Leadership and Change
In his new book, An Invented Life (Addison-Wesley; 1993), the
well-known management consultant offers us a rare glimpse into the way
his upbringing shaped his philosophy: "I believe in self-invention...to
be authentic is literally to be your own author, to discover your native
energies and find your own way of acting upon them. Not existing simply
to live up to an image posited by the culture or some other
authority."
In an interview with PSYCHOLOGY TODAY he further articulated his
thoughts on the changing workplace.
PT: Can you explain what you mean by "self-invention"?
WB: Most effective business leaders have also been people who have
reinvented themselves in some important way--because there have recently
been more volatile, complex, turbulent, ambiguous, surprising, fluid
changes in our society than at any other time I can recall since I was
11. Given these changes, how can we not--if we want to continue to learn
and continue to grow--keep from completely overhauling who we are?
The world is different, we've got to react differently to it.
Realize that we don't have to be a brutal boss; we need to be empowering,
a good guy, a participative manager.
PT: You're suggesting a complete overhaul, from the top
down.
WB: Yes, and a lot of companies still don't understand that.
Einstein's definition of insanity is when you continue to repeat over and
over the same practice, hoping to get different results.
The problem with IBM and GM is that they have been insane. IBM kept
making mainframes when the whole world was using workstations and
personal computers. GM kept making the same kind of cars, closing their
eyes to what was going on in Japan and in California because they were
stuck in Detroit. All they could see was other GM cars. When you're
successful, it's very bard to change.
All these failing companies have been subject to Einstein's
insanity.
PT: What about the non-bosses? The middlemen and -women?
WB: I feel for the people in the middle of an organization, because
it's more difficult than if you're on the periphery. If you're a salesman
out in the field, I think the opportunities for learning are a lot
better. The real initiatives conic from the peripherypeople at the
margins are often the most creative.
If you are going to succeed in business in the 1990s and beyond,
you're going to have to develop people--wealth as a function of ideas and
know-how. It's important for employees in any position to work in a
situation where they'll be allowed to grow and develop.
PT: What if you're working for a boss who doesn't see that? How do
you get him or her to listen?
WB: I think you should talk to the boss directly, one-on-one. And
if that doesn't work, go around and talk to other people and maybe even
to the boss's boss. And if that doesn't work, you have to leave.
Is it cavalier or callous of me to recommend that? Well, in the
long run that business is going to fail if it doesn't change its ways, so
the end result is the same either way you go.
It's not unlike staying in a bad marriage because you're frightened
by the prospect of being too old to remarry and not being in a financial
position to strike out on your own again. So you stuff it all down and
say I'm going to just stay in a lousy relationship because the
alternatives are worse.
But too often, I'm afraid, the alternatives are better. It's just
that people aren't acting upon them.
PT: The best strategy, then, is to put your money where your mouth
is?
WB: For leaders, managers, middlemen and -women, yes. The best
people also have a bias toward action, who keep saying, "You're never
going to get anywhere if you keep sitting in the dugout." The only way
you're going to succeed, ultimately, in whatever you do, is to get up
there and take your swings. And sometimes that means taking a swing at
someone else, someone who you think is doing something wrong or dangerous
for the company. That's action, too.
By far, the majority of the 150 millionaires that I've interviewed
in the last decade and a half said they've learned more from failure than
from success. The main skill they possessed was the ability to learn from
themselves and their mistakes, and what they do to get the best and worst
out of people.
There is nothing like power to reveal and bring to the surface our
own humanity and character. Especially power in crisis situations because
that's when style dissolves into character. When you're in a tough
situation, when you've hit rock bottom, as one CEO told me, "That's when
the iron enters your soul, and gives you resiliency to cope."
I truly think there's nothing like being a person of responsibility
that teaches you about who you are. Nothing.
PT: If we have 100 miles to go to achieve this change you're
talking about, how far have we gone so far?
WB: About five, I think. We've gone about 50 percent of the way in
terms of intellectual acceptance of participative management and employee
involvement. Where we still need to go is in the capacity of tough
leadership to create a social architecture that will generate
intellectual capital--ideas, innovations, learning, know-how. That's what
it's all about.
PHOTO: Warren Bennis (ERIC S. FORDHAM)
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