‘Leader’ is a word that’s bandied about with reckless abandon, but it is the only word that’s available that carries a fairly universal meaning.

That said, I have several leadership links I think you’ll find interesting.

First, from American Express’ Open Forum, 10 excellent examples of real business leadership. Some refer to companies, others to people, none will take you long to read. And if the story resonates you can always google more in-depth information.

Next is a fascinating analysis from Newsweek that looks at the pros and cons of business executives as politicians. It’s a timely article considering how many are throwing their hats in the ring.

Finally, whether you consider yourself a leader, or just someone who enjoys helping others excel, you’ll find lots of good ideas at LeaderTalk where Becky Robinson has a round up of posts discussing the importance of, and ways to, develop people from some of the smartest coaches around—including me.

Have a great weekend and happy reading.

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Considering the business news for the last decade the title of this week’s quotes is more of an oxymoron.

And, IMCO (in my cynical opinion), it’s not over yet. I think more schemes, more unethical if not downright illegal actions and a whole lot more stupidity are going to surface globally before we get out of this tunnel.

With that in mind I offer up these insights to the human psyche.

There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest. –Napoleon Bonaparte (He should know.)

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. –John Maynard Keynes (That was then, now the wicked men do wicked things sans greatest good for anyone but them.)

Corporation, n., An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility. –Ambrose Bierce (But it doesn’t have to be that way.)

Earnings can be pliable as putty when a charlatan heads the company reporting them.–Warren Buffett (Can you say derivatives, Madoff and hedge funds?)

If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization. –Robert Noyce (We really didn’t need anyone to prove Noyce’s wisdom.)

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A newspaper article 30 years ago talked about the initiation rites of girls who joined gangs. Previously, girls hadn’t been active members of gangs and I remember thinking then that equality was happening in the wrong places.

There was a time when attitudes and actions moved from older to younger.

But it seems that more and more, instead of children learning from their grandparents, the grandparents are adopting the attitudes of the kids and, as with girls in gangs, it’s not the good ones that are moving—it’s the worst.

Entitlement. Instant gratification.

There are thousands who knowingly bought homes they couldn’t afford (as opposed to buying out of financial ignorance and/or mortgage chicanery) because they wanted it now, not in three to five years when they could actually afford it.

When I was young I thought the same way, but there were all kinds of adults who, by example, showed me that that wasn’t the way the world worked.

Now, with these attitudes spread throughout the generations, where are the everyday examples that show a different way? Worse, the examples that are out there are often ridiculed as being out of step with the current world.

I know that some of you reading my Thursday posts wonder what they have to do with leadership, managing and business.

The answer is simple; these are the people who work for and with you; they are the people you hire now and the people you’ll be hiring for decades.

Can you build a successful business or non-profit of any size on attitudes of entitlement and instant gratification?

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Charles Darwin is best know for his Theory of Evolution and his amazing work in that field, but much of that work applies equally well to business—only not in the generally accepted way.

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” (Time to think and dream does not count as waste.)

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” (As companies who promoted closed systems learned—to their detriment and eventual extinction.)

“…it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.” (Which, one can but hope, our fearless corporate leaders will do in the future, since it a prerequisite for the next thought…)

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” (Change. Maybe that can include a focus on something other than short-term and ‘maximizing shareholder value’. Wall Street, are you listening?)

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Want to know what people are really thinking about the hottest topics in the workplace? Then check out Business Week’s massive discussion of the top six topics.

The six topics are the result of voting by 8500 people; they are

• Work-Life Balance
• Staying Entrepreneurial
• Time Management
• Negotiating Bureaucracy
• Toxic Bosses
• Generational Tension

“…now we’re looking for solutions. Starting today, you can submit comments, essays, pictures, or videos chronicling the challenges you face in any of the categories—and how you’ve tried to resolve them. At the end of June, BusinessWeek writers and editors will use the material, along with the input of experts, to produce a precedent-setting multimedia package—with content and videos online beginning Aug. 14, the Special Issue in mailboxes Aug. 15, and broadcast segments appearing on BusinessWeek TV Aug. 16 and 17.”

My apologies for bringing this information to you so late, but you still have today. And I will bring you more on the discussion as it develops.

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Do you sometimes get the impression that, like the garage of “olden” times, the college dorm room is where most startups start? That founders are dominantly twenty-somethings, many who skipped or quit college, who got some friends together and grabbed the brass ring?

Even more hilariously, do you believe that startups are a by-product of the Internet, as has been frequently explained over the last 15 years to me by younger, more nimble minds?

You may if you go by the media, since even old media focuses obsessively on young entrepreneurs doing wild things on the Net from their dorm rooms.

Not so.

“…a new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard universities reveals most U.S.-born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, well-educated, and hold degrees from a wide assortment of universities.”

I found this information at Dobbs Code Talk where Jon Erickson’s great post highlights key points in the study (note that the focus is US-born founders of engineering and tech companies), the first two being that

• twice as many U.S.-born tech entrepreneurs start ventures in their 50s as do those in their early 20s.

• elite, highly ranked schools are over-represented in the ranks of these founders, and Ivy-League graduates achieve the greatest business success; however, 92 percent of U.S.-born founders graduate from other universities.

According to Vivek Wadhwa, the study’s lead researcher and a Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University,

“While education clearly is an advantage for tech founders in the United States, experience also is a key factor.”

Click on over to read more and for a link to the actual report, you’ll find both interesting reading.

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A manager I coach was concerned about one of his people. He said that although he knew it was none of his business he felt that one of his top producers was wasting her personal time working on an idea she had for a new product, but admitted that her actions had no impact on what was a stellar performance.

It wasn’t that she might leave to pursue the idea that bothered him, but rather that failing would be painful and he found it sad that she was setting herself up for so much disappointment if things didn’t pan out.

And before you write this off with the thought that he’s old and she’s young or that he’s jealous let me clarify a bit.

Both are in their early thirties—she’s actually two years older, they’re educational equals and both are highly innovative.

What they have is different MAP. While both take risks, he prefers being an intrapreneur while she likes the idea of entrepreneurism.

I told him that

• they were more similar than he realized and that he shouldn’t evaluate her dreams using his MAP;
• in return for her productivity and 110% efforts he owed it to her to support her dream;
• the way dreams come true is by being willing to risk making a plan, setting goals and then going for it; and
• the only real failure comes when you’re dead, since any time before that you can try again and that the only people who never “fail” are those who attempt nothing.

What would you have told him?

Back when I was young in the business world I heard that the way to managerial success was to hire people smarter than yourself and then get out of their way.

Seems that happens less and less these days.

It constantly amazes me how many managers state strong views from positions of extreme ignorance—and then consider their positions/comments invincible.

Nothing sways them from their chosen position—certainly not incidentals such as facts, documentation, surveys, articles, etc. They act as if changing their minds would be perceived as an act of weakness by those around them, especially subordinates.

What do you think?

Is it possible for anyone/anywhere/any time to know everything about any given topic, no matter how narrowly defined? Or creative enough to think of every possible shading, tangent, ramification, solution or repercussion applicable to/stemming from it?

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