Stanford Executive Briefings: Leadership

How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People

Dr. Charles O'Reilly argues that the source of sustained competitive advantage already exists within every organization. O'Reilly's prescription for an overheated labor market: abandon the obsession with hiring high-priced stars, instead motivating ordinary people to build a great company and achieve extraordinary results.

Be Prepared to Lead

Leadership development, a crucial part of business training, is a process of gaining self-awareness and confidence. Use this training video to identify your own leadership style, how to capitalize on your strengths, and how to adapt your style to changing circumstances. Build essential business leadership skills and learn to avoid costly leadership errors.

How to Manage People Through Continuous Change

Change is now business as usual. But employees are increasingly skeptical about committing to business strategies that are constantly being redefined. Carol Kinsey Goman presents specific methods for communicating to employees both the WIIFM benefits of your plan and the negative consequences for the viability of your team if they don't get on board.

People-First Management

Daniel Amos follows two straightforward management principles: he sets clear expectations, and he listens to employee concerns. His focus is communication followed by action. Amos ensures that employees experience an evenhanded response to their input, and he provides a reward system that gives them a vested interest in the profitability of the company.

The Exceptional Leader

Jack Zenger believes that average managers can develop the traits shared by exceptional leaders—traits that improve retention, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and bottom-line profitability. Based on the best practices of leading organizations, he offers ten specific recommendations proven to enhance leadership development.

Fear of Feedback

In most organizations, there is a two-way conspiracy of silence that subverts honest feedback and causes a downward spiral of maladaptive behaviors. Myra Strober and Jay Jackman detail a road map for moving out of the fear and anger that lie beneath these behaviors, and into a mode that encourages open communication.

Getting the Best from Others

Not understanding what motivates each individual, managers offer incentives that are not meaningful, or "encouragement" that backfires and alienates their staff. Doug Harris explains the steps for reaching awareness, managing biases, and "doing unto others as they want to be done unto."