Frank Uncovers Excellence in Leadership

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

The One Minute Manager Anniversary Edition by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer Johnson

This is definitely the number one book for every manager. It should be a must read in schools and management training. The one minute manager tells a story and explains one minute goals, one minute criticism, one minute compliments and how to make sure to see when employees are doing well. Too often readers overlook this books value- based on its simplicity. They overlook that this is its biggest advantage. It merely takes an hour to read the book. Many management books are too lengthy and difficult to read. While they offer the detailed explanation needed from some they rarely hold the readers interest.

Leadership and the One Minute Manager : Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi

The book describes how to increase the competence and motivation of employees by applying the techniques of the minute management. It offers guidance without giving too many details. The book is aimed at those managers who rule situational.

    

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

This e-mail was forwarded to me today:

Author unknown - but it should be thoroughly read in the executive committees and from all managers…

BIG COMPANY AGAINST THE JAPANESE

Some time ago Big Company and a Japanese company arranged that each year they should have a boat race over 1000 meters on the Rhine. Both teams trained long and hard to reach their full efficiency. Finally the great day is there and both teams are topfit. The Japanese win clearly with a lead of 400 meters.

After this defeat the Big Company team was very depressed and the moral was on a never before seen low. The upper management decided that everything had to be done to find the reason for this destroying defeat. They created a project team to examine the problem and come up with solutions.

They came up with this: The problem was that the Japanese had one person steering and 8 people pulling, where Big Company had 8 people steering and one person pulling.

The upper management immediately reacted: A consulting company got hired to create a study of the structure of the team. After spending some millions and quite a few month they came up with their recommendations: To many are steering and not enough are pulling.

To avoid another loss against the Japanese the structure of the team was changed. Now they have 4 people to steer, 3 lead steerers and one director of steering.

A performance evaluation system was introduced to stimulate the man who has to pull more and become a major player in his field. — We have to extend his working field to give him more responsibility. This will do it!!

The next year the Japanese win with an 800 meter lead.

Big Company fired the puller for his bad work, sold the boat and stopped all investment in new equipment and the developments on the boat.

The consulting company got a praising acknowledgment for their work and the money saved was paid as bonus to the upper management.

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

The fifth McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives shows a significant drop in confidence.
Especially in developing markets and - no surprise - Europe.

Also down: The interest in hiring.

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

“The tiny handbook has become an underground hit among senior executives and management thinkers. Written by Bill Swanson, CEO of aerospace contractor Raytheon (RTN), Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management is part Ben Franklin and part Yogi Berra, with a dash of Confucius thrown in. (…) One of those gift copies made its way to the Sage of Omaha when FlightSafety’s Whitman sent a copy to his boss, Buffett. “This is really one of the best books I’ve seen,” Buffett later wrote in a letter to Swanson. He wasn’t just being nice.” (source)

Order your free copy from Raytheon.

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

The school will loan $850 laptops to its 350 students.

We had one computer with a tape recorder to save programs. For something like 300 students… Boy, that seems like centuries ago!

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Mark Windholtz has an interesting blog about the choices he sees to increases the ROI on software projects.

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

As you might know I am writing a book about managing people right now and Alan M. Perlman, PhD from Perlman Communications, Ltd. did not only shared this wonderful article of his with me, he also allowed me to post it in my blog. Thank you Alan!

Caligula’s Boast
On the Allure of Management and the Inevitability of Bad Bosses

“Are We Any Better at Managing People?” asks the cover of the September/October 2002 issue of Across the Board magazine. Inside, various experts dance around the question, their answers ranging from “not much” to “yes.”

My response to the question had formed in my head even before I opened the magazine: better…compared to what? During 10,000 years of civilization, we have improved, refined or discarded almost all the institutions and practices of our primitive and ancient ancestors, with one glaring exception: when it comes to marshaling and managing human talent, we have barely progressed beyond slavery.

After over twenty years of observing, reading about, and participating in corporate life, my conclusion is that almost everywhere, autocracy and totalitarianism are the reality and the rule. With few exceptions, they are the essence of management and leadership. And regardless of how much the organization says that it prizes autonomy, the main motivator of human behavior is (and always has been) fear of the boss—because the power of the boss is very nearly absolute. Somebody gets put in charge, generally with little or no involvement of those over whom he or she is to exert power, and from that moment forth, the person can boast, with the Emperor Caligula, that “I have the right to do anything to anyone.” Read the rest of this entry »

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