Tag Archives: Europe

Are You an Alpha Male Leader?

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By Manfred Kets de Vries

Leadership with education

When drive, competitiveness and commitment are too much.

Jeff Bezos, the Chairman and CEO of Amazon, is hailed as one of the most prominent captains of industry. Known for his charisma, business prowess, and bold, innovative ideas, Bezos’ pursuits are driven by tenacity and an urgent sense of mission. For many, his professional trajectory and key role in the growth of e-commerce is inspirational. But Amazon employees have discovered another side to this dynamic leader.

Working for Bezos is quite a challenge. He is a typical alpha male: hardheaded, task-oriented and extremely opinionated. He is known to get very upset when things do not go his way, and living up to his excessively high standards can feel like a mission impossible. Continue reading →

7 Rules for Job Interview Questions That Result in Great Hires

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by John Sullivan

Some of the long-held ideas about how to conduct interviews are no longer accurate. For example, there’s no such thing as a surprise interview question anymore. With sites like Glassdoor.com, candidates can identify each of your likely interview questions and expected answers ahead of time. With that information, candidates now routinely prepare and video their practice interviews to the point where their responses are universally impressive, if not genuine or accurate.

It’s not just surprise questions that are a thing of the past. Research at firms like Google has proven that “brainteaser questions” can contribute to a costly miss-hire, that having a candidate meet any more than four interviewers doesn’t increase new-hire quality, and that for many jobs, factors like grades, test scores, and schools attended don’t predict success in the position. Continue reading →

Top 5 Leadership Predictions That Will Impact Business Evolution In 2016 And Beyond

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by Glenn Llopis

Twenty-first century leadership requires you to be a change agent who is not afraid to get uncomfortable and take ownership when it comes to creating the next big thing for your business, people and industry to evolve.

Over the past several years, I’ve witnessed the decline of courageous leadership in American enterprise. Rather than welcome change in order to evolve, leaders are playing it safe. Where are the leaders with the strategic focus and wisdom to take a leap of faith and the tenacity to find new ways of doing things?

Twenty-first century leadership requires you to be a change agent who is not afraid to get uncomfortable and take ownership when it comes to creating the next big thing for your business, people and industry to evolve. But according to research conducted by my organization, 78% of leaders have difficulty understanding and effectively articulating the requirements to thrive in the rapidly changing marketplace – and the consequences of not doing so. Perhaps this explains why only 32% of leaders define themselves as change agents.

Leaders must think differently to act courageously upon the burning platforms that are reinventing industries. Here are my top five leadership predictions for your business to evolve in 2016 and beyond – the burning platforms we can no longer afford to ignore. Top Leadership Predictions Continue reading →

The Unconventional Habits of Transformational Leaders

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by Stanislav Shekshnia

Lessons from two Russian CEOs on turning stumbling state companies into global success stories.

In February 2012, The Economist reported that Russia’s state-owned Sberbank had become one of the best performing corporate stocks in a decade. Every $100 invested in the company in 2002, was worth $3,700 in 2012. Sberbank came second only to Apple, which for every $100 invested in 2002, was then worth $4,000. Although Sberbank’s stock declined following economic sanctions against Russia the bank continued to grow and will report record profits for 2015 despite a deep recession in the country. Continue reading →

The leadership blind spot that’s killing your business

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by Gretchen Fox

There’s a dangerous black hole in your organization, and if you are in the C-Suite you don’t even know it exists. Whether you realize it or not, you have a leadership blind spot.

This black hole usually exists either right below your nose or two rungs down and, day by day, it’s sucking the life right out of your business.

Before I can shed light on this hole you are missing, I need you to understand something very, very important: You are not going to be able to lean on your go-to staff right below you to help you solve this. Not yet. Not until you get an awareness of it yourself. If you don’t understand the issue first, you will remain locked in the blind spot. I’ll explain why momentarily. Continue reading →