Perspectives
The Politics of Leadership
Of the three ways a political leader can excel (Policy, Politics, and Personality), the one that is hardest for potential followers to evaluate is that of politics. After all, you can't go into the back rooms to watch deals happen. You can, however watch how people...
Policy based Leadership
Now that we've all read enough about Margaret Thatcher and her leadership capabilities I want to go back to the Liberal Leadership race. If you remember my blog on Monday, I said something about how there are three dimensions upon which a leader can be identified....
Yet Another Blog on the Leadership Capabilities of Margaret Thatcher
I got a few emails last night about how I should comment on Margaret Thatcher's death and her qualities as a leader. I was reluctant to do so as there is little I can add to such a well covered topic. My first thought was that I would rather write a piece on the...
The Liberal Leadership Race
The Liberal party's selection of a new leader is a fascinating look into what people want to see in a leader and this campaign in particular provides an interesting laboratory to study leadership. In business, academia, etc leaders are not selected by their followers...
6 Ways to Avoid Responsibility
So what are you? Are you neurotic, always taking on too much responsibility? Or is your character flawed and you tend to assume that the world is at fault? In either case, you'll need the following six ways to avoid responsibility. Be the CEO - lots of other people...
Accountability vs Responsibility
A number of years ago I was talking with the president of a small company that was owned by a much larger entity. The president's job was to produce healthy profits which would then be dividended up to the parent company. The parent company held him accountable for...
Responsibility Redux
I wrote an earlier post today on the topic of taking responsibility but to tell you the truth I wasn't happy with it. Perhaps it was too early in the morning and I hadn't woken up or perhaps it is because I'm only learning how to write in way that makes it enjoyable...
Responsibility is Taken, Not Given
Are you sitting at work waiting for someone to give you responsibility? Have you identified a process that needs fixing, a product that needs improving, a job not being done? Are you waiting for someone to promote you or to give you responsibility for something? If...
If in Doubt, Apologize
When my son was small and was asked to apologize to his sister for some long forgotten transgression, he sighed deeply, scrunched up his face, turned red and blurted out "Sorry GaGa." Now his sister's name isn't GaGa, that was just his way of mitigating the apology....