Category: Exceptional Leadership

By Gary Cohen on March 15th, 2012

What do you get when you mix a celebration with a meeting?

It’s the age of multitasking and efficiency, so leaders try to pair celebrations with meetings and other work-oriented activities. Unfortunately, these celebrations feel halfhearted and an awful lot like work. Instead of improving morale, these half-celebrations can drain or kill it. Draw a line of separation between celebrations and work. You won’t run at full [...]

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By Gary Cohen on March 06th, 2012

Social Contagion

Leaders want to stand out. They want to separate themselves from other leaders, their coworkers, and their predecessors. It’s helpful for leaders to remember, however, the importance of fitting in with the group and the power of social contagion. In order to maintain our social bonds, we mimic others. We buy what they buy, watch [...]

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By Gary Cohen on February 16th, 2012

Social Loafing

Lots of leaders espouse the value of teamwork, but the quality and quantity of work that teams generate depends a lot on how teams are constructed and evaluated. In 1913, Max Ringelmann discovered that men pulled harder on a rope when they were alone than when they were in the group. The more people in [...]

Business • Business Leadership • Collaboration • Exceptional Leadership • Leadership

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By Gary Cohen on January 23rd, 2012

The Ben Franklin Effect

Most leaders believe it is better to give than it is to receive, but they may not pay attention to giving and receiving patterns, as well as psychological motivations behind these patterns. Ben Franklin said, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you [...]

Business • Business Leadership • Exceptional Leadership • Leadership

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By Gary Cohen on January 22nd, 2012

The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn

By Jonathan Bennett In this paper I shall present not just the conscience of Huckleberry Finn but two others as well. One of them is the conscience of Heinrich Himmler. He became a Nazi in 1923; he served drably and quietly, but well, and was rewarded with increasing responsibility and power. At the peak of his career he held [...]

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By Gary Cohen on January 02nd, 2012

Unsuccessful Leaders Have All The Answers

In his book, Why Smart Executives Fail, Sydney Finkelstein identified Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Leaders. It may not surprise you to learn that ego is at the root of many of these poor habits. When leaders get too enamored with success, themselves, or their organizations–or all three–they underestimate their vulnerability, obstacles, and competitors, and [...]

Business • Business Leadership • Exceptional Leadership • Executive Coaching • Just Ask Leadership • Leadership

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By Gary Cohen on December 20th, 2011

Coach’s Challenge: What Is the Mother of Your Fears?

Executive Coaches help clients discover the gap between their expected and actual outcomes. The easiest way to bridge the outcome gap is by eliminating unproductive or counterproductive behaviors. These behaviors aren’t hard to identify because they’re usually wrapped around a particular fear. Once the fear, behaviors, and consequences are brought to light, clients are usually [...]

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By Gary Cohen on November 30th, 2011

Have your organization’s former Innovators become Laggards?

Everett Rogers came up with the Diffusion of Innovation model, which explains why and how a meme can move through a social system. Memes are generated by Innovators, and require a committed group of risk-taking Early Adaptors to propel them forward. The Early Majority are the next critical group needed for buy-in; they want to [...]

Business • Collaboration • Exceptional Leadership • Leadership

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By Gary Cohen on September 27th, 2011

When elephants fight, who suffers?

When owners and executives fight like elephants for control and competing mental models of what is “right,” their blood pressure rises and they get so consumed with their personal and/or political conflict that they lose sight of collateral damage. They stomp and charge because it feels like they’re fighting for their lives and the life [...]

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By Gary Cohen on September 19th, 2011

Why am I talking? (WAIT)

At a Global 100 company, a new senior executive sat down with his division heads a week ago and told them to WAIT. His mentor, who ran and built this company, shared that same advice with him. At that time, the senior executive was confused. “Wait for what?” he wondered. WAIT, he learned, is an [...]

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By Gary Cohen on August 16th, 2011

Are you too smart for your own good—and the good of the organization?

Intelligence, for leaders, can be more of an impediment than an asset. It’s an asset if you use it to elevate others. It’s an impediment if you assume that it authorizes you to make as many decisions as you can. If you’re the smartest person in the room (or think that you are), you may [...]

Business • Business Leadership • Collaboration • Exceptional Leadership • Leadership

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By Gary Cohen on July 27th, 2011

Irreconcilable Differences

When you find yourself in a deadlock with a partner, employee, or boss and are about to give up, don’t! It is when you hit these irreconcilable moments that you may actually take your relationship to the next level or reach new insights. Stifle the fight-or-flight urge and encourage the other person to do the [...]

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By Gary Cohen on July 25th, 2011

When, if ever, is it okay to break the rules?

Gary Carter, COO of the company that produces “American Idol,” says that producers who break the rules do so at their own peril. He recalled the time Simon Cowell brought back past contestants that lost for another chance in the last round of the contest–alienating lots of contestants and audience members in the process. According to [...]

Collaboration • Exceptional Leadership • Just Ask Leadership • Recent Articles

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By Gary Cohen on July 07th, 2011

What is your tolerance for errors?

When you make a signifcant error (something that costs you $100, $1,000, $100K, or $1 M–or whatever “significant” means for you), how soon do you forgive yourself? Do you ever lose trust in yourself? When coworkers, friends, or loved ones make a significant error that affects you, how soon do you forgive them? Do you lose [...]

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