2011 proved to be a very challenging business year, but, as with most years, there were some great examples of gutsy leadership and some of the reverse … Here are my picks for best and worst of 2011!

Did you ever have a boss whose span of control consisted of only 2 or 3 direct reports? It is very frustrating. He or she is just not busy enough, so they meddle, wasting a lot of people’s time and preventing the direct reports from having full authority and responsibility. Narrow spans of control typically mean more bosses which leads to excessive layers which fosters bureaucracy.

In Nokia’s 3rd quarter investor conference call in October, 2007, the CFO was immensely proud that they posted record revenue and profit by achieving record sales of their low end phones. Also, he enthusiastically noted that even though the average price of those phones dropped 10%, they retained the same profit margin. The stock price [...]

In a recent Wall Street journal article, Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said “To get something new done, you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.” That statement reminds me of a story from Ford Motor Company when Alan Mulally was making the rounds shortly after he joined the company in 2006 as CEO.