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 Chris Lister, Dan Streetman, Liz Smith, Ivan Seidenberg, and Clayton Christensen.

From Fast Company: My BA in French made me the tech CEO I am today

“Growing up, my family had a cottage on the border of Vermont and Quebec. During summers, we were immersed in French-Canadian culture—listening to Quebecois radio and picking up French language newspapers at the store. I didn’t know it then, but my childhood spent buying penny candies en francais turned out to be great training to become the CEO of a tech company. Really.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Mariah Tauer: Getting to Know New TIBCO CEO Dan Streetman

“We recently sat down with Dan Streetman, the newly appointed CEO of TIBCO, to ask him about his background, leadership style, and how he plans to help our customers overcome challenges on the journey to digital transformation.”

Thanks to Jon DeFries for pointing me to this article.

From Curt Steinhorst: Fewer, bigger, better: Q&A with Liz Smith of Bloomin’ Brands

“This interview is part of an ongoing series of conversations with great leaders on how they focus their lives and their teams on what matters most in the age of distraction.”

From Wharton: Can You Hear Him Now? Leadership Lessons from Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg

“Eight years ago, almost to the day, Ivan Seidenberg retired as chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. In his decade at the helm, he transformed the former Baby Bell into the nation’s largest wireless provider, created from some of the largest mergers and acquisitions deals at the time that reshaped the telecom industry. Early on, Seidenberg saw the promise of broadband: He reportedly said in 2004 that a communications revolution was starting and it will be ‘all broadband, all the time.'”

From Neelima Mahajan: Clayton Christensen overcame personal setbacks to revolutionize the way we think about innovation

“With one of the sharpest minds in business, Clayton Christensen has dedicated his life to stimulating ideas. While he has had his own setbacks, he’s still out in front with thinking that could yet change the world.”

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