Well, I'm certainly not mainstream management education, but I've read both
articles (I receive Strategy+Business as well). Some comments follow.
First, the "Leadership is A Contact Sport" piece.
The authors, both of whom offer coaching services, take a look at the impact
coaching has on leadership development. Not surprisingly, it is
considerable. But, very surprisingly, the impact ties mainly to the
follow-up activities of the person being coached; specifically, if the
person being coached follows up with colleagues and co-workers regarding
his/her leadership development needs, progress, etc, co-workers and
colleagues subsequently report great progress. This "follow up" phenomenon
seems to be the key variable regardless of person, program of any other
factor. However, "progress" is measured against a set of leadership
behaviors approved by top management as perceived and interpreted by those
providing the feedback (typically 360 feedback). In short, at its most
basic, it's a compliance model; adherence to some behavioral
prescription/description. Management, it seems, is still laboring under the
misapprehension that control of behavior is still a viable avenue to control
of performance. Unfortunately, it's not. So, although behavioral adherence
might be achieved, I doubt that's any guarantee of performance. But, as
none of the behavioral descriptors were provided, that's a purely
speculative statement on my part.
The "Upwardly Global MBA" article is a very different matter. Nigel Andrews
is a governor of the London Business School and Laura D'Andrea Tyson is its
dean. Their points are simple and straightforward: the B schools have to
change. The changes involve shifting the B-school focus from knowledge to
skills and attributes. They view the B school student as a product and
executives as the customers for that product. The current product doesn't
meet requirements and, to continue the authors' manufacturing analogy, the B
school production lines need re-tooling. I doubt the B schools that decide
to do so will have any difficulty ramping up the skills training portion of
their curricula but I seriously doubt that they will be able to imbue their
"product" with the attributes that Andrews and Tyson say executives are
seeking. Some of these attributes include unyielding integrity, worldly
awareness, self-awareness, perseverance and tenacity, and curiosity and
creativity. A two-year B school experience doesn't seem to me the best
avenue for developing such attributes. What I found fascinating about the
article is its "manufacturing" view of B schools. That "mental model," if
you will, leads inexorably to efforts to drive out variation. In other
words, such a view of matters taken seriously is likely to lead to MBA
graduates who are as alike as peas in a pod. The issues in that scheme of
things are the specifications for those peas and their pods. I suspect some
B schools will indeed attempt to "re-tool" along the lines laid down by
Andrews and Tyson. Others won't. Where I think things might change, in the
B schools and in the corporate world, is in the area of assessment as part
of intake. Both the schools and the "customers" for its "products" are
likely to be extremely interested in any assessments that can validly and
reliably gauge the extent to which candidates (for admission or employment)
possess the indicated attributes. I'm confident that there are sufficient
numbers of entrepreneurially inclined psychometricians out there that such
assessment instruments will be (if they are not already) available in a
supply adequate to meet the demand. Caveat emptor.
Regards,
Fred Nickols, CPT
Distance Consulting
"Assistance at a Distance"
nickols@att.net
www.nickols.us
Edryce writes:
> I subscribe to the periodical Strategy + Business. The fall
> issue has two articles that interested me, and I'd be interested
> in the response from other members of this group. The reason I
> ask is that I am not mainstream management education, so I want
> to check in with those who are.
>
> "The Upwardly Global MBA," by Nigel Andrews and Laura D'Andrea Tyson.
> "Leadership is a Contact Sport [The 'Follow-up Factor' in
> Management Development," by Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan.
>
> Thanks for any reactions.
> http://mail.yahoo.com