Winning Em' Over: A New Model for Managing in the Age of Persuasion - Softcover

Conger, Jay A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743230345 ISBN 13: 9780743230346

Verlag: Simon & Schuster, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

A historic shift is occurring in the nature of management. Until recently, bosses could simply use the power of their positions to direct and order their subordinates. However, in today's workplace, which is significantly different from the remarkably homogenous and traditional business environment of just two decades ago, the approach of command authority no longer works effectively.
Winning 'em Over chronicles a revolution. We are witnessing an ancient model of managing built around command and hierarchy give way to a new model built around persuasion and teamwork. Jay Conger demonstrates to managers on all levels how to thrive in the wake of this momentous transformation.
Today we work in an environment where people don't just ask "What should I do?" but "Why should I do it?" To successfully answer this "why" question is to persuade. Yet many businesspeople misunderstand and still more make little use of persuasion. The problem? Persuasion is widely perceived as a skill reserved for selling products and closing deals. But in reality, good managers are persuading all day long. As Conger explains with insight and conviction, today's most effective managers are influencing others through constructive forms of persuasion -- and their employees give them levels of commitment and motivation that the managers of the last generation could only dream of.
Conger illustrates how three important forces -- new generations of managers and executives, cross-functional teams, and unprecedented access to information that was once the privilege of the most senior levels of management -- are undermining the old Age of Command and ushering in the new Age of Persuasion. He exposes the most commonly held myths about the art of persuasion and shows how to influence others productively, without manipulation. Most important, he outlines the four crucial components of effective managing by persuasion: building one's credibility, finding common ground so that others have a stake in one's ideas, finding compelling positions and evidence, and emotionally connecting with coworkers so that solutions resonate with them on a personal level. In Winning 'em Over, Conger explains how to implement a management style that will succeed in what is becoming a fundamentally and radically different business environment, and he provides readers with all of the new tools they will need to become effective, constructive persuaders.

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Jay Conger holds the Kravis Research Chair in Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College. He is the coauthor of Corporate Boards: New Strategies for Adding Value at the Top, Building Leaders, and The Practice of Leadership, as well as eleven other leadership-focused books.

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Chapter 1

Welcome to the Future

Let's begin with the parable of Jacobson and Eeene. Mike Jacobson was known in the company as a real comer. He'd quickly risen up the ranks to senior management and at forty-five was in line for a vice presidency. In what was clearly a prelude to that promotion, Mike had been put in charge of the company's new-product development team.

It was a crucial assignment. The team was created in response to competition from companies who now were able to introduce three times as many new products as Mike's firm could. Over the last two years, these rivals had been like sharks, chewing off some 4.5 percent of the company's market share. The team's meetings, unfortunately, had not been going well. And today was no different.

The big issue before the meeting was how to design the next generation of the company's Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a small, handheld computer that could take notes, send faxes, and receive e-mail. If the new model succeeded in the marketplace, it could reverse the company's downward slide. The question was, how fancy should it be?

Mike was from marketing, and he'd been arguing that to attract customers the PDA should have lots of new features. But no one had seemed to be listening. The team's attention was fastened upon Peter Keene, the recently appointed manager of production. Peter was emphasizing low price and snafu-free production; he believed the product should be simple and stripped down, with fewer features. To Mike's dismay Peter seemed to be not just winning the debate but emerging as the team's real leader. He wasn't doing it on purpose; it was just happening.

"The guy is some kind of genius," Mike thought to himself. Peter had this uncanny ability to get his point across.

Mike glanced at his watch. The meeting had been underway for twenty-one minutes. It was time for him to intervene, time to try once again to assert his view. He was sure that by virtue of his position as team leader and the force of his personality, he could make the discussion finally go his way.

He cleared his throat. "Look, people," he announced. "I want to say something here." A few faces turned in his direction, but the others looked straight ahead or down at their papers. "What we have to do," he went on as forcefully as he could, "is to find a solution that's right for the customer. The customer is number one. So I want to restate my position. The customer wantsmore features, not less. You guys are headed down the wrong path."

He sat back, expecting agreement. It didn't come.

"Hey, folks," he said, a faint note of desperation audible through his self-assurance and attempted humor. "I know what I'm talking about. Iam the marketing guy here, and this is a marketing issue."

The people at the table waited in embarrassed silence until they saw that Mike was finished. Then they resumed their discussion about which product features could be dropped and still keep the customer happy.

Mike was stunned. They were treating him as if he'd said something very out of place. He tried to maintain his composure, but inside he was anxious, his chest was tightening. He'd been snubbed and ignored like this at several of the meetings. Had he lost his touch? What was happening here? Why weren't they listening? For the first time in his life he began to have thoughts of failure. What if, under his leadership, the team came up short? He'd be nailed for letting down the company in its time of crisis, and for disappointing the boss who'd given him this chance.

Several months before, when it had become clear that the firm's competitors were ravaging its markets, Mike's boss, the vice president of marketing, had decided it was time for a radical approach. Friends of his who were executives at other companies had given him glowing reports of how effective cross-functional teams could be in speeding up product development. The concept was sweeping the business world. Many management experts hailed it as the only way for a company to organize if it wanted to compete effectively.

Typically, these teams were composed of employees from a variety of company divisions, such as research and development, marketing, and production, along with representatives from the firm's suppliers and occasionally its customers. Team members came together as equals, not as superiors and subordinates, and together they shaped decisions from the very start of a new product.

This contrasted markedly with the way decisions used to be made. In the past, each division took charge of a certain phase of a product's development, handing it off to the next division. Research and development might suggest the initial idea. Engineering would design it. Manufacturing would make it. Marketing and sales would find the customers for it. This traditional approach -- passing work sequentially from one department to the next -- took considerable time. One group's work could be drastically revised by the next group, which stirred up resentment and caused inefficiencies.

Mike's boss had persuaded the company to try the cross-functional technique. Then he named Mike, his protégé, as the team's formal leader. The job, he knew, would give Mike important new management experience and high visibility in the company, setting him up for a major advancement.

Mike's team's first assignment was to hustle along the Personal Digital Assistant. The product had been languishing for more than a year in the research department. Now it was given top priority. If handled right, it could turn the company around. Mike knew that as leader of the team that accomplished the coup, he'd be springboarded into the executive suite.

That's how things looked to Mike when he signed on. Instead the opportunity was fast becoming a nightmare.

From the first meeting the team process had been difficult for Mike. He'd managed subordinates successfully for fourteen years, but this team was something else, especially the younger people. They'd seemed a lot harder to motivate.

His customary procedure in meetings had always been to begin by inviting everyone to participate in the decision making. His theory was that if you involved people to a point, they'd let you have your own way. Sure, it was a manipulation. He didn't care that much about getting their input. He was going through the motions. The gambit usually had worked for him. He'd been able to direct decisions in the end.

So in this, his first experience with the cross-functional team approach, he'd used the same tactic. At the initial meeting he'd gone around the table asking for views, and then he'd declared his own. That should have been that. But, for some reason, it wasn't. In the next forty minutes the group systematically plucked away many of the features Mike had earnestly promoted. It was as if he'd never spoken.

Mike felt he had to do something to turn this group around. If he didn't reestablish himself as the leader, he'd be disgraced. It was time, he told himself, to lay down the law. His career, after all, was on the line.

He squared his shoulders and placed both hands on the table. Just as his hands touched the wood, there was a lull in the conversation, and he moved quickly to take advantage of it.

"Okay," he said, "hold on just one minute. We're getting way off track. I want you guys to listen up for a minute." The expressions on the faces seemed less than receptive. "I am the team leader here. And Peter," he said, turning toward Peter, "I think you are just plain wrong. This is not a cost issue. You're going to kill this product before it ever gets out the door if you nickel-and-dime it with costs."

As he continued he gradually...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Simon & Schuster
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0743230345
• ISBN 13: 9780743230346
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 228
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland