Situational Leadership

One CEO's Rx for a doctor shortage

Albany, Mo., population 1,730, was sorely lacking doctors and nurses. So John Richmond, the hospital’s retired CEO, started speaking at local schools. Those who showed an interest got financial aid for their medical studies in exchange for coming home to work for a number of years.

Leading by example

Leadership gurus recommend leading by example. Good advice! But here are a few situations when leading by example doesn’t work:

Up against a wall? Try humor

Creative consultant Andy Stefanovich had a problem in 1995. A Fortune 100 client wasn’t paying its tab, and nothing—from calls and gifts to lawyerly nudges—had produced a payment. To clear her head, a colleague took Stefanovich’s dog out for a walk and came back with a crazy idea—a letter:

The new model: adaptive leadership

Many business thinkers have already pro­­nounced the death of the hierarchical, command-and-control approach to leadership. Those approaches simply don’t work anymore. What’s in? Adaptive leadership. Among other things, adaptive leaders embrace uncertainty and adopt new approaches.

Put your rivals at ease

When the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff visited MBA students at Wharton and worked the classroom, he met a student from Moscow whose father had been a general in the Red Army at the height of the Cold War. Realizing that the generals served on opposite sides, the class fell silent ...

Nothing beats customer visits

As the newly minted president and COO of Medtronic, Bill George had to cool his jets for a while at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, waiting to begin a day on the job learning about the company’s products firsthand. He soon learned in the operating room why Med­tronic’s catheter sales weren’t great ...

Avoid the cost of ambiguous orders

In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans police shot 11 people, at least some of whom were thought to be looters. While he denies giving the order to shoot looters, former Police Chief Warren Riley does acknowledge telling police captains to “take back the city.” How it was interpreted points to how dangerous ambiguous orders can be.

Aflac CEO: It only takes a duck

The once-obscure Aflac insures one in four Japanese households because of a duck. And a cat. Actually, a cat duck called Maneki Neko. The cat duck is so popular in Japan that Aflac’s new ad was voted No. 1. How? Why? Ask Aflac’s CEO.

Fly or abort? Ask yourself 3 questions

Fighter pilot Rob “Waldo” Waldman had survived six-hour combat missions in Iraq and Kosovo, so he figured that ferrying an F-16 from Spain to South Carolina was no big deal. Right? Wrong. The problem was 3,500 miles of ocean and Waldman had claustrophobia. Fly or abort?

After you make the wrong call

Some mistakes are memorable not because they provide pyrotechnics but because they show character. Case in point: Major league umpire Jim Joyce this summer made the most important call of his career, and it was wrong. His mistake cost Detroit’s pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. After reviewing the video, Joyce immediately admitted that he’d blown the call.


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