Consensus Leadership Isn’t Real Leadership

The pendulum has swung too far on Consensus Leadership. In a New York Daily News article published on January 3, 2001, called “Not Exactly His Father’s Cabinet, But It Could Be,” Michael Kramer wrote that Abraham Lincoln‘s observation is worth recalling: “No matter what the cabinet thinks, only one vote counts.” Abraham Lincoln was unquestionably a great leader. That can’t be said about all leaders. More and more, we are seeing consensus leadership styles get in the way of organizations getting things done: leadership (more…)

Earlier this week, SanDisk announced its latest M&A deal: the acquisition of Fusion-IO. In the company’s press release, the CEO made the following statement:

With its fifth enterprise-focused acquisition since 2011, the Milpitas company known for selling memory cards to consumers and gadget manufacturers is officially “a one-stop shop” for enterprise customers as well, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said Monday, which he believes (more…)

My daughter is graduating with a master’s degree in Healthcare Informatics (a broad academic field encompassing computing technologies and development in healthcare). I asked her what here career plans were with a degree in this very hot field and her answer surprised me. She said that she wanted to lead teams of people who were responsible for designing and implementing new healthcare systems and the organizations to leverage them. I was intrigued by that answer. What title would that be, I asked. She said she didn’t believe it existed, because most organizations have different groups who are responsible for technology and organizations.

She went on to explain (more…)

If you or your stakeholders think that embracing the status quo is the path to thriving, then think again! – Think you can sit back and coast for a few weeks, a few months, a few years? Think again! – Think your competitors will sit back and coast for a few weeks, a few months, a few years? Think again! G. K. Chesterton wrote, “If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always be painting it again; that is, you must be always be having a revolution.” Without intervention , without progressive change, without revolution, everything in our work and our lives gets worse . Our (more…)