Practice Management

Ruthlessness and Charity

In an editorial in today?s Wall Street Journal, Lawrence B. Lindsey, author of a new book ?What a President should Know ? but Most Learn Too Late? gives the opinion that we (the electorate) should seek (as our president) an individual who is ruthless about protecting us against others, but (who) acts with charity towards all and malice towards none at home.

Lindsey acknowledges immediately that this is a tall order.

I don?t know if Lindsey?s opinion is (a) correct or (b) translates into the business world, but it?s an interesting hypothesis about the contrast between an ?aggressive, competitive? style when dealing with the external world, and a ?nurturing, collaborative? style that many (including me) would advocate inside the firm.

I have a suspicion that ?switching? mindsets is difficult for many people, if not most of us. Those who are aggressive externally may have a bias towards creating internally competitive organizations, and those who tend toward the ?nurturing, collaborative? style may fail to evoke the ambition and dynamism on the external marketplace needed for commercial success.

We could create a categorization scheme of four types (of people or organizations):

• Externally aggressive, internally nurturing and collaborative
• Externally aggressive, internally aggressive
• Externally nurturing and collaborative,  internally aggressive
• Externally nurturing and collaborative, internally nurturing

Which would you bet on to succeed? Which do you think is actually most common?

Full post as published by Passion, People and Principles on January 02, 2008 (boomark / email).