Leading Lights

Teams, corporations, and organizations of every kind, demand and require leadership. Yet the nature of that leadership and how we understand the role of the leader is constantly being reappraised. Thinkers50 founders Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove spend their time scanning the world of business ideas. Here is their selection of leading lights.

Bas Blekkingh
Teaches at Nyenrode Business School, former soldier turned champion of authenticity. His book Authentic Leadership (Infinite Ideas, 2015) is now available in English.

Amy Cuddy
Harvard Business School social psychologist, author of Presence (later in 2015).

Marshall Goldsmith
One of the world’s leading executive coaches and author, most recently of Triggers (Crown, 2015).

Hal Gregersen
Executive director MIT Leadership Center; and co-author of The Innovator’s DNA (HBR, 2011).

Heidi Grant Halvorson
Social psychologist based at Columbia Business School and the NeuroLeadership Institute. Author of No One Understands You and What to do About It (HBR, 2015).

Marc and Samantha Hurwitz
Husband and wife consulting team. Authors Leadership is Half the Story: Rethinking Followership, Leadership, and Collaboration. (University of Toronto Press, 2015).

Herminia Ibarra
INSEAD professor and author of bestselling Think Like a Leader, Act Like a Leader (HBR, 2015).

Fred Kiel
Co-founder and principal of KRW International. Author of Return on Character (HBR, 2015).

W Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
Creators of concept of Blue Ocean Leadership. INSEAD professors and authors of bestselling Blue Ocean Strategy (HBR, 2005).

Tim Leberecht
Chief marketing officer of NBBJ and ex-Frog Design. Author of The Business Romantic (HarperBusiness, 2015).

Gianpiero Petriglieri
Psychiatrist, INSEAD professor and prolific HBR blogger.

Otto Scharmer
Founding chair of MIT IDEAS program and the Presencing Institute. Ideas. Author of Theory U (Berrett Koehler, 2009) and Leading from the Emerging Future (Berrett Koehler, 2013).

Linda Scott
Said Business School academic and creator of concept of the Double X Economy.

Dov Seidman
Founder and chairman of LRN. Author of How (Wiley, 2011).

Liz Wiseman
Former Oracle exec and author of Multipliers (Harper, 2010) and co-author of The Multipliers Effect (Corwin, 2013). Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New World of Work (HarperBusiness, 2014).