The ability to see ahead
(or even around the curve) is a requirement for leadership. Every
time I get in a leader slot I am amazed by how my vision shortens.
As a consultant,
subordinate leader, or individual contributor I could usually make a
substantial contribution, often seeing farther than the boss.
When I’m the boss, I
cherish the contributors who have prepared for when it is their time
to shine.
What is going on? There
are only so many hours in the day, and focusing wide at the top makes
it harder to get the energy to focus deep.
People want your time when
they feel lonely or uncertain. I think static office workplaces have
an incredible loss of focus to accommodate social needs. It’s much
nicer to sit around in the warm and drink
coffee.
Lightweights overcome the
discomfort of leadership by doing their last job better, maybe
approaching perfectly. If you are too busy doing your last job to do
your current job, your successor will do your current job.
I’ve also noticed that
the great leaders, when forced to face down their responsibilities,
will carve out a job that is quite different than what their
predecessors did, often severely inconveniencing those who had
manipulated the predecessor best. The very best I ever met regularly
upset his organization and spent the time in between getting a fix on
what needed to be changed next.
He was repeatedly
cannibalizing the best organization he could build.
That was hard on the
marginal producers looking to slide by. They left.
It also created a cadre of
30 year loyalists, and one of the key growth stories of American
Business.
One key was using the
vision of others in the organization to see better and focus more
sustained than he could by himself.
How do you leverage
your organization?
Dick:
ReplyDeleteJack Welch had an active evaluation system for GE - each manager separated the employees in three groups: A's for the top performers; B's for the average performers; C's for the lack-luster performers. Managers were responsible for moving B's up to A's, and for eliminating C's by moving them up or out.
Everyone knew the system and what was in play. It created a ratchet effect for improvement, which was reflected in overall performance of the organization.
The manager was focused on unit improvement, with an overlay of future direction of the organization.
A seer can view a broad range of issues and trends; the person in the 'big chair' can successfully review the range of issues and trends which affect the organization; the manager can successfully review the range of issues and trends which affect the unit.
Good post.
I found when I went from individual contributor, when it seemed obvious what needed to be done, to being a manager that much of what I'd seen as obvious came from two sources cut off to me as a manager - individual contributors talking to each other and the responsibility for managing up to my management and across my whole team, instead of just my own job.
ReplyDeleteAs for the social time, at first I found it annoying and not one of my strengths, that employees endow managers with superhuman powers to fix things. I eventually took it as a sign of their confidence in me to hold their secrets in confidence and, perhaps, even offer useful advice.