Friday, September 01, 2006
Leadership speak: Unpacking Harvard
Joel said: at (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/24.html)
“The annoying thing about everything that comes out of Harvard Business School is that the conclusion is so infuriatingly wishy-washy. “Expanding your self-awareness, situational awareness, and ability to adapt your leadership style increases your overall range of effectiveness as a leader,” they say. What a bold thought.”
quoting:
Sean Silverthorne: “Is it better to be loved or feared?”
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5464.html
My 2 cents:
I not only think this paragraph says specific, important things, but that each of them is unintuitive:
1. "expanding your self-awareness" = always blame yourself first, think three times before even suggesting anyone under you might be wrong. If you are the one who's wrong and you go after a subordinate just once, even mildly, your leadership of that person may well be compromised for as long as both of you work for the same organization.
2. "situational awareness" = DON'T focus (you're the leader, you simply can't – go ask someone else to focus on what you've decided was important, or critical.) "SA" was originally fighter pilot talk for keeping an eye out for missiles while fighting and talking and dropping bombs, etc.
3. "ability to adapt your leadership style" = there's no one way to lead, and there's no such thing as a leader with just one way of behaving, so be ready to behave differently on a dime, always. This really means not having “a” leadership style. Sure, be predictable when that works best, but be unpredictable when necessary, to break the mood, or just to ease troop boredom. It's so hard to learn one way to lead that almost all of us stop there. DON'T. Keep learning different ways to skin the cat, no matter how good your results have been.
The Harvard author doesn't like to "write dirty" by ever referring to the real world, but his message isn't vague, merely encrusted in academic jargon. That's how you get to Harvard (I've only visited.)
“The annoying thing about everything that comes out of Harvard Business School is that the conclusion is so infuriatingly wishy-washy. “Expanding your self-awareness, situational awareness, and ability to adapt your leadership style increases your overall range of effectiveness as a leader,” they say. What a bold thought.”
quoting:
Sean Silverthorne: “Is it better to be loved or feared?”
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5464.html
My 2 cents:
I not only think this paragraph says specific, important things, but that each of them is unintuitive:
1. "expanding your self-awareness" = always blame yourself first, think three times before even suggesting anyone under you might be wrong. If you are the one who's wrong and you go after a subordinate just once, even mildly, your leadership of that person may well be compromised for as long as both of you work for the same organization.
2. "situational awareness" = DON'T focus (you're the leader, you simply can't – go ask someone else to focus on what you've decided was important, or critical.) "SA" was originally fighter pilot talk for keeping an eye out for missiles while fighting and talking and dropping bombs, etc.
3. "ability to adapt your leadership style" = there's no one way to lead, and there's no such thing as a leader with just one way of behaving, so be ready to behave differently on a dime, always. This really means not having “a” leadership style. Sure, be predictable when that works best, but be unpredictable when necessary, to break the mood, or just to ease troop boredom. It's so hard to learn one way to lead that almost all of us stop there. DON'T. Keep learning different ways to skin the cat, no matter how good your results have been.
The Harvard author doesn't like to "write dirty" by ever referring to the real world, but his message isn't vague, merely encrusted in academic jargon. That's how you get to Harvard (I've only visited.)
