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I read a great description of politics in You Run, a short story by Sarah Shankman, “politics is one long power plan; an exercise in ego”. That seems to be a good description of what leadership is to many people.
It certainly describes the MAP so prevalent in the business scandals of the last two decades, as well as that of the titans of Wall Street who contributed so heavily to the current economic mess.
It’s also a major characteristic of the more mundane populace in general, as witnessed on social media platforms.

The foremost cyber-goal is to …read more

Boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, have been in the forefront of everything that’s happened in the country from the time they were born and that’s not changing any time soon.
So what’s up with the generation that changed the world, marched to end a war, protested for equal rights, overturned sexual mores, ushered in consumerism and turned on to drugs and rock and roll?
Harvard believes they are still the future and to that end has set up the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative “to lead significant systemic change in education, health care, community development, and the environment.”
Ads may be …read more

Did you know that six out of ten of the boys who could help build our future drop out of school and end up in jail?
That’s a full 60% and that is one scary number.
These boys are just like your sons—only without the same opportunities.
These boys are black.
The M3 Foundation is changing that one small step at a time.
M3 was started three years ago by KG Charles-Harris, CEO of Emanio, who I met first as a client and now count as a good friend.
The following is from this year’s M3 year-end report.
“M3 has had tremendous success during the past 3 …read more

I have four great lessons for you today.

arrogance doesn’t burnish your image;
don’t hesitate to tell a client they’re wrong when you know they are;
don’t just focus on what you’re doing for customers now, but what you’ll do for them in the future; and
culture sells.

They’re all wrapped up in a story about Intel’s new advertising plan and Venables Bell & Partners, the agency that’s doing it.
Lesson 1: In a nutshell, Intel’s concept of the branding effort was “we’re so important to your everyday life. Imagine a world without Intel. Your lights would go out. The world would stop revolving.” That’s …read more

That’s right, guys, you are obsolescent whether you realize it or not.
At least, that’s the conclusion that seems to be offered on a post at Bizzy Women, based in part on job loss stats from Peter Coy’s 2008 Business Week article and also quotes heavily from Harvard psychologist Dan Kindlon’s Alpha Girls. (Klindon also wrote Raising Cain and Too Much of a Good Thing.)
Granted that women gained 300,000 jobs between November, 2007 and April, 2008 while men lost nearly 700,000, but the stats aren’t straight across.
“Simply put, men have the misfortune of being concentrated in the two sectors that are …read more

I’ve never been a lover of the MBA, its almost holy status, depending on the school, and especially its dominance on Wall Street,
In a recent post Justine Larbalestier said, “I was fascinated by Background Briefing’s recent documentary about the emergence of business schools and their effect on corporate culture and its relationship to the current crisis: MBA: Mostly Bloody Awful.”
I agree with Justine regarding the illogic of assuming that people can walk in and manage or advise a business of which they know little to nothing, especially with little to no experience.
It’s said that MBA can also stand for ‘Mediocre …read more

“The real character of the person can be known by what he does when nobody is watching. … Feudal culture is one where there is one set of rules for the king and another set of rules for the rest of the people. … What we are seeing is not the failure of entrepreneurship. It is the greed, ego and vanity of some super managers of some large corporations. That is not the essence of capitalism. Capitalism is all about creating an environment where individuals can leverage their innovation and their entrepreneurial abilities to create better and better opportunities.” –N.R. …read more

There are many lessons to be learned from the current economic crisis, but one of the most important is that we the people should stop following and start leading ourselves.
In other words, we each need to take responsibility for our own actions and think critically about the words and actions of those in positional leadership roles.
In business, we need to rid ourselves of the idea that positional leaders don’t need management skills or that managers don’t lead.
Jim Stroup points out in numerous posts that “No one has proven that leadership is different from management, much less that it is a …read more

According to Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University, “95 percent of high school students say they’ve cheated during the course of their education, ranging from letting somebody copy their homework to test-cheating. There’s a fair amount of cheating going on, and students aren’t all that concerned about it.”
“The professor has been surveying cheating practices among college kids for 18 years and high school students for six years. He says he’s surveyed 24,000 high school students in 70,000 high schools, grades 9 to 12. His findings? Sixty-four percent of students report one or more instances …read more