Leaders and Strategies in Real Life: 11/6/18

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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 Edward Lampert, Mike Volpe, Susan Bastable, Richard Thalheimer, and Jeff Bezos.

From James B. Stewart: Sears’s Edward Lampert Was a Wizard. Now He’s Coming to Terms With Failure.

“With the bankruptcy this week of Sears Holdings, which he has run as chief executive and chairman since 2013, Mr. Lampert, now 56, was back on the nation’s front pages. The coverage has been as damning as it was once fawning. Mr. Lampert has become the villain, accused of pillaging and destroying an American retail icon to further line his already stuffed pockets.”

From Patrick Gorman: From CMO To CEO: Lola.com’s Mike Volpe

“For Lola.com CEO Mike Volpe, his time as chief marketing officer for marketing technology giant Hubspot left him with an abundance of valuable experience that he relies on when leading the agile travel management solutions provider.”

From Stan Linhorst: Effective leadership depends on teamwork – nursing pioneer Susan Bastable

“Susan Bastable is too modest to bring it up without prodding, but she has seen and led enormous changes in nursing since earning her own degrees in nursing, including her doctorate in 1979.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Zachary Crockett: How one man built The Sharper Image into the world’s wackiest gadget store

“It took a marketing genius to build the kingdom of flashy gadgets — and a $229 air purifier to take it all down.”

From Dan Kim: The Bezos way: sleep, puttering, and three high-quality decisions a day

“Jeff Bezos has always been one of those people whose ideas and thinking make a lot of sense to me. When he talks, I listen. So when I recently came across a fantastic interview with Jeff Bezos, I jumped right in. The entire interview is great and I really think watching the whole thing is worth your time. But there was one section that really stuck out to me: his prioritization of sleep, calm, and quality.”

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

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What People Are Saying

Jack   |   28 Nov 2018   |   Reply

Being a leader is the most difficult job to do. Leadership strategies really plays a vital role in real life. Thanks for sharing such a great article.

Wally Bock   |   28 Nov 2018   |   Reply

Thank you for those kind words.