Sander A. Flaum

The economy is turning around; leaders need to position their companies now for the market bounce.

Leaders manage their time and focus their resources by limiting unwanted interruptions.

An open letter to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Business schools must prepare students for the post-recession economy, not teach them principles applicable to 2003.

Too many people think of creativity as a mystic flash of inspiration. It's also hard work that needs to be built into every leader's professional life.

Layoffs are raging through the economy. But do they actually affect the bottom line

Leaders don't always manage to do the right thing, but they constantly strive to access the wellspring of integrity within them

Everyone likes to work for a successful company. But how do you drive your initiatives to the top? Never underestimate courage and persistence.

We have nothing to fear but the fear of change (with apologies to the wise Franklin D. Roosevelt). But we must get over that if we hope to make a real difference.

We've all experienced it...working with a colleague who takes all the credit for whatever success the department or division achieves. It is frustrating-and not motivating-to be around. It's even worse to have to report to a person like that. Having researched this particular aspect of nonleadership, I've found that these department heads have some traits in common. As a rule, they all have low self-esteem, are fairly insecure, and cannot tolerate pushback from their direct reports. To insulate themselves, they put yes-men and -women in direct-report roles and survive until their superiors wake up one day and realize there's a nonleader in place running a dysfunctional group.

Leaders must focus on "brainrest." Perspective comes only when the venue changes dramatically and you have enough time to mentally remove yourself from the usual office tensions and concerns.

Advice for new leaders: Forget the irrelevant meetings, the 300 e-mails, and the 50 voicemails.

It's difficult to terminate an associate, be it a new colleague or someone you've worked with for years. But if you can't do it, you risk losing the respect of your top performers. They'll look elsewhere for a level playing field.

Are large corporations, with massive bureaucracies and thousands of employees, capable of acknowledging employees' personal passions? They don't have a choice. Large numbers of talented people are leaving organizations because the corporate structure is not accommodating personal passion. The good news is that the great companies are starting to do something about it, which denotes a big change in business ideology. Bill Toppeta, president of MetLife International, recently told the Fordham Leadership Forum, at the Fordham Graduate School of Business, "What you need to know as the leader is what motivates your people, not what motivates you."

A leader has limited time and energy. Good choices about how to conserve these commodities make all the difference between performing exquisitely and just getting by.

Corporate leaders' short-sighted focus on EPS and analyst expectations leaves the US workforce far behind its international counterparts when it comes to cultivating innovation. It's time we stepped up to the plate.

Leaders who are new on the job should get out of their nice offices and go sit with their direct reports. Sit with them in their spaces, over lunch or coffee-anyplace but your space. You want them to be completely comfortable.

In an article for the New York Times, reporter Damien Cave pointed out how few heroes have been publicly recognized by the Administration in the current war. Despite the fact that there have been incredible acts of heroism and gutsy leadership on the ground of this Iraq war, the powers that be, for the most part, are calling no attention to it-at least no prime-time attention. Damien's most damning example came from Major Bruce Norton, a military historian and author of Encyclopedia of American Military Heroes, who recounted how a Marine recently received his Navy Cross, the second-highest military honor-not with ceremony and honor, but in the mail.

There comes a point when people have enough stuff in their lives, but they can never have enough meaning. Leaders have to find opportunities for their eams to do more than turn the machine of profit.

Eyes in the Back of Your Head

We all remember the Greek myth about old King Sisyphus. In life, he was a trickster, but the gods got the last laugh in the afterlife by making it his fate to push a huge boulder up a mountain only to see it roll down just before reaching the summit-again and again for all eternity.