In association with Machwuerth Team International
When training managers the coach is confronted with two different mentalities. Some managers report on the continual pressure; they complain about that which does not work in their organization and about failures of upper management. They regard their subordinates as reluctant and uninspired. Other managers spontaneously start reporting on their targets; things they would like to tackle immediately, describing where they would like their team to be in one year. Even in today’s economic situation, where many primary set targets have been postponed, such managers keep their strategy while defining new targets. They want to benefit from the crisis.
There are also two different personality concepts that describe how these managers lead and define their roles. In one, managers administrate their area of responsibility and implement strategy; controlling the commitment of the employees and reporting to upper management. The others regard their area of responsibility as a domain of creativity; searching for ways to optimize things and encouraging their employees.
The Leadership Concept
For our purposes leadership is a management style that places high demands on management development. It is characterized by optimistic ideals, value-oriented attitude, behaviour and communication.
Such a style is primarily quite demanding for the managers; they need confront themselves with responsible self-management; questioning their own skills, things they want to achieve, where they want to go (without being dogmatic), their perceptions of action priorities and much more. Abandoning to a large extent their right to influence directly the behaviour of the employees by means of instructions, the manager’s actions aim instead at influencing the attitudes and the awareness of their employees. In order to achieve their goals employees are granted freedom of action and freedom of decision. They are challenged and supported at the same time. It is a form of leadership that purposes self-management, in which employees form close emotional connections.
Ask around in any company and you will always find some departments where the employees report that their boss is fantastic and that it is great fun to work with him/her. It is obvious that the leader has managed to win the employees’ trust and respect.
The basis for this is an authentic communication. The manager says what they think, does what they say, listens to their employees and is open-minded. However, they will also use force and focus on the common decision making process. For the manager it is not their task to motivate their employees. The manager believes that employees will motivate themselves as long as the visions, targets and forecasted future situation communicated by the manager create a motivating pulling effect. The manager uses symbols to describe their objectives; encouraging their employees to be creative and act in an innovative way.
The manager demands a great deal of their self and their employees. He/she creates an area of creativity that challenges the employee to act. The employees then feel that their work is worthy and that the company depends on their performance, their ideas and their potential. These are demanding challenges that sometimes reach employees’ limits.
In such a leadership concept, every employee has the feeling that the managers know him/her personally and that they respect him/her. The manager knows the differences between employees, appreciating the personal strengths and individual characteristics of each person. They do not seek a “perfectly working” employee, but rather one that acts out of self responsibility. This individual appreciation leads employees to build up self-confidence surrounding their own potential.
