Acronym

Welcome, Virgil! Your reputation precedes you, and I'm happy to count you as a fellow blogger in arms!

I'm currently reading What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. It's more of a professional development book than a business book and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I might even suggest that our entire management team read it.

I'm struck by McKinsey's comment that "variables such as leadership and corporate culture have a casual relationship to financial performance." (I'm going to assume that "casual" is a typo, and should be read "causal") Certainly leadership and culture are not necessarily the only means to high financial performance, but my reading suggests, and my experience echoes, that they are important. There's no silver bullet in business. You need a good product, good leadership, good economic conditions, and some good luck to achieve "durable superior performance."

Thanks, Ben. You're right. My bad--typo of "casual" in my posting should have read: causal. Hate it when that happens. Many thanks.

Hi Virgil. Maybe you could fix the typo in the blog, so that readers who don't look at the comments wouldn't be misled, as I was until I looked here? Thanks!

Done, Joanne. Hope this helps folks. Cheers!

So back to the original questions: What are folks reading about leadership that appears particularly credible or applicable in your own situation/organization? And has anyone run across some recent leadership commentary that may be a misconception or even delusional?

Virgil,

As usual you add real value with your thoughts and perspectives on the literature of leadership. There's lots of superficial leadership and management writing out there that makes little sense from any perspectives. I think the genre is in trouble when the Leadership Lessons of Lassie makes it to the best seller's list. That said, there is a terrific new book that deserves a spot on the best seller's list and your attention---The Enlightened CEO by Bob Fifer and Gordon Quick. This is a serious-minded, thoughtful and detailed analysis of the critical competencies, skills and perspectives essential to CEO and organizational success. There are enough "big" ideas here to be of value to longtime CEO's and soon to be CEOs alike. Fifer and Quick offer solid advice and guidance derived from their careers as both business executives and consultants to a wide range of firms both large and small. Think you have strategy whipped? Check again. Fifer & Quick offer a smart, timely and step-by-step strategy assessment process that is a refreshing as it is insightful.

Hi folks...

Hate to reopen the proverbial can of worms, but I actually think that 'causal' is the right word here. Here's the quote from the website:

"This article...explores some of the misconceptions and delusions found in the business world, particularly those concerning the ability of executives to achieve durable superior performance. These include the idea that variables such as leadership and corporate culture have a causal relationship to financial performance."

Although I'm not registered to read the entire article, I suspect that the authors' point is likely related to concepts that folks often confuse: causation and correlation.

The notion is that we can certainly find countless examples of organizations with solid financials in which 'effective' leadership and 'good' culture are present. But that does not necessarily mean that the leadership or the culture (or the combination of the two) caused the solid finanical performance...as correlation alone does not imply causation.

I have to say, the reason for my post (as Ben knows, I'm typically one of the 90% who only read blogs), is that this again got me thinking about the "7 Measures" project, and how associations are interpreting the results of the study. I, for one, think that correlation /causation discussion is quite relevant to the study, and I would be curious to know how others feel on that matter. That said, I will now go back to lurking!