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 a combat correspondent turned CEO, how Jeffrey Katzenberg learned from failure, a company that wants to make financial technology as easy as music downloading, why success is not a silo, and an innovative marketing communicator.

From Jeff Kofman: Reporting From War Zones Made Me A Better CEO

“After three decades as a journalist, Jeff Kofman became a tech founder. He’s found that a few lessons from the front lines still come in handy.”

From Bill Snyder: Jeffrey Katzenberg: How Failure Makes a Better Leader

“The media industry veteran shares the lessons he learned after being fired — twice.”

From Suvarchala Narayanan: How Can a Fintech Company Win 20 Million Customers?

“Valentin Stalf, chief executive of German financial-services startup N26, wants banking to be like music downloading.”

From Jill Jusko: Brewer Science’s Terry Brewer: Success Is Not a Silo

“Terry Brewer’s job is ‘to keep the flow flowing,’ he says. Without context, the phrase means little. Chat with the founder, president and CEO of Brewer Science for a while, however, and his meaning becomes clear. Brewer does not believe in walls. He does not appreciate segments. And he actively works to break down silos.”

From David Grossman: Someone to Know: Q&A with Bloomberg Global Head of Employee and Innovation Communications Ethan McCarty

“Next up in my series of wonderfully intelligent leaders I think you should know is someone who has made his mark in the Marketing Communications space in many ways, including developing IBM’s groundbreaking blogging guidelines. Today, he leads a team of internal, multimedia and external communicators who activate, inspire and inform his organization’s 18,000+ employees. I hope you enjoy this next Q&A!”