優步老闆重返課堂有用嗎

“Children, we have a new member of class this term. Please say hello to Travis, who has joined us from Uber. Travis, welcome to Leadership 101. I’m sure you’ll be very happy here.”

“孩子們，這學期我們班來了一位新同學。大家跟特拉維斯打個招呼吧，他來自優步(Uber)。特拉維斯，歡迎來到‘領導力101’班。我相信你在這裏會非常快樂的。”

Caught by a dashboard camera arguing with an Uber driver, Travis Kalanick, the founder and chief executive of the ride-hailing service, this week apologised and told staff: “This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it.”

在被一部車載攝像頭拍到與一位優步司機吵架後，這家叫車公司的創始人兼首席資訊官特拉維斯?卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)上週致歉並告訴員工們：“這是我第一次願意承認我需要領導力方面的幫助，我想得到這方面的幫助。”

He will have plenty of helpers to choose from. The leadership industry is vast. Harvard’s Barbara Kellerman estimated in 2012 that well over $50bn annually was spent on leadership development, from the smallest coaching corner shop to the biggest business school. An Amazon search returns nearly 200,000 books on the topic (including mine). Despite this, as Jeffrey Pfeffer pointed out in his uncompromising 2015 attack on the sector, Leadership BS, there is still “overwhelming evidence of workplaces filled with disengaged, dissatisfied employees who do not trust their leaders”.

他可以從衆多的幫助者中選擇。領導力行業規模巨大。2012年時哈佛大學(Harvard)的芭芭拉?凱勒曼(Barbara Kellerman)曾估計，每年人們花在領導力發展方面的費用遠遠超過500億美元，從最小的街角培訓中心到最大的商學院。在亞馬遜(Amazon)上可以搜索到近20萬本這個主題的圖書（包括我寫的）。儘管如此，正如傑弗瑞?菲佛(Jeffrey Pfeffer)2015年在他的著作《Leadership BS》中嚴厲抨擊該行業時所說的那樣，“有大量證據證明在辦公場所充斥着沒有歸屬感、心懷不滿的員工，他們不信任領導者”。

So as well as giving Uber’s founder the chance to atone, “educating Travis” would also offer the engorged and often ineffectual leadership industry an opportunity to redeem itself. Take an aggressive 40-year-old executive, who continues to behave like the “scrappy, small entrepreneur” he says he once was, and turn him into a leader that even Uber’s most disgruntled drivers can be proud of.

因此，“教育特拉維斯”不僅會讓優步創始人得到一個改過自新的機會，還會爲這個臃腫且通常無效的領導力行業提供一個自我救贖的機會。招收一個咄咄逼人的40歲高管（他的行爲舉止仍像是那種“好鬥的小企業家”，他說他自己曾經是那樣的人），把他變成一個甚至連優步最憤憤不平的司機都引以爲傲的領袖。

It is a task worthy of professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, who sought to pass off foul-mouthed flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a duchess. But, like Higgins’s challenge, the quest is strewn with obstacles.

這項任務堪比電影《窈窕淑女》(My Fair Lady)中亨利?希金斯(Henry Higgins)教授所做的事情，他試圖讓言語粗俗的賣花姑娘伊麗莎?杜利特爾(Eliza Doolittle)冒充公爵夫人。但與希金斯的挑戰一樣，這項任務困難重重。

First, there is the intractable would-be student himself. As a role model for life-long learning, Mr Kalanick falls short. Despite repeated efforts to polish the founder’s rough edges, Uber controversies keep coming. Last month brought to light not only the awkward video, but a potentially far more damaging claim by a female former engineer that Uber’s human resources team had ignored her allegations of sexual harassment.

首先是這個頑固的未來學員自己。作爲終身學習的典範，卡蘭尼克還不合格。儘管優步曾多次努力打磨卡蘭尼克的棱角，但有關優步的爭議仍源源不斷。上月曝光的不僅僅是那則令人尷尬的視頻，還有來自一位前女工程師的指摘，其破壞力可能要大的多，她說，優步的人力資源部門對她提出的性騷擾指控置之不理。

Then there is the question of whether Mr Kalanick has already outgrown formal education. Most universities so worship entrepreneurs that they are more likely to be welcomed as guest lecturers or badgered for funding than admitted as students. Meanwhile, aspiring MBAs dream of out-disrupting Uber’s creators, not sitting alongside them in remedial leadership classes.

接下來就是卡蘭尼克是否歲數太大不適合接受正規教育。多數大學對於企業家非常崇敬，企業家更有可能被邀請爲演講嘉賓或被纏着要贊助，而不是被錄取爲學生。與此同時，志向遠大的MBA學員們夢想着瓦解優步的創造者們，而不是與他們坐在一起攻讀補救性的領導力課程。

Finally, there is the question of whether teaching Uber’s leader how to lead would take the kick out of Mr Kalanick — the hard-charging attitude that helped him make his fortune in the first place — just as Higgins neutered Eliza’s winning charm.

最後，教授優步領導者如何領導是否會讓卡蘭尼克失去那股子勁頭——當初正是那種拼搏精神讓他發了財——正如希金斯讓伊莉莎喪失了迷人魅力一樣。

Still, something must be done. Uber’s problems have emerged from its dog-eat-dog culture, and culture — as many of those 200,000 leadership manuals will tell you — comes from the top. The Institute of Leadership & Management polled 1,200 UK workers recently: half agreed their leaders sometimes or frequently allowed their mood to dictate the climate of the workplace. The institute, incidentally, is one of many professional associations Mr Kalanick could join, rising to become a “Fellow”, with the right to put “FInstLM” after his name.

然而，還是必須做點什麼。優步的問題源於其殘酷競爭的文化，而文化來自頂層——在那些20萬本傳授領導力技巧的圖書中，有許多書會告訴你這一點。領導力與管理學會(Institute of Leadership & Management)最近對1200名英國勞動者進行的調查顯示，一半受訪者表示他們的領導有時或經常任由自己的情緒支配辦公場所的氣氛。順便說一下，該學會是卡蘭尼克可以加入的許多專業團體之一，這樣他可以成爲一名“會士”(Fellow)，有資格在自己的名字後面加上“FInstLM”（即Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management的縮寫——譯者注）。

It seems more likely the Uber founder will seek one-on-one advice. I would counsel him against over-paying for his own management guru, however.

這位優步創始人似乎更可能尋求一對一的指導。然而，我將會建議他不要向自己的管理學大師支付過高費用。

Asked what Mr Kalanick should do, one business school professor suggests he should in future “stop, challenge and choose”: stop to think, challenge what he knows about the situation (and what he may not know — that dashboard camera) and choose the right response.

在被問及卡蘭尼克應該怎麼做時，一位商學院教授建議他未來應該“停下、質疑和選擇”：停下來思考，質疑他所瞭解的情況（以及他可能不瞭解的情況——那個車載攝像頭），然後選擇正確的迴應。

It is a fine, simple prescription, based on common sense — and that should be no surprise.

從常識來看，這是一個還不錯的簡單處方，人們不應對此感到意外。

For all the cash companies spend on training and the lifetimes academics devote to forging new theories, often the leadership industry peddles to leaders the advice and values most of us absorbed in nursery school.

儘管企業花了大量資金用於培訓，學者們傾其一生探索新的理論，但領導力行業往往向領導者兜售我們大多數人在幼兒園就已接受過的建議和價值觀。

For Mr Kalanick, in other words, it is probably already too late.

換言之，對卡蘭尼克來說，學習領導力可能爲時已晚。

“Children, just a reminder before we start the class: no fighting, ‘indoor voices’ only, and please wait until break-time before eating your humble pie. Travis?.?.?.?Travis! Don’t do that.”

“孩子們，在我們上課前先提醒一下：不要打鬧，‘保持安靜’，請等到休息時間再吃你的餡餅。特拉維斯……特拉維斯！別那麼做了。”