I would like to spend some time examining a number of approaches to leadership (aka leadership models). These approaches, while no doubt grounded in one or more theories of leadership, can be distinguished from theories in that they attempt to place the concepts into more applied frameworks. That is, they attempt to describe leadership theories in a way that is meant to facilitate the application of the ideas.

It’s not hard thinking up venture ideas. Often they seem to come out of the woodwork. Get some folks together for an hour and you’ll come out with a couple dozen of them. Include some entrepreneurial people from outside your group and you’ll get some new ideas that you might have missed. But also step …

The First Step A Needs Assessment is a systematic exploration of the way things are and the way they should be. These “things” are usually associated with organizational and/or individual performance. WHY design and conduct a Needs Assessment? We need to consider the benefits of any Human Resource Development (HRD) intervention before we just go …

The recent use of social media by the Coast Guard as part of their response to the BP oil spill, and by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation with regard to flooding in that state, are both discussed in recent posts by Erik Bernstein at the Bernstein Crisis Management Blog. ——————————- For more resources, see …

Good business plans do not need to be long business plans. With rare exceptions, keep your plan to no more than twenty pages, including financials and appendix. If you can say what needs to be said in fewer pages, that’s even better. It’s unlikely anyone will actually read a longer plan, so don’t waste your …

In this case study from the Mobile Marketing Association, we learn how the “Fly the Flag for Football” campaign created excitement around both the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, whilst building an opted-in database for future mobile advertising campaigns.

Last week two friends asked for guidance on news releases they had written. One was just beginning to do public relations consulting work, the other was more in the marketing field. Both made common mistakes that even seasoned professionals can make: They missed addressing to whom the primary message was for in the release. The …

(Be sure to see “Musts” 6-10 in this blog, too) 5. Please, do not — you MUST NOT — write your own fundraising materials. And, if you insist on doing so, pay an experienced fundraising writer to review and comment on your writing. Writing for fundraising is an Art. Most fundraising letters, case statements, grant …

Help Thyself. It is the ‘it’ strategy these days. It makes good business sense. Outstanding content can divert call and email volume. It can improve the Customer Experience. As technology has evolved so have self-help presentation options. Long, static user guides are quickly becoming passé as quick guides, indexed documents and how-to videos become ubiquitous. …

We live in traditional organizations that are functional and vertically managed. The design is similar to creating and operating a “marching organization.” Work is aligned by function and managed vertically up and down the line. When errors happen, they are pushed up to the next level of command. A control structure reinforces the hierarchy of …