Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Whether you’re an aspiring leader, a newly appointed CEO, or a board member wanting to better steward your company’s performance, A CEO For All Seasons: Mastering The Cycles Of Leadership is the hands-on playbook you need – packed with practical, proven tips to help you navigate the four distinct phases of leadership.  “The journey of a CEO has a beginning, middle, and end, and the challenges leaders face early on are often far different than those midway through and near retirement, explain the authors of the book – Carolyn Dewar , Scott Keller , Vikram Malhotra, and Kurt Strovink .   “For us, the most apt analogy to describe these cycles is the four seasons of the year,” they add.  Spring : Stepping up - Preparing for the role. Summer : Transitioning into the role. Starting strong. Leading with impact. Fall : Navigating the middle years. Staying ahead. Sustaining momentum. Enhancing your learning. Future-proofing the organization. Winter : Transitioning out of the rol...

In 2024, I named Be The Unicorn: Data-driven Habits That Separate The Best Leaders From The Rest , by William Vanderbloemen , as the best new leadership book of that year.   The book is timely, incredibly practical, and immediately usable for any leader wherever they are on their leadership journey.   Through extensive research of more than 30,000 top leaders and proprietary data, Vanderbloemen identified in the book the twelve habits that the best of the best leaders have in common. These superstar leaders are the unicorns – highly desirable but that are difficult to find or obtain.   And now, Vanderbloemen followed up that gem of a book with another terrific book called, Work How You Are Wired: 12 Data-Driven Steps To Finding A Job You Love . It’s a great companion book to Be The Unicorn .   Those 12 steps align with these 12 personality traits/interpersonal habits: Fast Authentic Agile Solver Anticipator Prepared Self-aware Curious Connected Likeable Producti...

Anne Chow ’s book,  Lead Bigger , is about “where it all comes together.” By that, she means: Being driven by a compelling purpose and values, which are not platitudes, but rather lived. The goals are better decisions, improved performance, and ultimately a greater impact. Impact means you have the power to make real and enduring change for the better. Widening your perspective to have a greater performance and impact. Advancing work that matters. Developing a vital, innovative workforce that is both trusted and agile. Championing flexibility by embracing trust and empowerment for individuals, teams, and leaders alike.   Drawing from over three decades of experience, former CEO of AT&T Business Chow shares that leading bigger also means:   Embracing the whole of your team beyond the workplace : Seeing the value and potential of each individual—in the context of not only their work, but also their life.   Engaging in self-reflection : Demonstrating self-awareness ...

Nearly 90 percent of startups will fail without ever reaching a point of positive return on investment. Founders and entrepreneurs are facing unprecedented challenges in pursuit of becoming one of the coveted 10 percent.   Who better to turn to for advice than the duo behind the most successful software IPO in history?   That is where Denise Persson and Chris Degnan come in, authors of the new book, Make It Snow .   During the nearly nine years they worked together at Snowflake, they built  one of the longest-running and most effective sales-marketing partnerships from the ground up, unifying  two historically divided groups in corporate America. Together, they took Snowflake from struggling startup to a tech powerhouse on par with Google and Amazon. Over the years, Snowflake surged to more than 9,000 employes and $3 billion in annual sales.   “Sales and marketing are often neglected in startups, with focus squarely placed on the engineerin...

When you read the book,  Right Kind of Wrong: The Science Of Failing Well , you’ll gain a greater appreciation for the benefits that comes from failure, and how to embrace failure as part of your journey to achieving greater success.   Author  Amy Edmondson ’s book and revolutionary guide will undoubtedly transform your relationship with failure.   She defines  failure  as an outcome that deviates from desired results. Failure is a lack of success. Failure is different, explains Edmondson, from  errors  and  violations . “Errors (synonymous with mistakes) are unintended deviations from prespecified standards, such as procedures, rules, or policies. Violations occur when an individual intentionally deviates from the rules,” adds Edmondson.   After decades of award-winning research, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure— basic ,  complex , and  i...

Extreme Teams  is a fascinating book by  Robert Bruce Shaw , where he takes you inside top companies and examines not just great teams (your more “conventional” teams), but extreme teams. According to Shaw,  extreme teams : View work as a calling —even an obsession. Value members’ cultural fit and ability  to collectively produce results. Pursue a limited set of vital priorities —less is more. Strive to create a culture that is at once both hard and soft  – simultaneously tough in driving for measurable results on a few highly visible targets and supportive of individuals to create an environment of collaboration, trust, and loyalty. Value conflict among team members —recognizing the benefit of being uncomfortable. Companies with extreme teams will go to great lengths to ensure that their extreme teams are well equipped to address not only the challenges of today, but also the challenges of the future.  The central questions to ask , therefore, are: What is...

Image Credit: Freepik . For years, branding, marketing and leadership expert, Debbie, Laskey , has offered her insights, observations and tips to my blog readers. Today, Debbie joins us again to answer questions about branding and leadership. Debbie Laskey has nearly three decades of marketing experience and an MBA Degree. She developed her marketing expertise while working in the high-tech industry, the Consumer Marketing Department at Disneyland Paris in France, the nonprofit arena, and financial services and insurance sectors. Her expertise includes brand marketing, leadership development, and customer experience marketing. She is a regular contributor to several national blogs that provide insights about marketing and leadership, and she's been recognized as one of the "Top 50 Branding Experts" to follow on Twitter/X at @DebbieLaskeyMBA. Visit her website at www.BrandingAndMore.net and her blog at www.DebbieLaskeysBlog.com.   QUESTION: NBC has launched a new unscri...

The key takeaway from the book,   CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish The Best Leaders From The Rest , is the best CEOs think and act differently than the rest across each of   six key CEO responsibilities , including:  Setting the direction  (vision, strategy, resource allocation) Aligning the organization  (culture, organization design, talent) Mobilizing through leaders  (composition, teamwork, operating rhythm) Engaging the board  (relationships, capabilities, meetings) Connecting with stakeholders  (social purpose, interaction, moments of truth) Managing personal effectiveness  (time and energy, leadership model, perspective)  Starting with a pool of more than 2,400 corporate leaders, McKinsey & Company senior partners and authors  Carolyn Dewar ,  Scott Keller , and  Vik Malhotra  extensively screened the group to identify the elite core, then sat down with 67 of them for multiple hours to talk...

“Confusion often abounds as to what workplace wellbeing actually is and what it entails,” explain the authors of the book,  Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters: The Science Behind Employee Happiness and Organizational Performance .  “Workplace wellbeing is how we feel at work and about our work,” share  Jan-Emmanuel De Neve  and  George Ward . “It has evaluative, affective, and eudaimonic components. These may sound complicated but are actually very straightforward.”  Evaluative workplace wellbeing  refers to how we think about our jobs. It is an overall judgment, an assessment about how things are going, and it is typically measured by job satisfaction.  Affective wellbeing  refers to how we actually feel on a day-to-day basis while we are at work. It is an emotional or hedonic experience, and it can involve both positive and negative emotions.  Eudaimonic wellbeing  is about how much of a sense of purpose we get out of our work. ...

“The most successful company brands achieve greatness not by claiming superiority, but by boldly positioning against an enemy,” explains Laura Ries , author of the new book, The Strategic Enemy: How To Build And Position A Brand Worth Fighting For .  She adds, “Consumers are overwhelmed by choices and inundated with marketing messages. And despite an obsession with positioning amongst the world’s most well-known companies, too many brands retain an outdated focus on being better (better service, better prices, etc.) and using line-extensions rather than on what really matters in the mind―being different than your strategic enemy.”  Riess shares that the human mind understands ideas best through contrast. Therefore, when you tell consumers you are different, it begs the question Why? Why are you different, and how does that make your brand better? It is more involving, creates news value, and opens the discussion. “When you communicate that difference by also being visually dis...