"The presumptive Republican nominee has managed his campaign the way he manages his casinos or his realty TV program: haphazardly and with an unearned arrogance. Everything’s about the brand and non-sycophants are cast aside. Getting it right is far less important than being right... Trump isn’t as stupid as he pretends to be, but his confidence seems to scale with his ignorance, and that’s a dangerous trait in a president, given how consequential each decision can be. As a candidate, a confident idiot can make a lot of noise and fool a lot of voters. But you can’t lead that way. As president, Trump would need the sober advice of serious professionals. Considering how little he understands about the job and the world, this is especially true in his case. Based on the latest behind-the-scenes reports on Trump’s campaign (as well as his entire history in real estate and television), it’s unlikely he would govern with the humility and self-awareness required... Trump’s dictatorial approach works well on the campaign trail, but it’d be a disaster in office. A president has to persuade and compromise. The capacity to admit ignorance is equally important. Trump, by all accounts, has no interest in any of these things. Trump doesn’t know what he needs to know in order to be president, nor does he care that he doesn’t know."
"Apple CEO Tim Cook also embodies the new leadership style. Cook’s been outspoken in his support for gay rights, first coming out as gay in an October 2014 essay for Bloomberg Businessweek, then becoming a high-profile advocate for the LGBT community. He even chastised his home state of Alabama over its treatment of poor people and minorities. “Here’s a guy who seems to stand up for what he thinks is right,” said Kiel. “He’s also open to admitting mistakes.” Cook’s 2012 apology for a botched rollout of mapping software stood in sharp contrast to the non-apology offered by his predecessor, Steve Jobs, over an iPhone glitch in 2010. Under Cook, Apple’s financials have soared. CEOs who display character run companies that perform better financially, according to Kiel’s research -- an exhaustive seven-year study of 84 CEOs across multiple industries. Kiel defined character using four moral principles: integrity, responsibility, forgiveness and compassion. He also came up with a list of 25 behaviors and attributes that embody these principles, like “telling the truth,” “forgiveness” and “owning up to your mistakes.” He and his team asked CEOs to assess themselves on these traits, and asked their employees how they would rank their CEOs on the same metrics. They discovered that the CEOs who were graded as having the strongest character brought in five times more for the bottom line than the low-character CEOs. The CEOs at the bottom, said Kiel, tended to see the world as a dangerous place where people would take advantage of you. They didn’t always tell the truth. They placed their own financial security over the well-being of their company and their employees. Their workers didn’t trust them."
"If you are one of the unlucky people who must deal with a clueless colleague or a brutish boss, you’re not alone. Sadly, far too many people at work lack basic emotional intelligence. They simply don’t seem to have the self-awareness and the social skills that are necessary to work in our complicated multicultural and fast-moving companies. These people make life hell for the rest of us. What can you do to turn these folks around and make work a healthier, happier, more productive place to be? Whose job is it, anyway, to fix these people? If one of these socially awkward or downright nasty people works directly for you, it is indeed your job to do something. They ruin work teams and destroy productivity, not to mention morale. They’re little time bombs that go off when you least expect it — sucking up your time and draining everyone’s energy. They need to change, or they need to leave."
"What makes a great leader? Knowledge, smarts and vision, to be sure. To that, Daniel Goleman, author of “Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence,” would add the ability to identify and monitor emotions — your own and others’ — and to manage relationships. Qualities associated with such “emotional intelligence” distinguish the best leaders in the corporate world, according to Mr. Goleman, a former New York Times science reporter, a psychologist and co-director of a consortium at Rutgers University to foster research on the role emotional intelligence plays in excellence. He shares his short list of the competencies."
"We all know the story by now. The world is more complex, global, latticed, networked and unforgiving. Countless CEOs I sat down with at the World Economic Forum this year reinforced this message. Yet, this begs a very central question. What are the implications for leadership? What qualities will CEOs need to succeed in this more demanding world? And just as important, what qualities should future CEOs begin to develop now, before they are handed the keys to the kingdom? A small handful of must-have qualities always rise to the surface: empathy, judgment, self-awareness, adaptability, integrity, passion, courage and resilience. Leaders that possess these core attributes -- or underlying drivers of success -- have a remarkably higher probability of performing well, regardless of what context they are thrown into. Interestingly these same qualities matter outside of the corner office -- in politics, sports, entertainment and the military. In that sense, there's a nice lesson for all of us aspiring to be better leaders."
