RWL Newsletter #140 - authenticity, happy fun ball, & bunny slippers
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! It’s 46 degrees this morning - technically it’s still “summer”, but I’m going to quote a certain TV show, winter is coming! In fact, the above picture is a bit of proof. The first leaves are beginning to change. It won’t be long now.
On to the links!
Read
What: Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer, Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
https://www.simplylifeindia.com/uploads/8/1/1/5/8115412/discovering_your_authentic_leadership.pdf
Why: We did a short unit on leadership styles this past week in my Management class. We talk a lot about leadership tangentially in this class, but there are so many other topics that I need to cover, such as organizational structure, that we really don’t do a deep dive into leadership until second semester. Anyway, that’s my problem, not yours. So as I was thinking about which of the zillion leadership theories I wanted to share with them, I settled on the classic Transformational Leadership, and its descendent, Authentic Leadership. Bill George coined the phrase in his book Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. The basic idea of Authentic Leadership is you have to find your leadership style from within yourself. This resonates with me, and it is how I try to teach leadership. I usually start with self-exploration, getting to know who you are and what your strengths and weaknesses are, before I start to try to talk about influencing others. In fact, that is what we did in my class this semester - as I mentioned in RWL 138 - we started the semester taking the MBTI, talking about socio-economic status, and then writing narratives about the influences that made us who we were. We then build from there. It’s a good starting point for the kind of reflection required for authentic leadership.
This article is a good summary of Authentic Leadership if you are not familiar with the concept, or you are looking to introduce the idea to colleagues or students. Check it out!
Watch
What: SNL, Happy Fun Ball (2 minutes)
Why: There’s a commercial running right now on the radio up here and at the beginning of the commercial, they play a series of disclaimers about the promises in the ad at about 2x normal listening speed so it sounds a bit like verbal vomit. The commercial happened to play while my wife and I were having dinner with my youngest daughter and her friend and it made me think of the classic SNL skit, Happy Fun Ball. My wife and I laughed about how it was a perfect spoof on all the disclaimers we here on commercials, especially pharmaceutical ads (“X anti-acne drug may cause rashes, higher risk of heart disease, depression, suicidal ideation, neuropathy, etc. - definitely worth the risk!) Anyway, the kids didn’t have any idea what I was talking about, so I pulled up the video on YouTube. It definitely stands the test of time. A great video for a class ethics or marketing, and just generally funny.
Listen
What: Econtalk, Munger on the Nature of the Firm
http://www.econtalk.org/munger-on-the-nature-of-the-firm/
Why: Bosses don't wear bunny slippers is the title of a short article on the nature of the firm by Mike Munger of Duke University. Along with a discussion of leadership this week, we talked about the nature of the firm. In this podcast, Mike is interviewed about his article and explains how transaction costs are the reason firms exist, and determine the size of a firm at any given time. The discussion is a popularization of the classic paper of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning economist Ronald Coase. Coase posits that the firm is essentially a nexus of long-term, general contracts and contrasts that with short term, specific contracts in the market. It’s an effective model of how firms operate and allows us to understand what firms actually do.
Understanding the contractual nature of firms helps us better understand things like hospital mergers with other hospitals, hospital and medical practice mergers, and other ownership structures. Plus Munger is a funny guy, which is not that common for someone as smart as he is.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau