Recently in Leadership Failure Category

The July 8, 2009 Wall Street Journal noted the passing of Robert S. McNamara (former Ford CEO, Secretary of Defense, and President of the World Bank) with From McNamara to Obama an opinion piece by Bret Stephens who comments on the dangers of too much rationalism - or more aptly - on the dangers of hubris. Not an insignificant pitfall for health care leaders to consider...

The monthly Harvard Business Review opens with Forethought - a section of short pieces that typically pack a lot of punch in a page or less each. I am always tempted to write about each of them but I'd have to blog daily to hit these in addition to everything else that's potentially relevant to health care leaders from the business press. But if you pick up the HBR, do read the short stuff. The shortest this month, and the most concentrated value per word for health care leaders, is provided in Ten Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman. It's a great list of "don'ts" that serves up way more impact than the few minutes of your reading time it takes...

As soon as I saw the title of the May 25 Business Week's cover story (How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs) I knew I'd found my mark for today's post. I didn't even realize at the time that this was an excerpt from Jim Collins' (Good to Great and Built to Last) new book that turns his prior work literally upside down. As the title implies, it's the quick guide to how high performing companies lose their edge and end up in the toilet. And while it's about companies, it's also implicitly also about leaders. Perhaps even more about the leaders than the companies. And while it's not about health care, it's all about health care. Having worked for at least one of those "great to ashes" leaders myself, I can vouch for the soundness of the analysis and its relevance to health care leaders. Read the excerpt and when it is published, read the book...