Exceptional people of influence do not have extraordinary pasts
Read moreExceptional people of influence do not have extraordinary pasts. What they do have is an extraordinary ability to learn from and to use the lessons of their pasts. As we wrote last time, one of the great myths about those who emerge as leaders in any field is that they have something extraordinary in their past, an event or circumstance that has somehow forged
Why reflection is vital to learning and growth
Read moreThroughout my life, I have heard the age-old saying that “experience is the best teacher”. Through my coaching of leaders and my own life experience, though, I have come to believe that this popular adage is not true. So, for my work and in own my life, I have adapted it. I say that experience is the best teacher only if
Reflecting about reflection
Read moreThis week, a quick thought on a subject I have been meaning to write about for some time. About 6 months ago, I read an article in the Financial Times entitled “Scheduling time to think at work is a brainless idea”. It was an opinion piece by columnist Lucy Kellaway, concerning a suggestion by AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong that employees dedicate 10
What should a corporation or organization stand for?
Read moreRereading David Packard’s radical views from the 1940s about what a corporation should be caused me to reflect on how much all this has changed in our time, and how far the business world has come. By way of reminder, we wrote on June 11 about Packard’s frustration with the narrow perspective of his fellow business leaders. His was indeed a
Truth versus authenticity in organizational storytelling
Read moreWriting about Hewlett-Packard these past weeks, I was reminded of research I did on corporate stories of identity when I was a doctoral student in England. One of my most interesting findings at that time had to do with the role of truth and that of authenticity in organizational storytelling. Here is the distinction I have come to make: In
Radical management in the early days at HP
Read moreIrish playwright and Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw wrote that “all great truths begin as blasphemies.” Such was certainly the case with the management ideas of Bill Hewlett and David Packard back in the 1930s and 40s. How blasphemous were their ideas at the time? Looking back on the company’s early years, David Packard wrote or spoke about a number