Mind-Set Management: The Heart of Leadership PDF
Preview Mind-Set Management: The Heart of Leadership
MIND-SET MANAGEMENT This page intentionally left blank MIND-SET MANAGEMENT The Heart of Leadership Samuel A. Culbert New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1996 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1996 by Samuel Culbert Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press 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, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Culbert, Samuel A. Mind-set management : the heart of leadership / Samuel A. Culbert. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-509746-7 1. Industrial management—Psychological aspects. 2. Industrial psychology. 3. Organizational behavior. I. Title. HF5548.8.C83 1995 658'.001'9—dc20 94-49133 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To three fabulous father figures who, at critical points of my life, helped with their great advice: Allen Koplin Bob Tannenbaum Mort Lachman This page intentionally left blank FOREWORD In the interest of full disclosure, I have to reveal that I'm not an impartial person when it comes to Sam Culbert. I have known Sam for over twenty-five years, known him well in a variety of situations, carefully read his previous works, and have admired him and them a lot. But to get to the point quickly, this is by far Sam's best work. I would wager that it will be one of the lasting contributions to our understanding of organizations, the psychology of people who work in them, and—perhaps most of all—a contribution to understanding ourselves. In large part, this book is about alchemy—-not the alchemy of chemical properties, but the alchemy of human relationships. Just as alchemy purported to transform lead into gold, this book is about transforming organizations and people into proactive, creative, pro- ductive beings. No easy task, as Culbert makes clear. His starting point is to review with empathy the most current and popular models or organizational life. He rounded up the usual suspects: empow- erment, reengineering, TQM, learning organizations, values, and vi- sion. He began to wonder why they weren't working as expected. For example, a recent study cited in the New York Times stated that nine out of ten senior executives told the researchers that people are a company's most important resource and 98 percent said improved employee performance would enhance the bottom line. But when asked to rank order what leads to success, people came last, if they were mentioned at all. So what's going on? What is it that seems to mysteriously inter- viii Foreword vene and disarm the best of our intentions? The best and most en- lightened theories? That's what this book is all about: "advice- giving," as the preface suggests. At still another level, and the one that Culbert emphasizes, is influence. He says it well: "We're talking about influencing the actions of others when you lack the authority to direct them and have to content yourself with influencing the per- spectives, thought, processes, logic, and strategies that give rise to their subsequent actions. . . . We're talking about your eliciting re- ceptiveness and open-minded thinking in people who may not even see themselves needing the advice you want to give." This may not sound radical, but it is, because Culbert highlights and illuminates the darkness that surrounds this delicate and subtly nuanced operation of leading through influence. In so doing, he pro- vides invaluable help for those of us who work and live in human organizations. He shows how to provide advice that can improve the performance of "the other" without lowering self-esteem, how to be helpful without controlling, and how advice-giving (through Culbert's insights) can not only improve the performance but also raise the self-esteem of the advisee. Sam writes with unusual lucidity. He draws on a rich stock of case studies, not the stilted, predictable kabukilike dramas we usually read about. His descriptions of real situations, real people, and real dilemmas are thoroughly enlightening. But this book is radical in another way—and perhaps subver- sive—for it clarifies not only organizational relationships but all hu- man relationships. I mean friends, lovers, parents and children—you name it. So if the reader wants to understand why organizations simply seem unable to walk their walk or why good and deep interpersonal relationships are hard to maintain—read this book, slowly and care- fully. You'll be grateful. Warren Bennis PREFACE The essence of management is giving great advice—not just any advice, but advice that improves an individual's performance and ad- vances corporate interests. And, most important, it's advice the re- cipient believes in enough to actually want to follow. Given to work associates, great advice is the essence of teamwork; given to orga- nizational units, great advice is the essence of leadership. In every instance we're talking about the type of advice that reflects more than the advice-giver's self-interested view of what the other person needs to do to function more effectively. We're talking about the type of advice that enhances a recipient's sense of what's needed to advance the interests of the company in ways which that individual finds personally useful and valid. We're talking about advice that is great because the recipient finds it empowering. So what's the "big deal"? Actually there are two. The first big deal is that all executives and managers have a stockpile of improve- ment advice that they don't offer because they know it won't be fol- lowed and fear that the recipients will receive it as criticism and a provocation for hostility. The second big deal is that in lieu of a direct statement of ideas, management turns into a manipulative art where deception, spin, sound bites, maneuvering, guided ambiguity, and other small deceits and sleights of tongue replace straightforward communication. Whether or not anyone wants to admit it, management needs to become less a manipulative art and more a psychological science. Why would there be any reluctance? It's because most executives,
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