Mind-Set Management

"Relinquishing control, increasing your spheres of impact, and getting involved influencing people over whom you have no formal authority requires that you find persuasive ways to make your viewpoints known."

"Management becomes a psychological science instead of just a manipulative art."

"Understanding an individual's mind-set entails in-depth understanding of how that individual sees him- or herself performing competently, both in relation to life in general and to his or her work in the company."

"The pressures to cope and adapt to the requirements of any paradigm cause insiders to dismiss the obvious."

"It's not just what one does that determines that person's value; it's how others think about what that person has done that determines it."

"Semantically, personal competence provides a positive term denoting the high-quality, self-serving participation from which all organizations derive value."

"The construct "alignment" serves as a prompt for appreciating the interplay between what an individual does to be self-competent and what he or she does to be work-competent."

"Giving people the control and then holding them responsible for the results are the conditions for their needing your feedback."

"Whereas instrumental advice is aimed at helping an individual to _perform_ more effectively given the way he or she already thinks, orientational advice is aimed at helping an individual to _think_ more effectively."

"We're able to identify and label four categories of advice giving and seeking interaction: behavioral effectiveness, political accommodation, socialization, and breakthrough learning."

"When your advice is directed toward assisting people to change their orientations, then your feedback and advice-giving should begin with a focus on internals, not externals."

"Set-breaking is the disconfirmation and/or invalidation of the mind-set the individual had been using."

"Once a breakthrough is achieved, sustaining it depends on the recipient's acquiring the skills to implement the new orientation."

"How can any rationally thinking manager expect a subordinate to openly admit that there are essential lessons to learn at the precise moment that subordinate is most focused on getting positive marks, moving ahead, and maximizing pay?"

"Get pay issues out of the way and out of consciousness before holding performance discussions."

"There's nothing wrong with programs when people have the choice to buy in."