Monthly Archive for November, 2011

Leading the Creative Mind

Published on November 24, 2011 in Book, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Leading the Creative Mind by Anthony Lake is now available as part of The Organization series.

Bringing together creative people to develop fresh, new, innovative ideas and to propel a business forward is challenging work. It isn’t enough to simply follow policy and procedure, or to gently nudge creative people toward success. It takes strength, courage, and insight into how creative people work, live, and respond.

Creative Leadership expert Anthony Lake unravels the mystery of the creative employee by using simple yet elegant cases in business and the arts to frame this practical guide for Leading the Creative Mind. Born from his executive work with arts organizations, his consulting, and his leadership research, Lake creates a series of exercises designed to strengthen skills for leading creative individuals. The focus is on four key pillars for success:

  1. Reflecting and Engaging Sensitively with Creative People
  2. Designing Effective Creativity Teams
  3. Developing and Addressing Real Challenges
  4. Fixing Ailing Work Groups

This is a guide for keeping inspired, balancing innovation with effective communication, and collaborating from a position of leadership.

Anthony Lake has over two decades of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector, focused specifically on the arts, including as Executive Director of a Tony Award© nominated theater. As a scholar, his recent research on the leadership of creative people and how to teach it has been published in numerous international journals.

Soaring Borrowing Costs Push Italy to the Edge

Published on November 21, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Photo by Andrew Medichini from the AP

From msnbc.com with contributions from Reuters and the Associate Press

Italian borrowing costs reached a breaking point on Wednesday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s promise to resign failed to raise optimism about the country’s ability to deliver on long-promised economic reforms.

Italy’s president moved swiftly to reassure anxious markets, promising that Berlusconi would soon be vacating the premier’s office and unexpectedly lavishing praise on economist Mario Monti, who might lead the debt-plagued country’s next government.

The former European competition commissioner is widely considered to be a top contender to be the next Italian premier, now that Berlusconi has pledged to resign as soon as urgently demanded economic reforms are approved by Parliament.

President Giorgio Napolitano’s office announced he had named Monti, who now runs the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan, as a senator-for-life. Senators-for-life include notable figures outside of politics and have voting privileges in the Senate. The honor could reinforce Monti’s widely viewed status as a respectable figure above party politics.

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Facebook’s Zuckerberg Says Steve Jobs Advised on Company Focus, Management

Published on November 13, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Photo by David Paul Morris from Bloomberg

By Brian Womack from Bloomberg

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive OfficerMark Zuckerberg said Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs advised him on how to sharpen his company’s focus and build the right management team for the world’s largest social network.

“I had a lot of questions for him,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Charlie Rose that’s due to air today. The topics included “how to build a team around you that’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are.”

Jobs, in the period before he died on Oct. 5, viewed it as his responsibility to give advice to up-and-coming technology executives including Zuckerberg, according to a biography of Jobs published last month. Jobs said in interviews with the author, Walter Isaacson, that he admired the Facebook CEO for not “selling out.”

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What Should Wall Street do?: The finance industry needs a better response to the protest movement attacking it

Published on November 5, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Image by Brett Ryder

From The Economist

“AS THOUSANDS have gathered in Lower Manhattan, passionately expressing their deep discontent with the status quo, we have taken note of these protests,” wrote Lloyd Blankfein, the boss of Goldman Sachs, in a recent letter to investors. “And we have asked ourselves this question: ‘How can we make money off them?’ The answer is the newly launched Goldman Sachs Global Rage Fund.” This will invest in firms likely to benefit from social unrest, such as window repairers and makers of police batons. As Mr Blankfein explained: “At Goldman, we recognise that the capitalist system as we know it is circling the drain—but there’s plenty of money to be made on the way down.”

The letter is a spoof, penned by Andy Borowitz, a comedian. Goldman Sachs and its peers would of course be failing in their duty to investors if they did not find opportunities in the current global turmoil. But they should also be thinking much harder about the risk posed to their business by the protests.

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