Multiple Leaders - an afterthought

Thinking about David Clutterbuck (see yesterday's post "Multiple Leaders"), led me to recall how this can be an effective approach in practice.

Project and Product

When I was involved in bespoke software development, we used a project structure that had a Project Manager (PM), as the overseer of the whole project, and a Technical Director (TD) who had responsibility for the quality of the "end-product" (the software and its associated documentation etc).

Different responsibilities, different people

This approach was recognition that a person who could plan, organise, direct, and control (and yes, "lead") a team was not necessarily someone with the technical skills and experience to build the product.  This was the responsibility of the Technical Director (TD).  Both were required, at times, to be leaders, but in different situations and in different ways - and they had different traits, competencies and power sources.

Recent experience

On a recent engagement in an IT department, I noticed that they appointed a PM but not a TD.  The PM carried technical responsibility.  My observation was that this was risky and led to a poorer outcome.

Put the data to work!

Timberland

In the Timberland: Commerce and Justice case study covered in the 21722 lecture on April 14th, Jeff Swartz (p. 2) "believed finding more quantitative or analytical ways to demonstrate the link was becoming an imperative" to showing that Timberland's investment in social programs was critical to its business success.

Sears

This reminded me of an article I read a long time ago about how the US retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company implemented their Employee-Customer-Profit Chain (Rucci, Kirn & Quinn, 1998).  This model "tracked success from management behavior through employee attitudes to customer-satisfaction and financial performance" (p. 83).

Science!

Without relating the article, their approach to measurement was standard scientific method:

1. Ask a question
2. Do background research
3. Construct a hypothesis
4. Test the hypothesis using an experiment
5. Analyze data and draw a conclusion
6. Communicate the results

Cause and effect

Sears used an econometric statistics firm to analyse the enormous quantity of data on training, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, revenue and more that they had been collecting over the years.  The experts uses "causal pathway modeling" (p. 90) to explore the connections.  Their work clearly showed that employee attitudes (5 unit increase) drove their behaviour, which determined the helpfulness of the service they provided, which determined customer impressions (1.3 units), retention and recommendations and finally resulted in revenue growth (0.5%) and profit.

Employee-Community-Profit?

The Sears approach might be applied to Timberland.  The company has collected a lot of data on employee attitudes and involvement, social investment and financial performance.  Economic. demographic and social data might be available for US Federal, State and Local governments where Timberland and its community partners operate (and don't operate).  Then, causal analysis may quantitatively show the relationship between commerce and justice that Swartz is convinced exists.

Postscript - Sears "Leadership Skills"

The Rucci et al article also relates the skills expected of its managers:

Rucci, A. J., Kirn, S. P. & Quinn, R. T. 1998, 'The Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears', Harvard Business Review, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 82-97.

Talent and Leadership

Multiple leaders

In the Australian Financial Review today, there's an article  (pp. 58-59) titled "Talent spotting gets it wrong most of the time" by Fiona Smith.  Two quotes from David Clutterbuck ("management author") related to leadership, management and their respective competencies took my fancy - and fed my convictions on these matters:

1. "unless the talent looks like them, managers just can't see them"
2. "organisations need different kinds of leaders for different situations"

On the second point Clutterbuck describes how firefighters need "one leader who manages, organises and makes things happen" for one situation and when things get hot (my lame joke) they need "someone they would follow into hell".

Managers not Leaders/Leaders not Managers

The first situation described above supports a typical "management" role - making the hum-drum happen and continually improving performance using, perhaps, both positional and personal power.  The second doesn't necessarily require someone with positional power, just personal power.  They do not necessarily need to have legitimate power.

But does the first have to be someone in formal authority?   Why could a team not have a person or person who organises etc?  Couldn't it also have multiple leader(s) who take charge depending on the situation?

Leadership competencies

How firms now select a CEO

During our recent 21722 lecture, we heard how an internationally successful executive search firm - Egon Zehnder International - assesses leadership skills.
The example assessment shown here is from CIO magazine and highlights competencies such as "Team Leadership", "Strategic Orientation", "Collaboration & Influence", and "Results Orientation".  Others include "External Customer Focus" and "Commercial Orientation" and indicate that the competencies are more fitting a "senior manager" than "leader".  Are they the same?

How firms used to select a CEO

Levinson (1980) listed 20 behavioural dimensions of chief executives under the categories of "thinking", "feelings and interrelationships" and "outward behavior characteristics" including "judgement", "sensitivity [to] others' feelings", "sense of humor", "vision", "integrity" and "social responsibility".  Behaviours that seem applicable to any leader, not only CEOs.

Begone!

In their 1985 book "A Passion for Excellence", Tom Peters and Nancy Austin (p.265), declare that the Manager (the "dispassionate analyst, professional, decision maker, naysayer") must give way to the Leader ("cheerleader, enthusiast, nurturer of champions, hero finder, wanderer, dramatist, coach, facilitator, builder").

It seems that "leadership" and "management" have become conflated since the 1980s.  But why?

Peters and Watson believe that Hayes and Abernathy's "Managing Our Way to Economic Decline (1980) was the "cornerstone of the corporate revolution" that they describe as "attacking the "MBA/number-only mentality of American managers".  Hayes and Abernathy themselves declare that there had been  "broad management failure" of "vision and leadership".

Leadership sells

Who would now admit at parties that they were a "manager"?  Who would answer a job ad the spruiked a "management" role?  The word has become a pejorative.  Better to be a "leader" even if the job description hasn't changed!  Just as "frozen food" is hard to sell but "fresh frozen food" walks off the shelves, so is "leadership" sellable while "management" has passed its use-by date.


Peters, T and Austin, N. 1985, A Passion for Excellence - The Leadership Differences, Collins: Glasgow.
Levinson, H. 1980, Criteria for choosing chief executives, Harvard Business Review, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 113-120.
Hayes, R. H. & Abernathy, W. J. 1980, Criteria for choosing chief executives, Harvard Business Review, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 67-77.

The Secret of Leadership - Black Turtlenecks!

"Wannabe bosses take a leaf out of Jobs book"

Well, it has happened.

The WSJ reports that Jobs' disciples are proliferating.

Oooweeee!  This leadership thing is sooooooo easy.

Steve Jobs' Leadership Lesson 3 - Take Responsibility End to End

Unlike Microsoft, Apple did not surrender control of its complete offering (except for a short time during Jobs' interregnum when an OEM was licensed to produce a Mac clone).  This meant that Apple did the integration for its customers, enhancing their user experience.

The broader lesson here is that an organisation can't simply see itself as a supplier.  It must take responsibility for its complete value chain - from its suppliers' suppliers to its customers' customers.

Next: Lesson 4 - When Behind, Leapfrog

*Adapted from "The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, in hbr.org. 

Please excuse the break in transmission.
Easter and multiple assessments intervened.