Leadership Blogs

A large number of credible commentators call him the most successful CEO of modern times. He turned Edison's company, General Electric, from a $13 billion to a $400+ billion turnover company. His gruff way of expressing himself and his early reputation as 'Neutron Jack' when he began leading GE by slashing jobs ('Neutron' as in the bomb that kills people but leaves buildings standing), plus GE's performance development structure of 'culling' the bottom 10% of performers, has meant people think of Welch as the archetypal tough guy, take no prisoners, ruthless leader.

In his book Talent, Tom Peters exhorts the readers to create their own personal brand -- their “Brand You.” We are free agents in the knowledge economy -- no longer slaves of the cubicle.

He includes an exercise called the “Personal Brand Equity Evaluation,” which is made up of the following sections: 

Attached is a pdf with some thoughts in from a series of four pieces written for the British Journal of Healthcare Management. Hope you find some useful ideas in it. Here's the front page abstract:

REDISCOVERING LOST VALUES
Professor Aidan Halligan, director of Elision Health
A series of four articles on the theme of rediscovering lost values in
healthcare, published in the British Journal of Healthcare
Management 2007 Vol 13 Nos. 8-12

I have just finished a great book called "The Secret Language of Leadership" by Stephen Denning. This is his latest volume of the theme of great leaders tell great stories. Denning, you may already be aware is an ex VP of World Bank, who headed up their knowledge/Learning function.

Some extracts from Mike Abrashoff's book It's Your Ship: Management Techniques From The Best Damn Ship In The Navy. One of, if not the, best book(s) by a leadership practitioner I have come across. Highly recommended for leaders at all levels. See attachment link, below, for the Word document.

OK, I'll promise to write a post soon about important leadership technology like leadership simulators and MIT's System Dynamics and stuff like that. But, at the moment I want to write about putting laptops in envelopes.

Did you see Steve Jobs do it to prove how light and thin the new MacBook Air is?

Here it is in case you didn't see it: 

Well, I like my Blackberry Pearl, as it looks like a phone but is really a Blackberry.

But, do I really? I mean, I don't want people to think I'm ostentatiously 'Blackberrying' when I use the keyboard on a train. But, I'm a bit concerned now they might think I'm just texting on an ordinary phone. I wanted some kind of halfway house that didn't instantly look like a Blackberry, but that a cognoscenti (or Blackberryscenti ) would recognise at second glance as being more than a phone.

Just for fun, here's a link to a web forum which discusses the various merits of owning a Ferrari versus a limited edition guitar or other transient pleasures such as seeing a pretty woman.

 http://www.billnelsonmusic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=93909#93909

I attended the RSA last night and heard from Raymond Simon - Deputy Secretary of Education about how the US Govt is trying to make learning a priority for EVERYONE in the 21st Century.  Also attended by Michael Barber, Adviser to Tony Blair on Education Strategy for New Labour.

 I must say that the system in the US relies heavily on measurement and testing, although it appears that teachers like to know how their children are doing and do not see tests in quite the same way as some teachers in this country.

Covey calls it modeling. Most just call it setting an example. Wally Bock's has a great post on his 3 Star Leadership Blog about how leaders don't always set the best example. His father told him, "Remember, son, everyone is put here by God for a purpose. Some are to serve as horrible examples." Unfortunately, far too many managers are serving in this capacity. Click here for more.