Learning from Legends

Learning from Legends and Learnings from Legends - Business are two excellent books by ex rugby internationalist, John Eales, once voted Australia’s greatest Wallaby.
 
Learning from Legends, the first book in the Learning from Legends series focuses on Australian sporting heroes, with a collection of stories adapted from in-depth interviews conducted and written by John Eales.

Australians love their sport and grow up watching and wanting to emulate their sporting heroes. The influence of sports stars is unmistakable and their stories help us to learn more about what it takes to not only be a leader, but also to understand the responsibility that comes with it. With more than 40 subjects, John Eales tackles candid topics, seeking to uncover the driving factors that have enabled these Legends to learn their lessons, reach their goals, and now pass on to us the essence of what it takes to lead successfully.

Legends include - Layne Beachley, Herb Elliott, Liz Ellis, Grant Hackett, Pat Rafter, Louise Savage and many more.

Learning from Legends

The Reason Tiger Woods Is Number One

The Reason Tiger Woods Is Number One

What It Takes to be Number 1

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

"There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

"Every time a football player goes to play his trade he's got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

"Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization — an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win — to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

"It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there — to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules — but to win.

"And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

"I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle — victorious."

Vince. Lombardi, NFL Hall of Fame Coach
1913 - 1970

What It Takes to be Number 1

Inspiration

This video really is what life is all about. About striving to be better, doing things outside your 'comfort zone' and not giving up. It focuses on sports but it can be applied to any dream you have in life. The trick is to have a strong emotional attatchment to your goal to drive you forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aucOyuCyW8&feature=related

Inspiration

Succeed with a Positive Attitude

Succeed with a Positive Attitude

Never Give Up On Your Dreams

Never Give Up On Your Dreams

Desmond Tutu on Leadership

Desmond Tutu on Leadership

Have a Purpose as a Leader

Have a Purpose as a Leader

The Leader in You

The Leader in You

Nothing is Impossible!

This video brings home the message that our sporting heroes work hard for their success everyday:

Nothing is Impossible!

President Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.



Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

President Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Fierce Leadership

Fierce Leadership by Susan Scott is a remarkable leadership book for its candor and practicality. She gets to the heart of many relationship issues that prevent us from really connecting with others and limit our performance.

Though the title may seem provocative, the term fierce refers to the type of leadership that engages and connects with people at a deep level. The fierce leaders’ most valuable currency is relationships and emotional capital. Scott writes, “Everywhere, people are hungry to connect, to be seen and known as the unique individuals they are, and this has an immediate and powerful impact on how we design business strategies and market our products and services and ultimately on whether our businesses succeed or fail. Yet much business communication is still stuck in the information age. Too often we treat our conversations and our relationships as we do our e-mails—one way, directive, quick, clipped, efficient.”

Scott suggests another approach to some widely accepted "best practices" moving for instance, from 360 Anonymous Feedback — to 365 Face-to-Face Feedback. The goal here is to have “open, honest, face-to-face conversations, 365 days a year, with the people central to your success and happiness…. When we stay current with one another, our formal performance reviews will contain few, if any, surprises.”

She also suggests a change in emphasis from Hiring for Smarts — to Hiring for Smarts and Emotional Intelligence, from Holding People Accountable — to Modeling Accountability and Holding People Able, from Employee Engagement Programs — to Real Engagement, from Client Centricity — to Client Connectivity, and from Legislated Optimism — to Radical Transparency. The exercises at the end of each chapter are designed to help you implement these ideas in your own leadership role and have been well thought out.

Some leadership lessons: 

• A careful conversation is a failed conversation because it merely postpones the conversation that wants and needs to take place.
• What argument am I waging? Are you waging? What are we trying to be right about? The question is not whether our beliefs are right or wrong. We can tell the stories, point to the evidence, build an impressive case. You’re right! Who could possibly argue with the facts? The question is, how are your beliefs working for you?
• John Doerr said, “The moment of truth is when you ask, ‘Are these the people I want to be in trouble with for the next five, ten, fifteen years of my life?’ Because as you build a business, one thing’s for sure: You’ll get in trouble.”
• In meetings, people stubbornly cling to their ideas (sometimes at length!) in an attempt to impress others with the brilliance of their thinking. Their goal is to influence. It does not occur to them that an equally valid goal would be to be influenced, to have their own learning provoked. Nothing new emerges, because individuals are focused on being right rather than on making the best possible decisions for the organisation.
• The culture is not some nebulous and mysterious force out there somewhere. You are the culture. I am the culture. And each of us shapes that culture each time we walk into a room, pick up the phone, send an e-mail. Fierce leaders know that they influence the culture one conversation at a time, responding honestly or guardedly when asked what they think.

Fierce Leadership

Talent Management in a Recession

Best-selling business author Jim Collins once wrote that “[Good to Great Companies] are rigorous, not ruthless … To be rigorous, not ruthless, means that the best people need not worry about their positions and can concentrate fully on their work.”

Experience suggests that the following recommendations are essential for C-level executives during turbulent times:

• Get ready ahead of time - you need to be ready to start the engine and open up the throttle at any time.
• Make good use of bad times to prepare for recovery by investing ahead of the cycle in leadership that creates a good business and productive working atmosphere.
• Make sure you have the right leaders on board to drive the organization and multiply their impact through their leadership team.
• Focus on the right leadership competencies for your business and develop the skills of your individuals and leadership teams to keep your talent from walking.
• Ensure alignment of business and people strategy, and make people issues a priority – leaders should be communicating consistently and frequently.

By studying the profiles of leaders who have succeeded under difficult and uncertain circumstances, the following five competencies appear to be the most critical for success:

• Strategic orientation: demonstrating complex thinking to refocus and develop insightful new strategies, reshape core business units and align work cultures.
• Change leadership: driving for improvement through people, transforming and aligning an organization in a new and challenging direction, possibly reinventing the company, keeping people onboard through tough times and difficult decisions.
• Team leadership: building effective groups and leading successfully under difficult circumstances, providing guidance and support in times of insecurity.
• Results-focus: boosting business results and focusing on the right (re)sourcing instead of downsizing, ensuring execution and follow-through.
• Building capability: strengthening the organisation by acquiring top talent and developing teams and potential successors with special projects and behavioural feedback.

The current economic environment and its unparalleled recession are certainly placing unusual stresses on today’s senior managers. However, focusing on a clear business strategy to beat the competition and ensuring that you have the right talent in place to deliver that strategy in these difficult times will certainly create a more positive can-do environment and a more powerful team performance with which to tackle the situation and steer through the storm.

Talent Management in a Recession

Crazy Bosses!

Since the latter part of the century just past, Stanley Bing has been exploring the relationship between authority and madness. In one bestselling book after another, reporting from his hot-seat as an insider in a world-renowned multinational corporation, he has tried to understand the inner workings of those who lead us and to inquire why they seem to be powered, much of the time, by demons that make them obnoxious and dangerous, even to themselves.

In Crazy Bosses, Bing is back on his home turf in this funny, true, and essential book, peering with his keen and frosty eye at the crazy boss in all his guises: the Bully, the Paranoid, the Narcissist, the Wimp, and the self-destructive Disaster Hunter. If you are new to Bing, strap yourself in: it's going to be a crazy ride!!!

This is what Stanley himself says about the research underpinning his book:

'In a stunning example of science telling us something we already know, a new study finds that bad management may be bad for your heart.

The BCC reports that “A Swedish team found a strong link between poor leadership and the risk of serious heart disease and heart attacks among more than 3,000 employed men.” The study found that people with lousy managers had higher stress, were more likely to smoke and suffer from high blood pressure, particularly when they were yelled at.

“The staff who deemed their senior managers to be the least competent had a 25% higher risk of a serious heart problem. And those working for what was classed as a long time – four years or more – had a 64% higher risk,” the BCC reports, citing the study, which was originally published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, which will clearly be on our mandatory reading list along with “Who Moved My Cheese” from here on in.

We were there first, of course. But it’s always nice to see science catch up with reality a little bit.

Now get back to work, you lazy slugs!!'

Listen to Stanley talk about Crazy Bosses here - http://www.caliperonline.com/radio/StanleyBing.htm

Stanley Bing is the pen name of Gil Schwartz, a business humorist and novelist. He has written a column for Fortune magazine for more than ten years, after having spent a decade at Esquire, and has written many books. Schwartz is the executive vice president of corporate communications for CBS.

Crazy Bosses!

The Power of Full Engagement

For 25 years, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz have conducted intensive training with professional athletes to help them perform at peak levels under intense competitive pressures.

Elite athletes who have worked with Loehr and Schwartz include: Mark O’Meara in golf, Jim Courier and Monica Seles in tennis, Jim Harbaugh in football, Mike Richter and Eric Lindros in hockey, Grant Hill in basketball, Eddie Cheever, Jr. in race car driving, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini in boxing, and Dan Jansen in speed skating.

Loehr and Schwartz are not involved in the physical training process, however. Their intervention focuses on effective management of our most precious resource, our energy. They have found to their surprise that the performance demands most people face in their everyday work environments are often tougher than those professional athletes face. Because athletes train constantly, they are more prepared, whereas most people are in the work game 8 to 12 hours a day with little or no training at all. Most of us are constantly trying to manage time.

In their book, The Power of Full Engagement, the authors have instead set out a prescription for managing energy on every level: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

Complete this free profile to see how engaged you are with your work - http://lge.perfprog.com/

The Power of Full Engagement

Leading at the Edge

Part adventure story, part leadership guide, Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Limits of Human Endurance - The Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition examines Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition through the lens of business—to reveal a set of powerful strategies for corporate leaders.

In the chronicles of extraordinary adventures and against-the-odds survival, nothing compares to the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of South Pole explorers. Stranded in the frozen sea for nearly two years, they endured extreme temperatures, hazardous ice, dwindling food, complete isolation, and perpetual blackness.

Yet, despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the group remained cohesive, congenial, and mercifully alive—a fact that speaks not just to luck but to an unparalleled feat in leadership.

'Leading at the Edge' draws on this amazing story to reveal the power of effective organizational leadership under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and rapid change. The book uncovers 10 lessons—complete with stirring examples from the Shackleton expedition, as well as contemporary business case studies of the strategies in action—on what it takes to be a great leader. Readers learn how to:

• Set a personal example with vivid symbols and behaviours
• Instill optimism while staying grounded in reality
• Reinforce the team message constantly
• Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about
• Have the courage to take big risks, and more.

For managers and executives who feel stressed out or stretched thin, these memorable strategies will help bring order to chaos—and success in the face of the most daunting adversity.

Leading at the Edge

Knowledge Transfer Using Peer Mentoring

Any major organisational transition requires intensive knowledge transfer, at the heart of which is someone who possesses specific knowledge, and someone who needs to learn that knowledge in order to perform their job and grow professionally. But training programs are by nature limited in scope, and most job-specific learning has to come from co-workers who are busy trying to get their own jobs done. Peer mentoring is often done haphazardly, without planning or structure, leaving both mentors and their apprentices to fend for themselves.

Steve Trautman, who honed his teaching skills internally at Microsoft Corporation before becoming a consultant with widespread clients across the globe, wants to fix this problem with a simple methodology and an extensive set of teaching tools. In his book, Teach What You Know: A Practical Leader's Guide to Knowledge Transfer Using Peer Mentoring, the first step, he says, is for managers to clearly identify who is going to teach what to whom, and make sure each party understands and accepts his or her role as mentor or apprentice. Once the roles are clear, the basic process for the mentor to follow is as follows:

◦Quickly assess what the apprentice already knows and wants or needs to know and define a measurable learning goal.

◦Ensure that the apprentice has the minimum required setup to be successful (suitable workstation, documentation, vocabulary).

◦Break down the needed information into manageable chunks, creating a brief lesson plan before each meeting.

◦Teach from the lesson plan in a manner that matches the apprentice' learning style.

◦Assess his or her progress along the way using quizzes, paraphrasing and demonstration of new skills.

◦Send the apprentice off with specific instructions on what to do next, then follow up with peer-appropriate feedback.

Mentors are often afraid all this will take too long-after all, they barely have enough time to do their own jobs. To answer that need and the general lack of knowledge on how to teach, Trautman has designed a series of planning and teaching tools that should not take more than 5-10 minutes each.

The first step for planning is for the mentor to determine, with his or her manager, whether he is to be the primary mentor or a "silo" mentor-someone who has deep subject matter expertise and will focus on teaching others only that subject. A manager may want to set up teams of consisting of a primary mentor and several silo mentors; this team can share the load of teaching a new hire or, in the case of a reorganization or a need for better consistency across a department, switch roles for cross-training an entire department.

As part of preparation for teaching, Trautman asks the mentor to plan for managing his or her time with the apprentice and communication. He suggests taking a close look at you like to communicate versus what is an unwelcome interruption. The tools he provides for this purpose include worksheets that will help you determine how you want your apprentice to interact with you, how he or she should structure emails and write status reports, how often you should meet, how to pre-plan meetings, what makes a good question, and what problem-solving protocols to use-including steps the apprentice should take before turning to you. These worksheets take time to work through, but they should save a lot of time over the long run.

Before the first meeting the primary mentor should also take 20 minutes to develop a customized training plan. For this, Trautman offers a "Training Plan Template," which is a five-column chart breaking down the skills or tasks your apprentice needs to know how to do, the sequence or order in which you think the apprentice should learn them, the success metric or test questions that must be answered to prove he or she has learned the skill, the date by which he should be able to pass the "test," and the list of resources that are available.

For individual teaching sessions, Trautman stresses taking five minutes beforehand to create a quick outline of the meeting to provide structure and avoid overload. He also provides a Demonstration Technique Worksheet to use every time you need to demonstrate a specific task. Other tools and worksheets in the book involve individual learning styles, asking assessment questions, requesting and providing feedback, and more. You can read the book all the way through or pick and choose the chapters and tools that are pertinent to where you are in the teaching cycle.

Knowledge Transfer Using Peer Mentoring

How to Lead in Times of Crisis

The World Business Forum starting in New York City this week brings together political and business leaders for two days to discuss the ongoing crisis, leadership, talent management, leading change in jobless times and many more issues related to how we conduct business and lead teams today.

For a CEO, this event promises to show key indicators of where and what might lead us out of the current crisis. From changing the way you mentor teams, spearhead campaigns and make your brand successful, the next decade will require evolved leadership skills if you and your company want to succeed. The introductory speaker Bill George, ex-CEO of Medtronix and a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School will focus on discussing the focal point of the event: How to lead in times of crisis.

He will speak from experience. He has not only led Medtronix for a number of years but also serves on boards of many multinational companies and has authored several books including his latest publication 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis.

Recently he said: “It’s quite easy to be a measured, good-natured, principled and strategic leader in smooth sailing, but reputations are made in the depth of crisis. I want to ensure that the next generation of leaders, like those students of mine at HBS, clearly understand that concept and grasp the inherent vulnerability they face as leaders in crisis.”

His primary concern though is a familiar one and one that hits at the top of every company: That the economic collapse was not caused by oft-repeated reasons like subprime mortgages and credit default swaps but by failed leadership.

Below are a few tips he hopes will help you as company (and team) leader to make the right decisions and keep everyone afloat:

• Don’t point fingers when you are to blame.
• Don’t try to go it alone – you will fail.
• Don’t go for the quick fix.
• Don’t forget the media – they hang on every word.
• Don’t shy away from opportunity – come out swinging.
• Don’t be afraid to change your leadership style.
• Don’t ever, ever waste a good crisis - it is your opportunity to change your company for the better.
• Do get behind the podium and inspire your company back to profitability.
• Do get down in the weeds with your managers and work the problem.
• Do focus on long-term viability rather than short-term profits.
• Do be forthright in acknowledging fault.
• Do encourage a culture of candidness. Do call on trusted mentors when you need a fresh perspective.
• Do keep a close eye on the balance sheet (in crisis, cash is king).
• Simply, lead with every intention of having an aggressively positive impact on your company, employees, and customers. Crisis or not.

How to Lead in Times of Crisis

The Importance of Candor in Business

One of the most straightforward pieces written recently on candor comes from Jack Welch’s book, Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book. In it, he refers to candor as, “the biggest dirty little secret in business,” but more specifically as people not expressing themselves in a straightforward way and withholding their comments and criticism; usually in an effort to avoid conflict.

Welch summarises the positive effects of candor on an organisation as:

1.Create better outcomes: get more people in the conversation which leads to more minds and more ideas.

2.Speed things up using the process: surface, debate, improve, decide.

3.Cut costs: replace boring meetings, pointless updates, and presentations with real conversations about the core issues.

Why aren’t we candid: we’re taught not to be at a young age. Sensitive or awkward issues are softened or avoided. Our parents scolded us for pointing out something that we thought was obvious but “wasn’t a nice thing to point out.” But the main reason we’re not candid is simple, it’s easier not to be.

So how do we reverse the trend and our learned childhood behaviours to create candor in our companies? Reward the behaviours you’d like to see more of and lead by example, no matter where you are in the hierarchy (although it is easier the higher up you are).

What steps do you take within your organisation to promote and reward candor?

The Importance of Candor in Business

The Best Leadership Advice I Ever Got

Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behaviour. As a coach, he is often asked to give others advice. In this interview, he is asked what is the best coaching advice that he has ever received?

'Like many young Ph.D. students, I was deeply impressed with my own intelligence, wisdom and profound insights into the human condition. I consistently amazed myself with my ability to judge others and see what they were doing wrong.

UCLA Professor Fred Case was my advisor and head of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission - where I was doing my dissertation research. At this point in my career, he was clearly the most important person in my professional life. He was also a man that I sincerely respected. He had done an amazing amount to help the city become a better place. He was also doing a lot to help me.

Although he was normally in a very upbeat mood, one day Dr. Case seemed annoyed. He looked at me and growled, "Marshall, what is the problem with you? I am getting feedback from some people at City Hall that you are coming across as negative, angry and judgmental. What's going on?"

"You can't believe how inefficient the city government is!" I ranted. I immediately proceeded to give several examples of how taxpayer's money was not being used in the way that I thought it should be. I was convinced that the city could be a much better place if the leaders just listened to me.

"What a stunning breakthrough!" Dr. Case sarcastically remarked, "You, Marshall Goldsmith, have discovered that our city government is inefficient! I hate to tell you this Marshall, but my barber who is cutting hair down on the corner figured this out several years ago. What else is bothering you?"

Undeterred by this temporary setback, I angrily proceeded to point out several minor examples of behavior that could be classified as favoritism toward rich political benefactors.

Dr. Case was now laughing. "Stunning breakthrough number two!" he chuckled. "Your profound investigative skills have led to the discovery that politicians may give a more attention to their major campaign contributors than to people who support their opponents. I am sorry to report that my barber has also known this for years. I am afraid that we can't give you a Ph.D. for this level of insight."

As he looked at me, his face showed the wisdom that can only come from years of experience. He said, "I know that you think that I may be old and 'behind the times', but I have been working down there at City Hall for years. Did it ever dawn on you that even though I may be slow, perhaps even I have figured some of this stuff out?

Then he delivered the advice I will never forget. "Marshall," he explained, "you are becoming a 'pain in the butt'. You are not helping the people who are supposed to be your clients. You are not helping me and you are not helping yourself. I am going to give you two options:

"Option A - Continue to be angry, negative and judgmental. If you chose this option, you will be fired, you probably will never graduate and you may have wasted the last four years of your life.

"Option B - Start having some fun. Keep trying to make a constructive difference, but do it in a way that is positive for you and the people around you.

"My advice is this: You are young. Life is short. Start having fun.

"What option are you going to choose, son?"

I finally laughed and replied, "Dr. Case, I think it is time for me to start having some fun!"

He smiled knowingly and said, "You are a wise young man."

Most of my life is spent working with leaders in huge organizations. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that things are not always as efficient as they could be - almost every employee has made this breakthrough discovery. It also doesn't take a genius to learn that occasionally people are more interested in their own advancement than the welfare of the company. Many employees have already figured out this one as well.

Real leaders are not people who can point out what is wrong. Almost anyone can do that. Real leaders are people who can make things better.

Dr. Case taught me a great lesson. His coaching didn't just help me get a Ph.D. and become a better consultant. He helped me have a better life. '

Think about your own behaviour at work. Are you communicating a sense of joy and enthusiasm to the people around you - or are you spending too much time in the role of angry, judgmental critic?

Do you have any co-workers who are acting like Goldsmith did? Are you just getting annoyed or are you trying to help them - in same way that Dr. Case helped him? If you haven't been trying to help them, why not give it a try. Perhaps they will write a story about you someday!

For more, see - http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/goldsmith/2008/09/the_best_leadership_advice_i_e.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a38:g26:r12:c0.016508:b27998024:z6

The Best Leadership Advice I Ever Got

The Art of Good Leadership

“Good leaders make people feel that they are the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.” Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

The Art of Good Leadership

Leadership Lessons for Difficult Times

McKinsey recently conducted a series of interviews with 14 CEOs and chairmen of major global companies which sheds light on the foundations of corporate leadership in diffcult times. Here are the principles which guide these leaders' behaviour:

Confront reality
'Always question whether the “halo effect” of a business or business situation is blinding you to what lies on the horizon.' - Herbert Henkel, chairman and CEO of Ingersoll Rand

At board meetings, put strategy centre stage
'The board has been heavily involved in strategy formulation with me, and we have a better strategy because of it.' - Bill Nuti, chairman and CEO of NCR

Be transparent with employees . . .
'The only way to address uncertainty is to communicate and communicate. And when you think you’ve just about got to everybody, then communicate some more.' - Terry Lundgren, chairman, president, and CEO of Macy’s 

. . . and investors
'Our policy is: “If in doubt, communicate.” We always want to conduct our business with integrity and forthrightness.' - Ron Sugar, chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman

Build and protect the culture
'Stay focused on culture, people, and values: it’s the area most likely to get compromised in this environment.' - Eric Foss, chairman and CEO of Pepsi Bottling Group

Keep faith with the future
'If you don’t invest in the future and don’t plan for the future, there won’t be one.' - George Buckley, chairman, president, and CEO of 3M.

None of the CEOs interviewed claimed to have attempted anything revolutionary. What was evident, however, was their resolve in pursuing the principles they thought were right, often in the face of opposition. Leadership becomes increasingly important in tough times, when so much is at risk—but it can be even harder to exercise. The six leadership “musts” described above have made the greatest difference for CEOs on the front line.
 
For more, see - http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Governance/Leadership/Leadership_lessons_for_hard_times_2413

Leadership Lessons for Difficult Times

Bringing Global Citizen Corps to Scotland

This Facebook article is worthy of note and says much about the leadership being displayed currently by many young people in Scotland and throughout the world:


'Monday, 27 April 2009

Global Citizen Corps Leader Sinead talks about the program and why she feels it is important to join the fight against global poverty.

At 16, I am part of a generation that is internet obsessed. For some, this means an addiction to internet game sites and for others, a reliance on Facebook or Bebo. For me, it has opened my eyes to the world and allowed me to explore.

As a child the news was always so depressing, and so often led to nightmares that I frequently flicked the channels. Later when I was no longer such a kid, I got so fed up of hearing about the economy, or a party conference for 10 minutes and only getting civil wars as sideline stories that I again grew restless with the news. This is where the internet comes in. Suddenly I discovered internet news websites. They presented the same news, but I could filter through the stuff that bored me and I was able to read the headlines in my own voice and make my own conclusions. And then a quick Google search could reveal 20 new dimensions to each story. The world was suddenly much smaller than I realised.

All of this made one thing clear. it was that life really isn't fair. I could read about starving children and then sit down to an incredible meal. I no longer wanted to be a vet; I now knew that I wanted to do something to tackle poverty. However, I didn't really know what I should do to get there. My future seemed so exciting, I envisaged travelling to far off lands and really doing something with my life – I couldn't wait! It was again through the internet that I took a further step.

The leader of a youth group I attend sent round an email about an opportunity she had heard about, and attached a link. This was the Mercy Corps initiative. Global Citizen Corps, and without really properly finding out what it was I applied to become a Global Citizen Corps leader - something I am now very glad of. From what I knew it was a chance to be educated about issues surrounding poverty and to be given help in arranging action within the local community to tackle it. That was enough for me, and it's actually a pretty good description.

Arriving for the first summit in November was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, I wasn't certain what I was to find and was wondering if I had made the right choice in going. When I got there I was a little daunted by the size of the hotel, and I quickly got lost. When I eventually found my way I found myself in a carpeted business-like room. Immediately I started worrying - does everyone else know each other? Will I actually manage to start a conversation? However, it was all just me worrying and the weekend was much better than I had expected. We learnt about HIV globally and locally and I soon found inspiration for what I could do in my school. Global Citizen Corps has provided me with an excellent opportunity to actually do something about issues that we normally brand hopeless. It has made me see that helping those most in need isn't a far off dream but a realistic goal. Hopefully a goal that my internet obsessed generation will be able to meet.'

For more on Global Citizen Corps see - http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/about.htm?page=about_leadership

Bringing Global Citizen Corps to Scotland

Lance Armstrong and Livestrong

October 2nd was the 13th year anniversary of Lance Armstrong’s cancer diagnosis. As the saying goes, it was a blessing in disguise. In many cases, we hear that but don’t really see the blessing-only the disguise. But for Lance, his cancer helped him win the Tour de France. Unbelievable as it may sound, the cancer helped Lance get lighter on the bike. The cancer stripped some of his muscle and in turn, his weight dropped. However, the real blessing was for us. Lance and his mother started the Livestrong foundation and brought a new awareness and a new life to leading the fight to beat cancer in our lifetime. Lance has created a legacy, both off and on the bike, and it happened in the guise of a cancer diagnosis.

Lance Armstrong and Livestrong