In today’s episode, the awesome Dr. Henry Mintzberg sits with us. He unpacks some powerful,
provocative and counterintuitive approaches to managing and decision making. He
also tells us why he thinks we need less of what he calls, Lofty Leadership.

Bedtime Stories for Managers

Manager is not a word we hear that often. One of the
stories is we can’t separate leadership from management. Good managers lead and
nobody wants a leader who does not manage.

Everyone thinks that they are leadership expert, but for
Dr. Mintzberg, people must practice both together to succeed and enhance a
community.

“Managers are leaders and leaders are managers.” – Dr. Henry Mintzberg

Community vs. Networking

Communities tend to be small as the network can be
massive. He compares these two as the first one can be more personal while
networks are more on relationships and can be critical.

According to Dr. Mintzberg, community is networking. You
keep your community small, but your network of communities is across the whole
organization.

“An effective organization is a community of human beings, not a collection of human resource.” – Dr. Henry Mintzberg

The Epidemic of Managing without a Soul

Have you experienced something where you walk on a certain hotel or restaurant and then 2 minutes later, you can tell if the place is together or not? For sure, some of us can get that feeling and this is what Dr. Mintzberg means when he says there is no feeling in the place.

This has been a theme that would come by entrepreneurs,
CEOs, and people managing businesses. He said that the best way to manage an
organization is by connecting with them.

“Managing is about eating scrambled eggs and live your customers’ experience. Connect with them.” – Dr. Henry Mintzberg

To hear more about Dr. Mintzberg, a Canadian academic and author on business and management, download and listen to this episode

Bio:

Professor Henry
Mintzberg, OC OQ FRSC
is a Canadian academic and author on business and management. He is the
Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management
of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada where he has been teaching
since 1968.

Some of his works are:
• Managers Not MBAs

• Strategy Safari

• The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning

Links:

HenryMintzberg.com

We hope you enjoyed Dr. Henry Mintzberg on this
episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his
listeners. Feel free to email him,
connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
subscribe on iTunes!

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How can structure drive culture? On today’s episode, the amazing author of Loonshots Safi Bahcall unpacks the reasons why we should pay attention to the structure of an organization to achieve success. Learn how crazy people and ideas lead to breakthroughs, and so much more.

Is It Really Culture?

When Safi first became an entrepreneur, he read every article and book he could find on various subjects like how to become a good leader and build great teams. All those things sounded good, but after a while, he got hungry for something more solid.

“I was trying to understand if there was some science to this. If there was something else besides just culture.” – Safi Bahcall

He observed that companies with completely different cultures would succeed, while those with the same cultures failed. There are elements of culture that are very important. But is it really the culture that drives the success of an organization?

Structure Eats Culture for Lunch

Christopher shares that there are successful companies with the “biddings will continue until morale improves” culture. Then there are other successful organizations that adopt an “everybody loves each other” culture. From this standpoint, there seems to be no such thing as a culture that works and a culture that doesn’t.

“Well, there’s a saying in business that says, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ What I would add is that ‘structure eats culture for lunch.’” – Safi Bahcall

It appears that structure enables exponential differences in organizations in a way that culture doesn’t as much.

Structure Drives an Organization’s Culture

To exemplify, Uber had an outlier incentive system. Nobody wanted to work on other people’s project because of the 8X incentive that successful project proponents could earn. No matter how many times teamwork was encouraged, nobody would actually get into it.

But when the team-based incentives began to roll out, the culture changed. People were rewarded based on team performance. This perfectly sums up how structure eats culture for lunch.

“It means that underlying structure can drive the culture, rather than the way around.” – Safi Bahcall

To hear about how water molecules relate to business structure and how genius and serendipity need to meet to produce breakthroughs from Safi, download and listen to the episode.

Bio:

Safi is a second-generation physicist (the son of two astrophysicists) and a biotech entrepreneur.

He received his BA summa cum laude from Harvard and his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford, where he worked with Lenny Susskind in particle physics (the science of the small) and the Nobel laureate Bob Laughlin in condensed matter physics (the science of the many).

He was a Miller Fellow in physics at UC Berkeley (the school of the many). After working for three years as a consultant for McKinsey, Safi co-founded a biotechnology company developing new drugs for cancer. He led its IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years.

Safi has presented at approximately 130 banking conferences, investor events, and medical meetings around the world, as well as at leading academic institutions including physics, mathematics, or medical departments at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, UC Berkeley, Caltech, Cornell, Bell Labs, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Rockefeller, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

He lives with his wife, two children, and roughly 37 Gerald + Piggie books in Cambridge, MA.

Links:

Bahcall.com

Twitter

We hope you enjoyed Safi Bahcall on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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Why does great service come from the heart? On today’s episode, Christopher sits with his hero Ken Blanchard. One of the greatest authors of all time shares why legendary customer service matters, the power that true servant leadership holds, and so much more.

Exemplifying Simple Truths

Christopher has personally looked up to Ken since reading the life-changing book, The One-Minute Manager. When he dropped out of school and had to seek other ways of learning, Christopher turned to the book that he has given to many others in return.

Simplicity marks everything that Ken writes and teaches. The living legend has written over 60 books, with a new one inspired by the story of Johnny the Bagger, The Simple Truths of Service.

“My mission statement is to be a loving teacher and example of simple truths.” – Ken Blanchard

Great, Simple Service

Everyone can make a difference in customer service without having to do anything complicated and by simply reaching out to customers and making them feel important. Great service that makes a difference comes from the heart. However, the human ego often sends people off track of being servant leaders.

Ego gets in the way of service in two ways. One is through false pride or the “more than” philosophy, where you act like you’re better than everyone else. And then there is fear or self-doubt, where you have a “less than” philosophy.

“A lot of people say, ‘That’s an ego problem?’ Sure, you focus on yourself.” – Ken Blanchard on self-doubt

Writing for People

Growing up, Ken’s parents instilled in him the value of staying grounded. When he became president back in junior high, his father reminded him that great leaders are great because people respect and trust them. His mother also taught him to neither think himself beyond others nor let others think they’re above him.

He has had a lot of valuable learnings in life. And all these motivate him to continue writing books.

“I just love learning for people.” – Ken Blanchard

To hear more about service and being yourself from Ken himself, download and listen to the episode.

Bio:

A prominent, sought-after author, speaker, and business consultant,  Dr. Ken Blanchard’s friends, colleagues, and clients characterize him as one of the most insightful, powerful, and compassionate individuals in business today. Ken is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world and is respected for his years of groundbreaking work in the fields of leadership and management.

He is also the co-founder and Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm that he and his wife, Margie Blanchard, began in 1979 in San Diego, California.

Ken received a master’s degree from Colgate University and a bachelor’s and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Ken spends time as a visiting lecturer at his alma mater where he is a trustee emeritus of the Board of Trustees. He also teaches students in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership Program at the University of San Diego.

He has received many awards and honors for his contributions in the fields of management, leadership, and speaking. The National Speakers Association awarded him its highest honor, the “Council of Peers Award of Excellence.” He was inducted into the HRD Hall of Fame by Training magazine and Lakewood Conferences, and he received the Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International.

Ken also received The Thought Leadership Award for continued support of work-related learning and performance by ISA—The Association of Learning Providers. Ken has been inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 best-selling authors of all time. The business school at Grand Canyon University bears his name.

An avid golfer, Ken belongs to the Loch Lomond Golf Club in Scotland.

Links:

KenBlanchard.com

Twitter

We hope you enjoyed Ken Blanchard on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!