The Challenge of Leadership

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Jeri Mersky, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

It is Debra’s weekly staff meeting and the usual participants are in the room—her top financial, estimating, project, HR and IT leaders. Today, she plans for the meeting to take a different focus. She begins, “As I mentioned in the Agenda I sent you, I have a question and I’d like your opinions. I’d like your feedback about how I’m doing as head of this organization. What do you see as my strengths? Where can I improve? Here are some of the specific areas I’d like you to evaluate me….”

If this sounds like an unusual meeting opener, it is. Asking for feedback is still rare—especially in person. Moreover, even anonymous questionnaires or feedback tools are used all-too-infrequently in most companies. But, such conversations need not be so infrequent nor so intimidating. If a company begins to safely open-up dialogue among its leaders, and among leaders and members, such feedback will eventually become more acceptable. And with feedback and an open climate of communication, businesses create a powerful culture—and even more powerful results. It is in these organizations that we usually find exceptionally motivated and high performing employees serving exceptionally satisfied and admiring customers.

The high performing organizations which consistently meet or exceed their financial, process and people goals always rest on a strong foundation. Unlike the pyramid structures showing many people at the bottom and the few leaders at the top, the best organizations are often upside down pyramids—or even circular. The leadership is the foundation. They form the rock on which infrastructure is created. Ultimately, the most effective leaders know that success is built upon values and effective efforts to guide and motivate others—not by having power over them, but by powerfully working with and through them to accomplish the mission of the company.

To become a leader who works seamlessly with and through others might be considered a four-part recipe—with significant room for personal experimentation. Start with gaining conceptual knowledge, sprinkle in art and intuition, seek a segment of science, and then add lots of practice. These four parts have to be inter-mingled as there’s not a linear program for learning to lead.

Leadership is not about how many people report to you, the position you hold in the business or any other structural artifact. Leadership can be manifested through taking charge of your own life, running a large company, or supervising a team of three carpenters. Fundamentally, leaders do things differently because they have reflected on where they (and their team) needs to go and how to get there. Effective leaders apply knowledge, intuition, science and practice to their situation in order to confidently and competently fulfill their leadership responsibilities.

Some Helpful Leadership Concepts

Reviewing several key concepts will help make the somewhat ambiguous concept of leadership a little clearer. What’s most important is that each leader act on what she learns. In order to see for oneself what works and how to personally become the leader you intend to be, is a process of experimentation.

Leaders vs. Managers

First, it’s important to point out that leaders and managers are not the same thing. Warren Bennis, a leadership scholar, sums up the differences in this way:
“Managers do things right; Leaders do the right things.”
That simple phrase implies quite a lot.
Managers must be focused on the day to day realities of their organizations: Operations, tactics, coordination, scheduling, and so on. It’s important to get these things right so that the person, team, unit or organization runs smoothly, efficiently, and meets expectations.

Leaders, on the other hand, must be focused on today and tomorrow. They must continually assess what needs to be done to prepare their team or organization to meet challenges that have already emerged, as well as problems and opportunities that may yet emerge. Like managers, leaders have to face current realities; they also think about and interpret how these realities may change. That’s why another truism for leaders is that they “Manage Change.” Leaders who remain aware of the key factors outside and inside their organizations, manage to stay on the edge, in front of their competition, and managing change most effectively.

A leader can easily be a manager, but too often managers do not behave as leaders. Bennis often asserts that most organizations are “over-managed and under-led.”

If a leader is concerned with doing the “right things,” how does she know what that might be? And what tools or instruments will enable her to achieve the results that she thinks are the right ones to achieve? Skilled tradeswomen use hammers, levels, welding torches and computers to help them build a structure. What are a leaders’ tools and can she put them into service in choosing the right direction?

It’s perhaps both a blessing and a curse that the most important tool in being a skilled leader is oneself. That is to say, the person herself is the instrument and must be sharpened, calibrated, and honed to lead well. She must use her depth of knowledge, voice, values, and temperament to cause others to willingly follow her. Kouzes and Posner suggest that the most important element in effective leadership is Credibility—not one’s ability to create spreadsheets or an elegant CAD-based design. Credibilty is generated from several key elements that contribute to the SELF that you present as a leader;

—Including:

• Are you Honest and trustworthy?

(You may be able to command people who do not trust you…You can only influence those people who do trust you. Do you think followers respond better to commands or influence?)

• Are you Inspiring?

**Are you Competent?

(Have you learned enough about the technicalities of your role that you show good judgment and a record of high performance? Do people rely on your judgment?)

**Are you Forward-Looking? …This quality most distinquishes leaders from other people who are also credible!

(Do you deal with putting out fires and managing the day-to-day or do you strive to create an organization which will have far fewer fires?)

Credibility is a core attribute that will ultimately define an effective leader from one who is not effective—it is a core aspect of her “being.” It’s also necessary, of course, for a leader to act. She has to “do” as well as “be.” The key competencies for doing well as a leader incorporate behaviors enhance one’s credibility and effectiveness.

What are these key competencies for effective leaders? We can use the vast research of Kouzes and Posner again to identfy five areas that consitute the starting point for conducting oneself as an effective and credible leader:

Model the Way

• Be clear about and articulate your values and beliefs
• Make certain that people know about and adhere to agreed-upon values (“our company listens to customers”)
• Be consistent in “walking the talk”

Inspire a Shared Vision

• Describe to others the kind of future you can create together
• Show others how their interests can be fulfilled by a common vision
• Clearly communicate a positive, optimistic and helpful outlook

“Since the function of leadership is to produce change, setting the direction of that change is fundamental to leadership.” from John Kotter, “What Leaders Really Do”

Challenge the Process

• Experiment and take risks, even though you might fail
• Ask “what can we learn?” when things don’t go as expected; don’t blame individuals
• Always look for ways to improve and innovate

Enable Others to Act

• Involve others in planning the action that affects them
• Give people the freedom to make their own decisions
• Create an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust

Encourage the Heart

• Praise people for a job well done
• Celebrate when project milestones are met
• Link rewards to achievements

What is a Team?

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

The Challenge of Leadership: The Leader’s Toolkit for Building Teams:

Much of what leaders do in creating strong teams is the same as what they will do in their five fundamental areas of expertise: Model the way, inspire a shared vision and so on.

Leaders also benefit from undertaking skill development in a few more specific areas.

1. Decide and act upon which people need to get on the team and who needs to get off. Hire and work hard to retain those people who match your team/company culture, and contribute to the its vision and goals. Remove people who hinder achievement or demonstrate a lack of interest in playing by the values and tenets of the company culture.

2. Complementarity will strengthen a team. We too often hire people exactly like us. Organizational culture match does not mean style, gender, or temperament homogeneity. Complementary skills and approaches will strengthen decision-making. Learn about temperament differences with an instrument like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. With a variety of approaches, however, more time may be needed to ensure communication is open, conflict is well-managed and all voices are heard. Taking this time is quite worthwhile, as a truly high performing team will result.

3. Team leaders clarify the performance goals of the team/unit/company with the team. They monitor progress towards goals and reward goal accomplishment (and take corrective action for goals not met).

4. Review not just WHAT the team will do but HOW it will do it. Clarify procedures, approaches, roles and responsibilities for collaboration and team action.

5. Create an environment of open communication, feedback, continuous learning, and mutual accountability. In a true team, members do not just feel accountable to the boss…they feel accountable to each other.

Leadership can be learned just like any other skill or profession. It takes attention, intention, and most importantly, tuning yourself to be the instrument of change that you expect within the team or organization. Effective leaders work to know themselves and clarify their values, so they model the way for others. They are “honest with themselves and humble with others.”** Effective leaders also know that their responsibility is more than getting things right—they have to keep one step ahead of the present problems in order to decide what’s right for themselves, their customers, their employees, and their organization’s success.

The Challenge of Leadership
SIDEBAR:
EXAMPLES OF VALUES

• Clear Communication

• Setting Goals and Standards Clearly

• Ethical Practices

• Diverse Work Force

• ON-Going Recognition

• Teamwork and Working together

• Experimentation and Risk

• Career growth and development

• Inspire others to keep an eye on the future (scan the environment)

• Asks for feedback..is open and non-defensive

Leadership Readings
Belasco, James & Stayer, Ralph. Flight of the Buffalo. Warner Books: New York, NY 1993.
Bennis, Warren & Goldsmith, Joan. Learning to Lead. Addison -Wesley: Reading, MA 1994.
Bradberry, Travis and Jean Greaves, The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book, Fireside Books, New York, NY, 2003
Calvert, James. High Wire Management. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA 1993.
Cooper, Robert and Ayman Sawaf, Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations, Perigee Books, New York, NY, 1996
Covey, Stephen. Principle-Centered Leadership. Simon & Schuster: New York, NY 1990.
Goleman, Daniel, Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books, New York, NY, 1998
Kanter, Rosabeth. Men and Women of the Corporation. Basic Books, Inc.: New York, NY 1977.
Kouzes, James & Posner, Barry. The Leadership Challenge. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA 2002.
Kouzes, James & Posner, Barry. Credibility. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA 1993.
Rees, Fran. How to Lead Work Teams. Pfeiffer & Company: San Diego, CA 1991.
Seldman, Martin. Performance Without Pressure. Walker & Company: New York, NY 1988.
Senge, Peter; Ross, Richard; Smith, Bryan; Roberts, Charolette, Kleiner, Art. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Bantam Doubleday: New York, NY 1994.
Whyte, David. The Heart Aroused. Bantam Doubleday: New York, NY 1994.
Williams, Patrick. “Making Leaders Out of Managers.” Northern California Executive Review. Fall 1987.
Teams
Katzenbach, Jon & Smith, Douglas. The Wisdom of Teams. Harvard Business School Press. 1993.
Wellins, Richard; Byham, William; & Bilson, Jeanne. Empowered Teams. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA 1991.
Zenger, John; Musselwhite, Ed; Hurson, Kathleen & Perrin, Craig. Leading Teams. Irwin: New York, NY 1994.