Clever: Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People

Description

If your company is like most, it has a handful of people who generate disproportionate quantities of value: A researcher creates products that bankroll the entire organization for decades. A manager spots consumer-spending patterns no one else sees and defines new market categories your enterprise can serve. A strategist anticipates global changes and correctly interprets their business implications. Companies' competitiveness, even survival, increasingly hinge on such "clever people." But the truth is, clever people are as fiercely independent as they are clever they don't want to be led. So how do you corral these players in your organization and inspire them to achieve their highest potential?

Rob Goffee is Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School, where he teaches in the world-renowned Senior Executive Programme. Gareth Jones is a Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and a visiting professor at INSEAD, the international business school in Fontainebleau, France.

Some big fibs have endured longer than any others. "The cheque's in the post," for example. Or: "No, darling, you look lovely in that." And finally: "Our people are our biggest asset." Here is a terrific new book that explodes the last item in that unholy trinity. The truth is that not every employee is such a huge asset, or "talent", to use the fashionable term. Only some of your people are your biggest asset. The point is to spot them, nurture them - and know when to leave them well alone... ...These are the people who, in your business, are going to make the difference between just getting by and excelling. They have vast potential. Handle with care. - The Financial Times, September 3, 2009