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Category Archives: Individual Leadership

Leadership asylum

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

We’ve talked here before about the idea that the presumptively great virtues inescapably come with equally great vices. Where this is the case, it seems, sadly, that the former inevitably succumb to the latter. It is the person’s vices that ultimately determine his or her fate; the virtues merely determine, by their scope, the scale of the ensuing tragedy. But what if these aren’t two sides of the same coin?

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Leadership landscape

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The first thing that should cause us to question the value of the current dialogue about leadership in our organizations is the wide variety of peculiar sorts who appear in it. Bear in mind that this dialogue, peopled with so stunning an array of protagonists, is conducted everywhere from major consultancies and universities to the best-selling business books. But this landscape we attempt to navigate with their aid is, indeed, littered with peculiar fellows. . .

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Trumpets

Monday, June 29, 2009

The issues we’ve discussed here over the past weeks revolve around ill-considered or non-existent premises for individual leadership. These, as we’ve attempted to show, result in attempts to unthinkingly apply antiquated models today, or in dreamy notions that are propelled to our attention with great fanfare and excitement, but that then, lacking foundation, simply drift pointlessly and aimlessly away. There is one thing we do fairly consistently, though. . .

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Echolalia

Friday, June 26, 2009

That’s the word of the day: echolalia. It is used generally to refer to the reflexive repetition of what one has just heard. There are two ways otherwise normal people can find themselves falling into this peculiar habit.

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If only it were that complicated

Thursday, June 25, 2009

We saw yesterday that Occam’s Razor cuts both ways. But it certainly is worth keeping close at hand. As in so many things, an even more serious problem than oversimplifying an issue can be the obfuscation of it with superficial complexity. Many people thrive on this. . .

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Swagga

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Charisma is, obviously, a compelling characteristic precisely because those who have it effortlessly draw our attention – and, sometimes, our “followership” as well. This latter is why it is so often identified as a leadership trait; by some even as a requisite one. But there are many types of charisma. . .

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