Leading a Company in Tough Times
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on Aug 3, 2009
I recently read an article from the July 2009 issue of the McKinsey Quarterly called “Leadership lessons for hard times” (registration required) as part of their “managing in the new normal” series. The article is a collection of tips gathered from interviews with 14 CEOs of large (mostly multinational) companies. A few of the companies [...]
Taking a Look at Poor Leadership
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on Jun 1, 2009
In a short article in the June 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review, authors Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (from leadership consulting company Zenger/Folkman and authors (with Scott Edinger) of The Inspiring Leader: Unlocking the Secrets of How Extraordinary Leaders Motivate) take a very different look at leadership.
Instead of talking about how good leaders lead, [...]
Account Management or Client Service
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on Aug 1, 2007
You say “toh-MAY-toh” and I say “toh-MAH-toh,” the song exclaims, suggesting that it’s the same thing simply pronounced a little differently in each instance. Does a similar dynamic apply in the ongoing debate of Account Management versus Client Service? As I understand it, this is not a matter of simple semantics. It is a deeper [...]
Teams Are Impacted by Leaders’ Moods
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on Jul 30, 2007
A paper recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology describes the results of a study seeking to link the moods of leaders with their teams. I read an excerpt of the paper as published in Rotman, the magazine of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Authored by Stéphane Côté from the [...]
Building Leaders vs. Building Leadership
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on Jul 10, 2007
I recently read at article by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood in the July-August 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review that advocates companies focus on leadership instead of leaders. The authors are partners and co-founders of RBL Group, a leadership development and human resource education consultancy.
The authors submit that some companies produce a steady supply [...]
Prioritizing Tasks at Hand: GTD
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on Jun 17, 2007
Sometimes we have more tasks on our to-do lists than we have time or resources in which to do them. Perhaps most of the time. How to prioritize? A common (yet erroneous) approach is to prioritize by due date. Start with what’s due first, continue with the task that is due right after the first [...]
Information Freedom
Posted by Alberto Ferrer on May 18, 2007
When I was working at Leo Burnett as an AAE, I thought quite highly of myself. There I was, making $16,000 per year, working on the prestigious Procter & Gamble business. I had my very own cubicle, my very own key to come in and out of the office (no access cards back then), and [...]
