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Here are five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to articles about women in business leadership, the design genius behind the iStuff, an article in praise of bonuses, the Navy's leadership training, and the largest pharmaceutical company you've probably never heard of.

From SMU: From hard to soft: A panel of women leaders imagine the future of leadership
"A leadership style that aims to maintain the status quo, manage the day-to-day operations and keep things neatly in order is no longer enough in the modern economy. Instead, the preferred style of today is one that upholds transformational leadership in order to create a better business and a better world. It is also a style that determines whether or not a company succeeds. This was the message put forward by a panel of women leaders at the “Rethinking the Future – Leadership in 2020” forum hosted by Women’s Network on 8 March 2010. Organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, and supported by Canadian Chamber of Commerce, PrimeTime and Financial Women’s Association of Singapore, the event was held in conjunction with International Women’s Day."

Wally's Comment: It's Mother's Day, which seems like as good a day as any to lead off with a panel of women leaders talking about the future of leadership.

For additional reading you may like Tim Sackett's post at Fistful of Talent titled "Why Men Don't Promote Women, and Other Insane Babble." I'm also pointing you to "Achieving Gender Parity in the Workplace" (Human Resource Executive) and some research from INSEAD on perceptions of women leaders. Two of my posts seem relevant. There's one about Brenda Barnes and another titled "The Important Story at PepsiCo is Leadership Development ."

From the Financial Post: The creator behind Apple's comeback
"While the Apple spotlight is focused on the computer titan's bombastic chief executive, Steve Jobs, among the hordes of Mac faithful, Mr. Ive is often hailed as the design genius who helped fuel Apple's turnaround from also-ran computer maker to the king of high-end electronics."

Wally's Comment: Jonathan Ive seems like the perfect designer to be joined at the hip with Steve Jobs. Some Apple enthusiasts have already anointed him a genius to match Raymond Loewy.   Maybe, but Loewy was active for seventy years. He designed a broad range of things, including logos, buses and locomotives, packaging, home appliances and cars. 

So, the anointing may be a bit premature, but there's no doubt that Ive is a great designer. Perhaps he's noticeable because so much design is so bad. Check "The human factor in gadget, Web design" from Cnet. For insight into why that is, I suggest Alan Cooper's superb book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum .

From Kellogg Insight: Bonuses Despite Billion Dollar Bailouts
"No issue in recent American politics has stirred more passion than that of excessive executive pay, especially in poorly performing firms. In March 2009, when media outlets reported that high-level managers of the insurance firm AIG would receive bonuses—though the company had needed billions in government bailout money just to stay afloat—President Obama called the payouts outrageous and promised that he would work to block them. Politicians across the spectrum echoed the president’s anger and derided the bonuses as an affront to common sense. But work by Andrea Eisfeldt, an associate professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management, and Adriano Rampini, an associate professor at Duke University, suggests that there is an economic logic behind giving bonuses to badly performing executives. Though politically toxic, such bonuses serve a purpose.

Wally's Comment: This is an interesting perspective. For a thoughtful piece on the larger topic of executive pay, check "The Pay Problem." And make sure to read Henry Mintzberg's take, "No More Executive Bonuses!"

From Forbes: Inside The U.S. Navy's Leadership School
"Despite the institution's more than 200-year history of success, its heads saw by 2000 that its future leaders would need new kinds of strategic training and an eye toward innovation. Budgets were shifting (and sometimes shrinking), demographics changing, waves of baby boomers retiring and American military strategy and the global environment constantly evolving. The leaders of the Navy decided they needed nothing less than to reinvent how they approached their work, to draw on much more varied skills than in the past."

Wally's Comment: Two of America's armed services have taken a look at how they develop leaders recently. This article is about the Navy's approach. You can find out more about what the Army has done by reading David Brooks' excellent column titled "Leading with Two Minds." My post, "Leaders Decide, Let Them Learn How " will provide some background.

From the NY Times: That Pill You Took? It May Well Be Theirs
"Mr. Marth oversees one of the most important divisions of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, an Israeli enterprise that, despite not being a household name, is the biggest generic drug maker in the world. Teva has secured its rise through aggressive acquisitions, strategic discipline, quality control, low prices and an infectious devotion to corporate frugality."

Wally's Comment: I love stories about fabulously successful companies that hardly anyone outside their industry knows about. Teva is one of those.
 

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.