Change Agents Be Warned – Don’t be “Overachievers”

I am a big fan of a very good book written a few years back by one of Malcolm Gladwell’s colleagues at the New Yorker, James Surowiecki. Surowiecki’s book, called “The Wisdom of Crowds,” argues that the logic of the few (the experts) is often derailed by the overwhelming logic that a “crowd” brings to any problem. If the book is right, then, the frequency that articles are downloaded might offer some valuable insight about “wisdom.”

In that spirit, consider the best selling Harvard Business Review article of 2006: “Leadership Run Amok: The Destructive Potential of Overachievers.” The authors of this paper from the Hay Group issued a press release today celebrating their achievement, and offer some excellent insights that summarize the paper and its key points.

“High achievers have driven increased productivity and innovation over the past decade. Yet organizations and high achievers can suffer if overachieving leaders demand results regardless of how they are achieved, write three Hay Group authors in ‘Leadership Run Amok: The Destructive Potential of Overachievers,’ just announced as the 2006 best selling Harvard Business Review article.

“In the short term, through sheer drive and determination, overachieving leaders may be very successful,” write authors Scott Spreier, Mary Fontaine, and Ruth Malloy, “but there is a dark side…Overachievers tend to command and coerce rather than coach and collaborate, thus stifling subordinates.”

Eventually, the authors say, “their teams’ performance begins to suffer and they risk missing the very goals that initially triggered the achievement-oriented behavior… At the extreme are leaders like Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling, a classic overachiever…driven by results regardless of how achieved. He pitted manager against manager and once even praised a subordinate who went behind his back to create a service he had forbidden her to develop.”

There is good news, write the Hay Group authors, drawing on a database of 4.8 million assessments of 471,544 employees at 4,279 organizations, including over 38,000 executives.

The authors continue, “Companies can redirect their focus and still achieve good numbers. When Lou Gerstner set out to regain IBM’s market dominance by transforming the organization…he sought managers who would orchestrate and enable rather than command and control. He knew IBM needed to move away from its culture of personal heroics and individual achievement and begin valuing socialized power and managers who pay attention to the greater needs of the company.”

More details, including a link to download the complete article, are available at their website.