jim.shamlin.com

8 - Leadership

Leadership is a topic as old as civilization itself - for as long as people have worked together to achieve common goals, there has always been a need to coordinate and direct their efforts. It is of acute interest to the business world because the effectiveness of leadership is a strong determinant of the effectiveness of the firm.

There are many theories of leadership, but no single theory can be considered right in all situations and all organizations. The leader has a variety of theories he can consider to determine how to most effectively lead a given group to accomplish a given goal - and to devote oneself to one methodology, whether it is appropriate or effective in a given situation, is highly counterproductive.

What Is Leadership?

There are many definitions of leadership, but the most basic and comment elements are: leadership describes the process by which one person seeks to influence the behavior of others to accomplish a given outcome. The differences between theories of leadership are generally focused on the method by which this basic goal can most effectively be accomplished.

This focuses on the leader's intentions - but it is also valuable to take a look at leadership from the perspective of the follower. Why do people accept leadership from others, and choose to follow them?

In one sense, employees want to understand their role in an organization: to comprehend the value of what their firm does, and the relevance of their tasks to accomplishing the organizational objective. Without this understanding, work has no meaning and employees cannot effectively engage themselves. (EN: In this sense, micromanagement is a symptom of poor leadership - an employee who doesn't understand his role or expectations must be told what to do each step of the way because he does not have sufficient guidance to recognize it for himself.)

To that end, the author proposes some basic questions leaders should seek to answer:

Following this is a succotash of tasks a leader may perform:

(EN: My sense is some of these are overlapping or redundant, and that there is likely a lot that's being left out.)

Engaging Employees

Drudge workers perform tasks in order to achieve a reward - they will comply and do as they are told, but will not have a sense of purpose and will not be engaged and motivated to perform. (EN: This was very much desirable by older schools of leadership, in which workers were supposed to follow orders without thinking.)

In the present day, companies seek to create a working environment in which all employees contribute in a meaningful way to the outcome and accept a personal stake achieving the mission of the organization. Creating this sort of culture takes a different brand of leader, who inspires and motivates rather than giving orders and punishments.

Unfortunately, the transition to the new culture has not made much progress in many organizations - and most are entirely schizophrenic, demanding that employees follow orders mindlessly while expecting them to feel personally engaged. There is still among leaders a certain narcissism and a desire for autocracy, and gratification in exercising power and control rather than coordination.

In the modern sense, a leader is only effective if others are willing to follow - and they will only do so if they feel that they are being lead in the right direction - one that is both effective at accomplishing the goal and amenable to their personal values and interests.

The Role of Trust

Trust is critical to effective leadership. Employees may obey the commands of a leader who has not earned their trust, but will show little enthusiasm or motivation. The leader can earn trust by his actions, but it is ultimate the decision of each employee to place trust in a leader.

One leadership theorist (Robbins 2005) considers trust in five core dimensions:

Random fact: trust in one's manager is highly correlated to job performance and employee satisfaction.

Trust is a critical factor in a leader's ability to get things done in an organization. A leader who earns trust can set a direction and count on his employees to work in a self-directed manner; one who fails to earn trust must constantly attend to directing employees' activities, and the amount of attention he must pay to micromanaging each person limits the number of people he can supervise, hence the breadth of his capability.

The author provides a magazine quiz of factors that contribute to trust - which are all based on how you are perceived by those whom you attempt to lead. Some highlights:

Transactional and Transformations Methods

Again, there are many theories of leadership, and one way to sort through them is to decide which form of leadership is effective in a given situation.

For example, an individual who does not have the knowledge to do a task needs more than encouragement to be successful - he needs you to teach him. Meanwhile an employee who has the knowledge does not need you to teach him, as that would be disrespectful and offensive.

One model for sorting out leadership considers the situation in which leadership is given: whether the focus of leadership is to complete a task, build a relationship, or effect a transformation.

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership considers the behavior of the leader and the behavior of a follower to occur in exchanges - if you do this, I will do that. In its most basic sense, there are positive exchanges (if you do what I want you will be rewarded) and negative ones (if you fail to do what I want you will be punished) - along with a neutral middle ground (if you are doing neither good not bad I will leave you alone).

The transactional model derives from primitive traditions in management, the notions of power and control, in that the "leader" has the power to reward or punish employees, whose only choice is to comply (and be rewarded) or refuse (and be punished) and they have no input otherwise. The goal of transactional leadership is to make employees do the bidding of their supervisor, and nothing more.

And to its credit, transactional leadership is often effective in getting obedience, and highly effective in getting nothing more: and therein lies the problem. The employees do not understand what they are doing, do not feel engaged or personally invested in the outcome, and are satisfied to simply follow orders even when they perceive a more efficient or effective method of accomplishing a goal. Should things go wrong, they are unconcerned - they are following their orders, and the outcome is not their responsibility.

The author also mentions that transactional leadership minimizes the amount of time a manager has to spend with his people. So long as they understand what he wants of them, he can sit back and manage by exception, stepping in only when something appears to be going wrong. As a result, the majority of contact between manager and employee occurs when the manager is providing negative feedback.

Even so, transactions are necessary in the workplace. The fundamental relationship between employee and employer is an exchange of obedience for wages - but it should not be the only basis for manager-worker relationships, nor should it be taken to the extreme in which employees have no latitude or input.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership, as the name implies, is about effecting change in the behavior of employees that will achieve an improvement in the performance of the individual and the organization. It is generally not focused on the task at hand, but the achievement of more long-term goals.

Some random bits about transformational leadership follow:

In essence, a transformational leader is focused on improving the condition of the organization, which by necessity includes improving the condition of the workforce.

(EN: The one drawback of the transformational model is that it seems to expect that anything can be done by an act of sheer will, and such managers often abdicate their responsibility to provide adequate support. Employees feel abandoned rather than empowered when they are told to figure out a way to do something without the necessary resources, or to learn something without being provided with education or training.)

Benefits of Transformational Leadership

The benefits of transformational leadership go beyond accomplishment of the immediate goal - to creating a stronger organization. The skills that an employee develops in accomplishing the immediate goal are then available to be applied to later tasks, as are the skills that all employees involved in working with others collaboratively.

The net result of transformational leadership is the creation of a "learning organization" - one that not only accomplishes the tasks it presently does, but has the ability to learn, adapt, and evolve to accommodate new tasks as well as overcoming obstacles.

This seems more valuable in the present environment than a firm that does its present business well, but cannot cope with change or persevere in the face of difficulties.

Integrating Transactional and Transformational Leadership

Managers are not face with a choice of whether to provide transactional or transformational leadership - they will have to become competent at both so that they can apply the appropriate methodology in a given situation.

The fundamental difference is that transactional leadership is more effective for the short term, leading employees to follow established procedures to achieve predictable outcomes in the known and controlled conditions of the here-and-now, whereas transformational is more effective for the long term, leading employees to discover what must be done to achieve a goal or state that is new to the organization and the procedures are not well know and cannot be accurately predicted.

The author makes an oblique reference to Maslow: transactional leadership is appropriate to the lower orders of needs, maintaining the present state and providing for its continuity, whereas transactional is appropriate for the higher orders of needs, changing from the present state to a more desirable future state and coping with discontinuity.

Becoming A Better Leader

Two common traits of highly effective leaders are that they know themselves and can identify ways in which they can improve.

Unfortunately, leadership positions have traditionally been attractive to narcissistic individuals who lack self-awareness (they are not honest about their own shortcomings) and who feel no need for improvement (because they are already perfect). In essence, they lack the humility to be or become good leaders.

To "know yourself" is an imperative of many schools of philosophy, and it is generally agreed that it is a lifelong journey that requires being truly honest with yourself and making accurate assessments. To improve is to acknowledge one's present state of imperfection and to identify a better model, often without much guidance or certainty. Both are very difficult tasks.

Knowing Yourself

Truly knowing yourself requires objectivity: to be as observant of your own thoughts, words, and actions as you might be of another person, and to filter out your posturing and your ego to accept the truth, such as it is.

(EN: The authors offer up another magazine-style quiz, which is truly awful, then depart the topic. My sense is that there are much better tools for self-assessment, but a common problem is that it merely gathers information about the way a person feels about himself, which is highly subjective.)

Leadership Development

The authors list a few tools that are available for a person who wishes to develop their leadership ability:

(EN: My sense is that this is a good list of tools - but the problem is selecting tools wisely. The selection must be predicated on the formation of a theory of leadership, and the identification of opportunities that will address specific skills in a specific manner that is aligned. Of course, reading a bad book or taking a bad course can be helpful in identifying poor leadership behaviors, but that is generally less worthwhile.)

Linking Leadership to Learning Organizations

Traditional modes of command-and-control leadership that focused on the accomplishments of known tasks within exacting standards were appropriate to a period in history in which there was a great deal of stability and little need for change: one could rely upon achieving the same outcomes if the same things were done this time as last. However, this does not describe the present period in history.

Organizations must cope with a great deal of complexity and a constant need for change - those that specialize in repetition of the same tasks in the same ways are not competitive, and ultimately not viable. This is the value of shifting from traditional methods of management to transformational management.

The modern manager is not a supervisor who ensures conformity, but a facilitator who builds an organization that can adapt and change. A leader perceives the need to make an adaptation, but relies upon followers to decide how the organization must change to achieve this vision, and then to take action to implement those changes.

There are also two basic forms of learning: one form of learning involves rote memorization. Some learning involves memorization and repetition - learning facts and procedures and being able to recite or perform them exactly as they were taught. Other learning involves the development of intellect and skills, learning basic theories and being able to apply them in various situations that arise. Clearly, the latter form of learning is of greater value in the present day.

The employee who merely memorizes and follows established procedures may still be necessary - but the one that analyzes situations and adapts to achieve an outcome is of greater long-term value. Even the workers who perform repetitive tasks cannot count on doing the same tasks, the same way, throughout their careers - they must constantly adapt and learn new ways of working. Both are only possible inside of a learning organization.

JIM.SHAMLIN.COM
DISCLAIMERS · CONTACT