Building a better tomorrow or simply swimming upstream?
In our earnest
effort to be good leaders, we often think of a utopian paradise where we are
loved and everybody looks forward to the start of each working day as much as
they are sad leaving their extended family at day’s end. Nothing wrong with
this vision, but we often allow good intentions to overly influence our
leadership style, our strategic direction and where we think we can go with our
team over time.
This can be
counter productive and result in disaster if not checked early enough so can
apply a more discerning approach to consultative leadership? Being discerning,
we need to focus on the details of our leadership and the path ahead through
things like:
Team Composition. What type of team do we have? Are the personalities
takers, matchers or givers? Are there any functional or dysfunctional Alpha
characters? Are there any passive aggressive types on board? Who are the social
leaders and are they consistent with your leadership style and compatible with
your forming vision for the team’s culture/operating state going forward?
Company Culture. What is your preference for an operating
environment and company culture?? Is this combined vision (with your leadership
style) to be found in the company leadership handbook, actual company culture
and business practice??? Does the meld of all three elements into company
culture suit your vision for an operating environment or do you have to create
a sub culture for your leadership plans??
Management Practice. Are management ‘laissez faire’ in their actual
practices leaving you free to practice leadership as you see fit or do they
insist on a particular style?? Do management micromanage you, mentor you and/or
coach you??? Will their practices impact your ability create a cultural
connection for the team or instantiate a sub cultural environment for you and
your team to operate in?
Social Hierarchy. Where do you and your team sit in the company’s
social hierarchy structure? Will this impact your leadership plans in creating
a consistent working environment to allow the group process to form, storm,
norm and perform to set goals and objectives?
These are some
conditional elements to consider when you are thinking of creating a productive
sub culture in your company that suits your leadership style. Its context,
acceptance probability and operational/cultural impact need to be understood in
detail before proceeding.
If you find
your company’s culture and management practices are consistent with your vision
for leadership and a resulting operating environment, then you are in the right
place! Well done, proceed with enthusiasm and create a sense of ‘we did it!’
If you find
yourself upon reflection in difficulty, learning that management are negative
or non responsive to your pitch, where you will drive changes with your team in
approach, practices and procedures with a distinct sub culture instantiated, then
don’t despair you are not alone!
Whether it’s a
case of management not understanding, not caring or disapproving, I would
surmise that your vision may
highlight a lack of vision on their part, which can happen for many reasons
that have little or nothing to do with you. One needs to think of the follow on
approach in terms of these questions:
- · After pushing for an answer with management, is the response consistent with support or no support bearing in mind that the absence of expressed support is “no support”?
- · Is the company culture likely to respond aggressively to the sub culture creation (i.e. giver taker culture clash) where your team’s social status is perceived in the company as “weak” due to the collaborative aspects of your leadership and environmental maintenance?
- · Are there any political considerations above the ‘normal’ limit of office politics where your plans, goals and objectives are perceived to interfere with powerful people or functions within your organisation?
- · Are your goals unrealistic to the environment you are in? After careful analysis and consideration, are you being asked to build ‘castles in the sand’?
- · Do you think your direct manager is uncharacteristically keeping his or her distance from you and your plans (not seeing inter company support of you to other company departments and members by your manager can qualify as keeping one’s distance)?
If you are
thinking “yes” to all of the above, then the chances are quite real that your leadership
style and vision may well fail due to a lack of suitability with your company’s
practices, culture and attitude towards what you do and how you want to do it.
What to do? You
could solicit direct counsel from your manager as to how he or she wants you to
resolve the team/department situation and leave your effective zone of
leadership to carry out the resulting instructions. However, in the long term
your efforts will be in vain, as you will become a ‘proxy leader’ and not
likely to gain the credibility from staff you need to succeed. Best advise if you are hitting a “yes” to
those key questions is to find another position within the company or another
company that is more suited to your cultural needs and leadership style. I
submit that finding a good cultural fit is more
important for the incoming employee then it is for the company as we perform
best where we belong, not where we are employed! Marry the two together, and
you enter a win-win relationship with your employer!
Great
leadership starts with great vision, which in turn starts with seeing the
situation for what it is, enacting a picture of what will be and then mapping
the key milestones to getting there. If
you can do this, then you are on the right track. If you can’t see this or your
company wont allow you to, then find another company who shares your passion
for doing it right. What’s “right”
depends on finding those of like mind to surround you! When you do, you will do
great things!!
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