Customer Reviews

A Bias for Action: How Effective Managers Harness Their Willpower, Achieve Results, and Stop Wasting Time

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I was an avid fan of Harvard Business School Press (HBSP), and their brand of management summaries and knowledge. However, over the years, I've become disillusioned with the HBSP editoral style and model of publishing management/general business books.

Funny how many of their titles are written by Harvard Business School professors. Basically, the professors -- Olympian guardians of all management ideas and "know-how" -- are writing books telling practicing managers (middle to senior level) how to maximize their leadership styles and their corporate profits.

Anyhow, I believe that HBSP has recently released a rather improved book, "A Bias for Action," written by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal. It strives to explain the idea that effective managers aren't necessarily busy managers. Busy managers being those who find comfort in just being active, without a vision or long-term goal for their group or team. It asks the question: what can we do as a managerial class to become more effective and focused?

What really shines through (and caught my attention) is the book's underlying theme that willpower is a major force for success. Willpower, to the authors, is a combination of energy and focus. There are several traps/pitfalls that are outlined:<ul><li>Trap of overwhelming demands
<li>Trap of unbearable constraints
<li>Trap of unexplored choices
</ul>What I've found most favorable is the authors' strategy of finding a goal and protecting your intentions. Inevitable setbacks will occur. Great managers and leaders know how to deflect that and concentrate on the positive energy by thinking about past successes, envisioning the goal, controlling your confidence, or talking with a mentor.

The latter half of the book deals with CEO-level management and how they can program their organizations to exhibit the environment that enable managers to become "purpose-driven." Depending on your role in the organization, this half may not be too useful.

Required reading for anyone who aspires to success in business. The first half does the job on an Executive Coach. The second half explains why some people at some companies can transition from good to great -- and provide more insight than the Collins book on the process. I like the authors approach -- based in accepted scholarly theories -- and not just another bunch of stories from personal experiences (although there are a good many of those here too). Notwithstanding, I'm recommending this to my clients and associates; and, I've already instituted certain changes with the expectation of being more effective.

I purchased this book when it first came out, and skimmed through the first few chapters. At that time I thought it was another collection of motivational cliches; the kind of rubbish one finds in Robbins' Unleash-the-Real-Man-In-You pulp motivationals. So the book drifted about from desk to desk for quite a long time, mostly unread.

A few things changed, however. I found myself needing to motivate personnel after several missed deadlines, and high absenteeism; including among them lead programmers and team champions. Despite my experience in project management and a background in counselling, I was floundering for a while - seeking carrots and sticks, and unsure of how to get the best out of my people. Then I read Peters' and Waterman's "In Search of Excellence", Collins' and Porras' "Built to Last" and Roberts' "The Modern Firm." (the last of these being the best of this genre; very strongly recommended).

Finally I returned to "A Bias for Action" and this time the big picture presented by the book and the recommendations for managerial action (checklists of questions, for example) made complete sense. I realized that this was anything but another collection cliched motivational slogans. This book is based on empirical research, and that makes the difference.

When you come to it as a manager facing motivational problems among your senior staff, you will discover here the solutions to the problems you face; not in a cook-book fashion, but rather the big picture and with broad principles. And among them you will find specific schemes for re-thinking the motivational dynamics in your firm and implementing constructive change.

Using this book, with several others on coaching adults, I am putting together a coaching programme for my staff. The material in "A Bias For Action" has already provided valuable material for this programmme. I shall not characterize this book as a must-read for every manager; but it is a very useful addition to the reading list for managers who are confronting motivational problems among senior staff.

I have read and re-read this books several times. It is research-based and spells out why so many managers who know what they need to do, don't, and what successful managers with willpower (only 10% of all managers) do. I have read all the best management books and I put this one among the top-five books for guiding effective self-management. The others are Getting Things Done by David Allen, The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker, The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, and The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. Frankly, I am amazed this book has not attracted more attention and become a must-read for managers. It's every bit as good as Good To Great, for example.

Some books spend a lot of time and waste a lot of ink promising new insight, but ultimately they end up telling you something you already know. One such book is "A Bias For Action" by leadership expert Heike Bruch and management expert Sumantra Ghoshal. The big "ah-ha" moment of the book is where the authors state that their research has found that the willpower of an individual is a critical element in that individual's success - hmmm....that sounds more like a "ho-hum" moment that could have been divined by common sense rather than independent research. Despite the book's over-promised-under-delivered haze, there are some potentially useful strategies the authors offer to spur individual and collective willpower. You might want to pick it up for that reason alone. However, the problem is that those who might really benefit from this book probably lack the willpower to read it in the first place.

Some good advice, but it could've been said in 1/2 the pages. I wanted to see more templates, tools, worksheets, and less long paragraphs. It doesn't do a good job telling what can I do differently starting tomorrow?