Highlights:
* Quick-fix remedies are seductive and may be beneficial, but none are lasting panaceas.
* When leaders fail it is usually due to lack of people skills, not technical skills.
* The practice of Head-Up Leadership is not a panacea, but a technique in our leadership tool chest for strengthening our people skills and decision-making.
"Expedients are for the hour; principles are for the ages."
- Henry Ward Beecher, 1887
This model of four behavior styles is a technique to be added to your leadership tool chest. It is not just another business fad presented as a universal solution to all complex problems. It is a usable and simple metaphor reminding leaders of individual differences that need to be recognized when striving for quality performance. Several applications of “Heads-Up Leadership” have been illustrated in previous articles.
Business is a dominant social institution on the planet, and has a major role in shaping the future. Corporate leadership can respond rapidly to changes whether for better or worse. Globalization, Computers, Information Economy -- these are changes that are happening at the same time, and fast.
How do business leaders cope with a complex and changing world?
My bookshelves are filled with quick-fix remedies available from consultants, and business schools. These solutions are seductive when facing complex, dynamic problems. Most have been beneficial, but we turn them into fads by the way we implement them as some sort of cure-all. Will these prescriptions do the job in the future? A brief history of remedies can provide an important reality-check when looking into the future.
In the 1950's the late Peter Drucker introduced MBO (Management by Objectives). This attempted to unite the organization's objectives with the employee's personal objectives. Later, the Navy introduced PERT/CMP that was developed to plan and control the construction of Polaris submarines. These systems were flawed because they could not accommodate the complexities of managing people.
Subsequently, the people-oriented Theory Y assumed that employees were naturally motivated to reach objectives under favorable conditions. This led to sensitivity groups, participative management, and matrix management. However, these techniques frequently took the manager's eye off the bottom line.
In the 1970’s the next set of remedies targeted costs. The alphabet soup continued with ZBB (Zero-Based Budgeting) which controlled costs by eliminating automatic budgetary increases. The ZBB process was too complicated and time-consuming for it to survive.
The 1980's gave us Theory Z calling for clear articulation of a company's purpose and involvement of workers, which led to quality circles. We searched for excellence by taking hands-on action to stay close to the customer, and cut costs with just-in-time inventory systems. The One Minute Manager dealt with goal-setting, praising, and reprimanding, but few practiced its simple advice.
The 1990’s offered up Total Quality Management (TQM) emphasizing continuous improvement and teamwork, reengineering, mass-cutomization and emotional intelligence. New remedies consistent with TQM include improvement methods like Six Sigma, cost cutting methods like Just-In-Time and Lean Production.
In the new Century we have been told about e-leadership, virtual organizations, work place spirituality, servant leadership, and knowledge management.
The tendency has been to buy the entire remedy and when it does not deliver on its promises, throw the whole thing out. This can drive leaders to run from one quick fix to another. Most of the fixes contain sound ideas that have not disappeared, they have merely evaporated into the atmosphere and help sustain our business lives.
The journey to business excellence is over changing terrain, filled with road signs pointing to many remedies to smooth the trip. Remedies come and go, and are not for everyone. There is not one solution to every organization's problems. So, what is the answer? One thing is clear: There is no remedy at the end of the rainbow that permanently solves weighty problems, however, all solutions involve people.
How do we decide what will work and what will not? There are three guideposts all relating to people-skills that leader/managers can follow to find their way.
1. Involve people. The classic definition of management is getting things done through people. We have enough MBA's who were trained to emphasize numbers, and not people. When managers fail it is usually due to lack of people skills, not technical skills.
In the Information Age the important resource is knowledge and creativity. There is only one way to get these commodities -- through people. The word manager is drifting away and is being replaced with team leader, coach, facilitator. The name is not important. The skill is important, that is, the ability to build collegial relationships among customers, employees, suppliers, and management.
2. Solve creatively. Too many managers demand action now and assume that what worked for others will work for them. These external remedies are frequently misfits. We are solely responsible for our solutions. By acknowledging our inner wisdom we can be more creative in our solutions. Managers who have the courage to blend intuition with analysis will make better choices.
3. Be connected. We need a systems approach in deciding what is best for our organization, since everything is connected to everything. Many solutions today create new problems tomorrow, such as, nuclear power leaving nuclear waste for our children. Problems are connected and solutions should be connected also.
Heads-Up Leadership is people-oriented: It uses the behavior styles to strengthen collaboration and increase productivity. Business has the power to shape our future, for better or for worse. "Change is the metaphysics of our age. Everything is in motion now," says Warren Bennis in his book Why Leaders Can't Lead. The practice of Head-Up Leadership can be one of your tools in your leadership tool chest that strengthens your people skills and decision-making for shaping our future.
