There is a new fashion in town. You may have seen it. You may have
experienced it or, more accurately, be experiencing it yourself right now: the
requirement for managers to be leaders.
The subject appears to be an obsession. It seems that every business
programme on the radio or television, or every newspaper or business magazine,
or every blog and newsletter has something to say, and advice to offer, on the
subject. There is, undeniably, an unprecedented demand for leaders. The
question, however, is it real or is it just a fashion?
As you will likely appreciate, there is more to the question than meets the
eye. In order to answer it, however, you need to recognise that managing and
leading are two distinct skills, and they may or may not be found in the same
person. Good managers are good organisers and administrators; they are people
who understand what needs to be done, what resources are needed and how to use
them to ensure that the job gets done – ideally on time, on budget and within
defined rules and/or processes. On the other hand, leaders are people who
inspire and impel (rather than compel) other people to want the same thing they
do and/or behave in a manner to realise their mutual wants.
So a leader operates around a shared vision that they either create or champion
more effectively. Organisationally the vision provides the operational
framework. This is a real challenge, because it means the vision has to be very
clear at all levels in order to drive
consistent behaviour that meets expectations – not requirements!
Recently I worked with a team of very good managers who were trying
desperately to meet the demand to be better leaders. They were, however, facing
an almost impossible challenge, because neither they nor their manager had a clear
understanding of the vision. To make things more difficult an organisational
restructure meant the vision was changing anyway, along with their performance
measures and targets, so even managing was hard.
So you need to be very clear of the extent to which you really want your managers to be leaders.
If you do, then you have to create an environment in which they can be
leaders. I would suggest that this is almost impossible without some sort of ‘master-vision’
that precludes a new vision every time there is a change in ‘senior’ personnel.
Possibly the best way to achieve this is through an employee ownership model
that engenders the shared values and hence the employee engagement that secures
the strategic alignment in which distributed leadership is a real possibility
rather than a pipe-dream. I firmly believe that and continue to look to work
with more organisations to prove it beyond all possible doubt. So if you do
too, then you cannot say you don’t know where to turn!