Db2

MoLChapter2-1.pdf

chapter 2

The Source of Power

I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that, from the people, and for the people, all springs, and all must exist.

Benjamin Disraeli (1826)

A person who believes that power is “the ability to compel obedience” has stymied his ability to accomplish great things. The more appropriate definition of power is the “capability of acting or of producing an effect.” It is the effect they have on followers that demonstrates to lead ers that they do indeed have the power to accomplish great things.

Leaders derive their power from the network of relationships they develop over time. In business enterprises, this can look like a limited number of relationships that are defined by common interests. The president of a company looks to the relationships formed with the chairman, the board members, and direct reports. At a certain point, it is easy for leaders to believe that their power comes from themselves or from those who empower them, meaning those who put them in their jobs. This would be a mistaken conclusion. Those above us give us

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authority and responsibility, not power. For leaders, power always

comes from the follower. ∣∣ 11V1*-**=

are forced to recognize this fact because the electoratePoliticians ։ them authority, responsibility, and power. In organizations these

^1'es are frequently separated. A manager can have responsibility but not dohority This is not how it should be but this is usually the reality. A au think he has power because he has the ability to hire, fire,manager can or promote, not a noun.

But that is authority, not power. For leaders, power is a verb, Power is when the leader’s efforts are amplified by the organ-

ization into a more forceful response than the leader can produce alone.

Power, then, is when the leader acts in such a way that the rest of organization takes on the responsibility for a coordinated and

focused action. The emphasis is on the leader’s actions. Words without acts are the equivalent of wishing. Acts without words can be misun derstood. For power to be exercised, both words and deeds must occur that are coordinated to demonstrate how the followers should respond. These words and deeds must be focused in such a way that the benefits of the proposed actions are obvious and imminent, both for business

the

units and for individuals.

Col 9The Primacy or Vision Some of the benefits of achieving the leader’s vision may actually reside in the future and be somewhat obscure to the general workforce. The function of the leader is to make those intangible and uncertain outcomes more concrete and pressing. This is how political leaders have convinced people to fight and possibly to die for their country. Spiritual leaders also understand this. Their function is to help the faithful view heaven and hell, not as a concept, but as a fact. For the pious, God s judg- ment is not a possibility; it is a actions to milestone markers so see their objective. In business,

certainty. These leaders relate everyday that followers can feel their progress and leaders must accomplish a similar feat,

so that the consequences of success orcollapsing time and probabilities Tardy political and some failure stir everyone to action now. To this e ,

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business leaders have adopted the characteristics of the spiritual crusader. They raise the stakes as high as they can to galvanize their constituents to action. They adopt flamboyant mannerisms as a motiva tional technique. Remember, however, it is the drama, not the dramatics, that makes for good leadership.'

Power Resides in the Follower

While the leader exercises power, the source of that power resides with the followers. They choose to extend or withhold the leader’s power on an individual basis. Only when the individuals act at the leader’s request do we see power being wielded. The failure of many competent people has come because they believe that -the flow of power operates in the opposite direction. They see leadership as a command-and-control func tion. These leaders tell individuals and groups what to do and how to do it. This is an illusion, just as the oasis in the desert is typically only a mirage for the parched traveler.

In a commercial enterprise, we exercise no power over someone who chooses not to work for us. We can exercise no power over some one who withholds discretionary effort. So long as individuals imitate the effort level of their peers, we have no way of forcing them to perform at higher levels. In fact, there are legal as well as moral restraints on our ability to force compliance. And compliance is a word that signifies some minimal level of effort rather than a vigorous one. Force, used in leader ship, signifies a deficiency that can only be temporarily compensated. Frequent or continued use of force identifies the deficiency as residing in the leader.

If power resides in the follower, then effective leaders must first learn what matters to their followers. Leaders do not impose their ideas on the group. Rather they connect the values, aspirations, or frustrations of the individuals to the leader’s own vision. It is senseless to call people to arms when they feel no threat. It is useless to paint a picture of a future that individuals cannot connect to their own requirements and desires. A leader who is out of touch with the needs and goals of the

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individuals in the group has no appeal and no way to mobilize the group's efforts toward some common objective. Force becomes his only

tool·

Functions of a Leader

Leaders say for us those things we want to say and point out the direc- tion that we want to go. Many times we dont recognize our own aspirations until the leader speaks out. Churchill articulated the deter mination of a nation when he proclaimed, “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be ... we shall never surrender” (Churchill, 1940). Bill Clinton was ridiculed for saying, “I feel your pain,” but mil lions were convinced that he did. And, sensing that he did indeed understand their situation, they followed him in spite of criticism from many sources.

Military leaders who ignore the aspirations of their followers must spend enormous amounts of time and effort simply keeping the troops in combat. Under such conditions, desertions run high and direct con flict with the enemy is avoided. In these situations high levels of activity result in low levels of accomplishment. The energy requirements of the leader increase in direct relationship to the decrease in the commitment of the followers. The opposite is also true. Followers, who identify with the leader’s cause, free the leader from supervisory functions so that the leader has more personal resources to apply to the cause.

_— Wesee--17 sr remnsnexemenym" * MaNMazworsmreE-__ max/ov-- ------------- The single most important leadership function is to create a focus for

the group's behavior. As it says in the Bible, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). In organizations without this focus, or vision, performance slowly atrophies. Individual groups create their own vision of how things should be, resulting in a multiplicity of goals that are often in conflict with those of others. The resulting loss of harmony either dissipates everyone’s energy or increases conflict as each unit pursues its own vision.

The leader who insists that everything is important diminishes the importance of everything. It is the leader’s responsibility to clearly

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distinguish for the followers which activities and goals are important and which are not. Simply increasing the scope of effort reduces a leader’s impact. Conversely, tightening the scope clarifies the resource needs and thus facilitates the tasks at hand.

The old expression “jack of all trades, master of none is of partic ular significance to leaders. It says that the more you ask people to do, the less they can do any one task well. The leader’s function is to increase the reinforcers for the followers’ behaviors that are mission- essential and to reduce the reinforcers available for behaviors that are non-mission-essential. This requires that the leader simplify the requirements for success to a minimum set of actions and that she delivers frequent, positive consequences to those responsible for carrying out the mission.

Once the parameters are set, leaders must stay the course. This does I -3-------- ---- —---------

not imply rigidity. The captain of a sailing vessel does not keep the bow T. O / ________ £--------------_------— --------------- -------------- — = ----------------- -

pointing in the same direction regardless of the environment and circumstances. To do so is to flounder and to make progress more difficult. Rather, he keeps the orientation constant, always knowing the destination, even when he has to steer in another direction to get there. Leaders are constantly shaping the behavior of their followers, much as the captain trims his sails with a vigilant watch on the compass and on o—------------------------------------------ I —

the direction of the wind.

But still, the need to act must spring from the follower, not just the leader. The leader’s contribution is twofold. First, the leader recognizes the commonality of the followers’ yearning and articulates it. This must be done in such a way that the follower believes that the leader is genuine in his understanding and in his belief of the importance of the followers’ needs. Then, the leader must give a clear and unmistakable call to action. This involves coupling the followers' desires to some specific objective (which probably coincides with the leader’s own personal agenda) that produces concrete actions toward its fulfillment. Keep in mind that a leader who stirs the crowd to action but provides no structure to direct that behavior is simply a rabble-rouser. The followers turn into a mob which then either achieves some quick action or which confronts some

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difficulty (often in a negative manner) and then quickly returns to the daily routine. It is imperative for leaders to ensure that structures are available to support the behaviors they initiate.

In almost all situations these structures are interlocking relation ships designed to provide support for the required behaviors. They are designed to keep the performers engaged and encouraged as they do those routine and perhaps repetitive activities that are necessary for success. In any military engagement, for example, only a small percent age of the unit is actually in combat. Without the dependable function ing of the support troops, the soldiers on the front cannot fight the war. The leader who only focuses on those in the foxholes cannot develop the flexibility and responsiveness to exploit any gains his forces achieve.

The workings of this structure are management’s responsibility, but its design and efficacy are leadership issues. It is a leader’s function to ensure a consistent approach to managing follower behavior. This entails designing a methodology for the management of resources. Since people are the key resource to a leader, this methodology must emphasize the use of the most effective techniques for managing people.

Allowing managers to motivate employees as they see fit introduces a significant amount of variation into the equation of organizational performance. Like Terry Ivany, former CEO of Marine Atlantic advises, “If you feel the way we are trying to manage is unethical, immoral or just a bad way to manage, you will not be happy here because this is the way we are going to run this company.” But simply laying out your expectations is not sufficient either. Leaders must examine the method ology of their managers in producing directionaUy sound performer behavior. Our experience clearly indicates that management method ology is the single biggest contributor to variability in organization outputs. So, leaders must determine if their organization’s management methodology is adequate for the task. If managers are to be assessed by a single criterion, it is that of understanding the science of human behavior and applying those principles to their direct reports.