Leading Organizations

By Larrywomack.com

 “ Leaders have a significant role in creating the state of mind that is  society.”

–John Gardner

 

If You Cannot See, You Cannot Lead

Leadership is something one assumes.  Management is assigned by others or by the system. Both are important to a successful enterprise and are not mutually exclusive.

There is a popular notion that suggests managers and leaders sit at opposite ends of a continuum, with leaders at the preferred end.  The manager is portrayed as the caterpillar, the leader as the more desirable butterfly.

During the past three decades business in general tilted towards a preference for “manager types” to serve as CEOs of companies.  In the seller’s market days, success was often achieved through manager behaviors like control, formality, conservation, and analysis.   Some popular business literature suggests that managing is no longer effective and must be discarded in favor of pure leadership.

In my book, Outcome Management, I defied this notion and postured that success in business requires a balance of both leadership and management.  The manager is the stone and the leader the fire.  Both elements are necessary to forge a successful business venture.

 

Leader/Manager Study

 Management is a transactional process – positive and negative reinforcement for performance.  Leadership is transformational – inspiring, stimulating, and collaborating towards a vision. 

An extensive study of management/leadership conducted in the late 80s by behavioral scientist Bernard Bass found that the negative reinforcement style of transactional management (often called the stick approach) usually reduced productivity over the long term.  The other side of transactional management – positive reinforcement (the carrot)—though contributing to a more pleasant work environment, produced only marginal increases in performance.

The transformational leadership approach was found, however, to significantly raise performance levels and advance job satisfaction as well!  As the Bass study indicates, people don’t often need or respond well to being managed.  They are best led to higher performance.  Places, things, and processes are to be managed.  Resources must be managed.  Tangibles must be controlled.  Over the long haul people respond best to leadership.  Intrinsic intangibles such as brilliant ideas, innovations, and business-altering breakthroughs rarely occur in a tightly managed environment. – Larry Womack, Outcome

 

Management, AMACOM Books, 1996

My observation is that effective managers and leaders are those who knowingly or intuitively balance the use of transformational and transactional motivation.

I’ve never been enamored with titles, though I do realize the value of hierarchy in a business setting.  Titles usually seem more important to those with a need to externally validate themselves than to those who act through inner confidence. The more complex an organization becomes, the need to establish chains of accountability increases.  Hence, titles become more necessary and the delineation of leadership versus management becomes more important.  In most successful business structures the primary role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is to serve as the leader and the Chief Operations Officer (COO) is the primary manager of the resources and activities of the enterprise. The fire and rock.

Leaders are responsible for ensuring the future.  Managers are responsible for securing the present.  There is no future in management.  Without effective management of the present, however, there can be no future.  Without vision, direction, and change brought about through effective leadership, the company withers and dies.

 

Someone You Will Follow

A leader is someone you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.  If the leader cannot see, the leader cannot lead.  The leader cannot see the future by looking down at the present.  The CEO is responsible for looking out at the future in order to anticipate the next opportunity.  The COO keeps a watchful eye on the present to effective exploit and maximize current opportunities.

The more the others in the organization trust the vision of the CEO and the wisdom of the COO, the richer the company will be.  Lack of trust is very expensive in business.

How the CEO and COO execute their duties determines the level of performance of everyone else in the organization.  Bully bosses who control through negativity –threats, fear, rejection, and withholding resources – create compliant participation that leads to low productivity.  Beguiling bosses who control through positive means – challenge, praise, delegation, and empowerment – create committed participation that leads to high performance.

 

Universal Laws Of Leadership

Great leaders are made, not born, according to Major General William A. Cohen. Though I disagree with his premise, believing that all great leaders owe their success to both their DNA and their upbringing, I do hold that most leaders in business have the ability to enhance and advance their leadership skills.  Here are Cohen’s rules for effective leadership:

  1. Maintain absolute integrity. If your staff doesn’t trust you, they won’t follow you. When the situation is calm, you may not notice or care if others trust you. But in tough times, when you need support the most, key people may hesitate to support you if they don’t think you’re trustworthy.
  2. Know your stuff. No one cares if you’re good at office politics. People want to follow the competent; so, although political savvy may get you promoted, it will not earn you the respect of those you want to lead. Only your knowledge and skills can do that.
  3. Declare your expectations. Determine where you want to go and promote your goals, objectives, and vision.
  4. Show uncommon commitment. If you’re not committed to your goals, no one else will be.
  5. Expect positive results. Winners expect to win. Those who “think positive” will rack up more wins than those who don’t.
  6. Take care of your people and customers. If you take care of them, they will take care of you.
  7. Put duty before self. You have a responsibility to your mission and your staff. Sometimes one comes before the other, but both always come before your personal interests or well-being.
  8. Get out in front. Set the example. Get out of your office and talk to your people. See and be seen. Sitting in your office all day issuing commands is not leadership.