Synopses & Reviews
In their decades of leading groups all over the world, Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff discovered they could get better results by helping people coordinate and control their own work rather than by issuing orders from above. This led people to higher motivation, greater creativity, and longer-lasting results than more traditional practices. The most effective way to lead, they found, is to focus everyone on the same goal, set up structures that encourage self-regulation, and get out of the way. But this means learning a set of unconventional skills.Lead More, Control Less describes eight essential skills for establishing a culture that encourages people to take charge of themselves. Using examples and case studies, Weisbord and Janoff show leaders how they can share responsibility, defuse group conflicts, enable everyone to get the big picture, and more. And they also help leaders deal with personal pressures, such as managing anxiety and understanding why the negative reactions they get may have absolutely nothing to do with them.
By wearing authority more lightly, leaders can unleash commitment, initiative, and innovation beyond what they ever experienced before. Mastering these eight skills frees leaders to concentrate on larger issues, confident their people can handle the day-to-day work. With this approach, leaders truly gain more control by giving it up, using their position to empower others.
Synopsis
Unleash Commitment, Initiative, and Innovation
In their decades of leading groups all over the world, Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff discovered they could get superior results by creating an unconventional approach to leadership. Leaders still need to get everyone aligned around the same goals. But to maximize energy, creativity, and productivity, they gain more by focusing on structure rather than behavior, enabling people to take responsibility and manage themselves
. Lead More, Control Less describes eight essential skills for establishing a culture of autonomy and self-leadership. Using examples and case studies, Weisbord and Janoff describe how leaders can share responsibility, defuse group conflicts, show everyone the big picture, and more. With this approach, leaders truly gain more control by giving it up.
Synopsis
Leadership experts Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff make a bold claim: contrary to conventional management theory, you actually gain more control when you exert less pressure on those you lead—which also means less stress for you. Working with people all over the world, Weisbord and Janoff realized that leaders trying to tell their people what to do, the traditional approach, wasn't' working. It was far more effective for leaders to nurture and guide people's ability to lead and control themselves. Over time, they developed three alternative principles which form the foundation of this book: 1) Have people build on their own experiences instead of pushing for yours; 2) Set things up so that people coordinate and control their own work rather that you doing it for them; and 3) Change the conditions under which people interact rather than try to change the people.
This book describes eight essential leadership skills that put these principles into practice. It shows leaders how to let go of the unrealistic demands that they put on themselves and the far-fetched expectations that others place on them. Leaders will discover how to wear authority lightly and control less while leading more.
About the Author
Marvin R. Weisbord is an international consultant with more than thirty years experience, and the codirector of the Future Search Network. He is the author of Organizational Diagnosis and Productive Workplaces, editor/coauthor of Discovering Common Ground, and coauthor of Future Search.Sandra Janoff is a consultant and psychologist who works with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, communities and non-profits on whole systems transformation. She is codirector, along with Marvin Weisbord, of Future Search Network, and the coauthor of Future Search.
Table of Contents
TURNS LEADERSHIP ON ITS HEAD: Weisbord and Janoff illustrate why trying to control people is ineffective, often counterproductive, and unnecessarily stressful.PRACTICAL SKILLS: Drawing on decades of experience and research, Weisbord and Janoff teach eight practical skills leaders can use to harness people's self-leadership capabilities
TOP AUTHORS: Weisbord is an organizational development legend, and he and Janoff are the long-time leaders of the award-winning Future Search Network. They are the coauthors of three editions of the book
Future Search.