Managing Leadership^®

If you read widely in the field, you may eventually begin to wonder what, exactly, management really is, anyway. It is so often discussed in reference to its actors – those who do it, those to whom it is done – that we forget to ask why it is done. And when we do, the answers are often also in reference to those actors – to develop leaders, to empower employees, even to raise them to the next level of consciousness and morality.

There are several problems with this, but we’ll note just two, here:

• It describes management as an essentially closed system, with little reference to outside influence in its operation and – even more telling – for its existence.

• It is patronizing, depicting a peculiar class system of managers and employees in which the latter rely on the former for their sense of self-worth and, indeed, for any real chance of developing any.

I know many of you will reject the latter point, insisting that the modern systems of management are enlightened and designed for the good of the worker – but the presumption of inherent superiority is real, and the assumption that employees depend on the patronage of the management class for their psychic development and well-being is decades old – dating back at least to the theory of transformational leadership – and still thriving.

Now, that’s not to say that all of this movement’s prescriptions are erroneous, or that they don’t represent real advances in the practice of management. But it is to say that to the extent they focus on management as the enlightened provider of these benefits, and on the relationship between the providers and the recipients of these, it is well off the mark.

We’re going to talk about this over the next several weeks or so. We will describe the general problem, break it into its parts, examine each of them, and look for ways to help us learn to throw out the bath water without throwing out the baby.

What we’re going to be doing is trying to answer the question: what is management? We want to discover who you are, what you do – and why you do it.

But to begin with, I want to ask you to review a piece from this week’s The Economist magazine. It is about the CEO of SAS, and it discusses how the liberal culture he has instilled in the corporation contributes to its success. You will recognize much of what you see in terms of employee benefits and perquisites. But as you read, keep in mind this lone sentence buried unceremoniously in the midst of the piece:

The purpose of treating his employees well is to succeed in business.”

That sentence breaks through the insular cocoon of most management thinking and even practice, today, to unite the two in a meaningful and productive way. Start thinking about it now. Pause now and then to consider it while you are at work managing. Read the referenced article from the perspective it suggests. And keep it close at hand during the discussion it will generate over the next several weeks.

What’s more, bring your own ideas along, please. I will certainly attempt to present and support my views on this, but results-focused debate is the best way to ensure that all aspects of an issue are exposed to examination and understanding. It should be fun, too.

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Today’s tip: Stop by to view this piece from Ask a Manager which offers an excellent discussion of the implications for managers of the tendency of incompetent people to overestimate their competence. We will use this point here, on Monday, as a means of kicking off the next series.

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