Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box: Easy Read Comfort Edition [Grands caractères] [Anglais] [Broché]

Using the story/parable format so popular these days, Leadership and Self-Deception takes a novel psychological approach to leadership. It's not what you do that matters, say the authors (presumably plural--the book is credited to the esteemed Arbinger Institute), but why you do it. Latching onto the latest leadership trend won't make people follow you if your motives are selfish--people can smell a rat, even one that says it's trying to empower them. The tricky thing is, we don't know that our motivation is flawed. We deceive ourselves in subtle ways into thinking that we're doing the right thing for the right reason. We really do know what the right thing to do is, but this constant self-justification becomes such an ingrained habit that it's hard to break free of it--it's as though we're trapped in a box, the authors say.

Learning how the process of self-deception works--and how to avoid it and stay in touch with our innate sense of what's right--is at the heart of the book. We follow Tom, an old-school, by-the-book kind of guy who is a newly hired executive at Zagrum Corporation, as two senior executives show him the many ways he's "in the box," how that limits him as a leader in ways he's not aware of, and of course how to get out. This is as much a book about personal transformation as it is about leadership per se. The authors use examples from the characters' private as well as professional lives to show how self-deception skews our view of ourselves and the world and ruins our interactions with people, despite what we sincerely believe are our best intentions.

While the writing won't make John Updike lose any sleep, the story entertainingly does the job of pulling the reader in and making a potentially abstruse argument quite enjoyable. The authors have a much better ear for dialogue than is typical of the genre (the book is largely dialogue), although a certain didactic tone creeps in now and then. But ultimately it's a hopeful, even inspiring read that flows along nicely and conveys a message that more than a few managers need to hear. --Pat McGill --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

In this fictional tale an executive learns the great secret of leadership effect-iveness: to get out of the self-deceptive box of narcissism and start connecting in empathic and respectful ways with others. We're in the box when we treat others as objects or focus on what's wrong with them instead of what we can do to help. Without discounting the value of strong managerial direction, the story reasserts something we know but don't practice--that people are more likely to be enthusiastic and effective when they know we care about them. The smooth reading by the incomparable William Dufris allows the story to be absorbed and savored. A worthwhile addition to anyone's audio library of management classics. T.W. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition CD .

"This is significant, original stuff. This book is a terrific introduction to Arbinger's groundbreaking material. I enjoyed it immensely." --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"From boosting the bottom line to increasing personal joy, this book shows the way." --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"... not just another book on leadership. It identifies the central issue of all performance. I recommend it very highly." --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"... shows why the truth about failure is so difficult to see, and explains how to overcome such self-deception." --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"I've known the work of the Arbinger Institute for years. Arbinger's ideas are profound, with deep and sweeping implications for organizations. Leadership and Self-Deception provides the perfect introduction to this material. It is engaging and fresh, easy to read, and packed with insight. I couldn't recommend it more highly." --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Leadership and Self-Deception is the first book to identify a single, underlying cause of every form of leadership failure. Through the story of Tom—a “shluck” in his manager’s words—readers discover that identifying and treating individual leadership problems as if they were separate and distinct is not enough to transform people into successful leaders. The authors suggest that the key to leadership lies not in what we do, but in how we "are." They explore this compelling secret: Self-deception is the central player and trap underlying all leadership failures, relationship issues, and performance problems in organizations. Leaders who live in the box of self-deception are trapped: they cannot lead, no matter how hard they try and no matter how many skills and techniques they employ. With convincing examples, the authors show clearly how self-deception operates and how to overcome it. While other books cover people skills, this one goes deeper, fully illuminating the secret to leadership success. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

Introduces readers to a new idea in organizational thinking. Shows how the problems that typically prevent superior performance in organizations are the result of a known problem called self-deception. DLC: Leadership. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The Arbinger Institute is a scholarly consortium and management training and consulting firm. It comprises scholars, business leaders, and professionals who apply their experience and talents to writing about the sweeping implications of overcoming self-deception for all aspects of organizational, community, and family life. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Preface

For too long, the issue of self-deception has been the realm of deep-thinking philosophers, academics, and scholars working on the central questions of the human sciences. The public remains generally unaware of the issue. That would be fine except that self-deception is so pervasive it touches every aspect of life. "Touches" is perhaps too gentle a word to describe its influence. Self-deception actually determines one's experience in every aspect of life. The extent to which it does that, and in particular the extent to which it is the central issue in leadership, is the subject of this book.

To give you an idea of what's at stake, consider the following analogy. An infant is learning to crawl. She begins by pushing herself backward around the house. Backing herself around, she gets lodged beneath the furniture. There she thrashes aboutcrying and banging her head against the sides and undersides of the pieces. She is stuck and hates it. So she does the only thing she can think of to get herself outshe pushes even harder, which only worsens her problem. Shes more stuck than ever.

If this infant could talk, she would blame the furniture for her troubles. After all, she is doing everything she can think of. The problem couldnt be hers. But of course, the problem is hers, even though she cant see it. While its true shes doing everything she can think of, the problem is precisely that she cant see how shes the problem. Having the problem she has, nothing she can think of will be a solution.

Self-deception is like this. It blinds us to the true cause of our problems, and once blind, all the "solutions" we can think of only make matters worse. Thats why self-deception is so central to leadership--because leadership is about making things better. To the extent we are self-deceived, our leadership is undermined at every turn--and not because of the furniture.

We have written this book to educate people about this most central of problems--a problem that has been the exclusive terrain of scholars for far too long. But this book is about more than the problem. There is a solution to self-deception as well.

Our experience in teaching about self-deception and its solution is that people find this knowledge liberating. It sharpens vision, reduces feelings of conflict, enlivens the desire for teamwork, redoubles accountability, magnifies the capacity to achieve results, and deepens satisfaction and happiness. We hope that this introduction to the self-deception problem and solution will give people new leverage in all of these areas. In organizations as varied as commercial ventures, neighborhoods, and families, what is needed most is people not just with influence but with influence for good. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.