Stop Telling… Start Leading! - Introduction
© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008
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| “People are born either as managers or as worker bees.” Wow! Is this right? Do you really have to be born a manager, or leader? Is it true that some of those skills can never be learned? –Lee Iacocca “I can do that!” many will answer. “I can motivate others.” But how? In 2004 Henry Mintzberg famously asked for “managers, not MBAs” in his book of the same name. In May 2005 the Harvard Business Review published “How Business Schools Lost Their Way,” Warren Bennis’ and James O’Toole’s take on managers failing because of the theoretical-centered education provided by most top business schools. Is there really anything new? Can any management guru teach you something that hasn’t yet been discovered and put into practice? No. In fact, when you encounter “experts” who claim they’ve discovered something new, my advice is, run! The truth is that it’s all about existing knowledge presented in new ways. More than that, it’s about teaching knowledge in ways the student understands-and uses. Everyone who teaches-and managers should teach their employees-ought to be able to recognize quickly how well the student is taking in the material being taught, and how to adjust the flow of information to each student’s needs. Among the essential components for a successful teaching experience are high standards and expectations, ongoing feedback, and a dynamic that engages both teacher and student. The problem is that too often the process becomes the focus instead of the results. How often have you watched a film touted as an action movie and thought “Come on-where’s the action they promised?” |
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17:18 on Saturday, November 26th, 2005
Managers are worker bees
When I was in the corporate world, managers saw themselves as worker bees. Managers weren’t better than any other employees. The best managers were those who were the most like the nonmanagement employees, provided that the managers also had leaders who helped them see the big picture.
Organizations must engage managers
As organizations have tried to do more with less, they have cut down on the time that they spend explaining the big picture to their managers and developing the leadership skills of their managers. They have reduced the authority of their managers. And, they have suggested that managers settle for the status quo.
The result of these decisions is very simple… managers are pencil pushers, rather than leaders. Because managers don’t understand, they are unable to talk to their leaders and they try to blend in, rather than being willing to step up and stand out.
We must develop leadership skills
Now, if one assigns someone to supervise a person, the supervisor has to be able to lead. We don’t seem to do a very good job at developing leadership skills. Leadership skills are like other skills, aren’t they? It seems to me that we are born with very few skills and almost unlimited potential. The degree to which we develop our skills, leadership or otherwise, is determined by our raw talent, determination, natural curiosity, environment, motivation, and opportunity.
Importance of training one’s replacement
One should always be training one’s replacement. Otherwise, one is indispensable. Having an indispensable employee at any level is unhealthy for an organization and bad for the employee. At some point the employee will go on vacation, move to a different job, retire, or die. Where does that leave the organization?
Permission to fail
Organizations want their managers to always do the right thing and to be innovative. Yet, they set themselves up to fail because they make the managers fear failure. Failure is a precondition for success and innovation.
Failure is a good thing, as long as one makes the best decision one can and learns from the consequences.