LEADERSHIP: FOR REAL-WORLD MANAGERS

Published: 2010-04-07   please add a comment below

Business-school journals publish “more than 20,000 articles each year.” And, the Economist magazine says these remain “almost universally unread by real-world managers”. A frightening indictment. And surprising, since “business schools inhabit a highly competitive world.” And, it’s even more competitive for their thousands of graduates – and the millions of other managers and leaders, working in large and small businesses around the world.

As a graduate of a well-known US business school (when abacuses were still in fashion!), I remain an admirer of the MBA, particularly the learning crucible of the case method. However, most business school research leaves me cold. And, some say it’s of questionable academic merit. Phil Rosenzweig torpedoed much of their methodology with his article “The halo effect, and other managerial delusions” (McKinsey Quarterly, 2007 Number 1 – see URL below).

Interestingly, one study quoted in the Economist article highlights that “research rarely surfaces in the classroom. Most professors … teach standard practice, from a generic marketing book, for example.” Which sounds as though they know the difference between what a practising manager needs, and what earns academic tenure!

So, what can you and I do to keep on learning the useful stuff: improving what we do as managers and leaders. The key is wanting to improve: how we interest and excite people about the journey ahead; then energise and motivate them; and, work with them to develop a constructive culture, and establish required output standards.

But, where can you turn for such down-to-earth stuff. I may sound arrogant and self-interested, but one of the few places is my online Leadership Action Planning site. No high-minded theory here. Just a practical tool, developed to meet the needs of people at the coalface – dealing every day with both the hard and the (so-called) soft issues of leadership.

* http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/The_halo_effect_and_other_managerial_delusions

Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®