I was asked to speak to a group of MBA students about leadership.  I was surprised since:

1. I don’t have an MBA, and

2. The university didn’t want me years ago when I applied for undergrad admission.  (I was not only turned down for early admission, my rejection letter also included the dreaded “…and by the way, we’re also not going to accept you during our regular admission phase either but, hey, we certainly wish you all the best in your educational endeavors….”)

What is happening?

Walter Robb and I will now share the title of Co-Chief Executive Officer (Co-CEO), while A.C. Gallo will now have the title of President and Chief Operating Officer (the title he previously shared with Walter). Walter will also join me as a voting member of our Board of Directors.

I love a good sports story. Athletes in pursuit of a goal make good examples of discipline and sacrifice in action. Even better is a sports story that focuses more on character development than just wins and losses. Such is the case with Joe Drape's Our Boys, A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen.

As kids, most people would remember being told by their parents and teachers, to adopt the military style posture – standing straight with chest out and shoulders back as it projects them as confident, alert and authoritative. Recent research at Northwestern University has found that the stand-straight posture not only helps a person project a commanding personality but also serves as self-esteem booster.
Source: The Economist

Managers and leaders are human beings and hence can bring their personal preferences, judgments, values etc to work. But these elements may not always be conducive to their work. This article looks into how managers can analyze their natural preferences and behaviors through a set of questions and improve their self-awareness. Questions touch upon topics like decision making, teamwork/solo-work, criticism and so on.

Source: HBR

Tony Schwartz, the CEO of The Energy Project, a company that helps its clients, both individuals and organizations to fuel and manage energy levels to ensure high performances looks back towards his working life and all the leaders he’s worked with and identifies four qualities that he has found common among the great ones.

It’s already well known how Apple changed transformed the music industry and how music was purchased and listened by coming out with iPod and iTunes. But few people know or remember that the initiative for the iPod was launched in the 1997 when it had suffered a massive loss of $816 million the previous year. In spite of that Steve Jobs did not limit himself to the goal of coming with yet another portable digital music player which were already available aplenty in the market. He was driven and also drove his company with the vision of transforming the music industry.

You will frequently hear CEOs from different companies committing to make innovation a cornerstone of their organization. Some of them just make a noise and settle down in the usual routine, but there are many who are passionately committed to their vision and have also devised detailed and effective strategies to make it a reality. They give it their best shot but are unable to achieve what they set out to.

Eminent business thinkers like Stanford’s Robert Joss and Former GE CEO Jack Welch have taught managers that “it’s not about you” meaning that they need to think about their subordinates and team members in order to be effective leaders. But self-obsession can yield remarkably positive results when it’s guided by the motivation to understand how one is perceived by one’s team. Developing such understanding would help bosses control their moods and actions for best results.