hesitation, good employees will acknowledge the wastefulness in their departments,
and are best suited to determining how operational sequences and structures can be
simplified.
These seven tools and their professional implementation bridge the gap between
efficiency and effectiveness. For Malik, “the descriptive principles and tasks deter-
mine what ‘the right things’ are, whereas these tools are the prerequisite for doing
them right.”
2.1.2.4 Profession Without Training
According to Malik, managers do not necessarily have to be natural born leaders,
but leadership can be learned like every other career aspect. Upper-level managers
must receive in-depth training on the first three elements, i.e., on the principles,
tasks and tools. The knowledge necessary for good leadership can be acquired with
normal intelligence and sufficient practice.
At the same time, Malik emphasizes that management is an occupation without
standardized training. Novice managers mostly have a purely academic career and
know only the theory of running a company. The remainder of their experience is
gained on the job, following the principle of trial and error. However, each error can
have bitter consequences, most often at the expense of the organization. According
to Malik, someone who has a competent boss as mentor and role model at the begi-
nning of their career is lucky. The new generation of managers has already been
collecting relevant leadership experience since childhood. For example, many
participated in sports clubs, were involved with youth organizations or were class
president. All these methods of learning are lengthy and involve little systematic
learning, but are nevertheless useful. In other occupations, it would be inconceiv-
able to rely on this kind of learning.
According to Malik, the heart of effective leadership is not the manager’s
personality. As such, he believes that “not the selection of managers, but rather
their training should be the primary focus. Managers are not chosen, but need to be
made, educated and formed” (Malik 2001, p. 45). Malik regards the idea of the
natural born manager as an illusion. “One uses character traits to gauge potential for
achievement. Yet there is no proof of any such connection; indeed, history has
clearly disproved it,” says Malik in apodictically, though he does not go on to offer
further support of his statement (Malik 2001, p. 33).
Malik only goes so far as to concede that not everyone can lead well, and that
there are certain traits that make leadership easier for some. In order to manage best,
and to accomplish the most difficult managerial tasks, one needs more than job
related skills. Talent, skill, luck and experience are also needed, as Malik admits.
I consider this marginalization of personality to be ill advised, which leads me to
my main criticism of Malik: he neglects the subtle but important impact of the
personalities of leaders and employees, which includes their character traits,
feelings and relationships.
2.1 The Craft of Leadership 47