We spoke recently about the choice of Cathie Black to be the Chancellor of NYC schools (interesting compromise announced, but wouldn't a good leader have hired an expert anyway?). We have also spoken about leadership gurus and experts. So, from today's NYTImes, is a quick examination of the former topic by subjects of the latter:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/nyregion/25manage.html
cheers, russell west
I agree with Mr. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld's opinion, founder of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale University’s School of Management, who says the debate should be about skills and temperament and Ms. Black has already proven she has them. I also think Mr. Bloomberg chose an expert in managerial skills.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Russel (or say yes to his question...) - "a good leader would have hired an expert anyway". As we discussed the Structural Frame one thing that fully crystalized for me was the notion that a good leader knows how to get the best information to make informed decisions. When we look at Mintzberg's Five, we understand that while all levels in effect have power, everything feeds into the decision making authority. I truly think that Ms. Black's value add to this is her ability to make crucial decisions. That seems to be the reason Mayor Bloomberg appointed her. While it might have been nice to consult all of the stakeholders, maybe it would have been counterproductive and we would have ended up with a chancellor who would rather appease dissenting voices rather than make some really tough strategic choices - which goes to Michael Useem's point, from the article "Gifted managers from outside an industry, can indeed come in and perform extremelly well if they bring an underlying skill set that the enterprise needs at the moment." In my opinion the NYC school system is still falling behind other major systems - it is big, it is very complex, as well as very expensive, but, despite other efforts it keeps failling too many students. I am so in favor of this appointment because I really think it is will provide a different viewpoint, and especially since she will have a Deputy who does have a background in education as an advisor to help her make informed choices - wonderful!
ReplyDelete-Ken