The Necessary Traits of Exemplary
Leadership
-- John Tropman and James A Blackburn
This paper focuses on four traits that are frequently mentioned as the essential requisites for exemplary executive leadership: integrity, empathy, genuineness and humility. When all are present together in one person (but perhaps to varying degrees), the organization has a “wise” leader. Each is discussed with some examples and the ways in which one can work to make those traits robust in oneself. Wisdom, frequently conceptualized as the confluence of contradictory elements in decisions involving the contradictions between and among these elements, both undergirds these traits and produces them. Integrity is defined as “doing what is the right thing to do, not what you have the right to do”. Empathy is defined as the ability to sense the subtleties of others’ feelings, and place yourselves in their shoes. Genuineness is being authentic (as Stephen Covey opines, “seeking first to understand; then be understood”). Humility is understanding that your success always stands on the shoulders of others. Wisdom involves the application of these four traits and their continual cultivation.
© 2018John Tropman and James A Blackburn. All Rights Reserved.
Organizational Leadership
for Challenging and Changing Times
-- Colin Coulson-Thomas
Multiple developments, including disruptive technologies and new business models, are leading to uncertainty and change. They also open up new possibilities for adaptation, innovation, reinvention and entrepreneurship. They are challenging organizational leaders. Coping with them may require review, refresh or reinvention and a transition from individual leadership to the collective leadership of a competent board. Directors and boards need to ask a variety of questions in a range of areas to ensure that creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship are helped rather than hindered and that they are focused, relevant and sustainable. There are contextual, performance, governance, stakeholder, sustainability, social responsibility and people and organizational factors to consider. Many directors may also need to change how they operate and raise their aspirations and expectations.
© 2018 Colin Coulson-Thomas. All Rights Reserved..
Stress and Self-Care of SMME
Owners in South Africa
-- Kurt April and Garth Pillay
Leaders are increasingly facing personal challenges in the demanding world of business, and this is true also for entrepreneurs and business owners as they are closer, some may argue, to the vested interests of the economic sustainability of their businesses (as opposed to hired senior managers and leaders in corporate organizations). Small business owners, in particular, feel personally responsible for the success in their roles and when things go wrong. The result sometimes expresses itself in many forms in much of work-life, whether through debilitating health effects such as depression (on the scale from being clinically depressed to just mild versions thereof), anxiety and anxiety attacks, high-blood pressure, mild strokes, low testosterone levels, and many more, to factors affecting work such as low productivity, disengagement, lack of physical and emotional energy, resilience impairment, and many others. Entrepreneurs and small business owners, mostly fueled by their passion and internal need to succeed, are often blind through ignorance or busyness to the need to monitor the negative effects on their own bodies, their psychologies, their need for greater self-care, their ability to lead, and subsequently the impact on those around them.
©Kurt April and Garth Pillay. All Rights Reserved.
The Problem with Guilt
-- Bob Murray
Every human society has a system of laws and moral codes which order the way people can live together, work together, collaborate with each other or do business together. When people “intentionally” break these laws and codes, we call them “guilty” and punish them accordingly. It has always been settled that we have the capacity to decide whether to commit a crime or break a moral code and therefore the concept of guilt made sense. However, modern researchers in a number of fields, including the author’s fields of behavioral neurogenetics and clinical psychology, have cast doubt on this most fundamental of all human concepts. Perhaps we do not have the control over our actions that we thought. Maybe all of our decisions are based on genetics, habit and experience-drivers largely beyond both our control and our understanding. The paper looks in detail at some of these drivers and how we might look at the idea of guilt and innocence in a new and perhaps more productive light.
© 2018 Bob Murray. All Rights Reserved.
What Is Authentic Leadership? Answering the Eight Leadership Questions
-- Stephanie Jones and Dixon Block
Leadership skills are critical in every kind of business as well as, generally speaking, in life. But what does this mean for leaders exactly? Will investing in more seminars and workshops be enough for individuals and corporations to develop their leaders? Eight leadership questions exist pertaining to good leadership, and these questions refer to leadership on scales as great as war heroes or famous politicians; anyone, in fact, can be a leader. This paper examines the personal reflections of various MBA students with mixed personal and professional backgrounds as well as varying degrees of formal and informal leadership experiences. Using these reflections, the argument that anyone, in fact, can be a leader if they wish to be, is made. One of the most important qualities of a good leader, however, is authenticity, and this is addressed through many examples throughout the paper.
© 2018 Stephanie Jones and Dixon Block. All Rights Reserved.
Perspective:
Get Serious About Parameters
-- Dan Coughlin.
© 2018 Dan Coughlin. All Rights Reserved.
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