Long-standing CEOs almost universally say their number one job is to own and drive vision and values. At the same time, their common regret is not moving faster to get people in appropriate roles. Reflecting back, CEOs talk about how surprised they were by how lonely the job is, and...

Leadership is conducted across a series of moments - moments of opportunity and opportunities to make an impact. Whether planned or unplanned, seen or unseen, known or unknown, they go by in a flash. Taking advantage of those opportunities involves managing the preludes leading up to the moments, the moments...

Choosing where to play is the CEO's big bet. He or she must lead the strategic direction of the company by examining the business environment, organizational history and recent results.

It's essential to get clear on the organization's purpose and principles, attitude and values that will have the most meaningful...

Putting aside any doubt that people in this country can collaborate to do good things, the Mill River Collaborative opened a new park in the center of downtown Stamford, CT last evening. Of course it's hard work. Of course it doesn't happen as often as it should. But it can...

The strongest leaders get that it's not about them. It's about the others. Whether you call them "first followers" or "front line," leadership is about inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best together to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose.

In their new book, Judgment on the...

They won't believe what you say. They will believe what you do. But, even if what you do matches what you say, you will eventually falter if it doesn't match your own fundamental beliefs. It only works when what you believe and do and say align. This is why "Be...

It is not remarkable that Hubert Sagnières' vision is clear. After all, he is CEO of Essilor, the world's largest producer of eyeglass lenses. What is remarkable is the discipline with which Sagnières keeps various societal, business, and individual efforts all focused on the mission of improved vision and in...

To successfully turn an entrepreneurial endeavor into a stable business, leaders must leverage their networks to fill critical skills gaps as the business evolves. Move from starters to transformers to sustainers.

Desktone CEO Peter McKay laid this out for me. He described the need to have different people at different...

By the time most organizations start thinking about corporate culture, they already have one. Rick Rudman, co-founder and CEO of cloud marketing software provider Vocus, is unashamedly open that he and his co-founders did not plan their culture. It emerged. But, as it emerged, they made conscious choices about what...

Chief Operating Officers can make a world of difference -- if their onboarding sets them up for success. If you're bringing a Chief Operating Officer (COO) in to work for you, be sure to align, acquire, accommodate, assimilate, and accelerate them well. Do not assume understanding, disrespect them, leave them...

An attitude adjustment is often the pivot point for changing an organization's behaviors and relationships in order to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing industry. I recently spoke with BlueSnap CEO Ralph Dangelmaier, who is currently shifting his company's attitudes by rethinking the organization's strategy, posture and...

Inspiring and enabling evolutionary innovation is one of the fundamental jobs of leaders. This is because evolutionary innovation is essential to an organization's survival and won't happen on its own.

In earlier article I wrote about how to determine whether evolutionary or revolutionary innovation is right for your...

Innovating in a service business works best if the innovations are: 1) Aligned with your core purpose, 2) Meet a future consumer need and 3) Can be executed by your organization.

Noodles CEO Kevin Reddy explained this model to me and how it works at his organization. Since dining out...

Leveraging BRAVE inputs (Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, Environment) to produce the right outputs is complicated but worthwhile.

Just ask Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand. He believes that "When you focus on the right inputs, the right outputs often manifest, but they do so in a more sustainable way."...

When the future you had planned goes awry, hit re-start, adjust and realign your people, plans and practices around your shared purpose.

Ever since the movie "The Graduate" in 1967, it's popular knowledge that "there's a great future in plastics." Biodegradable plastics innovator Metabolix certainly recognizes this fact. And its...

Failing fast is one of those ideas that seems like a great thing -- for others to do. No one likes to fail. And failing leaders have a nasty habit of believing they can fix things at every step of the way, leading to painfully slow failures -- death by...

The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. - James Cameron and Gail Hurd in The Terminator

The machines are...

Acing your response to an interview question requires pivoting off your basic answer to reinforce your strengths, motivation or fit -- depending upon the true underlying question. If you don't answer the question, you get an F. If you simply answer it, you get a C or maybe a B....

At Coca-Cola, we used to put our "corporate social responsibility" activities in three buckets: the right things to do, valuable things that helped us as well and things that merely strengthened our brand.

First, there were contributions we made because they were the right things to do. For example, we...

Readers of The New Leader's Playbook in 2012 were most interested in 1) getting a job, 2) onboarding into a new job, and 3) BRAVE leadership in the job. Accepting that this is a hugely biased sample given the title and focus of this column, let's dig into what's behind...