April 15th was tax day for most, but for women leaders in construction, architecture and engineering, it was day 1 of Groundbreaking Women in Construction, a conference sponsored by the Women Builders Council and McGraw Hill. I had the pleasure of leading the first event of the day, a workshop on Visionary Leaders, the New Champions in Business. Here’s what I did and what I learned.
My premise was simple: 1. Visionary leaders, the New Leader in business, will be the most successful executives in the next decade. 2. There are major differences in the way these new leaders operate to create their unique approach. 3. Once leaders embrace the hallmarks of this new paradigm, they have a clear vision of success and a way to get there. 4. As soon as we begin to shift our mindset and expose our organizations to the hallmarks of the new leader, we go beyond hierarchy and power to unleash the real potential of our businesses, colleagues, and leaders. Continue reading…
Alex Bogusky is co-chairman of MDC Partners’ Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the award winning advertising agency, and chief creative insurgent of MDC, a portfolio of marketing communications companies. Bogusky is a game-changer, and Crispin Porter is known for changing the way people interact with brands.
Bogusky challenged conventional wisdom at the Mirren New Business Conference on April 13, 2010. Among the conventions that he questioned was the idea that you can learn from your mistakes.
“I’ve never learned anything from my mistakes,” Bogusky said. “Again, I hate conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom is learning from your mistakes. What about learning from your successes? That’s where I’ve focused. Like, this works, we better get down and study…this.” Continue reading…
“Recovery demands a clear-out of the old-guard,” says Luke Johnson in the Financial Times, March 17. If the big ideas of this decade are reinvention, we need leaders who can innovate.
Innovative leaders make the most of opportunities when they arise. They step up to the challenge when there’s a need and look for opportunities to do things differently. They pay attention to the environment and believe that they can instigate change.
Roger Ochs, President of HD Vest Financial, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, believes that leaders are developed by giving people the responsibility or by letting them take responsibility without having the authority. “You earn the authority from your peers,” he observed. Continue reading…
There’s strong agreement that innovation will drive success in modern business, yet a growing concern that companies are not taking the steps to innovate. The business press asserts that innovation is hard to measure, expensive and often compromised for short-term gains. CEOs don’t understand innovation, we’re told - they do little more than talk about new ideas. I feel compelled to set the record straight, based on my research and personal business experience.
Fear not, America’s businesses will not sink into oblivion and stagnation, at least not in the next few years. The urgent call for action ignores what’s actually happening throughout the private sector. Now more than ever, innovation is important… and there are leaders who are getting it right. Further, many of these executives are baby boomers, the very generation that missed learning about innovation in business school. Continue reading…
Managers in the middle are a critical, but unreliable link between business strategy and strong results. They are the “working leaders,” the vital glue that holds the organization together and makes it hum. These managers are capable of driving change at the front line, where it counts. Senior leaders need to engage them and give them the accountability they need to excel. Middle managers are capable of doing more.
A manager in a professional services firm compressed a bureaucratic process by 16 months. He explained his approach this way:
“While it usually takes 18 months to get the necessary reviews and approvals on a large, highly visible project, I knew we had only 8 weeks. I persuaded my colleagues to re-set their priorities because the firm’s reputation was on the line. We met the new schedule and everyone owned the outcome. It was quite remarkable.” Continue reading…
Steve Jobs built an extraordinary business called Apple. Its tag line, Think Differently, says it all. Apple enjoys an energized customer base, impressive earnings, and a growing market share. Apple is on fire.
Jobs’ ideas and actions are driven by his Steadfast Passion, a term I use to describe the mind-set and actions of leaders who are Visionaries and Agents of Successful Change. Steadfast Passion is more than passion or loving what you do. It defines the leader’s focus and how he approaches challenge and change.
For those who seek robust growth, Steadfast Passion is a competency of enormous consequence, and the hardest to master. It is the Hallmark that distinguishes the most admired business leaders, the likes of Rupert Murdock of News Corp and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Continue reading…
Jim Fielding is my hero. He is the president of Disney Stores Worldwide. (You know, in Hollywood it’s imperative that you have “worldwide” in your title – really.)
Brooks Barnes writes about the transformation of Disney stores in today’s New York Times. Fascinating piece. Front page. Above the crease.
Disney is going against the flow. Disney is learning from Apple. That’s two for two. Continue reading…
