Author: S. B. Bacharach
Smart leaders understand boundaries; certain things are done and certain things are not done.  Certain things are said and certain things are not said. Boundaries are not driven by moral imperative, although they may be, boundaries are not driven by right and wrong, although they may be.  For political leaders boundaries are often appropriately driven by a sense that there is a tomorrow.
Observing the landscape of political dialogue, there is always a …

Whenever I ask my class to name me five charismatic leaders, Nelson Mandela always appears on the list.  When it comes to leadership, Mandela teaches us that it’s just charisma, but micro-political tactics.  It’s knowing people, trusting yourself, not ego-driven.  Richard Stengel’s wonderful piece, Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership, is a must-read.  With clarity and straightforwardness, Stengel hits the marks describing what it takes to be a proactive leader.

We are always looking to leadership models for guidance; people in the past or present who have apparently succeeded as leaders. But, when trying to learn from them, we must be mindful of that much (over)used adage: “what you see ain’t necessarily what you get.” In the review by Charles McGrath of the NY Times about the Grant & Lee museum exhibition there is a good illustration of how we can be deceived by appearances. …

In this conversation, there has always been the debate whether great leaders in sports are different or similar to great entrepreneurial business leaders.  This article highlights two famous voices from each of these sectors.

Jack Goncalo is today’s guest contributor.  Jack is a member of Cornell ILR School’s faculty, and his research interest is creativity and innovation in the workplace. In this short piece he draws classic distinction between individualism and collectivism and makes clear how these ideas relate to creativity and innovation. He asks if creativity is best served in collective or individual environment.  His answer might surprise you, but it certainly should give leaders some food for …

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

var params = { ‘allowfullscreen’: ‘true’, ‘allowscriptaccess’: ‘always’, ‘wmode’: ‘transparent’ };
var attributes = { ‘id’: ‘video0′, ‘name’: ‘video0′};
var flashvars = {
‘file’ : ‘http://bacharachblog.com/media/WhyBlog.flv’,
‘image’ : ‘http://bacharachblog.com/media/WhyBlog.png’,
‘width’ : ’350′,
‘height’ : ’265′,
‘controlbar’ : ‘bottom’,
‘dock’ : ‘false’,
‘icons’ : ‘true’,
‘logo.hide’ : ‘false’,
‘logo.position’ : ‘bottom-left’,
‘playlist’ : ‘none’,
‘autostart’ : ‘false’,
‘bufferlength’ : ’1′,
‘item’ : ’0′,
‘mute’ : ‘false’,
‘repeat’ : ‘none’,
‘shuffle’ : ‘false’,
‘smoothing’ : ‘true’,
‘stretching’ : ‘uniform’,
‘volume’ : ’90′
};
swfobject.embedSWF(“http://bacharachblog.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer/player.swf”, “video0″, “350″, “265″, “9.0.0″,”http://bacharachblog.com/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer/expressinstall.swf”, flashvars, params, attributes);