Are Your Managers Becoming Leaders?

If you are a small business owner, you have no doubt seen a change in today’s workforce.  Today’s worker thinks differently, acts differently, and barely resembles the employee of a decade ago.  Therefore, the days of managing a workforce with yesterday’s methods are gone as well.  Today’s worker cannot be simply managed, because the modern worker has a mind of his or her own, as well as more potential than ever before.  This worker must be invested in, developed, and yes…led.

In order to be effective it is imperative that our managers learn new skills to deal with a workforce that must be influenced rather than directed, taught rather than told, and regarded as an asset rather than an expense.  Managers must develop the ability to communicate the vision of the organization to the workforce and then to engage them in a manner that elicits results. In short, our managers must now become leaders – not only in title, but in action.

For years, people have been discussing the meaning of true leadership.  Debates have centered on whether leaders are born or made, whether leadership is about traits or skills, and whether leadership can even be defined at all.  After all these years, the debate continues, and there is really only one thing that most organizational development professionals can agree on – that effective leadership is critical to the success of an organization. 

For the small business owner, time is best spent not on defining what leadership is, but in identifying what leadership looks like – as well as what ineffective leadership looks like.  Leadership is dynamic and ever-changing.  It is a series of actions and outcomes and can only be measured by results.  Ineffective leadership, however, is stagnant and detectable. This type of leadership can be recognized by the observation of some key “give-aways”.  The following are a three of the indicators that your managers are not leading and may need some development before things get out of hand.

The Archimedes Concept – I call this principle the Archimedes Management Concept in tribute to the Greek mathematician.  Legend has it that Archimedes, while getting into a full bathtub one evening, realized that there was a relationship between the amount of water that spilled over the top of the tub and the mass of his submerged body as he entered it.  This was later referred to as the Archimedes principle.

Think of ineffective leadership as the object entering the water.  As more becomes introduced to an organization, you will invariably see potential leaders spilling out of the organization in near-direct relation.  Certainly many organizations with ineffective leadership manage to keep employees, but the true candidates for future leadership will inevitably exit.  This is because future stars can often sense trouble; and they know when to get out of a bad situation and move on with their careers.

Action – look at your turnover outside of the numbers.  Are people you thought would be future stars leaving the organization?

The Charisma Crutch – Charismatic leadership is often mistaken for quality leadership.  Thus, an organization should ensure that leaders are not using charisma as a crutch. To modify an old proverb - Charisma can be like a lamppost to a drunken man – more to lean on than to enlighten. The fact is that many of our nation’s best leaders were anything but charismatic.  Peter Drucker alluded to this in his book, Managing for the Future, where he pointed out some very effective leaders who lacked this personality characteristic. Says Drucker, “But effective leadership doesn’t depend on charisma.  Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall, and Harry Truman were singularly effective leaders, yet none possessed any more charisma than a dead mackerel.”

This is not to say that charisma is not a positive characteristic, but it can sometimes camouflage a lack of actual work and the poor results that lie underneath.  The truth is leadership can be mundane.  It is about vision, goals and work. 

Action – Remain focused on results.  Apply performance measures to supplement the observation of people skills.  Measuring performance is the key to determining effective leadership.

The Boiling Frog – When talking about change and the dynamic environment of business, I often refer to Charles Handy’s boiling frog anecdote to illustrate the need for leaders to take charge of their environment.  He described how a frog, if placed in water that is slowly heated, would adapt to the temperature change until it reached 100 degrees centigrade, at which point it would be too late to jump out of the pot! Many leaders, in the same regard, take pride in their ability to adapt to the surrounding environment, when in fact they should take action before they are boiled alive!

Action – Talk to your managers.  Do they proactively look for ways to change for the better, or do they change only when the “water gets too hot”?

As our workforce continues to change, the need for effective management will only increase.  Dedicate time to leadership development in your organization.  Don’t wait until the water gets hot!

Kevin Smith is President of Vie Associates, LLC, an Organizational Development and Strategic Planning firm in Erie PA.  Kevin can be reached at ksmith@vieassociates.com or by calling 814-806-3030.