Lead like a lion? Or lead like an ostrich?
Today my pal Andy Abramson posted this
Leading From the BackFor me the analogy goes a bit farther. Andy cites how Craig and Vincent at Grand Central stepped out openly and honestly. Craig demonstrated leading like a lion in his open post.Ironically, I started on this post on Saturday, but being my wife's birthday weekend, I left this sit. It seems Om was thinking along the same line and penned his piece which I hear has a lot of the hedge fund types and Wall Street sharpies questioning eBay the same way in their minds.
When problems arise you can judge a company by who is out in front.
[Read Andys full post]
The leadership we've seen from Skype (and eBay) has been quite different. You can read Andy's description. It's right on the mark. Skype leadership has been like ostriches, sticking their head in the sand and letting the minions be the visible ones taking the flack.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Skype has really fumbled an opportunity to prove they're the brash lions they once were. They're trapped in their own world, listening to their own voice in the echo chamber.
It's clear to me that the Google purchase hasn't changed Craig Walker. He's still learding like a lion. Has Niklas Zennstrom (and by extension Meg Whitman and Henry Gomez) had that brash lion-like leadership crushed?
Sure Skype survived and came back, but I'm frankly more unimpressed than ever with how they conducted themselves through this outage.
Technorati Tags: Skype, GrandCentral, lions, ostriches
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