Empowerment is what managers do to people. Engagement is what managers do with people.
Henry MintzbergNo generalizing beyond the data, no theory. No theory, no insight. And if no insight, why do research.
Henry MintzbergStrategies grow initially like weeds in a garden, they are not cultivated like tomatoes in a hothouse.
Henry MintzbergManagers who don't lead are quite discouraging, but leaders who don't manage don't know what's going on. It's a phony separation that people are making between the two.
Henry MintzbergCorporations are economic entities, to be sure, but they are also social institutions that must justify their existence by their overall contribution to society.
Henry MintzbergNo job is more vital to our society than that of the manager. It is the manager who determines whether our social institutions serve us well or whether they squander our talents and resources.
Henry MintzbergWhat you get out of an M.B.A. programme, no matter how much experience, is functional tools and understanding in disciplines: you'll understand economics, you'll understand marketing, finance, accounting. That, M.B.A. programmes do very well.
Henry MintzbergSo technologies, whether it is a telephone or an iPhone, computers in general or automobiles, television even, all individualize us. We all sit in front of our iPhones and communicating but are we really communicating?
Henry MintzbergWhat I have against M.B.A.s is the assumption that you come out of a two-year program probably never having been a manager - at least for full-time younger people M.B.A. programs - and assume you are ready to manage.
Henry MintzbergOrganizational effectiveness does not lie in that narrow minded concept called rationality. It lies in the blend of clearheaded logic and powerful intuition
Henry MintzbergTo 'turn around' is to end up facing the same way. Maybe that is the problem, all the turning organizations around.
Henry MintzbergManagement and leadership are not separate spheres. The two skills work together in the larger realm of “communityship.
Henry MintzbergIf the private sectors are about markets and the public sectors are about governments, then the plural sector is about communities.
Henry MintzbergThe great myth is the manager as orchestra conductor. It's this idea of standing on a pedestal and you wave your baton and accounting comes in, and you wave it somewhere else and marketing chimes in with accounting, and they all sound very glorious. But management is more like orchestra conducting during rehearsals, when everything is going wrong.
Henry MintzbergIt is time to recognize conventional MBA programs for what they are - or else to close them down. They are specialized training in the functions of business, not general educating in the practice of management.
Henry MintzbergWe're all flawed, but basically, effective managers are people whose flaws are not fatal under the circumstances. Maybe the best managers are simply ordinary, healthy people who aren't too screwed up.
Henry MintzbergWhile hard data may inform the intellect, it is largely soft data that generates wisdom.
Henry MintzbergIf you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organise, co-ordinate and control. Then watch what they do. Don't be surprised if you can't relate what you see to those four words.
Henry MintzbergEveryone is against micro managing but macro managing means you're working at the big picture but don't know the details.
Henry MintzbergYou can teach all sorts of things that improve the practice of management with people who are managers. What you cannot do is teach management to somebody who is not a manager, the way you cannot teach surgery to somebody whose not a surgeon.
Henry MintzbergOrganizations should be built and managers should be functioning so people can be naturally empowered. If someone's doing their job, if someone's working in one of your warehouses, say, they should know their job better than anybody. They don't need to be 'empowered,' but encouraged and left alone to be able to do what they know best.
Henry MintzbergWhat we call a financial crisis is really at its core a crisis of management, and not just a crisis of management, but a crisis of management culture. ...In other words, what you had is a detachment of people who know the business from people who are running the business.
Henry MintzbergStrategy-making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes.
Henry MintzbergNever set out to be the best. It's too low a standard. Set out to be good. Do Your best.
Henry MintzbergThat is the trouble with flying: We always have to return to airports. Thank of how much fun flying would be if we didn't have to return to airports.
Henry MintzbergThis obsession with leadership... It's not neutral; it's American, this idea of the heroic leader who comes in on a white horse to save the day. I think it's killing American companies.
Henry MintzbergAn unsuccessful manager blames failure on his obligations; the effective manager turns them to his own advantage. A speech is a chance to lobby...a visit to an important customer a chance to extract trade information.
Henry MintzbergMy feeling about executive bonuses is that any candidate for a chief executive job who even raises the issue of bonuses should be dismissed out of hand.
Henry MintzbergBasically, managing is about influencing action. Managing is about helping organizations and units to get things done, which means action. Sometimes, managers manage actions directly. They fight fires. They manage projects. They negotiate contracts.
Henry MintzbergWe have great managers who havent spent a day in management school. Do we have great surgeons that havent spent a day in surgical school?
Henry MintzbergA leader has to be one of two things: he either has to be a brilliant visionary himself, a truly creative strategist, in which case he can do what he likes and get away with it; or else he has to be a true empowerer who can bring out the best in others.
Henry MintzbergMost of the time, strategies should not be formulating strategy at all; they should be getting on with implementing strategies they already have.
Henry MintzbergThe real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation.
Henry MintzbergCorporations are social institutions. If they don't serve society, they have no business existing
Henry MintzbergCompanies are communities. Theres a spirit of working together. Communities are not a place where a few people allow themselves to be singled out as solely responsible for success.
Henry MintzbergManagement is a curious phenomenon. It is generously paid, enormously influential, and significantly devoid of common sense
Henry MintzbergThe idea that you can take smart but inexperienced 25-year-olds who never managed anything and turn them into effective managers via two years of classroom training is ludicrous.
Henry Mintzberg