Leadership – Who’s Working for Whom?

Have you ever been excited to take on a new role while at the same time been secretly worried about how you were going to actually fulfill it? If you answered yes then you are
a) More honest then most people
b) Normal – even if the majority don’t admit it, they are secretly worried as well.

One place that we often forget about learning new skills is by watching others who are responsible for similar duties. We are often so concerned about creating an “image of competence” that we forget to look around to see who is doing a good job (and just importantly, who is doing a poor job).

Like most people I have scores of experiences and examples of both good and bad supervisors. The good supervisors were true leaders. The bad supervisors were truly bad.

Here are a few examples of what happened to me.
a) In one Information Systems organization that I was employed in, a star employee, who had been with the company for years, was promoted to a managerial position. He was a classic example of someone who could not let the people taking over his old responsibilities do their job. He was constantly frustrating them by interfering with their work. He was overriding their decisions and taking over their work. He was also “watching over everyone’s shoulder” to make sure that they were doing the job exactly as he would. As a result, his staff did not learn to think independently about the problems they encountered and they grew to resent him. He very quickly became an ineffective leader.

b) Another manager who had been promoted up through the ranks to a supervisory position was given the task of supervising an information systems team. She was so insecure with her lack of knowledge about what her team’s job was that she became a compulsive control freak. She could not pass by an office without letting the occupant know that s/he was doing something wrong.

The ironic thing about this individual was the amount of leadership training she had received (and was continuing to receive). She would deny training requests from her team members throughout the year so that she would have the budget resources to travel to an annual managers’ retreat. She would spend the week (supposedly) learning all sorts of skills and gaining information; but her management style would not change one bit when she returned. She was a true example of a Peter Principle victim who refused to adapt by applying any skills that were taught to her.

Not all of the people that I have reported to were poor leaders. There are two that in particular were outstanding. Both of them were in part responsible for inspiring me to strive to be a much more effective manager when I took on new supervisory roles. Here are some of the extremely effective things they did.

a) I was once on a project that was stalling. It was a huge project that had significant business benefits as well as large political implications within the company. It had originally been lead by a team of outside consultants who milked the organization for as much money as they could. It was then handed from one manager to another like a hot political potato that nobody wanted.

I had been on the project for two years; the longest of any employees in this organization, and I had watched countless new members come to the team, fail, and then abandon us. I was starting to grow weary of all the new “experts” who kept showing up thinking they could solve all the problems in a week if not a day.

In one last bid to save the project a new manager was hired. She came in with a lot of enthusiasm and announced that she was willing to work the long hard hours required to make the project a success and that she expected the same from the rest of the team. “Oh great,” I thought, “another person who expects us to make all kinds of personal sacrifices while she discovers that this project is not as simple as she thought.” But then she said something that made me pay attention. She said, “I see my job as supporting you in doing your job. My job is to make sure that you have what you need and to make sure that others within the corporation do not impede your success. If you need me to back you up, you have my support.”

She was true to her word. That was just one example of how she was a genuine leader. She motivated the team and made the project a success. Others had failed because they had tried to drive the team through the quagmire of politics. She succeeded because she led the team through it.

b) When I started at a company as a co-op student I discovered that the president had an unusual philosophy. I should point out that it is a well-known philosophy, just unusual for it to be actually practiced. This president lead the company based on the inverted pyramid model. He explained that he was not the most important person in the company; the customers were. He went on to indicate that the next most important people were the ones who dealt with the customers daily; the front line customer service representatives. Each level below in importance was the level providing support for the level above. It was a manager’s job to support her/his staff and provide them with what they needed to do their job. It was the directors’ job to support the managers and the vice-presidents’ job to support the directors. He finally arrived at himself at the bottom of the pyramid. He said, “I am the least important person in the organization because I am the furthest removed from the customer. I do not provide this company with revenue and I do not interact with customers. It is my job however to support the organization and make sure that it has what it needs to operate.”

This gentleman set an incredible example for the company. He would constantly walk around the organization and encourage people. On numerous occasions he sat down at a computer terminal and helped the team setting up new accounts - because he could see that they were back logged.

Now a traditionalist might argue that this man had no business doing such a menial job when he should be up in his office running the company. The truth is he was doing a phenomenal job of running the company. He was leading it and motivating the employees in a way that he could not possibly do from his office. He could not activate new accounts nearly as fast as those who did it day in and day out, but that did not matter. He was building a team in the company, establishing a rapport, developing relationships and inspiring that team to follow him when he made decisions.

Unfortunately for the company, a political play made by the CEO forced the president out. The CEO elected himself to the position of president. He was a man who liked to be in charge, to give orders from the top and have them followed. He also made sure that he was first in getting any recognition for successes.

Within a year the company went from being a very non-political organization with a can-do attitude to an organization that was almost paralyzed with politics. The project that I mentioned earlier was close to becoming a fatality because of those politics. It amazes me still when I think of how fast the positive corporate culture in that organization was destroyed by one selfish individual who called himself a leader.

From these two examples and other examples within my own experience I have learned that it is critical for a leader to “work for her/his staff”, to provide them with the support that they need to do their job, and to protect them from the politics and other hindrances that might impede them from doing an excellent job.

If leaders within an organization actually implemented these principles their organization would become unbelievably effective.

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Copyright © 2007 David Mudie All Rights Reserved

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