Have you thought about your footprint as a leader? What is the emotion and the result that you leave your employees and your organisation from working with you?
The question of leadership footprint can be formulated as a question about the purpose of the leader. The objective is generally considered to be the achievement of results – financial figures showing profitability, efficiency, market share, turnover, etc. More progressive organisations count customer satisfaction and some also employee satisfaction among the results. Unfortunately, by their very nature, they are also mostly put in front of the financial performance wagon and what is measured as momentum is quickly forgotten in day-to-day operations. A leader’s goal should be to leave a meaningful leadership footprint.
Poor performance is a reflection of the leadership of previous leaders
Of course, a manager has to deliver results – that’s elementary. However, the score is a consequence of the success or failure of the leadership role of past and present leaders, in other words their long-term legacy.
The financial performance is a reflection of the employee’s progress, or lack of it, for which the manager is directly responsible. Accountability is about making a choice between focus, and in this case between short and long-term focus. A result is achieved when, as a result of working with a particular leader, the individual and the team learnt something. Learned to create lasting added value for the future, grew as values evolved. It makes a difference whether people evolved because it was inevitable (adaptation to the environment, competitive situation, customer, regulation, technology, etc.) or whether the evolution was the result of exposure to that particular person and values – their footprint as a leader.
If a manager only sees short-term results and postpones taking the long view (because everything is so busy), one may wonder whether he or she is a manager at all or simply an operational manager. With an organiser who has taken all the responsibility on its shoulders and not invested in staff development activities. If the manager is constantly in a hurry, it means that the team has been deprived of decision-making power and the ability to contribute. If a manager looks at today’s financial results and sees that he could have done better, then the best time to start working on developing his people is now, because a year from now it will be too late. The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago, but the best time to plant one is now.
Again this management and leadership
In an externalised way, leadership activities are divided between management and leadership. Long-term results and a lasting footprint are not left by mere management, but byleadership. You make your mark by influencing people, or by leading and by communicating-communicating-communicating.
Financial results can be achieved in the short term by managing (work organisation, domain knowledge, processes, structures, etc. “square”), but if financial results are not as expected, more sales, a new process guide or an operational model in the form of a management structure will not help. These resources will soon be exhausted and you will have exhausted your people, who are responding in surveys that they are ready to change jobs.
It can be said that in nine cases out of ten, unsatisfactory results are due to unsatisfactory relationships between people. Relationships are shaped by the leader’s leadership, attitude, example and where his tolerance for tolerating people’s behaviour runs.
Culture is the answer to the how-question
Anyone who has attended at least one management training course or read a management article will have heard that it is the job of the specialist to answer the ‘how’ question, and the job of the manager to provide guidance in answering the‘ why‘ and ‘ what’ questions. However, this approach focuses only on management (planning, organising, controlling).
The how-question is not just about equipping activities with skills. The how question is a deeply values-based leadership question – after all, organisational culture is the way things are done, the way we do things and the way we interact. What is tolerated and what is not. How we do things generally involves relationships between people. Wages, free fruit and an adjustable desk are undoubtedly important basics, but beyond the basic needs, relationships become important – relationships, relationships at work, achievements and the fulfilment of personal potential. It is the role of the leader to help shape them and thus leave a footprint on the sustainability of the organisation.
What is your positive leadership legacy?
To start defining your own leadership footprint, answer the following questions. Let them digest for a few days and come back to it:
a) what do you see as the need for your team and each individual team member to be better than they are today? Why? What added value will this create for the business in the next quarter (not necessarily yet!) and in 2-3 years?
b) what are your principles as a leader, i.e. if you had to go to introduce yourself to a new team tomorrow, what would the introduction be? Identify what you truly believe in. It’s trendy to say I’m an inclusive and trustworthy leader, and my doors are always open to you. But what are the examples where you have got involved without having thought of a solution yourself? Do you step out of your “open doors” or do you expect people to come to you?
c) what is your management elevator call? In two sentences, describe what makes you different as a leader or what culture you want to foster in your team. What’s your special how?
That’s your management footprint.
The article appeared on personaliuudised.ee 08.03.2019.
