Many years ago, when my working career was about two years old, our manager announced that the “leadership” from head office was going to be visiting us. We were given the heads-up re how to dress and behave. As you can imagine, there was some excitement at this news as we had never met the “leadership” from head office but understood that they controlled how much we would be paid. So we prepared the office in anticipation for this visit.
We all arrived at the office the next morning, dressed appropriately and waited. We had been told the “leadership” would be arriving at 0900, so at the appointed time we were all sitting at our desks looking busy. 0900 came and went. 10:00 came and went. 1030 arrived and so did the “leadership”. There were seven of them and they were all 181cm tall and wore black suits, white shirts, black lace-up shoes and blue ties. All carried identical black briefcases. Their hair was parted on the left. They looked like clones!
To get to our managers office, they had to walk through the open office where we all sat. This they did in step and in single file. Not a glance left or right and no acknowledgment of us at all. They arrived at our managers office, opened the door and went inside. 90 minutes later they left, and once again marched through the open office in single file without looking left or right.
A short while after they left, our manager came into the open office area and proceeded to “chew us out” over the list of unsatisfactory points that the “leadership” had chewed him out about!
So this was the management environment that I grew up in – leaders are only visible when things go wrong and they need to blame someone. Needless to say, when I went into my first junior management post, I did exactly that – I was conspicuous by my absence, and only appeared when I needed to “chew someone out”! It was interesting to me that the only things that I was “chewed out” about as a junior manager, was low sales, low morale among my staff and high staff turnover. I found out later that these were the things that the “leadership” were chewing my boss out about too. I think you can draw the “setting the example” line.
So my idea of leadership was this – do as I say and obey me unflinchingly otherwise there will be trouble! Oh I forgot to tell you that the first team of people that I was given to manage, all resigned within one month of my “promotion”. You can guess why!
But I got lucky. I was given a second chance, with no training or coaching being part of the deal, and I met someone outside of the company, who had a profound effect on my management life. He showed me in no uncertain terms, that the “leadership” of the company where I worked were not the leaders of the company. They were the bosses – and that there is a hell of a difference between a leader and boss. He taught me that a leader puts his or her staff first and works at supporting and empowering his or her staff. A boss gives orders and expects them to be obeyed. BIIIIIIIG difference!
I also learned that leaders make sure that all the company compliances including KPI’s are met, but also influences his or her staff to go beyond the requirements of compliance rules and KPI’s. Leaders leverage compliance to use it as a “launching pad” for performance beyond compliance! They “balance” the performance equation. They do not focus on compliance at the expense of performance and neither do they focus on performance at the expense of compliance. They keep the performance equation in balance.
But the most important lesson that I learned was that you can be a leader without being a manager, but you can never be an effective manager without being a leader.
In every department there are two “power centres”. One is the manager who has the power given to him or her by virtue of their management role. This is called positional power. It’s driven by the authority of the position. The other is the leader. This power centre has “permissional power”. In other words, they have power over people because the people say so! This is real power! So if you’re a manager in your department but someone else is the leader, you have a problem. The real power centre in your department lies with the leader. So the challenge is to make sure that you are not only the manager, but that you are also the leader. If someone else is the leader, best you get that person to be your ally, because if you are not the leader or you do not have the support of the leader, you are doomed to fail as a manager.
After around 50 years in business (at the time of writing this article I am 71 and I forgot to retire), I know how difficult and seemingly thankless a management role can be. But by focusing on balancing the performance equation, and letting your leadership skills drive your team, you will find that your team performs beyond just the requirements of KPI’s, and your management stress decreases significantly.
by Mark Deavall
October 2024
If you would like to talk to me, please call me on +2782 465 5481 or email me on markd@markdeavall.com
© All articles are protected by copyright and may not be duplicated or republished in full or in part, without the express written permission of Mark Deavall. You are welcome to share this article with anyone, up to and including this line.