Management Acceleration Programme

Authentic liaisons: creating bridges across cultures

A genuine and sincere attitude can break down the most complex of cross-cultural barriers.

Leadership in the moment of decision

Leaders collect vast amounts of knowledge, but if there is one area of expertise they must develop, it is the art of making the judgment call. Decision-making doesn’t come from models, it comes from practice.

The art of career development

Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor at INSEAD, explains what we can all learn from artists.

Moving around without losing your roots

Big questions always strike unexpectedly, when our guard is down. I was watching my toddlers splash in the pool last summer when a fellow dad plunged me into revisiting the meaning of home in a globalized world.

How to distribute leadership

High performing organisations distribute leadership to wherever the best information and capabilities reside.
 

Finding the job of your life

Let’s face it. We all think about it. At times we think of little else — even if only rarely and in certain settings do we feel free to admit it. The conversation often begins furtively, the question murmured as if slightly shameful or out of place. How can I get more of it at work?

Why work is lonely

There is an old cartoon I often show to the managers I work with. It portrays a smiling executive team around a long table. The chairman is asking, “All in favour?” Everyone’s hand is up. Meanwhile, the cloud hovering above each head contains a dissonant view: “You’ve got to be kidding;” “Heaven forbid;” “Perish the thought.” It never fails to provoke awkward laughter of self-recognition.

Driving organisational change under pressure

Intense pressure often calls for knee-jerk reactions. While firm responses are needed from leaders, they should resist the temptation to centralise control and stifle frontline ownership.

Millennials want to lead. Are they ready?

In the near future millennials will occupy every consequential leadership position in the world, be it in business, academia, government, or in the non-profit sector. Will they be ready to lead?

How women and men internalise the glass ceiling

Received ideas about leadership can provoke a career-killing identity crisis in women attempting to climb the ladder.
 

Stop trying to find your true self at work

Clarity often visits unexpectedly, and it seldom stays for long. Especially when it concerns who we really are.

Making sense of zappos’ war on managers

In the early 1980s, Ralph Stayer sent a long memo and a $200 check to every employee of his family business. Since taking over as CEO, sales had increased fifteen-fold. Profits were up 150%. Headcount was growing. Regional expansion was underway. But Stayer wasn’t happy. Product quality and employees morale weren’t as high as he wanted. Everything, he had resolved, had to change.

Why leaders should create meaningful environments

Organisations that empower and give meaning to their members are not only more dignified but also more innovative.
 

Is overwork killing you?

Every time the conversation turns to overwork, which is often these days, I think of Arthur (a pseudonym). When I met him, long ago, he was picking himself up after a tough year. A seasoned CFO with a sharp mind and an abrasive style, Arthur had lost his job over a disagreement with his company’s new CEO.