I’ve been harping on MAP as being critical to everything that any person does, whether personally or professionally, for as long as I can remember. Granted, I didn’t call it MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™), I only came up with that as a definitive label late last year and labels are merely a convenient way to identify a concept (I’m not claiming the idea originated with me—but I did figure most of it out for myself.)

So I was delighted to read On Managing with Bobby Knight and “Coach K” (HBS Working Knowledge, 4/14/06) describing research done by Harvard Business School Professor Scott Snook that confirmed the importance of MAP.

Now that you’ve read the article, I want to add one thought regarding managers who follow what looks like the style of Bobby Knight, because I wouldn’t want to see the anything or anybody used as a justification for abusive management. According to everything I’ve read, Bobby Knight cares deeply about his players, unlike Chainsaw Al Dunlap, who doesn’t give a damn about anyone.

I’ve always believed that the workforce is composed of

• the proverbial 10%, people who succeed without any assistance and often in spite of bad management;
• the 87% majority, people who work to the quality of their managers; and
• the bottom 3%, who are destroyers because they think it’s fun.

Al Dunlap is from the bottom three, whereas Bobby Knight and Coach K are both from the top ten.

And while your choice of leadership style may stem from your MAP, your MAP is of your choosing—and you can always choose to change it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 9:26 am and is filed under Business info, Culture, Leadership, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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