Tag Archives: leadership

October 05

What you could learn from ‘Ego is the Enemy’ by Ryan Holiday (2016, 217 pages)

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How do you stay on a true course?  How do you deal with life’s successes and failure?  Philosophy has a few answers, and so does Ryan Holiday. In ‘Ego is the Enemy’ Ryan charts the three phases in his life – before success, success and failure.  Ryan draws on his experience, the experience of other to make […]

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September 27

What could you learn from ‘Followership’ by Barbra Kellerman (2008, 261 pages)

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“A leader is someone who has followers” Peter Drucker I am sure that you have done far more leadership training, than training on being a follower.  While teamwork, collaboration and cooperation are often key criteria in job descriptions and company mission statements, there seems to be little evidence that businesses are investing in building followers. In ‘Followership’ Barbra explores what […]

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September 22

Leadership hack – 010 beware the pendulum of leadership

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Most organisations act to magnify the intent of their leaders.  The corporations of the last century, with clear hierarchies and control mechanisms, were designed to ensure that direction issued from the CEO and the board was understood and executed.    While the recent trends of decentralisation and empowerment have gone some way to reduce the role of leaders […]

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September 15

Leadership hack 009 – running a good meeting

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Meetings are the bane of the modern world.  They are unsexy, and often very, very dull.  Many of us have so many meetings that we struggle to get any ‘real’ work done. One way to claw back time is to get rid of meetings.  While this nuclear option has its advocates (see here and here), unless […]

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September 09

Leadership hack 008 – there are only ever three business problems

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You face a huge variety of problems every day.  Understanding the type of problem you face helps you determine the best way approach and solve it. Most problems can be distilled down to: Diagnosis – not knowing what to do Alignment – not being aligned on what to do Execution – not being able to do […]

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September 03

What you can learn from ‘BCG On Strategy’ by Carl Stern and Michael Deimler (2006, 403pages)

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Strategy, like leadership, is a contested topic.  The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has a long history of innovation in strategy consulting, having been the powerhouse behind the growth share matrix, the experience curve, time-based competition and the rule of three and four. Perspectives, BCG’s publication, seeks to expose their latest thinking both within the company […]

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September 02

Leadership hack 006 – alignment is not agreement

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Aligning people when everyone agrees is easy.  However, you will often disagree with others on what you are trying to achieve and how best to achieve it.  Disagreement is not harmful, most of the time it is beneficial to have our ideas and assumptions tested – two minds are better than one.  However, if a […]

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August 19

Leadership hack 004 – controlling the monkey

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We all do it.  Someone questions the work that you have just completed or your thoughts on a topic or problem, and you feel the threatened.  You roll our eyes, become defensive or even worse, passive-aggressive.  Deep inside you know that your response is unhelpful, and does nothing to solve the problems you face or […]

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July 16

Leadership hack 001 – understanding skill and will

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Much leadership advice is generic.  In this series of posts, I aim to explore tactical tips for leaders to use when facing a specific problem. How do you turn around a poor performing follower? Understanding whether the follower has a lack of skill or lack of will (or even both) is essential to understanding how you […]

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July 08

Can leadership be defined? Part 6 – The answer

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Over the last four posts, we have explored the four common definitions of leadership – person, process, results and position.  By analysing each of these, it is possible to show that each type of definition has both strengths and weakness. Leadership definitions which rely on a leader’s position while evident, are unhelpful.  By defining a leader […]

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July 01

Can leadership be defined? Part 5 – What do process based definitions of leadership tell us? By Max Eskell

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Leaders provide vision, priorities and alignment. Robert Kaplan Process definitions of leadership attempt to define leaders by what they do and how they behave.  A quick trawl of Flipboard, LinkedIn or even military valour citations (the photo shows the Battle of Rorke’s Drift), shows that leaders are expected to do certain things or behave in a certain […]

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June 15

Can leadership be defined? Part 3 – What do person based definitions of leadership tell us? By Max Eskell

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Even under the increased scrutiny of the modern world, there are still leaders who are able to command attention and who engender followership.  While Barak Obama and Christine Lagarde are great examples of charismatic leaders in positions of power, there are also examples of leaders who do not occupy formal leadership positions.  Take for example Malala Yousafzai, […]

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