Situational Leadership

Gut feelings: Don’t discount them

March 16, 2018

Kathleen Sebelius was insurance commissioner of Kansas when health powerhouse Anthem wanted to buy Blue Cross Blue Shield. “My gut just told me this was a disaster waiting to happen,” she remembered.

More pioneering women of science

February 26, 2018

Two women entered science in the 1940s and both won the Nobel Prize. How’d they do it? 

Tom Brady, almost a footnote

February 21, 2018

Consider the end of the game that propelled Brady to his first Super Bowl as a backup filling in for the Patriots’ regular starter, Drew Bledsoe, back in 2002. 

Enlist allies when planning merger

February 14, 2018

Q. Our organization is merging with another organization in a few months. I’m on the integration team, and my counterpart at the other organization is starting to boss me around. Any tips on how to assert myself without ratcheting up the tension?

Toss out sexist assumptions

January 15, 2018

Marjorie Kaplan, former head of Animal Planet and TLC for Discovery Communications, describes an example of sexism early in her career, plus the kind of constant noise that still plagues aspiring women.

Looking back at sexual misconduct

January 11, 2018

“Although I followed my employee’s wishes, it left me with a nagging feeling.”

Avoid project management traps

December 21, 2017

Andrew Makar is all too familiar with project management challenges. An information technology consultant, he has learned how to avoid potholes and stay on track.

Keep talking—you just never know

December 14, 2017

Asked how he convinced his friend Warren Buffett to turn over most of his billions in an enormous donation to the Gates Foundation years ago, software pioneer Bill Gates said he never brought it up.

Could Barefoot have gotten luckier?

November 24, 2017

Michael Houlihan didn’t intend to launch a wine company. It all started by happenstance.

My boss, the hypocrite

November 9, 2017

Q: Our CEO is always telling us to be more open about our failures. He wants us to innovate, and he knows that means some botched experiments. But the few of us who have taken high-profile risks have not been lauded; in fact, he’s privately (and publicly) shamed and embarrassed us. Is there a polite way to call someone a hypocrite?