Managing Leadership^®

And obnoxious. The introductory sections to the latest book by the quite literally world-renowned management thinker are filled with notes of thanks that actually serve to highlight his own prominence; each name dropped both to dazzle the reader and, it sometimes seems, to simultaneously equate the author with their company and imply his superiority to them.

Moreover, the author patronizingly suggests that the reader may have something to contribute to his or her own success, although he also understands that it may simply be too much to ask of them to fail to attribute it to the author. His very protestations of humility – cloaked as they are in strained denials of his own greatness – are the essence of unreflective arrogance.

Actually, though, that’s pretty much par for the course for these sorts, and can even be forgiven in the presence of substance. But what a shame when even that isn’t to be found, when it becomes clear that the declarations of revolutionary, game-changing insight and guidance are merely chaff serving to blind not just you – but perhaps even the author – from the vacuity within. There is no target worth seeking. There is nothing there.

Consider the opening words from one such expert, venturing to set up, as is so often done, the presumably fundamental, but typically false, dichotomy between the “old” way of doing things – the way you do them – and the cutting-edge way he will show you. He illustrates this by telling the story of a mission-manager‘s son asking his father who is controlling a spacecraft returning from a trip to the moon. The father responded that it could be argued that Newton was doing that.

The author evidently understood that to be a wry indictment of the way that space mission was organized and run, a pioneering modern endeavor still clasped in the grasping arms of centuries-old thinking. He then went on to ask if you manged your business by similarly out-dated fashion.

But what the father was really saying is that Newton’s thinking was so profoundly true as to be inevitably, vitally relevant today – impossible, dangerous to neglect. That space mission was successful not despite old thinking, but because of brilliant thinking that (the most current revolutions in physics notwithstanding) had survived the ages due to it ongoing veracity.

Is that how you manage your business – according to fundamental truths that endure the passage of time, and that survive the superficial assaults of obtuse experts? If not, are you mistaking the chaff for the wheat?

—

Today’s Tips: Speaking of truths that survive the test of time, but that nevertheless get lost in all the chatter, please see how Fred H. Schlegel, at the FrogBlog, cuts through to the center of the issue of understanding your customers. And speaking of superficial understanding of what makes things happen, please be sure to see how Cultural Offering exposes that tendency in the very thinking of – not just management thinkers – but practitioners.

To take the matter over to the corporate governance side, please see this piece at ben’s blog about why founding CEOs are preferable for his investment firm. Then consider this in light of this WSJ column by John J. Brennan about the state of corporate governance today; see in particular his suggestion about an owner relations committee.

—

Why not try out this feature provided here by Answers.com: If you double-click on any (non-hypertext-linked) word on the main page of the site, a window will open providing definitions or encyclopedic material about that term, together with links to additional sources of information. Try it out – it’s interesting and fun.

And, of course, while you’re clicking around, don’t forget to click on your choice of an email or RSS-feed subscription to these pages – we’ll be proud to have you join us!

Technorati Tags: management, humility, arrogance, insight, expert, mission, manager, Newton, endeavor, physics, manage, business, Fred H. Schlegel, customer, Cultural Offering, corporate governance, CEO, investment