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Government Leader home > news stories
02/21/07
Books: The best advice for executives? Learn to take advice
By Richard Walker
Government Leader Staff
Effective leaders are smart advice-takers, says management expert Dan Ciampa. One example is former Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill, who consistently expressed the value of working with his advisers.
“He was always prepared for meetings, having thought through what he committed to; he recalled past discussions in detail and concentrated carefully on advisers’ questions and remarks. By contrast, a leader who often arrives at meetings unprepared, and postpones or shows up late, signals to his advisers that their work is of peripheral importance to him,” Ciampa says in his book “Taking Advice: How Leaders Get Good Counsel and Use It Wisely.”
Even experienced leaders need advice, especially when spearheading organizational change, Ciampa argues. The traditional focus has been on the “supply” or advice-giving side of the equation. The “demand” or advice-taking side has been neglected. Thus, the author contends, a more complete theory of advice must involve the principles of taking advice.
Ciampa proposes a “new framework” for advice-taking, including four fundamental principles: - The nature and delivery of advice should be defined from the point of view of the advice-taker.
- Different challenges call for different kinds of help.
- The right help managed well enhances the leader’s image.
- At senior levels, political and personal issues require the most help.
Ciampa also distinguishes four categories of advice — strategic, operational, political and personal. Government leaders, among others, often turn to outside consultants for help on strategic matters, he said. External advisers are usually better equipped to critique the internal logic of an organization’s existing strategy than employees, who have a stake in that logic.
On the other hand, when external advisers fall short it is usually because they didn’t get to know the organization thoroughly enough, Ciampa contends.
The book is published by Harvard Business School Press and the hard cover is available for $26.95. For more information, go to www.hbpress.org.
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