Our Blog: where do you stand?

What I’m Reading: CEO Leadership Development... and Steve Jobs’ Retirement

By: Cathy Dunkin | 09/02/2011

CEO peer groups provide some of the best leadership development resources available. For more than 15 years, I have taken advantage of membership and mentors through Entrepreneurs Organization, the Committee of 200 and Vistage International.

What I read religiously every week is an excellent newsletter from my Vistage coach, Allen Hauge.  Every Sunday, he sends insights and relevant news links to the members of his CEO and key manager groups.  He covers subjects from economic forecasts to just about anything business-related.  I always appreciate Allen's concise, witty commentary and his knack for providing useful tidbits from a wide variety of sources. 

This week, he featured Steve Jobs' retirement, offering a link to a National Review Online article, "Steve Jobs:  America's Greatest Failure," adding his own comments and a pertinent quote from this influential leader of our time.    

Recently, Vistage began featuring Allen's newsletter on the "Members Only" part of its international website.  (On a limited basis, Allen is willing to make the newsletter available to presidents and CEOs who are not currently Vistage members.  Just contact him at allen.hauge@vistage.com.  Use "newsletter" in the subject line and include a v-card or your name, title, company and email address.) Vistage also features unique business insights on innovation, marketing and leadership from business leaders across the globe on the non-exclusive side of their website.

Thanks, Allen, for your personal help to me and Standing Partnership through your newsletter, through our one-to-one coaching sessions, and through your words of wisdom that start my week every week.  And, congratulations on being recognized with national distribution of your newsletter! 

Here's a quick highlight from Allen Hauge's newsletter this week: 

Week of August 29, 2011

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been ‘No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

 -       Steve Jobs, retiring CEO of Apple 

Stanford Commencement Address, 2005

Numerous articles have been written about the resignation this past week of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple (though he remains as chairman).  I could list a dozen that I find compelling and you can easily find them online or elsewhere.  It would be difficult to find one that does not celebrate his many successes.  Fortunately, I found one that focuses on his many failures...and how they were indispensible to his breathtaking successes.   Check out "Steve Jobs: America's Greatest Failure" ; required reading for any entrepreneur....or those who manage one.

Posted in What We're Reading