Leading With Who You Are
Leadership Journeys – Angela Ahrendts Angela Ahrendts’s morning routine may not be what you’d expect from the Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Sales for Apple worldwide, let alone someone who spent most of her career before that in the fashion industry. Ahrendts rises before 5 a.m. not to work or swim laps. Instead, she…
All Business is Personal!
I have a radical proposition to make: all business is personal. Whether you are calling a customer, running a meeting, presenting to your board or having a performance discussion, the impact on yourself and others is a deeply personal one. In fact, everything you do in business affects who you are and your relationships with…
Falling Down and Getting Up
After talking to hundreds of CEOs in dozens of countries, there is one fundamental truth that stands out for me. There is no such thing as stability; the only constant is change and uncertainty. Great leaders must learn two lessons that are critical to their success in life and business: First, embrace the reality of…
Cultural Diversity
I still remember my first trip to Japan. Surrounded by the signs and sounds of Japanese, I felt utterly lost. Unable to decipher even the most basic information in restaurants and on city streets, I retreated into myself. It was hard to stretch into unfamiliar territory. When I asked questions, people reacted in ways I…
Maybe Your Boss Isn’t From Hell?
Becoming a leader is a lifelong adventure, much the same as becoming a healthy, integrated person. It is truly a journey of dreams and fears, successes and failures. But why is it so hard to embrace that humanity inside ourselves or to accept the humanity of the leaders around us? Many of us tend to…
June 13, 2014 – Grounded Leader of the Week – Ivan Fischer
Key Lesson: Leadership is personal. Don’t be afraid to reveal your personal side, your passions and your values. This week’s Grounded Leader is Grammy award winning composer and conductor Ivan Fischer . Fischer is the founder of one of the world’s leading orchestras, the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Hungarian by birth, he is a Swiss-and-German educated, multilingual man…
May 30, 2014 – Grounded Leader of the Week – Maya Angelou
Key Lesson: Shape your own destiny. Create a future focused mindset. Imagine the possibilities of what you can become as a healthy, grounded person. Asked by Harvard Business Review: “As someone who’s known Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, what do you think makes a leader great?” This week’s…
May 16, 2014 – Grounded Leader of the Week – Virginia Rometty
Key Lesson: Leadership is a hard job, potentially hazardous to your health. Manage your energy wisely. IBM is one of the world’s most powerful and most experienced technology vendors — and has managed to stay a top player in the turbulent tech world for decades. This week’s Grounded Leader is credited with spearheading IBM’s growth…
May 9, 2014 – Grounded Leader of the Week – Richard Edelman
Key Lesson: Be and act truthful. Keep your promises. Guard against the “Big Boss Disease” and engage with employees and customers. The job of this week’s Grounded Leader is to measure how badly (or how well) business leaders garner trust. The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer results are not so healthy: Only one in four people…
