See chapter outlines and more at www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415885348.
First, both occupy places of authority in your life. You want the security of established boundaries, but also a measure of autonomy within that safe environment. Second, both are human: vulnerable, imperfect, prone to making mistakes. Indeed, says Nurick, the trait of fallibility is essential to effective leadership, whether of the mom or boss variety.
The Good Enough Manager (Routledge, 2012) puts a workplace spin on a parenting theory developed in 1949 by British pediatrician and psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott. His concept of the “good enough mother” asserts that, to raise self-sufficient children, mothers must intuit when to step in to help and when to give the child enough leeway to learn how to do things independently.
“Just as a mother has to ‘fail’ to allow her children to experience a wide array of outcomes and feelings, bosses have to afford their employees enough autonomy to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes,” explains Nurick, a 33-year member of the faculty whose teaching and research focus on interpersonal relations in management, emotional intelligence, leadership and organizational change.
To keep missteps from snowballing, he adds, good enough managers need to “find a precarious balance between holding on and letting go, and knowing when to do each.”
Getting Personal
Nurick developed an early appreciation for the human touch in business. His grandfather, father and uncle ran a men’s clothing store in Salisbury, N.C.
“I grew up watching my family run a very personal business,” he recalls. “They made sure they knew their customers’ tastes and sensibilities. And they always shared stories and used humor to build relationships.”
The experience led Nurick to study business administration as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and organizational psychology in his PhD program at the University of Tennessee. He also pursued postdoctoral study at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. His signature course at Bentley – Interpersonal Relations in Management – engages all aspects of his training.
The Good Enough Manager got its start in 2007, half a world away. While co-teaching a course at China’s Xiamen University, Nurick found himself with more downtime than usual, and began recording some of his long-held ideas and theories on the topic in question.
“It was a great unintended consequence of the trip,” he says of the pages of notes that resulted. “And the book is all about that: getting away from plans and learning how to improvise and make do with not enough information or time.”
Best and Worst
Back home, Nurick collected data – and stories – to test and flesh out his theories. He worked with several campus departments, including Institutional Research and University Advancement, and asked Bentley alumni to talk about their best and worst managers. The web survey generated 1,058 responses.
The majority of participants described their best managers as mentors and teachers. Relationship building and integrity were also high on the list of important qualities. At the other end of the spectrum were “micromanagers who stifle creativity,” Nurick reports.
The book ends with information and inspiration for putting the “good enough” concept into practice. Nurick encourages managers to develop a greater emotional capacity, avoid rushing to judgment, enable others to experience autonomy, and reflect before acting.
The latter can be an especially tough assignment, he says. “In these days of instant communication, a lot of managers don’t take the time to think before speaking.”
Intuitive Appeal
The Good Enough Manager earned pre-publication buzz when Nurick wrote on the topic for the Harvard Business Review blog. His post sparked a lively online conversation.
“The idea has an intuitive appeal in these times,” explains the professor, whose previous publication credits include numerous book chapters and journal articles, and the book Participation in Organizational Change. “We live in a perfectionistic culture where everyone is obsessed with achieving excellence.”
Research and writing his latest book took three years in real time – but Nurick puts a longer time frame on the project. “This book connects all the dots of my personal life and entire academic career. I couldn’t have written it any earlier.”
