What do you look like on the inside?

In his excellent book, The Leadership Mystique, Manfred Kets De Vries looks at the importance of a leader’s ‘interior’ condition and how this influences all interactions with others (Kets de Vries, 2006). In considering this he asks questions such as: What are the problems that preoccupy this person? What has emotional resonance – or connects deeply […]

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 […]

Are we really surprised to find a link between character and performance?

In the 2018 LCP Global Leadership Survey, we asked 134 Board Chairs, CEOs, executives and senior leaders to respond to a short survey exploring their thoughts on this topic. Apart from my own leadership experiences in seeing the importance of this relationship over the last 25 years, I have extensively researched this topic since 2010 and […]

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 […]

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 […]

Ancient wisdom affirms the importance of character to leadership

All of us, at some point, have been frustrated at the ineptitude of some leaders, especially when their actions reveal an attitude of ‘what’s in it for me?’, or when self-preservation is clearly the goal no matter how it affects others. A discussion on character, or values, may not be as riveting as the latest sales techniques, marketing strategies, […]

Soft power: Why the best story wins

Whereas traditional power tended to focus on coercion (‘sticks’) and payment (‘carrots’), it is time to think more creatively about getting others to want what you want.  This is achieved by focusing our efforts around creating a new narrative, rather than on ‘who wins’. Nye describes this as ‘soft power’ (Nye, 2010). As the Professor of […]

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 […]