Quick Break: 2 articles & 2 videos on leadership, management, and authenticity

I am traveling this week and didn’t manage to finish my next deep-dive on Strategy Safari in time for the blog publication.

But don’t you worry, dear Reader, I have something for you this week that will sweeten the wait and my poor blog management skills (it’s a learning curve).

2 Articles 2 Read

Henry Mintzberg, one of the authors of Strategy Safari (and author & co-author of more than a dozen books recommended for the MBA students, management consultants and practitioners), has his own blog where he regularly shares his thoughts on management, leadership, strategic management, and organizational structures, as well as provides insightful commentary on today’s societal issues and pain points.

Below are 2 articles that I recently read and strongly recommend:

1. The Maestro Myth of Management

I worked for a company where the CEO invited an orchestra to the big leadership offsite attended by the Senior Directors & above. The idea was to demonstrate that a great company operates like an orchestra where each leader is a musician. Without working together, an orchestra will never be able to deliver a beautiful symphony no matter how hard each individual musician performs his part.

In the same spirit, Peter Drucker compared a manager to the orchestra conductor and composer whose efforts will bring together “the living whole of music”.

This is why it is particularly interesting to read this article from a strategic management guru who disagrees with this point of view.

To read the full article

2. The Epidemic of Managing Without Soul

Why do we allow narcissists with credentials, posing as leaders, to bring down so many of our institutions?”

This is a wonderful little article about the difference between soulless “selfish” management and management with true care illustrated with 2 contrasting examples. Much in the spirit of servant leadership but also the spirit of good management overall.

To read the full article

2 Videos 2 Watch

On a surface level, these 2 videos are unrelated: one talks about the so-called “boring” leaders and the other one discusses what it means to be true to oneself.

But on a deeper level, they both speak of the importance of caring about others and how as a society we need to look for authenticity within our leaders and ourselves.

1. Why do we celebrate incompetent leaders? | Martin Gutmann | TEDxBerlin

Our society desperately needs good leaders.

But do we actually know what a good leader looks like and what he or she does?

In the 1980s, charismatic leaders like Lee Iacocca were celebrated for being visionary geniuses who could turn around doomed companies. 20-30 years later, the companies they’d so successfully turned around, disappeared to the acquisitions or went bankrupt.

So what a great leader is after all?

What is their story?

And why do we fail to recognize them?

2. The art of being yourself | Caroline McHugh | TEDxMiltonKeynesWomen

This is one of the most inspiring and humbling speeches on authenticity.

One can only imagine how transformational it would be for all of us to face our deepest insecurities and external expectations so we can finally meet and get to know our true selves – for the sake of ourselves and the rest of the world.

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Next week’s article will deep dive further into the uncharted (yet) territory of Strategy Safari. Visit for more next Monday!

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The title photo is by Alessandro Bianchi on Unsplash