Imagining the Future of Leadership. The Soul of Leadership by Ángel Cabrera - Harvard Business Review

For years some of us warned against the perils of an economy driven exclusively by self-interest (made evident by the financial disaster of 2008) and vigorously argued for management, like other professional disciplines, to require its members to accept a code of conduct and make a public commitment to do no harm. We even went as far as to propose various versions of such a code of conduct, and now some of these codes have actually been adopted by MBA students (e.g. the MBA Oath started at Harvard), business schools (e.g. Thunderbird), and international associations (e.g. the Forum of Young Global Leaders). The Oath Project was established last year, as well, to propose a universal professional code of conduct for managers, the current draft of which has been endorsed by organizations such as the United Nations Global Compact, the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders, Net Impact, and the Aspen Institute.

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The Twenty-Two Ways to Develop Leaders

Evaluate Staff Professionals for Management Potential and Intent Early Although many staff professionals prefer to remain individual contributors, it's not true that most don't want to be managers or couldn't make better managers if given proper preparation and opportunity. Roughly 40% of Fortune 500 CEOs had their primary background in finance and law, so success is not so much based on where or how one started as it is based on one's later experiences. The AT&T studies (Bray, Campbell, & Grant, 1974) found that 29% more of low-assessed managers were promoted than the high-assessed if the former had more challenging jobs. Many staff managers don't get these early opportunities. The CCL studies found staff executives whose first real supervisory experience took place around age 40; for line executives the experience occurred on average at age 23. Moreover, managers (line or staff) that encountered their first leadership challenge at mid-career tended to fail. By then the stakes were too high and the tolerance for mistakes was lower, and people whose background included many technical projects with similar groups of people were less prepared than those who had encountered start-ups and fix-its and had managed varied groups of people previously.

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The Importance of Understanding the Structure of Your Organization - Mintzberg's Organizational Configurations

Financial services firms are known for having tight procedures and rigorous control systems. Staff in design agencies, on the other hand, can sometimes seem to operating as free agents. Big organizations merge to achieve "synergies", but they sometimes also split divisions out into separate, more agile companies. So why are these organizations so different? The reason for this variety is that an organization's structure can make a real difference to the way it performs.

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The Magic Multiplier: Darwin Meets the Beatles — A Framework for Identifying and Cultivating Hi-Profile Leaders

Did Charlie Darwin have insights that actually pre-figure a solution for the so-called "war for talent," and did the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" suggest a framework for understanding how to better identify and prepare your Hi-Pos for succession? It may be so ... For many astute business leaders, the "war for talent" has already become a platitude. This doesn't mean that cultivating high-potential future leaders isn't a vital challenge. But the identification and development of Hi-Pos can seem pretty mysterious and a bit thin on "how-to" specifics. Only a few organizations ever figure out who they need to "put on the bus" and send on the "Magical Mystery Hi-Po Development Tour" to ensure they have a group of really ready successors.

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The Mystery of Leadership - Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, President Emeritus, George Washington University : Korn/Ferry Briefings

There are countless books — probably more than anyone can bear to read — promising to tell you the secrets of leadership. I will save you time and money: there are no secrets, and if anyone had them, he would be a fool to reveal them. There are also courses in leadership that offer sound training in certain skills. But unless you get up and dance, no course or program is going to teach you how to lead. You learn on your own. You learn by doing. I arrived at this conclusion after 30 years as a university president, first at the University of Hartford and afterward at the George Washington University. Along the way, I frequently served on the boards of nonprofits and corporations. It is fair to ask, since neither broom nor book works, “How does anyone become a leader?” I could say, “I really do not know.” But that is not sufficient. So I will give several answers which I hope will give you something to think about.

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