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Showing posts from June, 2017

Leaders and their mistakes

Tari Lang LinkedIn post 15 June 2017 "Mr Cameron’s dismal record is fixed forever in the history books. Mrs May still has a chance to write a redeeming codicil." So says Philip Stephens in the Financial Times this week. The ultimate price for a leader who has made a gigantic judgement or strategic error is mostly a gigantic fall. For a national leader, the process is public, (often) quick and less forgiving. With support from the leader's coterie this process might be delayed but end in a fall it will be. As they say in cop shows: "you can do it the hard way or you can do it the easy way". Corporate leaders too, make blundering mistakes. CEOs have learned to apologise (with or without pressure), remember James Staley and https://lnkd.in/gXqBkEg ? Oscar Munoz's https://lnkd.in/gsBRqEK ? But eating humble pie, following up with a change of direction in the interest of the institution and stakeholders, being forgiven and surviving? Less obvious to find

Breaking political orthodoxies

Tari Lang LinkedIn post 3 June 2017 Two leaders, both new, both having won office by breaking political orthodoxies and appealing to the popular vote through mass communications and sustained social media. Here the similarities end. One ploughs a single path of achieving personal and tribal (aka his own business) goals, seemingly impervious to the the approval from anyone but his own supporters and tribes, while desperately seeking approval for his own personal attributes. The other opens his sphere of influence and support, works on winning hearts and minds, communicates on issues and not his own personal characteristics. Like or hate their politics, these are leadership case studies worthy of close scrutiny. At the end of their respective tenures, which goals will they each have achieved? Their own personal objectives? The country they are designated to serve? The international community around them? The safety and prosperity of the planet?