He inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect…He originated nothing, he could keep the routine going—that's all." As a description of your typical middle manager, it is hard to surpass Marlow's view of the boss at a river port in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". The novella is a critique of colonialism in Africa, and an exploration of power and morality. It is also a guide to dealing with corporate bureaucracy. Marlow's steamboat is in tatters and the manager is useless—Marlow must solve the problem himself. It sounds like an ordinary day at a Fortune 500 company.
“他既没有唤起别人的爱，也没有激起别人的恐惧，甚至也没有得到别人的尊重……他不曾创造什么东西，他只能维持现状——仅此而已。” 这段对典型中层管理者的难以被超越的描述， 出自约瑟夫·康拉德的《黑暗之心》中，马洛对河港老板的看法。 这部中篇小说是对非洲殖民主义的批判，也是对权力和道德的探索。 它也是应对企业官僚主义的指南。 马洛的汽船破烂不堪，经理也没有用处——马洛必须亲自解决问题。 这听起来像是财富500强公司的平凡一天。
Bookshops are stuffed with management tomes on how to be a good leader, inspire others, survive office politics, navigate cultural differences and win negotiations. But executives would do well to ignore the corporate self-help shelves and head instead for the classics section. Great works of literature, with their piercing examination of the human condition, have much to teach the aspiring chief executive about business—values of honesty, empathy and commercial acumen, as well as insights into vanity, pettiness, greed and ruthless ambition, all of which punctuate the journey from cubicle to corner office.
书店里摆满了管理书籍，讲述如何成为一名优秀的领导者、如何激励他人、在办公室政治中生存， 驾驭文化差异并赢得谈判。 但高管们最好忽略那些企业自助书架，转去经典文学区。 伟大的文学作品对人类状况进行了尖锐的审视， 有很多东西可以教给这位有抱负的首席执行官——关于诚实、同理心和商业敏锐度的商业价值观，以及对虚荣、 小气、贪婪和狼子野心的洞察，所有这些都贯穿着从隔间到角落办公室(通常高管才有)的旅程。
Ditching corporate prose for fabulous stories is itself the subject of at least one business book. In "Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership through Literature", Joseph Badaracco, a professor of business ethics at Harvard Business School, considers eight works that provide lessons on what good leadership is—and isn't. If Mr Badaracco had to recommend one book executives should read this summer, it would be "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. "Serious literature tends to be tragic literature," he says. "The struggles of the main character, Okonkwo, reveal the profound challenges leaders confront when they face evolving social norms, novel economic challenges, shifting power dynamics and the challenge of communicating across cultural pides." Your guest Bartleby has other literary recommendations, on a range of management topics.
放弃企业散文，转向精彩故事本身就是至少一本商业书籍的主题。 在《性格问题：通过文学照亮领导力的核心》中，约瑟夫·巴达里奇， 哈佛商学院商业伦理学教授研究了八部作品，这些作品提供了关于什么是好的领导力和什么不是好的领导力的教训。 如果巴达里茨先生必须推荐一本高管今年夏天应该读的书，那就是奇努阿·阿切贝的《瓦解》。 “严肃的文学往往是悲剧文学，”他说。 “主角奥孔科沃的挣扎揭示了领导者面临的深刻挑战，在面对不断变化的社会规范时， 新的经济挑战、不断变化的权力动态以及跨越文化鸿沟沟通的挑战。” 本文笔者巴特比还就一系列管理主题提出了其他文学建议。
Great leaders need good mentors. Is there any better than Virgil in Dante's "Inferno"? He guides the main character through Hell and Purgatory, pointing out dangers, giving advice, rebuking on occasion and finally withdrawing when his charge is ready to ascend to the innermost circles of the immortal world. Just as mentors motivate their wards, so must managers. Few books are better on motivation than Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer". Forced to paint a fence white rather than play with his friends, the titular ragamuffin comes up with a way to make it seem so appealing that the local kids want to do it—and end up paying Tom for the privilege. Business-school professors call it "psychic rewards".
伟大的领导者需要好的导师。 还有比但丁的《地狱》中的维吉尔更好的人选吗? 他引导主角穿越地狱和炼狱，指出危险，提供建议， 有时会斥责，最后在他的主角准备上升到不朽世界的最内层时功成身退。 正如导师激励他们的学生一样，管理者也必须如此。 很少有书比马克·吐温的《汤姆·索亚历险记》更会写激励了。 被迫要把栅栏漆成白色，而不能和朋友们玩耍， 这位名义上的流浪汉想出了一种方法，让它看起来如此吸引人，以至于当地的孩子们都想来刷漆——最后还需要付钱给汤姆才能获得刷漆的权利。 商学院教授称之为“心灵奖励”。
For navigating HR or the finance department, pick up Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" or Franz Kafka's "The Trial" (the characters' bureaucratic travails will make yours seem trivial). For holding meetings, crack open William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" (arguments descend into savagery). As for IT support, enjoy Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" (pure nothingness). For lessons on digital transformation, dump Clay Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma" and read Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein".
对于人力资源或财务部，请选择约瑟夫·海勒的《第二十二条军规》或弗朗茨·卡夫卡的《审判》 (书中角色的官僚主义困境会让你的痛苦看起来微不足道)。 要举行会议，不妨翻开威廉·戈尔丁的《蝇王》(争论退步成为野蛮行为)。 至于IT支持，请欣赏塞缪尔·贝克特的《等待戈多》(纯粹的虚无)。 有关数字化转型的课程，请跳过克莱·克里斯滕森的《创新者的困境》，阅读玛丽·雪莱的《弗兰肯斯坦》。
The frenzy of business, when it is not a comedy, is a tragedy. That makes Shakespeare a font of wisdom—if mainly on what to avoid. Richard III and Macbeth are terrible leaders: the former hubristic, the latter overly ambitious. King Lear stresses the importance of succession planning. Othello reminds executives to choose their personal assistants carefully. (Though Lady Macbeth is a case study in how to work the system as a non-executive director and Iago, Othello's duplicitous aide, is instructive on how to deceive and get rid of the boss.)
商业的狂热最后若不是喜剧，那就是悲剧。 这使得莎士比亚成为智慧的源泉——如果主要是想了解应该避免什么的话。 理查三世和麦克白都是可怕的领袖：前者傲慢，后者雄心勃勃。 李尔王强调继任规划的重要性。 奥赛罗提醒高管们要谨慎选择私人助理。 (尽管麦克白夫人是一个关于如何作为非执行董事而左右局势的案例研究，奥赛罗的双重助手伊阿古对如何欺骗和干掉老板很有指导意义。)
The worst CEO in literature, believes John McCallum, a retired professor at the university of Manitoba's Asper School of Business who used novels in his teaching, has to be Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick". "Selfish, reckless, arrogant, ignorant—he hits every marker of the bad boss," Mr McCallum says. The best has to be Fezziwig from Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol": caring and generous, but also a good businessman. Beware, though, for generosity has its limits. In Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener", this column's namesake, a surly employee, preferred not to work. The lenient boss kept him around. Productivity fell. The horror.
曼尼托巴大学阿斯珀商学院退休教授约翰·麦卡勒姆认为，文学界最糟糕的首席执行官(麦卡勒姆的教学中使用了小说)， 一定是赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的《白鲸》中的艾哈迈德船长。 麦卡勒姆先生说：“自私、鲁莽、傲慢、无敌——他具备了一个糟糕老板的所有特征。” 最好的CEO当属是查尔斯·狄更斯《圣诞颂歌》中的费齐维格：有爱心、慷慨，同时也是一位优秀的商人。 不过，请注意，慷慨是有局限性的。 在梅尔维尔的短篇小说《抄写员巴特比》中，本专栏的同名人物巴特比是一名脾气暴躁的员工，他不愿意工作。 宽容的老板把他留在了身边。 工作效率下降。 这是管理者的噩梦。
重点词汇
middle manager 中层管理人员 ; 中层经理，部门经理，部门领导人
river port 河港
Joseph Conrad 约瑟夫·康拉德 ; 约瑟夫•康拉德 ; 约瑟夫康拉德 ; 约瑟夫?康拉德
novella 中篇小说
guide to 指南 ; 引到…
in tatters 衣衫褴褛的 ; 破破烂烂 ; 被毁坏的
solve the problem 解决问题
sounds like 听起来像 ; 听起来就像 ; 我听到
ordinary day 寻常日子
Fortune 500 财富500强 ; 世界500强 ; 《财富》500强