Management vs. leadership?

An often debated and analyzed question is the difference between the role of a manager and a leader.  I would claim that both must include portions of each, and the roles are rather a continuum than a stark division. The leader’s key role is envisioning the future and the manager’s is focusing on executing that vision, but leaders must also be able to execute, and managers to envision. It’s all about shifting emphasis, which can be good news for leadership development.

As managers are more focused on execution, and getting things done through their team members, I insist that the two core skills for a manager are always performance management and employee development. The right way to identify developmental priorities is to do a competency analysis, but I assure you, these two core competencies will be there. Performance management would include skills like goal setting, informal feedback, coaching, corrective dialogues and evaluating performance. Goal setting also means the ability to link the vision and the organizational goals to the day-to-day work of the team members. Employee development encompasses interviewing skills, career dialogues, development planning and coaching. Just having these two fundamentals covered guarantees a solid management base for execution. The other competencies vary based on organization culture and strategic priorities.

Leadership is all about change. Great leaders must be able to envision the future and articulate it with clarity so that the vision is so compelling that they can rally the troops to support the strategic moves that are critical for the organization. To be able to envision the future, they have to be comfortable with a certain level of ambiguity and willing to take calculated risks. The execution piece is still there: They must know how to manage the organization culture and its processes to guarantee that the results are met.

Whether it’s the leader or the manager, they must continuously build their functional, operational and business acumen to earn and maintain their credibility. Complexity increases as they climb the management ladder.

Many companies struggle with their middle management development. This is the twilight zone where both management and leadership skills are required. It is the testing ground on who will make it to the highest levels of leadership. Middle managers must balance both short term execution and long term change leadership priorities, while demands and complexity are increasing for them. They must get very good at the management fundamentals while starting to adapt to the higher level leadership skills.

It’s not a question of management OR leadership, it’s a question of how much of each. Which management and leadership competencies are important in your organization?

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Lighthouse management: Are you visible to your people?

As a leader of your organization, think of yourself as a lighthouse. You provide direction and assurance in the dark. People look up to you. Everything you do is very visible. The higher you get, the more attention your actions and decisions attract. Being a lighthouse is not for the faint of heart. Is all the scrutiny and responsibility worth the rewards? Make up your mind, because a lighthouse without a light is quite useless.

Light up the vision

The lighthouse manager brings clarity to the team or the organization. Every initiative and task has a purpose and is connected to the overall goals of the company. The leader is the one who reminds the team of the ultimate purpose when it’s hard to prioritize, and pulls people back from the tactical noise when it gets in the way of what really matters.

Light up the values

The lighthouse manager walks the talk. S/he leads by example and illustrates the core values of the organization with every action and decision. People notice what managers disapprove, tolerate, approve or encourage, so the lighthouse manager is very intentional about it.

Light up in tough times

In stormy weather, lighthouses are more important than ever. People need assurance that everything will be OK, that the company will survive this. They need a clear vision of how to get through the worst and what their role will be in it. Lighthouse managers will make themselves even more visible in times of change or trouble.

You don’t need to be with your people every second of the day. You just need to provide a frequent cadence of brightness, enough to provide confidence that they and the organization are on the right track.

Leading with courage

We read books and watch movies of the great war-time commanders, the adventurers and the founding fathers, and fantasize about inspirational leadership. Yet, we see excellent leaders and good managers all around us. They perform small acts of courage every day and command a devoted following by their teams. These are the leaders who are followed by top performers from one company to another.

True vision

It is one thing to create and articulate a vision. It’s a whole other ball game to faithfully follow your vision. There are temptations and distractions, and true leaders know when to stay the course and when to make a correction. Visionary leaders put a stake in the ground. When it’s time to adapt the strategy, the courageous leader is not afraid to put the past behind.

True values

Courageous leaders use the company values to really guide day-to-day decision making. If the core value is Quality, the company will not ship a product until it meets the standards everyone can be proud of, even if it means a delay in delivery. If the company has to do cost cutting, leaders with courage might look at trimming the workforce equally among their own staff as they would in the front lines.

True connection

Courageous leaders are not afraid to expose their egos and form true relationships. I once heard a senior VP tell his managers to LOVE their employees. It means to be interested in them as persons with real lives, not merely as resources to be allocated. When you care enough, you put more effort into developing them and pushing them to their potential. It also takes courage to make those tough discussions when they need them. True leaders also stand up for their team, when junk rolls downstream. They take the heat so that their team can work in peace. They fight for resources and speak up when requirements on the team are beyond reason. Courageous leaders are also willing to take on challenges to stretch the team’s capabilities.

True words

Courageous leaders are transparent. They don’t exaggerate, neither do they sugarcoat news. They tell it like it is, with compassion. When the team needs to know what’s going on, they can go right to the source. The courageous leader is also not afraid to say “I don’t know.” Courage builds trust.

Have you met courageous leaders?

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Don’t be so sure your employees will stay forever

Gallup’s recent survey reveals that 70% of American employees are disengaged at work, 18% of them actively disengaged, in other words actively resisting company efforts and recruiting other employees on their side. The other 52% are going through the motions, not really excited about the vision of their employer. The recession has kept them from leaving, but as the economy is turning around, the grass is getting greener and fast.

Obviously, the key to retention is to have the basics in place:

• Opportunities to grow and learn.
• A supportive supervisor that provides clear expectations, feedback and coaching
• Good relationships with coworkers
• Clear and inspiring company vision that ties to daily work
• Recognition for good work
• Tools and resources to do a good job

Smart companies get their employee feedback on these elements frequently and act fast to correct any gaps. Depending on the size of your company, you can use focus groups, surveys or a combination of both. Good talent management processes, investment in management and leadership skills result in improved retention.

Short term, your first priority should be your actively engaged employees and high performers. Schedule ‘stay interviews’ with them to discuss what keeps them engaged, and to identify any potential obstacles that might turn into attrition triggers. Take time to share your appreciation for their contribution and energy. Be mindful that one of the typical mistakes managers make is to keep on piling more work on the star performers, because they keep delivering – until one day it’s just too much and they leave.

For the whole team, it is important to see a clear vision of a brighter future. They have been through some tough times, and other companies may seem more attractive just because they are a change of scene. Be a transformational leader and paint a picture they can all see. Set clear milestones they can believe in.

Pay special attention to growth opportunities. If you can’t afford training, you can certainly afford stretch assignments, coaching and mentoring. Talk about career aspirations beyond the grim today. Be creative.

Facilitate deeper connections at work. It doesn’t have to be an expensive party. Maybe you will take some time in the beginning your team meetings to talk about some unique details about each person you didn’t know before. Start by sharing something about yourself. Close work relationships improve retention and engagement.

What other things have you done to keep your employees?

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved. SVPGMGDX8TEC

Do you LOVE your job? Rediscovering passion at work.

What keeps puzzling me is how some people are passionate about their work and some are not. Look at the healthcare workers who dropped everything to go and help the victims in Haiti. There are scientists who spend nights at their labs to find a new solution to our energy crisis and Olympic athletes who sacrifice their normal youth for one chance to be number one. But these jobs are so alluring and have a higher purpose, we say. But what about the lady at my grocery store who packs my purchases faster than anyone else? She sorts them by kind to make it easier to unpack, and does all this with a smile. You can tell she is proud of her work. And I know software developers who love coding so much they take their laptops to bed. There are also doctors, scientists, media personalities and athletes who are not passionate about what they do. My claim is that it’s not about the job; it’s something else.

In the old days, we used to have artisans and craftsmen, who learned their profession through apprenticeship and years of practice. They even assumed their last names based on their trade. They marked their work with their initials and made sure it was well done. In the age of mass production and standardization, employees can still carry the mark of ownership and pride to their work. This is a personal choice. You can be today’s craftsman of your own trade.

We also have our natural skills and talents. Some of them are more obvious and transferable to a career than others. The greatest gift parents can do for their children is to let them explore their gifts and interests and guide them to the right path, not necessarily the one they had in mind in the first place. If we get to do something that comes easy for us, the passion follows. Maybe it’s not the whole job, but a part of your job.

When we talk about a calling, it has to do with making a difference. If I work for a charitable organization or an emergency room, the impact is easy to see. However, every organization is necessary and has a purpose in its own way. Find out how your company’s products are used, how customers experience the solutions, and what is needed to strive towards the company’s vision. Make sure you see the connection between your line of work and why your company exists. Then decide to be the best that you can be.

The most intense moments of recorded happiness are experienced at work during flow. When we set challenging goals for ourselves, avoid interruptions and give our best, our chances to get into the flow increase. That is passion. It can happen in any job.

In today’s economy, it may sound a bit arbitrary to talk about passion. Those who don’t have a job feel stuck and forced to take whichever job they may get. Those who are already in a rut are painted in a corner and can’t leave in the fear of not finding a more fulfilling position. Even in this situation, job passion can be achieved. Make a long term plan to get to your final destination that matches your natural gifts and the work environment you desire. In the meanwhile, create opportunities to get into the flow and take pride in whatever you do in your current trade.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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Do you manage your organization culture, or does it manage you?

Toyota has recently been under fire due to its recalls and quality issues. It is drawing additional attention because the Toyota brand used to represent quality. What happened? Quality and industry experts suggest that Toyota management veered away from its own corporate culture based on respect for people and continuous improvement – the Toyota Way – and it’s now paying the price.

Organization culture is such a nebulous concept. The visible parts are quite obvious for the new comer, such as the dress code, how punctually meetings start, or how fast paced the work is. But the invisible norms and values you have to learn over time, e.g. how people work together, how they share information, and what the level of trust is between people and departments.

Every organization has a culture, whether it’s stated or not. Sometimes the articulated culture in printed brochures can be in conflict with the actual informal culture. When this happens, leadership efforts to manage the culture lose credibility. It’s fine to be aspirational in culture statements, but it’s not OK to be totally clueless.

These are the steps to manage organization culture:

1. Assess the current culture. Know the baseline. A combination of focus groups and surveys typically accomplish this task most efficiently.

2. Articulate the desired culture. This should have a connection with the organization’s vision, with respect to its past. The desired culture is often a mixture between realistic description of the actual culture and the description of the ideal culture the organization is striving for.

3. Weave the culture into everyday actions and decisions. Start with the selection and promotion criteria. Reinforce it in all training and development. When people are recognized, it is done based on cultural values. In any organization, employees note that resources are allocated to the most important priorities. Thus, resource allocation should also be true to the cultural values.

4. Measure the culture development. Do frequent checks on how your workforce perceives the culture. Annual surveys are a good yardstick to create trending data. At the launch, you may even measure the culture twice a year, as long as you are prepared to act on the survey feedback.

Equally as important as strengthening the culture is to be aware of actions and decisions that are counterproductive. Every time a decision is made where the cultural values were not used, it puts into question the organization culture. For example, if a company declares that work life balance is one of its core values but frequently recognizes employees who put in long hours, it contradicts its own values. Or, if a company who promotes a customer-focused culture cuts customer service resources before touching other departments, it may have to rethink its priorities.

Usually, compromises and tough times bring out the true colors. Those that are true to their values will have a guiding star for their decision making and will be able to make consistent decisions and strengthen their external brand as well as their employment brand.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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Kick off a winning year with a balanced scorecard

One of the key drivers for employee engagement is to make sure that your employees have a clear vision of the company’s future. They should see a connection to how their daily work contributes to it. The balanced scorecard is an effective tool that helps management crystallize priorities and then articulate them. Later on, the scorecard is used to track progress towards the common goals.

Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton created the balanced scorecard concept as a performance measurement framework to balance a purely finance-driven focus with other equally important performance indicators. These are the key performance perspectives:

• Learning and growth – effective workforce and work systems
• Business processes – operational excellence in work flows
• Customer expectations – measuring what matters to customers
• Financial expectations – measuring what matters to shareholders

One way to look at these performance indicators is that one builds on another. Without a good workforce, your work processes will not be executed to high standards. Without good workforce and high quality processes, you cannot meet customer expectations. Without meeting customer expectations, you will not be financially successful – at least not for the long haul.

The metrics in the balanced scorecard are based on the priorities of the company. Most likely you will start setting your company objectives by focusing on financial and customer expectations. When you select metrics for customer expectations, you really have to be true to your customers. If they care about your lead times, you track your lead times. If their priority is your responsiveness or quality, you must find a way to measure that. Customer satisfaction surveys provide a metric that you can track year over year.

You will meet financial and customer objectives by driving improvements in your workforce and business processes. What are your key initiatives this year? What are your business-as-usual metrics that will tell you the “state of the union”?

Once the objectives and targets are set, it is time to cascade the information down to the organization. Each business unit and each department needs to align their goals to ensure that they are contributing to the same priorities. Their goals will be subsets of the scorecard goals. The employees should see a clear line of sight from their work priorities all the way up to the company strategic priorities.

The scorecard wouldn’t be a scorecard without tracking. You set targets, and you frequently track progress to goals. The easiest way to communicate the status is to use the stoplight chart. Green means on target, yellow means limited deviation from it (often  max. 10% off), and red means too much deviation from the target. It is easy for the management and for the employees to spot where everything is going well and where problem solving is necessary.

The balanced scorecard process ensures that the strategy process does not become a once-a-year event. Instead, it will be a constant reminder of the company priorities and progress towards the common goals.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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