One of the best books in the field of management with a completely fictional structure, is the book Bedtime Stories for Managers written by Henry Mintzberg. In the following, we will read a summary of this book.
Experienced managers will experience great moments by reading this book. In the world of management, there are many people and experts whose views may conflict with each other. These people mostly express their opinions by humiliating and causing anxiety in other managers. Mintzberg is a thoughtful person who has worked with many organizations and institutions, and his words are very comforting for managers. This book is actually the result of his experiences, which includes 7 sections and narrates stories for each section. We will discuss some of the most important lessons and stories of this valuable book.
Getting to Know the Author of the Book Bedtime Stories for Managers
Henry Mintzberg has been a professor at McGill University in Quebec, Canada since 1968 and has spent years researching the true nature of management jobs as well as their training and development methods. He has received 20 honorary university degrees so far, and the book “Bedtime Stories for Managers” is considered as one of his most important books. Mintzberg was born in 1939 in Montreal, Canada and is currently considered as one of the most famous scientists in the field of business and management. So far, he has written 150 articles in the field of strategic business and management, and various books have been published under his name.
The Most Important Lessons and Stories of the Book
The book has seven sections, and the author has tried to teach his audience very important concepts through stories in each section. In the rest of this section, we will try to learn some of the interesting and informative lessons of this book together.
The story of managing scrambled eggs
A few years ago, I boarded one of Eastern Airlines planes to go from Montreal to New York. At that time, Eastern was considered as the largest airline company in the world. I’ve had a lot of bad food while traveling on airplanes, but the food served by Eastern Airlines was the worst possible. They used to give scrambled eggs to their passengers in the morning, and this caused the bankruptcy of the airlines a few years later.
Whenever I come across bad products and services from a company, I wonder if the manager of this company is managing everything or just reading the financial statements. Several years later, I was telling this story to a group of executives, and the IBM executive who was present told me another story along the Eastern Airlines:
“The CEO of Eastern Airlines boarded the plane quickly at the last minute, since the first class section was full, the flight crew wanted to move someone from the first class section so that the CEO could sit in his usual seat. But apparently the CEO felt guilty about this and introduced himself and apologized to me.”
This story teaches an important lesson to different managers;
Being a manager is not about sitting where you are used to, but real management is about eating scrambled eggs.
The Story of a Hotel with Souls
Not long ago, I went to a hotel in England with my daughter, and as soon as I entered, I felt something strange. In that hotel, everything was put together well and the staff were very welcoming. I have worked with many organizations over the years and I could feel what was going on in that hotel. In simpler words, life flowed in that hotel. I spoke to one of the receptionists there and he told me that the management here pays attention to all the details and order, plus neatness is very important to him. In the end what surprised me the most was how the receptionist felt and was proud to work there. Spirit was literally flowing in that hotel.
Mintzberg mentions the question of what makes all businesses not behave like this hotel in the book Bedtime Stories for Managers. Humans all have a soul and it would be great if this soul could be transferred to other things as well.
Easy ways to become a soulless manager
Mintzberg mentions 4 ways to become a soulless manager and also says that many managers struggle with these factors:
- Manage only money instead of focusing on products, services and customers
- Set very strict rules for everything and do not allow people to behave arbitrarily
- Move managers quickly and rotate between different positions
- Engage in extensive hiring and firing of human resources
The Manager is Similar to an Orchestra Conductor
Think of the manager as an orchestra conductor on the stage. He also shakes his leadership baton, marketing and a wave of sales starts. Then, with the next move of the baton, human resources, IT and public relations of the organization will also work in harmony with each other, and after that, the next moves of the baton will arrive, but I wish this dream of managers was achievable. In the following, we will discuss the opinion of three great professors of management and economics in the field of managing careers. The first person is Peter Drucker, the father of modern management science. He says:
“The manager is like the conductor of the symphony orchestra; the musical instruments, each of which individually have a heart-rending sound, only because of his effort, vision and leadership, are combined with each other and create a complete and alive music.”
Drucker believes that a manager is like the conductor of a symphony orchestra. The second scientist whose opinion is examined in the book is Sune Carlson, a famous Swedish economist. Sune Carlson first evaluates several Swedish CEOs and then defines a manager as follows:
“Before I started this research, the manager seemed like an orchestra conductor who led the group of musicians from a distance, but now and after conducting the research, the manager is more like a puppet that hundreds of people are shaking. Threading and forcing him to do this and that.”
Sune Carlson believes that the manager is like a puppet. The third person whose definition is examined is Leonard Sayles, a professor at Columbia University. He believes:
“A Manager, like the conductor of the symphony orchestra, always tries to maintain a melodious and pleasing performance by harmonizing various musical instruments. Of course, the conductor must achieve this goal while working with each of the musicians has its own difficulties; the floor manager is moving the stage. Changes in the temperature of the hall make the audience unhappy and disrupt the performance. Worst of all, the sponsor demands unreasonable changes in the orchestra’s performance.”
Henry Mintzberg says that he has read Drucker and Carlson’s descriptions to groups of managers several times and asked them to express their opinion and vote for one of the descriptions. In these meetings, both descriptions usually get a number of votes, but when he reads the description of Neonard Sills, all hands go up when they hear the description. Therefore, the manager is neither the conductor nor the puppeteer. He faces many limiting factors and yet he tries his best to control and manage the situation.
The Role of Leadership is Not Separate or Beyond the Role of Management
One of the false myths that Mintzberg examines is that the role of leadership is separate and beyond the role of management. A leader does the right thing and a manager does it well. One of the interesting stories that the book deals with is as follows:
John Cleghorn, CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada, on his daily commute to his office, checks several of the bank’s ATMs and even reports that their bearings are broken.
Now an important question is raised in this context. Is Cleghorn doing any management work? Or is he busy leading? This move of his is truly an example of unique leadership; because sometimes these simple and small things make the best kind of leadership to be formed.
Managers who are not able to lead their organization cannot get enough information about what is happening in their organization. “When you’re a leader, you have to be both a plumber and a poet,” says Jim March, Stanford business professor.
The fact is that the roles of leadership and management are in no way separate from each other. In simpler terms, it can be said that business management and leadership are two sides of the same coin. Effective leadership and management is different from the way some people think about leadership (leadership from the top). In the following, we discuss the difference between these two concepts:
Effective Management and Leadership
- The manager or leader is important enough to help other members of the organization feel important.
- An effective organization is a network of interactions and does not rule in a vertical hierarchy. Someone who is in charge of management or leadership usually does not sit at the top of the hierarchy and prefers to have an effective and active presence throughout the network.
- Many strategies that are formed in the organization are a self-emerging phenomenon. People whose mind and emotions are involved with work will gradually solve the problem in front of them. They can update and develop their strategies in different points of the network.
- Effective leadership and management has the task of engaging the minds and emotions of employees with work and making people feel a sense of belonging to the organization.
- Effective leadership and management that originates from trust and respect for others.
Leadership from the Top
- The leader is the one who sits at the top of the organization’s hierarchy and only a few people can meet and communicate with him.
- The leader is considered to be an isolated entity and therefore he should not be active and effective in the main operations of the organization.
- Self-emerging strategy is pointless. Strategy is a general direction that the manager of the organization dictates to other people and others must implement it without any reason.
- In order to be effective, leader must put pressure on its subordinates.
The rules of becoming a high-ranking boss at the highest point of the organization
In the sixth part of the book, Mintzberg mentions the rules that make a person a great boss in an organization:
- Always change everything; Be especially careful not to keep everything between the ground and the air all the time.
- Take care of your colleagues within the organization; because there is always suspicion towards someone who has the science of management. Change the senior management team and trust your advisors.
- Just live in the present and sign big contracts now. By doing this, you attract the attention of many analysts.
To Advance in the Field of Management, Make Study a Priority
Management is a profession that requires both experience and passage of time and can be improved through study. As a result, if you want to act as a capable, expert and enlightened manager, it is necessary to choose and read a collection of the best books in the field of management and other fields. The book Bedtime Stories for Managers is one of the best works that gives excellent insight to managers and improves their performance.
