manedge

In 1990, psychologists Robert Hogan, Robert Raskin, and Dan Fazzini wrote a brilliant essay called “The Dark Side of Charisma.” It argued that flawed managers fall into three types: the High Likability Floater , who rises effortlessly in an organization because he never takes any difficult decisions or makes any enemies. the Homme de Ressentiment , who seethes below the surface and plots against his enemies. the Narcissist , the most interesting of the three, whose energy and self-confidence and charm lead him inexorably up the corporate ladder. Narcissists are terrible managers. They resist accepting suggestions, thinking it will make them appear weak, and they don’t believe that others have anything useful to tell them. “Narcissists are biased to take more credit for success than is legitimate,” Hogan et al. write, and “biased to avoid acknowledging responsibility for their failures and shortcomings for the same reasons that they claim more success than is their due.” Mo...

In his latest book How The Mighty Fall, Jim Collins describes the five stages through which a proud and thriving company passes on its way to becoming a basket case: - hubris born of success - undisciplined pursuit of more - denial of risk and peril - grasping for salvation - capitulation to irrelevance or death Toyota's president Akio Toyoda, who took over in June 2009, believes his company, world's largest carmaker since it surpassed GM in June 2008, is in the fourth stage . He surprised business journalists and his own company by making this announcement at a press conference in October 2009. Collins elaborates that companies in the fourth stage 'react frantically to their plight in the belief that salvation lies in revolutionary change usually hastening their demise'. Such companies 'need calmness, focus, and deliberate action'. Mr Akio Toyoda is the grandson of the founder of Toyota. His approach is not visionary. It is simple, incremental and r...

The Lake Wobegon effect(1) is the human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others. It is named after the fictional town of Lake Wobegon from the radio series A Prairie Home Companion , where, according to Garrison Keillor, "all the women are beautiful, all the men strong, and all the children intelligent"(2). Keillor’s 1985 novel Lake Wobegon Days describes life in the fictional town situated in the US state of Minnesota. According to Keillor, Lake Wobegon is the seat of Mist County, Minnesota(3), a tiny county near the geographic center of Minnesota that supposedly does not appear on maps because of the "incompetence of surveyors who mapped out the state in the 19th century". The town's slogan is Gateway to Central Minnesota(4). The town’s motto is mentioned on its crest – sumos quud sumos – we are what we are(5). In a similar way, a large majority of people claim to be above average; this phenomenon has been obse...

A bewildering blizzard of email, phone calls, yet more email, meetings, projects, proposals and plans. This must be familiar territory — your average day at work. David Rock, a consultant and leadership coach who advises corporations around the world, has collaborated with world-renowned neuroscientists to find answers to the following: – Why do our brains feel so taxed; – How do we maximise our mental resources; – Why is it so hard to focus; – How do we manage distractions better; – How do we keep our cool in difficult situations; – How do we collaborate more effectively than others; and – How do we get more effective at changing other people’s behaviour? In his new book Your Brain at Work , Rock travels inside the brains of the two main characters as they attempt to sort the vast quantities of information they’re presented with and figure out how to prioritise, organise and act on them. Rock says while the brain is exquisitely powerful, it has some surprising performance limitations ...

IN 1995 Captain G.R. Gopinath, a retired military officer, had a chance encounter with an unemployed helicopter pilot that got him started on setting up India’s first helicopter company. He spent three years lobbying government bureaucrats to obtain the necessary licences and sold all his possessions and mortgaged his house to raise capital. Even in his darkest years he never had any doubt that he was destined for success. “I knew this could not go wrong. I knew the money would come,” he says. And sure enough his business eventually took off. That allowed him to pursue a new vision—cheap flights. Why should Indians travel the length and breadth of their huge country on trains when Americans got on planes? He established India’s first low-cost airline, Air Deccan, pushing the government to relax regulations. Entrepreneurs operate in all kinds of ways. Some see a market opportunity and draw up a business plan to take advantage of it. Others are more like the captain, driven by an inner f...