By nature giraffes welcome other herbivores into the herd (including zebras, wildebeests, hartebeests, and birds), animals that aren’t blessed with the giraffe’s extraordinary height and vision. By constantly moving forward to feed while living in a diverse, ever-shifting, and dangerous world, giraffes symbolize twenty-first-century leadership that centers on people working together on an increasingly level …
Lions crouching in dense African brush aren’t easy to spot, even for the vertically gifted giraffe. When the giraffe spots an area where it can guide the herd to foliage and protection, the herd calmly moves forward, although occasionally a lion appears, blocking the path to the feeding ground. The giraffe must make a life-or-death …
I’m amazed that the giraffe only sleeps about thirty minutes each day with rest periods broken into six five-minute naps. The alert animal constantly grazes to discover new areas to feed because if the herd stands too long and becomes static, it risks being attacked by its main predator—the lion. Like the giraffe, companies and …
Giraffes are vulnerable at birth. The event is a rude awakening, a survival test, and a rough-and-tumble introduction onto the plains of Africa. The calf drops from its mother’s pouch, building speed that severs the umbilical cord. As the calf flails on the ground, a powerful image hovers above, providing a moment of calm when …
Nurturing traits that lead to trust are not only found in relationships between giraffes, but also between companies and customers–especially in the twenty-first century. Today CEOs must take a more engaging approach with customers. They must end the unilateral approach that occasionally offers a survey or focus group and move forward to provide a more interactive Web 2.0 approach …
As I became enamored with researching the giraffe in Atlanta, I toyed with a unique comparison; in the natural world, giraffes have physical traits, habits, and social behavior that are comparable to those of leaders I’d admired in business, government, education, and sports. The most obvious trait was the giraffe’s dramatic physique, which provides a …
When episodes of the “The Jetsons” aired in 1962, I would watch a silly cartoon that predicted a future of flying cars, moving sidewalks, robotic maids, speaking watches, video phones, and a morning alarm that folded up a bed like a toaster, popping Mr. Jetson out perfectly dressed for work. These sci-fi imagined gadgets, operating throughout …
President Abraham Lincoln’s embrace of new technology—the telegraph—offered swift communication with soldiers in the battlefield during the Civil War. His use of the 19th-century telegraph offers a comparison to the 21st-century Web: the single machine through which we all connect daily. The Web requires leaders to adapt to major shifts such as the growing cloud, mobile …
Disease triggered Dr. Elaine Smokewood’s fall from the safety of the academic womb. She’d once disparaged technology but after the life-altering diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease, she was forced to embrace 21st-century gadgets that enabled her to continue her passion for teaching literature and creative writing at Oklahoma City University. Link to strong article/video about Dr. …
There are many important moments I had with my father. You could call them early-childhood leadership workshops without much exaggeration. The image of a Heinz ketchup bottle always returns me to my family kitchen where I sit at the table watching my father strain to untwist the white cap. He displays exaggerated motions, conveying how …