• Why businesses should fear becoming the next Penn State
  Businesses are as likely as Penn State to become centers of reverence, protective of icons and dismissive or deliberately ignorant of contradictory information, writes Mark Putnam, president of Central College in Iowa. "We protect our reputations by doing the right thing, not by hiding our failings," argues Edward Queen, head of Emory University's D. Abbott Turner Program in Ethics and Servant Leadership. "Indeed, even amid discovery of error and wrongdoing, reputations are enhanced by acknowledging, dealing with them immediately and directly, and working to minimize their recurrence." The Des Moines Register (Iowa)/A Better Iowa blog (7/13), CNN (7/12), Sense on Cents (7/13)      

• What you can learn from Penn State: Companies and organizations should consider whether their boards are simply a rubber stamp and whether leaders tackle a crisis or look to be rid of it, advises the Atloona Mirror editorial board. One area where businesses routinely fail is in evaluating "high-risk, low-authority stories," where the danger is often overlooked because the reporting source is deemed unimportant, writes Richard Levick, a strategic communications consultant. The Altoona Mirror (Pa.) (7/13), Fast Company online (7/13)      

• What at-work training can do for your team's morale
  An infographic from MindFlash.com explains how on-the-job training can combat low morale and improve employees' performance. The causes of low morale can include boredom, bad communication and ineffective leadership. Providing learning opportunities can turn the tide by giving employees new challenges and skills to succeed. TechRepublic/IT Leadership blog (7/12)      

• How shareholders can undercut company value
  Activist board members can undercut a company and cause legal problems, warns venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, whose company has invested in Facebook and Groupon. Those actions include "suing the company really frivolously" and seeking to sell the company simply because share prices have risen. Horowitz isn't against all shareholder campaigns, however. "Shareholder activism works when activists understand something about the characteristics of the business that the board doesn't," he said. The Wall Street Journal (7/10)      

• Half Price Books grows by giving employees buying power
  Half Price Books has more than quadrupled its annual revenue over the past 15 years, in part by allowing local store managers to choose inventory and being frugal about marketing and borrowing. CEO Sharon Anderson Wright also promotes from within, gives employees bonuses and keeps the company out of debt. "I figure if you owe people money, they get to have control over what you do," Wright said. TexasCEOMagazine.com (7/14)      

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Leadership readers in the past week.

• Brainstorming is the enemy of innovation (Management-Issues (U.K.))

• Burberry boss accused of playing "buzzword bingo" (Financial Times)

• "Toolkit strategy" turns Volkswagen into a juggernaut (CNNMoney/Fortune)

• Duke Energy under pressure over CEO's sudden departure (The Wall Street Journal)

• Corporate corruption is the new normal, Americans say (The New York Times (tiered subscription model))

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

• Why Rakuten's billionaire CEO is bullish on Pinterest
  Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani recently participated in a $100 million investment round for photo-driven social website Pinterest. He plans to become a strategic partner to the venture and aims to capitalize on marketing opportunities that send more shoppers to Rakuten. Forbes (7/10)      

• How surveys can help foster corporate citizens
  Creating a custom values survey can help leaders foster better citizenship among employees by clearly spelling out the behaviors expected by management and employees, writes S. Chris Edmonds. Leaders should take the survey first to put themselves "under the microscope." Then employees can be surveyed every six months to rate their bosses, colleagues and themselves. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (7/13)      

• Grammatically correct? Why it don't matter
  We may question the intelligence of anyone who says "It don't matter how much" or "I wish you was here." But those examples were correct English for Charles Dickens and future President John Adams, respectively. "Don't" used in the third-person singular was popular into the 1900s, and it was common to use "you was" in the late 1700s, when Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail. Despite the protests of grammarians, language fads tend to change over the centuries, writes John McWhorter. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Opinionator blog (7/9)      

Position Title Company Name Location Vice President of Enterprise Sales - Integrated Marketing Services Merkle Nationwide, United States Office of General Council - Director, IT Audit AARP Washington, DC Senior Vice President Resort Operations Revel Entertainment Greater Philadelphia Area, PA Click here to view more job listings.

Featured Content

The fixation on appearance and monetary gain at the expense of doing the right thing is both bad business policy and bad public policy. Yet it persists because of a lack of real character and leadership. Our current crisis may be deemed an economic crisis, but in truth it is a crisis of leadership." --Larry Doyle, longtime Wall Street executive, writing at Sense on Cents