Do you remember the old American Western movies where the sheriff with the big white hat rode onto the scene to bring law and order to the frontier town? Having grown up with these movies, the image of the heroic leader with the big hat still sticks in my mind. But today we don't see many big hats around anymore — and it's not just because 21st Century leaders dress differently.

In many ways, the current financial crisis has been caused, or at least exacerbated, by a lack of leaders with big hats. Instead of thinking about what's ...

Challenging times are opportunities for leaders and leadership teams to distinguish themselves. But what do they need to do – or do differently – to make the most of these opportunities? Matthew McCreight, managing partner at Schaffer Consulting provides some insights based on the firm’s 50+ years working with leaders around the world.

Similar to years past, 2012 will offer no room for error. As companies develop their strategies for this next year, their success will be dependent on leaders’ abilities to implement without misstep. To avoid potential pitfalls there are four mistakes leaders must immediately stop making (as written about in Robert Schaffer’s 2010 Harvard Business Review article “Four Mistakes Leaders Keep Making”) that are all too common in the C-Suite:

• Failing to set proper expectations


• Excusing subordinates from pursuit of overall objectives


• Colluding with staff experts and consultants


• Waiting while subordinates prepare, prepare, prepare

Erasing these behaviors from their psyche ...

Remember old American Western movies where the sheriff with the big white hat rode onto the scene to bring law and order to the frontier town? Today, there aren’t too many big hats around — and it's not just because 21st Century leaders dress differently.

In many ways, the current financial crisis has been caused, or at least exacerbated, by a lack of leaders with big hats. Instead of thinking about what's best in the long-term, most politicians have been focusing on how to advance their own parochial agendas. European leaders have been protecting their own currencies, deferring ...

Leaders of the past almost always seem more effective than those of today. It's a perceptual bias: We long for what we don't have, and mythologize what we used to have. Even still, many of today's leaders don't seem to measure up to our expectations. According to a survey conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School last year, 68 percent of Americans believe there is a "leadership crisis" in the country; and leaders in only four out of 13 sectors inspire above average confidence (the military, the Supreme Court, non-profits, and medical institutions). Leaders of the news ...

Highlighted within Harvard Business Review’s “10 Must Reads on Leadership,” What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman explores the undeniable characteristics leaders need to create a positive and substantial impact. What many leaders don’t realize is that to be effective they must be more than intelligent, tough, determined, and a visionary. In fact, the overlooked secret to leadership success is emotional intelligence. Possessing these personal qualities, like self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill, along with the core leadership qualities, will differentiate executives from the rest of the pack and catapult them to best in class status. Learn ...

As a managing partner and long-time member of Schaffer Consulting, Matthew McCreight has worked with organizations across the spectrum of their challenges including: achieving rapid and sustained financial turnaround, creating successful organic growth, forging effective global enterprises, and building innovative partnerships. He also has worked with many leaders as they move into new roles – on their own success and on how they use the first few months as a time to accelerate successful change and transformation across the organization.

Widely published, Matthew contributed to Schaffer Consulting's book Rapid Results! How 100-Day Projects Build the Capacity for Large-Scale Change and ...