DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

The Moneyball Formula for Leadership

2012-02-16T22:29:28-05:00

By Mike Hoban So, what are the talent lessons that companies can learn from the largely true-story movie Moneyball? The entertaining and drama-filled film is up for 6 Academy awards this year including one for best picture but this is more than a story about baseball. It’s a story about finding the right – and affordable – talent. Here’s a brief synopsis for those who have not seen it yet or read the book on which it’s based. Billy Bean is the General Manager for the Oakland Athletics in 2002 and adopts a new quantitative method . . .

Leadership Lessons in Holiday Pop Culture

2011-12-15T15:37:49-05:00

By Mike Hoban Christmas season film favorites are not just entertaining, some of them contain valuable leadership lessons. So in the holiday spirit, here are some examples of well-known and mostly well beloved seasonal celluloid and their lessons. A Christmas Story Leadership Lesson: Sometimes you have to take some intelligent risks in order to reap big rewards, even if the skeptics and naysayers tell you that you might shoot your eye out. Act upon your inner Ralphie. It’s a Wonderful Life. Leadership Lesson #1: You as a leader often have no idea of the unintended positive impact you have on...

The Ballad of John and Steve

2011-10-17T14:15:00-04:00

By Barry Stern, Ph.D. As I've spent the last week working and vacationing in Tokyo and Kyoto Japan and falling in love with this country, I was surprised to have John Lennon on the brain. Not only is Yoko Ono from Tokyo, but I have been surprised by how much the peace sign is alive and well here in the Far East. It seemed that tourists posing for pictures, young and old, east and west (mostly east as observationally at least tourism has not returned to normal following what they refer to as the “Eastern Japan Great Earthquake Disaster”) broke out into a spontaneous display of a vote for peace . . .

Are You an Exceptional Boss? Some Things to Ponder

2011-10-13T11:56:11-04:00

By Mike Hoban October 16 is Boss’ Day. It’s interesting – it is not a Hallmark invention like many people suspect. Nope. A woman named Patricia Horoski, who was an employee at State Farm Insurance in Illinois, registered the holiday with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1958. She thought bosses should have a day of appreciation of their own. She chose October 16 because it was her father’s birthday and she considered him to be an excellent boss. If you’re a manager, would your team members consider you to be an excellent boss? . . .