From: Peter Thiel
The conceit of the MBA is that you don’t need to have any substance at all.
It’s just this management science, and you can apply that equally well in a software company or an oil drilling company or a fashion company or a rocket company.
So for the degree, people should learn substantive things and then on the side you’d pick up some business skills.
But you wouldn’t treat the business degree as the central thing.
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From: The Book of Jobs, Maureen Tkacik
In 2003 Steve Jobs had a pancreatic cancer scare that turned out to be a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, an extremely rare and slow-growing condition that accounts for only 1 percent of pancreatic cancer cases. It was the best-case scenario. His wife told Isaacson she remembered his doctors “tearing up with joy” when they learned the good news.
But then Steve Jobs refused to have surgery, once again putting all his faith and bullying, reality-blind certitude into his insufferable brand of sanctimonious veganism. This wasn’t a matter of passing up radiation and chemo; this was a matter of passing up every cancer patient’s dream of not even having to go through radiation and chemo.
#leadership #stevejobs
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Most CEOs of Mayer’s stature — people running multibillion-dollar public companies the size of Yahoo — are gregarious, outgoing types — the kind of person who might have been a politician if the world of business and money hadn’t beckoned. Baby-kissers. Back-slappers. Schmoozers.
Mayer is not that type. Peers from every stage of her life — from her early childhood days to her first year at Yahoo — say Mayer is a shy, socially awkward person.
How in the world has she overcome such a disadvantage to rise so far, so fast?
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From: Betashop (edited)
My fourth and most recent mentor is my CEO Coach. A couple of colleagues suggested that I see a CEO coach during Fab’s recent changes. A couple of months later, I could not advocate more for the importance of having one.
The CEO Coach is sort of like a special psychologist cum advisor for CEO’s. My coach is awesome at calling bullshit on me, getting me to own my challenges, and helping me focus on doing the right work.
It’s true what they say: The CEO’s job can be the loneliest in the world. There are many days when you feel like your team doesn’t get you, your investors don’t get you, the media doesn’t get you, your customers don’t get you, etc. Get a coach. If they’re good at what they do, they’ll always get you. And they’ll help you work through it.
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Abu Ghraib was a moral failing of the U.S. military that should have resulted in the resignation of the Secretary of Defense.
President Bush was faithful to his subordinates to a fault. He should have let Rumsfeld go in the spring of 2004 and put different leadership in place in the Pentagon.
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From: Pete Mansoor
Senior leaders must be willing to listen. Rumsfeld thinks he was open to criticism, but he was not. If a leader cannot listen to contrary opinions and make informed decisions based on a full range of views, then he or she courts disaster — as Rumsfeld did in Iraq.
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I don't think the average person understands just how open General Petraeus was to advice from below.
He had an open e-mail channel to anyone in Multi-National Force-Iraq — and often received messages from junior leaders on problems in their areas that they could not get resolved through their chain of command (or problems that the chain of command were creating).
I often discussed issues with General Petraeus and found him willing to listen — provided you had something intelligent to say and were ready for the give and take that followed.
I think this aspect of his leadership style is one that other leaders can and should follow — but they have to be willing to listen and accept advice and thoughts from below (which means reining in their egos)."
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I worked at a company called ELT. I had no direct reports at first. The company ballooned up to a little over 60 people at its height, but it started imploding and we were down to eight or nine people. I had done so many different roles, and I was offered the CEO job.
Overnight I went from having never managed people to managing other people who’d been higher on the food chain than me or had been peers of mine. I was 28 and the youngest person there.
I actually think that was a tremendously good experience for me because, right from the get-go, I got used to being a manager where people questioned my credibility. I was never surrounded by “yes” people. There was a lot of reaction like, “Who are you and why do you have this job?”
Even now I like to have people around me who will disagree with me and who will tell me when they think I’m wrong or something is a terrible idea. If I get the feeling I have people around me who are managing up, I get very nervous. I just instantly start wondering, “What’s actually happening and why can’t you give me more of a balanced picture?”
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I like to make decisions quickly. That came from being in an environment early on that was a crisis situation. I find that people react very badly to a sense of uncertainty.
So I always ask myself, “If I had to decide in 30 seconds, what would I do?” I always write it down to document my gut decision.
I’ll take more time, of course, on big decisions, but most of the time the initial gut instinct is right. You don’t agonize and you move on.
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Charisma is the brainchild of Max Weber (1862-1920), who adopted the term from early Christianity in which it meant a ‘gift of grace’. Grace means that you are looked on with favour by God. So, charisma is like a gift from God.
It refers to a trait that sets a person apart from ordinary people. The charismatic person seems to have been endowed with exceptional powers that will enable him to give people what they desperately need and want. So, they see him as a leader and follow him voluntarily.
The charismatic leader takes advantage of the belief in his super-human ability. Followers are expected to give him unconditional personal devotion and absolute trust. However, the charismatic bond will break if the leader fails to offer any demonstration of his power over a prolonged period of time.
Here are 4 criteria for charismatic leadership:
1. Leader Has Superior Powers
Followers believe their leader to possess extraordinary qualities.
2. Belief In Leader's Ideas
Followers believe the ideas of their leader to be unquestionably true simply because he made them
3. Obedience In Action
Followers offer complete obedience to their leader. They give up all judgement and automatically follow orders without hesitation.
4. Emotional Loyalty
The loyalty to the leader is very emotional. It resembles feelings seen in religious worship such as devotion, awe, reverence and blind faith
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