Robert I. Sutton's Blog, page 25

Dan Pink, author of numerous bestsellers including Drive and A Whole New Mind, wrote a very nice review of Good Boss, Bad Boss on his blog. I also think he did a great job of capturing the main point:

The core point, at least as I read it, is that good bosses are adept
at working both sides of the street. They improve people's performance and they deepen their humanity.
As Sutton says, good
bosses "do everything possible to help people do great work," yet they
also "do everything...

I am mostly focused on the launch of Good Boss, Bad Boss as it was just published last week (I am sitting in a hotel room in New York right now as I am here doing some book PR).  But, as the new chapter in the paperback emphasizes, I am and will always be "the asshole guy."  And when I get emails like this one (reprinted with permission) from an attorney, it still makes my day:

I just wanted to thank you for your blog and The No
Asshole Rule.  Your wisdom helped me finally escape a terrible...

Of all the tunes in the Johnny Mercer songbook, the most generally
beloved must be "Accentuate the Positive" — whether your favorite cover
is Bing Crosby's, Willie Nelson's, or someone else's. Chances are that
you yourself could summon up the chorus word for word (and click here if you want accompaniment).

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

It trips off the tongue so easily that you might not...

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki and Matthew May, two posts have recently appeared at the American Express blog for small business, OPEN Forum.  Matt describes these as "yin and yang" posts because the first, by him, was a review and discussion called "How to be a Good Boss" (that cool sign above kicks off his post).  That was followed with an opposing post that I wrote (with a lot of guidance, coaching, and editing from Guy -- he  amazes me with his ability to frame things and use language so...

The amazing Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project, posted a rather personal interview about what makes me happy -- and unhappy -- over at her blog.  Frankly, it was one of those things were she sent me the questions, I typed out the answers without censoring myself and did not think about it again until they appeared.  I winced a little when I read it because it has a bit more personal information than I probably should have revealed, but I think it is accurate.  She...

Today, September 7th, is the official publication day of Good Boss, Bad Boss.  I've got an hour or so before I need to run to the airport, and find myself looking back on what I've learned from writing the book, talking to people since the book was finished some months back, and all the blogging and comments (especially here at Work Matters and over at HBR Online where I have been developing my list of 12 Things Good Bosses Believe).

The thing I've been fretting over most lately is how hard...

As Good Boss, Bad Boss is officially published this month -- in fact, today is the official publication day -- I am doing quite a few speeches on the book. Most are "closed," but three are open to the public, as indicated below.  I hope to see you at one of these events:

September 8th: Disney Studios (Burbank, CA)

September 8th: IDEO (Palo Alto, CA)

September 9th: Pixar  (Emeryville, CA)

September 10th: Google (Mountain View, CA)

September 16th: Center for Corporate Innovation (Boston, MA)

Septemb...

When people ask me for one sentence summary of a great boss, I answer "He or she promotes both performance and humanity, and strikes a healthy balance between the two when trade-offs are necessary."   In Good Boss, Bad Boss, I quote a cool 2008 American Psychologist article by Mark Van Vugt, Robert Hogan, and Robert Kaiser who, after examining descriptions of admired and effective leaders in settings ranging from ancient human tribes to modern corporations and sports teams, conclude the best ...

All three of my children are students; my son and daughter are in college and my youngest daughter just started high school.  And I have been a professor for over 25 years, so I see lots of variation in how students -- undergraduates, masters students, and doctoral students -- go about trying to learn and be successful.  As such, I was struck with a list of 9 things over at BPS research that students can do to be more effective, gleaned from The Psychologist.  Check out the post at BPS...

 

In the introduction to Good Boss, Bad Boss, I emphasize that -- following an inspiring comment from my wife, Marina, who has worked in numerous management positions -- my motivation for writing it was to describe the moods and moves of the best bosses.  Or as Marina put it, to draw on the best evidence and cases I could find to show "what that looks like."  I sometimes worry that in talking about bossholes, brassholes, and assholes that I emphasize  bad bosses too much.  I think it is...