who want to shift from being the go to person to someone who build teams of go to people.

Erin Schreyer presents A Loss for the Broncos, A Win for Tebow’s Leadership posted at Leadership. Life. Legacy. Whatever your opinion on his beliefs and the way he shows them, Tebow demonstrates 4 solid characteristics of leadership that are worth reflecting on.

Image credit: Great Leadership

I’ve read a lot about Sam Palmisano and previously written about him.

That said, I still found Wharton management professor Michael Useem’s interview with Palmisano covering his 40 years at IBM, including the last decade as CEO, interesting and informative.

It’s a long interview and, if you prefer, you can use the link to read it or download an audio version.

Most importantly, be sure to read the comments, most by IBMers, which, by and large, are anything but flattering.

Do you agree that his focus on the company screwed the employees or did he get it right?

How does a CEO balance the legacy needs of employees against the needs of the company to survive in a different world?

What would you have done differently to achieve the same success?

YouTube image credit: KnowledgeAtWharton

A few days ago an article about titles in Forbes caught my eye—and got my goat.

It caught me because I’m not a lover of sweeping generalizations, since very few hold up against reality and this was one of them.

In this case, the author, with a typical consultant-pundit in support, denigrates as silly the raft of new CXO functions in business.

While I agree that they can be empty window dressing, the majority I’ve seen are powerful positions. You can tell the difference by the report structure—if the position doesn’t report directly to the top boss—CEO, COO, President or owner—it’s likely fluff.

Another statement, that titles were “likely dreamed up by the marketing team,” was really hilarious considering the corporate examples cited.

Kodak and Dell appointed Chief Listeners. Facebook recently added two Chief Privacy Officers. Coca-Cola is really gung-ho on the trend, employing a Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, Chief Scientific and Regulatory Officer, and Chief Quality and Product Integrity Officer, among others. Microsoft has a Chief People Officer; IBM a Chief Information Officer; Xerox a Chief Strategy Officer; and New York City has its very own Chief Digital Officer.

I find it hard to believe that the likes of Sam Palmisano, Michael Dell or Steve Balmer, let alone Michael Bloomberg, have marketing designing their organization.

The list also displays a high level of ignorance, since several of those “silly” titles, e.g., Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) have been around for decades, while others reflect important new priorities.

It’s not that I condone title inflation, but making sweeping statements that disparage efforts by companies to focus knowledge, skills and resources on specific problems and increase accountability by putting one person in charge are worse.

Creating new areas of responsibility to meet the needs of a changing world is necessary and bosses who ignore the changes or the need are setting their companies up for failure sooner, rather than later.

As long as the CXO has a well-defined mission, the authority to achieve it and direct access to the top the position deserves respect and support.

Outsiders who belittle that effort should be ignored.

Flickr image credit: Bengt Nyman

There’s a lot of talk about “thought leaders,” but it seems that a lot of what is presented as new are old ideas redressed in current language.

That’s not always bad, because there is an enormous amount of classic management and leadership information that works but is ignored because it sounds old-fashioned.

Change the language and voilà—people listen.

The MIX, AKA, Management Innovation Exchange, is different.

I read through a number of them preparatory to posting my own hack on Option Sanity™ and found some truly original ideas; if leadership is your thing start by checking out the eight finalists in the leadership category.

Sure, not all were original and some was based on common worker wisdom, but presented in this forum won it more credibility than it probably had—after all, if management listened to workers they wouldn’t need nearly as many consultants.

I hope you’ll bookmark the site, share it with your network, contribute yourself and treat it as the resource it is. The search function works well, so dig in, tweak as needed and put the ideas and approaches you find to work in your organization.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho