Happy Holidays to All!

Best wishes to you for a happy holiday season and the best new year!

It's Not Easy Being HOT...

...and by HOT I mean a Hands-On Teacher... (if you don't understand this post so far, I have not lost my mind...it's a MGT 3120 thing...)

It is a tough task to run a community of individuals where authority and respect have to be earned every day. Few people can do it well, consistently and successfully, because it demands an unusual combination of attributes. But these are characteristics you too will need as you take your rightful place among the management ranks of the future. I try everyday to hold on to these ideals, and they are what I also wish for you to find and maintain:

A belief in oneself is the only thing that gives an individual the self-confidence to step into the unknown and to persuade others to go with you where perhaps no one has taken them before. But this has to be combined with constant self-questioning, the humility to accept that one can be wrong on occasion, the acceptane that others also have ideas, and that listening is as important as talking.

A passion for the job provides the energy and focus that will drive your organization and you must always try to act as an example to others. But this also has to be combined with its opposite, an awareness of other worlds, because a sole focus on your own ideas can turn to blinders, and an inability to think beyond one's own box. Great leaders find time to read, to meet people beyond their own circle, to go to the theater or see films, to walk in other worlds.

The leader must have a respect and love of people, because in a community of individuals, those who find individuals a pain and a nuisance may be respected or feared, but they will not be willingly followed.

Yet this attribute, too, requires its opposite, a capacity for aloneness, because leaders have to be out front. It is not always possible to share one's worries with anyone else. Few will thank the leader when things go right, but many will blame the leader if things go wrong. Great leaders have to walk alone from time to time. They also have to live vicariously, deriving their satisfaction from the growth and successes of others and giving those others the recognition that they deserve.

Living with these paradoxes requires great strength of character. It also requires a belief in what one is doing. Although it may seem so now, money alone may not be enough to provide the motive to live with these contradictions. Even a love of power is insufficient, because power irons out the contradictions rather than holding them in balance. I believe great leaders are bred from great causes, but leaders at their best will also breed great causes. Until and unless business embraces a cause bigger and more beneficial to society than enrichment of self and shareholders, it will have few great and memorable leaders that will stand the test of time.

I wish you all the best as you carve your own way through this management maze. It has been a pleasure and honor to have met you all. Please come back and visit me...even if only through this blog in the future.

--prof K

The Leadership Secrets of "Attila the Hun"

"We should rule the world." --Attila the Hun

Attila the Hun was a member of a nomadic Asian people in search of global conquest. By AD 432, Attila the Hun had become a leader of historic repute. He gained so much power that his army consisted of 700,000 warriors, and he was content with nothing less than the ransacking of Rome itself. The Huns had a reputation for cruelty and barbarism that was not undeserved. They ate their meat raw (often human flesh), had little use for virgins, and possessed a strong appetite for murder and mayhem. No one could look Attila in the eyes, not even any of his 400 wives.

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Back in 1987, a very famous and controversial leadership book was written, called "Management Secrets of Attila the Hun." The book pretends to be a collection of campfire stories told by Attila while training his chieftains to be better leaders. Of course there's no historical evidence that Attila ever had such fireside chats, but it's an interesting way for the author to infer what Attila might have said under such circumstances.

Here are a few of Attila's secrets that the author claims are fully appropriate for the business world. What do you think? Is there any wisdom in behaving like a Hun today?

YOU'VE GOT TO WANT TO BE IN CHARGE -- You've got to be ruthlessly ambitious. Never be bored, disinterested, or cowardly in any way. Good leaders are lustful leaders. Power is like sex, but don't appear overeager, just extremely determined to succeed under any circumstances, fair or unfair.

PICK YOUR ENEMIES WISELY -- Do not consider all opponents, or everyone you argue with, as enemies. These are accidental enemies. Choose your enemies with purpose. They may be people you have friendly relations with, and in fact, you should let them think of you as a friend, all the while never telling them anything, and lulling them into a state of complacency and acting prematurely.

EXPLOIT THE DESIRE TO ENJOY THE SPOILS OF WAR -- Harness your peoples' desires for short-term gains. Grant small rewards for light tasks. Reserve heaps of booty for other times, and be generous with items that hold a value to yourself. Never underestimate the ability to buy obedience.

EXPECT CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT -- You must encourage learning and innovation among those you lead. This can be done in several ways, by creating competitions among the people. Never allow them to wander aimlessly. Regularly upgrade your standards of performance.

NEVER CONDONE A LACK OF MORALE OR DISCIPLINE -- Terminate people at the first sign of disrespect for the common good, but by no means stiffle individualism or punish the innocent who don't know the common good. Definitely, do not allow uncontrolled celebration. Pillaging and looting are only fun if done in the name of one's mission. Discipline will build morale.

Does Your Generation of Managers Have What it Takes to Succeed?

They're young, smart, brash. They may wear flip-flops to the office or listen to iPods at their desk. They want to work, but they don't want work to be their life.

This is YOU--often called "Generation Y"-- a force of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now embarking on their careers — taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace.

This age group is moving into the labor force during a time of major demographic change, as companies around the US face an aging workforce. Sixty-year-olds are working beside 20-year-olds. Freshly minted college graduates are overseeing employees old enough to be their parents. And new job entrants are changing careers faster than college students change their majors, creating frustration for employers struggling to retain and recruit talented high-performers.

But unlike the generations that have gone before them, it is said that Gen Y has been overly pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high-performance and high-maintenance. They also believe in their own worth, even though frequently that worth has not yet been proven in the marketplace.

"Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today's workforce," says Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University-Brooklyn in New York. "They've grown up questioning their parents, they question their teachers, and now they're questioning their employers. They don't know how to shut up, which is great, but that's aggravating to the 50-year-old manager who says, 'Do it and do it now.' "

•Work-life balance isn't just a buzz word. Unlike boomers who tend to put a high priority on career, today's newest workers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their family and personal lives than vice versa. They want jobs with flexibility, telecommuting options and the ability to go part time or leave the workforce temporarily when children are in the picture. Will this laid back approach lead to the same pace of advancements earlier generations have created for their future generations?

•Change, change, change. Generation Y'ers also don't seem to expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long — they've seen the scandals that imploded Enron and Arthur Andersen, and they're skeptical when it comes to such concepts as employee loyalty. They don't like to stay too long on any one assignment. This is a generation of multitaskers, and they can juggle e-mail on their Blackberrys while talking on cellphones while trolling online.

"They're like Generation X on steroids. They walk in with high expectations for themselves, their employer, their boss. If you thought you saw a clash when Generation X came into the workplace, that was the fake punch. The real managerial tests are coming now."

Conflicts over casual dress. In the workplace, conflict and resentment can arise over a host of issues, even seemingly innocuous subjects such as appearance, as a generation used to casual fare such as flip-flops, tattoos and capri pants finds more traditional attire is required at the office.

Angie Ping, 23, of Alvin, Texas, lives in flip-flops but isn't allowed to wear them to the office. "Some companies' policies relating to appropriate office attire seem completely outdated to me," says Ping, at International Facility Management Association. "The new trend for work attire this season is menswear-inspired capri pants, which look as dressy as pants when paired with heels, but capri pants are not allowed at my organization."

And then there's Gen Y's total comfort with technology. While boomers may expect a phone call or in-person meeting on important topics, younger workers may prefer virtual problem solving. This can lead to communication breakdowns.

Conflict can also flare up over management style. Unlike previous generations who've in large part grown accustomed to the annual review, Gen Y'ers have grown up getting constant feedback and recognition from teachers, parents and coaches and can resent it or feel lost if communication from bosses isn't more regular.

"The millennium generation has been brought up in the most child-centered generation ever. They've been programmed and nurtured," says Cathy O'Neill, senior vice president at career management company Lee Hecht Harrison in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. "Their expectations are different. This group expects to be told how they're doing."

More than 60% of employers say they are experiencing tension between employees from different generations, according to a survey by Lee Hecht Harrison. The survey found more than 70% of older employees are dismissive of younger workers' abilities. And nearly half of employers say that younger employees are dismissive of the abilities of their older co-workers.

Is this how to spell success?

Is this any way to manage?

"The Great and Powerful Oz has spoken!"

Ever have a boss like this? Proclaiming his wisdom from on high...commanding others to do his bidding through intimidation...belittling his subordinates for merely speaking up. I've known quite a few of these so-called management types: lots of huffing and puffing, all smoke and mirrors, but in the end, very little substance. Is this what management should be about?

I don't manage like this, and neither do most good managers. In the end, good managers are less wizard-like and much more like Dorothy in their approach: they develop a strong vision (getting home/getting to Oz), they encourage their staff to believe in themselves even when they are uncertain about their own skills or abilities (Dorothy lets the Scarecrow make many decisions for the group--not bad for someone with 'no brain'!) They always motivate, communicate, and advocate for their people. And of course they solve their own daily problems... how shall I say this, creatively...


Think about the ways Dorothy becomes the real "great and powerful" manager in this film. Many of the principles she adheres to will prove to be valuable tools for future managers like yourselves as well. We'll be discussing more about management styles as the semester progresses...