Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms, to start off your work week. I’m pointing you to articles about leadership, strategy, industries, innovation, women and work, and work and learning now and in the future. Highlights include the need for entrepreneurial leadership, manufacturing’s digital future, innovation in 2015, what it will take to achieve gender equality in leadership, and your job in 20 years.

Be sure to look for dots that you can connect.

Note: Some links require you to register or are to publications that have some form of limited paywall.

Thinking about Leadership and Strategy

From Randel Carlock: The Need for Entrepreneurial Leadership

“Entrepreneurship is not just for startups. It’s a lens through which all organisations should view strategy and leadership in the 21st century to address societal problems.”

From Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones: Why should anyone want to work here?

“What are the characteristics of organisations that allow and encourage us to be our best selves…?”

From Eric J. McNulty: Uncomfortable Truths Don’t Just Go Away

“Although this problem seemed resolvable, it persisted. Whether you attribute it to misaligned incentives or the failure of each side to see the bigger picture, it’s a perfect example of how easy it is for dueling realities to create enduring dysfunction in an organization. And even though my situation was relatively benign, other recent examples in the news are not: faulty airbags, manipulated emissions software, defective ignition switches, drugs sold for unapproved uses or to inappropriate populations. Each of these cases has individual causes and consequences. The larger question is, How do some companies make speaking truth to power a standard operating procedure?”

Industries and Analysis

From Patricia Panchak: Manufacturing’s Digital Future

“How the Internet of Things, the cloud, data analytics and a host of other ready-for-primetime technologies redefines the business of manufacturing.”

From Joe Taschler: No time to shop for groceries? Grab your phone

“E-commerce is the fastest-growing segment of the retail food business, and grocers in and around Milwaukee are moving to grab a piece of a market that shows signs of finally being ready to take off after years of fits and starts. The math seems fairly simple: Almost everybody has a smartphone, is starved for time and needs to eat. But marrying shopping carts with touch-screen microprocessors has proved to be tougher than it looks.”

From Annie Gasparro: How Big Food Is Using Natural Flavors to Win Consumer Favor

“Food scientists at General Mills Inc. have spent years testing hundreds of combinations of fruits, vegetables and spices to replace the artificial food coloring in Trix. Still, they couldn’t find matches for the neon-green or turquoise corn puffs in the multihued breakfast cereal.”

Innovation and Technology

From Art Markman: To Get More Creative, Become Less Productive

“There is a fundamental tension between productivity and creativity, and managers won’t get more of the latter until they recognize it.”

From Michael Ringel, Andrew Taylor, and Hadi Zablit: Innovation in 2015

“In BCG’s tenth annual global survey of the state of innovation, 79% of respondents ranked innovation as a top-three priority at their company”

From Jennifer Pellet: Technology’s Impact on Your Business Innovation and Transformation

“Will software soon be the lifeblood of every company?”

Women and the Workplace

From Melissa Wylie: Girls Auto Clinic founder Patrice Banks wants to get more women in the automotive industry

“Men and women drive cars every day. But why do men seem to be the only ones working on them?”

From Emily Chang: Michael Moritz Amends Remarks About Lack of Female Investors at Sequoia

“Michael Moritz, the chairman of Sequoia Capital and one of the most successful investors in Silicon Valley history, has amended his televised remarks on the lack of women partners at his firm.”

From James Heskett: What Will It Take to Achieve Gender Equality in Leadership?

“How can we achieve gender parity in leadership, asks James Heskett, when expectations for men and women are so different?”

Wally’s Comment: The comments are the most interesting part of this post.

Work and Learning Now and in the Future

From Todd C. Frankel: What these photos of Facebook’s new headquarters say about the future of work

“Deep inside Facebook’s massive new headquarters, the largest open-office workspace in the world, a rough-hewn building that feels like the idea economy’s take on the industrial factory floor, sits the desk of Lindsay Russell.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Workforce for pointing me to this story

From the Economist: What the hack?

“A tech-industry tradition has entered the corporate mainstream.”

From Pacific Standard: The Future of Work: This Is Your Job in 20 Years

“World-famous scientists, CEOs, academics, and journalists on what to fear—and what to celebrate—in the new labor economy.”

More Leadership Posts from Wally Bock

Improving those conversations about performance

Here are some ways you can increase the odds that your conversation with a team member about performance will turn out well.

By and About Leaders: 12/1/15

Pointers to pieces by and about Cindy Holland, Marc Benioff, Margaret Keane, Erin (Mack) McKelvey, and George Zimmer.

From the Independent Business Blogs: 12/2/15

Pointers to posts by Art Petty, Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie, Jesse Lyn Stoner, Chris Edmonds, and Mary Jo Asmus.

Stories and Strategies from Real Life: 12/4/15

Pointers to stories about Brass, AtelierSavas, Vans Shoes, Kik, and Slack

Writing well gives you the edge in business and in life. If you want to get a book done, improve your blog posts, or make your web copy more productive, please check out my blog about business writing. My coaching calendar for authors and blog writers currently has time open. Please contact me if you’re interested.