Leadership – The Instrument is You
“Quality is never about things. It’s always about people. The same is true for leadership.”
When a leader’s personality presents a problem for his team, who is going to tell him that he, or she, is the problem? Without this knowledge it’s almost impossible for him to know how he is perceived. So behaviors stay the same and interfere with productivity, quality and profit. Where and how does he begin to change?
Rudy Giuliani, Jack Welch and other well known leaders spoke at a World Conference on Business Leadership, September 2005. They emphasized the need for soft skills which by the way are harder to learn. “When a leader’s personality is such that he has no personal connection with his people, nothing happens. Egos run the place. Quality, productivity, creativity and profit are at risk.” Their recommendation, “Clean it up or get rid of the leader!”
The leader’s personality and how he connects with his people is the single most important factor for company growth. When he recognizes how his own behavior can limit human potential, he can change it. However, when he does what he thinks is right and people are unwilling to tell him that his behavior interferes with their productivity, his hands are tied. He can not know how he is perceived. And who in their right mind is going to tell their boss directly that he is the problem? The risk is huge – on both sides.
When a leader values his people and learns to create two-way dialogue so he can really connect with them, a collective mindset is born. Knowing they’re valued and their personal best is appreciated, employees give more. Energy, motivation, and commitment to the work and the work place increase. Confidence, competence and self-esteem increase. Enthusiasm is palpable. Power to build the company’s future expands. Efficiency and productivity increase, saving the company plenty in time and money. Without exception, when the leader interacts at a personal level, people throughout the organization make things happen. Everyone benefits.
The belief that “If I hire a leader with great credentials, he or she will be great with people” is simply not true. Yet, in an effort to succeed, companies choose leaders with great technical skills assuming these specialists can develop teams and manage people well. By placing greater value on technology than on people the company inadvertently endorses decisions and behaviors that undermine human potential. The examples below indicate how well meaning leaders unintentionally increase resentment and fear which in turn contributes to waste in various ways.
- We create business plans in the absence of direct input and buy-in among those who must do the work. Implementation is then slower and therefore costly” COO Hi-tech.Conversely when people are invited to speak honestly in the presence of their leaders and peers, they begin to commit. Positive changes happen.
- “We focus on analysis and technology. Preoccupied with perfection we leave no room for failure and no room for learning or growth. We limit organizational potential this way.”
Plant Manager, Automotive Manufacturer
3M has an admirable history of celebrating ‘mistakes’ so that mistakes become learning. Opportunities abound. New products are born. Profit increases. This requires constant attention to new thinking and behavior among leaders and their teams.
- We use talent poorly by putting square pegs in round holes, ignoring their real talent then label them ‘failures’. Other highly skilled professionals must pick up the slack. Similarly, we hire ‘shining stars’ and leave them on their own to integrate into a system that hardly knows them. Sensing themselves as failures their brilliance fades. In each case they stop trying and start looking elsewhere for work. Highly skilled and expensive talent is lost if only in commitment and effort. The cost of replacement is huge.Conversely, when we work with our talent, really listen to them, use their strengths and spend time integrating their talent with people and projects, everyone wins. As with technology it takes up-front time to maximize human talent. Soft skills are required – often they are more difficult to learn. When learned the payoff is huge.
- Our mindset is such that Presidents, owners, VP’s, managers and others in leadership roles focus on what’s not working, what’s not good enough and what could have been done better. People throughout the company begin to doubt themselves and hesitate to act on their own knowledge and expertise. Accountability becomes a costly problem..When a leader praises even the tiniest of achievement on a regular basis, confidence, pride personal ownership follows. Commitment grows as do dedication and hard work on the part of that employee (may be a manager). Quality improves. So does profit.
- “We make major decisions based on short term profit, limited vision and shareholder needs all the while failing to develop strong interpersonal competencies and connections. Learning to work together is where we can really profit – in commitment and dollars.”
When a leader truly cares for his people and lets them know this, individuals and teams consistently work harder. They produce outstanding results.
Each of these practices if left untouched adds an expense to an organization. Combined, costs skyrocket. Everything happens in a company through people. Like plasma, people give the company life. Fear minimizes a person’s potential thus decreasing profit. What company can afford this? Can you? How would your shareholders or venture capitalists respond if they knew?
The place to start is inside you – It takes courage to look within and even more to ask for feedback. While a 360 feedback process is a good start it’s insufficient on its own. A facilitated leadership journey where managers engage in direct dialogue with those who offer honest feedback is a powerful second step. Fear falls away as they talk openly and honestly with their leader. Relationships improve. Synergy expands. Profit increases. It’s simple but it’s definitely not easy.
Companies with profit as the “end in mind” are successful when “first things first” begins with their people. If you believe you are really on track, talk with executives and managers. Have them take up the challenge and ask for anonymous feedback! Act on the feedback! Use a facilitator to bring these folks together and ask them in the presence of each other what specific comments ‘might have meant’. Be quite and listen! Notice how managers interact with each other and with their people! Find out how teams view their leaders and how your leader’s personality really impacts the culture! It takes courage to grow. The benefits are huge – so are the profits. Like Nike, ‘just do it’.
——-
Janice Calnan of CALNAN GROUP, Ottawa Ontario, Canada, executive coach, author, specialist in organizational change. Her book SHIFT: Secrets of Positive Change for Organizations and Their Leaders can be obtained through www.janicecalnan.com . Reach Janice at (613) 721-5900 or info@janicecalnan.com .
Comments are closed.