Setbacks are a natural part of life

If you really believe what you're doing, you've got to persevere even when you run into obstacles. When I finished sulking (about the setback), I doubled my efforts and worked even harder. In a few months I had my old job back. Setbacks are a natural part of life, and you've got to be careful how you respond to them. If I had sulked too long, I probably would have got my self fired.

Lee Iacocca

Autobiography 1984

Using your time well

the ability fo concentrate and to use your time well is everything if want to succeed in business-or almost anywhere else, for that matter. Ever since college I've always worked hard during the week while trying to keep my weekends free for family and recreation. Except for periods of real crisis I've never worked on Friday night, Saturday or Sunday. Every Sunday ngiht I get the adrenalin going again by making an outline of what I want to accomplish during the upcoming week.

If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.

Lee Iacocca
An Autobiography 1984

Choosing Strategies for Change

Choosing Strategies for Change.
By: Kotter, John P., Schlesinger, Leonard A.,
Harvard Business Review,
Jul-Aug 2008, Vol. 86, Issue 7/8

Section: Best of HBR

• EDITOR'S NOTE: A lot has changed in the world of management since 1979, when this article first appeared, but one thing has not: Companies the world over need to change course. Kotter and Schlesinger provide a practical, tested way to think about managing that change.

"IT MUST BE considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things." (Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince.)

Diagnosing Resistance

Parochial self-interest
Misunderstanding and lack of trust
Different assessments
Low tolerance for change

Dealing with Resistance

Education and communication
Participation and involvement
Facilitation and support
Negotiation and agreement
Manipulation and co-optation
Explicit and implicit coercion



John P. Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School and the author of A Sense of Urgency, forthcoming from Harvard Business Press. Leonard A. Schlesinger has been named the 12th president of Babson College, in Babson Park, Massachusetts.

Guidelines for Alcohol Use in Business Settings

Alcohol facilitates relationship building, but harms the actual bargaining process.

Alcohol might be appropriate when the objective of an encounter is to develop a relationship or share information. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, encourages conversation, and causes individuals to feel closer to each other than they might otherwise. By encouraging disclosure, moderate use of alcohol can deepen and personalize formal business ties. And by encouraging a sense of closeness and mutual identification, it can help legitimize different points of view and reduce mistrust. It therefore might be appropriate when a primary objective is to develop a long-term relationship. Consequently, alcohol may be better suited for top decision-makers structuring the general framework of an agreement than for their subordinates who need to resolve the technical details of the deal. For similar reasons alcohol may facilitate agreement in particularly contentious negotiations such as when negotiators have reached an impasse.



Bargaining under the influence: The role of alcohol in negotiations
Maurice E Schweitzer, Jeffrey L Kerr.
The Academy of Management Executive.
May 2000. Vol. 14, Iss. 2;

Maurice E. Schweitzer is a visiting assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His background is in behavioral decision theory and his research focus is negotiations. He has studied the use of deception in negotiations, as well as factors that influence the negotiation process, including alcohol, physical attractiveness, and videoconference technology. Contact: schweitz@wharton.upenn.edu.

Jeffrey L Kerr is an associate professor in the School of Business at the University of Miami. His work focuses on strategic management and organization. Current research interests are in the areas of new organization design, competitive strategy in electronic commerce, and issues of strategy implementation. He currently serves as chair of the Management Consulting Division of the Academy of Management. Contact: jkerr@exchange. sba.miami.edu.

Four basic emotional needs, or drives,

Employee Motivation. By: Nohria, Nitin, Groysberg, Boris, Lee, Linda-Eling, Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Jul-Aug2008, Vol. 86, Issue 7/8



Our synthesis of the research suggests that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives, that are the product of our common evolutionary heritage. As set out by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria in their 2002 book Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, they are the drives to acquire (obtain scarce goods, including intangibles such as social status); bond (form connections with individuals and groups); comprehend (satisfy our curiosity and master the world around us); and defend (protect against external threats and promote justice). These drives underlie everything we do.




The drive to acquire. We are all driven to acquire scarce goods that bolster our sense of well-being. We experience delight when this drive is fulfilled, discontentment when it is thwarted. This phenomenon applies not only to physical goods like food, clothing, housing, and money, but also to experiences like travel and entertainment -- not to mention events that improve social status, such as being promoted and getting a corner office or a place on the corporate board. The drive to acquire tends to be relative (we always compare what we have with what others possess) and insatiable (we always want more). That explains why people always care not just about their own compensation packages but about others' as well. It also illuminates why salary caps are hard to impose.


The drive to bond. Many animals bond with their parents, kinship group, or tribe, but only humans extend that connection to larger collectives such as organizations, associations, and nations. The drive to bond, when met, is associated with strong positive emotions like love and caring and, when not, with negative ones like loneliness and anomie. At work, the drive to bond accounts for the enormous boost in motivation when employees feel proud of belonging to the organization and for their loss of morale when the institution betrays them. It also explains why employees find it hard to break out of divisional or functional silos: People become attached to their closest cohorts. But it's true that the ability to form attachments to larger collectives sometimes leads employees to care more about the organization than about their local group within it.



The drive to comprehend. We want very much to make sense of the world around us, to produce theories and accounts -- scientific, religious, and cultural -- that make events comprehensible and suggest reasonable actions and responses. We are frustrated when things seem senseless, and we are invigorated, typically, by the challenge of working out answers. In the workplace, the drive to comprehend accounts for the desire to make a meaningful contribution. Employees are motivated by jobs that challenge them and enable them to grow and learn, and they are demoralized by those that seem to be monotonous or to lead to a dead end. Talented employees who feel trapped often leave their companies to find new challenges elsewhere.



The drive to defend. We all naturally defend ourselves, our property and accomplishments, our family and friends, and our ideas and beliefs against external threats. This drive is rooted in the basic fight-or-flight response common to most animals. In humans, it manifests itself not just as aggressive or defensive behavior, but also as a quest to create institutions that promote justice, that have clear goals and intentions, and that allow people to express their ideas and opinions. Fulfilling the drive to defend leads to feelings of security and confidence; not fulfilling it produces strong negative emotions like fear and resentment. The drive to defend tells us a lot about people's resistance to change; it's one reason employees can be devastated by the prospect of a merger or acquisition -- an especially significant change -- even if the deal represents the only hope for an organization's survival. So, for example, one day you might be told you're a high performer and indispensable to the company's success, and the next that you may be let go owing to a restructuring -- a direct challenge, in its capriciousness, to your drive to defend. Little wonder that headhunters so frequently target employees during such transitions, when they know that people feel vulnerable and at the mercy of managers who seem to be making arbitrary personnel decisions.


Each of the four drives we have described is independent; they cannot be ordered hierarchically or substituted one for another. You can't just pay your employees a lot and hope they'll feel enthusiastic about their work in an organization where bonding is not fostered, or work seems meaningless, or people feel defenseless. Nor is it enough to help people bond as a tight-knit team when they are underpaid or toiling away at deathly boring jobs. You can certainly get people to work under such circumstances -- they may need the money or have no other current prospects -- but you won't get the most out of them, and you risk losing them altogether when a better deal comes along. To fully motivate your employees, you must address all four drives.

Nitin Nohria (nnohria@hbs.edu) is the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration, and Boris Groysberg (bgroysberg@hbs.edu) is an associate professor, at Harvard Business School in Boston. Linda-Eling Lee (llee@hbs.edu) is a research director at the Center for Research on Corporate Performance in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Career Blues - Career Engagement

What are the Career Blues?

The career blues are marked by a loss of enthusiasm for work, a loss of a sense of purpose in work, and an emotional flatness regarding work that affect the use of time and talents, energy and effort, and aspirations and attitude while at work. People suffering the blues have lost their desire to go to work, view work as drudgery, and have no clear sense of how work adds value to their lives. They are going through the motions at work, and are uninterested, unenthusiastic, and unengaged.

Career Engagement

The opposite of the career blues is career engagement. People engaged with their careers are enthusiastic about their work, have a sense of satisfying purpose in what they are doing, and are able to draw on and continuously renew that sense. They effectively utilize most of their time, talent, and energy. They give an honest, focused effort in the pursuit of fulfilling personal aspirations. People engaged in their work enjoy it and invest in it.


Clinical Depression

Are the career blues different from depression? Clinical depression has become a major health concern, and is largely underreported in the workplace. As a significant contributing factor to lost work productivity, time, and even suicide, clinical depression is a health factor to which executives and organizations need pay more attention. One management observer recently reported that in a large high-tech company, "20 percent of the IT department showed signs of clinical depression."15 The article, "An Executive Guide to Workplace Depression," by Joseph Kline, Jr., and Lyle Sussman in this issue gives more insight on this challenging problem.

The career blues are not clinical depression; rather they represent a milder malaise in which one has lost one's sense of purpose in work. While the career blues may develop into depression, they are less severe and more easily dealt with.

Managing one's relationship to work can have a positive effect on the career blues, while clinical or biochemically based depressions need professional medical treatment.


Beating the career blues
James G Clawson, Mark E Haskins. The Academy of Management Executive. Briarcliff Manor: Aug 2000. Vol. 14, Iss. 3;


James G. Clawson is a professor of business administration at The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. He teaches in the MBA, doctoral, and executive education programs, and has published numerous articles and books, most recently, Level Three Leadership. He consults with a variety of organizations on leadership, careers, and leading change. He has a DBA from Harvard University. Contact: Jim Clawson@virginia.edu.

Mark E. Haskins is a professor of business administration at The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. He has worked for Arthur Young & Co. He is the coauthor of three textbooks and coeditor of The CFO Handbook. His interests include collaboration and international financial reporting. He has a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. Contact: HaskinsM@Darden. virginia.edu.

Workplace Depression

An executive guide to workplace depression
Joseph Kline Jr, Lyle Sussman. The Academy of Management Executive. Briarcliff Manor: Aug 2000. Vol. 14, Iss. 3;



What is Major Depression?

Major depression is a serious and frequently chronic mood disorder characterized by one or more major depressive episodes in the absence of mania or hypomania. The disorder is better known to the general public by the term clinical depression.


Diagnosis of depression

The diagnosis of major depression requires the presence of five signs and symptoms, including either a depressed mood or markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all or most activities. Additional signs and symptoms must be present from a list that includes marked psychomotor retardation or agitation (slowed or agitated movements, for example); significant appetite or weight change; significant changes in sleep; fatigue or loss of energy; problems thinking, concentrating, or deciding; feelings of worthlessness; excessive or inappropriate guilt; and thoughts of death or suicide. Finally, the signs and symptoms must be present for at least two consecutive weeks. Because it takes time for depressed individuals to actually recognize that they are depressed and need help, it is extremely rare for a patient to be evaluated before this twoweek period has elapsed.

Difficulty in concentrating may be one of the most prominent symptoms in affected workers. A depressed employee may be unable to think clearly, process information well, or contribute effectively in groups. Turner extends the list of job-related signs of depression to include decreased productivity, morale problems, lack of cooperation, safety problems, accidents, absenteeism, complaints of constant fatigue, complaints of unexplained aches and pains, and alcohol and drug abuse.


How common is major depression? According to the National Comorbidity Survey, a landmark epidemiological study of 8,098 15- to 54-year-olds, major depression is the second most common mental illness in the United States, after alcoholism. Almost 13 percent of men and 21 percent of women will experience at least one episode of major depression during their lifetimes.

The likelihood of an individual's having a major depressive episode in any 12-month period-known as the 12-month prevalence-is about eight percent for men and 13 percent for women.

Authors

Joseph Kline, Jr., is a board-certified psychiatrist at NorthKey Community Care in Covington, KY. He received his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics, and M.D., and an M.B.A. with distinction, all from the University of Louisville. He practices community psychiatry and conducts research on mental illness in the workplace, difficult employees, burnout, and the application of the theory of constraints to health-care organizations. Contact: jkline01@aol.com.

Lyle Sussman is a professor of management at the University of Louisville. His research on communication, employee coaching and counseling, and executive development has appeared in leading academic and practitioner journals. He has conducted seminars in Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the Far East. His applied management books, Smart Moves and Smart Moves for People in Charge, have been translated into 13 languages. Contact: lylesussman@louisville.edu.

Anxieties of Superior Performers

How to Keep A PLAYERS Productive.
By: Berglas, Steven,
Harvard Business Review,
Sep2006, Vol. 84, Issue 9

A players are the people with the "right stuff." They are the most fiercely ambitious, wildly capable, and intelligent people in any organization. Yet despite their veneer of self-satisfaction, smugness, and even bluster, a significant number of your spectacular performers suffer from a lack of confidence.

The psychologist Alfred Adler, the man who brought inferiority and superiority complexes into our everyday language, offered an explanation almost 100 years ago. Adler argued that the most fundamental human need is for superiority, a need that arises from universal feelings of inferiority experienced by us all in early childhood when we are helpless and dependent on others. If we manage these feelings appropriately, we go on to lead well-adjusted lives. But if powerful authority figures thwart our efforts to overcome these feelings, then complexes develop, causing narcissistic grandiosity that can linger for the rest of our lives.

Adler asserted that if a person suffers either from an inferiority or a superiority complex (which for Adler were opposite sides of the same coin), then whatever he achieves it will never be enough. As I once heard it put: "Some people go through life feeling superior; others go through life feeling like worms. Narcissists go through life feeling like superior worms."


One might assume that A players' feelings of superiority are a tremendous boon to them since, among other things, these feelings help them to communicate enormous self-confidence to others. But the plight of the overachiever who feels like a superior worm is that he must live with the constant anxiety that he might in fact be inferior to others. Only when you can help your stars address their inflated senses of superiority can they begin to deal with underlying issues of poor self-worth.

Managing with cultural differences

Rethinking Political Correctness. By: Ely, Robin J., Meyerson, Debra E., Davidson, Martin N., Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Sep2006, Vol. 84, Issue 9

When people treat their cultural differences - and the conflicts and tensions that arise from them - as opportunities to seek a more accurate view of themselves, each other, and the situation, trust builds and relationships become stronger.


Robin J. Ely (rely@hbs.edu) is an associate professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School in Boston; she coauthored "Making Differences Matter: A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity" (HBR September-October 1996). Debra E. Meyerson (debram@stanford.edu) is an associate professor of education and organizational behavior at Stanford University's School of Education and (by courtesy) Graduate School of Business in California and the author of Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work (Harvard Business School Press, 2001). Martin N. Davidson (mdav@virginia.edu) is an associate professor of leadership and organizational behavior at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Trusting and be trusted

The Decision to Trust.
By: Hurley, Robert F.,
Harvard Business Review,
September 2006, Vol. 84, Issue 9


Roughly half of all managers don't trust their leaders. That's what I found when I recently surveyed 450 executives of 30 companies from around the world.

This article presents a model with ten factors that sheds light on how the decision to trust is made.

Robert F. Hurley (Rohurley@fordham.edu) is a professor of management at Fordham University in New York.

The Tools of Cooperation and Change

The Tools of Cooperation and Change.
By: Christensen, Clayton M., Marx, Matt, Stevenson, Howard H.,
Harvard Business Review,
October 2006, Vol. 84, Issue 10

Managers can use a variety of carrots and sticks to encourage people to work together and accomplish change. Their ability to get results depends on selecting tools that match the circumstances they face

THE PRIMARY TASK OF MANAGEMENT is to get people to work together in a systematic way.

It’s a complicated job, and it becomes much more so when managers are trying to get people to change, rather than continue with the status quo. Even the best CEOs can stumble in their attempts to encourage people to work together toward a new corporate goal.


The tools of cooperation can be grouped into four major categories: power, management, leadership, and culture.

"Power tools" are such as fiat, force, coercion, and threats.

"Management tools" include training, standard operating procedures, and measurement systems.

"Leadership tools":Vision, charisma, salesmanship, role modelling, financial incentives, control systems

"Culture tools": Tradition, rituals, folklore, religion, democracy


As MIT’s Edgar Schein wrote in Organizational Culture and Leadership, culture is "a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems." In organizations with strong cultures, people instinctively prioritize similar options, and their common view of how the world works means that little debate is necessary about the best way to achieve those priorities. Companies with strong cultures in many ways can be self-managing.

Authors

Clayton M. Christensen (cchristensen@hbs.edu)is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in Boston.

Matt Marx (mmarx@hbs.edu)is a doctoral student at Harvard Business School.

Howard H. Stevenson (hstevenson@hbs.edu)is the Sarofin-Rock Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the vice provost for Harvard University Resources and Planning. He is also the chairman of the board for Harvard Business School Publishing.

Sleep Deficit is a Performance Killer

Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer.
By: Fryer, Bronwyn,
Harvard Business Review,
October, 2006, Vol. 84, Issue 10


DIFFERENT VOICE
A Conversation with Harvard Medical School Professor Charles A. Czeisler

Sleep is a stranger to many managers. Research by leading scientists shows just how dangerous that problem is.

Businesses need an educated workforce; ironically, school is interfering. The current high school schedule in the U.S., which typically begins around 7:20 AM, threatens the neurological development and health of adolescents, whose homeostatic drive operates differently from adults’. Most teens experience a delayed sleep phase, in which melatonin is released around 11 PM-–an hour later than in most adults. Students who finally go to sleep by midnight and wake at 6 experience a chronic sleep deficit, which disrupts their ability to learn and puts them and you at risk on the roads. In the U.S., researchers and sleep advocates are now working closely with school districts, communities, and educators to change school start times so that students can get more sleep.

Managing Multicultural Teams

Managing Multicultural Teams.
By: Brett, Jeanne, Behfar, Kristin, Kern, Mary C.,
Harvard Business Review,
Nov 2006, Vol. 84, Issue 11


Four categories of issues that cause difficulties in Managing Multicultural Teams.

direct versus indirect communication;
trouble with accents and fluency;
differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority; and
conflicting norms for decision making.


Four Strategies
The most successful teams and managers we interviewed used four strategies for dealing with these challenges:
adaptation (acknowledging cultural gaps openly and working around them),
structural intervention (changing the shape of the team),
managerial intervention (setting norms early or bringing in a higher-level manager), and
exit (removing a team member when other options have failed).


Authors

Jeanne Brett is the DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr. , Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations and the director of the Dispute Resolution Research Center at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois.

Kristin Behfar is an assistant professor at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine.

Mary C. Kern is an assistant professor at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College in New York.

Andersson and Pearson's analysis of workplace incivility

Andersson and Pearson's analysis of workplace incivility is useful because it departs from the notion that workplace aggression consists of single acts, and shows how thoughtless utterances may indeed be the beginning of a violent confrontation. They acknowledge the difficulty with researching and developing measures of incivility,

They propose that a work environment characterized by uncivil behaviors can make workers miserable and lead to high turnover and lower productivity. They caution supervisors to scrutinize their own verbal and nonverbal behaviors in the presence of employees and urge human resource professionals to work with line managers to address issues in the workplace that might trigger rude behaviors and create an environment of hostility and interpersonal conflicts.

Can we all get along? The interpersonal challenge at work
Clive Muir.
The Academy of Management Executive.
Nov 2000. Vol. 14, Iss. 4;

Original paper

Andersson, L., & Pearson, C. 1999. "Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace." Academy of Management Review, 24: 452-471.

Self-Management HBR 2006

Self-Management

HBR Case Study: Just Trying to Help
Julia Kirby
With commentary by Marcus
Buckingham, Joanne Bischmann,
Lars Kolind, and Tomas Blomquist
June
Reprint R0606A, Reprint Case
only R0606X, Reprint
Commentary only R0606Z

HBR Case Study: The Nice Guy
Russ Edelman and
Tim Hiltabiddle
With commentary by Eric Schmidt,
Stephen R. Covey, Don Manvel, and
Maggie Craddock
February
Reprint R0602A, Reprint Case
only R0602X, Reprint
Commentary only R0602Z

Let Me Give You Some Advice
Francesca Gino
Forethought, March
Reprint F0603E

Small Ponds Aren't for Everyone
Sigrid Caroline Schroder
Forethought, April
Reprint F0604H

Organization and Culture - HBR 2006

Organization and Culture

Business Lessons from Leeches
Marc Abrahams
Forethought, October
Reprint F0610B

Conquering a Culture of Indecision
Ram Charan
January
Originally published in 2001
Reprint R0601J

The Decision to Trust
Robert F. Hurley
September
Reprint R0609B ♦ OnPoint 1056;
OnPoint collection "Winning
Your Employees' Trust" 1052

Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing
Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham, and
Suj Krishnaswamy
July–August
Reprint R0607E ♦ OnPoint 1014;
OnPoint collection "Supercharge
Your Sales Force" 1005

Evidence-Based Management
Jeffrey Pfeffer and
Robert I. Sutton
January
Reprint R0601E ♦ OnPoint 298X;
OnPoint collection "To Make the
Best Decisions, Demand the Best
Data" 3048

Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek
Sylvia Ann Hewlett and
Carolyn Buck Luce
December
Reprint R0612B ♦ OnPoint 1685

Facing Ambiguous Threats
Michael A. Roberto, Richard M.J.
Bohmer, and Amy C. Edmondson
November
Reprint R0611F ♦ OnPoint 1499

The HBR Interview: Ideas as Art
James G. March
Interviewed by Diane Coutu
October
Reprint R0610E

Home Depot's Blueprint for Culture Change
Ram Charan
April
Reprint R0604C ♦ OnPoint 4079;
OnPoint collection "CEOs on
Leading Change" 4117

Off-Sites That Work
Bob Frisch and Logan Chandler
June
Reprint R0606H ♦ OnPoint 4494;
OnPoint collection "Strategy
Meetings That Work" 4532

Procurement as Strategy
Carlos Niezen and Wulf Weller
Forethought, September
Reprint F0609D

Rethinking Political Correctness
Robin J. Ely, Debra E. Meyerson,
and Martin N. Davidson
September
Reprint R0609D ♦ OnPoint 1068

Shut Up and Stop Whining
A conversation with Larry Winget
Gardiner Morse
Forethought, December
Reprint F0612F

The Tools of Cooperation and Change
Clayton M. Christensen, Matt
Marx, and Howard H. Stevenson
October
Reprint R0610D ♦ OnPoint 1458;
OnPoint collection "What You
Really Need to Know About
Change" 1454

Why It's So Hard to Be Fair
Joel Brockner
March
Reprint R0603H

The Why, What, and How of Management Innovation
Gary Hamel
February
Reprint R0602C ♦ OnPoint 3420;
OnPoint collection "Staying
Ahead of Your Competition" 3455

Change Management - HBR Articles - 2006

Change Management


HBR Case Study: Big Shoes to Fill
Michael Beer
With commentary by Robert A.
Eckert, Steven F. Dichter, Patrick J.
Canavan, and Kerry Sulkowicz
May


The HBR Interview: Leading Change from the Top Line
Fred Hassan
Interviewed by Thomas A. Stewart
and David Champion
July-August


A Portfolio Approach to Sales
Robert C. Dudley and
Das Narayandas
Forethought, July-August


The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes
Paul J.H. Schoemaker and
Robert E. Gunther
June

Change Management in Government
Frank Ostroff
May
Reprint R0605J

Summit Syndrome

CRISIS AT THE SUMMIT.
By: Parsons, George D., Pascale, Richard T.,
Harvard Business Review,
March 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 3


The summit syndrome unfolds in three phases, each with its own distinct indicators. The first is approaching the crest of a job, when a person, having mastered most of the challenges of the role, is nearing peak proficiency. This is a time when some may push harder to recapture the adrenaline rush of the climb. The second phase is plateauing, when the summit has been reached and virtually all of the challenges have been conquered. While the less ambitious person is apt to coast at this point, the overachiever bears down even harder to produce ever more stellar results. The third phase is descending. It is the terminal stage of the syndrome, when a leader's job performance begins to slip noticeably, triggering an accelerating slide. As the person's superstar status fades, he jumps ship, accepts a demotion, or takes a lateral transfer.

About the author

George D. Parsons (gparsons@rio.com), the president of Parsons Group, in Eugene, Oregon, is a management consultant and executive coach. He has worked with senior leaders in more than 100 organizations in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Richard T. Pascale (rtpascale@aol.com) is an associate fellow of Oxford University, was on the faculty at Stanford Business School for 20 years, and has advised major corporations in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is the author of a half-dozen HBR articles on transformational change, won the McKinsey Award for "Zen and the Art of Management" (March-April 1978), and has written numerous books, most recently his, Mark Milleman, and Linda Gioja's Surfing the Edge of Chaos (Crown 2000). He resides in California.

Clever People - Followership Behavior

LEADING CLEVER PEOPLE.
By: Goffee, Rob, Jones, Gareth,
Harvard Business Review,
March 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 3

The psychological relationship leaders have with their clever people is very different from the one they have with traditional followers. Clever people want a high degree of organizational protection and recognition that their ideas are important. They also demand the freedom to explore and fail. They expect their leaders to be intellectually on their plane - but they do not want a leader's talent and skills to outshine their own. That's not to say that all clever people are alike, or that they follow a single path. They do, however, share a number of defining characteristics.


Rob Goffee (rgoffee@london.edu) is a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School in England. Gareth Jones (gjones@london.edu) is a visiting professor at Insead in Fontainebleau, France, and a fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School. Goffee and Jones are also the founding partners of Creative Management Associates, an organizational consulting firm in London. Their HBR article "Managing Authenticity" was published in December 2005.

Ethical Mind

The Ethical Mind.
Harvard Business Review,
Mar 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 3

A Conversation with Psychologist Howard Gardner


What is an ethical mind?

In thinking of the mind as a set of cognitive capacities, it helps to distinguish the ethical mind from the other four minds that we particularly need to cultivate if we are to thrive as individuals, as a community, and as the human race. The first of these, the disciplined mind, is what we gain through applying ourselves in a disciplined way in school. Over time, and with sufficient training, we gain expertise in one or more fields: We become experts in project management, accounting, music, dentistry, and so forth. A second kind of mind is the synthesizing mind, which can survey a wide range of sources, decide what is important and worth paying attention to, and weave this information together in a coherent fashion for oneself and others. [For more on the synthesizing mind, see "The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2006" (February 2006). ] A third mind, the creating mind, casts about for new ideas and practices, innovates, takes chances, discovers. While each of these minds has long been valuable, all of them are essential in an era when we are deluged by information and when anything that can be automated will be.

Yet another kind of mind, less purely cognitive in flavor than the first three, is the respectful mind: the kind of open mind that tries to understand and form relationships with other human beings. A person with a respectful mind enjoys being exposed to different types of people. While not forgiving of all, she gives others the benefit of the doubt.

An ethical mind broadens respect for others into something more abstract. A person with an ethical mind asks herself, "What kind of a person, worker, and citizen do I want to be? If all workers in my profession adopted the mind-set I have, or if everyone did what I do, what would the world be like?"

It's important to clarify the distinction between the respectful and the ethical mind, because we assume that one who is respectful is ethical and vice versa.

www.goodworkproject.com

In his new book, Five Minds for the Future (forthcoming from Harvard Business School Press in 2007),Gardner cogitates on what it takes to develop an ethical mind-set.