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Do Nothing!: How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader
Award-winning business professor Keith Murnighan teaches us how doing less will get you more in Do Nothing!Would you like to go on holiday without having to check daily that your team is doing its job? Can you turn off your phone and your email, knowing that everything is under control?For most managers this is just a dream. But Do Nothing! reveals that such a 'hands off' approach is both achievable and highly effective.In this compelling and imaginative book, award-winning business professor Keith Murnighan shows how really successful leaders create a culture of independence and trust. Identify the team members who you can rely on - then step aside and let them do their jobs. With a raft of provocative suggestions ('ignore performance goals!', 'de-emphasize profits!'), Do Nothing! proves that behaving naturally can work against you. Doing less will get you more.'A compelling analysis...Allows leaders to both work less and be better at their craft' Robert Cialdini, author of Influence'This rare book provides a refreshing perspective and tangible advice on leadership that isn't available anyplace else' Bob Sutton, author of The No Asshole RuleJ. Keith Murnighan is an award-winning professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and an active consultant and trainer for a host of companies around the world. His research has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, and Forbes. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.
- GenresLeadership
215 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 30, 2012
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 30, 2016
The "do nothing" leaders:
*Are facilitators and orchestrators rather than being micromanagers.
*Focus on the task and on the people, they care for them sincerely.
*They often pull themselves out of the equation, which allows them to practice the "Leadership law" and focus on the reactions they are hoping for first, rather than their own actions.
*To do this well, they get to know their people, and they act as their true friends.
*They give their team members voice, they help them to feel psychologically safe, and they trust them fully.
The Leadership Law: "Think of the reaction that you want first, then determine the actions you can take to maximize the chances that those reactions will actually happen"
Not only do we often find what we are looking for in people, we sometimes create what we are looking for in people.
*Focus on your team members.
*Learn to take your team member's perspectives.
*Follow the leadership law.
*Active listening.
*Get on the balcony/walk the floor
"Getting on the balcony" that is, acting as you are standing on a balcony above your current situation and watching how everything unfolds - including seeing yourself in the action at that moment.
Public recognition of excellent performance is a great way to stimulate motivation.
Be a social psychologist: don't just try to understand people's behavior after you've observed it - actually try to predict it.
Follow the first rule of sales: determine what your customers need and see if you can provide it to them.
The mind and the body of a leader do not need to be in the same place.
Pride is a huge motivator: when people feel proud of what they can do and they have a chance to do it, and be recognized and rewarded for it, they are almost always highly motivated to perform.
By appreciating and incorporating diversity within your team you can help it to perform better.
The key for great leaders is to construct a team that has all of the skills they need to conteract any obstacle that might come up.
Unassigned roles are typically unfulfilled.
Leaders need to keep a singular focus, each and every day, on their ultimate goals: they need to keep them at the front of their minds as they choose their actions and strategies.
Great leaders are aware that within teams, they always have three kinds of goals: super-ordinate, team and individual. Super-ordinate goals encompass the big picture: why does your team exist? Why does your company exist?...
Backwards induction: start at the end, at where you want to be, and work your way back to the beginning, choosing your first step so that it logically sets up the next, which will logically set up the next, and the next after that.
Great leadership is not possible without trust: it is absolutely required. People will not follow a leader they don't trust, and leaders won't get far if they don't trust people, and delegate authority. (->micromanagement).
Successful team leaders create an atmosphere that is psychologically safe: their team members can make observations; they can ask questions; they can comment on what they are seeing and they are encouraged to do so.
Structural control: creating a structure (rules, processes, policies etc.) that influences people even when you are not around.
Effective leaders must push people to do more on their tasks and they must sincerely care about them at the same time.
As a general rule people don't do more work than they are assigned to: ask people to do more than they otherwise would.
"Leadership is lonely" effective people push their people to do more than they otherwise would, and pushing people is not a great way to make friends. But to do really well, you must push your people to do more. If you don't you will be stuck doing more than you should, and collectively, you and your team will accomplish less.
We can do many, many things faster than we think we can (cutting time in half several times without reduction in quality).
"Tough love" is caring enough about your people to push them to their maximum potential.
Why are learning goals so important? If you and your team's abilities stay the same and you continuously face increasing performance goals, pretty soon you will not be able to achieve them.
Remember, your plans are not important on their own, they are only important in helping you to achieve your goals. If they are not working, don't hesitate - change your plans and keep seeking that goal.
Don't just focus on your performance goals. Even if you achieve them, you may miss much more. Effective leaders achieve far more when they focus their attention on learning and ignore performance goals, which will almost always be around and which require almost none of your attention to still have the desired impact.
Work to create value and you will become an attractive partner.
"If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there" Yogi Berra
R.W. Emerson "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment".
M. Mead "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed this is the only thing that ever has"
R.W. Emerson - "To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
*Are facilitators and orchestrators rather than being micromanagers.
*Focus on the task and on the people, they care for them sincerely.
*They often pull themselves out of the equation, which allows them to practice the "Leadership law" and focus on the reactions they are hoping for first, rather than their own actions.
*To do this well, they get to know their people, and they act as their true friends.
*They give their team members voice, they help them to feel psychologically safe, and they trust them fully.
The Leadership Law: "Think of the reaction that you want first, then determine the actions you can take to maximize the chances that those reactions will actually happen"
Not only do we often find what we are looking for in people, we sometimes create what we are looking for in people.
*Focus on your team members.
*Learn to take your team member's perspectives.
*Follow the leadership law.
*Active listening.
*Get on the balcony/walk the floor
"Getting on the balcony" that is, acting as you are standing on a balcony above your current situation and watching how everything unfolds - including seeing yourself in the action at that moment.
Public recognition of excellent performance is a great way to stimulate motivation.
Be a social psychologist: don't just try to understand people's behavior after you've observed it - actually try to predict it.
Follow the first rule of sales: determine what your customers need and see if you can provide it to them.
The mind and the body of a leader do not need to be in the same place.
Pride is a huge motivator: when people feel proud of what they can do and they have a chance to do it, and be recognized and rewarded for it, they are almost always highly motivated to perform.
By appreciating and incorporating diversity within your team you can help it to perform better.
The key for great leaders is to construct a team that has all of the skills they need to conteract any obstacle that might come up.
Unassigned roles are typically unfulfilled.
Leaders need to keep a singular focus, each and every day, on their ultimate goals: they need to keep them at the front of their minds as they choose their actions and strategies.
Great leaders are aware that within teams, they always have three kinds of goals: super-ordinate, team and individual. Super-ordinate goals encompass the big picture: why does your team exist? Why does your company exist?...
Backwards induction: start at the end, at where you want to be, and work your way back to the beginning, choosing your first step so that it logically sets up the next, which will logically set up the next, and the next after that.
Great leadership is not possible without trust: it is absolutely required. People will not follow a leader they don't trust, and leaders won't get far if they don't trust people, and delegate authority. (->micromanagement).
Successful team leaders create an atmosphere that is psychologically safe: their team members can make observations; they can ask questions; they can comment on what they are seeing and they are encouraged to do so.
Structural control: creating a structure (rules, processes, policies etc.) that influences people even when you are not around.
Effective leaders must push people to do more on their tasks and they must sincerely care about them at the same time.
As a general rule people don't do more work than they are assigned to: ask people to do more than they otherwise would.
"Leadership is lonely" effective people push their people to do more than they otherwise would, and pushing people is not a great way to make friends. But to do really well, you must push your people to do more. If you don't you will be stuck doing more than you should, and collectively, you and your team will accomplish less.
We can do many, many things faster than we think we can (cutting time in half several times without reduction in quality).
"Tough love" is caring enough about your people to push them to their maximum potential.
Why are learning goals so important? If you and your team's abilities stay the same and you continuously face increasing performance goals, pretty soon you will not be able to achieve them.
Remember, your plans are not important on their own, they are only important in helping you to achieve your goals. If they are not working, don't hesitate - change your plans and keep seeking that goal.
Don't just focus on your performance goals. Even if you achieve them, you may miss much more. Effective leaders achieve far more when they focus their attention on learning and ignore performance goals, which will almost always be around and which require almost none of your attention to still have the desired impact.
Work to create value and you will become an attractive partner.
"If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there" Yogi Berra
R.W. Emerson "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment".
M. Mead "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed this is the only thing that ever has"
R.W. Emerson - "To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
Displaying 1 of 1 review