Please join a FREE Brown Bag Book Club 30 minute session with organizational expert and author Dr. Anthony Smith for the frankest public discussion of leaders and leadership you will ever experience.
Dr. Anthony Smith
The painful, touchy, intimate, difficult-to-discuss, and politically incorrect taboos of leadership are the subject of two Brown Bag Book Club webinars. By holding those taboos up to the light, judging them for good or bad, exposing their myths, and revealing their underlying truths, Dr. Anthony Smith hopes to describe the essence of leadership in a way that will benefit leaders, followers, and those who aspire to become one or both.
Why is this necessary? Because leadership is so poorly understood. Billions of dollars are spent on leadership development; organizations rise and fall because of the quality of their leaders. Yet, we’re unwilling to examine what it really takes to lead.
During these discussions, Dr. Anthony Smith will do away with the sanitized, air-brushed, glorified picture of leadership and describe the reality. At a juncture when leadership is rightfully under question, and we need leaders more than ever, this conversation couldn’t be more timely. And did we mention that they are free ?
Here is how it will work: sign up for one or both of the below sessions. A few days prior to the Book Club webinar, we’ll send you the instructions you will need to log-on as well as some information about the topic that can serve as a starting point for the discussion. We also strongly recommended your getting your own copy of The Taboos of Leadership: The 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You About Leaders and What They Really Think.
Session One: The Double StandardOn July 14, 12-12:30 PM EST Is there any issue more toxic in today’s organizations than the notion of a double standard? When the economy is good we tend to overlook high CEO pay, extravagant perks, and favors to top executives; but in a down-cycle like now, the resentment of unfair treatment can catalyze a modern day witch hunt. CEOs and top leaders are sensitive to the taboo of the double standard, and yet they’re always surprised by negative public reactions to their own status, salary and perks. Why? Do they deserve less or more? What should we want our leaders to want? In this discussion, Dr. Smith will be sure to expose some hard truths and touch some raw nerves. Session Two: Leaders and Work-Life BalanceOn August 13, 12-12:30 PM EST Work-life balance is a call in many organizations that top leaders (who are supposed to lead by example) fundamentally ignore. Is a lack of balance an unhealthy flaw that needs to be corrected? Is it an inherent aspect of what it takes for a driven person to be successful? At a time in which many organizations are struggling to get by there’s a tendency to view “balance” as a luxury, even as many individuals are feeling less committed to their workplace. What’s the reality about leadership and work-life balance? Do we need a new definition? What are the pluses and minuses if your notion of balance changes at different stages in your life? In this provocative conversation, Dr. Smith will expose the myths of balance and help us recalibrate the equation. |
Sign Up For one or both of the Taboos of Leadership |
Dr. Anthony Smith is Co-Founder and a Managing Director of Leadership Research Institute and author of “The Taboos of Leadership: 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You about Leaders and What They Really Think” (Jossey-Bass, May 2007). His forthcoming book is “ESPN: The Company” (Jossey-Bass, September 2009).
