atkinson advisor

Read through six traits of CEOs likely to have enduring greatness. Then score yourself on each question using a scale of 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree.

How are your chances for leading enduring greatness? Add up all of your scores and compare them to the chart below.

Wall Street has had a bad year on every front. And nearly everyone has suffered.

Right or wrong, the federal government stepped in to shore up the industry and save thousands of jobs.

It’s time for Wall Street to show their thanks to American taxpayers by not paying year-end bonuses. It’s the right thing to do now to show that they are committed to fixing the problems they helped cause.

Wall Street executives cry that they will lose talent. And how is that a bad thing? Are these not the same people who caused the problem in the first place? With more than 100,000 job losses, it’s also a buyer’s market in Manhattan.

The American people have a crisis of confidence in our financial system. The only way to restore that confidence is with leadership and sacrifice.

Next time you have to communicate difficult news, try using the “Stockdale Paradox” as a model. The term is named for Vice Admiral James Stockdale, who spent seven years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Stockdale said of that time, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” James Collins coined the term “Stockdale Paradox” to illustrate a primary leadership lesson in his book Good To Great.

Read more about James Stockdale at Wikipedia.

Guts!: Companies that Blow the Doors Off Business-as-Usual
by Kevin Freiberg

Freiberg, the well-known business author who penned the best-seller Nuts! about Southwest Airlines, advocates the notion that great leaders “gotta have guts.”

In Guts!, Freiberg advocates replacing fear-based management with heart, soul, discipline, loyalty, and humor. Among the topics covered in the book’s seven chapters are ways to brand the culture, make business heroic, and inspire fun. Whole Foods and Omnicom Group are among the examples he uses to illustrate his themes.

If you find Guts! insightful, check out the sequel in Boom! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-as-Usual.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

The difference between being very good and great is often a few degrees of change rather than a quantum leap.

Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith explores how subtle nuances make all the difference in the business world, especially transitioning from upper management to the executive level. These same nuances can impact relationships outside the workplace, such as in marriage or parenting.

Goldsmith is candid in outlining 20 interpersonal challenges that keep talented people from reaching the top. These behaviors, or “transactional flaws,” lead to negative perceptions that can hold back any executive.

1.  The need to win at all costs
2. Having to add our two cents to every discussion
3. Passing judgment
4. Making destructive comments
5. Overusing negative qualifiers: no, but, and however
6. The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are
7. Speaking when angry
8. Negativity
9. Withholding information
10. Inability to give praise or recognition
11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve
12. Making excuses
13. Clinging to the past
14. Playing favorites
15. Refusing to express regret
16. Not listening
17. Failing to express gratitude
18. Punishing the messenger
19. Passing the buck
20. Exalting failures as virtues because they’re who we are

Unfortunately, Goldsmith finds most high achievers are disillusioned into thinking that their success is attributed to these bad behaviors. Therefore, they resist change.

Goldsmith’s remedy for these behaviors is simple: stop doing them. His solution for making the necessary changes is to gather feedback from appropriate colleagues and cohorts, determine which behaviors to change, apologize, advertise, listen, thank, and follow up, and practice feed-forward.

Well-known author and leadership expert John Maxwell is fond of saying, “great leaders not only get to the top, they take people with them.”

Maxwell casts leadership in five sequential levels — position, permission, production, people development, and personhood — that build upon each other. Employees can be at different levels with the same leader. How people respond to you as a leader depends on what level leadership they are on with you.

Level 1: Position

Employees follow you because they have to: Your title

Level 2: Permission

Employees follow you because they want to: Your ability to connect and listen to them

Level 3: Production

Employees follow you because of what you’ve done for the organization: Your effectiveness and results

Level 4: People Development

Employees follow you because of what you’ve done for them: Your investment in their growth and your own

Level 5: Personhood

Employees follow you because of who you are and what you represent: Their respect for you

Maxwell suggests noting the names of each of your direct reports and examining how to get to the next level with that person.