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I think that one of the best ways to learn leadership isn't studying "leadership" at all. Instead, study individual leaders in their natural habitat and decide what they do that you want to try. Articles by and about leaders and interviews with them are mini-case studies that show you an actual leader in a real situation.

That's why, every week, I bring you a selection of post about individual leaders. This week I'm pointing you to posts by and about Jean-Guy Desjardins, Eileen McDonnell, Captain David Marquet, Ronald M. Shaich, and Randy Garutti.

From the Globe and Mail: Jean-Guy Desjardins: A tough negotiator with big ambitions
"Jean-Guy Desjardins has built a career on negotiations. He has created not one but two of Canada’s biggest money management companies from scratch. He was the point man in the choice of Mark Carney for Governor of the Bank of Canada. His four decades in finance can be broken down into a series of deals, each one consisting of days, weeks, months of gruelling back and forth talks. But at the end, he usually gets what he wants, whether it’s convincing Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to pay the “crazy” price he asked for his first firm, TAL Global Asset Management, or prying Mr. Carney away from Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which had other plans for him"

From the NY Times: A Granddaughter’s Journey
"Eileen McDonnell is the chief executive of Penn Mutual Life Insurance, Horsham, Pa."

From Fast Company: A Submarine Captain On The Power Of Leadership Language
"Captain David Marquet was supposed to command another submarine but was vectored to the USS Santa Fe at the last minute. The Santa Fe was in the hurt locker: morale was low, performance was low, retention was at the bottom of the fleet. The subsequent journey caused him to rethink everything about leadership he'd been taught. This excerpt is part of that story."

From the NY Times: Your Company Can Deliver, but Can It Discover?
"This interview with Ronald M. Shaich, founder, chairman and co-chief executive of Panera Bread, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant."

From Inc: Shake Shack CEO: 'We Want to Be the Anti-Chain Chain'
"Can the company achieve global burger domination without becoming a soulless corporation? CEO Randy Garutti explains how he plans to do it."

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.