Schlagwort-Archive: Roles

Leading in this or in a different way

Not all superiors want to take responsibility but rather earn more. In the absence of expert development paths, they have no choice but to assume a position that replaces their expert with leadership requirements: above all, leading and promoting themselves and others; building and maintaining relationships; developing images of the future and making decisions; solving problems; accepting results. Since leaders are multipliers, their convictions spread through their sphere of influence, e.g.

  • Their conception of people: humans are unwilling (Theory X), or humans are motivated (Theory Y)
  • Their worldview: the world is a machine or an organism
  • Their leadership understanding: top-down versus bottom-up versus inside-out
  • Their contribution: determine direction versus generate momentum versus letting go

Leadership is often reduced to the CHARISMATIC UNIVERSAL GENIUS, whose abilities are innate. In this context, a look at the book Managing, Performing, Living by Fredmund Malik is recommended. He shifts the focus to the leader’s effectiveness through rules and principles and a set of tasks, tools, and communication.

In this blog post, you discover four roles you, as a careful observer, find in companies.

  • Principals
    The days of Louis XIV are over. Nevertheless, authoritarian leadership styles that rule from top to bottom still exist. Guidelines are dictated. Politically correct, they no longer act as authoritarian despots but as purchasers. They expect duty fulfillment without opposition or resistance. The absolutistic rulers of the past had little data available for decision-making. Now, a flood of insights is open to all parties. As a result, today’s potentates run the risk of turning out to be micromanagers who interfere in the details of execution.
    The focus is on order. This role is influential with precise specifications of the content, timeframe, and available budget. Those who manage to suppress their autocratic behavior can achieve a lot.
  • Administrators
    The times of carefully erected corporations are coming to an end. Even if the size is still the goal, decision-makers are now learning that they need new delegation approaches. Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety has taught us that the diversity of answers must be greater than those of the questions raised. The ordinarily rigid organization of structures and processes gets replaced by dynamic units of about 150 participants who act to a large extent autonomously in the interest of the whole. The typical administration obstructs this flexibility since its regulations have no chance to justify all possible cases.
    The roles, the TARs (task, authorities and responsibilities) are at the center. The aptitude in defining roles ensures the balance between commonality and freedom. Memorable governance creates the overarching mindset. The appropriate degree of specifications and the generous evaluation of the fulfillment are crucial.
  • Salespeople
    The days of all-around geniuses, who master all aspects of their company, are over. In the absence of expertise, impressive companies exploit their creative sources – e.g., when 3M allocates 10% of its working time to the creative will of everybody, or when Google gives its employees the freedom to generate new offerings ever through cross-functional collaboration, a refreshing management style and a focus on results.
    This is primarily about solutions that need the chance to prove themselves in the marketplace. For this to happen, extended leeway must be created above all, which provides ample means to turn ideas into results. In this environment, tolerance and openness, on the one hand, and clever marketing are necessary to convert the existing possibilities into advantages.
  • Servants
    The days of the top-down chain of command have passed with the general availability of data. Knowledge is power has lost its meaning as groups ALWAYS know more than individuals. Accordingly, the hierarchy has been turned upside down. Leadership levels now serve their assigned units (i.e., Servant Leadership). To get the right thing done right at the point of action, individuals need broad authority and, when difficulties arise, support from their leaders.
    The focus lies on the impact of offerings – e.g., noticeable quality, friendliness at the Point of Sale, and customer satisfaction. To do this, employees must be capable of acting – i.e., to have sufficient resources, expertise, and support. For this role, the leaders should have empathy, understanding, and presence.

Bottom line: Traditional leadership approaches, i.e., autocratic, top-down reign, excessive bureaucracy, or technocratic silo organizations no longer fit the fast-paced VUKA world. How the roles of the future will look is up to your imagination. The functions described are distributed along the axes of decision-making direction (top-down vs. bottom-up) and communication style (one-way vs. either way). They are intended to make today’s leaders consider their role and provide impulses to rethink their working style. In the end, everyone decides whether they want to lead in this or in a different way.

Game rules – the ideal metaphor for the elements of Governance

All team sports have the playing field, the types of player, and the rules of the game in common. From the beginnings of football in China, 4000 years ago, rules are not passed on. However, it is believed that it was initially a training program for soldiers. From less than 1800 years ago, rules are known, which had to get control on the physical powers of the players’. Then, for over a thousand years, the game was forgotten in Europe. The restart in 1848 began immediately with the establishment of football rules, which are refined until today. They include a specific culture, the distribution of the playing field, general parameters and possibilities for sanctioning, as well as clear roles. The actual game is developing within this framework in thrilling variants – the same way as the business in the framework of the governance. This text also expands the purpose of the Governance!

The governance provides the following elements: the principles, the business alignment, various definitions and above all defined roles.

  • Principles
    In soccer the fair play, the compliance, as well as the aggressive and defensive strategies are common principles. In business they define the culture and the self-understanding of a company. They should answer the following questions: Where are we within 10 years? What are our characteristics? Where are we from? What is our history? Why do we exist? What’s our purpose? What makes us successful? What’s our USP? How do we see ourselves? What are our values and beliefs? What are the attributes of our products? The principles behave like cement that stabilizes the mortar in a way that it holds together.
  • Business alignment
    The teams agree on which half of the playing field is assigned to which team. The objective is to score a goal. Also in business the areas come to an agreement – endorsed by the leading team. The following aspects are important: What is the purpose of the unit? How do we exchange our ideas? How do we cooperate? Which roles (TAR) are available? How to find an agreement? The business alignment works like the mixture ratio of sand, lime and water that depend on the usage.
  • Glossary
    The different sports have comprehensive, special jargons, which one has to learn. The business also uses a special vocabulary. The glossary determines this terminology of the company. Therefore the following questions are important: Which terms are crucial for the cooperation? How do we get clear formulations? How do we guarantee completeness? When is a term described correctly? Also mortar consists of a set of terminology that describes the variants (e.g. masonry mortar, plaster mortar) as well as the components (e.g. sand, lime).
  • Critical success factors (CSF)
    The game is determined by factors that the coach wants to improve through intensive preparation, e.g. passes, goal accomplishment and other standard situations. In business the CSFs are the key figures of the success that are crucial for surviving and which improve the competitive ability. In the following areas the threatening aspects can be found: within the processes, in the market, at the customer side, within the applied technologies, within the information, within leadership etc. You also have to take care of certain CSFs, when you use mortar, e.g. the temperature or the mixing ratio.
  • Metrics
    In team competitions the scored points, i.e. goals or baskets, are the ultimate measure. The more comprehensive metrics in business provide generic metrics. Based on a Balanced Scorecard the growth, customer and financial perspectives as well the internal perspectives such as status of the life cycle, the processes, the quality and the governance are described. The relevant metrics are for example the individual mixings of the mortar.
  • Guidelines
    The rules of the game in football are globally valid and evolve continuously, as one can see in the video replay referee. The guidelines in the company are more extensive, cover all fundamental regulations and are reachable to all members of the unit. The older the enterprises, the more rules have been accumulated concerning organization, personnel, report system, laws, values, and the management of IT, risks and changes. The same way various use cases determine the composition of the mortar.
  • Roles
    Striker, goalkeeper, referee and linesman are an extract of the roles in soccer. In business, the roles provide a generic approach to individual job descriptions. They consist of tasks, authority and responsibility. Tasks are well defined, if the functions, goals, processes and available resources are clear. The authority regulates the powers concerning decision, control, information etc. The responsibility determines the qualities that should be fulfilled, like completeness, correctness or timeliness. There are also various roles when you use mortar: brick layer, master of concrete, foreman, etc.

Bottom line: Governance, with its principles, business alignment, general determinations and roles, provides a simple basis for the interaction of the different areas. Game rules, as in football, provide similar definitions like e.g. the marked out playing field and the roles of the different participants. For that reason, the game rule is an ideal metaphor for the components of governance.