Instead of studying leadership, why not spend some time studying leaders and strategies in the wild? You can learn a lot from leadership experts, but you always see the leader and what he or she does through the expert’s personal lens. Supplement that learning with studying real leaders in real life situations and draw your own conclusions. The posts in this series will help you.

Every week I’ll point you to articles by and about real leaders in real situations and to articles about how real companies are faring in the marketplace. Read them. Think about them. Draw your own lessons and conclusions from them. Then try to apply those lessons in your own real life.

This week I’m pointing you to articles about Dollar Shave Club, Mark Vergnano, Brett Favre, GE, and Marc Benioff.

From Paresh Dave: Dollar Shave Club succeeded with razors, but the rest of the bathroom is a challenge

“The shuffling of departments, a few layoffs and an even bigger number of new hires have upset the company’s cheeky, underdog culture, those people say. There’s work to do, Dubin said in an interview at his lofted, corner office in Marina del Rey.”

From Adrienne Selko: A Successful Spin-off: Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano Reveals How It’s Done

“In July of 2015, Mark Vergnano was handed a difficult task. DuPont spun off its performance chemicals division, renamed Chemours, and asked Vergnano to come up with a plan to turn this spin-off into a viable business.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Adam Sichko: Why former NFL Packers QB and Super Bowl winner Brett Favre bought into ORCA

“The outreach happened without Walker negotiating a formal business arrangement with Favre, who recalled telling him in the moment: ‘I understand you don’t have a lot of money right now to pay me. Let’s see if I sell product.'”

From Brendan Case and Rick Clough: GE Is an Incubator For Business Leaders

“General Electric Co.’s management overhaul Friday marked the latest departures of high-profile executives from a company that has traditionally served as an incubator of corporate bosses.”

From Miki Saxon: Marc Benioff — Global Champion Of Women

“Ask most tech founders about role models and who they want to emulate and you’ll usually hear the same names — Gates/Jobs/Page/Zukerberg/Bezos. Rarely do you hear Benioff.”

Book Suggestion: Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry by Marc Benioff and Carlye Adler