In late September of 2008, in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse and the bailout bill finding tepid support amongst legislators; John McCain decided he needed to act. He suspended his campaign and rushed to Washington to broker a deal.
John Heilemann and Mark Halperin in their recent book, Game Change, argue that McCain’s actions might have over empathized his ability to construct a swift reconciliation with the Democrats and Republicans. They write,  “McCain’s instinct …

Paradigm shifts aren’t easy. As Thomas Kuhn pointed out, it may take a crisis to bring on a change. Academic ideas can be stuck in inertia in the same way organizations can be. The movement beyond inertia implies leadership, the capacity to take risks, and the ability to look at something differently.
Sometimes this may mean looking at something that’s been staring you in the face and suddenly saying to yourself, “I never realized what it …

One of the challenges in higher education is to rekindle or maybe even reformulate the entrepreneurial spirit.  The challenge that administrative and academic leadership faces is to create organizations with an entrepreneurial culture. Organizational leadership must become proactive and individuals must be rewarded for their proactive activities.
In an age of cost-cutting, where centralization has become the answer to the economic turbulence, the challenge for organizational leaders is to think about not what the organization will …

A good idea is not good enough. Good ideas don’t have wings and they don’t take off without a support base.
In the following podcast I discuss how great leaders rely on the skills of execution rather than the strength of an idea or vision.
I take a look at the leadership style of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln and ask what was key to their successful leadership.

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Are entrepreneurial people gifted or just lucky?
If you’ve ever read an article about a successful self-employed person you’ve probably thought they were blessed with a large dose of talent coupled with good fortune. The years of hard work, trial & error, and perseverance, are usually summed up in a few lines that sound like this:
“After college Mr. X worked for 3 years in a high-paced marketing department where he made contacts and began constructing his …

I asked 22 Cornell graduate students to list 5 people they considered leaders–good, bad, or evil. Answers ranged from the obvious, MLK Jr., to the personal, lacrosse team captain, but what’s compelling are the top results. With the exception of Obama’s presence, the top 10 list has looked like this for a number of years.
Top 10 Leaders: Poll From Cornell Graduate Class
1. Abraham Lincoln: 11
2. Martin Luther King Jr.: 11
3. Barack Obama: 8

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