Challenge to Authority – Authority Responds

Last week, I wrote about Dolores the PhD science student, and the power that her tenured leadership lab researcher had over her teaching assignments, research and future career. Dolores spoke (her) truth to his power. I promised that I’d share the sequel. If you consider times when you perhaps challenged authority, you might anticipate that … Continued

Lead the Leader – a crazy experiment

When I say “leader,” you likely see a speaker. You likely see someone separated from the crowd, perhaps facing them.  That was me in my lecture last week to 80 non-MBA graduate school students. But add a couple elements to the picture. Before I began speaking, I asked for a couple volunteers to take careful … Continued

Everyday Leaders – Take Your Shot!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yhyp-_hX2s”>”Lose

3 quick stories of leadership with the same moral – and music – to the stories. “Men and women on the street” was a favorite segment on my radio show Everyday Leadership.  Problem was none of my student assistants wanted to put a microphone in front of unsuspecting people in parks, at the mall, on … Continued

How Mary Z Shows Lesson One in LeadingX2

I’ll be writing more these days about the atomic unit upon which all leadership is built – what I’m calling LeadingX2 or leading by 2.  I am referring to the way in which you can lead and be led by one other person.  The other could be your boss, a peer, or a direct report. … Continued

Check the Wiring – Check Yourself

Last week (Bosses: Check the Wiring) I wrote about how my wife Jennifer had been asked by a group to speak about the election and, how when she asked me to be a sounding board for her as we drove to the event, I (somewhat rudely) balked.  I instead asked her to consider letting me … Continued

Who Authorized You?

I am in the middle of an experiment in the course I am teaching to Masters in Public Policy students at Berkeley. I share this for two reasons that I hope you will find value in, and which I will explain in the 2 numbered paragraphs below. First, the experiments: I have long subscribed to … Continued

What’s With Leading Up?

I originally published this column in 2008 and got almost 80 reader responses. Thought it worth sharing with some minor revisions… Do you make anything of this? Last Monday I wrote about “managing up.” I got only 4 blog comments, three of which were random attacks on the Governor that were unrelated to my column. … Continued

Moving the authority – whether you’re the #2 or the #rebel

Hannah, my great TA and I are in the middle of reading eight cases a week of “leadership breakdowns.” The fact-patterns are diverse but a handful of themes continually recur. These student cases are strikingly similar to “real life” adult cases, including breakdowns I have personally wrestled with as a manager, and many more breakdowns … Continued

Monday Inspiration from Bones and Lefty

Are you, as I am in middle age, drawn to enchanted memories of early years? I can see, even smell certain places I haven’t been in 40 years. So my brother Pat repeatedly says to me, “Danny, we’ve got to go back and play Birmingham [Country Club].” He and I caddied there. We spent hundreds … Continued

Let Yourself Be Led by Those You Ostensibly Lead

Friends, Sometimes I wonder:  Have I gotten too soft, when so many of my Reading for Leading blogs are about relationship?  But then I figure:  how else can you lead or be led, except in relationship?  And this past week offered three ripe examples, one from hoops, and two in the semester’s end. I was … Continued

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