Why and How to Know your Staff Better?

 We Can MANAGE – Whom we Know, With How much We Know and What We Know !!

Ask any number of bosses if they know their subordinates and they will say off-course they do. Do you know:

• About your Subordinates’ birthdays?
• The names of their children?
• Important anniversaries in their lives?
• What date did they join you, get last promotion, achievements at work?
• Their aspirations for the future?

Why to know?

Bosses who walk around their patch regularly. Stop to chat briefly at coffee time and take a personal interest in their staff generally have good rapport with their staff. This in turn leads to positive Assertive Behavior.

Even with small number of staff, it is useful to keep a notebook or a card index of important personal details, interests and major achievement to help you to build up a picture of the whole person. Without this positive effort, we see only the tip of the iceberg of each individual.

Reflect for a moment on following suggestions:

• A good boss/subordinate relation is is often the most important factor in job satisfaction.
• “The Boss” is a powerful influence in most people’s lives.
• The power of shared values as motivators and developers cannot be over-estimated and they can only be transmitted through sound relationships based on mutual knowledge and understanding.
• Your subordinates probably have same ‘hang-ups’ and worries that you have.
• They want to know you too, because they can relate better to someone they can understand as a person.

How to know?

The better we know people, the easier it is to engage their interest in the work and goals of the department, and to develop their abilities and intent to achieving them. Effective Communication, whether verbal or written, always begins with putting yourself in other persons shoes.

You typically almost half of the week with your staff. Hence is is important to know your staff at least half as well as you know your family. Some of the activities are suggested below:

• Do not delegate interviewing your staff.
• Be part of their induction process.
• Do create weekly and monthly interaction/training/development platforms.
• Water Cooler and Coffee break chats are very good and effective tool. Never undermine.
• Periodic family meetings or get-togethers do wonders. One a quarter or twice annually.
• Do create a process, where you have recorded information and timely updates on staff’s important dates – Birthdays, Anniversary, promotion, achievements etc….
• Do make sure that you wish them or congratulate them on their special dates..

Can you think of any more? Please do share what you can think of.

You can’t relate to the unknown, and you cannot develop what you don’t relate with.

Why and How to Be Assertive

 Being Assertive is NOT about Manipulation, Being Bossy or Pushy.

What is Assertiveness?

Being Assertive is about influencing the behavior of others in such a way that we stand up for our rights while recognizing theirs. What we say and the way we say it preserve the Self Esteem of both the parties, and are therefore likely to be more effective than being either aggressive or passive.

Assertiveness is based o Honesty in expressing our feelings and point of view, combined with caring about other person and our future relationship with each other.

Why Assertiveness?

Developing staff depends on a mutually assertive relationship, because Honesty and the Preservation of Self Esteem encourages learning. While Aggression tends to create Defensiveness or Counter-aggression- and may damage the relationship in the future. Passive behavior is unlikely to effect any change and will eventually erode the authority of the boss. Whereas Assertiveness encourages mutual respect and can therefore increase our authority.

Obviously, some situations at work dictate the most appropriate form of response. If you have just had a bomb alert, or have found someone drunk at the workplace, you are not concerned about the niceties of the communication- in either of these events or similar ones, there may not be any future relationship to worry about anyway !

But when it is important to you, to the company, or for the development of the individual, that you effectively influence their behavior without damaging the relationship - then Assertiveness is an Essential Skill to master.

Most people do like imposed solutions, even if they realize that they have been on the wrong side. Compliance may be only short term, whereas commitment to a shared solution represents positive development and can deepen relationships.

Assertiveness will usually not work unless both parties basically care about relationship. Some situations simply can be rescued:

• Either the relationship has gone so bad that there is no mutual respect left.
• or, one or the other side just doesn't care.
• or, is recognized as being insincere in the sentiments being expressed.

Insincerity or Bad faith turns assertiveness into Manipulation and rarely fools anyone.

Benefits of Assertiveness

• It enables you to change unwanted behavior without damaging relationship. (it improves relationships)
• It enables you to give negative feedback without diminishing people's self esteem, and without either of you loosing face.
• Your people and yourself, have greater commitment to agreed changes or action.
• Your people and you yourself develop from the experience.
• You can say NO, where ever appropriate, without creating resentment.
• It Manages conflicts, before they become too destructive.
• It creates better external relations.
• The teams pulls together better with increased openness and mutual respect.
• It develops Self Esteem and Self Confidence.

Can you think of many more benefits? Do it. Lets see how many more you can add.

Everyone has the right to make his /her needs and opinion known and to negotiate a solution. It is not so much what we say is important, but the way we say it.

How to Manage Your Boss

 How do you see your Boss - as a boon or a burden?

It is as much your job to create an effective working relationship with your boss it is his/hers. After-all It takes two to tango. If the relationship is poor, you must be at least half the problem. Once you realize this, you can be at least half the solution.

In normal business situations, we do not get to choose our bosses. This is just like the fact that in our personal lives, we usually do not get to choose our relatives. So, unless we want to make life hell for ourselves and our subordinates, damage the company, or move on, we must find means and ways to effectively collaborate with our bosses. This is to achieve their priorities as well as our own, in pursuit of organisational goals.

There are for important things to remember about bosses:

• They are human i.e they are not infallible and have the same needs and hang-ups as rest of us.
• They are dependent on us as we are upon them.
• They have different constraints, pressures and priorities than we have- it is never quite possible to fully appreciate the view their window.
• They have bosses too.

Not only it is in your own interests to maintain an effective working relationship with the bosses, but as manager, you are also a representative of your subordinates in from of your boss as well as organisation. If your have read my previous blog on Knowing Yourself, identifying your strengths and weaknesses. You use that information to manage your relationship with your boss too.

Managing your boss also means - Influencing your boss. And it is worth remembering that there are four major sources of power:

1. Expertise
2. Personality
3. Resources
4. Status

You and your boss will have varied levels of elements present out of the above four sources of power. In many situations, you and your boss might be almost at par except the fourth one.

 you know about yourself, you boss, and your powerbase, you may influence your boss, in following ways:

• Work on Creating Rapport with your boss.
• Nothing succeeds like success, but only if he the boss knows about it. Find ways to inform him/her of your people's achievements and of your own success.
• Make your boss look good - in front of his boss, management, and his teams.
• Do not let yourself or your team be perceived as problem creators, but as problem solvers.
• Set up healthy boundaries, in yours and your team's relationship with your boss.
• Check out with your boss that staff development that you propose is compatible with company culture and your boss's idea.
• Associate closely with your boss on discussions, propose seminars etc - to enable your boss to effectively develop his team and yours, to help him get to his business goals.
• Involve your boss, in your team's development activities and sessions.
• Share the progress reports and other developments in his business environment. Keep him abreast with whatever is happening and impacting business.
• Nurture contacts and relationships with help of your business, and involving him.

I suggest that you closely discuss with your teams and add more action points. Idea is to create a cordial working environment by creating yourself as an extension of your boss. 

After all your and your boss's objectives are same - Get to the Business Objectives.

How to Manage Disastrous Effects of Stress?

 'Stress Syndrome Foundation' has estimated that every year industry looses billions of dollars due to stress-related illness. It has been fast becoming major disease of our time. This is not only causing high absence rates from sickness but also leads to higher employee attrition. Worst is rising cases of early deaths.

Some occupations have inherently higher stress potential than others. The following examples are drawn from a research done by Cary Cooper, Professor of Organizational Psychology at 'Manchester Institute of Science & Technology'. The ratings are from 10(the highest stress potential) to 0.

Miner (highest Quoted) 8.3

Police 7.7

Nurse, Midwife 6.5

Salesman, Shop assistant 5.7

Civil Servant 4.4

Banker 3.7

Librarian 2.0

You may know people who thrive on pressure- produce their best results against tight deadlines. They are in their element working all hours, and preferable on several different jobs at the same time. A certain amount of pressure is good. it keeps us alert and stimulated, but for each of us there is an optimum level at which we give our best. Beyond that or below it (see the above graph) we can suffer physically and psychologically from stress and strain.

People who operate well and healthy in high pressure jobs are those with a high threshold for pressure. The danger is that this can vary with age, state of general health and other events happening in family and social life. No one is immune from effects of stress if it is not recognized and managed at an early stage. Working in an environment which is constantly below one's pressure optimum can also lead to similar results. Examples - simply not having enough to do, or doing tasks which do not fully utilize one's skills and abilities.

The basis of managing stress is maintaining this optimum pressure balance (refer to the graph above)against constant changes in biological, social and environmental factors, over many of which we do not have much control. It becomes essentially important to recognize that employees are whole people, incorporating social and psychological needs, and not just animated work stations.

Potential sources of stress - major life changes, personality/early experiences, factors inherent to job - are all inter-related and can potentiate and spill into each other.

Life changes also trigger Stress - bereavement, illness, divorce or injury and such other situations.

Supposedly Pleasant Events are also Stress Creators - Marriage of self or in family, Child birth, buying a new bigger house, a new job...

Stress could be due to anyone of the above or combination or a few of the above situations. It could be stressful even in situations like- Public speaking, sudden loss or gain of money. But whatever the reason for stress is, it is of paramount importance that Stress is timely Identified, understood and corrected. Some of the common Stress Symptoms, described by managers are:

Physical: aches and pains, especially in head, neck and back. dry mouth, sweaty palms, increased heart beat, nausea, indigestion, fatigue, agitation, insomnia, cramps, tremors, waking up tired, heart attack...

Psychological: anxiety, confusion, withdrawal, frustration, irrational fear, depression...

Behavioral: Over/under eating, irritation and erratic actions, poor judgement, mood swings, excessive smoking and drinking...

Even if you are not the source of stress in any way. There are a lot of other steps to create an environment in which you and your team can learn to identify and work within your optimum pressure levels most of the time:

• Establish a positive attitude towards work in the work place.
• Be on look out for early signs of what may be stress. Encourage others to do the same.
• Maintain active face to face contact with your team members and other stake holders.
• Arrange training sessions on Stress Management.
• Regularly review your owns and team's Time Management issues.
• Encourage Regular Exercises.
• Do not hold meetings in angry and unduly charged environment.

You may add up many other Points of Actions, post discussions with your team members. These collated points can also be displayed in your office and discussed often, to ensure well being of yourself and your teams.

Relationship Management - Confronting The Unacceptable Behavior

The key to ensuring that confrontation produces positive outcomes - key to handling CONFRONTATION skillfully.

In most of our working environment, stress is laid on building better relationships with teams and individuals.And most of us make conscious effort to build and nurture relationships across. Despite your efforts and the efforts of your team members, someone may initiate or continue unacceptable behavior serious enough to warrant corrective action.

A final communication tool to ensure course correction of the unwanted behavior is that of CONFRONTING unacceptable behavior assertively. How you handle such situation is critical to your effectiveness and your goal of encouraging accountability.

How do you respond to the word CONFRONTATION?

For most people the word conjures images of unpleasant, angry, combative sessions in which participants are accusatory, judgmental, defensive and uncooperative with one another. Few people have positive associations with Confrontations.

Positive Side of Confrontation

As you would have realized, confrontation can benefit all concerned. If someone's behavior is creating problems for others, chances may be that the person may be completely unaware of it. And if no one is willing to say anything to him, his undesired behavior continues and possibly damages relationships.This lack of discussion and awareness can explain why "Ignore the undesirable, and reinforce the desirable" strategy may have failed at changing the behavior.

The key to ensuring that confrontation produces positive outcomes is handling the confrontation skillfully. Most people do not know how to do that because they have not received any training and they have not had any good role models from which to learn the skills. 

The CARING CONFRONTATION process involves four steps:

 1.  Identify the Behavior: Did you describe the situation in relation to te other person's characteristics?Did you use adjectives such as arrogant, lazy, passive, stupid...... If yes, you did what most people do. Typically, when we have difficulty dealing with another person, we consider the person to be a problem.

         If we define the person as the problem, we are likely to set out to change the other                 person in some way to resolve the difficulty.But we cannot change the people's                     personalities.We cannot change their core values or their lifelong attitudes.

        The behavior is where the problem lies. It is what the person does that we wish he did         not do, or it is what that person doesn't do that we wish he would do. It is basically                doing or not doing the behavior.

        You must identify the specific behavior and describe it to the other person in factual,            non-blaming language.

2.  Identify the Tangible Effects: Why is the other person's behavior a problem for you? Because the behavior results in or could result in undesirable impact upon you. How does the behavior affect you?Does it cost money that comes from your budget? Does it take time and effort away from the activities? Does it affect the quality of product you produce or the quality of service you provide? Does it distract others from being productive? and so on........

        More that one or two tangible effects often result from person's unacceptable behavior.         It is these concrete results that make the behavior unacceptable.

        If you can think of no concrete, tangible effects of the person's behavior, then you                probably disapprove of the behavior just because it is different from what you consider         appropriate. You are judging the behavior by your own standards, which is normal                human tendency, but it gives you much less reason to ask someone to change his                    behavior. People don't like others beliefs and standards imposed on them and there's a            strong probability that they might refuse to comply (heard of Teenager's Rebellion?)

        

        When you can explain to someone hos his behavior causes a tangible negative  impact         upon you, ten he is much more likely to change it. Idea is to provide a rationale rather            come up as an overbearing parent figure.

3.  Identify your Own Feelings: Whenever someone's behavior creates a problem, you are likely to respond emotionally. It is important to be aware of your feelings and to communicate to the other person.

        Many people find this aspect of confrontation challenging because few people learn            much about the emotional part of being human. Many people are unaccustomed to                identifying their own emotions or feelings.

        You may get a better feel for your emotional responses if your realise there are only            four basic human emotions - Mad, Sad, Glad and Scared. All the other words words         we use to describe feelings are simply degrees of intensity of one of these four, or                combination of two or more of these basic emotions.

4.  Identify the Change You Desire:  The final step is to identify - What kind of Change you Want. Do you simply want the person to stop using the behavior? Do you want a different behavior in place of unacceptable one? Do you want the other person to suggest a solution?

        The last question above is important. People are most likely to follow through and                implement a change they thought of themselves. If you allow other person to suggest a         solution after you have presented your case, you may discover that the other person            may come up with a better and acceptable solution. This is then ideal, since the other            person will have sense of ownership and is likely to be comfortable in implementing            the same.

As a Thumb Rule - Avoid using commands in a confrontation situation. Even directing or guiding personalities, may get the other person to rebel against your telling them what to do.

Most people will react more cooperatively when you ask them to change a behavior or ask for their ideas.

The Job, No Leader should Delegate..

Having Right People in the Right Place.

Given many things that businesses' can't control, from the uncertain state of economy to the unpredictable actions of the competitors. From environment to  disease outbreak resulting to forced lock down, most of us witnessed during recent worldwide pandemic.

You would think companies would pay careful attention to one thing they can control - the quality of their people, especially those in the leadership pool. Any corporations' human beings are the most reliable resources for generating excellent results year after year. Their judgments, experiences, and capabilities make the difference between success and failure.

Yet some leaders, while they talk of people as their most important asset, usually do not think very hard about choosing the right people for the right jobs.

Why The Right People Aren't in the Right jobs?

Common sense tells us that the right people have to be in the right jobs. Yet so often the aren't. What accounts for the mismatches we see every day? Following are a few of my observations and learning, through out my Corporate career of decades of working with various large corporations:

1). Lack of Knowledge: Leaders often rely on staff appraisals that focus on - may be the wrong criteria, or they might take a fuzzy and meaningless recommendation for someone a direct report. Direct report recommends to the leader- "Bob's a great leader and a great motivator". The leader fails to enquire about the specific qualities that makes Bob a right candidate for the job. May be the job has not been defined by the leader himself to his direct report before asking for his recommendations. He has not defined in terms of three of four non-negotiable criteria.

2). Lack of Courage:  Most people know someone in the organisation who doesn't perform well, yet manages to keep his job year after year. The usual reason, we find, is that the person's leader does not have emotional fortitude to confront him and take decisive actions. Such failures can can do considerable damage to a business. If the non-performers are high enough in the organisation, it can be destroyed.

3). The Psychological Comfort Factor: Many jobs are filed with the wrong people because the leaders who promote them are comfortable with them.Its natural for executives to develop a sense of loyalty to those they have worked with over time, particularly if they have come to trust their judgments. But it is a serious problem when the loyalty is based on wrong factors. For Example- the leader may be comfortable with the person because that person thinks like him and does not challenge him, or has developed a skill of insulating the boss from conflict. Or the leader may favor people who are part of same social network, built up over years in the organisation.

4). Lack of Personal Commitment: When the right people are not in right jobs, the problem is visible and transparent. Leaders know intuitively that they have a problem and will often readily acknowledge it.But an alarming number of leaders do not do anything to rectify this problem. Leader cannot simply fix this problem by issuing directives.

Leaders need to spend at least 40-45% of their time  effort,and emotional energy to - Selecting, Appraising,and Developing people.

BOTTOM LINE

The foundation of a great company is the way it develops people - providing the right experiences, such a learning in different jobs / departments, learning from other people, giving candid feedbacks, proving coaching , education and training. If Leader spends substantial amount of time and energy developing people and assigning right people to right jobs, the payoff will come in form of  Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

Employer's Perspective for Job Seekers...

What does an active Job seeker do? In other words, what are the activities does s/he indulge in?

1. S/he does research to get as many potential employers.
2. Then, S/he approaches them through various means of communication - Telephone, Email, Jobsites, references and so on.....
3. Attends interview meetings
4. Waits for the response.

Well, if the job seeker is selected and offered, Congratulations !!
otherwise, move on with the effort and keep repeating the above. But, one thing that most Job seekers mention is - "Getting a Good Job is Very hard..."

Lets take it further on to the other side of Hiring table...

During many of my appearances in front of the business audiences and interactions with many of the Employers/ Hiring Managers/ Leaders, two observations come out very distinctly...

1. Hiring Good People is Hard.
2. Hiring great People is Brutally Hard.

Nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people on the field. All the clever strategies and advanced technologies in the world are nowhere near effective without great people to put them to work.

Where is the Gap then?

Well, Great employers desperate to hire great people. And on the other hand, great job seekers desperate to get hired by good companies.....

Then why do job seekers find it very hard to get Good Jobs?

To my mind, to a large extent the answer lies in the lack of job seeker's understanding of Employer's / Hiring manager's perspective and his view of - Good / Great Employee....

A job seeker might be Well groomed, good looking, smart and well educated candidate, but does he face the interviewer with a clear perspective on what the employer is looking at? Is the job seeker her/him self projecting right?

Let us understand the Hiring Manager's/ Employer's perspective. What S/he is looking at and how S/he is analyzing you?

Because Hiring Right is so important for any Employer, lets try and understand what and how a job seeker is being observed and assessed. While writing the following, I'm assuming that your formal education certificates, age etc are in order. Let go.......

1. The First Test is for INTEGRITY: Integrity is a fuzzy word, so let me tell you my definition. People with integrity tell truth and they keep their  word.They take responsibility for their past actions, admit mistakes and fix them. They know the laws of their country, industry and company - both in letter and spirit- and abide by them. If you have jumped a red light to reach for interview on time, you are low on integrity.
2. The Second Test is for INTELLIGENCE:  This does not mean that person is an Einstein, or loved to read Shakespeare. It does mean that the candidate has strong dose on intellectual curiosity, with a breadth of knowledge to work with or lead other smart people in today's complex world. And, do not make the mistake of confusing formal education with intelligence.
3. The Third  Test is for MATURITY: You can be mature at any age, and immature too. Maturity means that a person has grown up, the individual can handle stress, withstand the heat, handle stress and setbacks and can also enjoy success. Mature people respect the emotions of others and are confident about themselves.

Once the Employer/Hiring Manager has assessed you on the above and has created positive impressions on the above aspect the interviewer will move on with further assessments on following very important personality traits of the candidate:

1. Positive Energy: It means ability to go....go...go... to thrive on action and relish change. People with Positive energy are generally extroverted and optimistic. They make conversations and friends easily. These people are enthusiastic about everything, every day, every moment. They love to play and they love life.
2. Ability to Energize others: People who energize are the people with positive energies themselves and can inspire their team to take on the impossible- and enjoy doing it.
3. Courage to make tough Yes or No Decisions: The world is full of Gray. Effective people know when to stop assessing and make a tough call, even without total information.
4. Execute- The ability to get job done: You can have positive energy, and energize every one and all other above-mentions characteristics, and still not get over the finish line.Being able to execute is a distinct skill. It means a person knows how to put decisions into actions and take it forward and over to the finish line and ensure timely completion.

Well, above is what I have learned, observed, practices and solidified as knowledge after decades of my professional live and practice. Many other practitioners and professional might have different frame works but the fundamentals remain the same.

Happy Job Hunting !! 

Effective Execution & The Essential Behaviors of Leaders.

 Leaders have to live their businesses !!

The CEO was sitting in his office late one evening, looking tired and drained. He was trying to explain to a visitor why his great strategic initiative had failed, but he could not figure out as to what had gone wrong.
"This was the brightest team in the industry. I assigned stretch goals. I empowered them and gave them freedom to do what they needed needed to do. They knew the rewards and penalties. We worked together with high energy. How could we fail?"

Effective Leadership is the Key Element. The Leadership here is not about the fancy designation you hold, or the number of people assigned to your team. Leadership is resultant of series of coordinated efforts and activities that are repeated and enforced by the leader, day in and day out.

Leaders have to live their businesses !!

Following are seven essential behaviors that form the key building block of execution:

1. Know yourself: Good leaders learn their specific personal strengths and weeknesses, especially in dealing with other people, then build on their strengths and correct their weaknesses. They earn their leadership when the followers see their inner strength, inner confidence, and ability to help team members deliver resuts, while at the same time expanding their own capabilities
2. Know your people and your business: In organisations, with weak execution action, the leaders are usually out of touch with the day-to-day realities. Here, leaders are getting lot of information delivered to them, but it is filtered - presented by direct reports with their own perceptions, limitations and agendas or gathered by staff with their own perspectives. The leaders are not where the action is. They are not engaged and neither do they know their organisation nor the people know him.
3. Set clear Goals and Priorities: Anybody who thinks through the logic of a business will see that focussing on three or four priorities will produce the best results from the resources at hand. Any leader who says that he has ten priorities does not know himself as to what the important things are. Along with having clear goals, leader should strive for simplicity in general. One thing you will notice about leaders who execute well is their ability to talk plainly and forthrightly about whats on their mind.
4. Insist on Realism: Realism is the heart of execution, but many organisations are full of people who are trying to avoid or shade reality. WHY? It makes life uncomfortable. They want to hide mistakes, or buy time to figure out a solution rather than admit that they don't have an answer at the moment.  Embracing realism means always taking realistic view of your company and comparing it with other companies
5. Follow Through: Clear and simple goals don't mean much if nobody takes them seriously. The failure to follow through is widespread in business, and a major cause of poor execution. Everybody may have agreed that the idea was good, but since nobody was named accountable for results, it doesn't get done.
6. Reward the Doers:  If you want people to produce specific results, you reward them accordingly. It is a known fact, yet many corporations do poor job of linking rewards to performance that there's little correlation at all. You have to design and make clear to all that rewards and respect are based on performance.
7. Expand people's capabilities: One of the most important part of leader's role is to pass on acquired knowledge to next generation of leaders. Good leaders regard every encounter as an opportunity to coach. Coaching is the single most important part of expanding others' capabilities. You must have heard the saying, "Give a man a fish, and you will feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, and you will feed him for life".

In nutshell, Effective Execution is one of the most important component of Effective Leadership.  The heart of the working of a business is how the three processes of People, Strategy, and operations link together.

All Managers are Leaders. Is it?

There was this news item that I read a couple of years back. It was about an incident of major fire in a chemical factory.

During that incident, material worth millions was destroyed and it took 8 fire fighting whole night to douse the fire. However, the highlight of this tragic incident was a Janitor, who single-handedly saved lives of many and helped avoid a major catastrophe.

As the fire broke out, manager was informed immediately and he in-turn ordered complete evacuation of the factory and he himself rushed out to safety. However Hero of the day, The Janitor, realized that there is large amount of chemical flowing in various tubes and in mixers. Boilers were also operational. Storage tanks have tonnes of chemicals stored in them... All this and uncontrolled fire would lead to a major accident and might lead to loss of Human life and other serious losses...

Seeing the situation and its potential escalation, this Janitor rushed to switch off the power from the mains. Simultaneously he instructed the electrician and few other coworkers to turn off the knobs of Storage and boiler tanks. He further made the housekeeping staff to switch on all the firefighting equipment. Atlast, he and his band of brothers ensured that all the factory roads are cleaned up for fire fighting trucks to rush in smoothly. 

A major Hazard was averted.

Question arises, What made this Janitor to drive himself and his fellow coworkers to do what they did?

He were not officially in charge. He was not instructed by any of his seniors either. Infact his Manager instructed all to evacuate immediately. What made him do what he did?

Leadership and Management

Most people think of a Leader as someone with a vision who effectively communicates that vision to others, who then help the leader achieve the vision. A leader is good at defining goals and inspiring others to achieve those goals. A leader is someone whom others trust and often admire.

How does a Leader differ from Manager?

The classic textbook definition of a Manager is someone who gets things done through other people. This means the manager is responsible for accomplishing goals by making sure that other people carry out the action steps and tasks designed to produce the desired outcomes.

Do you see mush of difference between Leaders & Manager?

In the above story of Chemical factory. While Manager was Manager, Janitor came up as a Leader:

• He foresaw.
• He did not panic or display any knee-jerk and abrupt reactions
• He visualized with clarity planned.
• Gave clear instructions on goals, actions, timelines and end result.
• Inspired a group of unrelated co-workers into action which was not normal for them, and achieving the ultimate goal of avoiding a catastrophe.

Many managers do not have skills or wisdom to get things done through other people. They become dictating bosses or paper shufflers or political creatures whose primary goal is to protect and preserve their own jobs and further their careers by pleasing their own bosses.

Above is the precise reasons, why much of time and energy is devoted to develop leadership abilities in managers.

Hence, While Managers are Managers, GOOD MANAGERS are GOOD LEADERS too..