TOP DRAWER BOOK REVIEW
by
HL Carpenter

 

It’s Not What You Say, It’s What You Do
by Laurence Haughton
ISBN 0-385-51041-1
244 pages; hardcover; $24.95
Doubleday, New York, 2004

Child psychologists have been communicating the message to parents for years: Children copy your actions, not your exhortations.

Now the old adage has been applied to the business world.

No, author Laurence Haughton, a management consultant, is not advocating that employees be treated like children. Instead he argues the only way for managers to effect change in a company is to back up talk with action.

But you can forget the old-school punitive actions of micromanaging and top-down authority. Mr. Haughton wants managers to mix guidance with respect and the willingness to let employees take the initiative.

It’s Not What You Say, It’s What You Do has the usual array of management buzzwords - buy-in, teamwork, vision, feedback – as well as the standard vignettes of companies that succeed at making change happen and those that don’t. There’s also the obligatory acronym: CAVE people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything).

If you find unmeasurable intangibles like respect and guidance too ‘touchy-feely’, it’s unlikely you’ll get much from the book. But the basic premise is sound: The way to lead is to match your words with your actions. At the office as well as the home, It’s Not What You Say, It’s What You Do.

 

Review originally published March 2006.