I guess it’s pretty egotistical, but one of the links I’m giving you today is mine.

It’s is a quick read, but really useful; a guest post I did for Catch Your Limit Consulting, a strategic management and marketing firm, called Hate The Plan, Love The Planning. Let me know what you think.

The second one is an article you’ll probably be hearing a lot about. No matter what you think of the content, the question is whether John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, should have stepped into the political wasp nest of healthcare. After you read the article, be sure to click the comment tab at the top and scan through some of them. Interesting reading.

And please take a minute to share your favorite business OMG moments for the chance to win a copy of Jason Jenning’s Hit The Ground Running.

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(CandidProf is chained and sleepless over his computer in order to meet a Friday publication deadline, he’ll return next week.)

Tuesday Wes Ball asked if Wall Street’s demands for shot-term performance undercut leadership performance; last November I wrote and When leaders can’t practice leadership and said,

“We live in a ridiculous world where Boards, in fear of investors, give CEOs six months to turn around multi-billion dollar companies that have been drifting, if not actually plunging, downwards for years; expect them to do it no matter what the situation or economy; where the slightest miss is considered grounds for firing; and long-term is a quarter.

Even when Wall Street recognizes the need to change a deeply entrenched culture they still demand that it be done in a quarter and analysts not only want perfect visions of future direction, but also exact execution plans, preferably grounded in heavy cost-cutting (read layoffs).

So, like the politicians who once elected spend much of their time fund-raising, CEOs and the senior managers below them spend much of their time focused on immediate numbers, which they must produce quarterly by hook or, more and more frequently, by crook.”

And when it’s not immediate enough, the leaders are fired.

GE’s Jeff Immelt is fighting that attitude now

“Along with the burden of replacing the most celebrated CEO of his generation, Immelt inherited an inflated stock price—the so-called Welch premium—that fostered unrealistic expectations. Yet he has still managed to produce 14% growth in annual earnings and 13% annual revenue gains, on average, over the last five years.”

But that’s not enough.

In the holy name of “maximizing shareholder value” corporations are raped, workers brutalized and communities trashed.

What else does Wall Street do besides cripple corporate strategic efforts?

(Pssst. Come back tomorrow for a look at the fiasco of self-regulation.)

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