Weekend Leadership Reading 11/17/17

Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular work days. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about cultivating leadership that’s honed to solve problems, why flat organizations fail, Jim Collins’ takeaways on leadership, Deloitte’s 2017 Holiday Retail Survey, and Andy Cunningham’s leadership triangle

From Deborah Ancona and Hal Gregersen: How to Cultivate Leadership That Is Honed to Solve Problems

“When a collaborative project like the Collier Memorial comes to fruition, it might seem to happen without leaders. But in reality, the many leaders involved were following a model of leadership that is hard to spot until you know how to look for it. We call this approach challenge-driven leadership. These leaders are propelled by the intrinsic desire to solve problems and meet challenges creatively. They are not motivated by the trappings of authority, status, or showmanship. They don’t particularly want to lead, and they certainly don’t want to be led. But they excel at choreographing and directing the work of others, because their expert knowledge enables them to spot opportunities to innovate in a way that cannot be done by working alone.”

From Lighthouse: Why a Flat Organizational Structure will Fail as You Grow

“Since those big moments of press and praise, the luster and excitement for having a flat organizational structure has turned to failure and post mortems:”

From Dan Bigman: Jim Collins: His Big Takeaways About Leadership

“In a recent interview with Chief Executive, we asked Jim Collins, one of the most-admired management thinkers of our time, what—after a lifetime of studying how to build great companies and how to be a great company leader—are the biggest lessons he’s learned, the ones that stand the test of time.”

From Deloitte US: 2017 holiday retail survey

“Holiday retail spending is bucking trends this season with only one-third of holiday budgets going toward gifts. Online spending is expected to exceed in-store for the first time. In addition to gifts for others this year, spending on experiences and self-gifting increased. Explore more consumer spending trends in our 32nd annual holiday survey.”

From Andy Cunningham: The Leadership Triangle

“Is the population to be divided simply into leaders who always lead and followers who always follow? Leadership is surely more complicated than that. Perhaps the question is not are leaders born or made, but rather, can leadership flourish in anyone when the circumstances for it are right? Does context matter?”

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