Leading for Authenticity

Which is preferable, Layoffs or Alternatives to Layoffs?

May 4, 2009

Tweet My esteemed colleague and fellow Michigan PhD alum, Aneil Mishra, is a well-known expert on the ‘softer’ organizational affects of downsizing and layoffs: morale, commitment and trust. Writing today about furloughs at GM on his blog Total Trust, Aneil mentions that "In our research on downsizing, we’ve found that across-the-board cost cutting like this […]

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Leading Authentically with Transparency: An interview/podcast with Paul Levy

April 27, 2009

Tweet Here’s a neat podcast interview with Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, whose leadership approach to the need for dramatic cost-cutting we considered in the post Finding a leadership opportunity in alternatives to layoffs. This podcast interview offers a few additional insights, in part because the interviewer Catherine Bell asks some […]

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Why do some CEOs “leave money on the table” when they choose layoffs?

April 20, 2009

Tweet In my MBA classes, we called it "Leaving Money On The Table". In business practice, we call it a "missed opportunity". Managers "leave money on the table" when they fail to ask for something that a customer will give them readily and without extra charge. Managers "leave money on the table" when they take […]

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Authenticity in 16 Words?

April 3, 2009

Tweet At soccer practice this week, I came up with a great idea for my 3rd/4th grade girls team. As coach, I have great ambitions for my team this Spring — I want them to do more than chase the ball all around the pitch whilst squealing.  So, I need to teach them to think […]

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Finding a Leadership Opportunity in Alternatives to Layoffs

March 16, 2009

Tweet Let’s say you’ve been convinced by the argument against layoffs and the recommendations for trying alternatives to layoffs. You’ve looked at a few of the Honor Roll organizations and decided to take that next step… As you prepare to act, consider this additional option. Can you find a way to make alternatives into layoffs […]

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The Titanic’s Band: Responsibility at the Rocky Mountain News

March 4, 2009

Tweet The Rocky Mountain News, one of Denver, Colorado’s two daily newspapers, closed on Feb 27 after nearly 150 years of operation. While the print edition is completely gone, and the signs were removed from the building just two days after the closing was announced, the Rocky Mountain News online edition is (still) up, running […]

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NewsFlash: Bankers in authentic organization get ‘secret’ bonuses that they actually deserve!

February 19, 2009

Tweet Among all the appropriate recriminations against (investment) bankers earning huge bonuses for running their financial institutions into the ground, it’s nice to hear about some bankers who might actually have earned their bonuses. As Martha Brannigan reports in the Miami Herald last weekend , bankers at The City National Bank of Florida received a […]

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Authentic Conversation — An opportuntity for Obama?

January 8, 2009

Tweet Maren and Jamie Showkeir, co-authors of "Authentic Conversations: Moving from Manipulation to Truth and Commitment" last month applied some of their ideas about the power of conversation to establish truth and create change, in an Op-Ed piece in the Chicago Tribune. The piece "Obama to the world: Let’s talk" , the Showkeirs write: In […]

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