Comment_The Five Minds of a Manager
www.hbr.org
The world of the manager is complicated and confusing.
Making sense of it requires not a knack for simplification but the ability to synthesize insights from different mindsets into a comprehensible whole. The Five Minds of a
Manager
by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg
Reprint R0311C
The world of the manager is complicated and confusing. Making sense of it requires not a knack for simplification but the ability to synthesize insights from different mind-sets into a comprehensible whole. The Five Minds of a
Manager
COPYRIGHT © 2003 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg
The chief executive of a major Canadian company complained recently that he can’t get his engineers to think like managers. It’s a common complaint, but behind it lies an uncommonly important question: What does it mean to think like a manager?
Sadly, little attention has been paid to that question in recent years. Most of us have become so enamored of “leadership” that “management” has been pushed into the background. Nobody aspires to being a good manager anymore; everybody wants to be a great leader. But the separation of management from leadership is dangerous. Just as management without leadership encourages an uninspired style, which deadens activities, leadership without management encourages a disconnected style, which promotes hubris.
And we all know the destructive power of hubris in organizations. So let’s get back to plain old management.
The problem, of course, is that plain old management is complicated and confusing. Be global, managers are told, and be local. Collab-
harvard business review • november 2003
orate, and compete. Change, perpetually, and maintain order. Make the numbers while nurturing your people. How is anyone supposed to reconcile all this? The fact is, no one can. To be effective, managers need to face the juxtapositions in
The world of the manager is complicated and confusing.
Making sense of it requires not a knack for simplification but the ability to synthesize insights from different mindsets into a comprehensible whole. The Five Minds of a
Manager
by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg
Reprint R0311C
The world of the manager is complicated and confusing. Making sense of it requires not a knack for simplification but the ability to synthesize insights from different mind-sets into a comprehensible whole. The Five Minds of a
Manager
COPYRIGHT © 2003 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg
The chief executive of a major Canadian company complained recently that he can’t get his engineers to think like managers. It’s a common complaint, but behind it lies an uncommonly important question: What does it mean to think like a manager?
Sadly, little attention has been paid to that question in recent years. Most of us have become so enamored of “leadership” that “management” has been pushed into the background. Nobody aspires to being a good manager anymore; everybody wants to be a great leader. But the separation of management from leadership is dangerous. Just as management without leadership encourages an uninspired style, which deadens activities, leadership without management encourages a disconnected style, which promotes hubris.
And we all know the destructive power of hubris in organizations. So let’s get back to plain old management.
The problem, of course, is that plain old management is complicated and confusing. Be global, managers are told, and be local. Collab-
harvard business review • november 2003
orate, and compete. Change, perpetually, and maintain order. Make the numbers while nurturing your people. How is anyone supposed to reconcile all this? The fact is, no one can. To be effective, managers need to face the juxtapositions in