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Archives For October 2010

Book Review: The World of Business

David Burkus —  October 28, 2010

I love reference books. That’s probably why I’ve chosen to make my first book a reference book. Something about the collection and presentation of general knowledge just makes me feel smarter for owning the book. That’s why this week I was led to pick up The World of Business by the folks at The Economist. The book reads less like an encyclopedia and more like an anthology of business knowledge, from “The Oldest Firms in the World” to “Business Giants of the Past” to “Business Etiquette Tips.” Of particular interest to me was the section on “Leading Management Thinkers,” which profiled 20 of history’s management thought leaders.

While the book is definitely worth reading, my suggestion is not to read this book straight through. I recommend either reading a little bit each day, or placing in on a coffee table or in a common area where it can be referenced and serve as a conversation piece. Regardless of how you choose to read it, The World of Business will entertain and enlighten you.

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Are leaders born or made?

David Burkus —  October 27, 2010

Wrong question.

Of course leaders are born. As are followers. As are Olympians, car thieves, high school principals, serial killers and celebrity chefs.

Everyone is born. Everyone is also made. The nature versus nurture debate is so clouded with variables that it isn’t worth spending energy trying to unravel. That’s why it’s the wrong question. Not only is it difficult to fully answer, but you’re not even concerned with the answer. It’s not what you want to know.

What you want to know is if people can learn leadership.

Yes. Leadership is learned. Leadership is an acquired skill. It is a practice (or as James Kouzes and Barry Posner posit: five practices). The ability to lead others is developed from life experiences, as well as structured learning on the interrelationships of humans. It can be acquired, nurtured and matured through deliberate practice. Some people develop the skill a little earlier than others. Childhood experiences or the role-modeling of adult leaders can develop a leadership ability in someone even very young. Others may need more time.

My guess is that’s how the whole error-filled “born or made” question developed in the first place.

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Jeffrey Pfeffer on Power

David Burkus —  October 26, 2010

Stanford Business School Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer discusses his new book “Power: Why Some People Have It And Others Don’t”. Pfeffer, an internationally recognized authority on power in organizations, talks about his motivation in writing the book, interesting anecdotes, and what he hopes the book will accomplish.

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Why We Trust

Bret Simmons —  October 25, 2010

Trust between co-workers is extremely important. One of the best studies of trust to date was a meta-analysis of 132 independent studies on trust and its outcomes. This study found that trust increased an individual’s task performance, risk taking behavior, citizenship behavior (doing more to help others at work), and decreased counterproductive behavior.

Trust is an attitude that represents our willingness to be vulnerable to others in situations involving risk. As an attitude, trust can change over time as our knowledge of those we have close relationships with (e.g. employees, peers, boss) develops. We learn how trustworthy people are as we observe their abilities, integrity, and intentions (benevolence) toward us.

Before the attitude of trust develops, the degree to which we trust and are trusted by others is determined by our personality. This propensity to trust (PT) represents the belief that some people are more (or less) likely to trust others they meet and work with.

A recent study of 66 teams published in the Journal of Applied Psychology sheds new light on the importance of trusting personalities to the development of trust in teams. The study found reciprocal effects for high PT, such that individuals with high PT were more likely to view team members as trustworthy, and in turn were more likely to be viewed as trustworthy by other team members. This effect was true for both virtual and co-located teams.

If teamwork is important in your organization, then this study suggests you should select and promote individuals with a high propensity to trust. Here is a simple way to evaluate PT in yourself and others:

Are you (is this) the type of person that trusts people until you have a reason to believe they are not trustworthy, or are you (is this) the type of person that does not trust until you know for sure people are trustworthy?

There is no substitute for proven performance, integrity, and caring about what you do and who you do it with at work. People with a high PT are not necessarily more likely to be high performers and otherwise good organizational citizens. But the personality of someone with a low propensity to trust may lead them to see positive outcomes less in others, and that has a huge impact on the morale, learning, and development of trust in your teams.

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), where he teaches courses in organizational behavior, leadership, and personal branding to both undergraduate and MBA students. Bret blogs about leadership, followership, and social media at his website Positive Organizational Behavior. You can also find Bret on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.


Related Posts At Positive Organizational Behavior:

Ten Most Important Leadership Functions

Trust

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This is a Post on Leadership

David Burkus —  October 20, 2010
    “This is a motivational quote.”
    – This is a random sports figure’s name

The opening is a story about a childhood memory I’ve grossly exaggerated in order to tailor it to fit a post on leadership. Something about the high school football team I claim to have been on when really only went to one workout and then quit.

Next I make the jump from childhood story to talking about some motivational element that really has more to do with personal development than leadership. Or, about the irrefutable need for leaders to posses some vague element of character, like trust or authenticity.

Here is a paragraph describing a recent headline-dominating story about a fallen CEO and his (or her) golden parachute.

Now comes the tie-in, where I describe how my scarcely remembered high school football coach and the disgraced but uber-rich CEO both serve as examples of leaders lacking whatever it is I baselessly asserted was a requirement for all leaders to learn…or posses naturally (I still haven’t decided).

Finally, there is a well-phrased conclusion I wrote before any other section of the post. It is so masterfully written it sends a shiver down your neck and keeps you from realizing that I haven’t actually provided any real evidence for any of my claims about leadership.

On the last line I write, “That is true leadership.”

This is a biography where I shamelessly promote my consulting and public speaking experience that really only amounts to a dinner conversation with a mid-level manager friend of mine and a talk I gave at the general assembly of a local middle school.

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