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A pen, a legal pad and a closed office door. Or a keyboard, a computer and 15 minutes.
That's all it takes for a good manager or executive to become an even better one.
Executives and managers who do not take time each day to record their emotions, anecdotes, fears and successes are missing a big opportunity, says Michael Feiner, a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
The author of The Feiner Points of Leadership: The 50 Basic Laws that Will Make People Want to Perform Better For You (Warner Business Books; $25), Feiner insists that the daily act of writing a journal will benefit anybody who must motivate others for a living.
"When I was 40-something, I went to an Outward Bound School on Hurrican Island (Maine), and we had to keep a journal," Feiner said.
"I had a big job with Pepsi-Cola, and I was a young vice president. I still look back and read that journal. Stories are important. Stories help people remember their flaws."
Keeping a journal teaches executives about the power of story, a force with implications that are far beyond the actual words used to tell the tale, Feiner said during a telephone interview last week. To write the book, Feiner took time off from teaching and drew upon his two decades as a senior executive and chief people officer at Pepsi-Cola, as well as the concerns of his Columbia students, who showed him the new face of fear held by the next generation of leaders.
"And the biggest concern they have is the knuckle-headed boss," Feiner said. "Everyone at some time is going to work for a knuckle-headed boss. It's not an if. It's a when."
There is a common thread to many student worries today, but most have to do with bosses: students want to know what to do when the boss steals their best ideas, treats them poorly or ignores them.
"And I think they are more concerned than they were six years ago about what do you do when boss asks you to do something that is inappropriate," he said. "They realize it's not all about money, power, fame and fortune."
Feiner's approach to leadership revolves around a series of 50 unusual laws: The Law of Make Your Own Bed, the Law of Building a Cathedral, the Law of the Onion, the Law of Tell Your Cat! and the Law of Loyalty vs. Insubordination.
In the back of the book, Feiner offers real workplace questions, concerns and issues in a five-page grid with suggestions for the appropriate chapters for insight.
Answers to My subordinate is arrogant are in Chapter 4's Tough Love. My boss ignores me links to Emperor's Wardrobe, also in Chapter 4. And My colleagues spend lots of time gossiping about our boss refers the reader to Tell Your Cat!, again in Chapter 4.
Do you have a boss who publicly executed the last person who suggested a different way of doing something? Check out The Law of Self-Interest in Chapter 10. A discouraged team? Try The Law of Building a Cathedral.
"So many books are little more than an interesting yarn," Feiner declared. "I want this book to be a leadership manual, a reference guide. I want it to work.
"I didn't want to talk about theory and concepts from 35,000 feet. I wanted to talk about the hows so they can be more effective."
Feiner's favorite? The Law of Building a Cathedral because it shows that work is not about the trivialities of shareholder value or getting a return on capital investment that looks like a spike to a bright blue sky.
Only a sliver of workers will ever care about those mundane matters. But building a cathedral? Now that is inspiring for everybody from the minimum-wage hod carrier to the architect who envisioned the tower of steel and glass.
Why? Because cathedrals last for eons, not fiscal quarters. Craftsmen work on cathedrals and do it with glee for the greater glory.
It can be the same way with work, but only if a leader twists the throttle. "Jobs are not enough for the soul," Feiner says. "People need meaning and purpose in their lives. It doesn't matter if they are working at a call center, in a factory or in an executive suite.
"Everybody needs meaning and purpose."
E-mail jeckberg@enquirer.com
When you go
Feiner comes to Cincinnati as part of the World Class Author Lecture Series:
When & where: 8 a.m. Tuesday at the Montgomery Inn Banquet Center
Sponsors: Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the American Society of Training and Development and the Greater Cincinnati Human Resources Association
Cost: $39 for members of sponsor organizations; $98 for everybody else.
Information: 579-3111
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