The Journey of an Enlightened Leader

Copyright © 2014 by Price Schwenck.

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Rev. date: 06/18/2014

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: Conventional Management Practices

Ranking

Incentive Systems

Management by Objectives (MBO)

Numeric Goals

Management by Results

CHAPTER TWO: Conventional Management Beliefs

Beliefs about Human Behavior

Beliefs about Control

Beliefs about Motivation

CHAPTER THREE: A Closer Look At Control And Motivation

Reliance upon Authority

Misunderstanding of Human Nature

Failure to Understand Dependencies

Reliance upon Extrinsic Motivators

Do Carrots and Sticks Motivate Behavior?

Transformation

CHAPTER FOUR: Stop Armchair Management

The Issue of Control

The Issue of Motivation

Integration and Self-Control

CHAPTER FIVE: Get Rid Of The Carrots

And Sticks

Recognizing the Dangers of Using Extrinsic Motivators

Creating an Environment of Intrinsic Motivation

Praise as a Motivator

A Word about Ego

CHAPTER SIX: Build Trust To Pass Go

Personal Effectiveness

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Managerial Effectiveness

Organizational Effectiveness

The Power of Trust

CHAPTER SEVEN: Take Responsibility For Improving Methods

Five Guideposts

The Theory of Variation

Dealing Effectively with Process Variation

CHAPTER EIGHT: Closing Thoughts And Suggestions

A Brief Summary of the Main Issues to Explore

Transformation

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

For forty years, I have been a humble student and practitioner of management and leadership. While earning my MBA in the early 1970s, I worked as a graduate assistant with a management professor who taught a course titled the Human Side of Enterprise, modeled after Douglas McGregor’s book of the same name. Needing real-life work experience before embarking on a PhD, I was motivated upon graduation to take a job in textile manufacturing. The position promised quick management experience. The tough, authoritative management style practiced in the mills was exactly the opposite of that taught by McGregor; it proved to be a wonderful laboratory. The three-year experience working in the mills as a line manager allowed me to significantly increase my understanding and appreciation of the challenges of effective leadership. The experience forever hooked me on management and leadership as my primary career focus.

The dynamics of management and leadership continued to fascinate me after turning to banking. In the 1990s, I was a regional president at a large bank in South Florida. My job was primarily one of integrating and managing the dozens of mergers that took place during a ten-year period. I wanted to improve my management skills to more effectively lead thousands of employees working in a constantly-changing environment. I was fortunate to find a unique program of study at the University of Miami based on the management philosophy of Edwards Deming.

Today I remain intrigued by the challenges of managing and leading. My goal in writing this book is to assist those management teams who are absolutely serious about finding ways to significantly improve their effectiveness. I am honored to share my experiences and academic study with you.

INTRODUCTION

The things we do are largely a function of, and dependent upon, the things we believe. For example, when we are around someone we distrust, we likely act differently than when we are with someone we trust completely. Whether or not we are correct about the trustworthiness of these people, we behave based on what we believe. This cause-and-effect relationship between our beliefs and behavior operates at a subconscious level. The subconscious mind does not distinguish truth from fiction; it functions only to receive data, file the data away, and retrieve it when needed to make choices. The subconscious mind simply acts on information that it has stored over time, whether the data is true or not. To complicate things, the subconscious tends to act as a data screen by categorizing new information into already existing beliefs. If the new data does not fit, the subconscious mind may simply reject it.

In organizations, the collective body of conscious and unconscious assumptions, premises, attitudes, and feelings held by management teams (referred to in this book as management beliefs) and the processes, methods, programs, and techniques used to get things done (referred to in this book as management practices) are linked in this dependent cause-and-effect relationship. We leaders have a real challenge on our hands. The things we decide to do to move our teams toward desired goals may well be based on incorrect beliefs that we hold about employees in general, and about ourselves and our roles as leaders. These incorrect beliefs, in turn, may lead us to adopt practices that just do not