Zekrets: The Fourth Edition (Still Alive!)
December 2022 (Volume 4). It's been a while! The ladder of leadership. Immigrants and soccer. The latest on global teams. And other random stuff.
Happy holidays! It’s been a while, my friends. No, this newsletter isn’t dead. Last time I promised I’d be in touch soon. I won’t make any promises this time. But I’m glad to be in touch again to share some of the latest, coolest research. And some thoughts on leadership that I hope you find meaningful. Feedback is always welcome. If you’re a former student, an update on your life or career would be great. Thanks for sticking with me, and until next time.
Original Articles
Zekret: The Ladder of Leadership
What motivates you to be a leader? The answer to that question is more important than all the techniques in your leadership toolki. I offer a ladder of five motives: power, reward, duty, cause, and love. I explain why they progress in that order from worst to best, and illustrate it with the story of Allison Davis-Blake and a tough decision she had to make.
Hiring Immigrants is a Golazo for Your Company
I’m sure you’re missing all that World Cup soccer. Just in time to save you, I tell you all about one of my own favorite papers of all time. We use data from European soccer clubs to answer a big, juicy, and difficult question: Are firms better off when they hire immigrants? It gets at the heart of whether immigrants are good for the economy and whether organizations should care about recruiting a globally diverse workforce. OK, no more previews! Go read the article.
Recent Practical Evidence on Cross-National Teams
Managing cross-national teams is hard. But the benefits of wortwhile if you can overcome the challenges of dealing with different time zones, cultures, languages, and ways of doing business. I summarize three of my favorite recent articles on the topic. You’ll learn about the critical role “temporal brokers”, the downsides of remote collaboration for innovation, and when managers with broad multicultural experience should be assigned to lead teams.
Other Stuff
Read
You know I’m an immigration nerd. But even if I weren’t, I’d recommed this as one of the very best books on the topic. Streets of Gold by Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan will challenge your preconceived notions of whether immigrants successfully assimilate socially and economically. Impeccably researched.
If you’re looking for long, deep, and interesting biographies of historical figures, I’ll recommend two by Andrew Roberts. Churchill: Walking With Destiny is the best single-volume book on the subject. Napoleon: A Life is the best introduction to the legendary figure (at least in English).
Listen
The US-China trade war, COVID, and other developments have created a lot of confusion about global supply chains. The Trade Talks podcast is quite helpful. I like the rigor behind it.
The audiobook of The Lincoln Highway was really fun. A light and enjoyable book for the holidays. Edoardo Ballerini, the narrator, has a great voice!
If you’ve always wanted to know more about the era of great empires, the aptly named Empire podcast is for you. I learned so much about British colonialism in India from it. The second season is about the Ottoman Empire. It’s helped me better understand the preconditions for today’s world order.
Watch
As much as I love soccer/futbol, I’m worried about its governance as a global sport. The Netflix documentary FIFA Uncovered doesn’t make me feel any better.
I have a tradition of watching Dr. Zhivago every holiday season. Don’t ask me why. It’s a pretty depressing story, as many Russian stories are. But I find it beautiful and touching.