As an academic I love dichotomies. They stretch the imagination, help us avoid subtly, and enhance focused debate.
My conceptual paradise is a 2 x 2 box where two dichotomies are juxtaposed. Are you in this box or that one? Then the game of trying to figure out which box you belong, “Are you in box A or box B?”, “What type of leader are you?” “Are you transformational or transactional?” “Are you inwardly directed or …

Sometimes we wonder: why is it the case that we’re so wrapped into the cultural reality, into the value system, and into the little power minuets, that we call organizational life? I’m often struck at the financial conglomerates who have on-site gyms, on-site physicians, on-site food, and on-site life–all for the sake of getting everyone involved in the immediate reality that is the organization. Indeed, organizations in these instances define not only what gets done, …

In a recent class at Cornell I heard a group of students demythologize famous leaders as part of an exercise. One of my students concluded, “I wouldn’t have wanted to work for Steve Jobs, he seemed like an S.O.B.”
Another student even took Washington down a peg and questioned how bright our founding father really was. He asked weather or not Washington’s silence hinted at tactical stoicism or if his quiet demeanor implied that he often …

I recently worked for a nonprofit public health organization in Belize. It was the chance of a lifetime for a college graduate who wanted to get out of the States: free housing, a livable salary, the opportunity to get involved in public health problems and solutions in a foreign country, and the chance to grow on a personal and professional level by challenging myself to live and work abroad.
I loved my first boss. She was …

On Friday, Nick Salvatore wrote about Amos Webber—a leader who wasn’t a president or a businessman, but a janitor. The lesson: leadership can happen anywhere.  Continuing the series, Salvatore writes about Nannie Helen Burroughs—another leader who doesn’t exactly fit the mold.
Nannie Helen Burroughs differed from Amos Webber in background, in personality, and in her approach to leadership; but she was no less insistent in claiming democratic rights for, and in conjunction with, local black communities. …

Don Fornes, CEO of Software Advice, has an astonishing point:
“[At] Software Advice, we’re hiring like mad, or at least trying to. You might think a growing company with interesting jobs, great pay, top-notch benefits and a cool office would find hiring to be a breeze in a recession like this. Nope.
The problem is Fornes can’t find candidates that take the time to write a decent cover letter and personalize their resumes. He admits that he …