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Managing people|The Work of Leadership
Managing people

The Work of Leadership

Followers want comfort, stability, and solutions from their leaders. But that’s babysitting. Real leaders ask hard questions and knock people out of their comfort zones. Then they manage the resulting distress. by Ronald Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie

From the Magazine (December 2001)

Summary.   

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To stay alive, Jack Pritchard had to change his life. Triple bypass surgery and medication could help, the heart surgeon told him, but no technical fix could release Pritchard from his own responsibility for changing the habits of a lifetime. He had to stop smoking, improve his diet, get some exercise, and take time to relax, remembering to breathe more deeply each day. Pritchard’s doctor could provide sustaining technical expertise and take supportive action, but only Pritchard could adapt his ingrained habits to improve his long-term health. The doctor faced the leadership task of mobilizing the patient to make critical behavioral changes; Jack Pritchard faced the adaptive work of figuring out which specific changes to make and how to incorporate them into his daily life.

Read more on Managing people or related topics Change management, Human resource management, Motivating people and Organizational culture
A version of this article appeared in the December 2001 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Read more on Managing people or related topics Change management, Human resource management, Motivating people and Organizational culture

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