Leadership Uncaged

Everywhere you look, in every industry and every level, people are braving racy new circumstances and wild new kinds of competition.

Modern leaders must break away from the brittle confines of old molds and expectations about what leadership is and does. We?ve come a long way from Frederick Taylor?s Scientific Management, where, a century ago, the search for ?one best way? drove everything. Managers, once devoted to control, are adapting and improvising and provoking like crazy. All those troublesome quirks and idiosyncrasies that managers were supposed to stamp out of employees (and, by the way, customers too) are today interesting and indispensable resources just waiting to be unleashed. There?s never been a more perfect time to do something really, outstandingly different.

So the true work of leadership is, above all, to be passionate; to dream big; to make hay with the talent that resides in the people who work alongside you; to keep everybody focused on a purpose that?s bigger-than-money; and to do it all with real integrity and credibility.

A Passion For Excellence

Management fads come and go, but the real stuff holds up over time. These are the strategies you can count on this year, next year, and for the next 50 years. Customers are crucial; wowing them and staying close to them are business fundamentals. Constant, robust, disruptive innovation is the only survival strategy, and the right people and distinguished leadership are the heart of the matter.

But, amazingly, this doctrine is fairly new: Nancy Austin, writing with Tom Peters, was the first to strongly underscore this ?blinding flash of the obvious.? The number-one bestseller that went on to become a business classic marked the very first time that the role of the customer was emphasized beyond mere discussion. That powerful revelation forever changed attitudes about the way business does business. Nancy Austin, of course, has a unique advantage when essaying this topic: she?s an original source, with a compelling and authentic perspective.

In this presentation, Austin revisits the beginnings of modern management and traces its uphill climb from ?universal science? to magic bullet to something inventive and improvised, where everybody is connected to everybody and everything. Talent, wherever it may be, runs the show. Learning isn?t just a strategy, it?s the strategy, and innovation?messy though it is?happens because the enterprise is designed to let it happen.

Women, Talent, And Leadership

A century ago, leadership was an ultra-formal, contained discipline governed by male-authored rulebooks. In this time of boundless opportunity, however, real leadership does not start with a rule: it begins with a roar. And nobody knows more about this than women.

This presentation reveals that the true work of leadership is to be un-boring, to trust one?s gut, to improvise, to pay attention to others, and to connect. There has never been a better time for women to shine. This presentation is not solely about equality and taking women seriously; it?s about economics and natural talent. Women really are powerful, and the wealth of smart companies and nations proves it!