Lead This Way
Donna Karlin, an executive coach officing in Ottawa, Canada, recently posted on FastCompany about Leaders and who corporations promote into leadership positions. http://blog.fastcompany.com/experts/
(Are Leaders Made, Born, or Appointed?).
Here is my take: three types of leaders move up in organizations:
1. The ‘technical’ expert. Theory: if you’re good at, say, customer service, then logic says eventually you should manage a team of customer service people. Reality: leading people requires a dramatically different skillset than an individual contributor role - not everyone makes this transition. Action: make sure you have good transition/training programs and a mentor when giving these people leadership roles.
2. The ‘get it done’ expert. Theory: if someone accomplishes all the goals a company gives them: financial, operational, project management, etc., then they’re good at leading people. Reality: are these leaders measured on ethics, stemming turn-over of their high potential employees, promoting their best people (net exporter of talent) replacing their disengaged employees? Do people want to work for/with this leader? These skills are equally important. Action: behavior skills assessment and training.
3. The ‘promoter’ expert. Theory: if people like you enough, they’ll follow you anywhere. Reality: one cliff at a time. Charisma helps, but if you can’t connect with those you’re leading to accomplish the goals of the company, nobody wins. Action: great change agents; may need a strong ’second’ to get goals accomplished.
The other critical leadership factor for companies is to ensure they are giving their people the right goals, because with great leadership and teams, they just might accomplish them!
Stumble it!
Joe Raasch :: Jan.04.2007 :: Leadership ::
I would be interested to know why you named your website “the happy burro”.
Great observations about leaderships! I would like to see more “promoter” in our corporations.
I’m sure any organization needs a balance of all three…However, I’m a check the soft skills at the door kind of guy. Results cure most ills in any organization. If you have a leader “hitting their number” and “getting the job done” this is a result of those who roll up in the org chart. The leader may not garner the respect of every employee, may not be the most ethical, and the turn-over might be higher, but at the end of the day winners win.
I’m puzzled by the name as well - I think you’ve given me the back story - more about burritos then donkeys but I immediatley read the “happy ass”
I concur with your sentiments about leadership and believe that while charisma does not “get” you the job, it is definitely an attribute that serves as a catalyst for people to pay attention to you (think sales). It reminds me of the initial question posed … what is your legacy? A leader is someone who steps away from the pack (no matter what impressive qualifications they posses) and has a unique contribution that other competent candidates are missing. You need to “get the job done” in order to stay there, but unless you have a vision and share it obsessively you will not emerge from the pack.
Note: I like that your thoughts did not package a leader as the top of hierarchy; but that it exists through all layers.