Answer the questions that arise when managers and workersneed to adjust to unfamiliar
leadership roles and rules in flattenedorganizational forms. Leading When You'reNot the Boss
provides a conceptual framework that you can apply whenassessing your own organizations and
work. The book discusses the underlyingideas necessary for a shift from a culture of
hierarchies to one ofrelationships and the establishment of intrapreneurial and holistic
workenvironments. This book supports the trend in many corporations towardflattening parts of
their traditional top-down hierarchical management systemsinto more egalitarian democratized
and distributed organizational forms. Itanalyzes the weaknesses of management culture at a time
of evermore rapid change and complexity in the business world and illustrates howflattened
organizational units increase agility innovation and efficacy.Moreover it discusses how
individuals can exercise effective leadershipdespite lacking the command-and-control authority
of conventional bosses andways for organizations to cultivate effective
post-managementcultures. Especially in the technology sector large projects havebecome too
complex to be mastered by any single leader. Drawing on hisexperience as a senior manager and
executive consultant for a number of FortuneGlobal 500 companies Roger Strathausen analyzes
the situations and benefitsthat motivate companies to adopt flattened organizational forms. He
shows thatempowering a multi-talented group to manage itself by horizontal cooperationcan
deliver products with more speed efficiency innovation and nimblenessthan a solo boss could
while yielding higher employee productivity andretention rates.With an entertaining mix of
real-world examples and anepisodic HBR-style fictitious case study the author illustrates
throughout thebook how his leadership lessons can be serviceable only when
intelligentlytailored to the dynamic complexities of specific situations including
thepersonalities and competencies of the people involved. What You'll Learn How to tailor the
techniques of shared leadership to specificbusiness situations rather than treating them as
iron rules How to flourish in nonhierarchical andambiguously-hierarchical organizational
contexts that encourage individualinitiative for the joint benefit of the enterprise and
personal professionalgrowth How success and fulfillment at work are enhanced byorganizational
forms in which participants assess the situational relevance oftheir respective talents and
actively apply them to group objectives in lateralcooperation with peers as opposed to
passively receiving orders from appointedbosses Who This Book Is For The primary readerships
for this book are businessleaders and managers at all levels in corporations and
non-managerialprofessionals who work in self-directed teams.The secondary readerships are
practitioners consultants and academics interested in the topics of human resources
organizational design and the future of work.
