Excellent.

I’ve already discussed the issue’s Breakthrough Ideas for 2007 article as well as the article on social enterprise.

The article by Bower and Gilbert, How Managers’ Everyday Decisions Create - or Destroy - Your Company’s Strategy, was a good read.

The article I found most interesting was In Praise of the Incomplete Leader, by Ancona et al. The articles premise is that no leader is perfect and that the best ones try to hone their strengths and find others who compliment them.

The authors break down leadership into a set of four capabilities:

1) Sensemaking: “understanding the context in which a company and its people operate”
2) Relating: “building relationships within and across organizations”
3) Visioning: “creating a compelling picture of the future”
4) Inventing: “developing new ways to achieve the vision”

Each capability is explored in-depth with the help of case studies and advice on how to improve the capability is shared.

Like anything, a balance is critical, and if a balance between the four can’t be obtained within, a strong leader develops a healthy balance by surrounding themselves with others who make up for limitations.

It’s funny, I’ve been working on all four for a number of years - but specifically relating and visioning; visioning to hone a strength and relating to improve a weakness. Sometimes the articles I find most valuable are the ones that bring clarity and terminology to a subject you’ve been focusing on for a while, rather than one that introduces a new thought.

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