YOUR PEOPLE NEED A COMMON UNDERSTANDING OF THE TERMS LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Effective communication requires a common vocabulary
Remember the original cardboard 3-D glasses, the ones with a red and a blue lens? If you looked through the left lens, you’d see the movie surrounded by red squiggly lines. The right lens produced blue lines around the same image. When you looked through both lenses, the movie seemed to jump off the screen at you. Management and leadership are inseparable, but for understanding and skill development, it helps to consider them one at a time.
by LSI publisher Art McNeil
Differentiating leadership and management during problem solving often triggers solutions not evident when considering situations as a whole. The fast pace of business demands effective communication. A shared understanding of the words, leadership and management is a solid place to start.
Leadership:
Definition:
The term to lead implies inspiring yourself and others to move towards a new place or different way of being. This is accomplished by people at all levels working at, and recognizing each other for, activities that align with the company’s cultural values, reason for being statement, and vision of the preferred future.
Benefits of disciplined leadership:
Shapes and maintains a high performance culture.
Generates and harnesses corporate energy.
Brands the company inside and out.
Eliminates conflict by aligning people to contribute in ways that maximizes the customer’s total experience.
Fosters innovation, will to win, and a desire to belong.
Provides an emotional anchor in a sea of change.
Creates an ethics platform that helps weed out marginal performance.
The leadership equation:
(excerpt from The “I” of the Hurricane: How to Generate and Focus Corporate Energy)
Gaining commitment from executives to do something more than engage in philosophical debate about Inspirational-leadership and the generation of corporate energy challenged us to put the concept into terms that even the most rational person would be capable of following. Hopefully, it will motivate you to put the Baton Management System’s leadership discipline into action.
L = (CV +V)SS X ALR
C
“This is the most workable model of organizational transformation and the achievement of excellence that I have seen.” Dr. Ronald Lippitt, professor emeritus, University of Michigan
Inspirational-leadership (L) generates energy because of being aware of underlying Cultural-values (CV) that the leader and a critical mass of potential followers believe in, plus having a mental picture or vision (V) of a place to go or a new way of being. CV and V are multiplied by the use of signaling skills (SS) to send consistent signals through day-to-day behavior in a manner that models the leader’s personal commitment to the organization’s vision and Cultural-values. Effective leaders accept that challenge (C) is a corporate asset and the legitimate responsibility of followers. When challenge is met with appropriate leader response (ALR), appropriate meaning getting the job done but in a way that further reinforces vision and Cultural-values. What would have been resistance energy is transferred to task. The process of signaling skills (SS) and altering the balance between challenge (C) and appropriate leader response (ALR) in support of Cultural-values (CV) and vision (V) is the essence of leadership.
Management:
Definition:
Management is about establishing a value chain that helps in the planning and orchestrating of positions to collaborate effectively. The objective is to maximize profits through strategic thinking, increased production, reducing cost, and improving quality. This is accomplished by embracing a zero tolerance attitude towards substandard performance, cultural values violations, and process non-compliance. Managers are asked to subordinate the use of personal authority to a company-wide process autocracy. Process sets the direction—managers monitor performance, coach, conduct performance correction sessions with direct reports, and demand the involvement of everybody in continuous improvement.
Benefits of disciplined management:
Promotes a company-wide perspective and discourages the development of personal and departmental silos.
Integrates strategic planning and budgeting with day to day realities.
Holds everybody accountable for the achievement of personal and corporate goals.
Establishes performance standards, meaningful measures, and equitable consequence.
Gets people at all levels involved in the removal of waste and rework.
Empowers front line employees to be the customers’ primary advocate.
Defines and makes everybody aware of the differentiated roles of executives, managers, supervisors, and workers.
Demands timely and effective responses to performance issues.
The Management equation:
(DO) = f (S + P+ M) MC x AA
C
(DO). Desired outcome is equal to the function of (S) strategy, plus (P) process, plus (M) measure, multiplied by the application of (MC) meaningful consequence. When (C) challenges impede production of the (DO) desired outcome, (AA) appropriate adjustments must be initiated. The ongoing alignment of strategy, process, measures, and meaningful consequence, plus making (AA) appropriate adjustments to meet (C) unforeseen challenges, is the essence of management.
This post sponsored by the Baton Management System