Selections from management journals

NUGGETS

Today's top executives are expected to do everything right, from coming up with solutions to unfathomably complex problems to having the charisma and prescience to rally stakeholders around a perfect vision of the future.

But no one leader can be all things to all people. It's time to end the myth of the complete leader. The authors' study of leadership over the past six years has led them to develop a framework of distributed leadership that consists of four capabilities: sensemaking, relating, "visioning", and inventing.

Sensemaking involves understanding and mapping the context in which a company and its people operate. A leader skilled in this area can quickly identify the complexities of a given situation and explain them to others. The second capability, relating, means being able to build trusting relationships with others through inquiring, advocating and connecting.

Visioning, the third capability, means coming up with a compelling image of the future. Finally, inventing involves developing new ways to bring that vision to life. Rarely will a single person be skilled in all four areas. That's why it's critical that leaders find others who can offset their limitations and complement their strengths.

In praise of the incomplete leader

Deborah Ancona, Thomas W Malone, Wanda J Orlikowski, Peter M Senge
Harvard Business Review,
February 2007 Issue
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10 business bestsellers
BOOKWORM

THE WORLD IS FLAT
Author: Thomas L Friedman
Publisher: Penguin Books
Price: Rs 560
ISBN: 0151022728

DAMODARAN ON VALUATION
Author: A K Damodaran
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Price: Rs 4,920
ISBN: 0471751219

THE UNDERCOVER ECONOMIST
Author: Tim Harford
Publisher: Time Warner
Price: Rs 560
ISBN: 0316731161

BROKEN WINDOWS, BROKEN BUSINESS
Author: Michael Levine
Publisher: Time Warner
Price: Rs 705
ISBN: 0446576786

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
Author: W Chan Kim
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Price: Rs 1,475
ISBN: 1591396190

THE STARBUCKS EXPERIENCE
Author: Joseph A Michelli
Publisher: Tata McGraw-Hill
Price: Rs 299
ISBN: 0070636761

KNOW-HOW
Author: Ram Charan
Publisher: Random House UK
Price: Rs 650
ISBN: 1905211236

THE GREATNESS GUIDE
Author: Robin Sharma
Publisher: Jaico Publishing
Price: Rs 175
ISBN: 8179925765

WINNING
Author: Jack and Suzy Welch
Publisher: Harper Collins
Price: Rs 295
ISBN: 0007253141

FREAKONOMICS
Authors: Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
Publisher: Allen Lane
Price: Rs 275
ISBN: 0141025808

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