E X P L O R I N G
F U R T H E R . . .
What Makes a Leader?
ARTICLES
“The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact” by
Henry Mintzberg (Harvard Business Review,
March–April 1990, Product no. 90210)
Whereas Goleman emphasizes emotional
intelligence, Mintzberg focuses on specific
skills. In this HBR Classic, Mintzberg uses his
and other research to debunk myths about
the manager’s role. Managerial work involves
interpersonal roles, informational roles, and
decisional roles, he notes. These in turn
require the ability to develop peer relationships, carry out negotiations, motivate subordinates, resolve conflicts, establish information networks and disseminate information,
make decisions with little or ambiguous
information, and allocate resources. Good
self-management skills are characteristic of
most leaders; outstanding leaders also have
the ability to empathize with others and to
use social skills to advance an agenda.
“The Work of Leadership” by Ronald A.
Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie (Harvard
Business Review, January–February 1997,
Product no. 4150)
Successfully leading an organization through
an adaptive challenge calls for leaders with a
high degree of emotional intelligence. But
Heifetz and Laurie focus on the requirements
of adaptive work, not on emotional maturity.
The principles for leading adaptive work
include: “getting on the balcony,” forming a
picture of the entire pattern of activity; identifying the key challenge; regulating distress;
maintaining disciplined attention; giving the
work back to the people; and protecting
voices of leadership from below.
“The Ways Chief Executive Officers Lead”
by Charles M. Farkas and Suzy Wetlaufer
(Harvard Business Review, May–June 1996,
Product no. 96303)
CEOs inspire a variety of sentiments ranging
from awe to wrath, but there’s little debate
over CEOs’ importance in the business world.
The authors conducted 160 interviews with
executives around the world. Instead of finding 160 different approaches, they found five,
each with a singular focus: strategy, people,
expertise, controls, or change. The five components of emotional intelligence, singly or in
combination, have a great effect on how each
focus is expressed in an organization.
BOOK
John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do
by John P. Kotter (Harvard Business School
Press, 1999, Product no. 8974)
In this collection of six articles, Kotter shares
his observations on the nature of leadership
gained over the past 30 years. Without leadership that can deal successfully with today’s
increasingly fast-moving and competitive
business environment, he warns, organizations will slow down, stagnate, and lose their
way. He presents his views on the current
state of leadership through ten observations
and revisits his now famous eight-step
process for organizational transformation. In
contrast to Goleman’s article on emotional
intelligence, which is about leadership qualities, Kotter’s work focuses on action: What
does a leader do to lead? And how will leadership need to be different in the future?
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