Leadership Problems

The inability to set good strategy can sink a company - and a leader's career. A recent Wall Street Journal study revealed that the number one most sought after executive skill by organizations is strategic thinking, but few leaders have that skill set.

Agility isn't a formula, a framework, nor a set of roles and rituals to follow. It's a timeless way of being that matures with practice and skill. Becoming agile involves knowing the difference between being quick or hurrying, moving with ease or difficulty, being in or out of balance, graceful or awkward, adaptable or rigid, resourceful or resentful. With Joy of Agility, Joshua Kerievsky, CEO of Industrial Logic, one of the oldest and most-respected agile consultancies in the world, shows you how to harness agility in work and life to solve problems and succeed sooner.

As a leader, changing your mind has always been perceived as a weakness. Not anymore. In a world that's changing faster than ever, successful leaders realize that a genuine willingness to change their own minds is the ultimate competitive advantage. Drawing on evidence from social science, history, politics, and more, business consultant Al Pittampalli reveals why confidence, consistency, and conviction are increasingly becoming liabilities.

In this revolutionary guide, Stanford University professor and international best-selling author of inGenius adapts her popular course material to teach everyone how to make imaginative ideas into realities.

A vital blueprint for organizations that want to thrive in the competitive fray, Business Analytics for Managers presents a sustainable business analytics (BA) model focusing on the interaction of IT technology, strategy, business processes, and a broad spectrum of human competencies and organizational circumstances.

A major investor is on line one, CNN is on line two, and social media is exploding in anger. When you're a "leader under fire", the next few moments can be an incredible opportunity...or they can destroy your career. In the past, companies prepared for crisis with expensive, static crisis communications plans. The pace was slower. You had time to process and plan a response with your senior team and lawyers. But those old-school plans don't work anymore.

Governor Charlie Baker, one of the most popular governors in the United States, with a reputation for getting things done, wants to put the service back into public service. Results is the much-needed implementation guide for anyone in public service, as well as for leaders and managers in large organizations hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics. With a broad range of examples, Baker, a Republican, and Kadish, a Democrat, show how to move from identifying problems to achieving results in a way that bridges divides instead of exacerbating them.

Why do some companies consistently win in the consumer and capital markets while others struggle from crisis to crisis?The answer, says Noel Tichy, is that winning companies possess a "Leadership Engine" - a proven system for creating dynamic leaders at every level. To get ahead and stay ahead, a company needs agile, flexible, innovative leaders who can anticipate change and turn on a dime. Fortunately, says Tichy, just as everyone has untapped athletic potential, everyone has untapped leadership potential that can be developed.

We’ve been made to believe that money is the ultimate motivator. We think that businesses who have high-end compensation packages attract the best talent and that well-compensated employees will be high performers and stay content. The stats and scientifically-proven data say otherwise. Top talent and the highest producing employees desire three things other than money, and in The Problem Isn’t Their Paycheck, Grant Botma reveals what those forces are and how to easily implement them so you can hire right and lead better.

The availability of big data, low-cost commodity hardware, and new information management and analytics software has produced a unique moment in the history of business. The convergence of these trends means that we have the capabilities required to analyze astonishing data sets quickly and cost-effectively for the first time in history. These capabilities are neither theoretical nor trivial. They represent a genuine leap forward and a clear opportunity to realize enormous gains in terms of efficiency, productivity, revenue and profitability.

Many leadership books are either shallow (focusing on only one element of leadership), narrow (examining leadership out of context), or biased (selling an idealized model). This book seeks simplicity without being simplistic and focuses on the listener in their context rather than describing other people's leadership in theirs.

Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world. It seems so basic. Why is it so hard to actually get right? According to innovation expert Phil McKinney, the real problem is that we're teaching people to ask the wrong questions about their businesses - or none at all. There has to be a better way. In Beyond the Obvious, McKinney will help you use his proven FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Rank, Execution) Method to dig deeper and get back to asking the right questions - the ones all companies must ask to survive.

Marty Strong's direct and compelling message is focused on business, but in truth, its leadership tenets are agnostic as to industry, marketplace, private, or public setting. This is not a textbook. It is a personal conversation between a high-performance business leader and professionals searching for actionable insights that deliver results. Be Nimble provides mentorship, tips, tools, and useful examples to help drive home its valuable leadership insights. Marty Strong has an accomplished leadership career spanning four decades.

Ask better questions, and you will get better results. Top business coach Mark Moses has identified four critical questions every business leader should explore on their journey to business and life success.

Leadership Isn't for Cowards offers straightforward steps to leading courageously and practical tips for driving performance. Courageous leadership means toughening your approach by being rigorous in the application of your values through the company culture. It means confronting and challenging people, and not letting them get away with being less than you know they can be.

Creativity, new ideas, innovation - in any age they are keys to success. Yet, as Stanford Professor Robert Sutton explains, the standard rules of business behaviour and management are precisely the opposite of what it takes to build an innovative company. We are told to hire people who will fit in; to train them extensively; and to work to instil a corporate culture in every employee. In fact, in order to foster creativity, we should hire misfits, goad them to fight and pay them to defy convention and undermine the prevailing culture.

Hailed as "the female Jerry Maguire" by CNN, sports-agent-turned-entrepreneur Molly Fletcher reveals the winning secrets of fearless world-class achievers. Molly Fletcher knows a thing or two about making trades. As a sports agent, she's negotiated on behalf of champions such as Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz and seven-time PGA TOUR winner Matt Kuchar. As a top-tier speaker and consultant, she's helped energize companies worldwide.

Turquoise Eyes combines compelling narrative while teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. Set after a bank begins implementing a new retail banking strategy, we follow Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo, a director general in the Mexican government, who has received some disturbing news. A whistleblower has emailed Teresa with troubling news about a mistake in the loan default calculations and reserve ratios. The numbers do not add up. This audiobook teaches advanced business concepts through a compelling storyline.

Cost reduction...productivity improvement...customer retention...these are the promises of the Six Sigma quality management system. The Six Sigma Way reveals how GE, Motorola, and numerous other companies are successfully using Six Sigma to fine-tune products and processes, improve performance, and increase profits. Now you can hear the road map for implementing Six Sigma in your manufacturing or service organization.

By cultivating executive poise and presence, we not only improve how others see us but enhance our capacity to lead a life of our choosing. While leadership styles may vary, all great leaders are able to connect with others while staying true to themselves. By remaining true to the best aspects of your personality, you, too, will be able to lead effectively in every situation. Leading from Your Best Self delivers a road map for developing the poise, presence, and influence needed to succeed at work and in life.