In HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing People 2-Volume Collection, the opening essay is Leadership That Gets Results.
In a variety of studies that tracked managers’ results like profits, growth, and compensation, the authors found that six leadership styles consistently outperform: coercive, authoritative, affiliate, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching.
But there’s a catch (emphasis mine).
“The more styles a leader has mastered, the better. In particular, being able to switch among (the styles) as conditions dictate creates the best organizational climate and optimizes business performance.”
In jobs language, context matters.
It’s any skill.
Leadership, jobs theory, physical abilities. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the right thing to do at that moment. It’s like walking through Home Depot, Bob Moesta analogizes, buying a truckload of tools and thinking you can now build a house.
Education underrates the centrality of context. Business schools teach ‘what’ just-in-time inventory, FIFO, and net 30, 60, and 90. But not so much ‘when’.
Season One Episode Two introduced the Bob-ism, context creates value, and contrast creates meaning. It’s all about the context.
During the Jobs interviews, Bob digs into who was there, where they were, and when it was. He wants to understand the situation. Jobs can add this to education. Under what conditions do mergers work? Under what conditions is accrual accounting better? Under what conditions does marketing grow sales?
Instead, schools teach this is a merger, this is accrual, and this is marketing.
It’s not what things are but what, how, and when to use them.
No one steps into the same river twice.
Homework: What are your forces of progress when you learn?
What are your habits?
What are your anxieties?
What’s the pull of the information?
What’s the push of the situation?
The context of why someone reads a book, enrolls in school, learns anything dictates what they get out of it.