Category Archives: Leadership

Leadership is an insanely important discipline. Here you’ll find the thought, tools and tricks of the trade of great leaders.

Happy At Work, Leadership, Open Source Business

Ethical balance sheet

August 12, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

Bank manager Hans Erik Brønserud explains the reasoning behind the ethical balance sheet his bank does in addition to the normal balance sheet:

First and foremost this has given us a tool, which gives us a unique opportunity to sense how our stakeholders view us and what we do. Every year we get specific feedback on … Continue Reading ››

Happy At Work, Leadership, Quotes

Quote

August 4, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

In every substantive sense, employees of a company carry more risks than do the shareholders. Also, their contributions of knowledge, skills and entrepreneurship are typically more important than the contributions of capital by shareholders, a pure commodity that is perhaps in excess supply. - Sumantra Ghoshal

Leadership, Open Source Business

Pay by ethics

August 2, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

There's a new trend in rewarding senior executives, namely to decide their pay based not only on financial performance but also on other "softer" measures. Here's an example:

Calvert, the nation's [USA's] largest family of socially responsible mutual funds, is trying a new proxy tactic. It has filed resolutions pressing four companies to begin rewarding executives … Continue Reading ››

Happy At Work, Leadership

American Airlines make money – by listening to employees

August 2, 2005 Alexander 1 Comment

American Airlines turned a profit last quarter, because of a new management style which works with employees to cut costs rather than treating employees and unions as its enemies. A few examples:

Two American Airlines mechanics didn't like having to toss out $200 drill bits once they got dull. So they rigged up some old machine … Continue Reading ››

Best of site, Happy At Work, Leadership

Chief Happiness Officer

August 1, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

Just as every company needs a CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, etc., I believe every company should have a CHO - a Chief Happiness Officer. Most businesses today are not competitive if they can't keep their employees happy since happy people tend to:

Work more efficiently
Learn faster
Give better service
Produce better quality
Take fewer sick days
Function better in … Continue Reading ››

Happy At Work, Leadership, Open Source Business, Speaking

WorldBlu Forum

July 14, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

The most interesting and cutting-edge business conferences of the year will be The WorldBlu Forum on organizational democracy.

It's in DC on October 26-29, and the participants will all be leaders under 40. Organizational democracy is one of the most crucial concepts organizations must learn to suceed in the future. The current … Continue Reading ››

Change, Happy At Work, Leadership, Speaking

Conference on change and happiness at work

March 28, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

We're arranging another conference on happiness at work, and this time the focus is on how to be happy during changes. Read more about the conference.

Happy At Work, Leadership, Storytelling

Storytelling

February 14, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

When even the Harvard Business School turns on to storytelling, you know its gone mainstream. Which is entirely a good thing. I've been using stories a lot in the work I do, and I really enjoy the way an audience will go quiet and lean forward in their chairs when you say "I'd like … Continue Reading ››

Leadership, Philosophy

Should Your Next CEO Be a Philosopher?

February 6, 2005 Alexander Leave a comment

Technology is still important to a company's competitive edge, but it seems that most organizations today have the technology down. It's still important, but it's more and more becoming a given - which makes it harder to use it to differentiate yourself in the eyes of the customer. So if you can't use technology to … Continue Reading ››

Leadership

In the depths of the organization

December 17, 2004 Alexander 1 Comment

I'm reading some of the new books that I just got from Amazon, and one of them opens with this insight:

It's impossible to manage or even know what's going on in the depths of the organization. I mean, each of us can fool ourselves into thinking we're smart and running a tight ship. But … Continue Reading ››