Over the past five years, there's been an explosion of interest in purpose-driven leadership. Academics, business experts, and even doctors make the case that purpose is a key to exceptional leadership and the pathway to greater well-being. Despite this growing understanding, however, a big challenge remains. Few leaders have a strong sense of their own individual purpose, the authors' research and experience show, and even fewer can distill their purpose into a concrete statement or have a clear plan for translating purpose into action. As a result, they limit their aspirations and often fail to achieve their most ambitious professional and personal goals. In this article, the authors present a step-by-step framework that leaders can use to identify their purpose and develop an impact plan to achieve concrete results. Effective purpose-to-impact plans use language that is uniquely meaningful to the individual, rather than business jargon. They focus on future, big-picture aspirations and work backward with increasing specificity. And they emphasize the individual's strengths and encourage a holistic view on work and family.
Coach Bob Hurley of St. Anthony High School is one of the winningest coaches in the history of high school basketball. At age 65, he has won more than 1,000 games and 25 New Jersey State Championships. His players come from the toughtest streets in the country and yet all but 3 have gone on to college. As head coach, he earns less than $10,000 a year; his circa 1917 school building doesn't even have a gym. And yet, for almost 40 years he has turned down all offers to leave a small, aging, catholic school in Jersey City, NJ. This is biographical case about a tough-love leader who epitomizes what it means to be authentic. It was written for a course on authentic leadership development to highlight the origins and potential of deep self-knowledge and passion. Class discussion focuses on the tensions between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and the role that this plays in our lives.
U.S. Army Lieutenant Scotty Smiley faces the biggest challenge of his young life. What will he do after learning that the wounds he received from a car bomb in Iraq have left him permanently blinded? On April 6, 2005, Lieutenant Scotty Smiley was grievously wounded by a suicide bomber while leading his infantry platoon during a combat patrol in Iraq. This is a biographical case that outlines who Scotty was prior to this incident and asks readers to consider the following fundamental question: What does this tragic event mean for who he is and how he will lead his life? And by extension, what role do life crucibles play in helping to shape who we are and how we lead?
Five year old Matty died at Children's Hospital Boston as a result of elective neurosurgery to "cure" his epilepsy. The organizational system, not the surgery, had failed. During post-operative recovery, he experienced a prolonged seizure that resulted in his death. Confused leadership, organizational differentiation, structurally induced silence, and organizational mis-alignment contributed to the death. How could this happen in such a world class medical facility?
Should a leader be loved or feared? That age-old question still has no simple answer. It depends on who the leader is and whom she's leading. Successful executives adapt their styles when they need to; they also know their limits.
Designed for use in the first year of an MBA program, can be included within a core course on leadership or used more broadly to orient students to their upcoming experience while in school. Offers a series of robust conceptual models to help students frame their leader(ship) development experiences while in a business school. How we frame our experiences has a significant impact on how we ultimately "have" our experiences, as well as what we make of them. Drawing broadly from educational, human development, and leadership training literature, as well as a recent longitudinal study of MBA students, speaks directly to business school students in their own language in an attempt to help them make the most out of their experiences while in school. For faculty, can be used as a background resource for understanding how MBA students experience their time in school and for grasping a broad review of the leadership development literature as it applies to MBA programs. Commonly asked questions explored include: Are leaders born or made? When we talk about "leader(ship) development," exactly what is it that is developing? How do leaders develop? To address these fundamental questions, integrates colorful student quotes with primary source insights from the major thought leaders in the field of leadership development. Also offers a series of "developmental propositions" to increase the likelihood that students will get the most out of their developmental journeys.
Almost five years had passed since Goldman Sachs launched its innovative leadership development initiative called Pine Street. Focused primarily on developing Goldman's most senior managers, Pine Street had evolved significantly since its inception in November of 1999. Looking forward, there were a number of challenges. How would Pine Street remain valued in a culture where what you did yesterday doesn't matter much? The question every day is "What will you do for me today?" Early in May 2005, members of the Pine Street Board of Directors gathered for their quarterly meeting to address the dimensions of this challenge: First, its curriculum had to maintain the interest of an increasingly demanding internal clientele. Second, program content had to keep pace with the constantly changing requirements of a rapidly shifting competitive and regulator landscape. Third, Pine Street itself had to pursue creative ways of renewing its structure and people without compromising either its mission or its unique culture. Fourth, Pine Street had to retain the continued support of Goldman Sachs' senior leadership. Finally, as program offerings grew, so did fundamental questions of identity: After five years of evolutionary growth, what did the Pine Street brand mean to Goldman Sachs?
In November 1999, 11 of Goldman Sachs' finest gathered to put the final touches on a revolutionary leadership development plan. Following Goldman's explosive growth during the 1990s and its eventual IPO in 1999, a diverse group of leaders from across the firm were selected to "assess the future training and development needs of Goldman Sachs, with a particular focus on the need for a more systematic and effective approach to developing managing directors." After six months of brainstorming, holding discussions with Goldman Sachs colleagues, interviewing experts, and benchmarking best practices, it was finally time to present their findings to the management committee. The briefing contained an integrated leader development plan with concrete recommendations on how to resolve several critical design issues, including: location, faculty, content, format, method, target audience, governance, and sponsorship. No one sitting on the management committee had relied on a formal leadership program to reach the top. How skeptical might they be? How do you convince hard-nosed bankers to leave their desks and invest precious time focusing on what many perceived as "soft" issues?
Successful college basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski faces the decision whether to accept a lucrative offer to coach a professional basketball team or continue to coach at Duke University. Provides a context for discussing various styles of power, influence, and persuasion in the context of his coaching career.
Successful college basketball coach Bob Knight was fired from his long-time role as basketball coach at Indiana University and hired in the same role at Texas Tech. Considers these events in the context of his long career and provides a context for discussing various styles of power, influence, and persuasion in his leadership role as coach and educator.
On April 14, 1994, two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters accidentally shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters over Northern Iraq, killing all 26 peacekeepers onboard. Describes the initial investigation and response to this accident and raises questions about the role of human behavior in the accident. Told through the eyes of three of the main participants--Captain Eric Wickson, Lieutenant Ricky Wilson, and Brigadier General Jeffrey Scott Pilkington.
Major Steckleson is facing his toughest challenge yet. As an experienced observer-controller at the U.S. Army's National Training Center, Steckleson is responsible for helping leaders of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Squadron learn from a deadly mistake in simulated combat by facilitating the unit's After Action Review (AAR). AARs are structured conversations about recent experience designed to help units learn from both mistakes and successes.
The coach of the varsity Army crew team at West Point assembled his top eight rowers into the first crew team and the second tier of rowers into the second team using objective data on individual performance. As the second boat continually beat the first boat in races, the coach attempted to discern the team dynamics causing these aberrant results. By using very clean, objective performance data, the case makes clear that a team can be more (or less) than the sum of its individual parts, but allows students to analyze the factors that make this true.