Knightsbridge Blog

Vince Molinaro is Managing Director of Knightsbridge's Leadership Practice.  Vince’s unique value is his ability to help organizations build strong leadership cultures to achieve and sustain extraordinary business results.Vince has an original and timely perspective on leadership with ideas that are...

Over the last year, my colleagues and I at Knightsbridge have been working on building our social media presence. Many of my clients have started to reach out and ask how social media can help with leadership development. But before you can do that, you’ve got to know what social media actually is....

This past weekend, the cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker Magazine showed Mitt Romney debating an empty chair. The joke, of course, is on Barack Obama, and what many feel was his lackluster performance in the first presidential debate. It also calls to mind Clint Eastwood’s chat with a chair at...

“When am I going to find time to lead?” I get this question a lot during leadership development programs. As I explain how the job of being a leader keeps growing, some people can’t see how they’ll be able to do it. But anyone who’s asking that question doesn’t really understand what it means to be...

On July 16th, Yahoo announced Marissa Mayer as their new Chief Executive Officer. Even though this would be Mayer’s first time as a CEO, media feedback was favourable. Largely because of her success at Google where she was seen as a trailblazer who brought a unique combination of technical smarts,...

In his book Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma Dr. Nick Morgan shows how individuals can present an image of authenticity and respect for their audience - whether it’s a team, an executive meeting or through a one-on-one conversation. Nick’s four-step process is extremely valuable for...

Leaders with real influence will have clout in their organizations. Business Insider ran an article last week about some recent changes to Klout, the social network service that ranks people based on their influence. For one thing, Klout is changing its website. But more importantly, it’s revamping...

I read an article last weekend on Salon’s (@Salon) website entitled “Trump, Jobs, Zuckerberg: We Idolize Jerks.” It’s an excerpt from the book, Ascent of the A-Word by Geoffrey Nunberg (‏@GeoffNunberg). In it, the author proclaims that this is “an age of assholism” because some of the world’s most...

I caught part of “Jerry Maguire” on TV the other day. I happened to start watching around a pivotal scene between sports agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) and wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr).  Rod isn’t happy with his contract. But his sense of entitlement and general negative attitude...

Do you confuse your hard work and effort for results?  Do you struggle to objectively measure your own performance?  If you said yes, you are holding yourself back as a leader. Vic was pretty angry when he left his annual performance review. He couldn’t believe his boss, the company’s CIO, had given...

Comedian Jim Gaffigan (@JimGaffigan) is on the road, performing his Mr. Universe Tour.  He’s a riot – if you get a chance, go see him.  One of his best devices is the use of the “inside voice.” During his show, he repeatedly makes comments about his own jokes and performance in a different voice....

The other day I had a phone call with a leader I’m working with. The call really bothered me. This woman spent thirty minutes complaining about her company and her role. The more she went on, the more frustrated I became. It’s never fun to get an earful of someone else’s negativity - but this call...

Leaders need to learn from the past, but if a single issue keeps coming up again and again, it will prevent you from leading for the future of your organization. During a recent leadership development program, I watched three senior public-sector leaders have a heated discussion. I could tell they...

So do you think you can lead? Here are four questions to help you start thinking through your own answer: Do I want to have more impact in my organization? When you look around, do you see ways you can make things better for employees, customers, and the bottom line? The second you start thinking...

Many organizations have struggled after foisting leadership responsibility on employees who weren’t ready, or weren’t wired for the job. Long before he appeared on reality TV, Steve Wozniak was the engineer who invented the first Apple computer. But he might never have taken that job if he hadn’t...

Many leaders today are going through the motions, not really understanding what is expected of them, nor personally commiting to leadership.  It's time to talk about the leadership contract. A generation ago the employment contract was clear. We all understood the terms and conditions: you went to...

Is leadership worth dying for? As a leader, you have probably never had to ask yourself this question. Well, I had to, very early on in my career after a respected colleague died of cancer. Her name was Zinta and she was a senior leader in an organization where I worked.  The organization had an...

So much of what’s written in the leadership space is focused on stories of exemplary or great leadership.  That’s good, because in reality our day to day experience is filled with lots of bad leadership and stupid leaders.  Here’s my top ten list of the kinds of leaders that really bug me.  Just a...

Can a gap at a leadership level slow down your company’s performance?  Yes, it can.  An organization’s growth was at risk. Critical projects were stalling. New products were taking forever to get to market. Customers were defecting. Employee engagement was very low primarily due to poor...

I was meeting with a client who was embarking on a company-wide initiative to build stronger leadership capability across their organization. Essentially, they needed help in thinking through their entire leadership system.  As I shared in my last blog, a leadership system consists of all an...

Leaders need to understand leadership in an integrated way. I have been noticing a subtle and important trend in my client work. As organizations try to strengthen their leadership, they do so from a limited perspective. More specifically, they tend to view leadership in a fragmented way. This means...