The current challenges affecting our organizations, economies, and nations are really symptoms: We are facing a leadership crisis. If we are serious about transforming the practice of leadership, we have to go back to its roots: to the hidden assumptions of the current, obsolete leadership model. In fact we have to go way back: 506 years.
There are over 70,000 leadership books on Amazon.com that describe and explain leadership. But do they give access to being a leader? I was honored to give a TED talk last month, entitled "Leading Through Language." It has just been uploaded on YouTube.
In case you haven't seen this yet...
Watch & Learn:
- An innovative method of mapping cultures across the globe along four fundamental cultural dimensions.
- Why knowing how to bow in Japan or whether to bring wine in Singapore has never lost a cross-border deal, but knowing the eight hidden dimensions of culture is the secret ingredient for success.
- How I prepared for working with the prime minister and cabinet of Kazakhstan (yes, that's right, Kazakhstan of Borat fame) and knew next to nothing about what made them tick; and how doing the right homework got me a standing ovation and customer intimacy.
Have you heard this one? The bus stops and two Italian men get on. They sit down and engage in an animated conversation.
The lady sitting in front of them ignores them at first, but her attention is galvanized when she hears one of the men say the following:
If all goes as planned, Israeli sergeant Gilad Shalit will be freed by Hamas on Wednesday in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas said it reached 90% of its objectives with the swap, and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has broad public support for the deal. Others warn that the prisoner swap will only boost terror. It's a classical case of an ethical dilemma.
"No one can make you feel small without your consent," Eleanor Roosevelt once said. Easier said than done, though. Many of us have been at the receiving end of bad feedback. And if we are honest, we may have on occasion given feedback that was less than graceful, let alone empowering. As a cookie break, here are three short videos of worst practices: how not do do it. Enjoy.
Eighteen months after Google pulled its search engine out of China to avoid censorship, Microsoft's Bing still censors searches there. And now Cisco Systems and others are working on a government project in the city of Chongqing, for example, building what will be the biggest police surveillance system in the world. What is right, making concessions to do business in a fast-growing and lucrative market, or foregoing profits in the quest to "do no evil"?
The day after Steve
Jobs resigned as CEO, Apple stocks dropped as much as 7%. Though shares have recovered since,
concerns persist whether Jobs' long-time adviser and successor Tim Cook
can step into his larger-than-life shoes, despite (or because?) Cook's
reassurances that "Apple is not going to change." Can Cook replace
Jobs? (Or, for that matter, would he want to?)
What do top executives actually do all day? Where do they invest their energies, how do they communicate, what are their roles, their key challenges? A new doctoral dissertation from the School of Management at Leipzig affords a rare glimpse behind the scenes. It is not a pretty picture. Most leaders fail to invest enough time in standing in the future.
Have the realities of a fast-paced economy—multiple careers, high mobility, freelancing, shortening of contracts, automation and outsourcing—killed off loyalty in the workplace? Or are the bonds between employers and employees just as strong as ever? And if loyalty is waning, what can company leaders do to strengthen their people's allegiance?
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