Nitin Nohria

Uses a basis of neurology and other disciplines to define what drives human beings. It breaks it down into four fundamental drives that sometimes intermingle, but can't be further simplified. These are the Drive to Acquire, the Drive to Bond, the Drive to Learn, and the Drive to Defend. The book uses this information to tell you how to best manage people. That is the vibe I got from it.

The book devotes three chapters to telling us about how the brain evolved, four chapters to telling us about the four drives, three chapters telling us about the context in which they work, and the final two chapters talk about Human Nature and how it relates to society. It is quite scholarly and explains the main thesis really well.… (mehr)

Shunning the latest concepts, the authors argue, managers do today what they have always done: mobilize action.

Great leadership is achieved by targeting appropriate actions, communicating it using simple and inspiring rhetoric and then getting it done. “Silver bullets,” they argue, do not exist. Despite the proclamations of publicity-conscious consultants and revenue-hungry book publishers, the essence of management remains what it has always been:

1. Using and Understanding Rhetoric
2. Taking Action
3. Recognizing Individual Identities.

The book’s first section posits that management relies on a classical definition of rhetoric. Managers live in a universe where language is used not only to communicate but also to persuade and to create. It acts as a powerful force that is always at work in an organization.

Almost every situation a manager faces during the course of his or her day has something to do with rhetoric: one-on-one conversations, team meetings, presentations to large and small audiences, memos, articles, project proposals, appropriate requests, strategic plans, vision statements. In each, managers wrestle with language in their quest to find solutions and the correct courses of action.

Second, despite the “flavor of the month” phenomenon common in our organizations, every decision revolves around meeting short-term objectives while retaining long-term flexibility.

Finally, managers depend on their people. Their ability to recognize unique talents and abilities plays a direct role in the success of their plans and ventures.

This is a book of uncommon wisdom. In my mind it is a sin that it has been allowed to go out of print. Good management comes from targeting correct action and communicating it to the proper people. The formula does not change. It is a message that any serious manager should read and cement into the cornerstone of his or her managerial style.

Posted by the Pointed Pundit
August 1, 2007
11:31:21 AM… (mehr)