“Children, we have a new member of class this term. Please say hello to Travis, who has joined us from Uber. Travis, welcome to Leadership 101. I’m sure you’ll be very happy here.”“孩子们,这学期我们班来了一位新的同学。大家跟特拉维斯打个招呼吧,他来自优步(Uber)。
兹拉维斯,青睐回到‘领导力101’班。我坚信你在这里不会十分幸福的。
”Caught by a dashboard camera arguing with an Uber driver, Travis Kalanick, the founder and chief executive of the ride-hailing service, this week apologised and told staff: “This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it.”在被一部车载摄像头拍下与一位优步司机争吵后,这家叫车公司的创始人兼任首席资讯官特拉维斯?卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)上周道歉并告诉他员工们:“这是我第一次不愿否认我必须领导力方面的协助,我胜过这方面的协助。”He will have plenty of helpers to choose from. The leadership industry is vast. Harvard’s Barbara Kellerman estimated in 2012 that well over $50bn annually was spent on leadership development, from the smallest coaching corner shop to the biggest business school. An Amazon search returns nearly 200,000 books on the topic (including mine). Despite this, as Jeffrey Pfeffer pointed out in his uncompromising 2015 attack on the sector, Leadership BS, there is still “overwhelming evidence of workplaces filled with disengaged, dissatisfied employees who do not trust their leaders”.他可以从众多的帮助者中自由选择。领导力行业规模极大。
2012年时哈佛大学(Harvard)的芭芭拉?凯勒曼(Barbara Kellerman)曾估算,每年人们花上在领导力发展方面的费用相比之下多达500亿美元,从大于的街角培训中心到仅次于的商学院。在亚马逊(Amazon)上可以搜寻到将近20万本这个主题的图书(还包括我写出的)。尽管如此,正如杰弗瑞?菲佛(Jeffrey Pfeffer)2015年在他的著作《Leadership BS》中严苛批评该行业时所说的那样,“有大量证据证明在办公场所弥漫着没归属感、心怀不满的员工,他们不信任领导者”。So as well as giving Uber’s founder the chance to atone, “educating Travis” would also offer the engorged and often ineffectual leadership industry an opportunity to redeem itself. Take an aggressive 40-year-old executive, who continues to behave like the “scrappy, small entrepreneur” he says he once was, and turn him into a leader that even Uber’s most disgruntled drivers can be proud of.因此,“教育兹拉维斯”不仅不会让优步创始人获得一个改过自新的机会,还不会为这个散漫且一般来说违宪的领导力行业获取一个自我救赎的机会。
招生一个咄咄逼人的40岁低管(他的不道德粗鲁仍看起来那种“暴躁的小企业家”,他说道他自己曾多次是那样的人),把他变为一个甚至连优步最愤愤不平的司机都引以为傲的领袖。It is a task worthy of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, who sought to pass off foul-mouthed flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a duchess. But, like Higgins’s challenge, the quest is strewn with obstacles.这项任务堪比电影《窈窕淑女》(My Fair Lady)中亨利?希金斯(Henry Higgins)教授所做到的事情,他企图让言语嘲讽的卖花姑娘伊丽莎?杜利特尔(Eliza Doolittle)假冒公爵夫人。但与希金斯的挑战一样,这项任务困难重重。
First, there is the intractable would-be student himself. As a role model for life-long learning, Mr Kalanick falls short. Despite repeated efforts to polish the founder’s rough edges, Uber controversies keep coming. Last month brought to light not only the awkward video, but a potentially far more damaging claim by a female former engineer that Uber’s human resources team had ignored her allegations of sexual harassment.首先是这个固执的未来学员自己。作为终生自学的典范,卡兰尼克还不合格。
尽管优步曾经希望抛光卡兰尼克的棱角,但有关优步的争议仍源源不断。上月曝光的某种程度是那则令人失望的视频,还有来自一位前女工程师的辩称,其破坏力有可能要大的多,她说道,优步的人力资源部门对她明确提出的性骚扰指控置之不理。Then there is the question of whether Mr Kalanick has already outgrown formal education. Most universities so worship entrepreneurs that they are more likely to be welcomed as guest lecturers or badgered for funding than admitted as students. Meanwhile, aspiring MBAs dream of out-disrupting Uber’s creators, not sitting alongside them in remedial leadership classes.接下来就是卡兰尼克否岁数太大不合适拒绝接受正规化教育。多数大学对于企业家十分尊敬,企业家更加有可能被邀为演说嘉宾或被缠着要赞助商,而不是被录取为学生。
与此同时,志向远大的MBA学员们梦想着崩溃优步的创造者们,而不是与他们躺在一起修读补救性的领导力课程。Finally, there is the question of whether teaching Uber’s leader how to lead would take the kick out of Mr Kalanick — the hard-charging attitude that helped him make his fortune in the first place — just as Higgins neutered Eliza’s winning charm.最后,教授优步领导者如何领导否不会让卡兰尼克丧失那股子劲头——当初正是那种拼搏精神让他放了财——正如希金斯让伊莉莎失去了迷人魅力一样。Still, something must be done. Uber’s problems have emerged from its dog-eat-dog culture, and culture — as many of those 200,000 leadership manuals will tell you — comes from the top. The Institute of Leadership Management polled 1,200 UK workers recently: half agreed their leaders sometimes or frequently allowed their mood to dictate the climate of the workplace. The institute, incidentally, is one of many professional associations Mr Kalanick could join, rising to become a “Fellow”, with the right to put “FInstLM” after his name.然而,还是必需做到点什么。
优步的问题源自其残忍竞争的文化,而文化来自顶层——在那些20万本传授领导力技巧的图书中,有许多书会告诉他你这一点。领导力与管理学会(Institute of Leadership Management)最近对1200名英国劳动者展开的调查表明,一半受访者回应他们的领导有时或常常任由自己的情绪支配办公场所的气氛。偷偷地说道一下,该学会是卡兰尼克可以重新加入的许多专业团体之一,这样他可以沦为一名“会士”(Fellow),有资格在自己的名字后面再加“FInstLM”(即Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management的简写——译者录)。
It seems more likely the Uber founder will seek one-on-one advice. I would counsel him against over-paying for his own management guru, however.这位优步创始人或许更加有可能谋求一对一的指导。然而,我将不会建议他不要向自己的管理学大师缴纳过低费用。Asked what Mr Kalanick should do, one business school professor suggests he should in future “stop, challenge and choose”: stop to think, challenge what he knows about the situation (and what he may not know — that dashboard camera) and choose the right response.在被问到卡兰尼克应当怎么做时,一位商学院教授建议他未来应当“停下来、批评和自由选择”:停下思维,批评他所理解的情况(以及他有可能不理解的情况——那个车载摄像头),然后自由选择准确的对此。
It is a fine, simple prescription, based on common sense — and that should be no surprise.从常识来看,这是一个还不俗的非常简单处方,人们不不应回应深感车祸。For all the cash companies spend on training and the lifetimes academics devote to forging new theories, often the leadership industry peddles to leaders the advice and values most of us absorbed in nursery school.尽管企业花上了大量资金用作培训,学者们揽其一生探寻新的理论,但领导力行业往往向领导者贩卖我们大多数人在幼儿园就已拒绝接受过的建议和价值观。For Mr Kalanick, in other words, it is probably already too late.换言之,对卡兰尼克来说,自学领导力有可能为时已晚。“Children, just a reminder before we start the class: no fighting, ‘indoor voices’ only, and please wait until break-time before eating your humble pie. Travis?.?.?.?Travis! Don’t do that.”“孩子们,在我们放学前再行警告一下:不要玩游戏,‘维持安静’,请求等到休息时间再行不吃你的馅饼。
兹拉维斯……兹拉维斯!别那么做到了。
本文来源:米兰·体育-www.13609.cn