Warring West Wing factions dismay management experts
Donald Trump rode into the White House on a promise that he’d be a strong leader who could run the government with the efficiency of a CEO. He’d hire “the best people” and manage the country with the same success that he has had running his business empire. The reality has been much, much different. […]
What Presidential Campaigns Can Teach Leaders About Blind Spots
The race for the White House provides a powerful reminder not to shield yourself from outside opinions. Are you aware of your or your organization’s blind spots? If you answered yes, you’re just plain wrong. They wouldn’t be blind spots, if you knew about them. The question is, how can you diagnose them before they sink […]
How The Most Successful People Ask Questions
Most companies hold brainstorming sessions that identify solutions, but Hal Gregersen, executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and coauthor ofThe Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, suggests holding “question-storming” sessions that think of nothing but questions about a problem for a given period of time. “When people care about the issue, […]
Hal Gregersen Named to The Thinkers50 Global Ranking of Management Thinkers
Hal Gregersen has been named to the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers, the world’s most prestigious ranking of management thinkers. Published every two years, the Thinkers50 global ranking is the essential guide to which business thinkers and ideas are in – and which have been consigned to business history. The Executive Director for the MIT Sloan School’s […]
How To Train Yourself To Excel In Uncomfortable Situations
We’ve all been there: You’re feeling out of your comfort zone at work. Your face is flushed, your heart is racing, and your mind is a jumble. Everyone’s waiting for you to get it together. Then someone else jumps in, taking control with confidence and utter calm. Why are you so flustered while some of […]
How asking tough questions could save your career
Had Kodak’s leaders ratcheted up their discomfort level by asking more challenging questions from others, it may well have sustained its legacy as a key industry player. At age four, we’re fueled with curiosity, asking thousands of questions to better grasp what’s going on around us. Already we are aware, at a very fundamental level, […]
The surprising way to come up with your next business idea
By simply observing others, Intuit founder and CEO Scott Cook built one of America’s biggest companies. Scott Cook, founder and CEO of Intuit, didn’t come up with his concept for the popular Quicken money management software sitting behind the desk or spit-balling ideas in a brainstorming session. He first conceived of it while watching his […]
Here’s why networking isn’t just about landing your dream job
Most people network to find their next big gig, but here’s how to network to find your next big business idea. At a dinner party a few years ago, Salesforce Founder Marc Benioff and Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston got to talking. Their conversation led to a new idea, and that idea led to Salesforce’s Chatter, […]
The one skill that made Amazon’s CEO wildly successful
Jeff Bezos’ start-up story offers one of the strongest cases for how to build a new business through experimentation. As a child, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos spent his summers fixing windmills and repairing equipment on his grandparents’ ranch in Texas. Though these experiences might have seemed insignificant at the time, today Bezos credits […]
How dolphins and Legos could spark your next business idea
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff knew how to step back and relax, having perfected the idea for his company while swimming with dolphins. It’s impossible to imagine a world without Google’s search engine, Apple’s iPhone or Disney World. These products are integral to life as most of us know it, but they might never have existed […]