Why Some of Us Dread Going on Vacation

Image result for Art Markmanby Art Markman

There is a paradox around vacations. We all know that it is important to get away from the office periodically. Time away from work gives you a chance to relax, to reduce stress, renew your ties with your family, and to get away from problems you have struggled with so that you can think about them differently on your return to the office.

However, as a vacation approaches, we generally look at it with dread. There is too much work to be done! There are new projects starting and others that need to be completed. How could we possibly have selected this particular week to go away? It can get so bad that you might think twice before planning another trip. Continue reading

Why CEOs Don’t Get Fired as Often as They Used To

Per-Ola Karlssonby Per-Ola Karlsson

The number of chief executive officers who were dismissed from their jobs at large global companies fell to a record low last year. At first glance that might suggest complacency on the part of boards of directors, but it’s actually good news about corporate governance in general and CEO succession planning in particular. It means that boards are doing a better job of choosing top leaders — far better than they were doing a decade ago. Data for the world’s largest 2,500 companies also suggests that better CEO succession practices are converging around the world, as regional differences in CEO succession rates have narrowed sharply in recent years. Continue reading

What Transparency Really Means to You as a Leader

By Kevin Eikenberry

It is one of those buzzwords, created by and repeated by consultants and “experts” (people like me). They pick a word or phrase and use it so much it gets a life of its own. And whatever relevance it had to begin with is lost in the faint nodding of heads (because everyone is supposed to agree) or the rolling of the eyes (because people are tired of that buzzword).

The buzzword of the day is transparency. Continue reading

The Best Managers Practice ‘Sustainable’ Management

Victor LipmanBy Victor Lipman

When I was in the corporate world, we had a saying about a certain kind of manager. “He got results, but he left a trail of bodies in his wake.” In other words, he (or she), as we would have said when I was growing up in Boston, was wicked hahd to work for. By delivering results he may have pleased those above, but generally on the backs of those below. His methods – his treatment of subordinates – were unsound. He could succeed in the short term but likely not the long term. And business of course is a long-term enterprise. Which is why I say the best managers practice “sustainable” management. Continue reading

What CEOs Have Learned About Social Media

By Leslie Gaines-Ross

When it comes to social media, today’s CEOs have made a remarkable transition over the past five years. A recent analysis by my firm, Weber Shandwick, found that 80% of the chief executive officers of the world’s largest 50 companies are engaged online and on social media. The results, published in “Socializing Your CEO: From Marginal to Mainstream,” show that CEO sociability has more than doubled since we began tracking the social activities of chief executives in 2010, when only 36% of CEOs were social.

We audited a range of sites and platforms to see how CEOs are engaging socially and compared these results to its 2010 and 2012 findings. CEOs are considered “social” if he or she does at least one of the following: has a public and verifiable social network account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Weibo, or Mixi; engages on the company website through messages, pictures, or video; appears in a video on the company YouTube or YouKu channel; or authors an external blog. Continue reading