Leadership – Weekly Analysis

Leader as a Problem Solver

· LESSON TOPICS

· Leadership vs. Management

· Contextual Factors

· Innovation and Change Leadership

· Identifying and Solving Problems

· KEY TERMS

· Change Management

· Change Leadership

· Context

· Crisis Management

· Culture

· Delegation

· Influence

· Innovation

· Leader

· Leadership Competencies

· Manager

· Prioritization

· Time Management

INTRODUCTION

In this lesson, we will survey the history of leadership and how various leadership theories have evolved over time into what is now perceived as one of today’s most prominent determinants of strategic organizational success and, additionally, a pertinent area for managerial development and growth. The demands for leadership today, along with the prevalence of continued research efforts in the field, clearly demonstrate the need for exploration of leader traits and behaviors. We will also consider how theories regarding certain situations, tasks, and follower behaviors have shaped the current state, and direction, of leadership research and practice.

Leadership vs. Management

Envision yourself as the owner of your own successful company. Think about how you want to be known by those who are on your team, in your organization, and those who are outside. Do you want to be considered an effective manager  or a great leader ? Why?

When you hear those describing the terms of manager versus leader and how they are different from each other, it can seem as if the term manager has almost a negative connotation. A manager gets things done by overseeing daily work tasks, following rules and processes, and supervising staff development. Leaders “motivate and inspire others to achieve goals” (Caroselli, 2000). Although it can be useful to make the distinction, as a potential motivator for managers who are merely going through the motions to be better and to reflect upon how they impact others and the organization, it can also be problematic because the two need not be mutually exclusive. As Caroselli (2000) summarized, “both [management and leadership skills] are essential to your involvement in running the organization.”

It’s also important to note that your job title does not impact your ability to lead. Any person in an organization, regardless of title or current role, can emerge, at one point or another, with the ability to influence others within the organization or to persuade them to take specific actions to accomplish goals. Depending upon authority or job title alone may not impress your followers as influence is an important leadership trait to possess or develop.

Could you be both a manager and a leader simultaneously? Can you think of any leader managers you have interacted with or aspire to emulate? How are they different from some other managers you have encountered? Perhaps leadership and management exist on a spectrum rather than in dichotomy?

Managers vs. Leaders

As noted by Storey (2011), differentiating between managers and leaders remains divided amongst the entirety of scholars and practitioners. Although there is definitely a history of research regarding the delineation, some believe making the distinction between the two is necessary and productive while others deem it unrealistic.

What do you think? Do you think you can be a manager and a leader simultaneously?

MANAGERS VS. LEADERS

· MANAGERS

According to Caroselli (2000), managers:

· Direct (not perform) work

· Hire, fire, train, and discipline employees

· Oversee working conditions and quality of work

· Link employees to senior management

· Motivate employees and create a culture of accomplishment

Managers contribute to the organizational goals by overseeing work in their department, or segment, of the company. They are on the “front-lines” planning, directing, and monitoring completion of the tasks that contribute to the larger overall strategic goals. It is very important for these managers not to try to do all the work themselves. Instead, they should delegate work tasks to their team members. More importantly, managers also serve as a link, or the liaison, between their people and senior management. For example, if their employees need resources to accomplish tasks, managers can request these resources from senior managers.

· LEADERS

In contrast to managerial actions, Caroselli (2000) also identified these leadership behaviors:

· Strive to make a difference throughout collaboration with others

· Create new value

· Exude confidence, positivity, and passion

· Actualize and become so that others are inspired to model his or her behavior

· Embrace and welcome change

Traditional managers are taking care of their people while ensuring that tasks are completed throughout the organization by enforcing standards for quality and performance. Simultaneously, leaders are evaluating the standards and policies and “the way things are done” on a much larger scale. Theoretically, leaders are not bound by what was. Instead, they are conceptualizing what could be.

Leaders are not afraid of change if that change creates new value for the organization. For example, a company experiencing a decline in sales may need to enter a new market segment or diversify product offerings. A leader would anticipate this opportunity, communicate this vision with the front-line managers who can bring this goal to fruition, and enable the managers to enact the change effectively throughout the organization. As you can imagine, it’s crucial for leaders to exude confidence in their vision and remain positive, even in the face of uncertainty.

According to Moustafa El Hadid of Training Magazine (2015), there is a “sweet spot” of overlap between the two roles of leader and manager within the organization. El Hadid goes on to say, “the best practice is to be a blended person […] to achieve the maximum results” (El Hadid, 2015). Leader managers clearly communicate their vision and motivate others to accomplish goals. Additionally, they are excellent with mobilizing resources that are needed to achieve the objectives set forth. Leader managers are “the face” of the organization to the employees internally and to the stakeholders externally.

Contextual Factors

When you think of some of today’s most successful and admired global business leaders, do you attribute their success to their inherent capabilities, skills, attributes, and actions? It’s easy to think about their impact on the organizations they lead but have you thought about the effect that the organizations can have upon them and their abilities to accomplish great things as leaders?

FACTORS

CONTEXTS

As we previously discussed, situational factors and context, as in the environment that the leader is in, can have a significant impact on leader effectiveness. It is important for leaders to understand that various contexts, such as business, non-profit, military, and volunteer organizations, require different leadership skills due to organizational characteristics and culture (A.C. Macris Consultants, 2006).

LEVEL OF INFLUENCE

One contextual factor that is important to consider is the level of influence that a leader’s position requires. It has been suggested that the leadership skill level and abilities are inversely related to the level of influence they have. For example, a position with a high level of influence, such as a military commanding officer, requires fewer leadership skills as the position naturally holds a high level of influence. Conversely, leader roles in volunteer organizations require a great amount of leadership skills as the influence they have may be perceived as very low. Therefore, they must work harder to motivate organizational members to take actions to accomplish goals. Business leaders are generally in the middle. They have a medium level of influence and the developmental level of the organization, or context may require a higher level of leadership skill or adaptability than that of a volunteer organization (A.C. Macris Consultants, 2006).

Organizational Culture

A leader’s role in an organization is tied very closely to organizational culture, which encompasses the norms, values, behavior patterns rituals and traditions of those in the organization.

CULTURE VS. LEADER’S ROLE

· CULTURE

Culture is also thought of as “the way we do things around here.” This “pattern of shared assumptions” is learned by a group over time and through experiences (Schein, 2010, p. 73). It is also expected that new members of the group, or organization, quickly learn and adapt to these norms and rituals of behavior, which may be implicit or explicit (nonverbal or clearly stated).

· LEADER’S ROLE

It’s important to recognize the leader’s role as a founder or shaper of culture, as organizational values are often emulated and communicated from the top-down. Leaders of organizations define culture and, in some situations, the culture defines the leader as well. It’s crucial that leaders are aware of culture so that they may continue to shape it or reinforce it. Although they may have set certain expectations or boundaries, members of the group may try to test them. The culture may also, eventually, become a hindrance to reaching maximum potential as an organization. As Schein stated (2010, p. 22):

“[I]f elements of a culture become dysfunctional, it is the unique function of leadership to perceive the functional and dysfunctional elements of the existing culture and to manage cultural evolution and change in such a way that the group can survive in a changing environment. The bottom line for leaders is that if they do not become conscious of the cultures in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them. Cultural understanding is desirable for all of us, but it is essential to leaders if they are to lead.”

Picture yourself in a new job in your dream organization. You have researched the organization’s long-term goals and are familiar with their mission. When you start the job, you notice that managers have an open-door policy and employees are always welcome to come in and ask questions. You have been doing that a lot but you notice that your manager is becoming annoyed with you. The manager starts to close his door around the time that you’ve been coming in to ask questions.

You email the manager and he provides a quick response that he would be happy to meet as long as you make an appointment. You speak with other employees and they tell you that the best way to communicate with the manager is on his terms at a predetermined time and location. You notice the manager starts opening his door again. Do you go in?

This is an excellent case of how organizational culture can impact the successful entrance or transition of a new employee who is unfamiliar with the norms of the department and how they do things. As a leader, what could you do to alleviate this? Think in terms of development. What about a brief training period of job shadowing with other coworkers? This would provide a great opportunity for you to learn from another person who has a firm grasp on the culture through their own experiences.

Organizational Health

An important factor to be considered in leadership effectiveness is the organizational health of the company. According to research conducted by Bazigos, Gagnon, and Schaninger, (2016),

“other elements, such as keeping groups on tasks and bringing out the best in others, vary in importance depending upon an organization’s circumstances.” They went on to say, “organizational health changes over time. Effective situational leadership adapts to these changes by identifying and marshaling the kinds of behavior needed to transition a company from its present state to a stronger, healthier one” (Bazigos, Gagnon, & Schaninger, 2016).

Does this make sense to you? Although it’s crucial for you to develop your leadership skills and adapt your leadership style according to the situation, the organizational health plays a large role in the scene that sets your leadership story. Think of a company you know to be struggling today. Maybe they are in financial trouble. Perhaps, they are behind in technology or lack strategic capabilities to seize market share. If you were a leader in an unhealthy company, would you be the use the same leadership tools from your toolbox that you would use in a highly successful company? Probably not.

The Leadership Staircase

The organizational health research conducted by McKinsey & Company yielded an interesting model called the leadership staircase. The staircase is a hierarchy of ideal leadership behaviors according to the health of the organization. It is important to note that the hierarchy demonstrates the need to build upon leader behaviors used in low-performing organizations, but to expand those behaviors as organizational health increases.

For example, a company trying to dig its way out of the trenches of low performance could benefit from leaders who can effectively solve problems, make decisions based upon facts, and recover from failures quickly and in a positive manner. As the organization’s health increases, the leader should continue all the established lower-level behaviors and, additionally, take actions such as clarifying objectives, seeking differing perspectives and utilize a results-orientation. As leaders climb through the organizational health of the company, they build upon the staircase of ideal leader behaviors while prioritizing the behaviors towards the top of the hierarchy. For instance, top-performing leaders will focus primarily on modeling organizational values and motivate others but they will still engage in lower-level behaviors such as keeping the group on task and being agile or quick.

Additionally, there are baseline behaviors that are crucial for leaders to engage in regardless of the organizational health of the company. These are represented as the base of the staircase in the hierarchy. Some of these essential leader behaviors are demonstrating a genuine concern for people, championing desirable changes, and facilitating collaboration while offering a critical perspective.

External Environmental Factors

In addition to the internal organizational factors, leaders must consider, there are also external environmental factors that impact a leader’s ability to succeed. One of the most obvious factors that can impact organizational and leader success is competition. It’s very important for a leader to understand the competitive forces that exist within an industry as it will be their mission to develop strategies that will result in organizational capabilities and competitive advantage. Competition is also an important factor to consider in our technologically advancing global society.

Other external factors such as legal, political, or ethical landscapes must be considered as they can impact your organization’s ability to achieve goals. Also, think about the diversity of your customer market and how some of these forces shape their attitudes and behaviors as well. As businesses are increasingly global, these diversity factors have become even more important for the success of organizations and leaders. “Recognizing potential opportunities and threats outside of your operations are keys to business success” (Kokemuller, 2017).

While some of these factors seem completely outside of your control as a leader, if you did not at least analyze and understand some of these forces, would you be successful as a leader? As you navigate your organization through hard times, can you imagine overlooking some of these crucial factors? Even if your company is doing very well with a product that was technologically ahead of its time when it was released, what if you neglected to see the changing technological landscape in your industry? What if your competitors saw this change and seized this opportunity while you, as a leader, were just hoping to maintain your current success?

Innovation and Change Management

Today’s landscape of technologically advancing companies, bursting at the seams with innovation , creativity, and research and development initiatives, presents a unique set of challenges for leaders. More prevalent now than ever before, is the need for strong successful executive leadership of companies. This leadership is so crucial for those both inside and outside the organization to fully understand where they are now and where they are about to go. The expectations of today’s leaders are that they can successfully manage both organizational innovation and change.

Innovation Management

Innovative leaders such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs hold tremendous value for their organizations in terms of their impact on the company’s success and profitability. Additionally, the value of excellent leadership is important to internal and external stakeholders as it affects the reputation of the company. Strong and successful executive leaders will bring today’s companies into the future. These leaders must spearhead organizational change effectively, communicate change in a clear and meaningful way, and innovate for competitive advantage.

According to Cutler, “innovation involves the introduction of something new that adds value” (Cutler, 2014, p. 30). This value can take on many forms that benefit business. 

BENEFITS TO BUSINESS

Process innovations leading to increased efficiency or profitability.

Product innovations leading to increased sales through untapped markets through the use of new technologies or creative solutions to customer problems.

Employee innovations resulting in increased productivity, retention, morale, and motivation through effective human resource management practices.

Customer experience innovations leading to increased sales and increased customer service.

Change Management

Traditionally, the old school method of thought for managers has been to do what has worked well in the past. Managers have been asked to utilize rules, procedures, and processes that are currently established to maintain the status quo. Managers do not encourage questions or feedback. Instead, they convey direction and, in exchange, expect results and high-performance. On the other hand, leader managers of today have a different challenge as the only constant is change. Change is prevalent across the globe, across industries, and across organizations. Outstanding leaders will seek out opportunities for change, not just for change’s sake, but for improvement and attainment of the organization’s strategic long-term goals. To change for the better, it’s almost a necessity to gain input from team members and functional managers who are “on the front lines”, so to speak. We will further discuss methods for gathering such feedback when we discuss leadership communication in a later lesson.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT VS. CHANGE LEADERSHIP

· Change Management

John Kotter (2011), asserted that change leadership was different from change management. He described change management as “a set of basic tools or structures intended to keep any change effort under control” (Kotter, 2011). The goal of change management was to reduce the impacts of change and to minimize any distractions that may hinder effective transition through the change.

· Change Leadership

Conversely, the concept of change leadership “concerns the driving forces, visions, and processes that fuel large-scale transformation” and involves change on a much larger scale (Kotter, 2011).

Change leaders are referred to as the “engines” of change because they empower the organization with their visions. Where will the change take us? Why are we, as an organization, changing at this moment? These are the questions that change leaders focus on, while change managers are ensuring successful execution of the change leaders’ visions.