As a result, books about the great leadership successes draw us like magnets. But Tim Irwin, Ph.D., looks at the discussion of leadership from the opposite perspective—leadership failures. That’s what makes “DERAILED: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership” such a compelling book.

Irwin examines the collapse of some of the biggest names in business: Robert Nardelli at Home Depot; Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard; Durk Jager at Proctor & Gamble; Steven Heyer at Starwood Hotels & Resorts & Worldwide; Frank Raines at Fannie Mae; and Dick “Richard” Fuld at Lehman Brothers.

Irwin points out that these are people who have been very successful but ultimately were fired by their boards of directors.

As he writes in this book, “Derailment and lack of success are different.”

Irwin suggests that there are similarities in the reasons why all those leaders were ousted. In none of these cases was fraud involved. As leaders, Irwin says we should look at these similarities in evaluating our own performances. In truth, this book is as much about us as the leaders profiled he says.

The five lessons identified in the book are:
1. Character Trumps Competence
2. Arrogance is the Mother of All Derailers
3. Lack of Self-Awareness is a Common Denominator of All Derailments
4. We are Always Who We Are, Especially Under Stress
5. Derailment is Not Inevitable, but without Attention to Development, it is Probable.

The first lesson, “Character Trumps Competence” is a challenging statement that really touches all of the others at some level. “Character” as Irwin describes it is not stealing money or sleeping with your executive assistant. It is about things like authenticity. Irwin says the reason authenticity is so important is that in repetitive research we learn that people want a leader they can trust. And if you can’t get people to follow you, by definition you’re not a leader.

Other aspects of “character” are related to things that are lacking– lack of self-management, humility and courage.

Behaviors that derail “self management” include being easily angered, undisciplined and inflexible. In the case of “humility” the behaviors causing derailment include arrogance, self-promotion and dismissiveness. Finally, with regard to “courage,” those derailing behaviors include conflict avoidance, micromanagement and an excessive need for approval.

Even before reading this book, you can find free personal risk assessment tool at www.DerailedLeader.com and it’s worth a visit.

Article By Paul J. Welsh

In his new book, “7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis,” Harvard Business School Professor and former Medtronic CEO and Chairman Bill George, provides a concise handbook for applying proven leadership lessons in tough times so that companies and individuals can emerge successful on the other side of crises.  Whether it’s the current economic crisis, a product recall or the loss of a job or a spouse, George’s book offers realistic actions leaders can take to put their companies and themselves on the right track.

What does George know about leading in crisis that makes him an expert on the subject?  It turns out quite a bit.  As Medtronic CEO, George earned a reputation for managing with integrity and challenging people to think creatively when dealing with crises.  That approach helped establish Medtronic as the world’s leading medical technology company that experienced explosive growth of nearly 35% per year.  In addition, as a member of the Goldman Sachs Board of Directors, George had a front-row seat as the recent financial crisis rocked the world.

George’s lessons include:  Face Reality, Starting with Yourself; Never Waste a Good Crisis; and Be Aggressive: This is Your Best Chance to Win in the Market.

In addition to providing practical advice, George shares real-life stories, anecdotes and a wealth of wisdom for current and aspiring leaders.  He says the natural reaction when facing a crisis is to “hunker down,” batten down the hatches and ride out the crisis.  Rather than running for cover, George believes every crisis provides an opportunity to emerge as a stronger, more vibrant company or individual on the other side.

“Winners are not those who just get through it. You do have to get through it, but the winners are those who figure out how we can position the opportunity to make our company a lot stronger,” he says.  “In Chinese, ‘crisis’ is made up of two characters:  Danger and Opportunity.  We all know ‘danger,’ but winners find the ‘opportunity.’”

During difficult times, employees look to leaders to fill-in-the-blanks with answers and reassurance.  George advises leaders to take a team approach to solving problems.   “Don’t be Atlas, get the world off your shoulders,” he says.  “Do two things — bring your teammates in your organization ‘real close around you to get the very best minds and best energy you can addressing the problems’ and ‘get everyone committed to solving them with you’ while getting to the real root causes of the problems.” Beyond that, George urges leaders to establish an external support network — a person or group of people they can be totally open with and to bring perspective to a situation.

It isn’t a secret that crises are the true test of leaders.  And George believes most effective leaders don’t wait until they’re in charge to learn how to deal with crises.  George says he has seen a number of leaders fail because they didn’t have prior experience in leading a crisis.

Overall, the key quality of good leaders is adaptability.

George says his experiences, and the experiences of others, have proven to him, that you have to be in the game to learn.

“The worst decision I ever made is the one I didn’t make,” he shares.  “A crisis is a real test of a leader’s courage.  Leaders who aren’t willing to take a risk, that don’t have the courage, will surely fail.”

For more information, please visit www.billgeorge.org for videos, and activities.  Also, look for the study guide in the back of the book.  It’s a great tool for small groups to use in working through the lessons together.

1. Is this book is going to be preaching to the choir about addressing environmental and social issues? Will it be a studied treatment of the issues or a piece of propaganda?
2. It takes a bold author to immediately thank the Forward writer Darryl Vernon Poole for comparing him to Rachel Carson and Malcolm Gladwell. Then, proceed to compare himself to George Orwell. If he’s that good I need to read on.

This book is the latest update of a book called World Inc. (2007) which has received significant acclaim. And, as president and founder of the American Hazard Control Group, Dr. Piasecki has been consulting with major corporations on environmental corporate strategy since 1981. So his opinions are worth hearing, worth reading.

“Competition has created an industrial underbelly of pollution, climate change, resource depletion, new forms of economic imperialism, and regional wars over water, clean air, and trees,” says Dr.Piasecki.

He contends that today’s businesses must take responsibility for leading in the areas of social and environmental reform.

You can almost hear businesses asking, “What’s in it for us?” And Dr. Piasecki has an answer for them. He explains how responding to social needs will open markets, generate profits, and win investment capital. The examples he profiles in this book are from consulting he has provided to clients like Toyota, Suncor Energy and Hewlett-Packard.

Dr. Piasecki is very pro-capitalism. He just sees the need for capitalism to change, saying that traditional capitalism may be getting a bit senile. He believes that both corporations and individuals will need to adjust their bearing in a new terrain. Competing on price and quality alone are not sufficient anymore. Businesses, large and small, must also put social needs into the equation.

He talks about The S Frontier which he observes is already here. It includes the severity of market conditions, the swiftness of information, and social response to capitalism. And according to Dr. Piasecki, if companies don’t adjust, he predicts that the top 300 multinational companies will undergo tremendous change, and only a minority will be in business a few decades from now.

This is a surprising book because the radical changes Dr. Piasecki describes actually grow out of strong business fundamentals. It’s an uplifting book that defines the future of leadership. And the arrogance that seemed to jump out of the book before the first chapter may be justified based on the thinking the book advances.

Article By Paul J. Welsh

With his track record, you can’t help wondering what he thinks about today’s economy. And as luck would have it, in Sam Wyly’s paperback edition of his acclaimed memoir, 1,000 Dollars and an Idea, he’s added a chapter on the “The Great Crash of 2008.”

Wyly says he sees an end to the current depression because “things have stopped getting worse.” But he adds it will be a while before they get better.

On the other hand, he says this is a great time to learn about your business so you’ll be ready to grow faster when things turn around.

Wyly traces this economic depression to a long-running super cycle of debt that dates back to when President Richard Nixon abandoned the “gold standard.”  That followed shortly after 1969, the last year the United States had a balanced budget. It was around that time that Congress threw money at President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs and stepped-up military spending.

Of course, the money created by this debt fostered a lot of prosperity including good jobs and a steadily improving quality of life for most Americans. But along with the good things came the huge inflation rates of the 1970s and a declining rate of savings. These trends finally hit bottom in the early part of this decade according to Wyly.

In the expanded edition of his book Wyly goes on to show the parallels between today’s economy and The Great Depression.

Wyly is in favor of “Cap and trade,” an environmental policy tool that delivers results with a mandatory cap on emissions.  He actually would prefer a worldwide tariff on carbon emissions as his ideal solution. So even though he feels “Cap and trade” falls well short of his ideal he thinks Congress should hold their noses and vote for it. It’s the best remedy we have for now he offers.

Wyly’s interest in the environment dates back to his daughter’s days in elementary school. She asked him, “Daddy what are you going to do about air pollution?” That was during the time of deregulation of monopolies like airlines and energy so Wyly decided to get in the business. He founded Green Mountain Energy with the idea they would be successful not by selling cheaper energy but by selling cleaner energy.  Wyly started what he saw as a patriotic business but it has also grown 27% a year.

Whether you’re interested in an interesting entrepreneurial success story or want an informed view of the current economy, this book is worth reading.

 Article By Paul J. Welsh

After the economic world was turned on its axis last Fall, many companies went into a panic, circled the wagons or even headed for the hills. The smart ones regrouped, recalculated or even reorganized.

Such was the case of general contractor Gerry Crawley. In fact, it could be said of his company, ARC General Contracting that they “rewound” back to the beginning.
“When the whole world went off its axis, nobody knew what the fallout was,” Crawley said. “You get immobilized by fear. It makes you reactionary.”

What’s more, employees can smell fear and then they become immobilized.

Soon, however, he realized during last year’s decline that he was not a business crisis but rather a crisis of faith. Even though ARC was listed as a Top 25 General Contractor in the Kansas City Business Journal he began to question how good they really were.
It began with some soul-searching. “I decided to take a look at ‘Who we are, why are we here’ and ‘what is our purpose?’” That’s stripping it down to the basics for a company with a successful 10 year track record.

“You can bury your head in the sand or make a commitment to change,” Crawley says.
For Crawley, he knew he couldn’t tackle this re-think, alone. He brought in Action business coach Caroline Smith to guide them through a process. She helped Crawley examine who ARC was as a business by talking with him and his employees which eventually led to a higher level of communication.

That work led to a one-page strategic business plan that he refers to regularly, modeled after a document that John D. Rockefeller used to keep his life and work on track.
“It has really streamlined our whole effort and made everybody’s objectives more pure and simple and clean. It’s like all the chaff went away.” He now shares this plan and the company’s financial results at least quarterly with all of his employees. That diminishes fear and builds trust.

“You work to build trust,” Crawley said. “It’s hard to make a profit without it.”
Crawley has a business philosophy that has become the company’s motto:  “Service over Self-Interest.”

“Whatever we do, I’m simply a steward of the client’s money,” he says. “We’re just like a big ATM machine.”

What kept Crawley from pulling the ripcord and bailing like so many others? “My wife has asked me this question many times. About November of last year when things were at their darkest, I came to the conclusion that there’s really no option other than to be a success. You just have to work your way through this,” Crawley adds. “It’s pretty simple at the end of the day. It’s my choice.”

In talking with Crawley, it seems evident that he doesn’t make “his choice” based on ego. He wants to continue to build a company that he can pass to future employees.

Now that’s a good reason to fight the good fight.

To find out more about ARC, go here

To find out more about Action Business Coach Caroline Smith, go here

Article by Paul J. Welsh

Okay, that’s probably not the best way to capture the attention of the audience at your next speaking engagement. We’d all agree to that. But how do you open your talk?

A lot of people feel they have to open with a joke even though they’d get shouted down at a comedy club’s open mike amateur night.

So how do you capture an audience when you’re asked to speak? The first thing you might want to do is to read OWN THE ROOM: Business Presentations that Persuade, Engage, and Get Results.

Skilled corporate communication experts David Booth and Deborah Shames give you the answers. But in this book the authors go beyond the dos and don’ts of public speaking. Their approach is to teach you how to differentiate yourself and show leadership by avoiding many of the trite speaking approaches that seem to be the norm.

The co-authors, David Booth and Deborah Shames, both began their careers in the performing arts industry before moving into the corporate realm. Booth was a theater director and performer before moving into corporate films and trade shows. Shames was a film and television director who later moved into the corporate sector. It’s that background that helps them see corporate speaking in a different light.

The authors suggest that too often speakers spend an over-abundance of time preparing a talk so that they can deliver it in a polished manner. Nobody has time for that Shames says. A bigger problem though is that a speaker who is too polished does not engender trust. In truth, a speaker who is a little rough around the edges appears more trustworthy to the audience.

The authors say they’re not trying to create new entertainers, but they are helping them use some performing arts techniques to position their businesses.

Equally important is authenticity. You are more authentic when you speak from your own experience.
Dave Booth says their company, Eloqui, has even developed a template to help their clients develop story telling based on their own experiences.

The two most important things according to Deborah Shames are to know your audience and describe what you’re saying in a way that it won’t be forgotten.  She says differentiation needs to begin at the beginning of the talk. As soon as you begin your speech with the phraseologies or jokes that audiences are used to hearing, you’ve lost them. Cognitive psychology suggests at that time the audience thinks “I’ve heard this before” and they tune you out.

If you’re eager to “Own the Room” you may want to “Read the Book.”

Article by Paul J. Welsh

Well I’ve got this guy I want you to meet. His name is George Cloutier. He’s a Harvard grad that Business Week dubbed a “Turnaround Ace” and his focus has always been on small business. Actually, you may not even need to hire him, just read his book.

His national best-selling book is called Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing. The book includes “The 15 Rules” that George Cloutier’s consulting firm has used to turn small businesses on life support into profit-making machines. His success with helping small businesses is immense.  In fact, in the first chapter of the book he talks about how his firm has helped more than 6,000 businesses in 300 industries. His company has identified more than $1 billion in additional profits for those clients.

So why wouldn’t every small business want to hire Mr. Cloutier’s consulting firm and get their share of the $1 billion in extra profits? Good question.  The answer is that these kinds of profits come with a price.

For example the book suggests that you should work seven days a week, never pay vendors on time and give up golf.  Are you ready to make those commitments or do they make you feel like maybe profits aren’t everything?

If these measures sound extreme, they are. Cloutier says you only have to make the hard choices if you want to be successful in business. If you want to have life balance, start a non-profit he adds.

The majority of Cloutier’s clients are family businesses. And two of his 15 Rules are specific to them: Love Your Business More Than Your Family and The Best Family Business Has One Member.  As harsh as that seems, Cloutier says too many family businesses mix family issues into the business and in the majority of situations they fail. The first of those rules states, “Your cell phone is for taking orders from clients NOT grocery lists. Weekends are for work. Pray at your desk if you must. Your business is not a part-time job. Be there or be broke.”

There is no doubt that much of Cloutier‘s advice is challenging and even scary.  Still, the book is both entertaining and thought provoking.

George Cloutier, a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, founded American Management Services in 1986. The company’s web address is www.amserv.com

Article by Paul J. Welsh