Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Henry Mintzberg Article From Forbes Magazine
Henry Mintzberg Article From Forbes Magazine
Karl Moore
Contributor
Leadership Strategy
Henry Mintzberg
“Managing is rolling up your sleeves and finding out what’s going on,”
Mintzberg recently explained in a guest lecture to my undergraduate
strategy class. “Leadership is sitting up on a platform and waving your arms
like an orchestra conductor, who doesn’t really lead the orchestra. The
musicians are much more influenced by the composer. During a
performance they often don’t even look at the conductor.”
Much of his work is intended for the broader business community that his
latest book targets, rather than just other thinkers in the field. According to
Mintzberg our collective infatuation with the isolated figurehead is
ultimately bad for business. In fact, he asserts that MBA-holders,
particularly Ivy League educated graduates, often receive higher
compensation but fare worse as chief executive than their counterparts who
do not have an MBA—all because we prioritise the image of the leader
above their managerial competencies.
The seasoned professor argues that our idolization of elite but disengaged
leaders has consequences far greater than we comprehend. The power
imbalance stacked in the favour of lofty leadership feeds a number of
today’s crises—including climate change.
“I think it’s much more dire than most people realize or experience,” he
reasoned. “There’s the occasional storm but we treat it with a ‘this too shall
pass’ attitude. But it won’t pass. It’s going to get worse and worse as will the
distortions of power that feed it, and people will get angrier and angrier.
We’re in for either devastation or reformation. Either we watch the world
and the environment deteriorate to the point where it affects each and
every one of us personally or we engage in a change to our behaviour and
institutions.”
“I don’t mind having to be the guy who fights back,” Mintzberg said. “I do
mind the established powers grabbing power that they shouldn’t have. I’ve
always felt that way. Even as a kid, I was always outraged with people
abusing their power.”