Leadership In The Truest Sense

The ever present question is… “What” is leadership?

 

At the beginning of our Leadership Academy programs and workshops, the very first question that I typically open up for discussion is… What is leadership? To no surprise, the opinions about what leadership “is” are as varied as the number of people present in the room.

The factual reality is that leadership is in application invariably one thing… “situational”. You need only think back to the countless number of true war stories, books and movies that cite the bravery and leadership of everyday soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines whose combat unit was cornered and in the ensuing firefight, their ranking officers were taken out.

Yet, in the midst of these horrendous situations, there were ordinary service men and woman who stepped forward to take charge of the few remaining troops and then lead them on to heroic victory against overwhelming odds and circumstances.

Although these courageous individuals were without appropriate leadership development training, prerequisite skills or experience, they did possess the key attribute that was required in their respective circumstances… a situational “mindset”.

These individuals weren’t willing to lose the battle. Rather, they were willing to step up, step out and immediately take charge of the situation. They had a mindset that was determined to find a way to protect their comrades and then win the conflict no matter what.

This is exactly why every day citizens run into burning buildings, pull people out of burning automobiles and off of train tracks. They respond to the situation at hand and do what absolutely has to be done without ever thinking twice or blinking an eye. They are willing and comfortable about taking on the situation that is in front of them at that given moment.  

Leadership in its truest sense is ultimately not about titles, positions or even invested authority from an organization.. Authentic leadership is about being willing to make a difference no matter what situation confronts you, your people and your organization..

Are the people in your organization who hold positions of responsibility as supervisors, managers, department heads or members of your executive team appropriately prepared to effectively respond to the “situations” that will inevitably unfold within your organization on a day to day basis?

More importantly, does your organization keep reliving the same situations over and over again?

While many of the common situations in most organizations do tend be repetitive, the more crucial situations are the ones that are unanticipated and occur suddenly without warning.

Consider the situation that James F. Parker was unexpectedly confronted with after only a few months on the job as the new CEO of Southwest Airlines… the tragic events of September 11, 2001. In a mere instant, all airlines in the U.S were immediately grounded for many days, while stranding hordes of passengers and flight crews wherever they randomly happened to be at that given moment.

While the remainder of the airline industry simply sat idly by and waited for further instructions from the government. CEO Parker immediately directed the staff of Southwest Airlines to do everything possible to address the needs of Southwest’s passengers. Among numerous activities, Southwest Airlines employees even went so far as to take their customers bowling and to the movies.

In another situation when an elderly woman’s son who was to drive from Tucson, Arizona to meet his mom in Phoenix was seriously injured in a car crash, while making every attempt to so, Southwest was unsuccessful in booking her passage on another airline, as Southwest didn’t fly into Tucson. When the women landed in Phoenix, a Southwest employee without hesitation went to the employee parking lot, got his car and proceeded to drive the elderly woman over 100 miles to Tucson and her injured son.

What CEO Parker successfully helped his people to understand is that there is a direct correlation between leadership and customer service as they are both “situational”. Moreover, it is this level of comprehension for what leadership “is” that has earned Southwest the reputation for always putting the customer first… no matter what the situation.

As your valued resource partner, we stand ready to assist your organization in developing its situational leadership and helping your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

People: Manage or Lead?

Years ago when our children were young, during our visit to the Epcot Center we encountered a futuristic transportation exhibit which was titled “People-Movers”. The concept pertained to how to manage the movement of large masses of people between destinations in the future.

 

In more recent times, I have encountered a somewhat similar business term referred to as “People Managers”. In a number of instances, I’ve seen this term translated as being interchangeable with Human Resource Management.

 

One of the resources I encountered on this subject stated that there were 7 specific categories of function associated with people management. More specifically, they were identified as:

 

Employee Motivation

Manage Yourself
Giving Feedback
Managing in Wartime
Organizing People  
Team Building
Recruiting and Hiring

Of the seven people management categories cited above, only recruiting and hiring are truly HR functions.

Over the course of the past decade or so, and with the aid of ever advancing technology, more and more organizations have succumbed to the practice of micromanaging every aspect of their organization including their greatest asset… their “people”.

 

All the while, companies are employing more and more robotic technology into their operations, which is at the same time serving to dehumanize/devalue their people through either job elimination,  micromanagement or people managing.

 

This should be the red flag that raises the salient question… Should people be managed or led?

 

I for one believe that people should be “led”. There are a number of reasons that I choose to take this position:

 

Employee performance is first and foremost rooted in personal “attitudes” which will ultimately result in your organization’s success or failure. It’s certainly not difficult to grasp the concept that you will attract better results with honey (leadership), than vinegar (micromanaging people).

 

Every individual has their own unique set of values & beliefs, thought patterns and personal attributes. Given the facts of human nature, none of these factors can in fact be managed by another human being. Moreover, you will be going against the grain of both the individual and organizational productivity if you try to. It would be equivalent to trying to have every employee have the same pattern of heartbeats and heart rate.

 

The single greatest issue with employee turnover and diversity in the workplace is the strong sense of not being “valued”. The truth of the matter is that people don’t want to be managed. What they truly and dearly want is to be valued and accepted as a viable member of a team.

 

How many times does industry, business and government have to practice top-down enforcement practices of rules, policies and procedures before they finally realize that it simply doesn’t get people to do great work or produce great results. To the contrary, managing people literally cripples the organization, stifles imaginations and kills creativity, for which the eventual outcome is a failure to innovate.

 

In observing and working with highly successful organizations throughout my career, I have observed many types of managers such as sales managers, production managers and office managers to name a few. As “managers”, their direct responsibility was to manage the work flow of their respective department, manage the assignment of work tasks and facilitate the directives of the organization’s executive team. Their job as a manager was entirely about managing the “processes” that made the organization’s wheels turn and which in turn generated the desired results as dictated by the organization’s vision and mission.

 

Regardless of the future destination that you are driving your organization toward, the principle for organizational success has not in spite of technological advancement changed.

 

Sharpen your focus on managing your processes, developing your talent base (people) and create future leaders that will take your organization where it wants to go.

 

As your valued resource partner, we stand ready to assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

 

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC