LeadingChangeWithoutAuthority

The Sunday NY Times published an interesting article, “What Consultants May Not Know About Leadership.” It was actually a book review for Bill George’s (former Chairman of Medtronics) new book, “True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership.”

The suggestion is made that perhaps leadership cannot be taught, therefore that a lot of leadership development efforts have been a waste of time and money. The reviewer’s quote was “much of the money spent on leadership development has been wasted.” While this might be true, I would like to challenge some of the thinking (more…)

I just read Warren Buffet’s annual letter to the stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway, his company that has outperformed the S&P 500 consistently for over 40 years. It was fascinating reading, and I recommend it to everyone. I immediately bought more of their stock! You can find the letter here.

I want to focus on one element of leadership of the many that come from that letter. (more…)

I enjoyed a 60 minute interview on February 15th by Wayne Hurlbert, host of Blog Business Success. There you can find a pretty thorough audio introduction of the book Leadership Made Simple: Practical Solutions to Your Greatest Management Challenges, including how the book came to be, some of the companies involved in the case studies and examples, description of the Framework for Leadership(TM) and example stories for each of the five steps of the Framework.

You’ll find it listed as Ed Oakley: Leadership Made Simple.

I think you might find it valuable and entertaining. Go listen to it!

Best regards,

Ed Oakley  http://www.enleadership.com/lmd/lmd_dmil.html

I was working with a leadership development team in Ft. Worth, TX last week with some of our self-awareness assessments, and it brought back memories of my Hewlett-Packard days. HP always did a lot of management and leadership training, for which I am grateful. But of all the classes I attended over twelve years, THE most valuable was the one related to (more…)

I had a powerful experience today with someone using “our own” leadership tools to help me gain a new level of clarity about our business. I have been wrestling with “what is the brand I would want Enlightened Leadership Solutions known for, at least the part related to leadership and management development? What distinguishes us from everyone else out there?”

I had an extraordinary and seemingly “accidental” opportunity to be… (more…)

A client sent me an email letting me know he was going to be taking over responsibility for a different team - entirely new team for him. He asked if I had any tips for the situation. It occurred to me that many managers face this same situation and it might be helpful to discuss.

The Framework for Leadership(TM) is a great tool for that first meeting of the team (as well as every one after that). That first meeting is a great opportunity to establish the context for how you want to work with them, not so much with your words, but with your specific actions and behaviors. Some of the clarity I would want to establish includes: (more…)

I’m so delighted that I just have to share it with someone, so I picked you! We officially launched our book, Leadership Made Simple, today on Amazon.com. We offered a variety of valuable gifts for anyone purchasing the book today - November 9th.

Well, so far today we have gone from a ranking 150,344 to 77 in ALL books. That translates to #11 in business books and #4 in management/leadership books. Not a bad launch day so far! We have made #2 on the Amazon Movers and Shakers list.

In fact we are going to extend the special offers through November 10th because the momentum is strong. So, please invite your friends to check out the opportunity at www.leadershipmadesimple.com/bestseller . We are offering a number of bonuses, any one of which is more valuable than the cost of the book.

Sorry to be self-promoting, but this is really exciting. And most important, thank you if you contributed to the success!

My best,

Ed Oakley, eoakley@enleadership.com

Technorati Tags: Leadership Made Simple, Amazon Best Seller List, Amazon, Leadership

I was having coffee at one of my favorite Starbucks stores recently with my friend Steve Mertz when we began sharing great Starbucks experiences we had enjoyed. One of Steve’s stories was inspiring and has an excellent leadership development message in it.

Steve walks with two canes, so he carries his coffee in a covered travel mug with a handle. Can you imagine trying to walk with two canes and a standard Starbucks cup? His travel cup was getting pretty old, and unbeknownst to Steve, it was leaking around the top. So, as he shuffled across the Starbucks cafe, he was leaving a decorative trail of dark roast on the floor. (more…)

Jonette and I recently had the pleasure of addressing a group of Starbucks store managers and assistant managers in the Denver district managed by Kent Lansville. Before we began discussing “Leadership Made Simple,” which they had all read, Kent kicked off the meeting in an impressive way. He stood up and acknowledged about eight or nine managers for specific ways they had contributed to the team’s effectiveness since the last district meeting. He handed each of them nice, hand written cards as part of the acknowledgement. That had a very energizing and honoring effect on the Starbucks group, and we were impressed. That, however, was just the beginning… (more…)

All of a sudden it seems that everywhere we look we see someone tauting “simple” or “simplicity” as a theme. Considering our new book is Leadership Made Simple, that is gratifying and, perhaps, validating.

IBM i-Series computers has simplicity as it’s theme. They are advertising the importance of simple and simplicity as the heart of their message. They are even claiming that they have “simple pricing.” Just a few minutes ago, I was glancing through a Business 2.0 magazine, and there was the headline of a VISA Business Card advertisement that read “Business Takes Simplicity” - whatever that means :-). Keep your eyes open, and I’ll bet you’ll notice this simplicity theme more and more. Let us know if you see it. (more…)