Great Article From LeadershipNow.

MBA Arrogance and the Myth of Leadership
Philip Delves Broughton, author of Ahead of The Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, writes in the Financial Times about MBA Arrogance and the Myth of Leadership. Broughton observes:
What business schools can teach is organisational behaviour. They can teach compensation systems and recruitment processes. They can offer classes on cash and non-cash incentives, on training, promotion and the value of a corporate culture. They can offer frameworks for negotiations, strategy decisions and implementing change. But when they bundle this up and call it leadership, they risk leaving their students with the faulty impression that they are now qualified, if not obliged, to go into the world and lead. It breeds the arrogance for which MBAs are mocked. He continues, “Great leaders tend to be those who can synthesise, simplify and persuade. They provide clarity so that those below them can do their best to achieve a common goal. But leadership should not be the brass ring at the climax of every business career.It is the merit of Broughton to remind readers of the problems of surrounding leadership education. He is right. Business schools are best at teaching the competencies that business leaders need when performing their tasks. And at this point in time, they are probably rethinking what that means. Teaching leadership – as in take these classes and read these books and you are a leader – is something else. Broughton correctly asserts that MBA students often walk out into the world thinking that they are uniquely equipped to lead the world. It’s an arrogance that is rarely appreciated in the real world and an approach that does not serve them well in the long-term. Books and lectures do not make you a leader, but they can give you the tools to become a leader through the practice of leadership. They point you in the right direction. They fast-track your awareness. They are extremely valuable but they do not make you a leader. That label is earned, not taught. Broughton states, “Not all MBAs can be leaders, nor need they be. Every business needs followers: people who are good at what they do, who are able to implement the plans laid out by leaders.” Here is where discussions of leadership often derail. Broughton is confusing leadership with position. Position is the brass ring and there are a limited number of those to go around. Most people will to be left out. He’s right. We can’t all have position, but we can all be leaders. Likewise we are all – regardless of our position – followers. The idea that “I’m a leader, not a follower” is a foolish notion and belies the ignorance of what leadership really is by anyone who states it. Basic to a proper understanding of leadership is the understanding that leadership is not position and does not make you a leader.
There was a time when management was just management, the science of providing organisational support for innovators and salespeople to win customers and revenue. Managers tracked resources, physical, financial and human, and tried to improve efficiency. Occasionally they made an acquisition or pushed into new markets, and this was strategy. But somewhere along the line management morphed into the sexier-sounding “leadership”. Managers were globe-trotting executives – catalysts for change. They had a business press eager to turn them into icons, to photograph them in their penthouses, preening over their empires as if they, rather than their shareholders, owned them. Business schools were eagerly complicit in this super-sizing of management. They no longer educated mere MBAs. They were churning out “future leaders”. Business does not need any more leadership courses – particularly not at the MBA level.No, business schools need leadership courses. They just need better ones. They need courses with a proper emphasis about leadership. I appreciate his phrasing – “this super-sizing of management” – but management and leadership go together. They are often separated so that we can, by pulling them apart, see how they fit together. We need both and we need to be practicing both. One is not better than the other. A good leader manages. A good manager leads.

Interesting Finding

Findings From GA Tech:

Spring ’08 Graduation Stats

Average Salary:	$52,300
Highest Salary:	$80,000

I love that the average new DM in their first year makes more than this, and our top new districts make in the six figures in their first year! 

SC1 Promotion

Here is Zach Saunders with some SC 1 Promotion.

Getting Out of Finals Early!

Here are some thoughts on getting out of finals early. I firmly 
believe it comes down to asking with confidence. Plus, I was a good 
student to begin with and didn't miss classes, so my profs liked me. I 
moved all of my exams for both semesters of my senior year of 
college... even the classes that expressly stated in the syllabus in 
big bold letters "I WILL NOT MOVE EXAMS FOR ANY REASON." 

what are the objections and concerns that professors might express? 

- creates extra work for me, esp if I have to make another version of the test 
- you could share answers with other students (cheating concern) 
- if I let you do it, I have to make allowances for other students 
- i just don't normally reschedule exams 

Use the objection cycle. I did this via email, because I was too much 
of a chicken for a face-to-face conversation... plus it allowed me to 
handle all objections before they could say "no". 

here's an example convo: 

"Hey prof, I am a student in your _____ class this semester. As you 
have seen by my attendance and participation (my performance on 
exams/papers, etc) in class I am a committed to excelling in the 
course. 

Knowing that finals are approaching, I looked over our exam schedule 
for December. According to the syllabus, our final falls on _________. 
I work with a company called Vector Marketing and I have earned the 
unique opportunity to run my own office next summer when classes are 
out. In preparation, I need to train really hard over my winter break, 
knowing that during the school year my training time is limited. Our 
exam falls on _____ but I really need to finish finals by _____ in 
order to train properly over my break. I do not want to miss out on 
the opportunity to get the training I need to excel next summer, nor 
do I want to hurt my performance in your class by any way. 

I know that normally you would never move a class for a student. I can 
completely understand why-- you have to take extra time from your 
schedule to conduct the exam, there is concern over cheating if you 
give me the same exam other students are going to take, and if you let 
me take the exam early, you might be expected to make allowances for 
other students. 

Normally, I would never ask to take my exam early, but I am really 
excited about the opportunity to run my own office next summer because 
___________ (good experience for my major, personal skills it will 
help me develop that, resume experience for when I graduate, money for 
school, etc.) and know that I need to take full advantage of my winter 
break for training. I am wiling to take a completely different-- even 
harder-- exam in order to make this a reality. And naturally, I would 
be discrete and not tell others students I am taking the exam early. 

How can we make things work so that I can still excel in your class, 
but also not miss out on my opportunity to run my own business next 
summer? 

Thank you, 

Getting Someone to a Phone Jam

This is the second video from the Promotion Game

Justin on how to get people a Thursday night Phone Jam. 

How to get Someone to TNO

Hey Guys

Thanks for a great meeting this weekend. Here is the first of the Promotion game. 

Deyan on How to get someone to TNO

Tips for the Trainer

Some of you guys asked me about getting the Tips for the Trainer videos (just copy and paste in your address bar):

https://www.vectorconnect.com/avlib/video_oldlist.jsp?id=282