What happens when our morals are detached from our business?

While working in the U.S during the Global Financial Crisis that occurred in 2008/09, I saw the collapse of the housing market, severe falls on Wall Street, companies letting go thousands of employees, and many major financial institutions filing for bankruptcy or being acquired by those in a stronger position. Headlines were dominated by the […]

Is it possible to lead when your values are in conflict with the organization?

Ninety-five percent of the eighty Board Chairs, CEOs, executives and senior leaders responding to the LCP Global 2018 Leadership Survey agreed there is a link between character and performance. We asked them how they responded when there was a conflict between their own personal values and those of the organization? We summarized their responses into […]

When leadership means something different

Culture significantly influences how the following statements are made, and how people respond to them. “We should take the initiative” “We should wait until we are asked for help” “This could turn out to be a great political manoeuvre” “Let’s not do anything, as it might be seen as a sign of weakness” “We should […]

How serving others can be the foundation of our success

I have observed that for many people it is easy for their focus to shift from serving a need (outward orientation) to serving themselves (inward orientation), often causing a significant issue with the sustainability of their business. ‘Service’ is different depending on the organizational context. For most businesses, ‘service’ has more to do with making […]

Responding to organizational decline from the inside

Feeling stuck in an organization that seems to be going downhill is not fun! Growing frustration with the lack of accountability and poor performance by leaders has led to a significant loss of talent for organizations, often causing staff to question their goals and approaches to achieving them. In Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to […]

What do narcissistic leaders and the bottom-line have in common?

In a series of studies on narcissism, Professor Alex Frino, Dean of the Macquarie School of Management, concluded that “there was a clear correlation between the level of CEO narcissism and the company’s use of ‘earnings management’ – a technique which takes advantage of the flexibility in accounting rules to inflate profit figures” (Frino, 2014). The more narcissistic […]

How the dance of chaos and order can unleash new ideas

In Leadership & the New Science, Wheatley explores a perspective on leadership rarely heard. Pushing us beyond Sir Isaac Newton’s mechanistic theories of why things work the way they do, Wheatley forces us to think more about the relationship of how things work together in a symbiotic and complementary manner where relationships are rarely static. […]

What does it mean to lead courageously?

In 2007, Robert Eckert, the CEO of Mattel Toys, chose not to recall millions of toys he learned had contained excessive lead. Instead of taking responsibility for the products and their failure to comply with safety standards, he blamed the Chinese manufacturers. While some might argue Eckert was brave to resist a global product recall with huge […]