Three Star Leadership Blog: Recent Comments

Comment on More silliness about leaders or managers

Dan McCarthy — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:02:45 GMT

Nina -
I really do understand and appreciate the difference between leadership and management. Otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen the name “Great Leadership” for my blog.:)
It’s just that I’ve found it to be practical to use the words interchangeable when referring to those in supervisory, management, or executive roles. Here’s a post I wrote a on the topic: “Leadership” vs. “Management” – does it really matter? http://greatleadershipbydan.blogspot.com/2007/11/leadership-vs-management-does-it-really.html

After you read it, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.

Comment on What about me? What about my needs?

Wally Bock — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:20:25 GMT

Hi Nina. Thanks for the kind words. And thanks for adding that important point that if you're the leader, it should never be about you.

Comment on What about me? What about my needs?

Nina — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:45:25 GMT

Wally,
Great piece! Truly...very good read! This is something that I think about as a leader. Is it about me or my team or my company? One thing is for sure....it should NEVER be about me! As leaders, we must always know that the needs of the organization or our teams outweigh our personal needs, especially is the costs of the achieving personal needs [i.e. accolades] are so high for the broader group.

This is somewhat along the lines of what I wrote about in regard to Marion Jones. She chose to pursue personal accolades and achievements and caused irreparable harm to her team, her country, her sport in making some poor choices.

Perhaps Jerry Yang does not have the personal confidence in himself to be successful under the Microsoft umbrella. This is ashame given his tremendous capabilities and vision.

You can see my piece on Marion Jones here:
http://ninasimosko.com/blog/2008/04/25/what-leaders-can-learn-from-marion/

Anyway, I found your piece to be a thoroughly enjoyable entry!!

Comment on What about me? What about my needs?

Wally Bock — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:55:08 GMT

Thanks for stopping by and sharing that John.

I definitely give Kudos to Steve Ballmer for saying "No" when so many CEOs would keep going, regardless. And I think you're right about Microsoft dodging the bullet they fired.

They've got lots of problems right now. The Vista operating system has turned into a real albatross. Even so, Microsoft will cease supporting XP, which a lot of users prefer to the bad surprises of Vista. They still haven't figured out the net, especially search, but also software delivery. Like many successful companies when times change, the appear to be investing mostly in the old technology they know instead of developing new.

Comment on What about me? What about my needs?

John Agno — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:42:55 GMT

The other long-term winner is Microsoft who finally decided to dodge the $48 billion bullet.

Microsoft's next course of action will likely be to try to form a competitive advantage through tie-ups with other Internet companies that could pull more consumers and advertisers to its Internet services.

As Google continues to leverage its huge marketshare advantage by increasing advertisers' costs, Microsoft has an opportunity to become the umbrella for a stable of many specialty search engines...at a much lower cost-per-click (CPC) price than Google offers.

Comment on 5/7/08: A midweek look at the business blogs

Wally Bock — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:01:58 GMT

Thanks for stopping by, John. I'm now at a point where I think there are lessons to be learned from the multiplayer online gaming world, but I don't think they'll herald a change in the basic way leadership is done in real, everyday human organizations.

Comment on Leadership development stage by stage

Cyril Rayan — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:45:15 GMT

We as in individual can take respon sibility for our leadership development. I recently published this list on my leadership blog http://www.cyrilrayan.com
A few things to consider for our personal development as a leader:

- Read leadership books

- Have mentors who are great leaders

- Build strong relationships

- Mentor others

- Solve not only your problems but also others problems

- Think about how you can help others you meet and help them

- Persevere through whatever challenges you are facing

- Listen to great speeches

- Do public speaking

- Know your strengths and weaknesses and focus on strengths and bring other team members to eliminate the impact of weaknesses

Comment on 5/7/08: A midweek look at the business blogs

John Caddell — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:41:11 GMT

Wally, thanks for choosing my post. I'm honored. I also agree with your comment that studying online gamers for management lessons was a fad recently. This HBR article won me over in spite of my skepticism, because the observations were so new and fresh.

Regards, John

Comment on And the number one guru is

Wally Bock — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:28:41 GMT

You raise an interesting issue, Nina, and I really don't have a clue what the answer is. It's certainly not ability with words. Over half the journalists and new anchors are women.

There are many woman who are professional speakers. Both Patricia Frippand Jeanne Robertson have been president of the National Speakers Association.

And in technical areas there have been women like Anita Borg, whom you've just featured in a blog postand Sara Kiesler have certainly set an example.

So there doesn't seem to be any reason that we're not seeing women on these lists, and yet we are.

Comment on 5/7/08: A midweek look at the business blogs

Ellen Weber — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:19:52 GMT

Wally -- how cool is that! Does that mean I won a car? If so I'd like to suggest a Toyota Prius:-). Now there's a woman's car!

Seriously, friend, I am humbled -- and I also care deeply as do you -- that we honor men and women as they each deserve the best from our workplaces!

That's why your award is deeply meaningful! Thanks!