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Sydney Finkelstein: what makes a “superboss” super?

Strategy & Leadership

ISSN: 1087-8572

Article publication date: 21 November 2016

957

Abstract

Purpose

Strategy and leadership guru, Sydney Finkelstein believes that “regenerating the talent pool is the single most important thing that any leader can do” to help his or her organization to “survive and prosper.” His new book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent (Harvard Business Review Press, 2016), studies “those few individuals” in any given industry who “grow human capital better than anyone else.”

Design/methodology/approach

Strategy & Leadership contributing editor Brian Leavy asks Prof. Finkelstein what can managers learn from these exceptional talent developers that might be more widely emulated?

Findings

According to Prof. Finkelstein, “The superboss playbook is not about being nice or empathic. It’s about giving proteges the motivation, guidance, wisdom, creative licence, and other elements they need to learn and grow”

Practical implications

Prof. Finkelstein notes, “While many businesses today focus on getting closer to the customer, superbosses are very much focused on getting closer to their employees or team members.”

Originality/value

Prof. Finkelstein asserts, “Superbosses have cracked the code on how to make organizations work better by designing a playbook that helps people accomplish more than they ever thought possible in their careers, or their lives. By studying the superbosses and what they do, we now know how genuinely unusual talent comes to populate an organization.?

Keywords

Citation

Leavy, B. (2016), "Sydney Finkelstein: what makes a “superboss” super?", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 9-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-09-2016-0072

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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