Leaders and Strategies in Real Life: 11/5/19

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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 Travis Hollman, Ray Greer, Rose Marcario, Julie Morath, and Bill Gates.

From Dale Buss: Travis Hollman Unlocks the Appeal of the Locker Room

“If you think that school and sports lockers are just a commodity business where mass manufacturing and low margins are the only way to make a living, you’d agree with Travis Hollman’s father.”

From Joel Trammell: Omnitracs CEO Ray Greer: Delivering Results

“Omnitracs CEO Ray Greer is a well-respected leader in the transportation and logistics industry, having worked in leadership roles at BNSF Logistics, Greatwide Logistics Services, Newgistics, Ryder Integrated Logistics, and FedEx. Omnitracs is a global pioneer of fleet management solutions to transportation and logistics companies.”

From Richard Feloni: How Patagonia’s CEO uses daily meditation to approach her job as ‘a happy warrior’

“She joined Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s outdoor apparel company in 2008 as COO and CFO, and took over as CEO in 2013. Over her run as chief executive, she’s reportedly quadrupled revenue. And what makes that all the more impressive is that in the same period, she’s doubled down on the commitment to the environment that Chouinard famously built into his company.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Amy Edmondson: How a New Leader Broke Through a Culture of Accuse, Blame, and Criticize

“Children’s Hospital & Clinics COO Julie Morath sets out to change the culture by instituting a policy of blameless reporting, which encourages employees to report anything that goes wrong or seems substandard without fear of reprisal. Professor Amy Edmondson discusses moving an organization into the ‘high performance zone’ by creating an environment of psychological safety and high accountability.”

From Shannon Fitzgerald: Bill Gates Went Back to His High School and Talked About the Secrets to Success. Here’s What He Said

“Earlier this month Gates returned to Lakeside to help celebrate the school’s 100th anniversary. He spoke to an audience of 1,500 about specialization and the curious mind. And why, though his life has been devoted to tech, he still greatly believes in the value of a liberal arts education.”

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

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