A New Guest Author Series by Biz Sense with Blair
I am pleased to announce Leading by Example–a new guest blogger series focused solely on leadership, guided by some of the greatest examples of leaders that I know. In my work with The Alternative Board, I have met many great leaders who have inspired me, and I am thrilled to provide them this platform to share their valuable insights with you. The first guest author is Bob Dodge, a sought-after speaker, business coach and trusted advisor with more than 25 years of experience. Enjoy!
Management and Leadership Go Hand in Hand
Have you ever heard people debate about whether your organization needs more management or more leadership? There are often passionate arguments on both sides. Some feel one is better, or more important, than the other, or that it is an either/or argument. Many, however, realize you need both.
To improve system and process performance, you need to manage: Organize, plan, measure, implement and adjust. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, and if it is not repeatable, you can’t measure it (consistently). But why manage in the first place? Management includes making adjustments. If you don’t, you merely repeat the same actions and expect different results, and we all know what that is—insanity.
Manage: Establish Consistency, Measure and Adapt
The first step in managing is to establish repeatability, or consistency. Then, measure whether we made things better or worse. Third, we make changes to a part of our process or system. If we make too many changes, we won’t know which ones had a positive impact on our performance or a negative one.
Be a Leader (Every Day)
Leadership is equally important. If we want our people to follow, we have to lead. We create and communicate a compelling vision, keeping in mind What’s In It for Them. We consistently communicate that vision, displaying our commitment for what we are trying to achieve, while paying particular attention to why people might not follow. Then, guess what? We make adjustments to address the root cause of their resistance. Maybe they have too much on their plates, maybe they don’t want to leave the comfort of today’s environment, maybe they just don’t know how (or worse, where!) to go where you are leading them. They don’t know the What or the Why, much less the How to do what is envisioned.
Get Results Over Time
Leadership is not an event it requires consistent passion and visibility—not merely expecting others to “get it” and to follow your instance of leadership. If you practice leadership and management in your business, will find that people follow, and that the adjustments you make will change your results. Paying attention to these adjustments will, over time, result in positive changes to your organization’s performance, whether you are measuring sales, profits, employee satisfaction or merely the amount of time you need to spend supervising, not leading or managing!
By Bob Dodge
