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Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

sloanreview.mit.edu

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Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#21

Post by wccrawford »

Isamu wrote: post #14

Title and subtitle speak of transformation and change, but the abstract only mentions "employee engagement": >It’s a common misconception, both in businesses and in management articles and books, that a sense of purpose is what matters most when it comes to engaging employees. Many leaders concerned with attracting and retaining top talent believe that nothing motivates people as much as the larger good they might be…

It always surprises me when managers think that they can focus on 1 single aspect of the work experience and fix everything. People are complex, and managing is necessarily also complex.

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#22

Post by Shog9 »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #7
duxup wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall a study that found that the difference between good and bad teams most of the time was ... if they have a bad member on the team or not. It wasn't the quality of the members, it was if there was just one "bad" member, or not. One bad member could sink a team no matter how good everyone else was. They did find a sort of magic outlier where if the team member had an outstanding leader they could overcome the o…

That's interesting. Do you have a link to the study? Also was "bad" here incompetence? Or toxicity? I would imagine they have pretty different effects.

Prolly this: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/370/ruining-it-for-the-rest...

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#23

Post by swagasaurus-rex »

wccrawford wrote: post #21
Isamu wrote: post #14

Title and subtitle speak of transformation and change, but the abstract only mentions "employee engagement": >It’s a common misconception, both in businesses and in management articles and books, that a sense of purpose is what matters most when it comes to engaging employees. Many leaders concerned with attracting and retaining top talent believe that nothing motivates people as much as the larger good they might be…

It always surprises me when managers think that they can focus on 1 single aspect of the work experience and fix everything. People are complex, and managing is necessarily also complex.

An effective manager would step in when needed and stay out of the way when not. They would communicate clearly in a high level in an inspiring manner and a low enough level to act upon. They would have to anticipate the direction and needs of the business as well as the employee. They would have to balance the strengths, weaknesses and desires of wholly different individuals in a productively meaningful way.

Would I be wrong in saying that almost all people cannot do two of these let alone all at the same time?

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#24

Post by jariel »

quotemstr wrote: post #17

After having seen the convulsions at Google, I think casting a company as having a "noble purpose" in the first place is a mistake. This branding attracts a certain sort of person who thinks that it's more important to do "good" than it is to run an effective business. The business of a company is profit. Period. If you want to do "good", join a non-profit. Now, it's okay to say that good can happen as a result of pr…

"The business of a company is profit. Period"

This is absolutely not true. Only a narrow sect of Chicago-school types etc. really believes this.

The purpose of a company is whatever the powers that be deem it to be.

A company is made up of forces: Investors/Financiers, Executives, Employees, Customers and Suppliers.

Each of those entities can have tremendous influence over the company to the point wherein the might even control it.

For example, Unions wield incredibly power over the auto industry. It exists for them as much as it does for investors. Same for government.

Most good companies have de-facto communitarian intentions far beyond the product and act as responsible members of the community in most regards.

Corporate America today could probably lay off 1/3 of white collar workers without skipping a beat, but they don't - they're not as cold as you may imagine.

Most established companies are 'gears in a bigger picture' and are mostly operational, not innovative, by that I mean they just have to 'keep doing what they are doing' to survive. It's rare that they have new ideas or modalities, that's generally the advantage of new companies. New companies have to 'fight for profit' at the start, so as to find their way into the gears of the economy at which point they have a special leverage/power, but a kind of responsibility as well.

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#26

Post by dang »

vorpalhex wrote: post #12

Title doesn't appear to match the article. Should be: `Leadership behaviors that nurture interpersonal collaboration are the true drivers of change.`

Ok, we've changed to that, except shortened to fit HN's 80 char limit. I'm not sure what kind of collaboration wouldn't be "interpersonal", so that was handy.

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#27

Post by hi41 »

ignoramous wrote: post #4
harikb wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on this summary, it may not even be worth your time to signup > our interviews with executives, reveals that purpose is only one contributing factor; the level and quality of interpersonal collaboration actually has the greatest impact on employee engagement.2 In this article, we’ll explore why collaboration has that effect and which behaviors you can adopt and practic

Similarly, Google trying to find out what successful teams did differently is a great read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11174399 Some excerpts: > ... Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs. > ... Google, in other words, in its rac…

For such a lovely intelligent comment...the user does NOT check out.

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#28

Post by [deleted] »

duxup wrote: post #5
ignoramous wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, Google trying to find out what successful teams did differently is a great read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11174399 Some excerpts: > ... Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs. > ... Google, in other words, in its rac…

I recall a study that found that the difference between good and bad teams most of the time was ... if they have a bad member on the team or not. It wasn't the quality of the members, it was if there was just one "bad" member, or not. One bad member could sink a team no matter how good everyone else was. They did find a sort of magic outlier where if the team member had an outstanding leader they could overcome the o…

[deleted]

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#29

Post by arcticbull »

hi41 wrote: post #25
tzs wrote: post #13

But will a noble spirit embiggen it?

I didn’t know that a word called embiggen existed. Thank you. I learnt one new thing today. Now, I want to open up Outlook and use it in a business email today. Just for the laughs.

"Embiggen" has been added to a US dictionary - a word first heard on The Simpsons in 1996. It wasn't until recently haha.

Re: Leadership behaviors that nurture collaboration are the true drivers of change

#30

Post by clickhead »

quotemstr wrote: post #17

After having seen the convulsions at Google, I think casting a company as having a "noble purpose" in the first place is a mistake. This branding attracts a certain sort of person who thinks that it's more important to do "good" than it is to run an effective business. The business of a company is profit. Period. If you want to do "good", join a non-profit. Now, it's okay to say that good can happen as a result of pr…

Different companies can have different purposes and different sets of priorities and still be equally as successful.

Just as a student's goal is technically to achieve the highest grades physically possible, that doesn't mean they won't benefit from skipping a few study sessions to mingle with other students and make valuable connections with other people.

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