"Dog Whisperer" type business management book filter

December 31, 2006 2:41 PM

"Dog Whisperer" type business management book filter

Ever see Cesar Millan in the the Dog Whisperer program? I'm intrigued with his dog psychology principles of the human needing to be the "pack leader" and projecting "calm, assertive energy" to have a proper relationship with the dog.
I'm looking for the best business management book that addresses the same principles in a business setting -- Specifically how managers can take charge and create the proper relationship with employees. Suggestions?

posted by queue_strategy to work & money (6 comments total)

I just finished Good to Great, and it's definitely applicable. It's a book of case studies and comparisons between companies that transitioned from mere goodness to sustained greatness, the characteristics that made it possible, and comparison companies that are similar in every way but greatness.

It's relevant to your question because two of the main traits of the great ones were "Level 5 leadership" (executives who were a mixture of humble and assertive) and "hedgehog concept" (a core, unwavering idea that guides company choices throughout bumpy transitions and difficult spots). Cesar Millan does this on a personal / psychological level by acting the immoveable object.

It's been a huge bestseller, so you're probably completely familiar with it.
posted by migurski at 3:15 PM on December 31, 2006

You may be missing the deeper point of what makes Millan so effective: he's authentic, congruent and transparent. I don't think it's really about dominance. This article, which appeared in the New Yorker, gets at what I'm talking about.

The best book I can recommend for effective leadership, and which I think is also reflected in Millan's approach, is Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. A few online translations are available here. I used this with senior executives in my former days as a management consultant.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:09 PM on January 1, 2007

Cocoagirl - I didn't say anything about dominance, but rather enforcing the proper relationship beween managers and employees. Granted a good leader must be genuine, but that alone will be ineffective if they are not respected. Millan has done a great job to make dog psychology easy to understand, and shows how the owner can build trust and respect with the animal by acting in the proper role (pack leader). I'm looking for the same principles in the business world.

But thanks for your book suggestion, I'll check into it.
posted by queue_strategy at 10:20 PM on January 1, 2007

There are mixed messages in your response. "Enforcing" is about dominance and an artifact of hierarchy. This also reoccurs in the selection of pack leader (survival of the fittest mentality). Although the subtlety of your word choices is suspect, the repetition of them makes for a pattern that is not so subtle and sends the message, hierarchy is the proper relationship between managers and employees, now all that is needed is an example that justifies that believe. In comes Millan.

Although Millan may have decoded "dog psychology" in his one-on-one work with dogs; however, before adopting his techniques to apply to humans, I would look at the role of "dog sociology" and how Millan's methods works in a "pack mentality" environment.

I am going to step out of the paradigm outlined above and suggest that Robert Greenleaf's writings on Servant Leadership portrays a leadership style would be worth the time spent on it. Instead of the leader being the alpha overlord of the pack, the leader becomes the servant to the group. And, I would advocate that is the proper relationship of management to employees.
posted by choragus at 7:32 AM on January 2, 2007

You're going down the wrong path with the whole alpha dog dominance thing. Maybe have been someone else.

The aspect I am interested in is the leader's mentality. In the case of new managers, they sometimes lack confidence to lead effectively, especially if they are dealing with strong personalities.

The fascinating thing I see with Millan is his ability to train the human to deal with the dog. This often involves a change in perspective which I would argue could be defined as the "proper relationship." Specifically, a dog is a dog and not a baby, a sibling, or head of the household.

Now people are not dogs and I am not advocating the use of dog psychology on them. What I am saying is that effective leadership involves the concept that someone has consciously accepted the authority to lead and is cognizant of their role.

The best leaders I have ever seen were open to new ideas, self deprecating, humble, thoughtful... but also confident and decisive. Confidence is the key that inspires people to follow.

I'm looking for resources that illustrate just that.
posted by queue_strategy at 4:00 PM on January 2, 2007

You might investigate the concepts of consent policing, maybe morphing it into "consent managing". For example, managers being only members of the team who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every employee in the interests of the success of the project.

As a counterpoint, consider a manager who "had so much energy that he bustled back and forth..., delivering dumb messages which nobody had sent and which nobody was pleased to receive. He also began to suspect, since he was so much busier than anybody else, that he was the leader." Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five.
posted by mediaddict at 12:17 PM on May 13, 2007