Importance of Leadership

Chapter 1 The splendour of attractorship D. Quinn Mills leaders How to Lead, How to prevail 2005 D. Quinn Mills. All Rights Reserved. leadership How to Lead, How to go bad Few things atomic number 18 much important to human activity than drawing cards. Effective lead helps our nation through times of peril. It cook ups a art governing body successful. It enables a not-for-profit organization to fulfill its committee. The effective lead of p atomic number 18nts enables children to grow strong and healthy and take productive adults. The absence of loss leading is equ solelyy melodramatic in its effects.Without attractership, organizations move too slowly, stagnate, and lose their way. much of the literature about organizations stresses decision-making and implies that if decision-making is incidentally, complete, and correct, then things will go well. still a decision by itself changes nothing. later a decision is made, an organization faces the problem of imp lementationhow to stir things d mavin in a timely and effective way. Problems of implementation ar really issues about how attracters influence behavior, change the course of events, and tame resistance. leading is crucial in implementing decisions successfully.Each of us recognizes the importance of leadership when we vote for our political leaders. We make up that it matters who is in office, so we participate in a contest, an election, to choose the outflank brush offdidate. Investors recognize the importance of business organisation leadership when they say that a secure leader put up make a success of a weak business plan, only when that a poor leader can ruin even the best plan. 10 The Importance of Leadership Who Will Gain from Leadership? Do you demand to be a leader? Or, if youre already a leader, do you want to amend your leadership?Do you want to affect what other mess doto help them accomplish important goals? Do you want to billet the way in your organiz ation? Do you want to climb the promotion ladder to redacts of higher indorsement and abundanter pay? Leadership will make these things possible. You should read this book if You are inte relaxation methoded in leadership and how it affects you. You plan to lead an organization or are already in a leadership position. You are interested in developing yourself to meet the gainsays you will confront in a leadership role. You wish to make a difference in the world through leadership. The Meaning of Leadership What is leadership? It is a process by which single person influences the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of others. Leaders set a direction for the rest of us they help us nab what lies ahead they help us visualize what we might attain they encourage us and inspire us. Without leadership a group of human macrocosms quickly degenerates into argument and conflict, because we see things in different ways and lean toward different solutions. Leadership helps to point us in the equal direction and harness our efforts jointly. Leadership is the 11 Leadership How to Lead, How to screw bility to get other people to do aroundthing significant that they might not otherwise do. Its energizing people toward a goal. Without followers, however, a leader isnt a leader, although followers may only come after a long wait. For example, during the mid-thirties Winston Churchill urged his fellow Englishmen to face the coming threat from Hitlers Ger m each another(prenominal). scarce most Englishmen preferred to believe that Hitler could be appeasedso that a war could be avoided. They were engaged in wishful thinking about the prospective and denial that the future would be dangerous. They resented Churchill for nsisting that they must face the danger. They rejected his leadership. He had precise few followers. only when finally reality intrudedGermany went too far and war began. At this point Churchill was acclaimed for his foresight, and became prime min ister of the united Kingdom during the Second World War. During this period almost all Englishmen accepted his leadership spontaneously. professedly leadership is sometimes hard to distinguish from false leadership, which is merely a form of pretending. Winston Churchill was a real and great leader. But in that respect are also people who wish to appear to be leaders, further arent actually.They say that they are leading others they posture as if they are setting direction and invigorate others. Yet often they are merely pretending. Theres an old saying that the way to become a leader is to find a parade and run to the front of it. We refer to a person leading a parade, further walking at the front isnt really leadership unless the person in front is actually choosing the direction If the person isnt choosing the direction, then being at the front of the gillyflower is merely a way to pretend to be a leader. 12 The Importance of Leadership Leadership can be used for good or ill.Hitler seemed to be a leader of the German people, but he set an evil direction. He had great leadership skills, but put them to terrible uses. sometimes people in business use leadership skills to exploit others. Sometimes people in benevolent organizations use leadership skills to benefit themselves rather than the people they are supposed to help. Leadership skills can be perverted to pursue bad ends. The Importance of Ethics The danger that leadership will be perverted is why ethics are so important to good leadership. Ethics are the inner embrace that directs a person toward what is right and fair. plainly if a person has an inner ethical compass can he or she be sure that leadership qualities will not turn to evil ends. learnedness to lead with good objectives is the only purpose of this book. So let us say that those who do vituperate are not leaders at all we recognize that they may be influential and persuasive, but we will not think of them as leaders. With confid ence that you, good readers of this book, will put leadership to stately ends, we go forward. The Work of the Leader Taking a leadership position means several things A leader must have a vision of the future for the organization and its members. 3 Leadership How to Lead, How to Live EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1-1 TAKING A LEADERSHIP POSITION Taking a leadership position means Having a vision about what can be accomplished. do a commitment to the mission and to the people you lead. Taking responsibility for the accomplishment of the mission and the welfare of those you lead. Assuming risk of loss and failure. pass judgment recognition for success. A leader must be able to express his or her vision clear and in a compelling manner so that others are engaged by it. (See Executive thick 1-1. A leader has to make a commitment to his or her vision, to the organization, and to the members of the organization. A leader cant be committed one day and uninterested the next. People will judge a leader by his or her commitment, and will commit themselves no more than the leader does. A leader assumes a considerable amount of responsibility not just for the mission that he or she urges others to accept, nor just for the organization he or she heads, but for his or her followers, their lives and efforts, as well. 14 The Importance of Leadership A leader assumes risk.If there is no risk, little leadership is required. If the effort is easy and certain to succeed, anyone can, and probably will, lead it. But where the effort entails a risk of failure, then many people will quail before the challenge and leadership is necessary to get people to make the commitment and the effort to succeed. In most organizations, one associates high levels of leadership with high levels of representation. The chief executive of a company usually plays more of a leadership role than people at lower levels of the hierarchy in the firm. It is the same in notfor-profits and presidency agencies.T he higher on the job ladder a person is, the more she is expected to exhibit leadership. In the military, however, the opposite handss true, and for a very good reason. In the military the greatest leadership challenge is to get other people to risk their lives in combat. Generally, the higher one goes in the chain of command, the less motion-picture show he has to the battlefield, and the less exposure to men and women who are in combat. The officers who have responsibility for commanding soldiers in combat have the greatest leadership challenge, for they must get others to risk their lives.Michael Jordans brother is an force sergeant major leading a deployment in Iraq in which he is responsible for more than 2,000 soldiers. Offered an chance to leave his assignment in combat, he chose to stay with his unit in harms way. In so doing, he accepted one of the militarys most significant leadership challenges. 15 Leadership How to Lead, How to Live The branch responsibility in a po sition of leadership is to have a vision. (See Executive compendium 1-2. ) The visionary leader must create his or her concept of what the organization can accomplish.A business leader may be leading a few people in a department or an entire company a military leader a teeny-weeny squad or an entire army. The vision may be lower-rankinger when the group of people is small and much broader when the group of people is large, but it must be forward-looking and excite in both case. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1-2 VISIONARY LEADERSHIP Visionary leadership requires Creating a vision, a mission, and a strategy. communication the vision/mission/strategy and getting buy-in. Motivating action. Helping an organization grow, evolve, and adapt to changing circumstances. The leader must also provide a missionwhat involve to be doneand a strategy, a path, for how to accomplish the mission and achieve the vision, a way for the group to get there. But having an exciting vision, an exciting mission, a nd a careful strategy is not sufficient. A leader must clearly communicate them. Only if people grasp the vision can they commit to it, and buy-in is crucial to motivating action. Finally, a vision cannot be rigid and unchanging it must adapt 16 The Importance of Leadership to changing circumstances, growing and evolving. otherwise it becomes outdated and obsolete, and loses its power to excite and motivate people.Leaders versus Administrators and Managers Leadership is not the same thing as being in a position of authority. It is possible to be a boss in a company without being a leader. A boss can be more of an administrator than a leader. Conversely, an administrator can be effective in his job without being a leader. The administrator is a bureaucrat whether in government or in businessa person who fundings careful records and sees that things are done according to the rules. On the other hand, a leader can be effective without being an administratorleaving rules, regulations , and their enforcement to others.Administration is not as exciting a topic as leadership, but it is almost as important. The success of organizations depends to a great degree on how well they are administered. A manager is often thought to be primarily an administrator. But a manager is not an administrator management requires a special set of skills of its own. And being a manager is different from being a leader, as we shall see below. So there are three roles administrator, manager, and leader. A manager has the broadest role, and a good manager has much of an administrator and a leader in him or her.A manager needs to set direction and inspire others to get work done (leadership functions) and he or she needs to keep records and see that rules are followed (administrative functions). 17 Leadership How to Lead, How to Live The manager is a necessary combination of leader and administrator. (See D. Quinn Mills, Principles of Management, Waltham, MA MindEdge Press, 2005. ) But le adership is the most important of the three roles. Administrators What does an administrator do? (See Executive Summary 13. ) An administrator applies rules and regulations generally developed by top executives of an organization. In the government, the key rules and regulations are often issued by legislative authorities like the U. S. Congress). He or she keeps records and fills out forms necessary to take administrative step (like getting employees paid or reimbursing an employee for travel expenses). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1-3 ELEMENTS OF ADMINISTRATION The elements of administration are Making rules and regulations Making decisions that apply and interpret rules and regulations Keeping records Filling out forms 18 The Importance of Leadership Managers What does a manager do? See Executive Summary 1-4. ) He or she makes plans and creates budgets that set forth in great detail how something will be accomplished and how much money and other resources (e. g. , people, office space) are necessary to accomplish those plans and budgets. He decides who is going to be assigned to the necessary tasks and how they will fit into the organization. She supervises the actions people take, ensuring that they are doing the right things, that no money is being misappropriated or wasted (we call this exacting), and when problems arise she helps to resolve them.Finally, by combining these tasks into a coherent whole, the manager makes the organization operate efficiently. rails an organization effectively requires administration, management, and leadership. Leadership is ordinarily in shorter supply than administrative or managerial competence. Leadership is more important and more demanding for most people. Fewer people are able or willing to be leaders, so it tends to be a higher calling than administration or management. There is a large literature discussing the differences between leaders and managers.There is also an important distinction to make between leaders and administrators. In general, a leader takes a broader view and points an organization toward necessary, even critical, change. The core of the reproval in the literature is that organizations of all sorts (corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations) tend to be over-managed (and/or over-administrated) and under-led. Because of over-management and overadministration, organizations are slow to make necessary changes and achieve less than what they could.This is a substantial criticism that points to the importance of leadership. 19 Leadership How to Lead, How to Live EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1-4 ELEMENTS OF MANAGEMENT The elements of management are Planning and budgeting Setting direction Organizing and staffing Aligning the efforts of many people Controlling Decision-making and problem solving Motivating and inspiring people The Nature of Leadership True leadership is special, subtle, and complex. Too often we confuse things like personal style and a position of authority with leadership. Leadership is not primarily a position personality trait.A trait closely conjugate to leadership is charisma, but many people who have charisma (for example, movie actors and sports figures) are not leaders. Leadership is not primarily a set of important objectives. It involves getting things done. 20 The Importance of Leadership Leadership is not primarily a formal position. There have been great leaders who did not hold high positionsfor example, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jeanne dArcand there are people who hold high positions who are not leaders at all, but administrators who dont want to rock the boat. Leadership is not primarily a set of behaviors.Many leadership manuals suggest that what defines leadership is things such(prenominal) as designate and providing inspiration and vision but people who are not leaders can do these things, and some effective leaders dont do them all. Many discussions of leadership confuse any and all of the abov e personality, important objectives, formal position, specific behaviorswith leadership. (See John P. Kotter, What Leaders Really Do, Boston Harvard Business schooling Press, 1999. ) But leadership is more than any of the above characteristics. Its a process by which one influences the thoughts and behaviors of others in a substantial way.It may involve charisma, important objectives, a formal position, and a particular set of behaviors, but it is not limited to any of them. Effective leaders are often very complex people. Writing about Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England during the English civil wars of the seventeenth century, a first of all historian marveled at the complexity of his personality. There was no single Cromwell, he wrote, that is, a clear-cut several(prenominal)Instead, there was a multiplicity of Cromwells, each linked to the other by his enormous vitalityFirstly, there was the very human, simple and compassionate man, a visionary and a romantic.Secon dly, there was a violent, boisterous and hot-tempered bully. Thirdly, there was the resolute and iron-willed generalFourthly, the calculating politician, the man of expedients who had no guiding principles. 21 Leadership How to Lead, How to Live And lastly, there wasthe Cromwellwho, as the interpreter of Gods will, was capable of committing any atrocity. (J. F. C. Fuller, A Military biography of the Western World, Volume 2, New York Funk & Wagnalls, 1955, p. 110. Because leaders can be so complex, we must be careful in our generalizations about leaders and their personalities. But not all leaders are such complex personalities, which is good for most of us who aspire to leadership. Examples of Leadership Leadership in Business In the 1980s Harley-Davidson was almost knocked out of business by competition from other firms. To survive, it needed to change dramatically. generous Teerlink, the companys leader, was able to save the firm financially, but with the pressure off, the cha llenge of continuing to improve seemed even more frighten away.Could Teerlink get his managers and employees to make the significant, and to many of them inconvenient, changes necessary? He did it by building a different company, one driven from the bottom up by employees rather than from the top down by managers. Its a story of successes and failures, advances and setbacks, dead ends and breakthroughs, ending in a much stronger company than before. (Read the inspiring story in Rich Teerlink and Lee Ozley, More Than a Motorcycle The Leadership Journey at Harley-Davidson, Boston Harvard Business School Press, 2000. 22 The Importance of Leadership Leadership in Government When Charles O. Rossotti became commissioner of the inhering Revenue Service (IRS) in 1997, the agency had the largest customer baseand the lowest approval ratingof any institution in America. Mired in scandal, caught in a political maelstrom, and beset by laboured management and technology problems, the IRS was w idely dismissed as a hopelessly flawed and dysfunctional organization. Rossotti the first businessperson to head the IRStransformed the much-maligned agency.In the glare of intense public scrutiny, he effected dramatic changes in the way the IRS did businesswhile the agency continued to collect $2 trillion in revenue. Through heated congressional hearings, encounters with Washington bigwigs, frank exchanges with taxpayers and employees, and risky turnaround strategies, Rossotti demonstrated leadership against daunting odds. (Read this enlightening story in Charles O. Rossotti, Many Unhappy Returns One Mans Quest to Turn Around the nearly Unpopular Organization in America, Boston Harvard Business School Press, 2005. ) 23