The 12 Elements of Great Managing

1. I know what is expected of me at work.

Only half of the employees in Gallup’s international database
‘strongly agree’ that they understand their company’s expectations. Employees need
to understand expectations well enough to adjust of changing circumstances.

2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.

Employees need to have a reliable and familiar personal work space. Employees who
are given the right tools to do their jobs are more productive and feel that the
company is supportive of them and their work.
Knowing what’s expected: a detailed
understanding of how what one person is
supposed to do fits in with what everyone
else is supposed to do, and how those
expectations change when circumstances
change.
Collaboration
Decks of aircraft carriers
Professional basketball teams
Operating rooms

U.S. Navy aircraft carrier—multiple hazards within a confined space,

yet accidents on flight decks are surprisingly rare. The deck of an
aircraft carrier is considered an HRO (high reliability organization),
because so many things can go wrong, but almost never do.
Each person understands what is expected of him/her, and
understanding how what he/she does complements the work of the
rest of the team.
Professional Basketball Team-a perfect laboratory to study
teamwork.
The greater stability of a team’s roster—the better the team
members played.
Distinction made between ‘explicit knowledge’ and ‘tacit
knowledge’—nuances and patterns of teammates’ play.
Tacit knowledge is not gained by reading a manual or listening to
a lecture. It must be learned through experience.
‘Chemistry Sport’
Operating Room (cardiac physicians)—38,577 procedures, 203
surgeons, 43 hospitals
The same doctors perform better at the hospitals where they do
more surgeries than at the facilities where they do occasional
work.
Volume does not significantly improve the surgeon’s
performance at other hospitals. Suggesting that surgeon
performance is not fully portable across organizations.
Teamwork matters--accumulated tacit knowledge within one
organization may not be fully transferable to another.
‘Chemistry Sport’
The most important capability for leaders to develop
Self-Awareness

Being conscious of the internal aspects of one’s nature, such as

personality traits, emotions, values, attitudes, and perceptions,
and appreciating how your patterns affect other people.
Importance of Self-Awareness
• Effective leaders know who they are and what they stand for
• Allow people to know what to expect from them
• People require self-reflection to avoid blind spots that limit
effectiveness and career success

• A careful self-reflection is essential for most people to recognize their

blind spots.
Blind Spots

Characteristics or habits that people are not aware of or don’t

recognize as problems but which limit their effectiveness and
hinder their career success.
Blind Spots
Being a jerk-displaying an aggressive, confrontational style.
Too nice-constantly trying to please everyone; unable to tolerate
a mild degree of conflict.

Seek regular feedback.

Trust

Gallup research suggests that only one in ten people possess

the characteristics that great leaders exhibit, which include
traits and behaviors necessary for building relationships based
on trust and openness.
Personality—understanding personality differences is
one aspect of knowing how to maximize your own
effectiveness and that of the people you lead.

The set of unseen characteristics and processes that underlie a

relatively stable pattern of behavior in response to ideas,
objects, and people in the environment.
Big Five Personality Dimensions—it’s a
continuum—a person may have a low, moderate, or
high degree of each dimension.

Five general dimensions that describe personality:

extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional
stability, and openness to experience.
Big Five Personality Dimensions
• Extroversion: Degree to which a person is outgoing, sociable,
talkative, and comfortable meeting and talking to new people
• Includes the characteristic of dominance
• Likes to be in control and influence others
• Self-confident, seeks positions of authority, and is competitive and assertive
Big Five Personality Dimensions
• Agreeableness: Degree to which a person is able to get along with
others by being good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, compassionate,
understanding, and trusting
• Warm and approachable
• More agreeable people are more likely to get and keep jobs
• Overly agreeable people tend to be promoted less and earn less money
Big Five Personality Dimensions
• Conscientiousness: Degree to which a person is responsible,
dependable, persistent, and achievement-oriented
• Focus on a few goals
• More important than extroversion for effective leadership
Big Five Personality Dimensions
• Emotional stability: Degree to which a person is well-adjusted, calm,
and secure
• Emotionally stable leader can:
• Handle stress and criticism well and does not take mistakes or failures personally
• Develop positive relationships
• Improve relationships
• Leaders with a low degree of emotional stability can become tense, anxious,
or depressed
Big Five Personality Dimensions
• Openness to experience: Degree to which a person has a broad range
of interests and is imaginative, creative, and willing to consider new
ideas
• Intellectually curious and seeks new experiences
• Early travel and exposure to different ideas and culture are critical to
development
• Important because leadership is about change
Values

Fundamental beliefs that an individual considers to be

important, that are relatively stable over time, and that have
an impact on attitudes and behavior.
Attitude

An evaluation (either positive or negative) about people,

events, or things.
Perception

The process people use to make sense out of the environment

by selecting, organizing, and interpreting information.
Perceptual Distortions—errors in judgment that
arise from inaccuracies in the perceptual process.

Stereotyping
• Tendency to assign an individual to a broad category and then
attribute generalizations about the group to the individual.
Halo effect
• Overall impression of a person or situation based on one
characteristic, either favorable or unfavorable.
Perceptual Distortions

Projection
• Tendency to see one’s own personal traits in other people.

Perceptual defense
• Tendency to protect oneself by disregarding ideas, situations, or
people that are unpleasant.
Attributions

Judgments about what caused a person’s behavior—either

characteristics of the person or of the situation.
Attributions
• Internal attribution—Characteristics of the person led to the
behavior
• External attribution—Situation caused the person’s behavior
How We Judge Behavior
Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external

factors on another’s behavior and overestimate the influence
of internal factors.
Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors

on one’s successes and the influence of external factors on
one’s failures.