Day to Day or A Vision for the Future – Management and Leadership

On 16th May 2019, Bob Hawke passed away in his home in Sydney.  He was aged 91.  Bob had served as the Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 until 1991.  Soon after his passing, Australia gave an emotional farewell to Bob in a spectacular memorial service at the Sydney Opera House. Several speakers related Bob’s ability to listen to a wide range of people so that he understood a broad range of local and global, social and political issues.  The central message form these speakers was that Bob communicated a vision for reforms and changes and led the country on a journey.  He was able to make tough decisions but bring his team and the country with him.  The speakers concluded that the legacy of his leadership and social reforms in Australia and abroad are fondly remembered by all Australians and leaders from all over the world. 

In contrast to this example of leadership, at the time of writing (September 2019):

• Hong Kong has experienced extensive social unrest, and clashes with the previously admired police force,

• The British political system, under recent leadership, has been paralysed and split over the Brexit decision and

• The US is developing relationships with traditional enemies, sometimes at the expense of long-time traditional relationships.

The unrest and common thread through these seemingly unrelated events could be seen as the outcome from an authoritarian approach from appointed leaders.  Leadership in the world is becoming more complex and challenging.  Social networks as a way of communicating are making it difficult for any one person to control a news cycle.  As a result, authoritarianism seems to be on the rise in areas where we never expected it. 

Great leadership is really difficult to do well.  Great leaders are hard to find.

In the absence of leadership, an organisation and country will fall back to a management function, and in some cases, authoritarian rule.

The reality in a small business is that the founder and managing director will require a mix of management and leadership skills.  It’s a delicate balance and can become one of the key reasons preventing small businesses from achieving its business potential.  Founders who remain focused on the management side will gradually have trouble with staff retention, suffer personal burnout and find that their business growth stagnates.

A common misunderstanding is that great leaders must first become great managers.  The skillset is very different.  Of course, a great manager can become great leaders and vice versa, but it doesn’t always follow.

All organisations need managers.  You should take care of promoting high-performance individual contributors into management roles.  The best transitions I have seen from this change, and promotion opportunity is when the new manager has their well-honed personal systems, an ability and willingness to continue learning and an ability to teach the processes and craft to his team.  At the same time, being able to manage time for themselves and their team member becomes an important learning curve.

“Next Generation” has a list of the commonly held management functions.  As an example, managers:

• Give direction

• Have subordinates

• Use an authoritarian style

• React to change.

In a semi-skilled or tightly controlled standard process work environment or where safety is a very high priority, these management functions may be essential.  If there is deviation, lives can be at risk or products develop faults.  The clear, consistent and timely direction is critical.

However, in a less controlled environment where creativity or variance to process is required, then management style needs to feature more facilitation and less prescriptive direction.  It is not much point for hiring talented people and then removing their need to think.  This sounds very basic, but micro-management by small business founders is quite a common phenomenon.  It should be expected. The ability to let go and facilitate at a higher level is not easy to do when it is all your own money and risk.  As the founder surrounds herself with a talented and skilled team, learning to lead and facilitate gradually is mission-critical.

Growing organisations need leaders as well.  Some of the great leadership characteristics were mentioned in the above piece on Bob Hawke.  Vision and listening are two key things.  Both difficult to do, especially when you may already know the answers and cannot see the point.  I have seen amazing power develop in a leader as individuals from all levels in an organisation realise that they are being listened to, and their opinion counts.  They are not looking to get all their way but seeing some influence in the decision making, and company direction convince them to get on board for the journey and follow the leadership.

The leadership of a small business organisation needs to own the strategy and internal messaging.  As part of this, the Mission, Vision and Values for the organisation need to be communicated and finessed on an ongoing basis.  The finessing comes about through asking questions throughout the organisation, understanding the personal motivations of key stakeholders, observing changing market conditions and making timely decisions. 

As a business founder, developing a leadership team is one of the most difficult challenges you will face.  It can also be the most rewarding.  Some of your chosen leaders will not have what it takes.  Others will astound you.  Quite often, it can have very little to do with age or tenure.  Many organisations try to buy leadership in the organisation.  However, a mix of internal development and new talent injection is probably the best result.

If you want to grow your business, you need both great leaders and managers.  They are not necessarily the same individuals.  There is a need for both.  Whomever you select for the roles, be prepared to invest in their development.  Not all will be successful, but that is part of your leadership role; keep your longer-term Mission, Vision and Values top of mind.

Reference:

• “The difference between Management and Leadership” Next Generation

• “Management is (still) not Leadership” John Kotter January 2013 HBR