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Are You a Good Leader?

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You will be if you draw on key ethical principles. Here’s how to do it, whether you’re a CEO, a banker, an entrepreneur, or anyone else in business

“Never underestimate the other guy’s greed.” This isn’t just a classic line from the 1983 Brian De Palma film, Scarface (written by Oliver Stone). It also reflects the attitude that has caused the economic disaster we’re now clawing ourselves out of.

Isn’t it time for a new way of thinking?

I propose the following leadership guidelines for C-level executives, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, and everyone else whose decisions can affect the financial well being of other people.

1. WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GANDER IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE.

At a time when companies are slashing their labor forces and freezing salary increases, and when some employees are being asked to take lower-paying positions, it is deeply unethical for leaders to retain their sky-high compensation and to expect enormous bonuses. They should follow the example of Michael Kneeland, CEO of United Rentals, who recently asked for, and was given, a 20% pay cut. Let’s hear more reports like this one.

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About the Author

Dr. Bruce Weinstein is the public speaker and corporate consultant known as The Ethics Guy. His new book, Is It Still Cheating If I Don’t Get Caught?, (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press) shows teens how to solve the ethical dilemmas they face. For more information, visit TheEthicsGuy.com. To read Bruce’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 27 – An Interview with Chris Edgar, author of Inner Productivity

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 27 – An Interview with Chris Edgar, author of Inner Productivity explores how to eliminate the mind’s distractions that diminish work productivity, heighten stress, and limit personal happiness. During our discussion, Chris Edgar, author of Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the principle of mindful efficiency
  • how mental distractions cause individuals to unknowingly multitask; reducing their work productivity
  • practical activities to eliminate one’s internal distractions thereby increasing focus on the task at hand
  • steps an individual can take to overcome a creative blankness such as writer’s block

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Chris shares in Inner Productivity and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his website at www.InnerProductivity.com. Chris’s book, Inner Productivity, can be purchased by clicking here.

Chris also offers an insightful six part video series on eliminating the inner distractions that limit personal productivity. These include:

About the Author

Chris Edgar, author of Inner Productivity, is a renowned author, speaker, and personal coach who focuses on helping people follow their true career callings and find more enjoyment and efficiency in what they do. His articles have been published in Balance, Balanced Living, EdgeLife, Mystic Pop, New Age Journal, New Renaissance, Self-Improvement, WellBeing, and Wisdom. To read Chris’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:10 — 45.6MB)

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Putting “You” in the Denominator: The Renaissance of Self

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The Oracle of Delphi told Socrates that he was the wisest man in all of Athens. After many years of reflection, Socrates had the answer. He was the wisest, because he knew he wasn’t the wisest. Pretty cool, huh? Leaders know the road of self-knowledge and self-discovery are never ending. This yellow brick road leads to many rewards, but not pot of gold. The rewards found here are contained within the journey, not the destination. You see, there is no destination for leaders. Knowing yourself means separating who you are and who you want to be from what the world thinks you are and wants you to be. Most of us, including myself, lived up to other people’s expectations for years before discovering the power of the space between stimulus and response, and the freedom and responsibility of choice.

There are four lessons of personal renaissance:

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About the Author

Dr. Greg Gillum is the Chief Learning Officer of WealthBridge Connect (www.WealthBridgeConnect.com). As CLO, his primary role is writing leadership and management curriculum for the international faculty of WealthBridge Connect that helps members drive their business to new heights. In addition, his role at WealthBridge Connect includes lead executive coach and trainer, specializing in leadership development applications, business performance coaching, emotional intelligence, and guiding transformational change in individuals and organizations. Dr. Gillum has also served as the CEO of the humanfusion group of companies (www.humanfusion.com) since 2004. He is a frequent keynote speaker in the areas of human performance and potential. Dr. Gillum spent six years on the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia, and eight years in marketing and senior management with GlaxoSmithKline. To read Dr. Gillum’s complete biography, click here.

Leadership Inspirations – Showing Up

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“Only some people get what they want. Those are the people who show up to get it.”

Dianne Houston
American director and screenwriter

Customer Satisfaction: A Flawed Measure

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Your customers want more than “satisfying” transactions – they want engaging relationships

To master the new discipline of the emotional economy, business leaders need a new way to think about “customer requirements” and a new set of tools to help structure their businesses around them. But exactly how should they construct a new definition of customer requirements?

Traditionally, the customer’s perspective has been evaluated by assessing “conformance to requirements,” often (though not always) by using a generic measure of customer satisfaction. Early practitioners of the quality movement postulated that customers would be satisfied with and would continue to purchase a product or service if it met their functional specifications and fulfilled their requirements.

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About the Authors

John H. Fleming, Ph.D., is Principal and Chief Scientist – Customer Engagement and HumanSigma for Gallup and coauthor of Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter. He coauthored an article on Gallup’s HumanSigma model in the Harvard Business Review (July/August, 2005) and has published more than 20 research articles and book chapters in such prestigious refereed journals as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Cognition, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. John received his doctorate in social psychology and master’s degree in psychology from Princeton University and his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. To read John’s complete biography, click here.

Jim Asplund is Chief Scientist, Strengths-Based Development and Principal, Performance Impact Consulting with Gallup and coauthor of Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter. As a founder and director of Gallup’s Performance Impact Consulting practice, Jim pioneered research to develop Gallup’s HumanSigma approach, which improves organizational performance by managing the employee-customer encounter. He was the primary architect of the HumanSigma measurement system and is the principal consultant for many of Gallup’s best-documented longitudinal case studies of the financial benefits of HumanSigma. To read Jim’s complete biography, click here.