A Point of View

Larry Wmmk is the senior consulting partner ofpathways Management Consulting Services, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also the co- author of Outcome Manage- ment-Redesigning Your Business System to Achieve Your Vision (Quality Re- sources/AMA COM Books, 1995) and the author of Teaching the Pig to Sing and Other Lessons of Leadership and The Good Manager’s Diary.

How to Strengthen Your Leadership Mettle

Larry Womack

. . . “Bring meonlygood news!”ordered thesales manager of the marine products wholesaler. When his charges did otherwise, they were blamed for whateverproblems they brought before him. Fed up with thesales manager’s practice of “killing the messenger, ’’ the company president asked the manager to stop; but he didn’t, and no additional corrective action was taken. The sales manager personally controlled over 30 percent of the company’s sales. The president was afraid that further retribution for the demoralizing practice might cause the sales manager to take business elsewhere.

. . . I n operation for less than a year, thefledgling advertising agency had already won an award for a radio commercial created for its largest account, a chain of auto transmission repair facilities. A salesman from a radio station on which the commercial was regularly aired told the CEO of the agency that there had been numerous complaints that the advertised offer was misleading and unethical. The CEO told the salesman that she’d talk with the client andget to the bottom of the matter. When she confronted the irascible owner of the chain, he told her it was none of her business. He said that herjob was toprepare commercials from the information hegave her. Without discussing the matter with her partners, she resigned the account on the spot.

n the first story, the president of the company may have saved the loss of current sales, but severely damaged the future of the company by ,allowing what he considered to be unacceptable behavior to continue.

In fact, his unwillingness to risk the consequences of eliminating the behavior made killing the messenger acceptable conduct, at least for the sales manager. The CEO in the second story may have created a financial dilemma for herself and her partners, but she left the client meeting with her integrity and the company’s reputation intact.

CCC 0277-8s S6/95/140419-0S 0 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

National Productivity Review/Autumn 1995 19

“Courage,” said C.S. Lewis, “is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” Successful leadership of a company or a department requires more than calculation, experience, delegation, and good decision making. It requires leadership mettle. Mettle, according to Webster, is “quality of temperament and disposition.” Shakespeare often used mettle as a synonym for courage.

IF IT FEELS RIGHT, DO IT Leadership mettle comes from knowing what to do with both the mind

and the heart. Leaders and managers with mettle use only one rule for decision making: I’ll do it ifit feels right. The woman in the second story knew the right thing to do. Most of us know the right thing to do, but often attempt to ignore what our hearts say. When we make decisions solely with our minds, it is much easier to develop rationales for taking inappropriate actions. If we allow our hearts a say, the right actions are easier to follow, even when we know that the short-term consequences will be unpleasant.

Leadership mettle can be developed by following a sound set of ten principles for learning, planning, and successfully executing the process of leading. As outlined below, they are expressed as rules and in a negative framework. The reason for the admonishing tone is that until new leadership behavior patterns are established, such guidelines are often more easily understood and followed if they are expressed negatively. Also, some find it easier to understand what they must give up to be successful than what they must take on.

I . No uagueness-The primary role of leadership is to provide clear, challenging missions for developing ideal business systems through creation, redesign, or improvement. A mission is best expressed through a direct statement drawn from the future demands of the customer and the vision from the company’s leadership.

2. No tampering-Processes and systems must be managed, People must be empowered with missions, knowledge, information, tools, and a culture with which they can successfully perform and improve work. Managers serve their associates by providing consistency and continuity of purpose. Managers establish the attitude and latitude of the worker through a genuine and ongoing empowerment process.

3. No corruption-Form follows function. The organization’s struc- ture, infrastructure, and activities must be driven by the needs of the customer and the business of the company, not by personal needs and ambitions. The organization, as well as its leaders and managers, must always be subject to and ready for change.

4. No fear-The leadership must identify and remove all cultural barriers within the organization. It is often easier to succumb to what we fear than to attain what we desire. That is why some leaders turn to intimidation as a leadership style. But, the intimidation style of leadership never produces lofty results.

5. No exceptions-The system must reward only the desired behav-

Successful leadership requires leadership mettle.

20 National Productivity Review/Autumn I995

A Point of View

ior. If collaboration is the desired behavior, then the company’s reward system must be based on collaboration.

6 No sbortsigbtedness-The vision and missions provided by the leadership are the beginning points of planning. “What we want” is the driver, not “What can we make out of what we have?”

7. No bias-The purpose of data and information collection is to enhance redesign and improvement opportunities. Knowledge is acquired to elevate visioning, planning, and performance, not to v e r ~ history or protect personal territory. Training and education must be an outgrowth of need. Training is provided at the time of need, education is provided before the need. Both are best learned through experiences, not through lectures.

8. No waste-The use of technology eliminates waste-wasted effort and wasted time. Technology is also used to modelprotot9 (ideal) ways of work and to identify improvement opportunities for serving the customer and performing work. The battle cry of the quality movement is do it right the first time! Benjamin Franklin, however, said it best: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

9. No novelty--Techniques and tools must be selected for appropri- ateness, rather than their reputation or novelty. Many methods are touted as useful in addressing business challenges. Choose only those techniques or tools that provide significant business advantages and that can be positively synthesized with all other operative strategies and procedures of the company. Stay away from fads and faddish behavior.

10. No insincerity-Management philosophies and improvement projects must be viewed as a part of work, not as an extra layer of labor. There is no line between the routine and the special in the valuing of work, only the degree of contribution the activity makes to the achievement of the vision. Don’t organize people to make change and then not support them in the changes they recommend.

LEADING, FOLLOWING, AND DECIDING WHO’S IN’ CHARGE Is it harder to be a leader or a follower? When I was recently asked this

question at a seminar for management consultants, I blurted out, “Follow! It is more difficult to be a good follower. Take the late Ginger Rogers, for example. She had to do everything Fred Astaire did-backwards, in high- heel shoes, and half the time Fred didn’t even know what he was going to do next!” It is very difficult to follow a leader who doesn’t know where he’s going or who approaches management with an “us versus them” attitude.

Why do some managers want to pay employees the least amount of money required to keep them on the job? Why do some managers agree to a plan then change direction in the middle of the execution of the plan, even if the plan is working? Why do leaders want instant gratification from the business, yet expect those who work for them to delay theirs? Why is immediate money often the only measure for success? And the most

It is more difficult to be a good follower.

~~ ~

National Prodzlctivity Review/Autwnn 1995 21

Larry Womack

One can be successful without using and abusing others.

important question for some leaders to ponder: Why did you once enjoy your work and now you don’t? All these questions have the same answer: insecurity.

In one example of an accounting firm, when the firm was small, the founders controlled most of the activities because they did most of the work. As the firm grew larger, absorbed competitors, and established satellite offices, it became difficult to control the affairs of the company. The company’s leaders, accountants at heart, became managers out of neces- sity. Now removed from the very activity that originally drew them into the business, they become insecure about their abilities to make good judgments and to successfully manage the affairs of the growing company.

To mask their insecurity, some managers actually turn to controlling, sadistic, bullying, or abusive behaviors to make sure everyone knows who is still in charge. They turn to management by stupidity, which is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance. Although the company may continue to grow for a while, failure is just around the corner for the ignorant leader who won’t admit that instead of being in control, he or she is actually out of control.

If having a leader with a bad attitude is the worst thing that can happen to a group of people, one with a good attitude can improve morale immediately. Employees want to be on the same side as the leader. They want to follow meaningful, directed, challenging instructions, and to go home every day with a sense of accomplishment. They want to do a good job and get appropriately recognized and rewarded for it. They want you to succeed.

If your people aren’t doing the work you want them to, chances are they’re not working for the right boss. Make work challenging, rewarding, and fun. Eliminate fear, ignorance, and divisiveness from the workplace. Get help for yourself and become curious again. “Curiosity,” wrote Leonard Rubinstein, “is a willing and proud confession of ignorance.” Exchange your bad habits for good ones.

One can be successful without using and abusing others. Out of beliefs, deeds are born. Out of deeds, we form habits. Out of habits, character grows. In character, we find courage or mettle. On courage, we build our destinies.

TAKE TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK The role of an effective leader has changed dramatically over the last

decade. There was a time when a future could be molded from the past and present. Effective leadership now requires examining the future, imaging the potential challenges seen, and then creating a process to bring that future into being.

There was a time when managing the affairs inside the organization could lead to continuing success. In the old seller’s market days, a company could literally save itself rich. However, this is no more-buyers own the marketplace. Effective leaders are prognosticators, predicting what the

National Productivity Review/Autumn 199 5

A Point of viau

customer will want and what the economies, markets, and politics will hold.

Effective leadership requires continuing education. There is no future in the past, and experience is no longer the best teacher. Here are five questions that must be answered in the affirmative if effective leadership is to prevail:

1. Do you know what the future holds for you and your company? 2. Do your followers know what you want them to do? 3. Do you mean what you say? 4. Is education a part of your and everyone else’s work? 5. Do you have the mettle to lead in these turbulent times?

If a single answer is no, then you should be able to develop the next course of action. If your answer to all five questions is yes, take the test again and this time answer with your heart as well as your mind. 0

National Productivity Review/Autumn 1995 23