HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People 2-Volume Collection

Harvard Business Review

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781633699267
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

If you read nothing else on managing people, read these definitive articles from Harvard Business Review.

Managing people is fraught with challenges, even if you're a seasoned manager. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People 2-Volume Collection provides enduring ideas and practical advice on managing people to help you handle these difficulties and maximize your employees' performance. Bringing together HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People, Vol. 1 and HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People, Vol. 2, this collection includes twenty articles selected by HBR's editors and features the indispensable article "Leadership That Gets Results" by Daniel Goleman.

From timeless classics to the latest game-changing ideas from thought leaders Marcus Buckingham, W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, and more, HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People 2-Volume Collection will inspire you to:

• Tailor your management style to fit your people and organizational goals
• Give feedback the right way
• Support first-time managers
• Manage emotional culture on your team
• Push your people to collaborate and break silos
• Overcome organizational obstacles to effective management
• Manage up and across
• Manage your boss

HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever?changing business environment.

On
Managing People

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

Boston, Massachusetts

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

HBR’s 10 must reads on managing people.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4221-5801-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Supervision of employees. 2. Management. 3. Personnel management. I. Harvard business review. II. Title: HBR’s ten must reads on managing people. III. Title: Harvard Business review’s 10 must reads on managing people.

HF5549.12.H395 2010

658.3—dc22

2010031618

eISBN: 978-1-4221-7204-9

Contents

Leadership That Gets Results

by Daniel Goleman

One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?

by Frederick Herzberg

The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome

by Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux

Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves

by Carol A. Walker

What Great Managers Do

by Marcus Buckingham

Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy

by W. Chan Kim and Reneé Mauborgne

Teaching Smart People How to Learn

by Chris Argyris

How (Un)ethical Are You?

by Mahzarin R. Banaji, Max H. Bazerman, and Dolly Chugh

The Discipline of Teams

by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith

Managing Your Boss

by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter

About the Contributors

Index

Leadership That Gets Results

by Daniel Goleman

ASK ANY GROUP OF businesspeople the question “What do effective leaders do?” and you’ll hear a sweep of answers. Leaders set strategy; they motivate; they create a mission; they build a culture. Then ask “What should leaders do?” If the group is seasoned, you’ll likely hear one response: the leader’s singular job is to get results.

But how? The mystery of what leaders can and ought to do in order to spark the best performance from their people is age-old. In recent years, that mystery has spawned an entire cottage industry: literally thousands of “leadership experts” have made careers of testing and coaching executives, all in pursuit of creating businesspeople who can turn bold objectives—be they strategic, financial, organizational, or all three—into reality.

Still, effective leadership eludes many people and organizations. One reason is that until recently, virtually no quantitative research has demonstrated which precise leadership behaviors yield positive results. Leadership experts proffer advice based on inference, experience, and instinct. Sometimes that advice is which precise leadership behaviors yield positive results. Leadership experts proffer advice based on inference, experience, and instinct. Sometimes that advice is right on target; sometimes it’s not.

But new research by the consulting firm Hay/McBer, which draws on a random sample of 3,871 executives selected from a database of more than 20,000 executives worldwide, takes much of the mystery out of effective leadership. The research found six distinct leadership styles, each springing from different components of emotional intelligence. The styles, taken individually, appear to have a direct and unique impact on the working atmosphere of a company, division, or team, and in turn, on its financial performance. And perhaps most important, the research indicates that leaders with the best results do not rely on only one leadership style; they use most of them in a given week—seamlessly and in different measure—depending on the business situation. Imagine the styles, then, as the array of clubs in a golf pro’s bag. Over the course of a game, the pro picks and chooses clubs based on the demands of the shot. Sometimes he has to ponder his selection, but usually it is automatic. The pro senses the challenge ahead, swiftly pulls out the right tool, and elegantly puts it to work. That’s how high-impact leaders operate, too.

What are the six styles of leadership? None will shock workplace veterans. Indeed, each style, by name and brief description alone, will likely resonate with anyone who leads, is led, or as is the case with most of us, does both. Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance. Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision. Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony. Democratic leaders build consensus through participation. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction. And coaching leaders develop people for the future.

Close your eyes and you can surely imagine a colleague who uses any one of these styles. You most likely use at least one yourself. What is new in this research, then, is its implications for action. First, it offers a fine-grained understanding of how different leadership styles affect performance and results. Second, it offers clear guidance on when a manager should switch between them. It also strongly suggests that switching flexibly is well advised. New, too, is the research’s finding that each leadership style springs from different components of emotional intelligence.

Idea in Brief

Many managers mistakenly assume that leadership style is a function of personality rather than strategic choice. Instead of choosing the one style that suits their temperament, they should ask which style best addresses the demands of a particular situation.

Research has shown that the most successful leaders have strengths in the following emotional intelligence competencies: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. There are six basic styles of leadership; each makes use of the key components of emotional intelligence in different combinations. The best leaders don’t know just one style of leadership—they’re skilled at several, and have the flexibility to switch between styles as the circumstances dictate.

Measuring Leadership’s Impact

It has been more than a decade since research first linked aspects of emotional intelligence to business results. The late David McClelland, a noted Harvard University psychologist, found that leaders with strengths in a critical mass of six or more emotional intelligence competencies were far more effective than peers who lacked such strengths. For instance, when he analyzed the performance of division heads at a global food and beverage company, he found that among leaders with this critical mass of competence, 87% placed in the top third for annual salary bonuses based on their business performance. More telling, their divisions on average outperformed yearly revenue targets by 15% to 20%. Those executives who lacked emotional intelligence were rarely rated as outstanding in their annual performance reviews, and their divisions underperformed by an average of almost 20%.

Our research set out to gain a more molecular view of the links among leadership and emotional intelligence, and climate and performance. A team of McClelland’s colleagues headed by Mary Fontaine and Ruth Jacobs from Hay/McBer studied data about or observed thousands of executives, noting specific behaviors and their impact on climate.¹How did each individual motivate direct reports? Manage change initiatives? Handle crises? It was in a later phase of the research that we identified which emotional intelligence capabilities drive the six leadership styles. How does he rate in terms of self-control and social skill? Does a leader show high or low levels of empathy?

Idea in Practice

Managers often fail to appreciate how profoundly the organizational climate can influence financial results. It can account for nearly a third of financial performance. Organizational climate, in turn, is influenced by leadership style—by the way that managers motivate direct reports, gather and use information, make decisions, manage change initiatives, and handle crises. There are six basic leadership styles. Each derives from different emotional intelligence competencies, works best in particular situations, and affects the organizational climate in different ways.

1. The coercive style. This “Do what I say” approach can be very effective in a turnaround situation, a natural disaster, or when working with problem employees. But in most situations, coercive leadership inhibits the organization’s flexibility and dampens employees’ motivation.

2. The authoritative style. An authoritative leader takes a “Come with me” approach: she states the overall goal but gives people the freedom to choose their own means of achieving it. This style works especially well when a business is adrift....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing People
• HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing People, Vol. 2