Character

Extract good tips from bad bosses

September 23, 2014

After an embarrassing dressing-down by a powerful boss, some employees are shaken to the core. Scarred by the experience, they never recover. Irwin Simon bounced back—and then some.

Lighten up to add impact

September 22, 2014
Joe Scarlett, the former CEO of Tractor Supply Co., calls runaway egos one of the biggest obstacles that successful leaders face.

Grooming cadets for success

September 15, 2014
When leadership guru Jim Collins took West Point’s leadership chair in 2011, he wanted to know how cadets succeed under pressure. They don’t—at first. They keep getting decked and getting back up…

Ask your friends for help

August 6, 2014

Even leaders at the top of their game need a little help sometimes. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, told how he might never have made the movie “Lincoln” without a leg up from his friend Leonardo DiCaprio.

T. Boone Pickens: Don’t point fingers

June 13, 2014
Asked for the best advice he ever got, business magnate and financier T. Boone Pickens credits his grandma with counseling him to take the rap for his own failures.

True mark of leadership: Integrity

June 5, 2014
What behaviors make great ­leaders? “Integrity is so essential. People will only follow someone who has integrity,” says Al Bolea, who has enjoyed an exciting career in the oil and gas industry. Today, Bolea runs Applied ­Leadership Seminars in Big Lake, Alaska.

Leadership Tips, Vol. 514

May 27, 2014
Do a little self-branding … Be aware of your intimidation factor … Know these two things about public speaking.

Strong inner core drives success

May 21, 2014
John Mattone, a Florida-based consultant and author of Intelligent Leadership, says that strong leaders need a strong “inner core” as well as an impressive “outer core.” Many people mistakenly judge the outer core alone.

How Ike exerted his influence

May 15, 2014
Best known for warning of a growing “military-industrial complex,” President Dwight Eisenhower also played a central role in stopping the anti-Communist witch hunt called McCarthyism.

The deep-seated need to win

May 2, 2014

Jackie Robinson, the infielder who in 1947 broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, knew that winning is important. “It kills me to lose,” he once said. “If I’m a troublemaker it’s because I can’t stand losing.”