Leadership Unravelled: The Faulty Thinking Behind Modern Management

Description

Why is it that leaders - in social, political, and (most importantly) organisational contexts - are seemingly unable to address meaningfully the wicked problems and complex challenges that we currently face? There's enormous busyness around reconfiguring departments and adopting 'transformational' operating models, but in general plus ca change, plus la meme chose. Eyewatering amounts of treasure and time are spent in corporate life on leadership development, with people working hard to try and demonstrate that something useful has happened as a result. An entire pseudo-science has emerged to try and prove its worth, in part to justify the economic dividend that goes to those who make it to the upper levels of positional power. The fetishisation of leadership, especially strong leadership, fills our news outlets holding up carefully distorted images of great men (leadership is still deeply gendered) from across the worlds of politics, business, and sports. This book explores the persistently disappeared and unacknowledged constraints that inhibit leaders in every context. It argues that these constraints - defined in this volume in terms of five organisational paradoxes and six management myths - are found at large in society and are especially impactful in organisational life. By calling attention to, and exploring in rigorous detail, these paradoxes and myths, this book helps leaders, and the leadership systems they are part of, to wriggle free of the tacit assumptions that lock them into a cul-de-sac of simplistic prescription and heroic individualism. Once these mind-forged manacles are removed, new forms of leadership practice become possible, ones that are fit for purpose in engaging with a world facing systemic crisis and existential risk. This book is essential reading for leaders and managers at all levels looking for solutions to traditionally simplistic leadership practice and who want to affect systemic change. It will be beneficial to all those in the world of leadership development including business schools and HR departments. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Preface Chapter 1: An Introduction… in seven uneasy pieces 1.1 The common sense we live by 1.2 A superficial connection with reality 1.2.1 Parts 1 and 2 in summary 1.3 What gets in the way of us stopping and wondering about our world 1.3.1 Part 3 in summary 1.4 The disappearance of collective sense and sense making 1.4.1 Part 4 in summary 1.5 The fragmentation of time, busyness, and the disconnected future 1.5.1 Part 5 in summary 1.6 Paying attention to the headwaters of our thinking 1.6.1 Part 6 in summary 1.7 What happens next… 1.7.1 The five paradoxes 1.7.2 The six myths 1.7.3 An end to the introduction References Chapter 2: The use and abuse of paradoxes in organisational life 2.1 Setting the scene 2.2 Starting with the personal in the context of the systemic: the non-inevitability of equilibrium 2.3 On the notion of paradox: the game where two irreconcilable propositions co-exist 2.4 Paradox in organisational life: how words create worlds and legitimise one-dimensional management 2.5 Dismantling five impactful paradoxes: an overview 2.5.1 Paradox one: well-beingcontra overbearing busyness 2.5.1.1 In brief… 2.5.1.2 The paradox in full… 2.5.1.2.1 The framing of well-being as being in the service of productivity 2.5.1.2.2 The organisational response to workforce disengagement which threatens productivity 2.5.1.2.3 Busyness and the penetration of work-think into the home 2.5.1.2.4 The intended and unintended consequences of ICT 2.5.1.2.5 The imprecision of what is meant by health and well-being 2.5.1.2.6 The addiction to persistent, executively framed, programmatic upheaval (aka ‘change’) 2.5.2 Some conclusions about paradox one…. 2.5.3 Paradox two: inclusive compassion contra heroic control 2.5.3.1 In brief… 2.5.3.2 The paradox in full… 2.5.3.2.1 The King is dead! Long live the King! Or so it seems when it comes to leadership practice 2.5.3.2.2 How the traditional model is nourished and constructed – and isn’t ‘natural’ at all 2.5.3.2.3 The addiction to uncritical action: and the social order it sustains 2.5.3.2.4 The distractive ideology of the new language of leadership 2.5.4 Some conclusions about paradox two 2.5.5 Paradox three: diversity of voice contra enforced homogeneity 2.5.5.1 In brief… 2.5.5.2 The paradox in full… 2.5.5.2.1 How McKinsey occupied the way organisations think (and not in a good way) 2.5.5.2.2 Diversity seen through a mechanistic lens of supporting creativity and innovation 2.5.5.2.3 Critiquing what is taken to be ‘bleeding obvious’ 2.5.5.2.4 The just organisation in a just society… values in conflict 2.5.5.2.5 Freedom on a short leash… the lure of totalitarianism 2.5.6 Some conclusions about paradox three… 2.5.7 Paradox four: authenticity contra part of the superstructure 2.5.7.1 In brief… 2.5.7.2 The paradox in full… 2.5.7.2.1 The discipline of the observed self (in a crowd) 2.5.7.2.2 The failure of the authentic self to be other than a tool of a system 2.5.7.2.3 Validating the authentic leader at work 2.5.7.2.4 The market economy of authenticity and its truth 2.5.7.2.5 Can the watched (‘hailed’) self ever be authentic? 2.5.7.2.6 The silencing of the unedited voice 2.5.8 Some conclusions about paradox four… 2.5.9 Paradox five: all to be heard contra the privileging of extraversion 2.5.9.1 In brief… 2.5.9.2 The paradox in full… 2.5.9.2.1 The work of meetings (or meetings, bloody meetings…) 2.5.9.2.2 The pleasure of exercising power and/or belonging 2.5.9.2.3 The curse of thoughtfulness 2.5.9.2.4 The silencing effects of hierarchy – and its subversion 2.5.9.2.5 Let’s talk about ethnicity and gender 2.5.10 Some conclusions about paradox five 2.5.11 What lies beneath… some conclusions about paradox in the workplace 2.5.11.1 In brief… as an overview of the review of the five paradoxes 2.5.11.2 In brief… an overview for each paradox 2.6 A concluding commentary References Chapter 3: The six myths of management (thinking) 3.1 Setting the scene for the six myths and why challenging them can be unpopular 3.2 What are the six myths that create the seemingly unbreakable boundaries of our management and leadership thinking? 3.3 The first myth: all is fixable 3.4 The second myth: perfection is the only state worth pursuing 3.5 The third myth: there is a right way of doing things 3.6 The fourth myth: metrics reflect an objective reality 3.7 The fifth myth: values bind the organisation 3.8 The sixth myth: we’re all in it together 3.9 What are the implications of the six myths… and what can we do about it? 3.10 The implications of the first myth that ‘All is fixable’… and what we can do about it 3.11 A concluding commentary on what can be done with the ‘All is fixable’ myth 3.12 The implications of the second myth that ‘Perfection is the only state worth pursuing’… and what we can do about it 3.13 A concluding commentary on what can be done with the ‘Perfection is the only state worth pursuing’ myth 3.14 The implications of the third myth that ‘There is a right way of doing things’… and what we can do about it 3.15 A concluding commentary on what can be done with the ‘There is a right way of doing things’ myth 3.16 The implications of the fourth myth that ‘Metrics reflect an objective reality’… and what we can do about it 3.17 A concluding commentary on the ‘Metrics reflect an objective reality’ myth 3.18 The implications of the fifth myth that ‘Values bind the organisation’… and what we can do 3.19 A concluding commentary on the ‘Values bind the organisation’ myth 3.20 The implications of the sixth myth that ‘We’re all in this together’… and what we can do about it 3.21 A concluding commentary on the ‘We’re all in this together’ myth 3.22 In conclusion… reframing the six myths 3.23 Postscript Notes References Index