maximum performance a practical guide to leading and managing people phần 1 pdf

Nick provides an excellent insight into the myster- ies of management and leadership with this very practical and useful book that manage-I am sure will be a great resource for current a

TeAm YYePGdocument

Date: 2005.05.11 15:13:52 +08'00'

PERFORMANCE

created the world we now live in; and to those who are creating the world we will inhabit in the future.

All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher Published by

Edward Elgar Publishing Limited

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

ISBN 1 84542 000 4 (cased)

Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters, Frimley, Surrey

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall

‘In my experience a major shortcoming of most “how to” books on leadership and management is that they purport to offer “Silver Bullets” – magical solu- tions that, once revealed, will enrich and transform the reader and his or her organisation Regrettably, business life is not that simple Rather, it is charac- terised by uncertainty and lack of precedent and complicated by the different wants, needs and motivations of people Nick Forster’s practical book, grounded in many years of leadership and management development and MBA education, recognises this complexity and the folly of “one-size-fits-all” solutions It is a valuable source book, packed full of useful ideas for current and aspiring business leaders.’

– Mr Michael Chaney, Australian Businessman of the Year 2003 and former CEO of Wesfarmers – the Australian Financial Review’s Company of the Year 2002 Mr Chaney becomes Chairman of the

National Australia Bank in June 2005.

‘Maximum Performance delivers what it promises It is practical, useful and well

grounded in up-to-date research findings from across the globe Nick Forster writes well, with a lively voice and has peppered the text with rich examples and case studies The diagnostic skill exercises and inventories offered throughout are especially helpful The book meets the needs of both managers and students alike, across a wide span of experiences Well worth the invest- ment.’

– Professor Barry Posner, Dean of the Business Faculty at Santa Clara

University, California and co-author, with James Kouzes,

of The Leadership Challenge

‘Maximum Performance is an essential read for all business owners, managers,

consultants and key decision makers It is an outstanding and comprehensive insight into the broad range of managerial and leadership issues which confront business people today It is practical and littered with excellent case study examples and illustrations Its unique style is easy to read, thought provoking and demystifies concepts that are easily misunderstood outside an MBA course Grasp and digest this book quickly because it’s the smart thing to do.’

– Barry Smith, Managing Director, the General Management

Consulting Group

‘Nick’s book is an energetic and down-to-earth exploration of the many sions of this enigmatic thing we call leadership It is a distillation of much knowledge, experience and insightful observation There is refreshing and satisfying clarity of discussion; with comment on many management theories, explanations of evidence and research and the consequences of their applica- tions in organisations The pages are brimming with examples, keeping the

dimen-messages real, practical and always interesting Maximum Performance is

thought provoking, and the reader is constantly challenged to assess his or her own knowledge, experience, attributes, perceptions and behaviour It is a wonderful resource for those beginning their endeavours, introducing them to the complexities of leading people, and a delightful summary of instantly recognisable experience to those who are well on the journey It is hugely valu- able to all, whether for new knowledge or a welcome refresher And, there is just a touch of irreverence, adding an enjoyable balance to a serious subject.’

– Dr Penny Flett, CEO of the Brightwater Care Group and Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year, 1998

v

‘We all seem to know when we are receiving good or bad leadership, yet for many of us being a good leader seems to be so elusive Why is this so? The fact that we are human and sometimes trapped by our wants, needs and motiva- tions inevitably gets in the way, and leadership within Local Government is fraught with complex problems and competing forces both internally and

externally Maximum Performance will be an extremely useful aid for all who are

looking for a practical, sensible and thought provoking insight into ment and leadership issues Nick provides an excellent insight into the myster- ies of management and leadership with this very practical and useful book that

manage-I am sure will be a great resource for current and emerging leaders.’

– Ricky Burgess, CEO of the Western Australian Local Government

Association and the Australian Institute of Management

Business Woman of the Year, 1997

‘As consultants working with small to medium sized businesses, we are always searching for practical resources to recommend to our clients that can help them put their activities into a broader perspective, and help raise their understanding and expectations of what their businesses and employees are

capable of Maximum Performance is such a resource Not only does it

demon-strate the true value of good leadership, people management skills and the role

of organizational culture in developing, motivating and retaining good staff, it also juxtaposes these with broader issues such as managing change, creativity and innovation, managing employee knowledge and intellectual capital, and the impact that emerging technologies will have on business and organizations

in the near future.’

– Philip Watson, Director and Principal Consultant, the General Management Consulting Group

List of figures viii

high-tech, networked and

Conclusion: leading and managing people

1.1 The origins of our ideas and beliefs

ix

The author

Professor Nick Forster is based at the Graduate School of Management(GSM), The University of Western Australia He has been involved inpostgraduate management education since 1991 in the UK, Australiaand Singapore At the GSM, he has taught on the OrganizationalBehaviour, Management of Organizations, and Social, Ethical andEnvironmental Issues in Organizations units on the MBA programme,and the Managing Strategic Change unit on the Executive MBA Hehas also received ten MBA-nominated commendations and awards forteaching, and was chosen by his peers as a nominee for the 2000Australian Universities’ National Teaching Awards ceremony inCanberra, attended by the Australian Prime Minister John Howard

He has published four books, written more than 70 articles in a variety

of international academic and professional journals, and has producedseveral research and consulting reports for organizations in Australia

and the UK He has been a regular contributor to WA Business News, and was also a guest management columnist for Corporate Relocation

News, the biggest selling corporate relocation magazine in the USA,

from 2000 to 2002 Outside the GSM, Nick has been involved with theAustralian Institute of Management (AIM) Leadership Centre in thedelivery of leadership and management training workshops to several

of WA’s largest companies and public sector organizations, includingthe Office of the Premier and Cabinet and the City of Perth Executive.From October 2003 to March 2004, he was a Principal Facilitator forWesTrac and the Water Corporation in AIM’s Action LearningPrograms, run in conjunction with the Harvard Business School Hehas also collaborated in numerous research and consultancy projectswith UK and Australian companies, and was on the national judgingpanel for the 2003 and 2004 Australian Human Resource ManagementAwards (for further information, see www.wamcg.com.au)

Nick has lived in several countries and worked in a variety of other jobs

in his younger days, as a barman, waiter, house-renovator, safari parkwarden, professional musician, music studio engineer and part-time skiinstructor His leisure interests include alpine skiing, mountain biking,scuba diving, white-water rafting and, occasionally, bungee jumping

x

I’d like first to express my gratitude to all those people, past andpresent, who have helped to shape my understanding of leadershipand people management in contemporary organizations These are, in

no particular order, Alistair Mant, Barry Posner, Jay Conger, EdgarSchein, Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Penny Flett, RickyBurges, Michael Chaney, Fons Trompenaars, Daniel Goleman, NelsonMandela, Confucius, Tsung Tzu, James Kouzes, David Carnegie,Martin Luther King Jnr, Ray Kurzweil, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard,Ricardo Semler, Richard Teerlink, Charles O’Reilly, Tom Peters,William McKnight, Germaine Greer, Joan Kirner, Moira Rayner, JackWelch, Winston Churchill, Scott Adams, Paul Robeson, HenryMintzberg, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D Roosevelt, Edward de Bono,Andy Groves, Herb Kelleher, Gordon Bethune, James Collins, JerryPorras, Fiona Wilson, Charles Handy, Amanda Sinclair, Peter Drucker,Gary Hamel, Nicolò de Machiavelli, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, AnitaRoddick, Peter Senge, Ari de Geus and last, but not least, John Cleese

in his Video Arts days Their insights about effective leadership and

people management can be found throughout this book

During an academic career spanning 16 years, I’ve been privileged to

be involved with hundreds of able, motivated and creative MBA andExecutive MBA students in the UK, Australia and Singapore Thecontents of this book have been influenced by their anecdotes andstories about the leaders and managers they have worked under, aswell as their personal experiences of leading and managing others Allthe materials, exercises and self-evaluation exercises contained in thisbook have been extensively ‘road-tested’ with well over a thousand ofthese men and women and many other groups of professionals andmanagers, so their contribution to this has been significant I’ve alsohad a number of high-profile guest speakers on MBA programmes inrecent years They too have shaped my understanding of what success-

ful leadership and people management is really all about I’d like to

thank both groups for their influence and inputs to the book

I’d also like to thank Fenman Limited, the Financial Times and

Prentice-Hall, MCB University Press, McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Alanand Barbara Pease and Ray Kurzweil, for their permission to make use

of the following materials

xi

Chapter 3: N Forster, S Majteles, A Mathur, R Morgan, J Preuss, V.Tiwari, and D Wilkinson (1999), ‘The role of storytelling in leadership’,

Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 20(1), 11–18, and N.

Forster (2000), Managing Staff on International Assignments: A Strategic

Guide (pp 47–9).

Chapter 6: ‘The Brain Wiring Test’ from A Pease and B Pease (1998),

Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps (pp 64–72).

Chapter 8: N Forster (2002), ‘Managing excellence through corporate

culture: the H-P way’, The Management Case Study Journal, 2(1), May,

23–40

Chapter 10: ‘Does your organization have a knowledge managementculture?’ and ‘The Knowledge Network’, from B Bagshaw and P

Philips (2000), Knowledge Management.

Chapter 11: N Forster (2000), ‘The potential impact of third-wave

tech-nologies on organizations’, Leadership and Organization Development

Journal, 21(5), 254–63; ‘The exponential growth of computing

1900–1998’; ‘The exponential growth of computing 1900–2100’, from R

Kurzweil (1999), The Age of Spiritual Machines.

Conclusion: N Forster (2000), Managing Staff on International

Assignments: A Strategic Guide (pp 153–4).

Last, but not least, I’d particularly like to thank Edward Elgar for hisbelief in this book’s potential, Francine O’Sullivan, Joanne Betteridge,Karen McCarthy and Caroline McLin for their patient guidance andassistance throughout the editing and formatting process and thesubmission of the manuscripts for the book, and Madeline Tan for herhelp with the graphics and diagrams

Nick Forster Perth, Western Australia, September 2004

Walk into a large bookstore in any city of the world, stroll through thebookshops at international airports, visit university libraries or browsee-booksellers’ websites and you will find dozens of books on leader-ship and people management These will range from highbrow acade-mic discourses to books written by management consultants, from theautobiographies of well known political and business leaders to satiri-cal works on modern organizational life, like those of Scott Adams orDennis Pratt What can one more book add to this extensive and wide-ranging literature?

First, all of the materials, self-evaluation exercises and questionnairescontained in this book have been extensively ‘road tested’ in the UK,Singapore and Australia, over a ten-year period, with more than onethousand Master of Business Administration (MBA) and ExecutiveMBA students, on multi-award winning postgraduate managementcourses They have also been tried and tested in dozens of leadershipand management development courses over the last decade Only those

materials and exercises that have worked for busy managers and

profes-sionals, or have passed ‘The MBA Test’, are included in this book.Hence it is particularly suited to people enrolled on MBA programmes,

as well as those who may want to update their leadership/peoplemanagement skills but are unable to take time off work to attend expen-sive (and often ineffective) ‘management training’ courses

Second, many publications overlook essential elements of present-dayleadership and management, particularly those relating to self-aware-ness and integrity, personal values, personal performance and stressmanagement, and vision and creativity This book is comprehensive inits coverage of all the elements of leadership and people managementthat professionals now need to be aware of This includes traditionaltopics, such as employee motivation and performance, communicationskills and leading and managing change, as well as more modernissues, such as business ethics in a global economy and leadership inhigh-tech and virtual organizations It also looks at how leaders andmanagers can create cultures that promote essential modern organiza-tional competencies such as innovation, the effective disseminationand use of knowledge and intellectual capital, and creating systemicintelligent learning capabilities amongst employees

xiii

Third, this book integrates several perspectives on leadership andpeople management, including those of real-life leaders, businesscommentators, management consultants and academics – with a fourth

dimension: what we’ve already known about effective leadership and people

management throughout the ages, and yet seem to have to ‘reinvent’ with each new generation The book also synthesizes materials from more than 700

books, articles, professional journals, newspapers and websites Whatappears here represents a distillation of the best practical ideas aboutleadership and people management of recent times, condensed into aform that busy managers and professionals can assimilate and makeimmediate use of at work, in large, medium-sized or small organiza-tions, and in the public or private sector

Fourth, the book demystifies leadership and people management Ithighlights not only the ‘hard-wired’ traits we may inherit at birth, butalso the ‘soft-wiring’, that is the kinds of leadership competencies andpeople management skills that we can all learn to develop and improvethroughout our working lives, given self-belief, time and commitment

To this end, the book will systematically review the attributes, skills,qualities and competencies that are most often associated with success-ful leadership and people management, and how these can be devel-oped and enhanced These include the following:

• self-awareness and self-discipline,

• competence and credibility,

• a mixture of several kinds of intelligence,

• great self-motivation and the capacity for hard work, combined with

a good understanding of their physical and psychological tions,

limita-• exceptional two-way communication skills, combined with an ity to lead, direct and focus dialogues with others,

abil-• the ability to engage with the minds and hearts of others and, as aresult, a capacity to motivate and inspire their followers,

• the capacity to question ‘common-sense’ ways of doing thingscombined with the ability to make fast practical day-to-day deci-sions with incomplete information or knowledge,

• an ability to learn and unlearn quickly, while not discarding goodleadership and people management practices that have stood thetest of time,

• the ability to use power effectively, based on an understanding ofthe art of organizational politics,

• increasingly, a hybrid blend of what have been traditionally regarded

as ‘male’ and ‘female’ leadership and people management styles,

• self-confidence and resolve in adverse or uncertain situations, out resorting to autocratic or domineering behaviour,

with-• the ability to think beyond the present and envision the future,

• the capacity to initiate, lead and manage the complex processes ofperpetual organizational change, innovation and learning, withoutbecoming reactive ‘fad-surfers’,

• an appreciation of the role that employee knowledge and tual capital now play as key drivers of organizational success andprofitability,

intellec-• an understanding of both the potential and the limitations of newand emergent technologies in organizations, and an awareness ofthe profound impacts these will have on the management of organi-zations during the first two decades of the 21st century,

• high ethical standards, combined with a pragmatic understanding

of doing business in the real world

Fifth, the book takes into account the fast-changing worlds that leadersand managers now work in, and the new skills and qualities that arerequired to succeed in these often chaotic environments The last twodecades of the 20th century were characterized by rapid change andthis period was variously described as ‘The Age of Surprises’, ‘The Age

of Uncertainty’, ‘The Age of Chaos’ and ‘The Age of Blur’ Thesesurprises and uncertainties included the challenges of globalization,political upheavals, the threat of global terrorism, regional economicinstabilities, corporate rationalization and downsizing, merger-mania,the breathtaking pace of technological innovation, a number of spec-tacular corporate collapses, the end of ‘jobs for life’ for almost allemployees, the continuing redefinition and realignment of the rolesand activities of organizations, employers, trades unions and employ-ees throughout the world, and growing ethical and ecological chal-lenges for organizations operating in the global economy

The first two decades of the 21st century will be characterized by evengreater change and uncertainty Global economic forces, new technolo-gies and the information revolution are driving the fastest period ofchange in human history and in the world of business ‘Future shock’,

‘chaos’ and ‘blur’ are now permanent features of life in many tions Corporate longevity is getting shorter each year, with the averagelife expectancy of a typical large or medium-sized company falling inevery decade since World War II The domination of traditional largebureaucratic organizations, since the dawn of industrial capitalism inthe early 19th century, is being challenged as new Third-Wave organi-zations emerge These developments mean that all organizations have

organiza-to think faster and smarter just organiza-to keep up with the competition.Individually, we walk faster, talk faster, sleep less, consume more infor-mation and work more than ever before We may have three or fourdifferent part-time jobs or be employed on a succession of short-term

contracts Jobs for life are rare and job insecurity is a fact of life formany professionals Employees can now expect to work for betweenfive and ten employers in a lifetime But, as the industrial age’s hege-mony is challenged, there are also opportunities for entrepreneurs andfor anyone who is willing to challenge conventional managementthinking and embrace, as Tom Peters suggested in the early 1990s,

‘Crazy Ways for Crazy Days’ In the information age (if we have goodideas, knowledge, energy and persistence) we can become businesspioneers (and, maybe, millionaires) overnight

The ability to manage the uncertainties that arise from these changes,developments and trends is now an integral part of the repertoire ofsuccessful modern business professionals, and this book is designedfor leaders and managers working in this demanding, complex, stress-ful and fast-changing world As intellectual capital, continuous inno-vation, organizational learning and new technologies become the maindrivers of organizational success, leader/managers must not only beable to understand these, they must also find new and more effectiveways of enabling their followers to cope with these new organizationalrealities, help them perform to their maximum potential and to aspirecontinually to ever-higher levels of performance and achievement

Getting the most out of this guide to leadership and people management

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

(Old Chinese saying)

This may appear to be a very strange thing to say at this point, but Idon’t believe that leadership and people management skills can belearnt from books You might now be thinking, ‘What’s the point ofbuying this one then?’ Well, books – particularly the right kind – doplay a vital supporting role in the learning process When learninganything new, there is no substitute for a supportive mentor or aninspirational teacher, but they may be hard to find or may not always

be available for help and advice Even then, in any organizational,work or educational setting, they only form part of the learning equa-

tion The main part is what you bring into these This includes

• your personal aptitudes, abilities and experience,

• the leadership and people management skills you already possess,

• an awareness of your existing strengths and limitations, and

• knowing what you want, and how you are going to achieve this inthe future

The purpose of this book is to support your side of the learning tion, and it does this on three levels: the theoretical, the practical andthe personal Because you are reading this book, either you are going

equa-to become a manager/leader in the future, or you may already have alot of work experience but want to learn about alternative ways of lead-ing and managing people at work Either way, you’re interested inpersonal growth and improving your skills, and open to new ideas andchange You care about your career and want to equip yourself for thechallenges of the future In order to develop these skills further, thisbook can also be used as a guide to your personal development andlearning, and will show how quite simple changes to the way we all

‘manage’ people can help us to become more effective leaders andmanagers of others Throughout the book, there are a series of optionalquestionnaires and self-evaluation exercises that will help you todevelop a unique leadership/management style, and enhance the wayyou lead and manage your people at work

However, it is important to emphasize that this is not a book that sellsinstant ‘fads’ or ‘quick-fix’ solutions Those who claim that you canbecome a better leader/manager in just a few days or weeks aremisleading you, or want to sell more copies of their books, or get morebums on seats at their training workshops If anyone tells you that youcan become a really successful and effective leader or manager in ashort period of time they are being dishonest This requires self-belief,time and commitment This means that you’ll need to spend some timeworking through this book, perhaps try out the self-evaluation exer-

cises, actively reflect on your own leadership and people management

practices, be prepared to unlearn old habits and beliefs and, maybe,learn some new ones This is not a ‘self-help book’; it is a guide topersonal lifelong learning and self-development

By the end of the book, you should have acquired a comprehensive

‘tool-kit’ that you can dip into as and when needed, regardless of thecircumstances that you find yourself in, the quality of the people youare leading, or the type of problems you are dealing with at work Ofequal importance, you will be in a better position to decide if you need

to discard old or redundant leadership and people management tices that no longer work effectively You will be able to evaluate whatdoes and does not work for you at present, and decide which newskills you may need to acquire to enable you to become an even moreeffective and successful leader/manager in the future

prac-This book also contains hundreds of suggestions and opinions, frombusiness and political leaders, consultants and academics, about howleadership and people management skills can be developed and

enhanced However, that is all they are and you should not view this

as a one-way process, whereby ‘the experts’ tell you what you ought to

be doing with your life Treat this as an active, two-way process thatallows you to reflect on your current practices In addition, some of thesuggestions in this book may not be directly applicable to your partic-ular occupation, work setting or organization at the moment And, ifyou know ways of leading and managing people that are better, orwork more effectively, then use these instead (and, if you have time,please send me an email to let me know what they are!)

The only way to really improve as a leader/manager is to embraceactive self-learning and development While ‘training’, in a genericsense, may have its uses, it all too often falls victim to the well-docu-mented ‘halo effect’, where people may emerge re-energized andrefreshed from leadership or management development programmes,only to find that newly acquired knowledge and insights fade awayover time, as they find themselves falling back into old and ineffectivepatterns of behaviour at work And, as has often been pointed out,

‘training’ is for circus animals and dogs, not human beings In effect,this means that none of the ‘experts’ in this book can teach you

anything Unless you are motivated and committed to learn how to

become an even more effective leader/manager, little will be gainedfrom this book Self-directed learning and learning-by-doing are nowbecoming the dominant modes of personal improvement and profes-sional development This is because lifelong learning is now the name

of the game, not possessing pieces of paper with ‘BA’ or ‘MBA’stamped on them (Botsman, 2002) This means that you can onlyimprove your leadership and people management practices by

• actively reflecting on what you currently do as a leader/manager,

• comparing this knowledge with the supermarket of information andideas in this book, and identifying areas where changes or improve-ments might be made,

• developing strategies to improve your leadership and peoplemanagement skills on a weekly and monthly basis,

• putting these into practice at work, by treating this environment asthe principal ‘training ground’ for your development as aleader/manager

There are two ways to approach this book The first is on a know basis, where you simply dip into it and have a look at areas ofinterest, or review topics that you would like to discover more about.The second and more rigorous method is to start and maintain apersonal diary In this, you can reflect on your understanding andpractice of leadership and people management, and compare what you

need-to-do now with the many insights and suggestions contained in this book.Included in each chapter are a number of optional exercises that can bephotocopied and included in this diary A loose-leaf folder or file isideal for this Simply reading about leadership and management isonly the starting point because, as Albert Einstein once observed, ‘Allknowledge should be translated into action.’

There may be a temptation to try and rush through this process Please

resist this temptation Work though each chapter gradually, and allow

time for different ideas and new information to sink in, because somepreconceived notions and common-sense assumptions about leadingand managing people in organizations are questioned and challenged

in this book Make a conscious effort to ‘bridge’ the materials that wewill cover together with your work situation, and think about how youcan apply what you learn in the future Be open and receptive to newideas and concepts, try them out and then wait to see what happens Ifyou are willing to challenge your preconceptions and assumptionsabout leadership and people management, they will challenge you insurprising and unexpected ways

You’ll need to commit some time over the coming months to readthrough and reflect on each chapter of the book The amount of timeyou’ll require does of course depend on how much work experienceyou have, the level of professional/managerial seniority you havereached and your current understanding of leadership and peoplemanagement If you can work through one chapter a week, you’ll beable to get through the whole book in less than three months This maysound like a major commitment, but represents only a tiny fraction of

a typical 40-year professional or managerial career Alternatively, youmay already have quite a lot of leadership and people managementexperience and choose to just dip into a selection of chapters, in order

to reflect on or fine-tune the things you already do well

Either way, your personal journey starts here, and I hope that you willfind it a stimulating, rewarding and enjoyable one

leadership and people management

Objectives

To define leadership, management and organization (before readingthrough this chapter you may want to spend a few minutes writingdown your own definitions of these concepts)

To resolve the important question, ‘Are leaders born or made?’

To describe briefly the roles and responsibilities of leaders andmanagers, and how organizational contexts can influence leadershipstyles

To show how followers shape and influence the performance of theirleaders and managers

To show where our beliefs about leadership come from and how theseinfluence the way we lead and manage other people

To look at the roles that coaching and mentoring now play in ship and people management

leader-To examine the roles that transformational abilities, charisma andvision play in leadership and people management

To explore the dark side of leadership

To identify the qualities and attributes of leaders you admire andwould willingly follow, now and in the future

To identify the qualities, attributes, skills and competencies of theleader/managers that most employees (men or women) want to workfor, and to look at the important role that humour can play in leader-ship and people management

1

This opening chapter also acts as the foundation for the remainder ofthe book, by summarizing the most relevant and salient aspects of the20th century literature on organizational leadership and peoplemanagement.

Introduction

Of the many decisions an executive makes, none are as important as the decisions they make about people because they, above all else, determine the performance capacity of the organization.

(Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive, 1966)

One thing that can be said with confidence about leadership andpeople management is that there have been enough books and articleswritten on these topics over the last 20 years to bemuse, perplex andconfuse anyone looking for either clarity or new insights into theseoften mysterious and complex fusions of personal qualities, attributes,characteristics, skills and competencies Indeed, one of the first things

to strike anyone who has studied these for some time is how confusingthey can be, and how critical some commentators have been aboutthese concepts in the past For example,

Leadership, as a concept at least, has failed us Despite the earnest efforts of business leaders and management writers to ennoble and dignify it, under- standings of leadership have become cheapened by overuse Leadership has been rendered impotent to deliver its promises.

(Sinclair, 1998: 1)

Even in the wayward, spluttering world of management theory, no subject has produced more waffle than leadership [ ] The value of academic research to the complexities of the chaotic situations that most business leaders and managers find themselves in today is practically zero.

(Micklethwaite and Woolridge, 1997: 11)

Leadership is an intangible quality with no clear definition That’s probably

a good thing, because if the people being led knew the definition, they would hunt down their leaders and kill them Some cynics might say that a leader is someone who gets people to do things that benefit the leader But that can’t be a good definition because there are so many exceptions, as you well know.

(Adams, 1997: 287)

[No] unequivocal understanding exists as to what distinguishes leaders from non-leaders Never have so many laboured so long to say so little.

(Bennis and Nanus, 1985: 4)

Leadership is the worst defined and least understood personal attribute sometimes possessed by human beings [ ] There are as many definitions of leadership as there are writers on the subject.

(Lippitt, 1982: 395)

So, how can we move forward from this somewhat inauspicious start?

At the beginning of our journey, let’s look at some definitions In theopening to this chapter, you were asked to think about your under-standing of three concepts that will be used many times throughoutthis book: ‘leadership’, ‘management’ and ‘organization’ Pleasecompare your definitions with these:

Leadership in English-speaking countries is derived from an old

Anglo-Saxon word, loedan, meaning a way, road, path or journey This ancient

definition of leadership is used throughout the book

Management is derived from the Italian manaeggio (a riding school),

originating in the Latin word for hand, manus So, to manufacture

something means, literally, to make things by hand, and in the 19th

century workers were employed by manufactories Both management

and manufacture may already be outdated terms that should bereplaced by mentoring, mentofacturing or technofacturing It has beensuggested that these words better reflect the realities of the currenttransition from bureaucratic industrial capitalism: from an era when

we did indeed make many things by hand, to a new world whereknowledge management, intellectual capital, innovation and new tech-nologies are fast becoming the primary drivers of organizationalperformance and success

Organization is derived from the Greek word organon, meaning a tool or

device So an organization can be viewed simply as a device for gettingthings done as efficiently and effectively as possible However, this is astatic definition As we will see throughout this book, the leaders of themost successful companies of the 20th and early 21st centuries under-

stand a basic, but extremely important principle: all organizations are

works in progress Hence an organization is defined simply as an

evolu-tionary device for achieving complex tasks as efficiently and effectively

as possible This broad definition encompasses all small, medium andlarge businesses and companies, as well as organizations in the publicand not-for-profit sectors

Why bother with definitions? More than 2400 years ago, the Greekphilosopher Socrates observed that ‘The beginning of wisdom lies inthe definition of terms’ For Socrates, great leadership was not possiblewithout wisdom, and he regarded this as the foundation of all knowl-

edge and philosophical thinking (from the Greek, philosophia, meaning

‘love of wisdom’) Clarity of definitions is important because many

commentators on leadership and management routinely providecomplex and lengthy definitions of what these things ‘are’ A principleunderlying this book is that such definitions are of little practical use

when their meanings have already been described, understood andutilized by people for millennia, in many different cultures and civi-lizations And, as we will see later, many of the insights into leadershipand people management contained in this book have been known andused by our ancestors for thousands of years This is because most ofthe qualities, skills and competencies we associate with present-dayleadership and management, such as communication, cooperation,negotiation skills, teamwork, the use of power and influence, and theability to envision the future, were also essential for the survival andevolution of our ancient ancestors These primal leadership skills are asrelevant today as they have always been.

Let’s now turn to describing leaders and leadership in more detail.Although research into organizational and business leadership can betraced back to the 1920s, there are only three facets of leadership thatall writers on this subject appear to have agreed on during these 80

years: (a) leaders have followers (b) leadership has something to do with

controlling or directing human behaviour (c) leaders describe reality totheir followers and, sometimes, suggest alternative or new realities

If this is all that is universally agreed about leadership, where do we gofrom here? Let’s return briefly to the ancient definition of leadership onthe preceding page: a way, road, path or journey On many levels, thissimple definition makes good operational sense For almost all of the

time that modern humans, Homo sapiens (‘wise man’), have inhabited

this planet (about 130 000 years according to the most recent mates), the primary function of leaders was to act as the heads ofnomadic tribes, leading them from one region to another as the seasonschanged, as animals migrated or as the environment changed In fact,the origin of the word ‘leadership’ in all cultures throughout the world

esti-is – you guessed it – a way, road, path or journey We will return to thesti-isancient understanding of leadership throughout this book

Hence, even in modern business or organizational contexts, leadershipcan still be viewed in terms of the process of guiding employees downthe right ways, roads or paths, thereby ensuring that their efforts are inline with broader organizational goals and objectives In this context, aleader can be described as anyone who has responsibility for coordinat-ing or directing the actions of other people, and who has the ability toencourage them to do more than they might be expected to do without

a leader This also means that leaders have to possess the ability to leadfollowers on new journeys into the future, whenever this is required.And, as we will see later, while leaders do perform a variety of roles inmodern organizations, the ability to lead others is built on a relativelysmall number of core qualities, attributes, skills and competencies

If this describes leadership, what is management? Is this the same asleadership, a part of leadership or something quite different? Businessleaders, management commentators and academics often use thesewords interchangeably, but there continue to be important differencesbetween the two terms.

1 Leadership is usually concerned with what needs to be done – management often focuses on how things should be done Hence a

manager would focus on how quickly and efficiently an employeeclimbs up and down a ladder to perform a task A leader would beprimarily concerned with determining whether the task was appro-priate in the first place, or if the ladder was leaning against the rightwall

2 Leadership is primarily concerned with relationships – management

is often concerned with tasks Hence a manager dealing with conflict

between two subordinates would tend to rely on positional powerand procedural rules to resolve this A leader would tend to usetheir personal power and authority, communication skills and an

ability to appeal to the hearts and minds of their followers to resolve

the conflict

3 Leaders have to think outside the square – managers usually thinkwithin it Hence management is about employee efficiency in thehere and now, but leadership is about making changes that willenable their staff to be efficient in the future

4 Leaders try to find ways to enhance and improve their employees’performance – managers are primarily concerned with controlling

and monitoring performance Hence, managers will tend to push their staff towards goals they have set for them Leaders will focus their energies on pulling their staff towards goals they have agreed

with them (this subtle but important distinction is discussed in more

detail in Chapter 4 and Chapter 7)

5 Leaders are comfortable with change and possess a change-oriented,outward-looking view of the future Managers may feel uncomfort-able about the prospect of change, and often focus on maintainingthe status quo or ‘the way we do things around here’

6 Leaders are able to step into the unknown – managers often have to

be shown why they should take such a step Hence leadership isoften concerned with the creation of new paradigms – management

While there are times when it can be important to distinguish betweenleadership and management, it’s equally important not to get hung up

on the differences between the two terms For example, there are someeffective leaders who are not great managers, but have the ability torecruit enough good managers to work for them There are some leaders

who are also good managers There are also effective managers (that

’get things done’) who may not be good leaders, because anyone whowants to make the transition from management into a leadership rolehas to acquire some new qualities and skills This is why people whomay be very good managers can often fail when thrust into leadershippositions without some preparation for these new and demandingroles (Zaleznik, 2004; Kotter, 1990) In this book, the two terms willsometimes be clearly distinguished and at other times they will be usedinterchangeably, because these days there are few managers who donot act, in some capacity, as leaders and few leaders who do not act, insome capacity, as managers

I obey a manager because I have to I follow a leader because I want to.

(Steve Carey, former advisor to Bill Clinton, 1999)

Are leaders ‘born’ or ‘made’?

This is a question that is often debated but is still, in many people’seyes, unresolved However, it remains an important issue to addressbecause the notion that leadership is largely innate still underpins theway that many people think about leaders, their beliefs about theirown capacity for leadership, and their views about the self-leadershippotential of their followers Common-sense assumptions aboutemployees’ innate leadership qualities are also used frequently byorganizations when making hiring, firing and promotion decisions.The earliest scientific studies of leadership, conducted in the USA inthe 1930s, were concerned with identifying a list of personal psycho-logical traits that could distinguish leaders from non-leaders Overtime, this became known as ‘The Great Man’ theory of leadership In

1948, Stogdill reviewed the results of dozens of trait studies that hadbeen conducted over the preceding two decades, and summarized thecharacteristics of a great leader as follows:

The leader is characterised by a strong drive for responsibility and task completion, vigour and persistence in pursuit of goals, venturesomeness and originality in problem solving, and a drive to exercise initiative in social situations He possesses self-confidence and a strong sense of personal iden- tity; a willingness to accept the consequences of decision and actions, a readiness to absorb interpersonal stress, a willingness to tolerate frustration and delay, an ability to influence other people’s behaviour, and a capacity

to structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand.

(Stogdill, 1948: 71)

Note that women leaders did not figure in the thinking of male mics at this time, an issue we will return to in Chapter 6 Leaving thisunconscious oversight aside for now, Stogdill did report that research

acade-studies had not been able to locate any traits that consistently

differen-tiated leaders from non-leaders They also observed that the traits theyhad identified appeared to come and go at random, varied from leader

to leader, and only became apparent after people had achieved ship positions This was a natural consequence of the fact that they

leader-could only look at leaders after the event, when they had already become

leaders Further research indicated that the correlation between specific

psychological traits and leadership is low, accounting for only about 10per cent of the factors that predict whether someone was a leader or not(Stogdill, 1974) Surprisingly, subsequent research has failed to answerdefinitively the question that opened this section, ‘Are leaders born ormade?’ and this remains a topic of heated debate amongst academics

In terms of this continuing nature/nurture debate, there are three basicpositions that have been adopted by academic researchers, reflectingthe intellectual subjectivity of their disciplinary backgrounds

1 Our potential for leadership is entirely determined by the geneticprogramming we inherit from our natural parents (many geneti-cists)

2 Our potential for leadership is determined by a combination ofgenetic predispositions, psychological development and socializa-tion experiences (particularly during childhood), school and peergroup influences, social class and culture (all psychologists andsocial psychologists)

3 Our potential for leadership is determined by the socializationprocesses we experience after birth and social–psychological devel-opment (particularly during childhood), school and peer groupinfluences, social class and culture (most sociologists)

So, who’s right? Recent advances in evolutionary psychology andgenetic mapping leave little doubt that our genetic inheritance has aninfluence on our physical and psychological development in life Somestudies of twins, raised separately, show that genetics shape personal-ity; in particular, key psychological characteristics such as introversionand extroversion Furthermore, twins raised apart often show stunningsimilarities in their scholastic achievements, choice of occupations,clothing, hobbies, musical preferences and even their choice ofspouses Advances in genetic mapping have also confirmed that there

is a genetic component to the human Intelligence Quotient (IQ),

although at birth this is simply potential: it still has to be ‘actualized’

through learning and socialization For example, in Albert Einstein’scase, the two areas of his brain involved in the generation and manip-ulation of spatial images were 1cm larger than those of a normallyintelligent person This meant that he possessed an ‘extra’ 15 per centbrain processing capacity He was also born without one of the deep

grooves that separate the left and right hemispheres of the brain As aresult, he had many more neural connections between thelogical/linear and spatial/creative parts of his brain than would befound in a more typical human brain In other words, the uniquecombined genetic inheritance he acquired from his parents gave him a

propensity to be a paradigm-breaking genius, although he was not

regarded as being an academically outstanding student at school oruniversity

In a similar vein, the ability to produce seratonin has a genetic basis It

has been suggested that this is linked to leadership potential because it

is known to be a key modulator of mood and emotions In other words,certain people have a genetic predisposition to produce this natural

‘drug’ when under pressure and, as a result, are better equipped todeal with uncertain situations, competing demands, interpersonal

conflict and stress (Goleman et al., 2002) There is also some evidence to

suggest that genetic predispositions can have an influence on thecareers we choose and the environments we choose to work in(Nicholson, 2000: 97–127) In other words, there may be a kind ofautopilot – at the genetic level – that impels us to ‘choose’ particularcareers and professions, and which can also influence the particularleadership and people management styles that we utilize as adults.Edward O Wilson best described this process when he argued that thehuman mind was not a blank slate to be simply ‘filled in’ by experi-ence, as most sociologists would argue, but ‘an exposed negative wait-ing to be slipped into developer fluid’ (cited by Uren, 1999) Somecommentators have taken this suggestion one stage further and arguedthat, while social influences and life experiences may modify ourinnate genetic programming, these can affect the development of ourbasic personalities and the operation of our brains only in so far as theyinhibit or activate propensities that were already there at birth (forexample, Ridley, 2003; Stock, 2002)

Another way of looking at the influence of innate ‘programming’ andenvironmental influences on our psychological development is withthe hardware/software analogy The hardware represents the rawgenetic material we inherit from our parents at conception The soft-ware represents the ‘files’ of information, knowledge and feedback that

we receive from the environment before and after birth, and duringour formative years Without these, the hardware cannot ever be acti-vated and actualized Conversely, without functional hardware, noamount of software is going to work Having said this, the evidenceconcerning genetic influences on human personalities and psycholo-

gies still does not tell us if leadership is something we are born with.

Complex organisms like human beings are not simply the sum of their

genes, nor do genes alone build an individual’s unique personality andpsychology These certainly have an influence, but represent at birth a

set of potentialities, nothing more They operate in complex and

symbi-otic relationships with environmental, social and cultural influences;relationships that researchers are only now beginning to unravel andunderstand The most powerful example that can be cited to supportthis statement is the radical transformation of the role of women inmanagement and business leadership over the last 30 years in indus-trialized countries Their collective genetic make-up has not changedone iota during this period of time, and yet their collective beliefs aboutwhat they are capable of have changed enormously, as have the beliefs

of some men about the capabilities of women (see Chapter 6) There isalso research which has shown that the first wave of women to reachsenior leadership positions in the 1970s and 1980s grew up in familyenvironments that insulated or dissuaded them from accepting socialand cultural stereotypes about their ‘correct’ roles and potential in life.These women were then able to develop the drive, ambition and tenac-ity that enabled them to battle their way to the top of male-dominatedprofessions and organizations (Sinclair and Wilson, 2002; Sinclair,1998: 80)

And while there is a genetic component underpinning intelligence – asmeasured by IQ tests – there is little evidence that a high IQ is neededfor leadership Under some conditions, a very high IQ may occasion-ally be useful, but it is not essential for leaders In fact, there is a body

of evidence that suggests that very high intelligence is closely ated with psychopathology and deviant behaviour (an issue we return

associ-to later in this chapter) Furthermore, IQ is only one form of gence’ We now know that there are many other forms of human intel-ligence, including linguistic, interpersonal, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic,creative, musical, logical/mathematical and naturalistic intelligences(Gardner, 1993) To these we could also add moral/ethical and socialintelligences, which we will return to in Chapter 12 These other types

‘intelli-of intelligence can only be developed though the complex processes ‘intelli-ofhuman learning and socialization and, of equal importance, can be

developed in adulthood (Goleman et al., 2002) As we progress through

this book, we will show how these forms of intelligence can beenhanced throughout life For example, do you believe that you are notparticularly innovative or creative? Why do you believe this? Who firsttold you that you were not creative? How many opportunities haveyou had to acquire these skills? In Chapter 9, we will see how almostanyone can learn to be better at lateral thinking and, thereby, becomemore creative and innovative Another example is public speaking Doyou believe that you are not particularly good at this (perhaps becauseyou are ‘introverted’)? Why do you believe this? In Chapter 3 we will