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Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams
Book

Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams

How You and Your Team Get Unstuck to Get Results

Roger Schwarz
Jossey-Bass, 2013
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Most leaders claim to consult with their teams and say they want everyone’s input. In reality, most leaders act like tin-pot dictators – assuming that people who don’t agree with them are always wrong. Organizational psychologist Roger Schwarz explains why some executives adopt this self-destructive, unilateral – and often oblivious – management style. He proposes a “mutual-learning mind-set” that helps leaders become as open-minded as they claim to be for better results all around. Some of the author’s recommendations are laughably impractical, like urging team members to explain out loud why they’ve just used negative body language, like rolling their eyes. However, that doesn’t detract from the insightful advice at the core of the book. Schwarz demonstrates a rare understanding of the negative aspects of leadership, how people can recognize those aspects in themselves and how they can change their behavior for the better. getAbstract recommends this book to team leaders and team members.

Summary

Restrictive Behavior

Corporate leadership teams often find themselves stuck in restrictive behavior patterns and unable to achieve the results they want. Often, the team as a group doesn’t seem as intelligent or effective as its individual members. To “get unstuck,” challenge your basic assumptions about leadership and embrace a few simple, effective teamwork tactics.

Forget the traditional idea that each team should have a single leader. While universally accepted, this principle proves flawed in action. Belief in one leader produces the “unilateral-control mind-set,” the I’m-in-charge attitude that 98% of all leaders adopt. On the surface, unilateral control seems logical. It says that in any room, one leader – generally the person with the most authority – makes the team’s decisions, directs the meetings, focuses the group’s attention and evaluates team member performance.

Staffers usually assume that leaders are “all-seeing, all-knowing and all-doing,” as if the leader becomes a boat’s “designer, captain, navigator and engineer,” while the rest of the team rows. This prevents team members from holding each other accountable. If there is only one leader, then...

About the Author

Organizational psychologist Roger Schwarz is president of Roger Schwarz & Associates, a leadership team facilitation consultancy, and author of The Skilled Facilitator.

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