The Discipline of Market Leaders (TDML) by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema (1997) equips the leadership of an enterprise with a choice of 3 strategies for competing in the marketplace - Customer Intimacy, Operational Excellence or Product Leadership. TDML says you must excel in one of these AND maintain minimum thresholds for the other two. Here is a little web-based management simulation which lets you to test TDML strategies virtually before betting your business on them!

About 18 months ago I listened to Andrew King give a fascinating lecture in London about his unpublished research into Baboon societies. Andrew explained how in the harsh environment of the Namib Desert dictatorship sometimes works better than democracy. Andrew's ground-breaking work has now been widely published and he kindly sent me some excellent links. There are many parallels with human teams, groups and communities!

According to Marcus Buckingham in his book The one thing you need to know mediocre leaders think of each of their team members as draughts pieces (interchangeable) but good leaders think of them as chess pieces (unique)...

BBC News reports on work by a team of Swedish researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University which shows that "inconsiderate bosses not only make work stressful, they may also increase the risk of heart disease for their employees."

When Father Ted finds himself trapped with 7 other priests in Ireland's largest lingerie department he does not panic but appoints himself leader to rescue his colleagues from embarrassment. Enjoy leadership without formal authority in this short video clip (6 mins).

At certain times a team leader needs to facilitate rather than direct. However when a leader acts too much as a facilitator or a facilitator starts to try to lead a team you get problems. Enjoy what happens when the Red Dwarf crew get themselves in a real mess over this point.

Business veterans claim you cannot teach 'experience', but European researchers say you can. The team developed software that helps players acquire real-life skills and realistic experiences through game playing. But this game is no executive toy. The interactive software has caught the imagination of both business colleges and major enterprises.

Think Differently: Long-term success is not only determined by how well a company handles a downturn, but also by its foresight in preparing for the next upturn. In the midst of a recession, corporate leaders are often forced to restructure and control expenses, but those who focus only on the immediate crisis may be left behind when better times return.

I have been thinking a lot about what happens when a leader gets under severe pressure, usually because things are not going according to plan. It seems to me this is the very essence of real leadership and where leaders can really justify their salaries. BUT according to Professor Dietrich Dorner, in his excellent book The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations, there are two very tempting but ultimately disastrous tangents a leader can pursue in a crisis instead of addressing the real issues.

For a manager, whose only background is traditional monolithic enterprises, being put in charge of a virtual business network or a collaborative supply chain is like a fixed wing pilot trying to fly a helicopter without any training. With the extra degree of freedom and the lack of inherent stability involved there is only going to be one outcome unless that leader spends some time on a network simulator first. Here is a chance to build-up some solid flight training hours before you take-off in the real thing!

A few months ago I read the book "Leadership and Self-Deception". Then I became a friend of the Arbinger Institute, went through some training with them in London and may be involved with them in the future. So I suppose the book inspired me – here’s why! Guest book review by Mario Gastaldi.

It is far too easy for teams to lose focus in today's fast paced collaborative virtual workplace. When your team starts falling behind and can no longer see just how mission critical their work is to the project, it is time for you to help the team focus, and in turn, turbo-charge their effectiveness. Ken Thompson and Robin Good suggest how you can re-kindle the team's fire.

The way a team decides to decide is one of the most important decisions it makes. In the excellent book, “Why Teams Don’t Work” the authors, Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, identify seven key decision-making methods for teams.

Leading a virtual business network requires different skills than leading a traditional team. Many of these skills are unfortunately very counter-intuitive due to the living, evolving nature of such networks. Discovering this 'on the job' is almost as crazy as training airline pilots without using flight simulators!

The Tipu Ake Lifecycle is based on the analogy of a tree growing in a forest and subject to "pests" which try to constrain it, "birds" which plant the seeds for long term future for the species and "poisons" which inhibit the process of germination.

At a lunch for business leaders a couple of years back Jack Welch, once voted the most respected business leader of all time, was asked about the relative importance of right values versus making the numbers.