Written by DeLisa Alexander and originally published on OpenSource.com .

There's a great new blog post up this week on the Harvard Business Review blog site by Bill Taylor, founder of Fast Company magazine and author of the book Mavericks at Work, entitled Brand is Culture, Culture is Brand .

As I read the post, I couldn't help but smile, as the primary point of the article is one about which I feel strongly. From the article:

The new "power couple" inside the best companies... was an iron-clad partnership between marketing leadership and HR leadership. Your brand is your culture, your culture is your brand.

Bill goes on to describe a speech he gave recently, where a bank executive who was in the audience came up afterward "with a Cheshire cat grin" and handed him a business card. Her title? Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Marketing. Again from the article:

Forget a "partnership" between HR and marketing. At Corner Bank, the two functions report to the same executive. It's a title I'd never seen before, and I asked Jana how her fellow bankers tended to react to...

Written by DeLisa Alexander and originally published on OpenSource.com .

This is the fourth in a series exploring the things I have learned from the open source way during my journey with Red Hat.

Think about some of the gifts you’ve received in the past year. Some of those gifts probably were wrapped beautifully and brought you great joy and surprise. Other gifts might not have been wrapped in pretty packaging. Some gifts, you might not have appreciated and returned or, dare I say it, perhaps re-gifted.

There are some interesting parallels between getting gifts and getting feedback from your colleagues or peers. Over the years, you may have received some feedback that has positively transformed your life. You also may be given some feedback that you would have rather not have received. Perhaps from time to time you have even “re-gifted” the feedback you have received.

I believe that feedback, both positive and negative and regardless of the wrapping or contents, is a gift. Why?

When someone gives you feedback, it is a sign that the person is engaged, a sign the person cares about you or...

by Joy Kosta

Two articles in the business section of last Sunday’s New York Times got me to thinking... ”Does It Pass the Smell Test” was about the position a person is in when their leader asks them to bend or break the rules and do something unethical at work. Has the economy moved people to take extreme measures? It’s a slippery slope when you go along the first time, for example because you are a new hire learning the ropes , and when more experienced talent asserts themselves to do the right thing, the article points out, they may be passed over for promotion. Leaders can avoid this dilemma and set an ethical tone with behavioral standards.

On the other hand, sometimes innovation requires such out of the box thinking it breaks the rules by definition. The article, ”Turning Customers Into Creators” takes co-creating vision outside the realm of talent management and involves customers in designing new services and products. Collaborative leadership encourages innovating with customers. As a leader how do you keep track of innovation from your customers? And when customers ask for new types of...

I was delighted to catch up recently with one of my teachers, and found her as passionate about educating children today as she was three decades ago, when I was in school. We had a great conversation, but I must admit to a sense of disquiet as I heard her opinions about the next generation.

Gen Y's desire to learn is lower than that of preceding generations; it doesn't have big dreams or huge aspirations; and the pursuit of instant gratification has compromised its values, she felt. Blaming parents who encourage children to take shortcuts, my teacher argued that this would result in low self-motivation, a lack of integrity, and societal distrust over the next two decades.

This conversation got me thinking. Does Gen Y run the risk, like every other generation, of being undervalued? Does it face the same problems that plagued the Baby Boomers for decades? I tweeted my teacher's opinions about Gen Y and started asking people these questions.

I have a nagging doubt that young people are misunderstood simply because they're very different from my generation. Gen Y's members listen to iPods, text their friends, and chat online even as they chase deadlines....

by Ron Thomas

In my home office the other day, I was looking for something and opened a drawer in my desk and came across some old electronics. There looking up at me was a CD player, Dell MP3 player and a mini CD player. It brought back memories of how each one of these items were state of the art at their given time. Now, as I looked over my stash of relics, I thought of how what is state of the art at one time are now just remnants of the past. Think VHS movies, cassettes and, God forbid, the 8-track tape. Over time everything evolves from the processes and strategies that were once cutting edge.

The current recession has wreaked havoc on businesses’ ability to survive. In turn, a shift in marketing, growth and overall strategic plans has occurred. Prior to the recession, few companies had what could be labeled as a true talent management program in the first place. Sure, they might have had a leadership development plan: a few courses here and there. Maybe it was designed based on best practices, which were state of the art...

China has been a fascinating destination for me. I have visited once, and it was a humbling experience to see myself as a small man on the Great Wall.

Now I'm on my way to the World Economic Meeting in Tianjin, the summer Davos as it's called. I'm excited about going there because it's a confluence of
academicians, scientists, physicists, people from medicine, people from business, politicians. It is as humbling an experience as being on the Great Wall of China. We work every day in our industries, and we think we're changing the world. But here you meet interesting people who are indeed influencing the world.

This time I'm also excited about the WEF's Young Global Leaders Forum, talking with them and learning what they're thinking, what they are concerned about, and how are they approaching the various problems that we, as a world, face.

As I travel to China, I carry these 10 thoughts to guide my trip. Take a look, and let me know what you'd like to ask of the people I’m meeting in Tianjin. Post your questions here, ping me on www.vineetnayar.com or tweet me...

My conversation with our newest MIX Maverick Andrew McAfee yielded all kinds of bracing insight when it comes to how we set strategy, structure work, unleash talent, and measure success. But I haven’t been able to shake one idea in particular he threw out at the end of our conversation as a provocation.

First, we spent a lot of time on how the job of a leader changes in a world that is increasingly open, powered by social technologies, and morphing at warp speed. Andrew calls this world Enterprise 2.0 . In this world, says Andrew, “If you want good things to happen, get out of the way. Let people interact and collaborate and communicate in the ways that are most natural to them. Then your job as the leader of the organization is to simply put in place the environment that lets them do that, encourage them to do that, and then harvest the good stuff that comes from all of their interactions.”

In other words, the job description of the leader has officially changed from “smartest guy in the room” to chief promoter of the idea that...