year, hundreds of thousands of new graduates enter the business world, eager to climb the corporate ladder. Their progress on the early rungs of that journey will often be determined by qualities like hard work, determination, knowledge and technical proficiency. But business consultants Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz argue that those same qualities prove less helpful at higher rungs on the ladder, and may even be one's downfall if they are not balanced by a very different set of leadership qualities. They sum up the thesis of their new book, Leadership Conversations: Challenging High-Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders, like this: "As you move into upper leade... posted on Jul 2 2013 (36,709 reads)

are more likely to overrate themselves and to develop blind spots that can hinder their effectiveness as leaders. Another study by Development Dimensions International Inc. found that 89 percent of front-line leaders have at least one blind spot in their leadership skills. When we're in a leadership position, our blind spots can cause a great deal of damage, not only to our career but to the people who depend on us. How can you avoid this potential pitfall for yourself and your business? These eight tips can help. 1. Raise your awareness of the top blind spots. This Executive White Paper shows the 10 blind spots that are most risky to personal and organizational success. ... posted on Sep 18 2013 (38,308 reads)

fellowship in Asia. I think part of that was the time in life. But part of it was being deeply immersed in another culture and environment, and having to learn another language. I think that helps me as much as anything because it provides a fair amount of empathy in the way I think about issues and the work. I am quite adept at cross-cultural work, and I’ve done that my entire career. Sometimes that’s literally geographical or language culture. Sometimes it’s cross-sectoral business, and a lot of my time here at Davos has been spent working. One minute I’m talking to pharmaceutical CEOs. The next I’m talking to ministers of health. And the next I’m talk... posted on Oct 26 2013 (14,216 reads)

notes anotherreport from the National Association of Realtors. “Millennials own fewer cars and drive less than their predecessors. They’d rather walk, bike, car-share, and use public transportation—and want to live where that’s all easy.” Why Walking? Why Now? What’s driving the growing passion for walking? “It’s a convergence of factors,” says Christopher Leinberger, a real estate developer, George Washington University business professor, and a leading advocate for walkable communities. Those factors are: 1. The well-established link between walking and better health , which is reinforced by recent research point... posted on Feb 10 2015 (26,146 reads)

to develop a set of rules, a blueprint for problem solving. It’s not always problem solving, but that’s mostly what we try to do. That’s what this book is. It’s meant to be a fun, engaging, practical way to think about the way the world really works, [to] think about the way incentives really work, and the way that people really respond to incentives rather than how they say they might. Then, if you’re trying to solve a problem — big or small — in business or government or in your own family, you can maybe slightly increase your chances to actually solve [it]. That’s the idea. Grant: Well, you certainly accomplished those goals. You st... posted on Mar 25 2015 (67,270 reads)

there is a continuum. The original founding fathers focused more on government of negative constraints. Freedom from.. and our government has moved into a more positive role of providing for people in their lives. I wonder if you think that we have gone too far. Jerry: One of the thrusts of the founding of this country was to put up a structure. This is where capitalism begins with great vision. We made the distinctions between interests and desires. We have money as the main motive of the businesses and economic progress, social progress. These are interests in people. People want be wealthy. People want to have property. People want to raise families well. People want to be remembered... posted on Jul 4 2015 (8,835 reads)

I've learned through experience that people remember pictures long after they've forgotten words, and so I hope you'll remember some of the pictures I'm going to share with you for just a few minutes. 0:55    The whole story really starts with me as a high school kid in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a tough neighborhood that everybody gave up on for dead. And on a Wednesday afternoon, I was walking down the corridor of my high school kind of minding my own business. And there was this artist teaching, who made a great big old ceramic vessel, and I happened to be looking in the door of the art room -- and if you've ever seen clay done, it's magic... posted on Aug 1 2015 (11,317 reads)

‘semiconductor’ of the 21st century will be a solution to understanding behavior and behavior change. Knowledge@Wharton: In terms of passing this information onto students or corporations, what’s the most important thing for them to understand about the difference between grit and talent? There’s probably a large difference between the two and how that can affect your future success. Duckworth: Well, as Wharton students probably know already, people in business use the word “talent” in different ways. Sometimes HR or the CEO who’s looking for a new hire uses it broadly to mean everything they’re looking for — just every... posted on Nov 26 2016 (15,479 reads)

impoverished parts of the globe. What’s more, the centuries-old institution of education has been turned on its head. So, how did he do it? AB: What gave you the idea for University of the People? SR: My former education company was a great success but I started to feel that something was missing. I was conscious that, for some people, getting a great education is nothing but wishful thinking. It’s just too expensive. So I ended up selling my university and the rest of my business to go into semi-retirement in New York; but I soon realised this wasn’t for me. I needed to continue doing things, but I just didn’t want to continue doing the same thing. Afte... posted on Mar 11 2017 (19,865 reads)

The toaster was given a “rough surface texture, allowing it to grow old gracefully” and its birth date was cast into the aluminum so owners could enjoy celebrating its service year after year. The Optimist even included a simple toast counter so that, “When you hand the toaster down through the generations, your children will know you’ve enjoyed 55,613 rounds of toast!” The greatest challenge to making such a long-lived product is coming up with a workable business plan. Ever since the term “planned obsolescence” was coined during the Great Depression, the U.S. and much of the world’s economies have relied on the disposal and replaceme... posted on Apr 24 2017 (16,249 reads)

announces Black Friday closure at 143 stores as part of #OptOutside initiative. Credit: Suzi Pratt/Getty Images for REI. As any entrepreneur will tell you, success requires sacrifice. And this has never been truer for business leaders who have resolved to put purpose first. By sacrifice, we don’t mean getting up at the crack of dawn or having your social life squeezed, although these may be part and parcel of your purpose journey. We’re talking about the scary moments when staying true to your mission seems to risk the short-term health of your bottom line. The road to realising your purpose to its fullest can sometimes call for audacious, counterintuitive sacrif... posted on Jun 28 2017 (16,047 reads)

still others said they didn’t need anything then but may need food at a later date. “Why is it so hard to do a good thing?” she remembers thinking. “Where are all the people hungry when I have so much food?” It then hit her: what she needed was to innovate the old process to better match food waste with need. Copia was born in 2011. “We didn’t invent the concept of food recovery; we just put technology behind it,” she explains. Copia allows businesses, event organizers and others to request a pickup of their surplus food for a fee contingent upon the quantity of food being donated. An algorithm then matches the requests to non-profits... posted on Aug 10 2018 (7,927 reads)

Ethiopia — shows a jubilant white man wearing a colorful scarf and running across the field among the boys. Wubetu is in the picture, an equally jubilant sidekick. When it was time for the man to rejoin his group, Wubetu tagged along. He was eager to practice his English and ask questions. He figures the walk lasted about 30 minutes and ended with an offer from the man: “If you need help with your education, you can reach out to me.” Then the man handed him his business card and $30 for what he hoped would pay for a jacket. And then the man was gone, leaving Wubetu “feeling like the billionaire in Ethiopia.” Into one pants pocket went the $30 and... posted on Nov 13 2018 (19,854 reads)

as they come,” she says. Then her brother-in-law, the CEO of Monsanto at the time, gave her a gift that would transform her life: $5,000 to use as she pleased. She had always been interested in personal development and human consciousness, so when he made the suggestion that she use the money to learn from the best coaches he knew, psychologists Gay and Katie Hendricks, she jumped on the opportunity. After studying with the Hendrickses for a decade and taking their work into a business context, Chapman is now one of the world’s foremost experts on conscious leadership. In 2014, she co-authored the influential book “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership,&rdq... posted on Feb 13 2019 (8,554 reads)

starting out when we did. Novogratz:Oh, my goodness. Tippett:So you’ve written this book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: And you talk about — you left Rwanda in 1989 for Palo Alto to go to Stanford Business School; the Berlin Wall falls that year; the Soviet Union disintegrates; it’s the end of history; you are a banker, and you’re remaking banking, and capitalism has won. And you made a statement in a speech — I believe it was at a forum for business leaders. And you said Steve Jobs spoke to your business class. And you said, we thought we needed a technological revolution, but we needed a moral revolution. And that’s what you&rsquo... posted on May 26 2020 (6,875 reads)

Here’s my conversation with someone I really respect, Lynne Twist.  I wanted to begin, Lynne, by sharing how it was a couple of years ago that I was at the Wisdom 2.0 event and you and I ran into each other. You said, very nonchalant, “What’s new, Tami? What are you working on?” I said, “Well, we’re partnering with Wisdom 2.0 and LinkedIn to produce a new program called the Inner MBA. It’s an online training on the wisdom skills needed in business today.” You just looked at me and you said, “Count me in. Whatever I can do to help, whatever I can do to support, I’m in.” I thought, first of all, what a gracious... posted on Mar 12 2022 (3,044 reads)

the secret is behind his legendary effectiveness in communication. Slick videos, minimalist slides and articulate delivery all play their part, but the most important factor? The message itself. There is something about aligning with our intrinsic values that unleashes a hailstorm of creativity and energy, be it in designing moving advertisements or amazing products. Rewind two decades. I am 14, sitting in a large hall in India, listening to an 84-year-old monk talk slowly and clearly about business. The monk said, "The definition of business is service. We serve others, and out of gratitude, we are compensated. As long as our focus is on the service, compensation is bound to come. ... posted on Aug 8 2011 (14,728 reads)

partners in Sid Caesar’s laugh factory could confirm, sometimes super-creative groups like jazz ensembles, theater troupes, or comedy writing teams get into flow together. Carl Reiner (left) and Mel Brooks worked together onYour Show of Shows. Indeed, group flow is important for all of us, because so many of our personal and professional activities are spent in groups, and we all want these groups to be more effective and more fun—whether they’re a sports team, a business meeting, a non-profit board, a PTA, or a boy scout troop. Decades of scientific research have revealed that great creativity almost always springs from collaboration, conversation, and social... posted on Feb 1 2012 (41,855 reads)

and thinker -- has a unique perspective on many things. His physical domain ranges from California (where he lived as a child) and England (where he studied) to Cuba, North Korea and Ethiopia (which he visited) and Japan (where he resides). His mental domain knows no limiting boundaries. In this interview with Wharton associate dean and chief information officer Deirdre Woods and Knowledge@Wharton, Iyer spoke on an unusual topic -- the value of silence and stillness amid the rush of business. If we spend too much time in the MTV rhythm, says Iyer, we won't be able to cultivate the parts of us that need more slowness. Iyer has written several books, including The Ope... posted on Jun 19 2012 (20,356 reads)

20% of our time working on whatever we want. I figured, I might as well try to solve the toughest problem I know, which is bringing about world peace. I started thinking about the necessary and sufficient conditions for world peace and one thought led to another. I came to the conclusion that a very important condition for world peace is to create conditions for inner peace, inner happiness and compassion on a global scale. The way I want to do that is to make those qualities profitable for businesses and to help people succeed. If we have a program that helps people and companies become successful and the side-effect of that is world peace, then we will have world peace. Eventually, tha... posted on Jul 11 2012 (21,833 reads)