Description: This article is an overview of the SOA Leadership & Development Section Council's current projects, recent accomplishments and some immediate focal points of the Leadership & Development Section Council's efforts.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved management hiring someone to make changes, then ignoring all suggestions.

Description: The article describes principles for optimal sub-tasking of a project goal. Two experiments each one comparing different approaches are presented. A summary of principles for optimal goal setting presents seven key points: i)levels of outcome goals should be recognizable and lack ambiguity; ii) each subtask should be atomic, i.e. not be capable of being broken up into further subtasks, iii) the subtasks should be uniform, lacking ambiguity, so that any new trainee could master it without the need for further guidance; iv) each subtask should be attainable in a reasonable amount of time; v) mentor feedback should be provided during the initial stages of learning or training; vi) upon mastery of each subtask trainees should be encouraged to maximize their overall score; vii) after mastery of individual subtasks, while attempting to maximize scores, trainees should be provided with a mixture of easy, intermediate, and difficult tasks.

Description: It is well established that empowerment of staff is a critical leadership trait. But what are the metrics to recognize that you have achieved it? What steps enable this achievement? Which psychological attributes explain its efficacy?This article proposes to answer these questions through a multi-disciplinary examination of empowerment in the context of three leadership domains.

Description: The author reviews works from Greco-Roman literature from 800 B.C. to 400 A.D. and discusses how they relate to business and management, strategy and tactics.

Description: This article describes and shows how to apply an often overlooked but crucial concept to build influence in conversations, tension management.

Description: This is part 3 of a series on how to have influential conversations that build your profile as a leader.

Description: A compilation of reader responses to a tricky management situation, where a consultant doesn't want to work with someone else on the team.

Description: This article discusses the determination of the proper level of centralization of functions in a company. The author makes the case that more is not always better.

Description: Even if you are analytic and process oriented, you have the ability to be great at selling.