Harvard Business Publishing

What kind of leadership do we need now? This was the question I asked last week at the beginning of a day-long workshop attended by a group of senior-level women at a major technology firm headquartered on the west coast of the US. And I've been asking this question of thousands of other business professionals over the last year or so in similar settings around the country. Just a few days ago, in Puerto Rico, I asked it again at a gathering of business executives and, again I heard pretty much the same thing. By far, the most common responses? Adaptive, flexible, and innovative. Because of the ubiquitous sense of turbulence in most of our lives these days, the leadership attribute that comes to mind most often is the means for dealing with chaos. It boils down to this: playful creativity. Now, more than ever in my experience, people are... Keep Reading »

I just returned from Toronto where I spent some time in the hands of an amazing corps of health care professionals at Medcan, North America's biggest preventive health clinic. I heard more than one story of how Medcan's preventive assessments saved lives — and enormous medical cost. Medcan's CEO, Shaun Francis, is an alumnus of my Total Leadership course at the Wharton School, which he took in 2003, and he kindly invited me to try the service his firm provides. I was blown away. In less than a day, I underwent a comprehensive set of health assessments — all done with great care, professionalism, technical excellence, and no wasted time. None! I came away with some very useful information about my own health and the adjustments I need to make to manage it more wisely. The knowledge you acquire when you take a close, candid look at every dimension of... Keep Reading »

A distinguished woman rose to speak in the front of a room of 40 fellow employees during a Total Leadership workshop I was conducting earlier this week at a large pharmaceutical company's headquarters. "Joyous laughter — this is the sound I hear throughout the home I have built and now maintain for mentally ill women in Puerto Rico. They are surrounded by people who love and care for them. They are enjoying life." Juana, let's call her, was telling the brief (one-minute) story of her personal leadership vision; a description of the impact you're having on your world and the legacy you're creating 15 years from now. When Juana sat down, one of her close colleagues said, "I've known you so long yet I never knew about this part of who you are. Wow!" I couldn't help but ask Juana how I could support her pursuit of her vision. All... Keep Reading »

Steve Lopez's magnificent story (a book and now a movie) about his friendship with Nathaniel Ayers — the homeless cellist stricken with schizophrenia — provides powerful lessons about leading change that instruct and inspire. As I read the story, I found myself coming back to three themes that resonated with my own teaching on creating sustainable change in all aspects of life: 1. Reduce fear to enable change. Imagine being so afraid of losing what you value that you don't want to have anything worth caring about. At one point in this can't-stop-reading narrative, we find Ayers struggling with a choice about whether to move from the streets of LA into a protective group home. As the wise counselor of this home recognizes, despite its terrors the "advantage of life on the street is that you have nothing to lose." There's an awful kind of safety in taking no risks... Keep Reading »

Who cares what games we choose...little to win, nothing to lose. So goes the chorus of the Strawberry Alarm Clock's 1967 #1 hit song, Incense and Peppermints. This phrase — an iconic representation of '60s counterculture — came to mind the other day as I read what one of my Wharton MBA students wrote in response to this question I posed to them as we began the fourth quarter of their first year: How are you thinking about the future in light of how the economic context has changed since you first arrived at Wharton in August 2008? She said that now is a great chance "for my classmates and myself to find real opportunity in the market mostly because we are starting with so little and have so little to lose." This sentiment was echoed by some, but certainly not all, members of the Wharton Graduate program class of... Keep Reading »

A New York Times story (the most emailed article for much of today and yesterday) reports on the positive impact school recess has on academic performance. Here's how it begins: "The best way to improve children's performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it." The paradoxical lesson of this story is relevant not just for school children but for us grownups, too: taking time out to restore and rejuvenate ourselves results not in reduced performance caused by less time dedicated to work, but to increased performance caused by the stronger, more focused effort you bring to work after fruitful rest. But in the midst of this soul-crushing, terror-inducing recession, how can anyone think seriously, and without guilt, about undertaking activity that isn't directly reducing costs or increasing revenues? The short answer is that you can't afford not to. Our minds, our bodies, and our spirits can... Keep Reading »

Too often I hear the word "leader" misused. It's a sad fact that many business professionals don't see themselves as leaders, mainly because "leader" is a term typically linked to people in positions of formal authority. This is a fallacy that undermines performance, in all aspects of life. Someone said to me recently, "I don't see myself as a leader. I do not feel comfortable embracing that label. I feel like it isn't something I have earned." This is a dangerous point of view - and it's certainly inconsistent with what our new president called for in his inaugural address! All of us must lead if we are to create sustainable change and make our world better. If, for whatever reason, you don't think you're a leader, then give me a minute or two to offer a couple of observations that might help you see things a bit differently. Do... Keep Reading »

In a recent blog post I wrote: An economic world turned upside down makes it easier to take a fresh look. This can open the door to making changes that will benefit you and the most important people in your life, now and in the long run....The crisis, in other words, can make it easier to experiment with new mental models or attitudes about your career and how it fits with your life's purpose, and it can serve as a catalyst for your own reinvention, as a leader in all parts of your life. A useful investment, then, especially at the beginning of a new year, is to take some time to clarify what's most important to you as a leader, as you see it now and in the future. In my book I refer to this as being real. It's is a necessary component of your foundation as you... Keep Reading »

I had the great privilege of conducting a staff workshop on Total Leadership a few days ago at Teach For America's headquarters in New York:When you exit the elevator on TFA's main floor in this modest office building on an industrial Midtown street, you see a long blue wall (in a hall too long and narrow for one photo with my rudimentary camera lens - hence the three below) and these words: It's immediately apparent that everyone who works for this rapidly-growing, non-profit powerhouse (at which the average employee age, from my observation, cannot possibly exceed 30) - from the facilities maintenance guys to the receptionist to the senior management team - is deeply committed to this vision and subscribes to its core values. Number one of the five of these is this: Relentless pursuit of results. How, you might ask, does this square with the organization's equally emphatic commitment... Keep Reading »

A few days ago, while on a break from leading a workshop at NASA's Johnson Space Center for members of its management team (including director and former astronaut Mike Coats), I had the special privilege of touring the cavernous Building 9, which houses a mock space station, space vehicles, and other amazing things. In addition to the thrill of seeing first-hand these mind-boggling inventions and how they're being used in our space program, I had a remarkable opportunity to chat with NASA Astronaut David Wolf, who happened to pass by. He was carrying a bundle of white cloth with various instruments attached to it, and I asked him what it was. He explained that this was part of his suit and that its purpose was to retain his body's heat while walking in space; a task he'll be doing (not for the first time) in April. It's critical, he said,... Keep Reading »