The idea of character has been lost sight of. One reason could be that the educational system and organizations are completely competency focused, or perhaps because character seems an old-fashioned word. However, character is a vital part of leadership and it cannot be ignored. Character fundamentally shapes how we engage with the world around us, […]
Read More… from Character – The Unspoken Essence of Leadership
Only a small number of psychopaths become violent criminals. Others lead outwardly normal lives and appear integrated into society. Strongly attracted to money and power, these ‘psychopaths lite’ often seek careers in finance and business. (According to some estimates, approximately 3.9 per cent of corporate professionals have psychopathic tendencies, against approximately one percent of the […]
Read More… from Psychopaths in the C-Suite: How to Avoid Them
How can leaders recognize and manage their psychological preferences and personality traits? This is the question the authors explore in this article. Interviewing over 2,000 international executives attending leadership programs at Duke University, London Business School and IMD, they identify the most common leadership pitfalls. The authors found that even the most successful executives have […]
Decision-making is at the heart of all leadership. Sometimes leaders make good decisions, but sometimes they make less good decisions. The authors set out to understand why bad decisions are made, and what causes them. They propose that in certain situations, the brain processes that normally get us to good decisions, lead us instead to […]
Read More… from Avoiding Bad Decisions: ‘Red Flags’ and Reflection
When it comes to personalities and employment roles, extraverts have traditionally done well, as they tend to express confidence, dominance and enthusiasm easily – all traits typically associated with good-performing employees. After all, someone expressing anxiety, emotional volatility and an overall neurotic personality in comparison will hardly make a better employee, right? Not according to […]
In a survey by Staples, Inc. in 2010, three out of four respondents admitted to ‘office-chair envy’ – that is, coveting a co-worker’s office chair. It may sound laughable, but various degrees and forms of envy in the workplace are a reality. Whether it is for the time and attention of senior managers or for […]
Read More… from Envy at Work – Pros and Cons for the Organization
In January 2011, a football commentator found himself unceremoniously fired after he made a remark about the appearance of a female match official, and questioned whether another was capable of understanding the ‘offside rule.’ Many called his comments sexist and ‘prehistoric.’ However, there were also some people that suggested the commentator’s termination was a result […]
Read More… from Political Correctness Helps Expression in Mixed-Sex Teams
A large-scale study by Vlerick Business School, in association with three media partners, De Standaard, La Libre Belgique and NRC Handelsblad, underlines the importance of non-financial rewards to employees. The study, based on a poll of 4,877 people in Flanders, Wallonia and the Netherlands working in 18 different sectors, measured attitudes to salary, bonuses and […]
Strategic embeddedness is a priority for companies; a strategy is much more likely to succeed if a critical mass of employees understands and accepts it. Despite this, articles on strategic alignment have tended to focus more on organizational structures, systems and processes than on employees. Why do some people understand and accept their company’s business […]
Read More… from Embed the Strategy (Do Not Rely on Cascading)
The industrial age bought with it bureaucratic principles of work organization. Things we now consider commonplace were considered major innovations, such as employing staff in an official capacity, building hierarchies of authority and task-specialized division of labour. This model served well during that time, but now we are on the midst of an information ‘revolution’; […]
Read More… from Organizational Capabilities Fit for the Future
