Business Leadership Myth ?
I am trying to share my general thoughts nothing in specific
about any person. Just someone driven me to write this now, which I was think
for some time.
I have a feeling that today’s “business leaders” are something
like a missing boat. Today’s business leaders are more business managers than they are business leaders. Mostly they are more to incline to manage things than
driving the outcome. And while sound management is important, the cost of weak
leadership is very high. Low morale, high turnover, mediocre performance and lack
luster customer service are just a few of the costs of weak leadership. And it
doesn’t take a lawyer to figure out that these costs, though tough to measure,
have a direct impact on your bottom line. I was closely discussing few
instances with a founder & CEO of a startup & make me collect all these
thoughts. Let’s start analyzing this.
The Problem
The problem is there are not enough books written or
seminars given on the topic of
Leadership. A search on Amazon revealed that there are a
mere 12,045 books on the topic. And, if you’re like me, you probably only
receive 5 to 10 flyers for upcoming leadership seminars per month. So
obviously, we need to recruit more authors and speakers. Actually, the problem
isn’t that there is not enough documented, shared wisdom on the topic of
leadership. Some of the best managers go to one or two leadership seminars per
year and clap till their hands fall off at all the wonderful things the speaker
is saying. So what’s the real
problem?
The REAL problem is the link between knowing and doing, between
hearing and living, between mental assent and true understanding. People at
these seminars are plagued with what I call the “nod factor.” They nod
vigorously at all the truth shared by the famed and, undoubtedly, wise speaker on the
topic of leadership. It’s like they sit there thinking, “Finally, someone is
articulating what I have known for years.” And I don’t doubt that they actually
have known a lot of it, but from my experience there are a lot more people who
know and do not, than those who know and do.
The Solution
First,
learn the difference between management and leadership. The differences are
real, and are important. The roles and goals of leaders are markedly different
than the roles and goals of managers. Let’s look at a few of the basics.
Managers
focus on speed, methods, and efficiency (i.e., doing things right). Leaders
focus on vision, purpose and direction (i.e., doing the right things). Managers
direct, organize and discipline employees. Leaders empower, inspire and
motivate employees. Managers solve problems. Leaders trust their followers to
solve problems.
How
come so many of today’s “senior” level managers, not to mention mid-level
managers, are consumed by 80% management activity and only 20% leadership
activity? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I suggest, YES.
After
you have developed a clear picture of leadership and how it differs from
management, step up to the leadership plate determined to hit a home run. Put
what you know into practice 24/7, everyday, all day. Develop an action plan
that will force you to walk the talk. Seek out one or two accountability
partners to keep you on track. Be sure to choose people whom you trust and who
will be objective and honest. Don’t be afraid to select from among those whom
you expect to follow you; after all, they have the biggest vested interest in
your leadership ability.
Why Should You Care?
The
main reason you should care is because it is the right thing to do. It is right
for you; it is right for your organization and it is right for those who are
subject to your leadership.” Strong, effective leadership can, and usually
does, transform
an organization.
The
American Heritage dictionary defines transform this way: “a marked change, as
in appearance or character, usually for the better (emphasis added); the change undergone by an animal cell upon
infection by a cancer-causing virus.” Wouldn’t you like to infect your
organization as effectively as a cancer causing virus, only with a positive
instead of a negative result? I hope so.
Leadership
is your number one competitive advantage; your number one strategic asset. Just
ask GE, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, or Microsoft.
There
are many great books on the subject of leadership, If you haven’t read them I challenge
you to do so. I assure you it will also challenge you.
he
first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank
you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That
sums up the progress of an artful leader.
Concepts
of leadership, ideas about leadership, and leadership practices are the subject
of much thought, discussion, writing, teaching, and learning. True leaders are
sought after and cultivated. Leadership is not an easy subject to explain. A
friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: "Leaders don't
inflict pain; they bear pain."
The
goal of thinking hard about leadership is not to produce great or charismatic
or well-known leaders. The measure of leadership is not the quality of the
head, but the tone of the body. The signs of outstanding leadership appear
primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are
they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required results? Do they change
with grace? Manage conflict?
I
would like to ask you to think about the concept of leadership in a certain
way. Try to think about a leader, in the words of the gospel writer Luke, as
"one who serves." Leadership is a concept of owing certain things to
the institution. It is a way of thinking about institutional heirs, a way of
thinking about stewardship as contrasted with ownership. Robert Greenleaf has
written an excellent book about this idea, Servant Leadership.
The art of leadership requires
us to think about the leader-as-steward in terms of relationships: of assets
and legacy, of momentum and effectiveness, of civility and values.
Leaders
should leave behind them assets and a legacy. First, consider assets; certainly
leaders owe assets. Leaders owe their institutions vital financial health, and
the relationships and reputation that enable continuity of that financial
health. Leaders must deliver to their organizations the appropriate services,
products, tools, and equipment that people in the organization need in order to
be accountable. In many institutions leaders are responsible for providing land
and facilities.
But
what else do leaders owe? What are artful leaders responsible for? Surely we
need to include people. People are the heart and spirit of all that counts.
Without people, there is no need for leaders. Leaders can decide to be
primarily concerned with leaving assets to their institutional heirs or they
can go beyond that and capitalize on the opportunity to leave a legacy, a
legacy that takes into account the more difficult, qualitative side of life,
one which provides greater meaning, more challenge, and more joy in the lives
of those whom leaders enable.
Besides
owing assets to their institutions, leaders owe the people in those
institutions certain things. Leaders need to be concerned with the
institutional value system which, after all, leads to the principles and
standards that guide the practices of the people in the institution. Leaders
owe a clear statement of the values of the organization. These values should be
broadly understood and agreed to and should shape our corporate and individual
behavior. What is this value system based on? How is it expressed? How is it
audited? These are not easy questions to deal with.
Leaders
are also responsible for future leadership. They need to identify, develop, and
nurture future leaders.
Leaders
are responsible for such things as a sense of quality in the institution, for
whether or not the institution is open to influence and open to change.
Effective leaders encourage contrary opinions, an important source of vitality.
I am talking about how leaders can nurture the roots of an institution, about a
sense of continuity, about institutional culture.
Leaders
owe a covenant to the corporation or institution, which is, after all, a group
of people. Leaders owe the organization a new reference point for what caring,
purposeful, committed people can be in the institutional setting. Notice I did
not say what people can do—what we can do is merely a consequence of what we
can be. Corporations, like the people who compose them, are always in a state
of becoming. Covenants bind people together and enable them to meet their
corporate needs by meeting the needs of one another. We must do this in a way
that is consonant with the world around us.
Leaders
owe a certain maturity. Maturity as expressed in a sense of self-worth, a sense
of belonging, a sense of expectancy, a sense of responsibility, a sense of
accountability, and a sense of equality.
Leaders
owe the corporation rationality. Rationality gives reason and mutual
understanding to programs and to relationships. It gives visible order.
Excellence and commitment and competence are available to us only under the
rubric of rationality. A rational environment values trust and human dignity
and provides the opportunity for personal development and self-fulfillment in
the attainment of the organization's goals.
Business
literacy, understanding the economic basis of a corporation, is essential. Only
a group of people who share a body of knowledge and continually learn together
can stay vital and viable.
Leaders
owe people space, space in the sense of freedom. Freedom in the sense of
enabling our gifts to be exercised. We need to give each other the space to
grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other
space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas,
openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion. And in giving each other the
gift of space, we need also to offer the gifts of grace and beauty to which
each of us is entitled.
Another
way to think about what leaders owe is to ask this question: What is it without
which this institution would not be what it is?
Leaders
are obligated to provide and maintain momentum. Leadership comes with a lot of
debts to the future. There are more immediate obligations as well. Momentum is
one. Momentum in a vital company is palpable. It is not abstract or mysterious.
It is the feeling among a group of people that their lives and work are
intertwined and moving toward a recognizable and legitimate goal. It begins
with competent leadership and a management team strongly dedicated to
aggressive managerial development and opportunities. This team's job is to
provide an environment that allows momentum to gather.
Momentum
comes from a clear vision of what the corporation ought to be, from a
well-thought-out strategy to achieve that vision, and from carefully conceived
and communicated directions and plans that enable everyone to participate and
be publicly accountable in achieving those plans.
Momentum
depends on a pertinent but flexible research and development program led by
people with outstanding gifts and unique talents. Momentum results when a
corporation has an aggressive, professional, inspired group of people in its
marketing and sales units. Momentum results when the operations group serves
its customers in such a way that the customer sees them as their best supplier
of tools, equipment, and services. Underlying these complex activities is the
essential role of the financial team. They provide the financial guidelines and
the necessary ratios. They are responsible for equity among the various groups
that compose the corporate family.
Leaders
are responsible for effectiveness. Much has been written about
effectiveness—some of the best of it by Peter Drucker. He has such a great
ability to simplify concepts. One of the things he tells us is that efficiency
is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing.
Leaders
can delegate efficiency, but they must deal personally with effectiveness. Of
course, the natural question is "how." We could fill many pages
dealing with how to be effective, but I would like to touch on just two ways.
The
first is the understanding that effectiveness comes about through enabling
others to reach their potential—both their personal potential and their
corporate or institutional potential.
Another
way to improve effectiveness is to encourage roving leadership. Roving
leadership arises and expresses itself at varying times and in varying
situations, according to the dictates of those situations. Roving leaders have
the special gifts or the special strengths or the special temperament to lead
in these special situations. They are acknowledged by others who are ready to
follow them. (See "Roving Leadership.")
Leaders
must take a role in developing, expressing, and defending civility and values.
In a civilized institution or corporation, we see good manners, respect for
persons, an understanding of "good goods," and an appreciation of the
way in which we serve each other.
Civility
has to do with identifying values as opposed to following fashions. Civility
might be defined as an ability to distinguish between what is actually healthy
and what merely appears to be living. A leader can tell the difference between
living edges and dying ones.
To
lose sight of the beauty of ideas and of hope and opportunity, and to frustrate
the right to be needed, is to be at the dying edge.
To
be a part of a throwaway mentality that discards goods and ideas, that discards
principles and law, that discards persons and families, is to be at the dying
edge.
To
be at the leading edge of consumption, affluence, and instant gratification is
to be at the dying edge.
To
ignore the dignity of work and the elegance of simplicity, and the essential
responsibility of serving each other, is to be at the dying edge.
