The Human Nature of Management

Computerworld -

• Resonant Leadership, by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press, 286 pages, $25.95).
  At a time when the integrity of corporate leadership has been called into question after the accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom, American business and IT managers could use a few heroes. And it's under these most uncertain of circumstances, the authors tell us, that "resonant leaders are stepping up, charting paths through unfamiliar territory and inspiring people in their organizations, institutions and communities."
  In their 2002 best-seller, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, co-authored with Daniel Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee explained how great leaders employ emotional intelligence to build solid relationships with those around them. Here, the authors describe how leaders can create resonant relationships with other business managers and foster relationships among teams in the organization.
  Boyatzis and McKee draw heavily from cognitive psychology and other social sciences to underscore just what makes great leaders and what separates them from ordinary people. Much of their focus is on steps that people can take to deliver continuous leadership by drawing upon the three core qualities that resonant leaders must develop: mindfulness, hope and compassion. Among their recommendations for leaders are visualizing positive and realistic outcomes of strategies and making the effort to understand and improve working conditions or situations for others.
  The authors use effective examples, such as the hope that helped Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen progress from a good athlete to one who won four gold medals in a single Olympics and the compassion that Tom Sharbaugh exhibited as managing partner and chief operating officer at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, which motivated other lawyers to act for the greater good of the firm.
  This is a good read for anyone who's already a strong leader as well as anyone who aspires to be one. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the emotional strength that helps make great people great leaders.



• Human Interactions: The Heart and Soul of Business Process Management, by Keith Harrison-Broninski (Meghan-Kiffer Press, 304 pages, $39.95).
  Taking steps to optimize business processes and integrate them more effectively with other processes across the company is a popular pursuit for many organizations in search of efficiency gains. But all too often, project teams that are involved in business process management (BPM) efforts tend to focus too much on how systems interact with one another. They fail to adequately address the most important aspect of business processes: the people who are doing the actual work. As author Peter Fingar has said, "Processes don't work; people do."
  This book can be looked upon as a template for how to work on BPM projects from a people perspective. Harrison-Broninski, chief technology officer at Role Modelers Ltd. in the U.K., does a nice job of describing how people approach their work. He also offers steps that BPM project teams can take to coordinate the three legs that support the BPM stool: people, processes and technology. There are sections devoted to simple but critical topics such as how people communicate and how people work things out.
  Although the book feels a bit too scientific at times, the underlying approach provides readers and practitioners with a well-constructed methodology for managing the human elements of BPM.



• How to Cheat at IT Project Management, by Susan Snedaker and Nels Hoenig (technical editor) (Syngress Publishing Inc., 576 pages, $44.95).
  OK, I have to admit that I was enamored with the title of this book, and who wouldn't be? Despite improvements that many project management teams have made in delivering IT projects over the past few years, including the evolution of project management offices to centrally coordinate projects and enforce the use of standard project management methodologies, more than half of all efforts continue to run late, overbudget or out of scope.
  As the author points out, this book isn't intended to provide readers with an exhaustive look at IT project management. But what it sets out to do -- and does quite well -- is offer step-by-step guidance to IT project managers on how to improve their project results.
  Snedaker, founder of IT and business consulting firm VirtualTeam Consulting LLC, does a thorough job of covering important project issues from beginning to end, including how to define projects, create a project team, and organize and track projects. She also devotes a fair amount of space to exploring how to close out a project, including the elements that should be incorporated in the performance reviews of project team members.
  What I like most about the book is how clearly written it is. Snedaker avoids using mind-numbing project management jargon and writes in an easy-to-follow, almost conversational style. Also useful are the checklists and FAQs at the end of each chapter.