9 Leadership Blogs You Need to Be Reading

People with theories about leadership are a dime a dozen it seems, and everyone has an opinion.  Yet, when you search the Internet for solid, consistent leadership content it is surprisingly hard to find.  That is why we have scoured the Internet, and sought out some opinions to create this list of 9 solid blogs that we believe that you should add to your reading list.  Though we would love it if you made the Organizational Champion’s blog your first stop, we know there is more time in the day and there is definitely some great content out there that is worth your time.

Not all of these blogs are strictly about leadership.  What fun would that be?  But, they all have content that the well rounded leader ought to consider  Also, these blogs are listed in no certain order.  The best blog could be the first one we list, the last one, or one lost somewhere in the middle.  Let’s get started.

The Leadership Almanac by Gary Winters

We might be breaking our one and only rule about not putting this list in any certain order because there is a reason why we are listing this blog first.  If you had to choose one blog to read out of this list, this one wouldn’t be a bad choice.  Gary is always insightful, and his advice is earthy and useful.  Regardless of how strategic and “high altitude” our role becomes, being an incredible manager who makes real connections with our people is always of top importance.

The Corporate Curmudgeon by Dale Dauten

The Corporate Curmudgeon blog is a worthwhile read. Dauten’s articles tend to be a bit longer than other blogs in this list which makes it a good candidate for the times in your day when you need to step back from your job for a moment and take a break.  We put this blog in the list because Dauten is a source of original thought.  This blog isn’t merely a reverberation of the echo chamber.

Umair Haque

Haque isn’t specifically a leadership writer, in fact I don’t know if he has ever written specifically about leadership. He is an economist. But, before you roll your eyes and move on, you need to give this blog a chance. Haque has the unique ability to see beyond the horizon and connect the dots for his readers. He will challenge you to think beyond the status quo and he will change the way you lead your business. The economy is changing. Consumers are changing. If your business isn’t also changing, you might find yourself brushing up your resume.

Leadership Unleashed by David Peck

The Leadership Unleashed blog is updated regularly with good, quick-hit, thought provoking content.  David covers a wide spectrum of topics.

Leading Answers

This blog is focused on helping you become an agile leader. It’s machine gun approach to posting seeks to give you bite sized content that hones your leadership and management skills.

Positive Sharing

Some of the most admired companies create an atmosphere of creativity and fun.  This blog talks about the value of bringing happiness back into the workplace.

Practically Radical by Bill Taylor

Bill does a fantastic job of taking today’s headlines and giving keen insight and analysis that will help you sift through the noise.

Lead On Purpose by Michael Ray Hopkin

Lead On Purpose is directed mostly toward product managers. However, it isn’t hard to pick out useful insights regardless of your job description. Product managers find themselves in an interesting predicament. They have to influence others in the organization without having direct authority to do so. Michael takes general leadership principles and applies them to product managers.

Leading Blog by Michael McKinney

McKinney pulls out an eclectic mix of topics and provides helpful reviews from the world of leadership and gives thoughtful analysis in his blog. McKinney endeavors to challenge and stretch our understanding of leadership.

If the fact that this “top 9″ list is not a “top 10″ list bothers you then help us find another blogger with something interesting to say about leadership.  We want to find more good content.  If you know of another must-read champion blogger out there, please post a link in the comments.  Also, if you write for any one of these blogs, we would love to hear from you.

Onward!

Tags: blog, blogs, Leadership, read, recommendation

The Weary Leader Needs to Go Away – Time to Rally!

I recently came across an interesting article from WSJ.com called Leadership in a Crisis – How to Be a Leader, by Bill George. I must say, I’m growing quite weary of the whole “leadership in crisis” mantra. Sure, there is no question that our leaders are managing through crisis today. And Bill George shares some great lessons that are hard to argue against. But leading through crisis has been the call now for well over a year or two or more. If you haven’t figured out how to lead through crisis by now, you need to give up.

So when, as leaders do we stop talking about the crisis and start talking about the opportunity, the progression, the rebound? When do we as leaders begin to prepare our company and our people for the recovery and what does that preparation even look like?

Start today if you haven’t already! Why today? Because many companies are in the midst of establishing the next year’s business plans and budgets. If you’re game-planning 2010 with a defensive mindset (protection, not progression), then it’s my belief that you’ll find yourself losing to more aggressive competition. Those companies that are able to shift from a defensive mindset to an offensive and aggressive mindset are going to be the ones celebrating at the end of 2010.

Consider these following points:

1. Start talking positive. This doesn’t mean that you lie about your circumstances. But find nuggets of optimism in your circumstances and begin talking them up. People are ready to rally.
2. Look ahead, not over your shoulder. Prioritize future trends over past trends as you begin talking about where your company could go.
3. Hunger for change. Champion a culture of exploration. With exploration comes adventure. With adventure comes risk. With risk comes a heightened awareness. With a heightened awareness comes a new level of focus. With a new level of focus a new vision can erupt. And with a new vision comes change.

Stop leading through crisis and start championing the rally.

Tags: blog, downturn, economic, Leadership, rally

The 18th Century called, and they want their educational system back…

Don Tapscott, CEO of business strategy think tank nGenera Insight and author of Growing Up Digital and his latest book, Grown up Digital recently submitted an article on The Huffington Post titled, The Impending Demise of the University. His article challenged the traditional approaches to learning at the university level and encouraged universities to emphasize collaboration over lecture, and discovery and critical thinking over memorization. While this is nothing new as major educational institutions are working to re-engineer the university model, the speed and scope of the re-engineering process seems to be following the extremely slow pace of academia. Facilities, tenure, and accreditation processes are the sacred cows that might just keep universities tweaking a dying model instead of disrupting the model altogether.

Colleges and universities need to race to adopt an enterprise model for education. Every other institution does – government / military, religion, and business. Education could benefit by creating a more open source environment where more information is shared more often by more people. The speed of business has increased significantly around the globe. Therefore, so must the speed of education. Speed comes from an enterprise approach where the best theories don’t just come from the research labs of the Ivy League, but rather from anywhere both inside and outside the institution.

Some of you might challenge the integrity of education. But just like the best ideas, theories and content can come from anywhere; we also have evaluators, critics, and reviewers that can validate these theories from around the globe. More people are contributing and more people are evaluating. And more students are discovering their own opinions in the process, thus becoming critical thinkers.

Our organization is fortunate to work with the world’s largest university, and their size isn’t getting in the way of needed change. The University of Phoenix is on the move taking a decentralized, collaborative and interactive approach that brings timely opportunities to its students and corporate clients through its many partnerships around the world. Look for the University of Phoenix to be one of the key leaders in driving a new and valuable disruptive model for higher education.

Tags: blog, demise, Don, editorial, huffington, news, Tapscott, universities, university