Showing results by author "Michael Useem" in All Categories

Leading up is not the same as managing up. Managing up is running the office; leading up is taking the reins and exceeding what's expected. As hierarchies everywhere shed much of their rigidity, upward leadership at all levels becomes more possible - and more necessary. Leading Up is a call to action. It asks us to build on the best in everybody's nature, and it offers a pragmatic blueprint for doing so.

Are you ready for the leadership moment? Learn valuable lessons from the stories of Merck's Roy Vagelos, who commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it; Eugene Kranz, who struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft; Arlene Blum, who organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains; Nancy Barry, who leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty; and more.

A leader’s job - in a radically changing world - is standing on the cliff edge, getting a grip on unfamiliar landscapes, and acquiring the skills for leading the enterprise into new territory. Michael Useem provides rare insight into how 10 leaders confronted hard realities. He looked close-in at the life and work of people such as Bill McNabb of Vanguard, Jeffrey Lurie of the Philadelphia Eagles, Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, and Tricia Griffith of Progressive Insurance.

Based on the lessons from astonishing stories, solid research, and years of leadership development work with a wide array of companies and organizations in the United States and abroad, Useem presents today’s leaders with 15 guiding principles that form the core of the Leader’s Checklist, which will help you develop your ability to make good and timely decisions in unpredictable and stressful environments - for those moments when leadership really matters.

Even a strong leader can flounder without an effective strategy, and the most powerful strategy can fail without the right leader. Only those who master and integrate both skills can effectively navigate the challenges that lay ahead for today's organizations. The Strategic Leader's Roadmap, by Wharton management professors Harbir Singh and Michael Useem, offers a six-point checklist for leading strategically that will help managers strengthen their capacity to develop strategy and to lead its execution.

This month's issue includes three complete articles. From "Forethought," Ian Bremmer and Fareed Zakaria explain how to hedge your political risk in China. Then, in "Innovation, The Classic Traps," Rosabeth Moss Kanter offers practical tips on how to keep your creative team from getting bogged down. The third article, by Michael Useem, explores "How Well Run Boards Make Decisions."

Michael Useem, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, writes about how the military helps students internalize essential leadership precepts.

When Peter Drucker wrote Concept of the Corporation in 1946, he revealed what made the large American corporation tick. Similarly, The Art of Japanese Management by Richard Pascale in 1981 explained the unique practices developed by the Japanese to bring that country's economy out of the ashes. The emerging Chinese juggernauts - the Alibabas, Lenovos, and Haiers - need similar revelation since they are a different breed in their own right.

In Go Long, authors Dennis Carey, Brian Dumaine, Michael Useem, and Rodney Zemmel take you behind the scenes to witness the business decisions that are enabling leading organizations to outsmart and outlast the competition.   

In the aftermath of the Enron and WorldCom debacles, corporate boards have been shaken up and made over. Most of the changes are structural and don't go to the heart of a board's work: making the choices that shape a firm's future. Which decisions boards own and how those calls are made are largely hidden from the public. As a result, boards are often unable to learn from their counterparts at other companies. In this article, Michael Useem pulls back the curtain and provides an inside look.