Leadership

It’s not just about knowing more. It’s about being more. When we talk about the future of the knowledge economy, the first question that comes to mind is whether we should still call it that. Relatively soon, all knowledge, expertise, and the know-how to apply them - accelerated by the combined explosion of AI and robotics - will reside with machines. We tend to downplay the impact of AI on work, focusing on the automation of rote tasks while humans would focus on those that

The Call for Resilience The past few years have been especially unpredictable as we dealt with COVID-19, geopolitical disruptions affecting the global economy, very discernible effects of climate change, the polarization of societies, and the rise of artificial intelligence. Drucker once said, “A person can perform only from strength.” Most organizations know their strengths, having nurtured and strengthened them through sound corporate strategy work and execution. But will t

One of my best summer reads was Andrew Ross Sorkin’s excellent 1929, which I highly recommend. It is a remarkably well documented account of the 1929 crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, seen through the people who were at the center of it on Wall Street, in the White House and on Capitol Hill. What struck me is how an increasingly sophisticated and democratized financial system, combined with greed, intense lobbying by the business elite, often in the name of nat

One of the questions I've been asked most often throughout my career is: "What is leadership?" About ten years ago, I settled on a definition, and I've stuck with it ever since. Leadership is the ability to inspire others around you to take action and drive change. The implication is simple: if nobody takes action, if nothing changes, you haven't really led. Pierre Le Manh, Founder and Principal, NeuronVentures

Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve Chairman, 1979-1987. He raised rates to break inflation and was hated for it, until he was proven right. "Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally." It's one of my favorite quotes, from John Maynard Keynes. Keynes could have been writing about corporate life. I have seen bad decisions go unchallenged because everyone agreed, because they sounded okay, because they ticked the b

A leader's intent states what a leader expects, clearly enough that a team can act on it without waiting for instructions. Mine fits in three words: Solidarity, Substance, Standards. Each of the three holds two ideas that pull against each other. Most leadership teams are good at one of the two. The expectation is to hold both. Solidarity - collective ownership and personal accountability A leadership team takes collective ownership of the success of the whole organization, a