Thought leaders across the web

The news that Cisco is dismantling its unique structure of councils and boards to reduce bureaucracy presents a cautionary tale and an insight into the true meaning of teamwork and collaboration in organizations. Cisco’s councils and boards — a language that already suggests committees rather than goal-oriented projects — were supposed to speed things up [...]

How do leaders maintain morale and momentum when members of their team are close to collapsing in frustration over the obstacles they face? Perhaps the issue is angry customers whose questions are hard to answer, or uncooperative peers from other groups who cause logjams and delay decisions. Team members might grumble and complain, or they [...]

Here’s a silly thought for you. Imagine that the Washington Capitals were looking for an edge in the upcoming ice hockey playoffs (that’s not the silly part, hold on a second). They get a call from someone, saying “I’d like to bring my talents to the hockey rink.” The caller reveals himself to be basketball [...]

There is no silver lining in the gray cloud surrounding the Japanese nuclear plant, or, for that matter, in the bomb trails above Libya. If you’re in Northern California, reports of elevated radiation levels in Sacramento is unsettling, to say the least, especially if you’re part of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial revival and just want [...]

This post was co-authored with Melinda Marshall. In real life, as in the film Black Swan, Natalie Portman wants to win not only the leading role, but also its attendant accolades. And on February 27, she may well fulfill her ambition: the 29-year-old Harvard grad is within a jeté of the Oscar for Best Actress. [...]

Hectored by the blogosphere, mocked by the press, UBS has recanted its 43-page employee primer on how to appear polished, proficient, and professional. As a result, a lot of up-and-comers badly in need of grooming guidance simply won’t get it. The brouhaha over the Swiss bank’s dress code manual, which dictates protocol on everything from [...]

For decades, women have been knocking on the door to the C-suite but getting little or no response. They finally learned the magic password. More than 200 women and men braved wind and snow recently to attend the launch of “The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling,” a new study by the Center [...]

Just one month after Hewlett Packard ousted Mark Hurd for expense report improprieties in his relationship with a female company contractor, the ex-CEO is riding high. Last week, Hurd landed the job of co-president at Oracle, thanks to his tennis buddy and Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. You could say it’s business as usual at Oracle. [...]

Managing today’s highly skilled professionals takes special skills — and not the ones that you may think. Oftentimes, knowledge workers know more than you do about their jobs. So, how do you manage people who know more about what they do than you do? In such instances, you have to look at leadership through the [...]

Will daddy wars erupt in this decade the way the mommy wars did in the last one? Eight years ago, when I wrote a book examining why accomplished women have such a hard time integrating career and children, the data found that approximately 40 percent of professional women are childless at age 40. Despite the [...]