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Why distributed leadership is the future of management
MIT / Sloan ^ | 4.19.2022 | Meredith Somers

Posted on 04/21/2022 12:37:31 AM PDT by libh8er

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1 posted on 04/21/2022 12:37:31 AM PDT by libh8er
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To: libh8er

Distributed leadership. I think our Founding Fathers already understood the concept.


2 posted on 04/21/2022 1:11:30 AM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan (qd4)
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To: libh8er

Apparently they don’t understand how good management currently works.


3 posted on 04/21/2022 1:27:10 AM PDT by Clean_Sweep
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To: Clean_Sweep

That’s because university academic departments are essentially little Politburos, with everything that implies.


4 posted on 04/21/2022 2:09:19 AM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan (qd4)
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To: libh8er
Why distributed leadership is the future of management

ANSWER: Because large organizations are bloated, inefficient, and generally just don’t work.

5 posted on 04/21/2022 2:28:13 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Mr. Potato Head ... Mr. Potato Head! Back doors are not secrets.")
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To: libh8er
This isn't new.

Many leaders understand the need to push decision-making down to the "front lines." Of course, this doesn't mean all decision-making...just those decisions best made by people in touch with the real situation.

The problem with "teams" is that they can quickly turn into "committees" and everyone knows what management by committee looks like.

Just my opinion, of course, but the tone of management has to start in the C-suite. It has to be understood that ego is NOT rewarded and credit for success is to be pushed down the corporate hierarchy along with the decision-making responsibility.

6 posted on 04/21/2022 2:32:28 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: Alberta's Child

Yes.

I support the idea of distributed leadership. But many jobs are BS jobs, and a lot of those are within the management chain. Large organizations are unlikely to adopt any sort of distributed leadership paradigm because it is a huge threat to the people who tend to run large organizations.


7 posted on 04/21/2022 2:34:49 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (It's hard to "Believe all women" when judges say "I don't know what a woman is".)
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To: libh8er

The author and quoted academics are women. Women like “collaborative” management, where they will not be held accountable for results.

I remember when my company bought into “management by consensus” a decade ago. The women managers turned it into “dictatorship by the most obstinate”, while avoiding all decision responsibility.


8 posted on 04/21/2022 2:36:18 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

Excellent comment.


9 posted on 04/21/2022 2:37:59 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: SauronOfMordor
The women managers turned it into “dictatorship by the most obstinate”, while avoiding all decision responsibility.

I call it, "Let the wookie win" where the biggest, most emotional bully winds up making all the decisions because it's the path of least resistance for everyone else.

10 posted on 04/21/2022 3:26:36 AM PDT by hopespringseternal
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To: libh8er

Then the productive and profitable sectors will start gobbling up the non-productive and non-profitable businesses and streamline them.

You’ll eventually have two or three divisions and they’ll elect a CEO. Viola! Back to square one.

Corporate America’s latest rearranging of the deck chairs.


11 posted on 04/21/2022 3:36:34 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: HYPOCRACY

Sorry. Voila!


12 posted on 04/21/2022 3:37:40 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: libh8er
Interesting… I’m the new CIO at a community college. I recently told a colleague I’m moving towards “distributed CIO”, giving each of my team members leadership roles and responsibilities in specific areas that were always handled by former CIOs.

I had no idea this was a trend. I have read and practiced a lot of John Maxwell’s leadership books and lessons.

Thanks for posting!

13 posted on 04/21/2022 3:39:34 AM PDT by The Truth Will Make You Free
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To: libh8er

“Their job isn’t to be the smartest people in the room who have all the answers,” Isaacs said, “but rather to architect the gameboard where as many people as possible have permission to contribute the best of their expertise, their knowledge, their skills, and their ideas.”

I was a manager for 25 years. This is the type of cliched word salad BS that drove me into running my own business.

A manager is supposed to take ideas and input from their whole team? Wow. What a concept.


14 posted on 04/21/2022 3:42:12 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: The Truth Will Make You Free

Why are you introducing efficiency at a college? Lol.

I worked at a large bank that recycled CEOs every few years since the 2008 crises.

Every new one decided to change the structure of the company management. One had every business head either in NY or London and all the regional businesses reported there. The next guy regionalized it. The following one had this brilliant new idea of splitting the difference.

Smaller companies is the answer if you want efficiency.


15 posted on 04/21/2022 3:47:41 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: Vermont Lt

Ha! Same here. Politics, not competency gets you ahead these days. I’m no politician.

Making the company lots of money only goes so far if you don’t play the game.


16 posted on 04/21/2022 3:50:25 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: hopespringseternal
I call it, "Let the wookie win" where the biggest, most emotional bully winds up making all the decisions because it's the path of least resistance for everyone else.

But in committee management, accountability for bad decisions is spread out among the whole committee, which makes nobody accountable for bad decisions.

This is why I would want to eliminate "school boards", and replace with an elected or appointed school superintendent, who shall be held responsible for performance. Ideally, get rid of public employee unions, so he can fire bad performers and freaks.

The military has a degree of distributed management (but not the kind these women want) where 20-something lieutenants and captains are given enormous responsibility, because they are the ones closest to the situation.

17 posted on 04/21/2022 4:02:34 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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To: libh8er
Why distributed leadership is the future of management

Family businesses are like that. Of course not always in a good way. I worked for one where 3 different people thought they were the final decision maker.

18 posted on 04/21/2022 4:05:21 AM PDT by Pollard (AD)
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To: Alberta's Child

Right
Spread ing the wealth tingle in the leg credence for those so disposed as well


19 posted on 04/21/2022 4:07:16 AM PDT by Recompennation (Don’t blame me my vote didn’t count )
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To: libh8er
This word salad from the marketing department's consultants is right out of Dilbert from almost three decades ago.


20 posted on 04/21/2022 4:15:14 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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