Thinking Like a Winner: A Guide to High Performance Leadership

This book describes how high performing individuals think about their successes and failures. Examples discussed in the book include Tiger Woods and Coaches Bobby Bowden and Mike Martin of the Florida State Seminoles. It includes a self-test to identify the reader's causal reasoning style with regard to: 1.) how the individual thinks about his or her own outcomes and 2.) how the individual thinks about the reasons for the successes and failures of others.

The book offers a description of sixteen different casual reasoning styles and offers guidelines for changing causal reasoning patterns in both the self-and others to optimize personal and organizational success.

The book also addresses current leadership issues from the perspective of causal reasoning. Topics discussed include motivation, emotional intelligence, oganizational aggression, performance appraisal, and transformational and transactional leadership

Mark J. Martinko was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the second of four brothers and has one sister. He attended Holy Name High school, graduated from Muskingum College with a B.S. degree in psychology in 1971, and received an M.A. degree with an emphasis in child psychology from the College of Education at the University of Iowa in 1973. He received his Ph.D. in Business from the University of Nebraska in 1977. After completing his doctoral work, he remained at the University of Nebraska for one year as a visiting assistant professor and then accepted a position at Florida State University in 1978 where he is now the Bank of America Professor of management and teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of organizational behavior, change, research methods, and leadership.

In the process of completing his education he worked a number of jobs including caddie, car mechanic, cook (MacDonald’s), retail sales, underground and overhead construction (Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company), carpet installer, steelworker (U.S. Steel), and has worked on assembly lines at Sheller-Globe Corporation and National Cash Register. After receiving his Master’s degrees from the University of Iowa, he worked for Western Electric Corporation as a management trainer and then at Omaha Public Power District, also conducting management training. He has also served as a consultant and trainer for a wide variety of organizations including Wal-Mart Corporation; Omaha Public Power District; Guinness Group Sales, Ireland; Shell Oil; W. R. Grace Corporation; and the Florida Departments of Education, Transportation, Law Enforcement, Human Services, Insurance, and Labor. His most interesting consultancy was with Guinness Group Sales of Ireland where, over a period of 5 years, he conducted participant observation studies to assess the dynamics of stout and lager consumption as a basis for developing marketing strategies in Ireland.

Throughout his career, Mark’s research has focused on leadership and motivation. He is the co-author of The Power of Positive Reinforcement and The Practice of Supervision and Management and recently edited Attribution Theory: An Organizational Perspective which has been cited as one of the two most influential books on management thought in 1995. He has contributed more than 50 research articles in respected academic journals including: Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, American Educational Research Journal, Group and Organization Studies, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. He served two successive three-year terms on the editorial board of the Academy of Management Review. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management and Organizational Dynamics. He is a past president of the Southern Management Association and of the Allied Southern Business Association.

Upon moving to Florida, Mark took Captain Cook’s advice and married a native. His wife Elda is a territory manager for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. His son Daniel is an avid football and roller-hockey player and is beginning high school. Mark’s recreational activities include golfing (14 handicap) and salt-water fishing. He and his son Daniel caught a 450 lb. blue marlin in 1999. He has taken numerous sailfish on a fly rod, beginning in 1994.