Leadership in Contentious Times: How to Navigate with Courage, Issue 115

Issue 115, July 6, 2023

If you’re a leader of a public (or private) organization today, you may feel you wake up to a firing squad every morning. Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock has abandoned references to ESG because he feels that it was becoming politicized. Brian Cornell, CEO of Target made no public statements in response to several of his stores attacked by protesters during Gay Pride Month. And we all read about the dust-up with Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Any leader in our asymmetrical, disruptive marketplace is increasingly barraged by consumer groups advocating for so many causes that it puts true leadership to the test.

And then there are emerging tech issues that not only test leadership but confound it. Even Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve has weighed in on the vagaries of AI. As reported by Bloomberg, “On AI, we’re doing what everyone else is doing. We’re trying to get smart about it and it obviously has huge possibilities. Technologies tend to pro…