by Daria Steigman on June 25, 2009
Do you have what it takes to be a leader? And is this even the right question to ask?
John Ryan, president of the Center for Creative Leadership and a former superintentent of the U.S. Naval Academy, has a great column in Business Week that posits that leadership has as much to do with environment as it does with innate abilities. He writes:
If you live in a culture where your colleagues believe you can be a leader and help you develop the skills you need, you will enthusiastically embrace the mantle of leadership… [R]egardless of your occupation, you will view yourself as a leader at home, at work, and in your community. But if you live in a culture that assumes leadership is not for everyone, is dependent on whether you have innate leadership skills, and that leadership is defined by your job title rather than your actions, you will have an entirely different view.
With this concept in mind, Ryan then suggests that organizations need to look at how they manage employees and whether their corporate culture permits risktaking.
This is interesting stuff, not least because of its implications for entrepreneurship. If we applied Ryan’s model to the typical entrepreneur, would we find a similar mindset?
Tagged as:
Business Week,
Entrepreneurship,
John Ryan,
Leadership,
U.S. Naval Academy
by Daria Steigman on June 17, 2009
At least once a month someone asks me if I have expertise in their industry, whether they’re building widgets for tow trucks or rockets for NASA. And it has always struck me as the wrong question. I can learn about you; don’t you want to know if I understand what a business model is, or how you might best reach out to your audience?
With that in mind, a huge “thank you” to GM’s new chairman, Edward Whitacre, who told Bloomberg News in an interview:
“I don’t know anything about cars. A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars… I think the business principles are the same.”
The quote is reprinted in John Baldoni’s terrific blog post on what outsiders need to succeed in an organization. He talks about intelligence, people skills, and strong will. It’s worth a read.
So what do you think? Is industry expertise a deal breaker for you?
Tagged as:
Bloomberg News,
Edward Whitacre,
General Motors,
GM,
John Baldoni,
NASA
by Daria Steigman on June 4, 2009
Have you ever wondered why a growing number of small businesses are investing time and resources into starting and maintaining a blog?
My latest column for CW Bulletin is out, and the topic is blogging for business value. While there is no magic formula for business success, a well-written, well-focused blog can be an effective way of promoting yourself by adding value for your multiple stakeholders.
The column looks at three key reasons why, if you don’t have one, you might want to consider starting a business blog:
- content
- thought leadership
- street cred
Plus it features insights from Marc Meyer and A.J. Leon, both of whom know a little something about successful business blogging.
Read the column here, then come back and let’s talk about why you are (or aren’t) blogging for your business.
Tagged as:
A.J. Leon,
Blogs,
Business,
CW Bulletin,
Independent Thinking,
Marc Meyer,
Value
by Daria Steigman on June 2, 2009
Have you ever beaten out a bigger competitor to win business? How did you succeed?
Succeeding in business is all about understanding your competitive advantages and playing to them. For entrepreneurs and many small business owners, that can also mean leveraging lean operations and structural advantages to rewrite the rules to level the playing field.
Peter Bregman’s great post looks at Somali pirates, schoolyard games, and major league baseball to show how it’s important to “play the game you know you can win, even if it means inventing it yourself.” It’s worth the read.
Tagged as:
Business,
Entrepreneurship,
MLB,
pirates
by Daria Steigman on May 26, 2009
Great interview with Wal-Mart Vice Chair Eduardo Castro-Wright about leadership and what they don’t teach you in business school. The crux of leadership: trust. Leadership is “about being able to get people to go to places they never thought they could go,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.
Other highlights:
- “You can accomplish almost anything in life if you do not care who takes credit for it. So I’ve tried to do more of that. And I’ve tried to do less of the things that make business more complex. I really like simplicity.”
- “I think that business schools could do more to prepare kids to deal with the often more difficult side of business management and leadership. The balance of courses is probably weighted to the numeric side of business as opposed to the people side of business.”
- “I honestly believe … that cultural differences, which are so often touted as the rationale for making decisions in business, are grossly overrated, and that human behavior really doesn’t have a language. It’s pretty much the same everywhere.”
And my personal favorite, in response to how people make business more complicated than it is: “ I think that all of us read far too many business books… We have a very clear view of what we do for consumers around the world. And we can describe our complete strategy in 10 words.”
Read the entire interview here.
Tagged as:
Eduardo Castro-Wright,
Leadership,
New York Times,
Wal-Mart
