Leadership – Leading to self-responsibility

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Leadership – Leading to self-responsibility

Welcome to our new series dealing with leadership. We will follow up the question how managers can act on their own responsibility and lead other managers to self-responsibility.

1. Introduction Due to financial crisis consistent crisis management“ is more than omnipresent. Managers, frigthened to be put down as a loser, are challenged to change the alarming situation. The crisis shows that most of the times success does not follow short-term actions. In fact, it becomes clear, who did homework and developed an own leadership cultures, based on self-responsibility and commitment. When coaching managers the coach is confronted with two dif-ferent mentalities. Some of the managers report on the perma-nent pressure. They complain about the things that do not work in their organisation and about failures of the upper man-agement. They assess their employees to be reluctant and uninspired. The other managers spontaneously start reporting on their targets: The things, they would like to tackle immediately and they describe where they would like to have their team in one year. They do not describe thier situation positively, how-ever, they accept their areas of development and they want to challenge these targets. They are convinced that their team they themselves have the power to achieve the targets. Even in today’s economic situation,

where many of the primarily set targets have been postponed, the managers keep their strat-egy and define new targets. They want to benefit from the crisis. There are two different person-ality concepts that describe how these managers lead them-selves and define their roles. Some managers administrate their area of responsibility and implement the strategy. They control the commitment of the employees and report to the up-per management. The others regard their area of responsibil-ity as an area of creativity. They search for ways to optimise things and encourage their em-ployees. The serach consis-tently for solutions, however, they are open-minded to discuss different options for action. Their concept is leadership. 2. The leadership concept Due to common use of angli-cisms we used to take the term “Leadership” for any kind of per-sonnel leadership. Here we would like to discuss this and present leadership as a man-agement style, that make high demands on management de-velopment. It is characterised by an optimistic idea of man and a value-oriented attitude that

characterise the attitudes, ways of behaviour and the way of communication of the respective manager. It is a style that is primarily de-manding for the managers: the managers have to confront themselves with responsible self-management Do I use my own skills? Do I see the things that I want to achieve? Do I know, where I want to go, with-out being dogmatic? Do I per-ceive the priorities of action? Do I act consistantly and do I follow up things? Do I scrutinise the way and the things achieved? Do I orient my actions on ethnic guiding principles? This also characterises the way of working with the employees. The manager abandons to a large extent his right to influence directly the behaviour of the employees by means of instruc-tions. Their actions aim instead at influencing the attitudes and awarenesses of their employ-ees. In order to achieve their goals the employees get free-dom of action and freedom of decision. They are challenged and supported at the same time. It is a form of leadership that purposes self-management. The employees do feel this devel-opment. 2.1 Effects of leadership If you ask around in a company you will always have some de-

Helmut Meyer Senior Consultant

MACHWÜRTH TEAM

International




Leadership is effective by means of…

Commitment

Performance

1. authentic communication

2. trust and respect

3. motivating pulling effect

4. demandingchallenges

5. individual appreciation

6. the pursuit of success

partments, where the employ-ees will say: Our boss is great. It is great fun to work with him/her. It is obvious that the respective leader managed to win the trust and respect. The basis for this is an authen-tic communication. The man-ager says what he thinks and does what he says. He listens to his employees and is open-minded for different opinions. However, he forces and focuses the common decision making process. For the manager it is not his/her task to motivate his/her employ-ees. The manager believes that the employees motivate them-selves if the visions and targets, that should be achieved in his/her area of responsibility and forecasted future situation of the

manager will create a motivat-ing pulling effect. The man-ager uses symbols to describe his/her objectives and encour-ages their employees to be creative and act in an innovative way. The manager demands a great deal of himself/herself and his/her employees. He/She cre-ates an area of creativity that challenges the employee to act. The employees get the feeling that their work in worthy and that the company depends on their performance, their ideas and their potentials. These are de-manding challenges, that reach sometimes the limits of the employees. Every employee has the feeling that the managers knows him/her personally and that the manager respects him/her. The manager knows the differences

of his/her employees, he/she appreciates the personal strengths and the individual characteristics of each person. They do not wish a “perfectly working” employee, but an em-ployee that acts in a self-responsible way. This individ-ual appreciation leads employ-ees to build up own potentials self-confidence. The whole team looks for suc-cess. The team will develop ambition and will wait for chal-lenges. Failures are discussed openly and without finger-pointing. This leads to consis-tent reactions. Successes are celebrated, but they do not lead to illusions. The whole area of responsibility is checked and developed regularly with regards to effectiveness and efficiency.




The situation: The managing director of a warehousing store asked the sales department manager and the central man-ager of the purchase depart-ment for a special segment of goods to come around in his of-fice, because a conflict has de-veloped between these two managers. Both are not able to solve the conflict on their own. Conflicts between the sales manager and the manager of the purchase department are not unusual : The purchasing agent wants his goods to be presented in a very outstanding way, the sales person minds the revenues per area; the sales person cannot get enough of “running” while the purchasing agent has to keep in mind the whole range of goods. When business do not flow, the pur-chasing agent has purchased the wrong goods or the goods have been presented very badly. Normally, the conflicts in other product divisions can be solved easily, these two manag-ers find it difficult. The management behaviour: The managing director is trained to solve conflicts. He listens to both sides and works consis-tently to solve the situation. He calls on the willingness to com-promise of both managers. Fi-nally he will be successful. However, the manager do not look amused but they agree on Leadership has proven to be essential especially in times of crises and change. Short-spanned change cycles, conflict-ing targets, not easily compre-

the solutions of the managing di-rector. The managing director will be satisfied and convinced of his approach as the problem has been solved. The comment: The managing director has solved the work-related problem, but not the leadership problem. While the sales managers and the pur-chase managers of other prod-uct can solve their conflicts on their own, in this particular case, the project managers has to be involved and solve the conflict. The solution of their problems is rooted in the responsibility of the respective manager. By solving the problem on this own, the managing director takes the re-sponsibility instead of supporting their responsibility. Now there is the danger that their conflicts will always escalate and the managing director will take care of it. That way they will not learn to solve their conflicts on their own. The managing director failed to address the managers that he expected that they would sort out their conflicts on their own. This meeting will of course be more hard and more per-sonal for the managers, but it will challenge their responsibility in managenent. It would be the task of the managing director to discuss just this topic. Escaping into the factial level seems to be easier and has apparently the advantage that the problem is solved. The problem in mana-gement, however, remains. hensible technical and economi-cal processes, dissolution of traditional orientation patterns and upheaval can only be mas-tered when at all levels of re-

sponsibility a trust in the innate potential, courage to take on calculated risks and the deter-mination to act resolutely are given. The high external pressure in the business environment leads to greater inner insecurity and the feeling of loss of control. The leader’s task is then to streng-then the self-concept and the performance potential of their team by making sure that: the team members deal with

future perspectives in a con-structive way and work out a form of orientation by them-selves.

every individual takes on re-sponsibility for his or her own role in the process

stable trust-relationships are built up that endure emo-tional turmoil

potential snd competencies of the team members will be improved and developed continually.

Leading has always been about handling difficult situations. This is why all leaders are looking for orientation and support. Yet the concept of leadership implies that every leader will have, to a large degree, to provide a pur-pose, orientation and means to get a hold of the situation, as well as support by themselves. This requires certain leadership qualities. 3. A requirement profile for leadership Summarizing today’s require-ments on leadership positions, there are 7 attributes that emerge as prerequisites of suc-cessful leadership behavior.

2.2. Importance for leadership in daily work Case study: Conflict facilitation in a warehousing store




responsibility and ow-nership Setting oneself challenging goals, realizing business objectives in a sustainable way, setting priorities, communicating clearly and consistently, finding solu-tions and implementing them, defining realities, acting vigorously and with discipline.

Self-orientation Being aware of oneself; occupying and holding one’s ground; taking up a position even for sensitive or unpopular topics; deal-ing with the new and the unknown confidently, broad and flexible spec-trum of behavior according to differentiated situations, clearly defined personal set of values

Entrepreneurial spirit Develop and advance business, success drive, sensitivity to market sig-nals and early-on percep-tion of business opportuni-ties, seeing and designing products, processes and behavior from the point of view of the customer; abil-ity and courage to strike new paths if necessary, consistent enforcement and control of high-level quality

Ability to provide pur-pose and to prompt cer-tain behavior Providing purpose and achieving understanding; communicating in an au-thentic and credible way; mobilizing energy and strong work performance;

encouraging others; sens-ing powers at play within the organization and rec-ognizing the key leverage points for success,; clear accountability and trans-parent task structure to enable other’s success.

Successful relationship management Convincing and confident manner; proactive en-gagement of others; ability to establish relationships based on partnership and cooperation and to facili-tate the interfaces, ability to build and maintain net-works and to deal with people of different back-ground and heterogene-ous; ability to move about within the social framework of the organization and in the environment construc-tively and effectively.

Emotional stability Trust in one’s own abilities and strengths; staying calm and reliable under pressure and stress; un-derstanding one’s own and others feelings and know-ing how to deal with them; high frustration tolerance, ability to deal with disap-pointments and staying ready to act at the same time; displaying appropri-ate and target-orientet con-flict resolution behavior.

Eagerness to learn and develop Learning from experience and with it broadening the range of response; taking on challenging situations and grasping the opportu-nities that come with them;

collecting and utilizing feedback of one’s own ef-fect on others, taking a long-term perspective and acting accordingly. Devel-oping pioneer spirit; Nour-ishing talents and the de-velopment of team mem-bers through tolerance for mistakes; supporting in dif-ficult situations (coaching), but acting resolutely on lacking willingness to per-form.

Today’s leadership challenge consists of continuously work-ing on these leadership quali-ties.

Instruction for self-reflexion for managers You can reflect your potential in leadership using the following exercises. It is recommended to share the results with a trust-worthy person (e.g. colleague).

Read the description of the seven competencies of the ‘re-quirement profile for leader-ship” carefully. All the seven characteristics describe impor-tant leadership qualities, but a a person can’t fulfill all of them. Reflect about your leadership style. Try to be realistic and not thinking about how you’d like to be. Work out a ranking after-wards and place the compe-tence you fulfill the most in the first place. Fill in the ranking step by step and place the quality with the most potential on the last place. Look at the ranking again and ask yourself the question: Is the ranking correct? What are the reasons for each ranking? When you are sure that you got it right ask yourself the following ques-tions:




Fill in your individual ranking. Ranking Competence 1. Rank

2. Rank

3. Rank

4. Rank

5. Rank

6. Rank

7. Rank

1. Which leadership qualities

did I rank first and second? Why do I see these quali-ties as my strengths? Do I have examples to prove it? When can I show/use these strengths? What do I have to do to maintain these strengths?

2. Which leadership qualities

did I rank last and second last? Why couldn’t I show these qualities as strongly as I desired? What are the difficulties I’m facing? What are the obstacles? What can I do to overcome them and to improve these ar-eas? Who or what could support me?

3. What is my next goal?

What are the next steps I have to go?

If you share your experiences with a person you trust:

a. Describe and explain the

particular qualities using examples. Encourage your colleague to ask questions and ask him also for his feedback in terms of how he sees your leadership competencies. Listen care-fully.

b. Explain your colleague the

reasons why you are facing difficulties with last rank-ings. Describe in details what the difficulties / obsta-cles are. Ask him/her about his impression. Listen care-fully also to negative or dif-ficult feedback. Describe how you usually manage difficulties and ask for his/her feedback resp. how he/she manages similar situations. MTI

The next newsletter will deal with the ques-tion of how the re-quirements for manag-ers have changed and developed in the last years. We will clarify how to control the employees without absolving them of their individ-ual responsibility.

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Leadership – Leading to self-responsibility