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 Arnold Donald, Marty Davis, Pony Ma, Jean-Claude Biver, and why you should be wary of taking the advice of chief executives.

From Kimberlee Buck: Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald Celebrates Five Years

“In 2013, Arnold Donald came out of retirement to accept a position as Carnival Corporation’s president and CEO after being recommended by then chairman and CEO, Micky Arison. Now, Donald is celebrating five years as the CEO of the world’s largest leisure travel company, making him one of only four African American CEO’s currently leading America’s largest public companies.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Neal St. Anthony: Former Sun Country owner learned a lesson: ‘Don’t fly under the radar’

“Former Sun Country Chairman Marty Davis was humbled and enriched over seven years of ownership that ended earlier this year.”

From London Business School: Seven lessons from Tencents Pony Ma

“How the man behind the Chinese goliath keeps innovating.”

From Felipe Monteiro: Three Conditions for a Successful Life

“When he was visiting our Europe campus to speak about ‘The TAG Heuer Carrera Connected Watch’ case study, Biver offered extraordinary insights about his own personal leadership lessons and path to success. When asked to give career advice to soon-to-graduate MBA candidates, Biver described three essential conditions for a successful life, both at work and at home.”

From the Economist: The annoying habits of highly effective people

“ONE of the time-honoured tropes of writing on business is the detailed description of the life of a corporate titan. Readers are expected to marvel at the stamina of Tim Cook, for example. Apple’s chief executive rises at 3.45am to deal with emails. Spare a thought for his underlings, whose iPhones buzz at 4am every morning. Some subordinates may have the fortitude to sleep through it all; many will be guilt-tripped into answering the boss. Highly effective people often inflict all their idiosyncrasies upon their hapless juniors.”

For some ideas about how to get more from this series of posts, check out “Studying Leaders in the Wild.“