The Executive and the Elephant E-Book

Richard L. Daft

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 609

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Lessons for leaders on resolving the ongoing struggle between instinct and the creative mind Kings, heads of government, and corporate executives lead thousands of people and manage endless resources, but may not have mastery over themselves. Often leaders know that right action is important, but have little (if any) understanding of what prevents them from acting in accordance with their intentions. In this important book, leadership expert Richard Daft portrays this dilemma as a struggle between instinct (elephant) and intention (the executive) using the most current research on the intentional vs. the habitual mind to explain how this phenomenon occurs. * Based on current research and real-life examples * Offers leaders a method for directing themselves more productively * Written by an expert in leadership, organizational performance, and change management Through real-life examples and recent studies in psychology, management and Eastern spirituality Daft provides guidance to all of us who struggle finding our own balance and cultivating the behavior of others.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Preface

Acknowledgments

Dedication

PART ONE - The Two Selves

Chapter 1 - The Problem of Managing Yourself

The Conflict Between Knowing and Doing

The Universal Failure of Willpower

The Divided Self: Executive and Elephant

Learning to Lead from Your Inner Executive

Purpose of This Book

Chapter 2 - Recognize Your Two Selves

Levels of Consciousness

Two Voices Within

Why Your Mind Is Filled with Automatic Thoughts

Unfocused Elephant Mind Versus Focused Executive Presence

Small Box Versus Large Mind

PART TWO - Ways You May Mislead or Delude Yourself

Chapter 3 - Three Tendencies That Distort Your Reality

Your Internal Judge

Your Internal Magician

Your Internal Attorney

Chapter 4 - Every Leader’s Six Mental Mistakes

Reacting Too Quickly

Inflexible Thinking

Wanting Control

Emotional Avoidance and Attraction

Exaggerating the Future

Chasing the Wrong Gratifications

PART THREE - How to Start Leading Yourself

Chapter 5 - Engage Your Intention

Visualize Your Intention

Verbalize Your Intention

Chapter 6 - Follow Through on Your Intentions

Write Down Your Intentions

Set Deadlines

Design Tangible Mechanisms

Chapter 7 - Calm Down to Speed Up

Get Connected

Let It Happen

Sit by Your Problem

Relax Your Body

Calm Your Elephant by Acting the Part or Making a Gentle Request

Chapter 8 - Slow Down to Stop Your Reactions

Stop and Think

Stop Interrupting

Detach from Your Emotions and Impulses

Just Say No

Employ Punishment

PART FOUR - Become Aware of Your Inner Resources

Chapter 9 - Get to Know Your Inner Elephant

Know Yourself

Solicit Feedback

Take Advantage of a Setback

Chapter 10 - Expand Your Awareness

Review the Day

Contemplate Creatively

PART FIVE - Reach for the Heights

Chapter 11 - Sharpen Your Concentration

Focus Your Attention

Focus on Means, Not Ends

Slow Down, Look, and Listen

Focus on People

Chapter 12 - Develop Your Witness

Turn Inward to Develop Your Witness

Use Radical Self-Inquiry

Who Am I?

Chapter 13 - Reprogram Yourself

Repeat a Mantra

Prayer May Help, but Not the Way You Think

Chapter 14 - Mend Your Mind with Meditation

Why Meditate?

An Easy Way to Start

Two Essentials

Mindfulness Meditation

Try Visual Rather Than Verbal

Contemplative Meditation

PART SIX - Can You Lead from a People Frame of Reference?

Chapter 15 - Change Your Frame to See People

What Is Your Frame?

From Leading Objects to Leading Humans

How to Change Your Frame

Chapter 16 - Change Your Frame to Ask Questions

From Answering Questions to Asking Questions

In All Things, Consult

Chapter 17 - Living and Leading from Your Inner Executive

Higher Consciousness Revisited

When Her Mind Went Quiet

Answers to Individual Questions

Final Thoughts

Notes

About the Author

Exercise Index

Index

Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daft, Richard L.

The executive and the elephant : a leader’ guide for building inner excellence / Richard L. Daft.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-37226-5 (hardback); 978-0-470-63661-9 (ebk);

978-0-470-63667-1(ebk); 978-0-470-63668-8(ebk);

1. Leadership. I. Title.

BF637.L4D34 2010

658.4’092—dc22

2010013839

Preface

ALTHOUGH I DIDN’T KNOW IT at the time, this book on inner excellence began on my first trip to India. I felt a calling to learn about spirituality, and where better to start than India? Sitting on an ashram, reading and studying deep ideas, and trying to meditate were jolting changes in paradigm for me, as were the hot days and cold showers. At times my head almost hurt as I tried to integrate what I was learning in the East with concepts from the West; the spiritual and academic were not blending easily. Gurus from Eastern traditions did research into the mind by focusing on the mental dynamics within their inner world; Western social science focused on understanding other people in the outer world. Both lines of inquiry were sincerely searching for the truth, but in opposite directions. It took me a while, and multiple trips to India, to assimilate lessons derived from within into the lessons from the outer world with which I was more familiar.

As I absorbed a new way of thinking, a key discovery for me was the Eastern concept of using Buddhi or “intellect” as a mental mechanism to guide one’s life, rather than living a life helplessly surrendered to one’s senses, desires, and self-interest. As I began to comprehend this somewhat separate and higher way of thinking, I started seeing similar concepts in the West. The notion that people have two selves or two thinking processes now seemed to appear all around me, along with the nagging problem of how to regulate or manage one’s emotions, impulses, and fears. Many people were asking questions about how to focus their restless mind and energy, how to avoid distractions, and how to manage themselves to lead or live more effectively. I saw a great deal of interest and inquiry from both psychology and neuroscience in self-regulation and in the extent to which people had so-called free will or were governed by unconscious desires and thought processes. In psychology, the higher part is characterized by conscious or metacognitive thought processes that are distinct from the nonconscious or simple cognitive processes. In neuroscience, the higher part is called the executive function in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, and the lower part includes the rest of the nervous system.

In some sense, the two parts of the mind are not very complicated. One part is quick and impulsive, and at times its restless urges are too strong to control. This part wants immediate gratification; it has a short attention span and a childlike stubbornness in defending its own positions. The other part is slower and wiser, humble, determined; it doesn’t overreact to things, and keeps the larger purpose in mind. I had my own issues finding more of the slow and steady within me to replace the reactive and restless. I researched and experimented with many techniques from East and West that would develop the part of my mind that could manage my own behavior.

This book is about the how, not the what, of improving your leadership. Changing one’s personal habits or leadership style is not easy. Where do you go for help? There are hundreds of books on leadership that tell people what they should do as leaders. These books offer excellent advice, such as the five leadership principles, seven habits, ten timeless principles, fifteen secrets, and twenty-one irrefutable laws, all of which have value for readers. In contrast, my purpose in this book is not to give you another list of what makes a good leader but to provide the how of changing and improving yourself into the leader you want to be and can be. This book offers specific exercises and practices that show you how to start managing yourself to become more effective as a person and a leader.

When I started using these ideas to teach MBA students and managers how to strengthen their intellect, they reported back some progress in changing themselves. One problem was that people had a hard time identifying with their own conscious and unconscious minds. Things took off after I adopted simple names for the two parts. Participants in my classes and programs then really seemed to get it. The names that stuck were inner executive for the higher part (intellect) and inner elephant for the lower. Students started using the terms to describe themselves and their behavior. A few executives took the terms back to their workplaces as a point of reference to help people understand and transcend their less functional behavior. These notions had practical value, so the remaining challenge for me was to write up the ideas and practices in book form.

The final tally is that I am now living within a different paradigm and have experienced modest success teaching these ideas and practices to others. Pursuing inner excellence has certainly changed me. I hope some aspects of this paradigm of two parts within your mind will help you develop the higher part of you on your journey to becoming a better leader, spouse, parent, friend, colleague, or employee, along with greater focus on and satisfaction in whatever endeavors in which you engage. Your inner excellence is waiting for you to claim it. Why not get started now?

Acknowledgments

WRITING A BOOK SEEMS TO ME at the start like a solitary exercise accomplished through individual will. Soon it becomes clear that writing a book cannot proceed without the support and involvement of many people and organizations. On the academic side, I am deeply grateful for three books that helped me see the two selves clearly and understand how they worked. These books elevated my belief that the book I wanted to write was possible, and each of these books was so well conceived and crafted that I had an ideal to shoot for in my own writing:

Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (New York: Basic Books, 2006)

Timothy D. Wilson, Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2002)

Marilee C. Goldberg, The Art of the Question: A Guide to Short-Term Question-Centered Therapy (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1997)

Many people and writings helping me understand Eastern spiritual insights into the mind and how to train the mind. The Santa Fe Buddhist satsang discussions provided wonderful guidance and instruction as I started my inquiry. The Diamond Heart books and programs helped expand my thinking to include Sufi wisdom mixed with Gestalt psychology. Later, I was profoundly influenced by the teachings and writings of Sathya Sai Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Joel S. Goldsmith, and A Course in Miracles. The writings of Eckhart Tolle were extremely helpful for showing how big spiritual concepts translate into everyday life. I want to specifically thank Sharda Madagula for guiding me through A Course in Miracles and introducing me to the publications of Joel S. Goldsmith, Mina Menon for hosting the Sai study circle at her home, and S. Mahadevan for his expert facilitation of the Bhagavad Gita discussion group. Participants in each of these discussion groups and programs made many contributions to my thinking, for which I will always be thankful.

For helping me refine personal improvement practices for leaders and professionals, I owe an extraordinarily large debt to the MBA and Executive MBA students who willingly participated in my coaching experiments here at Vanderbilt, and to the executives who attended my leadership programs and provided feedback from their experiences. I want to point out that MBA students are in their middle to late twenties, and Executive MBA students are typically in their thirties and forties. These students have substantial work experience and much experience as managers and leaders. They are practical minded rather than theoretical. Students in several classes tried experiments at my behest and provided feedback on what worked and did not work. I could not have written the book without their feedback on the exercises and practices. I am deeply grateful for their honesty about very personal issues. I have disguised their identities by using fictitious names and by sometimes altering the context of their experiences to protect their privacy.

I am also grateful to the Bridgestone/Firestone global development classes of worldwide senior managers, TVA’s Leadership and Management for Accelerated Performance, Aegis Technologies, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a federal government agency for allowing me to test these ideas on their managers. Also, Michael Ray of Stanford University sent me exercises that he developed for his MBA classes. I appreciate Michael’s generosity for letting me adapt several of the exercises for my classes.

Here at Vanderbilt, I especially thank Dean Jim Bradford, Owen Graduate School of Management, for his continuing support for this project, and for suggesting a quotation used in Chapter One. I also thank associate deans Bill Christie and Don Iacobucci for not overloading me with administrative projects, and associate dean Tami Fassinger for her enthusiastic support of my roles in executive teaching and as EMBA group doctor. I feel special appreciation for my assistant, Barbara Haselton, for her excellent and prompt support, especially her continuous filing and refiling that helped me find things and gave me time to write. I am also grateful to Pat Lane, my editorial associate, for her work researching some pieces of this book and for her outsized contributions to other books, freeing me for this project. Members of my academic group also were interested and supportive. Ranga Ramanujam suggested readings and provided helpful insights. Tim Vogus used a coaching model to teach his MBA classes, so our discussions provided valuable insights for me. I also owe an intellectual debt to other colleagues in my group at Vanderbilt: Bruce Barry, Ray Friedman, Neta Moy, Rich Oliver, David Owens, and Bart Victor. I am also grateful for the superb service from our library, with special thanks to Laura Norris and Rahn Huber, who responded instantly to my many requests.

The people at Jossey-Bass also contributed significantly. Kathe Sweeney, acquisitions editor, signed this book and showed faith and patience for a project that was hard for me to describe. Kathe also brought together an excellent team. Alan Schrader was frank and very helpful for structuring the book’s content into a logical sequence and for identifying elements that could be omitted. Anonymous reviewers also provided excellent feedback along with a number of suggestions that I adopted. My thanks also to Rob Brandt, Joanne Clapp Fullagar, and Michele Jones.

With my family I experienced the full duality of solitude and support. I spent endless hours isolated in my office, trying to keep my inner elephant on point, while also missing human contact. My wife, Dorothy Marcic, understood the message I was trying to communicate and was unwavering in her encouragement. Dorothy, along with my daughters Roxanne, Solange, and Elizabeth, were enthusiastic about the book and provided materials and insights about practices used in the Bahá’í faith. My daughters Danielle and Amy expressed encouragement for the book, and occasionally served as guinea pigs for a self-management technique or suggested a new exercise or practice they had discovered and found helpful.

To my wife, Dorothy Marcic,For insisting that this book must be written and thatI was the only person who could write it, and for herunrelenting encouragement to do so

PART ONE

The Two Selves

1

The Problem of Managing Yourself

I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.

— Medea

He that would govern others should first be the master of himself.

—Philip Massinger

BOB WAS HEAD OF A CORPORATE manufacturing division located in East Tennessee. Because his division was relatively small, Bob made all the hiring decisions himself. After receiving feedback from corporate and reading books about the importance of delegation, Bob realized his deficiency and made a pact with himself to engage others in key decisions. Calling in the sales director, Bob asked him to meet with several candidates for the customer service rep position and make the hire. Three weeks later, that director brought his top choice to Bob’s office, along with an offer letter for Bob to approve. Dumbstruck, Bob mumbled that he wanted to meet the final three candidates himself. He was unable to go along with the director’s choice, as he felt no rapport with the woman or her thin resume. After meeting the other candidates, Bob hired the man at the bottom of the director’s list. No matter how badly he wanted to delegate the decision, Bob could not let go. No matter how much Bob wanted the director to hire his own person, something compelled Bob to make the decision himself. “My mind has a mind of its own,” he said. The decision was a disaster both for the now resentful director and for the new customer service rep. It was no surprise when both quit within six months.

Bob was experiencing an internal struggle with himself that he had neither explicitly acknowledged nor ever discussed before. Bob did see that he had failed to lead himself to do what he had promised himself to do. He somehow chose the unwanted controlling behavior over his intended delegation behavior.

Martha was a young sales manager for an advertising agency. She was fairly new at the advertising firm and was promoted to sales manager after her boss abruptly resigned. Martha inherited a difficult employee who was a strong producer but whose competitiveness caused resentment among other team members. The difficult employee’s behavior seemed to get worse after inexperienced Martha took over. She said her intention to correct the employee was like “getting in my car to go east and the car insisted on going west, and I couldn’t do anything about it.” Martha did the right thing by getting her facts together and scheduling a meeting. “As I broached the subject of the prima donna’s behavior, his reaction was defensive, and I backed down.” That was her car turning toward California. “My sense of empathy or my desire to please others overrode my ability to be assertive and provide strong direction for him.” She was clearly disappointed in herself. “I missed my chance. I later tried giving him ‘motherly’ advice, but he did not change.” Martha’s vivid image of her car turning in the opposite direction against her wishes illustrates the gap between her intention and action. A part of Martha knew what to do, but the other part would not comply.