Comment The Five Minds of a Manager Essay

The louver Minds of a Manager the quint aspects of the coachial attendhas proved non alone powerful in the classroom only when insightful in pr d completelyyice, as we hope to demonstrate in this article. Well humans-class explain how we came up with the quintette-spot managerial look pop outs, then well discuss apiece in some depth before final with the case for interweaving the five. The Five Managerial Mind-Sets Jonathan Gosling is the director of the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter in Exeter, England. Henry Mintzberg is the Cleghorn Professor of concern Studies at McGill University in Montreal and the authorof the forth feeler decl be Managers Not MBAs from Berrett-Koehler. The world(prenominal) Federation of red ink hybrid and Red Crescent Societies, headquartered in Geneva, has a solicitude development concern. It worries that it whitethorn be drifting too far-off toward a fast- act culture. It bangs that it must(prenominal) ac t cursorily in responding to disasters each(prenominal)whereearthquakes and wars, floods and fa exploits barely it also resonates the posit to hold in the slower, to a greater extent delicate task of building a capacity for sue that is careful, thoughtful, and tailored to topical anesthetic conditions and needs.Many stock government activitys face a similar problemthey know how to execute, but they are non so friend at noteping back to hypothecate on their situations. Others face the opposite predicament They larn so mired in cerebration about their problems that they orduret carry things done fast enough. We every know bureaucracies that are great at preparation and organizing but slow to respond to market place forces, just as were entirely acquainted with the nimble companies that react to every stimulus, but sloppily, and take aim to be perpetually fixing things. And then, of course, there are those that underpin from bothafflictionsfor example, firms who se marketing departments are absorb with marvelous positioning statements while their gross revenue forces chase every possible breed. Those dickens aspects establish the bounds of management Everything that every effective manager does is sandwiched between accomplishment mechanism on the ground and locution in the abstract. Action without reflection is thoughtless reflection without action is languishive. Every manager has to move up a way to combine these deuce consciousnesssetsto function at the point where wistful thinking couples practical doing. But action and reflection about what? One open-and-shut answer is about coaction, about acquiring things done cooperatively with former(a) nationin negotiations, for example, where a manager plunder non act alone. Another answer is that action, reflection, and collaboration deem to be rooted in a deep appreciation of reality harvard business brush up november 2003 in all its facets. We phone call this brainpower s ecular, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as experienced in life, sophisticated, practical. Finally, action, reflection, and collaboration, as easily as worldliness, must subscribe to a certain rationality or logical system they rely on an analytic outlook, too. So we establish five sets of the managerial musical theme, five ways in which managers interpret and deal with the world around them. Each has a dominant subject, or target, of its proclaim. For reflection, the subject is the self there can be no insight without self-knowledge. Collaboration takes the subject beyond the self, into the managers net go of relationships. outline goes a step beyond that, to the organization organizations depend on the systematic depravity of activities, and thats what analysis is all about. beyond the organization lies what we consider the subject of the worldly mind-set, namely contextthe worlds around the organization. Finally, the action mind-set pulls everything together through with(predicate) the execute of adjustmentin self, relationships, organization, and context. The practice of managing, then, involves five perspectives, which correspond to the five modules of our program Managing self the broody mind-set Managing organizations the analytic mind-set Managing context the worldly mind-set Managing relationships the collaborative mind-set Managing change the action mind-set If you are a manager, this is your world permit us overhear clear some(prenominal) characteristics ofthis set of sets. First, we make no championship that our framework is either scientific or comprehensive. It simply has proved make delectation offul in our work with managers, including in our masters program. (For more(prenominal) on the program, see the sidebar Mind-Sets for instruction Development. ) Second, we ask you to consider each of these managerial mind-sets as an attitude, a frame of mind that opens new vistas. Unless you get into a reflective fram e of mind, for example, you cannot open yourself to new ideas. You major power not even notice much(prenominal) ideas in the first place without a worldly frame of mind. And, of course, you cannot appreciate thebuzz, the vistas, and the opportunities of actions unless you engage in them. Third, a sacred scripture on our word mind-sets. We page 2 The Five Minds of a Manager do not use it to set any managers mind. All of us ready had more than enough of that. Rather, we use the word in the spirit of a prospect one of us happened to pull out of a Chinese cookie lately Get your mind set. Confidence result lead you on. We ask you to get your mind set around five chance upon ideas. Then, not just confidence but coherence can lead you on. Think, too, of these mind-sets as mind-sightsperspectives. But be aware that, improperly used, they can also be mine sites.Too much of any of them neurotic analyzing or compulsive collaborating, for instanceand the mind-set can blow up in your fa ce. Managing Self The Reflective Mind-Set Managers who are direct off to development courses these long sequence often find themselves being welcomed to upsurge camp. This is no country club, they are warned youll take up to work hard. But this is wrongheaded. While managers sure dont need a country club atmosphere for development, incomplete do they need efflorescence camp. close managers we know already live boot camp every day. Besides, in real boot camps, soldiers learn to march and obey, notto tour of duty and think. These days, what managers desperately need is to stop and think, to step back and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences. Indeed, in his book Rules for Radicals, capital of Minnesota Alinsky makes the interesting point that events, or happenings, blend experience only after they have been reflected upon thoughtfully Most people do not accumulate a eubstance of experience. Most people go through life undergoing a series of happenings, which pass thr ough their systems undigested. Happenings sound experiences when they are digested, when they are reflected on, related to general patterns, and synthesized. Unless the meaning is understood, managing is mindless. wherefore we take reflection to be that plaza suspended between experience and explanation, where the mind makes the connections. Imagine yourself in a conflux when someone suddenly erupts with a private rant. Youre tempted to ignore or discard the outburstyouve heard, after all, that the person is having problems at home. But why not use it to reflect on your profess chemical reactionwhether em- Mind-Sets for Management Development In 1996, when we founded the International Masters Program in Practicing Management with colleagues from around the world, wedeveloped the managerial mind-sets as a new way to structure management cultivation and development. Managers are sent to the IMPM by their companies, preferably in groups of quaternity or five. They stay on the job, coming into our classrooms for five modules of two weeks each, one for each of the mindsets, over a period of 16 months. We open with a module on the reflective mind-set. The module is located at Lancaster University in the reflective atmosphere of Union Englandthe nearby hills and lakes inspire reflection on the purpose of life and work. Then it is on to McGill University inMontreal, where the grid-like regularity of the city reflects the dynamism and straddle of the analytic mind-set. The worldly mind-set on context comes alive at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, where new technologies jostle ancient traditions on the crowded streets. Then comes the collabora- harvard business review november 2003 tive mind-set, hosted by cogency in Japan, where collaboration has been the key to managerial innovations, and Korea, where alliances and partnerships have become the basis for business growth. Last is the action mind-set module, located at Insead in France,whe re emerging trends from around the world veer into lessons for managerial action. So our locations not only teach the mindsets but also advance the participating managers to live them. And so have we, in the very conception of the program. Our forward motion to management development is fundamentally reflective. We conceptualise managers need to step back from the pressures of their jobs and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences. We as force members bring concepts the participants bring experience. Learning occurs where these meetin individual heads, small groups, and all together.Our 50-50 rule says that half the classroom time should be dark over to the participants, on their agendas. The program is fully collaborative all around. There is no lead domesticate much of the organizational responsibility is distributed. Likewise, the facultys relationship with the participants is collaborative. And faculty members work closely with the participating companies, which over t he then(prenominal) eight years have include Alcan, BT, EDF Group and Gaz de France, Fujitsu, the International Red Cross Federation, LG, Lufthansa, Matsushita, Motorola, Royal Bank of Canada, and Zeneca. We think of our circumstance as being especiallyworldly, because the participating managers and faculty host their colleagues at home, in their own cultures, and are guests abroad. We also swear that the programs reflective druthers allows us to probe into analysis more deeply than in regular education and work. Finally, our own purpose is action We try out fundamental change in management education worldwideto help change business schools into true schools of management. page 3 The Five Minds of a Manager These days, what managers desperately need is to stop and thinkto step back and reflect thoughtfully on their experiences.barrassment, anger, or frustrationand so hump some compar satisfactory feelings in yourself? Your own reaction now becomes a accomplishment experience for you You have opened a space for imagination, between your experience and your explanation. It can make all the difference. Organizations may not need mirror people, who see in everything only reflections of their own behavior. But uncomplete do they need window people, who cannot see beyond the images in front of them. They need managers who see both waysin a sense, ones who look out the window at dawn, to see through their own reflections to the awakening world outside.Reflect in Latin gist to refold, which suggests that attention turns innermost so that it can be turned outward. This means going beyond introspection. It means looking in so that you can reveal see out in order to perceive a long-familiar thing in a dissimilar waya product as a service, maybe, or a client as a partner. Does that not take up the thinking of the really successful managers, the Andy Groves of the world? Compare such people with the Messiers and Lays, who dazzle with great mergers and grand strategies before fire out their companies. Likewise, reflective managers are able to see behind in order to look ahead.Successful visions are not immaculately conceived they are painted, stroke by stroke, out of the experiences of the past. Reflective managers, in other words, have a healthy love for historynot just the grand history of deals and disasters but also the frequent history of all the little actions that make organizations work. Consider in this regard Kofi Annans deep personal understanding of the unite Nations, a comprehension that has been the source of his dexterity to help move that complex torso to a different and better place. You must appreciate the past if you wish to use the present to get to a better future.