Section Two: Leadership in Management
The effective manager is a leader.
There are dominant types of leadership:
but the styles are not mutually exclusive, and because one characteristic is not there does not mean the person is not a very effective leader. Often one sees all or most of the types fused in different mixes in different leaders.
And sometimes we must remember Lord Acton: "All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
A leader has a very positive personality, has the necessary knowledge to do the job well, the drive to make things happen, has creativity, operates with style, and is effective in getting things done through people.
Honesty, industry, imagination, taste, common-sense, loyalty, and compassion are essential personality characteristics of a leader.
Would you knowingly hire anyone to lead who was dishonest, lazy, lacked imagination, had no taste, or common sense, was disloyal, and hated people? Of course not, those are the characteristics of a very negative personality.
2.2. Knowledge - where leadership is strongly influenced by personal action
2.2.1. Learning Skills
Rudyard Kipling:
" I keep six honest men,
they taught me all I know,
their names are what and why and when,
and how and where and who."
We learn every day. We need the knowledge of what to learn, why to learn, when to learn, how to learn, where to learn, and who to learn from. Learning skills are the first essential for knowledge.
2.2.2. Analytical Skills
Whatever the activity we need analytical skills. From basic mathematics to advanced statistics. From logic to lateral thinking.
2.2.3. Professional Skills
The leader in management needs professional skills:
accountancy, finance, law, economics, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, administration, information technology, design, electronics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, merchandising, purchasing, distribution, retailing, construction, transportation, metallurgy, chemical engineering, and so the list goes on.
The degree of knowledge required in a given subject is never ending in a changing world. For many, the majority of the time studying for an M.B.A. needs to be spent in improving essential professional skills, particularly in finance. While not denying the value of professional skills, the effective manager understands that the other subjects covered by this guide are vital for success, and make the difference.
2.2.4. Psychological Skills
I'm OK, you're OK. Dealing with people as individuals or as groups. Games people play. The leader has psychological understanding, and knows when to seek professional advice in this area. Stress, ego, ego ideal, are terms the leader understands. As with other knowledge it can be taught. But as the doctor takes second opinions, so the leader knows enough to know what he does not know.
2.2.5. Teaching Skills
Every manager has to be able to coach his people.
A effective manager has effective teaching skills. This has to be learnt. To assume that to be effective is only to teach oneself is to ignore one of the basics of management: getting results through people.
The leader gets results and develops his people.
The ultimate test of a successful chief executive officer is what happens when he departs. Results will not continue if he has chosen the wrong successor or failed to train him.
The leader makes himself dispensable.
2.2.6. Communication Skills
To communicate is part of teaching. As with all other knowledge it can be learnt.
The leader has to do more than teach. He has to persuade; he has to encourage; he has to initiate change; he has to communicate horizontally, upward, and downward; he has to communicate inside his organisation, and outside his organisation.
He has to be a public speaker, a good writer, use video and film, and interview well.
He has to understand the advantages of silence and the advantages of initiative in communications. He has to understand the media which best serves the need for communications at hand.
The leader, our really effective manager, will often find himself on his own.
All good ideas elicit three responses in the course of time.
The leader has the drive to make things happen:
faith, courage, tenacity, willpower, initiative and a bit of unreasonableness
George Bernard Shaw:
A pessimist is the victim of the environment he lives in
An optimist tries to change the environment he lives in
A reasonable person puts up with the environment
An unreasonable person tries to change the environment
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable person
Fun is central to humour;
Humour is central to lateral thinking;
Lateral thinking is central to vision;
Vision is central to change;
Change is central to leadership
and - if you change things before anyone else - that is creativity.
Leadership is about managing change.
The effective manager understands this aspect of leadership extremely well.
The leader gives everyone who works a real sense of purpose in life from their chosen occupation.
The effective manager, our leader, is open, can be talked to, will listen, and of course will learn. He is a participative manager and understands the limitations of carrot and stick.
The leader understands the importance of self-sufficiency, abstract thinking, and ambiguity.
Self-sufficiency within two boundaries:
to accept advice freely given, and to seek advice when needed.
Abstract thinking:
to hypothesise;
to look at different scenarios;
to relate the seemingly unrelated to the problem at hand.
Ambiguity:
understanding that life is ambiguous,
that management has to deal with ambiguity daily, hourly, and by the minute.
Many managers only feel comfortable with black and white
(there has to be one answer only),
but the really effective manager is comfortable with Ambiguity.
This is the end of Section Two: Leadership in Management
Go to Section Three: Strategic Management