Managers play a pivotal role in organizations and a managerial roles gap analysis reveals the need for leadership training, as it is evident in the twenty-first century business organizations (Mintzberg,1990). Although management and leadership require different set of skills depending on the expected outcome both are needed and it works like a “trim-tab”, that steers the rudder of the organization in the right direction!
While managements primary function is to maintain and improve the existing status quo, the role of leadership and mastering business leadership skills calls for the characteristic traits of courage and commitment to move beyond current norms and usher in innovative changes. Managers are the harbingers of the participative management strategies that involve participation from the grass-root level of employees.
This calls for more adaptive skills for mangers to carry out their multiple roles, related with ‘key-areas’, such as Informational, Interpersonal and Decisional . The managerial roles gap analysis also reveals a lot of blind spots that causes derailment in executives such as problems with interpersonal or relational skills, failure to meet expectations and achieve business objectives, failure to infuse strength and the required level of positive energy to build and lead a team to attain synergistic goals and the ability to change and effectively to adapt to change during a period of transition and transcendental growth.
An unwillingness to lead and take risk and have a self-giving attitude would mean lack of emotional intelligence to set a nuance and carve out a niche for the organizations sustained development. Normally leaders have the ability to stare into the abyss of failure and understand that failures are indeed stepping stones to success. Managers are normally not attuned to taking risks and they do not have the willingness to demonstrate unconditional resolve to bring innovative ideas to fruition by disrupting the existing status quo. Mastering business leadership skills is about having the willingness to risk failure for what you believe in and thereby contributing to emotional labor!
The manager heralds the beginning of a corporate culture that incorporates the vision and mission of an organization. At this point, he assumes responsibility in identifying and aligning resources to achieve organizational goals and responds to the internal and external stimulants, that act as change agents and catalysts for growth.
On introspection, I am inclined to believe that it is important to nurture and develop interpersonal skills through Emotional Intelligence (EI) and building relational versatility by improving the Versatility Quotient (VQ). An illustration of planting a seed very well provides insight to building the foundations and framework of looking forward to harness the power within to engage in fruitful endeavors. When a seed is planted it has the latent ability to naturally go downward before the shoot evolves and so similarly the onus here is on improving the habitual thought patterns embedded in the mind through systemic coaching and mentoring systems. This would help individuals to improve their emotional intelligence and this would in turn prove beneficial in building the organizational framework.
Interpersonal / Relational Roles – where he acts as a Figure head, Leader and Liaison
Informational and
Decisional.
In terms of specific roles that can be considered to be most important in a dynamic work environment is the ability to relational versatility to avoid if not reduce stress, fatigue and conflict due to employee apathy and attrition up to a considerable level.
The twenty-first century organizations are seeing complex and dynamic changes in an era ruled by technological advancements and so the value of the ‘Intangibles’ or ‘Intangible Capital’, such as patterns , R&D, services and employee talent far surpasses the physical capital investments and business performance measures as gauged through the Italian Double-Entry systems financial accounting practices, methodologies and standards.
As a source of inspiration and motivation the leader manager is expected to clearly outline expectations and set performance goals for the following purpose:
Train and mentor employees and fill in the gaps that inhibits performance and help employees to strike a work / life balance .
Support and reward employees efforts thereby invigorating a conducive work environment that infuses positive energy and higher degrees of employee engagements.
The impetus of Mintzbergs categorizations of managerial roles also puts a lot of onus on evaluating employee performance and motivating team performance in order to achieve synergistic goals and objectives in lieu of business continuity.
As a Liaison the manager is required to communicate with both internal and external members of the organization and stake holders at large .
Similarly under the broad categorization of Informational Roles, managerial roles have been succinctly subdivided as follows:
Monitor
Disseminator &
Spokesperson
These roles can be considered to be amongst the most important managerial roles with the aim of obtaining alignment, consensus, interconnectedness and interdependence to achieve synergistic goals. Many a times there is a pool of negative energy around people who fester with emotional injuries and who nurture grudges and grievances and victim perceptions and in such cases positive re-inforcements can work wonders in organizations. Very often we come across exemplary examples of visionaries who lead by example & walk the talk in order to fill in the gaps and empower organizations to face the uncertainties of a fast growing , complex and highly dynamic work environment.
Power of Expectations and Patterns of Failure – Apparently it has been rightly observed that in organizations ‘Self-fulfilling’ prophecies and expectations sets the tone for superior performance . J Sterling Livingstone, pays homage to George Bernard Shaw whose sequential play Pygmalion explores the underlying factors and notions behind how treating an individual can lead to a transformational experience! This can be understood from the setting of an elementary classroom , where the teacher who believes in her students can make prodigies out of children by simply instilling confidence in them. It is no different in offices when the manager or team leader is facing the task of managing a group and the leader who is convinced about high expectations will find that his/her group can outperform a group whose manager thinks just the opposite like the water in a half – filled glass . You can either consider it to be half filled or half empty!
The powerful influences on productivity due to expectations and mere behavioral implications is recognized by both physicians and behavioral scientists alike. When successful sales people are treated well by their managers they are able to exceed expectations . But unsuccessful sales people tend to face great difficulty in maintaining a positive self-image as low managerial expectations hurts their self esteem. This is a typical situation that can cause additional damage to their egos as it will lead to greater chances of failure and low levels of employee engagement and productivity.
So studies indicate that the degree or level of work force motivation and efforts rises until it reaches 50% and the probability is that it begins to fall although the expectancy of success continues to increase. It is thereby evident that superior managers are able to inspire superior performance and higher levels of employee engagements by simply raising the bar or benchmark of expectations while treating employees right! This means that by and large it is important to “ think globally and act locally ” and the changing dynamics of an ever-changing and complex work environment calls for managers who have the innate or acquired ability to adapt in the face of transition and add value to the participative form of management and holistic management strategies.
This is possible through strength based feedback . According to (Harns & Roebuck, 2010:413) “Feedback aligns work place behavior with the overall goals of a team or an organization”. Infact it is a powerful tool and the PPDP ( Personal Professional Development Plan) assures the leading edge for employees who is able to translate goals to achievements by setting up a realistic action plan and by periodically re-evaluating goals & aspirations by giving and receiving effective feedbacks.
In so doing the industries greatest challenges can be rectified by remedial measures that focuses on issues like under development, under-utilization, resource mobilization, ineffective management and envisage strategies for better utilization of resources and professional employee talent.
Personally, however I feel it is important to develop good listening skills, self-awareness and self control in order to have better interpersonal / relational skills that would empower me to be a change agent and a catalyst for growth. This also means adopting innovative techniques , for good motivational strategies so that it is not required ‘ to dangle the carrot beyond the donkey’s reach ‘!
In a multicultural environment, I need to be able to work smart and not long hours and also foster goodwill by building up a good rapport and a spirit of camaraderie amongst work associates by maintaining a down to earth attitude and building relational versatility and improving the Emotional Quotient and Versatility Quotient ( EQ) & (VQ).
This style of authentic leadership thereby offers ample opportunities to instill confidence and strike a work life balance. To move forward with purpose and integrity adds value to dysfunctional organizations that are in a phase of ‘transitioning’ into a ‘learning organization’ focused on strategic objectives. Hence the key skills with respect to being involved with leading change and leading by example is the ability to focus, observe, give and receive feedbacks , building and legitimating a receptive context for creating the necessary know-how and capabilities for constructing and directing the ‘nature of change’!
In summary upon reflection, a transformational authentic leadership pattern is dedicated to continuous improvement and a learning organization is typically keen on envisaging major, cultural , structural and systemic changes. So it is worth the effort to surpass norms that focus on defense, control, monopoly and avoidance of potentially creative conflicts and risk-taking to achieve synergistic goals for the benefit of the entire organization.
Leadership Critique
Adversity may seem like a vicious roller - coaster ride and the alchemy of being ‘crucibles of leadership’ is but a rare opportunity. Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs are a few legends who re-wrote the pages of history and strove to make a difference and a few who kept going even when the going was tough. It has been rightly stated that ‘When the going gets tough only the tough get going’!.
Almost everyone is tested by life, but only a few emerge from the furnaces with the strength to make a lasting difference and they are the servant warriors responsible for transformational leadership. ‘Innovation is defined as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization’(Amabile,1983,1998,1996)
Organizational leadership and (LD)‘leadership development’ is an emerging science and an area where a lot of management research is being done due to the underlying complexities of a dynamic and changing work environment . Mastering the art of business leadership over and above the act of managing men tactfully has a direct impact on the organizational characteristics such as culture , strategy, structure, rewards, systems and resources (Woodman, Sawyer and Griffin, 1993) or through the impact thereof on employee creativity.
There are so many real life scenarios and examples of how transformational leadership concepts have made a huge difference and have brought about a revolution of change for the better. In the article ‘Crucibles of Leadership by Warren G Bennis and Robert J Thomas we can see that rare and genuine people have a different way approaching problems and dealing with adversity.Infact one of the most reliable indicators and ‘predictors’ of true leadership is an individual’s innate ability to find meaning in the discourse of negative events and to learn even from the most trying and severe circumstances.
Harman Kardon( now Harman International), (Bennis & Thomas,2002); the audio components company was once lead by a charismatic businessman Sidney Harman. Harman describes an incident in the workers factory unit where he actually witnesses the workers rebellion and turmoil when the buzzer for a coffee break was arbitrarily postponed. The workers were obviously offended by the bureaucratic regime of the hierarchical management model and practices that was responsible for imposing rules and regulations and this revelation prompted Harman to revamp the factory settings. He took manifold efforts to create an environment where dissent was not only tolerated but also encouraged to drive in the concept of high levels of employee engagement and satisfaction. The factory plants lively newspaper ‘Bolivar Mirror’, gave workers the liberty to take ownership of their work and run their workplaces and give vent to their emotions and creative potentials for the benefit of the organization at large. This is how, Harman unknowingly pioneers the concept of ‘participative management’ practices that still bears a great influence in transforming workplaces.
A crucible is an allegoric expression of a transformative experience through which an individual comes to a renewed state of being or becoming having imbibed all the alterations due to the severity of the circumstances and bears direct connection to the altered state of carbon from that of charcoal to a sparkling diamond! Most crucible experiences illuminate a hidden and suppressed area of the soul and these involve traumatic and the harshest of incidents or violence and crime. Sidney Ritternberg is another great example of a great leader who suffered unjust imprisonment , solitary confinement and severe ill-treatment in China . Thrown into prison in a condemned cell he did not panic or suffer from any kind of derailment but instead drew strength from a few stanzas recited to him when he was a child :
{“THEY drew a circle that shut me OUT;
Heretic rebel, a thing to flout,
But LOVE & I , had the WIT to WIN,
WE drew a circle that put them IN”}!.
This is also an epiphany or an intuitive leap into a different leadership concept that follows the biblical mandate of servant leadership and that of a servant warrior.
The servant leadership has a sequential internal approach and is more than simply providing quick fixes to substantial problems. It is more about an authentic self expression that creates value and arouses discretionary energy. The formula being applied here according to Phil Johnson Founder and CEO of MBL Inc, Canada is as follows:
YDV x Q or (Your Distinctive Value) times ( Quantity ) of people affected.
Most of the times many don’t realize that fulfillment does not come from clearing hurdles that others set for you but rather by living upto expectations you have set for yourself on the basis of your priorities , personal values and preferences.
Servant Leadership in steep contrast with Transformational Leadership is more about focus . In transformational leadership the focus of the leader is on providing ‘organizational leadership’ (Gumusluoglu,2006), but servant leadership is about ‘followers focus’. So it will be appropriate to state that ‘follower focus’ is about behaviors and attitudes that are congruent in nature. Infact servant leadership is about virtues and has a spiritual dimension in terms of the qualitative characteristics which encompasses ‘virtuous constructs’ such as unconditional love and commitment , humility (low profile attitude), altruism, vision, trust and empowerment. The call of Agape kind of love, (Covey,2002), in organizations is to go far beyond seeing people as ‘hired hands’ but rather as ‘hired hearts’! It is also about maintaining a down to earth attitude in all humility which is the meekness and ability to keep accomplishments and talents in perspective but rather focus on the welfare of others instead of being self-focused and harbor an environment of mutual trust and respect. Altruistic values are also a core aspect of servant leadership , where the concern , for the welfare of others , is a priority and there is genuine appreciation . So in short, a catalytic mechanism, could be a good catalyst for change and growth and the old adage holds good even today: “ People are your most important ‘Asset’ is wrong. The “right” people are your most important asset .”!!
In my personal perspective a servant warrior is a “trim-tab” who has the ability to steer the rudder of the organization in the right direction with the least amount of efforts. This can be illustrated by a simple example of a little boy. Tom was apparently spending some quality time with his dad exploring the world map, when his dad had an idea and tears the map into pieces and makes it like a puzzle for Tom to solve. To his greatest surprise the little boy effortlessly puts the pieces of the map back together and on being questioned reveals that there was a picture of a boy behind the map and by putting the boy back together his puzzle was easy to solve!
So life is thereby a series of interconnected moments and by aligning the bundle of scarce resources it is possible to achieve synergistic goals as the management and the leadership work hand in hand in sheer pursuit of excellence.
Everyone faces setbacks, but many people abandon their plans when they hit one of the bumps and lose their way but a few recognize the fact that life is like a marathon race and you need to reach the finishing line. We can then be like the cactus in the desert who chooses to bloom regardless and can keep trying to rise up to the occasion and be like the “ light house” that shows a beacon of hope and light , on the shores of a sea of uncertainty!!.
Bibliography
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