A memorial in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings We have studied crisis leadership for years. The Boston Marathon bombings brought the issue right to our backyard. We saw many instances of meta-leadership as well as the inevitable lessons to be carried forward to a future event. We wrote about our observations [...]
We have spent a lot of time looking at graphic images and hearing compelling testimony about the horror of terror attacks. They are part of what we research, write and teach about as we prepare leaders for high stress, high stakes situations. Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon, however, hit close to home and gave [...]
From left: Richard Serino, Janet Napolitano Richard Reed, and Leonard Marcus Crisis -- a time when many organizations hunker down. They tighten restrictions on what people can say or do. They adopt a bunker mentality. That wasn't the case for FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) in the aftermath of super storm Sandy. [...]
The recent departure of Steven Sinofsky from the ranks of Microsoft's senior management presents an ideal opportunity to use the five dimensions of meta-leadership to dissect why some succeed and others fail as leaders. Part of the problem may be that too many in organizations and in the media automatically call senior executives "leaders" whether [...]
This post originally appeared at HBR.org. The rambunctious, topsy-turvy U.S. Presidential campaign took its latest turn on Tuesday night. From jobs to gas prices to world events, central to the arguments advanced by both candidates was the idea of exerting control. Governor Romney, in particular, has criticized President Obama for "leading from behind" rather than [...]
Humanitarians increasingly find themselves in conflict-stricken areas making their jobs more trying and dangerous than ever before. Yet the need has never been greater: not only must they tackle the traditional challenges of infectious disease but now must also deal with "first world" maladies such as diabetes and obesity. In this piece originally published in [...]
"...the first, overarching lesson from our research is that bad leadership – much like smoking – is a public health risk factor. Whether in the aftermath of a terror attack or a natural disaster, we have seen that when leaders don’t perform well lives are lost and people abandoned" Lenny Marcus and Barry Dorn share [...]
Eric McNulty takes a look at the leadership impact of Apple CEO Steve Jobs -- with a view to why the many assessments that poured forth after his death were premature. Apple certainly makes wonderful products but it will take time to determine if Jobs was as great a leader as some have dubbed him [...]
Much of management is about simplifying complexity—leadership requires embracing it. Spreadsheets, process flow diagrams, slideware, organizational charts: Each of these helps codify a commitment to a worldview that is linear, orderly, and predictable. Relationships are precisely delineated. Plans march step-by-step toward a predetermined end. Cause and effect are crystal clear. Unfortunately, the world in which [...]
