A summary of books, articles and research studies in print and online.

C-Level Women: The concept of a “glass ceiling” that prevents women from breaking into C-suite positions is simplistic and dated, argue psychology professors Alice Eagly and Linda Carli in Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders (Harvard Business School Press, 2007). A better metaphor is a “labyrinth”: a tangle of issues such as prejudice, family responsibilities and leadership style. Still, they say a path can be found through any such maze: “The metaphor acknowledges obstacles but is not ultimately discouraging.”

Neuroscience for Executives: Researchers at Arizona State University’s Center for Responsible Leadership are investigating the relationship between electrical brain patterns and leadership skills (The Leadership Neuroscience Project; crl.asu.edu/ research/leadership_neuroscience.shtml). Preliminary findings indicate a link between such patterns and a leader’s ability to inspire, and the scientists hope further study will yield effective neurofeedback therapies to help leaders develop skills they lack.

Businesspeople as Villains: Why do business- people get such a bad rap in popular culture? One reason may be their portrayal on the evening news, according to Bad Company: For American Businessmen in the News, the Defense Never Rests, a yearlong study by the free-enterprise Business & Media Institute (businessandmedia.org). American businessmen and women are portrayed negatively 57 percent of the time on prime-time news, and are 1.5 times more likely to be shown as criminals than philanthropists.

Brand Building: In Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive and Build Lasting Value (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), authors Norm Smallwood and Dave Ulrich explain the benefits of a “leadership brand,” which they define as a shared identity among a company’s leaders reflecting their customers’ wants. Leaders at Toyota’s Lexus division, for example, are experts on quality because their customers expect perfection. The authors offer six steps to building a better branding organization.

Next article » An Ex-CEO’S Plan for World Peace

Previous article « 10 Tricky Questions for J. Terrence Lanni