The Leadership Professor

For the last thirteen years, The Dude to me has been the Jeff Bridges character in the Coen brothers’ film, The Big Lebowski.  Memorable character. Great film. I have fun associations from enjoying the film with my younger sons.  I quote lines from it regularly.  When I’m at my wits ends, that’s the film I [...]

Cultural intelligence is key in a multicultural world.  The skills are as helpful in navigating a multinational as they are any where in today’s diverse global world.  Organizations, groups, professions, nations, ethnic groups all have their own cultures.  Even facilitating conversations  between different groups or divisions in your own organization requires strong cultural intelligence.   Consider, [...]

The layers of diversity in China are deep and broad.  There are, of course, ethnic differences. The government of the People’s Republic officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups – up by one since my trip to China last year.  I am fascinated by the faces in crowds at the Forbidden City and other places popular with [...]

Six books recommended for leaders (and anyone) wanting to understand China today.  I love good fiction and am a stickler for good writing: the books listed are all good reads.  Enjoy!   1.    Peter Hessler.  Oracle Bones.   I’ve written about this in a past post and recommend it as a place to start your studies.  Gives [...]

All interested in contemporary business leadership need to study of China, not just stay abreast of current events on the front page of the newspaper.  The business landscape is rapidly changing, China is at the center of the changes, and we had best recognize that and be prepared.      Yesterday was our first global leadership class, [...]

It’s been a long week, and both classes of our Executive MBA are in all day.  My thoughts on how to educate executives and transform good managers into great global leaders appear here today via a link to four articles in the Kansas City Star where my ideas were featured, thanks to a reporter who [...]

If resilience is an essential leadership skill, as I discussed in an earlier post, how do we build our capacity for it?  As someone for whom resilience doesn’t come naturally, I’ve thought deeply about the question.  Five suggestions from my musings:    Start with what we know we can control or change – ourselves. It is [...]

Business leadership today is global. There’s no debate on that. Not everyone will become a player in a multi-national company – and some may never do any business outside the United States. However, we are all global citizens in an increasingly flat world who need to appreciate that our leadership decisions and choices may be [...]

In my leadership teaching, students regularly ask what it takes to lead well. The list is long, but at the top is resilience. Resilience is the ability to adapt and strengthen in the face of challenge, trauma, or stress. It is a learned skill that strengthens with use. It includes steps like: recognizing that you [...]

I just finished reading a new book by Warren Bennis, Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership.  I loved it for a number of reasons. First,  Bennis is the father of applied leadership studies and a writer whose prose sings with humor, grace, and wisdom.  I always learn from Warren Bennis and from [...]