Thought Sparks

Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? Asks the provocative title of Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic's recent book. A major issue, he suggests, is that we all too often confuse confidence with competence, meaning that many - even most - people who achieve formal leadership roles are not actually very good leaders. Among the solutions we'll discuss are improving the way we evaluate and select leaders, in particular paying more attention to emotional intelligence, or EQ in our evaluations. It should be a fascinating conversation.

How do you go from a newly-minted music degree to a secretarial position to becoming one of the leading analysts on Wall Street to co-founding one of the most successful boutique investment firms of all time to running your own business and being ranked as a top thinker by #Thinkers50​? Not to mention writing best-selling books?  My #FridayFiresideChat​ guest Whitney Johnson would say that it is the happy result of moving from S curve to S curve in your own life! We had a far-ranging conversation, including her "aha" discovery that @Clayton Christensen's theory of disruption could apply at a personal level.  And we even slipped Lady Gaga and Madonna in on the conversation.  Special note for those interested in #womeninleadership​ - we touch on a few themes relevant to that topic as well.  Have a look!

Creator of the Business Model Canvas and CEO of Strategyzer, Alexander Osterwalder joins Rita McGrath in conversation. Rita interviewed Alex about his new co-authored book "The Invincible Company," the implications of its lessons for other firms and his guidance for how to navigate through these nerve-wracking times.

With everyone wondering what the future holds, especially now, it was an enormous pleasure to welcome my friend, quantitative futurist Amy Webb to a #FridayFiresideChat​.  She offered a great key to thinking about the future, namely "what would it take for X to be Y".  I brought up the Jetsons, that old 1960's era television show and Amy astonished me by recounting that the first patent for a flying car was filed in 1917!  Who knew?  And apparently the flying car has become the standard by which all progress and innovation is judged.  We spent a chunk of time talking about how organizations can become more future-ready by building distributed teams that can converse across organizational silos and share what they see happening with the 11 forces that will shape the future.  She also encourages our listeners to "stop chasing certainty" and that we should move from beginning - middle - end thinking to past - present- future thinking.  Amy also directs the Future Today Institute (https://futuretodayinstitute.com/​) on which she posts all kinds of free resources for people interested in improving their level of future proof-ness.  Have a listen - I know I learned a lot and suspect you will as well.

Dave Ulrich is a legend in the world of talent and organizations. In this fireside chat, he and Rita McGrath will exchange ideas on the people implications of the COVID-19 crisis, focusing on the critical leadership behaviors that are going to be essential now and as we rebuild for the future.

I was absolutely delighted to welcome David Kidder, serial entrepreneur and founder of Bionic to our #FridayFiresideChat​!  David shares Bionic's approach to building growth engines quickly - going from $1 to $100 million, fast.  We also talk about the Startup Mindset and the five practices that gifted entrepreneurs use to build and scale their businesses, why minimizing regret is a great guide to setting priorities and how creating a growth mindset is a path to moving through this crisis.  The hour flew by, and I think you'll come away from this session feeling more positive and energized!

Erin Meyer's ideas have been fundamental to our understanding of how cultures work.  Her first book, "The Culture Map" is used by organizations all over the world to help them communicate better, adapt their corporate cultures to local environments and understand seemingly inexplicable behavior on the parts of their global teammates.  I was thrilled, then, that Erin teamed up with Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, to examine and document the extraordinary culture of freedom and responsibility at Netflix.  Hastings first reached out to her to get support for the Netflix international expansion in an email with the obscure subject line "Peace Corps."  It turns out that they had both been in the Peace Corps, though at different times.  Since their initial contact, the introduction grew into a full-scale collaboration in which the Netflix ambition to increase talent density led it to abandon rules, processes and procedures and give its people extraordinary degrees of freedom.  Tune in to this #FridayFiresideChat to learn about the story, how it might apply to you and lessons learned from one of the most extraordinary companies of our time.Thought Sparks with Rita McGrath

Why bureaucracy is the enemy of so much innovative, human-led creativity and what to do about it.  Gary Hamel, co-author of the new book "Humanocracy" and I touch on his body of work in general, which has had a huge influence on me, but more recently his efforts to create a framework for real organizational change.  This full #FridayFiresideChat is chock a block with insights from one of the most well known management thinkers and writers.

What an absolute pleasure to spend an hour with my good friend and innovation thought leader Geoffrey Moore.  In this #FridayFiresideChat, we discuss the arc of his breakthrough work.  He's influenced generations of innovators both in the world of tech startups and in large organizations trying to become more agile and innovative themselves.  His most recent book, "Zone to Win" is designed to help leaders address the paralyzing resource allocation challenges they face when they have to pull resources out of a successful operating business to fund a new growth business which might not show results for two or three years.  We didn't just talk about the past, though.  We speculated on what kind of path companies might be taking going forward, including the very interesting idea that we could be looking at a "Y" shaped recovery, where some sectors (food, healthcare, infrastructure) pick up very rapidly while others (travel, hospitality, tourism) go along an entirely different path.  Knowing your customers' trajectory could shape the most appropriate strategy for that going forward.  Have a listen!

Herminia Ibarra just recently published a super-timely Harvard Business review article on the topic of "leader as coach", in which she explores the skills that are so sorely needed to create higher levels of organizational capability.  Most of the executives she works with, unfortunately, think they are much better coaches than they actually are!  In this far-ranging #FridayFiresideChat, she and I reflect on how the concept of leadership has evolved, what we need to know now and how her book "Act Like a Leader:  Think Like a Leader" has moved individuals forward.