Topics—Leadership
The New World Leadership Style
The most feared competitor is a company where everybody is deeply engaged and committed. This takes special leadership.
In powerful companies people solve their own problems, wherever they are, and have the power and authority to create new processes, products and services. To achieve this extraordinary culture, leaders must pay attention to values, people, purpose, and processes. Two such leaders were mentioned in Fortune, September 1, 2003.
eBay’s Meg Whitman “sees herself a “Level 5 manager”, a reference to Management guru Jim Collin’s depiction of a humble, uncharismatic type who’s fiercely determined and gives lots of credit to subordinates.” (p.78).
John Mack of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) “is extremely focused on creating the right behavior and a strong sense of togetherness” (p. 102). He “cannot be distracted from his core principles which he says are ‘client focus, long-term perspective, teamwork, accountability, and integrity.’” (p. 104)
Cultural Leadership
Cultural leaders differ from traditional leaders. They have a clear focus on operations—the numbers, accountability and responsibility—balanced with attention to the human side. Here are some characteristics:
- They place people first as the main subject of work.
- They get to know their people, not just seeing them as a source of production (see The Cultural Interview).
- They focus on managing and controlling the process that leads to events, not on the events. They look at what led to the problem, rather than just look at the problem.
- They manage and control the decision process, not the decision (see Making Better Decisions).
- They push decision-making down to the people affected by the decision.
- They think about the effect of the decision on the whole system, rather than just on the immediate problem.
- They use problem situations to involve people. (Traditional organizations involve people to solve problems.)
- They work in groups, rather than working one-on-one.
- They use 360° feedback, evaluation and performance reviews, rather than being the lone evaluator.
- They listen and ask questions, rather than make statements or give answers. They coach rather than direct.
- They move their organization from:
- Abstract strategy, towards meaningful human purpose.
- Emphasis on authority and structure, to examining workflows and processes.
- Emphasizing systems, to emphasizing people.
The Leader's Role in The Group
Traditional leaders emphasize their structural or positional role, focused on power, control, and centralized decision-making. The new leader emphasizes his functional role in a group. He:
- Serves the group’s interests, regularly asking people, individually and in groups, “What can I do that would make things work better here for you?”
- Regularly updates the group with information about “the big picture” i.e. company plans and changes, customers, finances etc. This enables members to make better, more informed decisions.
- Helps the group clarify their vision, direction and purpose. This guides people’ daily actions and decisions, and helps the team move in a coordinated direction.
- Facilitates group or team decision-making. This reinforces teamwork and cooperation.
- Helps the group take on responsibility and self-leadership.
- Helps individuals meet their personal goals.
- Helps the group clarify their values, and how they will show these in what they do. Values might include such qualities as trust, openness, responsibility and teamwork.
- Helps the group and individuals be more involved in, and gain more control over, decisions that affect their work, so that they can be more responsible and accountable for their work.
- Helps the group coordinate the flow of information across organizational boundaries up and down and sideways.
- Helps group members become facilitators of the team’s process, while also attending to the content. Handing over the reigns like this can only be done in very mature groups.
Which Leader Do You Choose To Be?
As a leader, or prospective leader, ask yourself, “What kind of leaders do you want to be? What values and behavior do you want to demonstrate and encourage in your unit, department or company?”