Overview
When Line Managers lack the hard skills of process design and implementation or the ability to write sound policy, and instead try to lead their team to success by co-opting other people to solve their management problems, an engine of chaos is created. An antidote is to foster leader-managers — people who possess the ability to lead change and manage complexity.
This series on leader-managers was conceived to provide some insights into the process of not just hiring but creating great Line Managers. Beginning with Leading Complexity and Managing Complication. I make the case for why it is essential that leadership and management are viewed as two distinct and equally essential skill sets in the organisation of resources.
Leadership is about taking people on a journey of change: establishing a vision of the future which binds people together — creating a collective sense of direction — and preventing them from giving up on the goal.
Management is about organising resources and the inherent complexity that arises as resources increase: establishing and maintaining processes, procedures, and policies — creating high performing teams — and preventing organisations from descending into chaos.In Strategic Direction Versus Initiative Planning I look at the difference between the two essential skills needed by leader-managers — planning and strategy.
Planning is a deductive process used by managers to achieve orderly outcomes. The purpose is to provide clarity regarding what to do about events that will take place.
Strategy tends to be inductive in nature and revolves around looking for relationships and patterns. These relationships and patterns help the strategist to draw conclusions from which they can make choices about events that may take place.In Managing Control and Leading Motivation I address and outline the reasons why motivation alone will do little to achieve results.
By unlocking the power of control and motivation, Line Managers can lead at scale and create healthy organisational cultures with improved governance. This enables informal leadership with the same efficacy as formal management activities.In the final article of this series, Fostering Leader-Managers, I bring it all together and investigate how to create an organisational culture which fosters leader-managers. An essential outcome as the approach of many organisations in appointing some people to lead and others to manage is achieving little more than creating engines of chaos.
HR need to be empowered by the Board to take Line Managers in hand and effect change. Be that targeted training or, where training fails, in advising on performance management (read an exit process) for individuals who fail to meet the requirements of leader-managers.When organisations invest in developing a culture that not just enables but requires that Line Managers be true leader-managers, they institutionalise the organisational behaviour necessary for leading at scale.