Too much of a good thing

[Van!]

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21578990-leaders-need-learn-beware-their-strengths-too-much-good-thing

Schumpeter

Too much of a good thing

Leaders need to learn to beware of their strengths

Jun 8th 2013 |From the print edition

IT IS only natural for leaders to try to make the most of their strengths. The theory of comparative advantage directs people, as well as countries and firms, to focus on what they are good at. Management experts have tended to concur: one of the bestselling business books of recent years is called “Now Discover Your Strengths”, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. When business schools (and indeed business columnists) profile bosses, they often assume that more is better. But is this right? Three more recent books express some doubts. In “Fear Your Strengths”, Robert Kaplan and Robert Kaiser argue that “what you are best at could be your biggest problem.” Forcefulness can become bullying; decisiveness can turn into pigheadedness; niceness can develop into indecision.

Managers who rely too much on their strengths may become hammers that see every problem as a nail. Over-forceful bosses can turn their subordinates into patsies; consensus-obsessed bosses can institutionalise dithering. It is not difficult to find examples of strengths-turned-weaknesses in politics. Barack Obama’s talent for lofty rhetoric has distracted him from the nuts and bolts of policymaking. François Hollande’s passion for being Mr Normal has rendered him too small for his grand office.

In this section

As they rise in an organisation, people often become comfortable practising the skills that have got them thus far, and fail to ask how useful these are when working at a higher level. Thomas DeLong of Harvard Business School and his daughter Sara DeLong, a psychiatrist, dub this “the paradox of excellence” in a 2011 article. One result is that leaders end up micromanaging their subordinates (particularly those doing the job that they used to do) and neglecting the big picture. It often makes bosses choose to do the wrong thing well rather than the right thing poorly. One reason for the 2007-08 financial crisis was that the heads of big investment banks and brokers had often made their reputations as traders, rewarded for taking big risks rather than managing for the long term. Examples include Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers and Jimmy Cayne of Bear Stearns.

Among the solutions offered by Messrs Kaplan and Kaiser is for bosses to create feedback mechanisms that tell them when they are going over the top (one “over-talker” got a friend to hold up a sheriff’s badge if he was talking too much in business meetings). They have also designed a Leadership Versatility Index that assesses whether leaders are overplaying their strengths.

In “From Smart to Wise”, Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou argue that the strengths that today’s leaders are most likely to overuse are what Americans called “smarts”. These are the sort of skills managers pick up studying at business school or working in consultancies, such as the ability to spot patterns in a mass of data, or to use sophisticated financial instruments.

Messrs Kaipa and Radjou point out that some of the worst business scandals of recent years have involved some of the smartest people. Jeffrey Skilling put so much emphasis on smarts when he was boss of Enron that he ignored good character and common sense. Rajit Gupta’s obsession with showing how clever and well-connected he was led him into trading inside information. In his younger, pre-philanthropic incarnation, Bill Gates was bent on displaying his IQ, and did his company no favours by coming across as arrogant and condescending during Microsoft’s antitrust trial in 1998-2001.

In “Tipping Sacred Cows”, Jake Breeden goes further, arguing that many so-called management virtues are just as likely to be vices in disguise. Consultants encourage leaders to create a culture of organisational excellence. But today innovation often depends on rapid prototyping and “good enough” innovations, so those taking the consultants’ advice risk letting the best be the enemy of the good.

Debunking the debunkers

These three books are all valuable exercises in iconoclasm. But the trouble with iconoclasm when you apply it to the analysis of leadership is that you can go on for ever. Many successful leaders are successful precisely because they push their strengths to the limit. Richard Branson has turned Virgin into a global brand by relentlessly exploiting his two biggest strengths: his ability to take on “big bad wolves”—firms that are overcharging and underserving the public—and his talent for infusing Virgin with a counter-cultural personality. The very over-the-topness of his stunts, whether it is crossing the Atlantic in a power boat or parading around in drag, is vital to his success.

Leadership skills are context-dependent. Margaret Thatcher was undoubtedly a nightmare to work for. In 1981 her closest advisers were so exasperated with her that they produced a memo that criticised her for breaking “every rule of good man-management”, including bullying her weaker brethren, criticising her colleagues in front of officials and refusing to give praise or credit. It warned her that she was “likely to become another failed Tory prime minister sitting with [Edward] Heath”. But her abrasive style was exactly what Britain needed in the 1980s.

The word that is too often missing from leadership studies is “judgment”. Everybody involved in the business is desperate to appear scientific: academics because they want to get research grants and consultants because they want to prove that they are selling something more than just instinct. But judgment is what matters most, and it is hard to measure. It takes judgment to resist getting carried away with one quality (such as decisiveness) or one measure of success (such as the share price). It takes judgment to know when to modulate your virtues and when to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately judgment is in rather shorter supply than leadership versatility indices.

From the print edition: Business

[李劤涉]

언제나 감사합니다 ^^

[Seok Ihm]

아..오늘은 재미있는 글이네요.. 고맙습니다.,

[안젤라 m]

잘읽고갑니다~~^^ 감사합니다