I can’t wait until 2057 to get a “man-sized” paycheck. Can you?

April 28, 2009

Tweet It’s possible that I won’t be around in 2057. If I am around, I probably won’t be lucid. And if I am lucid, I sure as hell hope that I’m not still working full time. But if I want to get a “man-sized” paycheck and see the gender wage gap disappear for good, I […]

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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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Local Heartbreak, bankruptcy style

April 24, 2009

Tweet Sometimes organizations fail, and you just don’t care that much. Other times organizations fail, and you wonder why you care SO much. It’s a failure in the second category that’s making me sad today. With Fountains of Wayne, Route 46 sustains its authenticity as the scenic route from the Hudson to the Delaware. Without […]

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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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Where is my Values-Driven Landscaper?

April 19, 2009

Tweet I don’t get it. My “Tree Guy”, the fellow who sprays professionally applies pesticides to my hemlock hedge to prevent wooly adelgids from sucking the life out of them, came by to make sure we were renewing our contract with him. Some of his customers are switching to less expensive, less professional solutions, and […]

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A Benevolent Perfect Storm for Progressive Organizational Movements

April 16, 2009

Tweet “A Benevolent Perfect Storm.” Isn’t that a lovely image? It comes from David Ellwood, dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as quoted by Steve Lohr in his NYTimes article “With Finance Disgraced, Which Career Will Be King?” Ellwood hopes that one outcome of the collapse of social and monetary incentives to take a […]

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Socialism, Capitalism, 5 Points of Ignorance, and Progressive Organizational Movements

April 14, 2009

Tweet I just got done commenting on the blog of my colleague and blogging buddy Michael Roberto, a strategy professor at Bryant University. Michael blogged today about his concern that Americans (and by extension, students in the Business Schools where many of us teach) have lost faith in Capitalism. Michael’s answer to this problem, in […]

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Raw Emotion, UnCooked Truth, and the Space Between “Fake” and “Real”

April 14, 2009

Tweet My colleagues at OrgTheory are celebrating the award of Guggenheim fellowships to some great sociologists, and they mention one of my favorites, Joshua Gamson. I was reminded of how much I enjoyed Gamson’s first book, Freaks Talk Back, because Gamson’s analysis of tabloid talk shows is laced with interesting questions and examples of strategic […]

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Six Paradoxes of Leadership in a Crisis: Even more true now

April 6, 2009

Tweet “The most threatening circumstances can be experienced as the most highly motivating if, and this is a very big if, the purposes which we serve feel significant enough to the organization’s members.” Looking over research on “leadership during crisis”, I was reading the report “Raising The Stakes or Finally Seeing Them Clearly?: Balanced Leadership […]

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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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