MGMT214G1 - Management and Leadership

A Seminar with CEOs

Book Review on

First Person: Tales of Management Courage and Tenacity

(Edited with an introduction by Thomas Teal)

Harvard Business Review Book

Prepared for: Prof Pang Eng Fong

Prepared by: Wee Teck Chye Derrick (S8616919C)
Date: 8th April 2011
First Person narrates the story of how Ralph Stayer turned around his family business
-Johnsonville Sausage by learning how to let his workers lead. Ralph Stayer realized
that his employees did not seem to care about their jobs, which was worrying as that
could spell vulnerability especially in an increasingly competitive environment. This
led to Ralph embarking on a learning journey towards improving the performance of
his employees.

There are many key insights provided by Stayer during this learning process in letting
his workers lead. The underlying key factor to get better performance from employees
is to change the way one thinks and manage the business first, before attempting to
change the company. This change however is a long-term process and not a one-off
transaction. This change starts from understanding human behavior before
implementing the relevant measures to improve employee performance. More
importantly, an accurate understanding of people is essential in minimizing the
common pitfalls of such organizational change.

For instance, people in fact do want to be great. Life itself is an aspiration. Helping
employees fulfill their potential is both a moral responsibility and good business.
Striving, intrinsically motivated people tend to be good workers. Secondly, it is
important for a leader to influence the people’s expectations. This is because
performance often begins with individual expectations. This leads to the importance
of using semantic, symbolic and behavioral means to send messages to shape people’s
expectations to the goals of the company. More importantly, the actions of a leader
are critical as it often sends “signals” to employees. Employees constantly refer to the
actions of a leader to see if the actions are consistent with the vision or goals preached
by the leader. The bottom line: actions of managers/leaders shape expectations so
leaders must thus practice what they preach.

The book also illustrates the difficulty in empowering employees. When employees
have become accustomed to following the leader, a sudden abdication of
responsibility to the employees is likely to be unsuccessful. This is because the
employees are not ready to make decisions. This may lead to a situation where
employees try to second-guess what decisions the leader/manager wants them to
make, which is itself a counter-productive process. Therefore empowering of
employees is not just the simple act of transferring the reins of control to the
employees. It is necessary to make them expect, want and even demand responsibility
before empowering them. One important way to introduce this demand for
responsibility among employees is to increase accountability. This is because
employees who implement a decision and are accountable to its consequences are
often the best people to make that decision.

Lastly, managers as well as employees should not be complacent after achieving

success. To ensure the company remains dynamic and competitive, both managers
and employees must never stop learning. This is because learning teaches one to
constantly question one’s own actions and behavior in order to better understand and
improve the ways one performs, work and live.

(495 words)