“Nigeria’s Imperative for Youth-Led Entrepreneurial Development” via CIPE Development Blog
What can Solomon teach us about leadership development for the poor? via Acumen Fund Blog
Editor’s note: This is Amon Anderson’s (pictured here, on the right) first post on the Acumen Fund blog. Read his bio by clicking on his name or visiting the Our People page of Acumen Fund’s website.
I’ve been studying, working with and thinking about leadership development for the last seven years, but I never stop being surprised. This past summer, I led an idea session for the Center for Creative Leadership to brainstorm how leadership development could be applied in the context of poverty.
But in this group of East Africans, West Africans, and North Americans, we could barely agree on semantics-leadership for the base of the pyramid, bottom of the pyramid, leadership for the majority, leadership for all…etc. However, no matter what we called it, we all... LíderAccion: Leadership and Entrepreneurship for Peru’s Youth via CIPE Development Blog
Risk-Taking by Top Executives via Governance Focus
Executive compensation has been criticized both for being too generous, and for encouraging excessive risk-taking relative to the desires of stockholders. Yet while there are links between the level of pay and the amount of risk chosen, these are mainly distinct issues. Executives may be paid little, but the pay can be structured to have a much better payoff when profits are high than when profits are low. In this case, the average level of pay over both good and bad times would not be particularly generous, but its structure would tend to encourage risk-taking behavior. On the other hand, a CEO's pay might be excessively high on average, but not appreciable better when his company does well than when it does badly. He would be overpaid, but he would not have a financial incentive to take...
What Your Leader Expects of You via Governance Focus
The relationship between boss and subordinate figures largely in any team's success. Communication is key to maintaining the harmony of the boss/employee relationship.Relationships between bosses and their subordinates figure strongly in any team’s success. When those bonds are working as they should, they drive performance and growth over the long haul. Yet while the leadership literature specifies actions bosses should take, it says little about the actions leaders should expect from their followers.How to promote effective leader-follower relationships in your team? Former AlliedSignal CEO Bossidy advises forging a boss-subordinate compact that defines a mutual set of crystal-clear expectations.See full...
Making Judgment Calls via Governance Focus
A leader's judgment can make or break the organization. The best leaders make a high percentage of good calls (whom to hire, what strategy to implement, or how to handle a crisis) at times when it counts the most.A leader's judgment can make or break the organization. The best leaders make a high percentage of good calls (whom to hire, what strategy to implement, or how to handle a crisis) at times when it counts the most.But practicing good judgment isn't easy, because the concept is murky. Is judgment common sense? Gut instinct? Luck?See full...
Becoming the Boss via Governance Focus
Ask new managers about their early days as bosses, and you’ll hear tales of disorientation, even despair.Ask new managers about their early days as bosses, and you’ll hear tales of disorientation, even despair. As Hill points out, most novice bosses don’t realize how sharply management differs from individual work. Hampered by misconceptions, they fail the trials involved in this rite of passage. And when they stumble, they jeopardize their careers and inflict staggering costs on their organizations.How to avoid this scenario? Beware of common misconceptions about management: For example, subordinates don’t necessarily obey your orders, despite your formal authority over them. You won’t have more freedom to make things happen—instead, you’ll feel constrained by...
Surviving Your New CEO via Governance Focus
The danger of being pushed out by a new CEO is real. But so are the opportunities.When a new CEO arrives, most senior executives worry about their jobs. Rightly so: chances are high they’ll soon find themselves out the door. Worse, they’re likely to land in a lower position or work in a smaller firm.How to avoid these fates? Accept that many new CEOs make people decisions within 60 days—so first impressions count, say Kevin Coyne and Edward Coyne, Sr. If you want to stay, let your new chief know you’re ready to be on the team, and ask how you can help realize his vision. Then demonstrate your support through additional means—such as mirroring his working style and presenting an honest game plan for your area of responsibility.The danger of being pushed out by a new CEO is real....
How Successful Leaders Think via Governance Focus
The secret to becoming a great leader? Don’t act like one. Instead, think like one.Brilliant leaders excel at integrative thinking. They can hold two opposing ideas in their minds at once. Then, rather than settling for choice A or B, they forge an innovative “third way” that contains elements of both but improves on each.Consider Bob Young, cofounder of Red Hat, the dominant distributor of Linux open-source software. The business model Young created for Red Hat transcended the two prevailing software industry models—winning Red Hat entrée into the lucrative corporate market.See full...
The Job No CEO Should Delegate via Governance Focus
In nine years, CEO Larry Bossidy pushed AlliedSignal from a struggling enterprise with only a 10.5% equity return to a powerhouse that delivered a ninefold return for shareholders.In nine years, CEO Larry Bossidy pushed AlliedSignal from a struggling enterprise with only a 10.5% equity return to a powerhouse that delivered a ninefold return for shareholders. How? He made finding and developing great leaders his personal top priority—spending virtually 40% of his time on it.It's impossible to spend too much time on leadership development, Bossidy proclaims—after all, it's top-flight leaders who make a business great. Yet many CEOs skimp on this responsibility (at best) or delegate it (at worst).Bossidy's secret? A hands-on approach to cultivating his firm's future leaders.If your firm...
How Successful Leaders Think via Governance Focus
The secret to becoming a great leader? Don’t act like one. Instead, think like one.The management manual from 1946 analyzes General Motors not as a company but as a vital social institution.Brilliant leaders excel at integrative thinking. They can hold two opposing ideas in their minds at once. Then, rather than settling for choice A or B, they forge an innovative “third way” that contains elements of both but improves on each.Consider Bob Young, cofounder of Red Hat, the dominant distributor of Linux open-source software. The business model Young created for Red Hat transcended the two prevailing software industry models—winning Red Hat entrée into the lucrative corporate market.See full...
Seven Surprises for New C.E.O.s via Governance Focus
As a newly minted C.E.O., you may think you finally have the power to set strategy and full access to the finer points of your business. But if you expect the job to be as simple as that, you're in for an awakening.You’re the new C.E.O.—and you’ve come face-to-face with these paradoxes: The more power you have, the harder it is to wield without demoralizing other managers. You bear full responsibility for your company’s fate, but you don’t control most of what determines it.So how will you succeed? First confront the unforeseen challenges of your job. A sampling: You’re not really the boss—the board is. As your company’s biggest celebrity, you’ll see your every word and deed instantly spread, amplified, or misinterpreted. And you can’t run the entire company—you just...
Narcissistic Leaders via Governance Focus
Narcissistic leaders are essential during times of transition."What's the difference between Larry Ellison and God? God doesn't believe he's Larry." So quips an executive about Oracle's larger-than-life leader. Charisma, vision—and, yes, big ego—define many larger-than-life leaders—Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs—who adorn today's business-magazine covers.Such "narcissistic" leaders are essential during times of transition. Gifted strategists and courageous risk-takers, they inspire others and drive their organizations toward a compelling future.See full...
Women and Labyrinth of Leadership via Governance Focus
Women’s leadership style is ideally suited to today’s business challenges. Increase your firm's competitive prowess by tackling the obstacles to women’s progress.Women occupy 40% of all managerial positions in the United States. But only 6% of the Fortune 500's top executives are female. And just 2% of those firms have women CEOs.We've long blamed such numbers on the "glass ceiling," the notion that women successfully climb the corporate hierarchy until they're blocked just below the summit. But the problem stems from discrimination operating at all ranks, not just the top, say Eagly and Carli.Therefore, to move more women into your company's executive suite, you must attack all barriers to advancement simultaneously. For example, prepare women for line management with demanding...
Don’t Hire the Wrong C.E.O. via Governance Focus
Desperately seeking a C.E.O.—or other top executive? Ask hard questions to measure candidates’ soft qualities.Everyone knows the right leaders can make or break a company. And no one wants to fire a chief executive and search for another. So why have one-third of Fortune 100 companies replaced their C.E.O.s since 1995? And why are chief executives appointed after 1985 three times more likely to be fired than those appointed before 1985?Hypercompetition, market volatility, and billion-dollar mergers all worsen C.E.O. churning. But the underlying culprit is the self-defeating way boards select leaders. They pick the wrong people because they don’t understand what real leadership is—or how to find it.Most boards—and many others hiring top-level managers—look for quantifiable...
Seven Surprises for New C.E.O.s via Governance Focus
As a newly minted C.E.O., you may think you finally have the power to set strategy and full access to the finer points of your business. But if you expect the job to be as simple as that, you're in for an awakening.You’re the new C.E.O.—and you’ve come face-to-face with these paradoxes: The more power you have, the harder it is to wield without demoralizing other managers. You bear full responsibility for your company’s fate, but you don’t control most of what determines it.So how will you succeed? First confront the unforeseen challenges of your job. A sampling: You’re not really the boss—the board is. As your company’s biggest celebrity, you’ll see your every word and deed instantly spread, amplified, or misinterpreted. And you can’t run the entire company—you just...
Olympic Dreams Deserted? via CIPE Development Blog
Cuban sports officials woke on Wednesday morning to discover that five members of the Cuban Under-23 national soccer team had abandoned their team in the middle of a pre-Olympic tournament in Tampa, Florida. By Wednesday night, two more team members had defected. This was quite a turn of events for the Cubans, which had a 1-1 draw against the United States on Tuesday night. Down seven men, Cuba now faces an even more challenging path in reaching the Olympic Games, the epitome of international cooperation.
A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the players will likely be granted political protection under the United States’ “wet foot, dry foot” policy that allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to obtain asylum. If the players do in fact defect from their country, Cuban...
Turning Experience into Leadership via Governance Focus
In their efforts to build a pipeline of capable leaders, organizations commonly overlook a critical consideration—the ability to learn from experience, especially the kind that shapes and refines a leader. Here's how to equip aspiring leaders to mine those experiences — continuously and intensively.No matter how good its current leadership is, an organization must also have a pipeline of future leaders in place if it aspires to sustained high performance. This conclusion has been reinforced throughout Accenture's High Performance Business research—particularly in our case studies of companies as diverse as Harrah's Entertainment, Constellation Energy, Marriott International and UPS.¹What's not so clear, however, is how organizations that aspire to sustained high performance can go...
Refocusing leadership objectives in Africa via Governance Focus
When the New Economic Partnership for African Development was founded by African leaders in 2001, many people did not believe it could make much impact.Similar agencies and organizations that existed before then did not achieve any unique feat or make any visible impact, such as the former Organization of African Unity, now African Union. But, today, the story seems to have changed as NEPAD is bringing in accountability in leadership structures existing in Africa thereby infusing value re-orientation among the leadership standards in Africa.The recent introduction of the African Peer Review mechanism by NEPAD as a means of assessing the African political economy under the Country Self Assessment Review {CSAR} has been seen as a good omen targeted towards the advancement of African states....
Should Companies Pick CEOs From Their Boards? via Governance Focus
In the latest version of management musical chairs, outside directors are moving inside as chief executive officers.More than a dozen U.S. companies have installed independent board members as permanent CEOs since late 2004. They include Boeing Co., Delta Air Lines Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Sun-Times Media Group Inc. and Owens-Illinois Inc. The trend will accelerate, predicts Mark D. Ketchum, a Newell Rubbermaid Inc. director who was named CEO in 2005, initially on an interim basis.See full Article (paid subscription...
Why CEOs Need to Be Honest With Their Boards via Governance Focus
Too often, chief executives sugarcoat the truth. That's more dangerous than ever.As a former chief executive officer of Gillette Co. and Nabisco Inc., James M. Kilts knows a thing or two about dealing with corporate boards. So when Mr. Kilts gave a keynote speech at a corporate-governance conference last April, he decided to share some of what he has learned over the years.The advice was surprisingly simple. "Tell the truth," Mr. Kilts told the crowd of executives, directors, corporate-governance gurus and others. CEOs, he said, must be open with their board about a range of issues, from the failure of strategic plans to unsavory business practices within the organization. Such a recommendation may seem obvious, but people who have spent time in corporate boardrooms say honest...
‘Corporate Governance Essentials for New Directors’ — A Comprehensive Program On Board and Director Leadership via Governance Focus
The Wharton School and Spencer Stuart Offer 'Corporate Governance Essentials for New Directors' -- A Comprehensive Program On Board and Director LeadershipThe Wharton School's Aresty Institute of Executive Education Prepares New Board Members to Hit the Ground Running and Succeed in Today's Demanding Boardroom EnvironmentToday's corporate board members around the world face a host of increasing pressures and rapid changes. Directors are being held accountable in a wide range of areas, including strategic initiatives, compliance, and succession planning -- particularly important with CEO turnover rates up 70 percent over the past 10 years. To prepare directors for these challenges, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has partnered with Spencer Stuart, one of the world's...
Anxious? You Should Be. It’s Good for Business via Governance Focus
Anxiety is usually something people want to avoid. The dictionary defines it as “a state of being uneasy, apprehensive or worried about what may happen.” People who experience too much anxiety may find themselves on a therapist’s couch, and doctors prescribe pills to keep this feeling away.And yet, in my work as an adviser to executives, I have found that in corporate life there is a place for anxiety, as long as it is understood and managed the right way. I have interviewed or advised 250 top executives at companies that include Procter & Gamble, Toyota, PepsiCo, Four Seasons Hotels, Ericsson, Samsung and Novartis. I have seen the positive effect that anxiety has had on their organizations — whether intentional or not.The success of great leaders is all about creating just enough...
Leadership: Speaking Up vs. Silence via Governance Focus
"What would you do if you heard a rumor that a co-worker was on drugs or had a drinking problem?” Last night at dinner with friends there were many “What if” or “What would you do” questions tossed around. The first about a chemical dependency was one of them. Another was “What would you do if you heard some news that affected a client, a family member or a colleague, that hadn’t been shared with that individual yet? Would you tell him/her, even if it was good news?”We polled the table and it seems women would say something and men wouldn’t. Interesting don’t you think?In my world, where I hear decisions as they’re being made, these decisions directly affect my clients lives, whether it’s a posting abroad, a promotion or a political appointment. I cannot say a word...
Citi swims against US tide with split role at the top via Governance Focus
Sir Win Bischoff's appointment as chairman of Citigroup puts him among an elite of British executives who head America's largest companies. Go back far enough and you can find self-made titans such as Andrew Carnegie, a Scot, but today there are only a handful of others leading large US companies. One is Martin Sullivan at American International Group. Another is George Buckley, who runs 3M. (Neville Isdell, chief executive of Coca-Cola, was born south of Belfast and describes himself as a native of Ireland.)German-born Sir Win is one of only a few chairmen of large US companies who do not hold the chief executive role, too. Coincidentally, Martin Sullivan is chief executive in a company that has split the two roles; AIG's chairman is Robert Willumstad, formerly of Citigroup. But it would...
The gift of leadership via Governance Focus
Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great CallsNoel M. Tichy and Warren G. BennisWhy have more business books not been written on the subject of decision-making? That moment of truth when an organisation commits to a course of action would seem to be pretty important. And yet, while there is no shortage of wise-after-the-event studies of why great businesses appear to have succeeded, and why lousy businesses have failed, few books have grappled head-on with the subject of judgment itself.One reason, given by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis in their weighty new book, is that it is simply very hard to define all the elements that lie behind big judgment calls. What we crudely label “gut feel” in fact usually emerges from years of experience, reflection and planning.The authors, both...
Dad is dead as a role model via Governance Focus
The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us FollowFoxes know lots of little things, according to the Greek poet Archilochus, while hedgehogs know just one big thing. This book puts its author, Michael Maccoby, in the role of hedgehog.His sizeable observation is that society has changed fundamentally. Old leadership models, based on what people used to be like, cannot be effective today. The leaders we need will understand this.Employees and their bosses emerge from their given social contexts. Management literature takes insufficient notice of this point. But the people who turn up to work every day, whatever their level in the corporate hierarchy, are influenced by their social position and experiences.See full Review (paid subscription...
Ten Dumbest C.E.O. Moves of 2007 via Governance Focus
Whether strategically unwise, illegal, or just plain idiotic, here are 10 of the most regrettable moves made by chief executives in 2007.When see-no-evil greed in mortgage lending practices caused global credit markets to seize up and very nearly brought some of the world's biggest banks to their knees, you know it's a propitious time to inaugurate a list of the dumbest executive moves of the year.But boardroom blunders were hardly limited to Wall Street. Senior executives from coast to coast had plenty to be red-faced about in 2007.Some were showering their significant others with too much money or not enough respect. Others were sticking with corrupt old practices they should have stopped, or bankrolling decadant new traditions that never should have started.See full...
CEO Centrality via Governance Focus
The Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance just issued my discussion paper, CEO Centrality, co-authored with Martijn Cremers and Urs Peyer. Our abstract describes the paper as follows:We investigate the relationship between CEO centrality – the relative importance of the CEO within the top executive team in terms of ability, contribution, or power – and the value and behavior of public firms. Our proxy for CEO centrality is the fraction of the top-five compensation captured by the CEO. We find that CEO centrality is negatively associated with firm value (as measured by industry-adjusted Tobin’s Q). See full...