Character is at the heart of global leadership

CHARACTER IS AT THE HEART OF GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

By Professors Stewart Black and Allen Morrison – March 2013

Ironically, most people think that the higher you go, the more authority and control you have.But our research finds that in today’s complex, global environment, the higher you go, the more you get things done because of the goodwill and trust you develop, not because of your formal authority.As one C-suite executive put it to us, “I can make proclamations all day long but the world is just too big.There are too many places to hide.By the time I find out that they are not following through in Russia or wherever, it’s too late.It takes goodwill and trust–it takes personal relationships–to really make things happen on a global scale.“

Our research identified two primary aspects of personal character that lead to the trust and goodwill needed to get things done in a global business today.

Emotional connections

Global leaders need to establish personal, empathetic relationships with people from all backgrounds inside their company, and in the broader community. Doing this requires three distinct abilities: sincere interest in other people, a heightened ability to listen, and a strong capacity for understanding different viewpoints. Read more of this post

Taiwanese-Canadian designer Jason Wu who created fashion for Michelle Obama: From sewing toy clothes to running a $24 million fashion business

From sewing toy clothes to running a $24 million fashion business

New York – For a man who is small in build, Jason Wu certainly has big dreams and he has taken calculated steps to make sure they are being realised.

In the past year alone, the slim, 1.7m-tall Taiwanese-Canadian designer has already collaborated with Brazilian plastic footwear label Melissa to launch a collection (priced from $100 for a pair of sandals); designed a one-off collection for American mass-market retailer Target (prices start from US$129 or S$160 for a blouse); and released his own contemporary diffusion line called Miss Wu (from US$195 for a silk crepe blouse to US$865 for a leather shift dress).

This September, he has announced, he is slated to launch his own make-up range with beauty giant Lancome.

And need we even mention the ruby red inauguration ball gown he created for Michelle Obama?

Having the global spotlight trained on him with that dress since January may mean extra pressure to do more, but he feels otherwise.

“Inauguration or not, there is always pressure to give something better than the last,” says the 30-year-old. “I need to constantly keep moving. You’re only as good as your last project, you know?” Read more of this post

Psy shares the pain of creation; the Korean superstar released a photo of himself apparently struggling to get some writing done, with one hand clutching his forehead

Psy shares the pain of creation
Posted: 25 March 2013 1449 hrs

SEOUL: Millions of people around the world have seen Korean singer Psy dance, thanks to his ultra-popular “Gangnam Style” music video, which currently holds the title of most-watched YouTube video of all time. But what does he look like when he’s working? Fans finally got a peek into Psy’s life away from the glitz and glamour of the stage, when the Korean superstar released a photo of himself apparently struggling to get some writing done, with one hand clutching his forehead, over Twitter on Thursday. Psy even posted the photo under the hashtag #PAINofCREATION. With his new single due to drop in April, it’s no wonder the 35-year-old singer is hard at work. While he has carved a niche for himself in the Korean entertainment industry prior to “Gangnam Style”, it’s still the song that put him on the international music map, and it will be his new single that decides whether he will be able to further develop his music career outside of Korea, when “Gangnam Style” loses its shine.

Steve Blank: An Epitaph for Entrepreneurs

March 25, 2013, 12:27 PM

Steve Blank: An Epitaph for Entrepreneurs

STEVE BLANK: Raising our kids and being an entrepreneur wasn’t easy. Being in a startup and having a successful relationship and family was very hard work. But entrepreneurs can be great spouses and parents.

This post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do. It’s simply what my wife and I did to raise our kids in the middle of starting multiple companies. Our circumstances were unique and your mileage will vary.
Biological Clocks

I met my wife on a blind date and we discovered that not only did we share the same interests, but we were both ready for kids. My wife knew a bit about startups. Out of Stanford Business School she went to work for Apple as an evangelist and then joined a startup of a Mac-database.

Our first daughter was born about four months after I started at my fourth startup. We ended up sleeping in the hospital lounge for five days as she ended up in intensive care. Our second daughter followed 14½ months later.

Family Rules

My wife and I agreed to a few rules upfront and made up the rest as went along. We agreed I was still going to do startups, and she knew what that meant –probably more than most spouses. To her credit, she also understood that meant that child-raising wasn’t going to be a 50/50 split. I simply wasn’t going to be home at 5 p.m. every night.

In hindsight, this list looks pretty organized, but in reality we made it up as we went along, accompanied with all the husband and wife struggles of being married and trying to raise a family in Silicon Valley. Here are the some of the rules that evolved that seemed to work for our family.

We would have a family dinner at home most nights of the week. Regardless of what I was doing I had to be home by 7 p.m. (My kids still remember mom secretly feeding them when they were hungry at 5 p.m., but eating again with dad at 7 p.m.) But we would use dinner time to talk about what they did at school, have family meetings, etc. Read more of this post