Great leaders speak with a resounding VOICE!
You have probably heard the saying, “People don’t leave jobs, they leave leaders.” So, what does it take to be a leader (person in charge [PIC], supervisor, manager, executive) for whom people love to work? What are the things that they do, the skills and behaviors that they demonstrate, that motivate and inspire employees to not only come to work, but to go consistently above and beyond.
In our book, “The VOICE of Leadership”, we cover five elements of great leaders within exceptional organizations that contribute to low turnover and high retention of productive and motivated employees: Vision, Organization, Involvement, Change and Example. Through this model, I will share with you the attributes and characteristics of great leaders. In this article, I will cover Vision and Organization. Future articles will complete the model.
Vision
Great leaders have vision. There are very few natural visionary leaders in the corporate world. I have been lucky to have worked with two during my 34-year career with Walt Disney World. The good news is that this is a skill that can be learned. It is probably the most powerful tool in a leader’s toolbox. So, what is a vision? How does it work, and how is it different from a vision statement?
Let’s begin by defining a vision statement and a vision. A vision statement is a statement of words describing where and what an organization wants to be in the future. It usually remains unchanged for many years. There is nothing wrong with vision statements. They have their place in the organizational structure. However, vision statements do not necessarily translate into action. Without action, an organization has a nicely framed statement on the wall, but no forward motion. In contrast, vision can be defined as a picture in the leader’s imagination that - when communicated compellingly, passionately and clearly - motivates people to action.
To be a visionary, a leader need have nothing more than a clear vision of the future. The difficult task is communicating that vision with clarity and passion in order to motivate and inspire people to take action.
A visionary leader who clearly and passionately communicates his or her vision can motivate employees to act with passion and purpose, thereby ensuring that everyone is working toward a common goal. Warren Bennis, professor of business administration at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, says, “In order to take the organization to the highest possible level, leaders must engage their people with a compelling and tangible vision.” The end result is that everyone contributes to the organization’s forward momentum.
What follows is a practice exercise that you can use to develop and hone your visionary communication skills:
Step 1: Think of one challenge within your department, division or organization.
Step 2: Imagine the big picture. Visualize the incredible future success that you will realize from the new and improved situation, as well as the benefits to the organization and the benefits to the employees. This is your chance to be a true visionary. No dream is too big or too fantastic. This is the “pie in the sky” result you are seeing.
Step 3: Determine how you will communicate your vision and the results of achieving success with this challenge. What words will you use? What phrases? In what environment will you choose to communicate your vision - in a staff meeting, one-on-one, with supervisors and managers? How will you communicate the benefits to the staff and to the organization? Write your ideas down on paper.
Step 4: Practice communicating what you have written. Make sure that it sounds sincere. Practice out loud to yourself and to others. If you don’t believe it, no one else will believe it either.
If you use this exercise frequently, you will find that expressing your vision in a compelling and clear manner will soon feel very natural. One thing to remember: When you are ready to communicate your vision to your employees, give them only the vision of success. Great leaders use vision as a tool to inspire and motivate, not to dictate. Do not give your employees the steps for achieving the vision, but let them determine the methods and tactics for achieving the goal. Great leaders know how to give the gift of vision and then step away.
Organization
Great leaders are able to critically assess the organization’s structure and culture and are willing to make changes where needed in order to structure his or her organization for success. But, organizational effectiveness is about more than structure.
There are two topics within the element of organizational effectiveness that are critical to the success of any company:
- Maintaining a lean and efficient internal organizational structure.
- Ensuring that your organization has policies and processes in place to hold leaders accountable for their behaviors as well as results.
“Maintaining a lean and efficient organization” means that leaders must regularly assess the current structure of the company to determine its ability to contribute to the success of the organization. A heavily layered organization is oppressive, inhibits communication, hinders the sharing of ideas, and interferes with the ability to take care of customers and employees.
Eventually, employees and customers will get discouraged and give up. The end result can be high employee turnover and customer defection.
Ensuring that your organization is not top heavy and that it is as lean as you can possibly make it facilitates strong relationships with employees and facilitates communication in all directions, at all levels. It also makes it easier for customers to express their ideas, wants and needs.
Look around your organization and ask yourself these questions:
- Is employee turnover high?
- Are employees doing only enough to get by or stay out of trouble?
- Are your employees apathetic?
- Are customers defecting at a rate higher than the average for your industry?
- Do you get more complaints than compliments on service?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, these can be warning signs or symptoms of an organizational structure that makes it difficult, or even impossible, for employees to share their ideas or communicate daily operational needs.
Here are two tactics for assessing the leanness of your organizational structure:
- Evaluate the job description of each manager in your organization. Is there duplication of responsibilities that may cause confusion and interference with effective processes, or delay growth and forward progress?
- Conduct a Business Process Review (BPR) to identify overlap and inefficiencies within policies, processes and procedures.
The second element of organizational structure is leadership accountability - ensuring that you have clearly articulated expectations and have processes in place for holding leaders accountable, not only for business performance, but also for behaviors.
Many organizations today know that “Type A” managers - leaders who are controlling, autocratic and manage by intimidation - are not only ineffective, they also are damaging to the organization. These types of managers, in most organizations, are no longer tolerated. Within your organizational structure, you must not only consider the physical structure, but also the types of managers or leaders that have power and authority over employees and processes.
For example, if you have a leader that is delivering on business performance but behaves inappropriately (as illustrated by not treating his or her employees or customers with respect and not demonstrating the organization’s values), that person has to change or must go. These are tough decisions to make. However, you cannot afford to tolerate such people or their behaviors for very long. They may be, for the time being, contributing successfully to the bottom line. Ultimately, however, these leaders will create chaos and failure within your organizational structure, eroding profits through employee turnover and customer defection. Additionally, the employees who will leave are the productive employees that you cannot afford to lose.
Generally, leaders fall into one of four categories:
- The person who is neither delivering on business results nor exhibiting appropriate behaviors. There is no question that these leaders must be asked to leave your company.
- The leader who delivers great business results but does not model the right behaviors. This leader is contributing to the bottom line, but they are not treating employees well. Often called “results-oriented leaders”, they are leaving dead bodies in their wake. And yet, it is traditional in business that these people are rewarded and promoted for bringing bottom-line results to the organization without thought for the long-term consequences of their actions.
- The third type of leader has strong relationship skills, but does not demonstrate business savvy. These leaders are liked and respected by their employees. Employees readily follow them blindly and happily down whichever path the leader chooses. The good news is that, usually, with some training, these leaders can learn the business skills necessary to be successful. In other words, the leaders with strong relationship skills, if they can learn competent business skills, are most likely to develop into the ideal leader.
- The fourth leadership type is the ideal leader. These are the people that are getting business results for your organization, demonstrating the organization’s values and behaviors, and building great relationships with the employees and customers. They have learned to balance the leadership characteristics of building relationships with holding people accountable. They take disciplinary action when necessary, reward and recognize when it is appropriate, bring money to the bottom line, and give great service to customers. If this type of leader sounds like a miracle worker, it is for good reason. Mastering this scope of relationship and business skills is very difficult. It is no surprise that these people are a small percentage of leaders in any organization. When you find them, you must do everything in your power to keep them.
Within your organizational structure, you must have processes and tools in place to help you identify which types of leaders are running your organization. Once you have identified where your leaders fit, it is up to you to have processes in place that will clearly state expectations for business results and behaviors. You must then provide the tools, training, knowledge and skills that will allow each leader to realize his or her full potential. Once you have done these things, you must hold these people accountable for their performance and behaviors.
If they cannot deliver on both goals, then you may have to make a decision about allowing them to remain in a leadership position or possibly move them to a different role in the organization. It may even be necessary to ask them to leave the organization. Although this may cause short-term strain, it will allow you to promote from within or hire from outside the organization an ideal leader who will contribute to the long-term success for the organization.
Please feel free to contact me at debbiez@lsapartners.com or call me at 407-497-0075. You may also want to visit our new Web site at http://www.lsapartners.com for the latest and greatest on leadership development and other topics.
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Filed Under: Featured, People Management | Tags: business management, management, motivation, People Management, personal growth, talent management, workplace organization
