Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms, to start off your work week. I’m pointing you to articles about leadership, strategy, industries, innovation, women and work, and work and learning now and in the future. Highlights include developing leaders through adversity, managing performance in virtual teams, three articles on the grocery business, Robert Scoble on the coming wave of technology, all great innovators have one thing in common, Sallie Krawcheck on why corporate America will never get diversity
, how the org chart has given way to the network and why it matters, and how CEOs want their offices back.

Be sure to look for dots that you can connect.

Note: Some links require you to register or are to publications that have some form of limited paywall.

Thinking about Leadership and Strategy

From Bill Barnett: Deep Knowledge

“In the 1968 Olympics, Dick Fosbury would forever change the sport of high-jump. There he won the gold medal using an unheard-of approach: falling backward over the bar. Prior to Fosbury, virtually all athletes jumped face-first, rolling forward over the bar in the air. But Fosbury, age 21 at the time of the Olympics, had since his high-school days been experimenting with a back-first approach. Those years of experimentation finally paid off with the gold medal, after which his ‘Fosbury Flop’ would become the standard approach to the sport.”

From Manfred Kets de Vries: Developing Leaders Through Adversity

“Resilience is a hard-earned yet crucial trait for future leaders”

From Darleen DeRosa: Managing Performance In Virtual Teams: 3 Things Smart Leaders Do

“Your leaders are the glue that holds your organization together. If you are responsible for learning and development, you need to be sure you are preparing them with the skills they need to succeed. That includes the skills needed to lead and manage performance in virtual teams. Here are three things your leaders should be doing to better manage performance in virtual teams.”

Industries and Analysis

From McKinsey & Company: The future of grocery–in store and online

“As so much of everyday life moves to the Internet, including grocery shopping, grocers must find profitable ways to revive the in-store experience while enhancing online options.”

From Progressive Grocer: Shoppers Demand ‘Clear and Honest Answers’: FMI

“Food Marketing Institute (FMI) has released its U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2017 analysis, which indicated that more than just information, American grocery shoppers hunger for transparency that engages them on such topics as food safety, health and wellness, new discoveries, and a closer connection to the food they eat.”

From Derek Thompson: Why Amazon Bought Whole Foods

“Amazon announced on Friday morning that it’s buying Whole Foods for just under $14 billion, the retailer’s largest acquisition ever. The purchase holds implications for the future of groceries, the entire food industry, and—as hyperbolic as this might sound—the future of shopping for just about anything.”

Innovation and Technology

From the London School of Economics: Robert Scoble: ‘The coming wave of technology will really change human life’

“The self-described futurist talks about AR and VR, and their impacts on business, education and life.”

From Greg Satell: All Great Innovators Have One Thing In Common — They Stick It Out

“Yet the debate over who had an idea first is often beside the point. The truth is that innovation is never a single event. So a moment of epiphany matters far less than the work that comes after, which is often as uncertain as it is thankless. That’s what makes the difference between great innovators and ‘coulda-beens.’”

From Dan Wellers, Timo Elliott, and Markus Noga: 8 Ways Machine Learning Is Improving Companies’ Work Processes

“Today’s leading organizations are using machine learning–based tools to automate decision processes, and they’re starting to experiment with more-advanced uses of artificial intelligence (AI) for digital transformation. Corporate investment in artificial intelligence is predicted to triple in 2017, becoming a $100 billion market by 2025. Last year alone saw $5 billion in machine learning venture investment. In a recent survey, 30% of respondents predicted that AI will be the biggest disruptor to their industry in the next five years. This will no doubt have profound effects on the workplace.”

Women and the Workplace

From Sallie Krawcheck: Corporate America Will Never Get Diversity

“While we women have been leaning in, knowing our worth, asking for more, and following every other strategy that promises to bring us workplace equality, diversity at major U.S. corporations has been going…sideways. At best.”

From Natalie Kitroef: Women in their own words: Why we’re not working

“Everyone’s work life has its own story – as does every decision to stop working. The Times recently examined the startling reversal of women pouring into workplaces. The share of prime-age women working or looking for work rose from 35% just after World War II to 76.8% in 1999 – then began dropping, to 74.3% last year. The story elicited a flood of responses from readers with their own reasons for dropping out.”

From Avery Hartmans: Almost half of Google’s management team is made up of women — here they are

“while Google has a male CEO in Sundar Pichai and a male chief executive at its parent company, Alphabet, it’s made strides when it comes to women in leadership roles: Women make up nearly half of Google’s management team (46% to be exact).”

Work and Learning Now and in the Future

From the Economist: Technology firms and the office of the future

“Their eccentric buildings offer clues about how people will work.”

From MICHAEL ARENA: How the Org Chart has Given Way to the Network and Why it Matters

“Today’s organization needs to be fast, nimble and adaptive to adequately respond to the external disruptions. While organizations have always been confronted by challenges, the speed and velocity with which these disruptions emerge today has intensified. As a result, virtually every major industrial sector, be it telecom with free calling from WhatsApp, automotive with ride-sharing from Uber, or financial services with free trading from Robin Hood has been disrupted. In response, experts such as Babson University professor Rob Cross (and companies such as General Motors, Juniper, Cisco and Booz Allen) have noted the need for organizations to more fully leverage their social capital and act as a network.”

From Vanessa Fuhrmans: CEOs Want Their Offices Back

“Now as he moves the company from Portland, Ore., to New York, Mr. Hamad has joined a cadre of bosses chucking the egalitarianism of working alongside their employees for the old-fashioned private office. Their open-office revolt, they say, is less about reclaiming the corner office than about needing a quiet place to think.”

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Leaders and Strategies in Real Life: 6/13/17

Articles about real leaders and real companies in real life. This week it’s article about Ralph Stayer, Lee Thayer, Jostein Solheim, Nirav Tolia, and Terrence R. Curtin.

From the Independent Business Blogs: 6/14/17

Pointers to posts by Kevin Eikenberry, Karin Hurt, Jesse Lyn Stoner, Mary Jo Asmus, and Kate Nasser.

Writing well gives you the edge in business and in life. If you want to get a book done, improve your blog posts, or make your web copy more productive, please check out my blog about business writing. My coaching calendar for authors and blog writers currently has time open. Please contact me if you’re interested.

The 347 tips in my ebook can help you Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time.