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 Keith Krach, Jeff Bezos, Oscar Munoz, Geoff Freeman, Indra Nooyi, Paul Polman, John Noseworthy, and Richard Davis.
From Patrick Gorman: Former DocuSign CEO & Chairman Keith Krach On Transformational Leadership
“But while disruption plays a critical role in success, Krach believes there’s a significant shortage of transformational leaders in the world—those who can disrupt entire categories. And for transformational leaders to succeed, it all starts with building a winning team.”
From Matt Quinn: Amazon stands for nothing. That almost makes it beautiful
“Amazon became the most valuable public company in the world for the first time in its 24-year existence earlier this week. Any company that reaches such heights has had a remarkable journey. What’s brought Amazon there is both incredibly complicated and yet so simple.”
Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story
From Jennifer Luna: Oscar Munoz: Learn to Listen, Improve Your EQ
“The CEO of United Airlines shares his advice on principles and profits and recovering from ‘turbulence’ in the press.”
From Torrey Kim: 5 questions with Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association
“Geoff Freeman became president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association in 2018. SmartBrief recently interviewed him about his new role, his experience and what he looks to accomplish at GMA.”
From Bill George: These 4 CEOs Created a New Standard of Leadership
“Four titans who defined a new era in business during the past decade recently concluded their terms: PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, Unilever’s Paul Polman, Mayo Clinic’s John Noseworthy, and US Bancorp’s Richard Davis.”
For some ideas about how to get more from this series of posts, check out “Studying Leaders in the Wild.“