Superyachts to Trump, via Brexit and org charts

2016 was a great year to be a columnist: there was an abundance of raw material to dissect; readers were engaged (and sometimes enraged) by the Brexit referendum, the election of Donald Trump and the implications of both; management controversies continued to fuel ideas for lively columns.

It was a great year for me, too. I published my first book - Leadership in the Headlines, a collection of my columns on leadership - and was honoured to be named Business Commentator of the Year at The Comment Awards in London in November. Such awards are judged on a selection of the year's best articles. Here are some of the articles I entered for the prize* - along with a few others that proved popular with FT readers.

Executive pay remains a running sore for many critics of capitalism. I suggested in January that bonuses were bad for bankers and even worse for banks, based on numerous studies. It's not a message I expect banks to take to heart soon.

Sack non-executive directors to force investors to do their job (May 16) - my column on the unsatisfactory merry-go-round of board membership attracted some vocal pushback from readers ("How can 'investors' do their work except through the presence of non-executive directors on company boards?" asked one), but also a range of support for governance reform.

One young graduate recruit's ill-judged rant against his employer, PwC, triggered my August column lamenting how moaning millennials let down their generation. Twenty-somethings hit back in the comments. "We, as millennials, are full of it, but we learned from the best," pointed out one. Touché.

Also in August, while sailing in Greece, I floated past Sir Philip Green's vast new yacht off Skiathos. The close encounter prompted some reflections on what we can learn from tycoons' love of large boats. My conclusion: superyachts magnify billionaires' worst traits.

One major project for 2016 was a series of short films, in which I interviewed four business leaders about how they managed different types of pressure - launching a start-up, seeing off a hostile bid, rescuing a stricken bank, or being sent to jail. I summed up my conclusions in this column - a CEO's primer on how to manage under pressure.

A December column, in which I argued that it was time to kill the org chart was a surprise hit - one of my best-read articles of the year - and yielded a lively reader debate, including a range of suggestions about how to redraw management structure, more than 150 years since the first such chart was produced for the New York and Erie Railroad.

Finally, while the consequences of Britain's Brexit referendum remain uncertain, I stand by my conclusions, framed on the weekend following the poll, about the five failures of leadership exposed in the run-up to the vote and in the immediate aftermath. As for president-elect Trump, I remain concerned about the dire signals he is sending to bosses everywhere.

In 2017, it'll be up to the UK and future US governments to disprove my pessimism about the abundant lack of true leadership. Happy New Year.

* You usually have to register to see FT material. I have a limited number of "gift" links to hand out. Contact me with your email address if there is a specific column you find you're unable to read. First come, first served.