Bob Sutton: Jeff Pfeffer on Why People Lie to Themselves and Others

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15 Things I Believe

1. Sometimes the best management is no management at all -- first do no harm!
2. Indifference is as important as passion.
3. In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you can have freedom from others, but you can't have both at the same time.
4. Saying smart things and giving smart answers are important. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important.
5. Learn how to fight as if you are right and listen as if you are wrong: It helps you develop strong opinions that are weakly held.
6. You get what you expect from people. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behavior; unvarnished self-interest is a learned social norm, not an unwavering feature of human behavior.
7. Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centered jerk.
8. Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that you will eventually start acting like them.
9. The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power.
10. The best single question for testing an organization’s character is: What happens when people make mistakes?
11. The best people and organizations have the attitude of wisdom: The courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change course when they find better evidence.
12. The quest for management magic and breakthrough ideas is overrated; being a master of the obvious is underrated.
13. Err on the side of optimism and positive energy in all things.
14. It is good to ask yourself, do I have enough? Do you really need more money, power, prestige, or stuff?
15. Jim Maloney is right: Work is an overrated activity

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Jeff Pfeffer on Why People Lie to Themselves and Others

This is one of those 50Lessons videos, where they ask an expert to make a series of short comment on several aspects of management. They are now running these on The Times of London's website, including one on The No Asshole Rule that was filmed before the book was written They just put one up today with, Jeff Pfeffer, my friend and co-author. As usual, Jeff is proactive and evidence-based -- and absolutely fearless about about naming the names of people and companies. Jeff, for example, lumps together Enron and GE in making his arguments in a manner that I find funny, disturbing, and as always, annoyingly logical. Check out: Professor Pfeffer: Why We Would Rather Lie Than Be Associated With Failure.

October 01, 2007 in Evidence-based Management | Permalink

Technorati Tags: Evidence-based management, failure, leadership, Pfeffer