I just came from a meeting on leadership development for a health care consulting organization. We talked at great length about how their clients were keen to develop leadership capabilities, especially the soft skills. Admirable very standard goals.

Whenever I find myself in discussions like this one though, some part of my mind - the part influenced by Peter Drucker - is shouting that followership develoment is more important. My mind jumps to Drucker's definition of "executive" as anyone i...

A few years ago, I worked with a group of executives with a major consumer products company in Australia. As we started our planning activities I noted an interesting group trait that needed addressing before we could move on to more productive work. Whenever we would finish a session with an agreement, the individual members would leave and discuss matters again over dinner or in their offices. Sometimes the discussions were calm and rational, other times they were heated. The next morning h...