Best-Practices Leadership

Welcome to Con Air

January 11, 2012
Ever wonder how prisoners are moved around the country? Such transfers require careful leadership and coordination of about 15,000 prisoners a month through 40 cities, on a fleet known as “Con Air,” under the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System.

Foresight: Here’s one for the books

January 10, 2012
William Brett is father of the open-shelf library system, in which patrons don’t have to go through a librarian to find books. His idea doubled circulation, reduced staffing needs and resulted in fewer lost books.

The power of foursquare

December 22, 2011
You might have heard of foursquare, the location-based social media tool. But if you’re not using it for business, you’re missing out on a powerful marketing and engagement tool that can help any business—large or small—tell its brand story to a new category of consumer.

Innovation: Vehicle to greatness

December 8, 2011
“The only sus­tainable source of competitive advantage is innovation. It’s that simple. And that hard, ” says Andrew Razeghi, who teaches innovation at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and is an advisor to Fortune 500 companies. He says the real reason for Detroit’s failure to innovate lies in its rewards system …

Businesses leverage giving, create jobs

December 7, 2011
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is so committed to job creation that he’s pledged to take at least $100,000 from the annual profits of two Starbucks shops in Los Angeles and Harlem, and reinvest it in those neighborhoods. His goal: improving education and job training for local young adults.

Leadership Tips: Vol. 1211

December 1, 2011
Are you a rule-maker or breaker? Get out front and stay there. There are rule-makers, rule-takers and rule-breakers: Rule-makers codify strategies within an industry. Rule-takers play by those rules. Rule-breakers change the game.

Method: More than a green culture

November 29, 2011

Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry first noticed the need for their company when they shared a house with three friends. In looking for cleaning products that didn’t have harsh, toxic ingredients, Ryan and Lowry came up empty-handed. Thus the idea for Method home-cleaning products was kindled.

Fight the time suck of collaboration

November 22, 2011

In your role as a leader, working with people is essential, and it takes time. And sometimes, you might be asked to help with something that’s a priority for others, but not for you. The question, says Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, boils down to this: How can we spend time where we add the most value and let go of the rest?

Now’s the time to learn a little improv

November 4, 2011

To paraphrase business writer Daniel Pink, the future will belong to those who can flex, adapt, empathize, tell stories and create. Theater performers, whose stock in trade is flexibility, adaptability and creativity, could teach us a thing or two.

Lessons from ‘Good Vibrations’

November 3, 2011
Critics cast singer Mike Love as the villain who blunted Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson’s creative brilliance, but it was Love who brought coherence to Wilson’s greatest song, “Good Vibrations.”