Leadership Perspectives - Part 2: Going beyond Effectiveness

In Part 1 of this series we looked at what makes an Effective Leader, and explored the concept that effective leadership can only be built on a sound foundation of a heightened sense of Self-awareness in all its dimensions. This articles builds on that foundation, and explores how leaders can be more impactful than being just “effective”.

Leaders, by definition, must have followers. Followers only follow those whom they can trust, respect and depend on being guided to a higher plane. Time for some introspection?

"Make people happy, and they will be productive", asserts a number of authors on LinkedIn.

In my international experience, working with tens of dozens of organizations of all descriptions, from all sectors, and of all sizes, I have to say that, in reality, it happens the other way round. Let me elaborate:

Productivity = Effectiveness x Efficiency = doing the RIGHT things x doing the THINGS right.

It is always up to the leadership to make sure that employees knows WHY they are doing WHAT they are doing. The WHAT, ultimately, is derived by developing "deployed objectives" from the strategic goals of the business, which will be aimed at total customer satisfaction. When each employee knows the 'WHY' behind the 'WHAT' they are doing, they get a sense of purpose, and feel a sense of meaning and pride in WHAT they are doing. A sense of belonging and connectedness, motivation, passion and self-esteem follow - which, together, help them "engage" with their work and derive joy and happiness in collaborative success. People can create their own journey upwards through the Maslow hierarchy when the leadership knows how to do their own jobs well.

I contend, therefore, that the Leaders who operate "Beyond Effectiveness", will have developed sharply honed "visionary qualities", which, in brief, can be described ass follows:

Visionary Qualities:

• Groups and organizations are all part of a larger social, political and economic system. Because of this, here are two of the most Fundamental Goals of the Leader:

–    To secure an advantageous place in the system for the group or organisation, and

–    To influence events in the larger system to their benefit.

• This means:

–    Having a broader boundary-spanning perspective, and

–    Having a longer time horizon than the people he or she leads.

 We can now look at a few Basic Actions such Leaders (let us identify them as "Transformative Leaders") must take as part of their overall duties and responsibilities:

1. Developing and Communicating

• the guiding philosophy,
• values, purpose, mission, policies and procedures relating to quality, customer acquisition, satisfaction and retention,
• talent acquisition, and developing and nurturing teams and people at all levels,
• sharing and demonstrating uncompromising commitment to ethical, social and environmental responsibilities,
• blending all of the above to define a distinctive and inimitable Corporate Culture.

2. Providing Motivation through Leadership,

• Enabling people with skills, tools and techniques, and
• Inspiring and Empowering (e.g. encouraged to make mistakes as a learning platform, and coached to use appropriate decision discretion) to achieve continuous improvement throughout the organization.
• Develop leadership at all levels (I will discuss the concept and practice of "Distributed Leadership" in a future post as part of this series), and make sure by personally coaching, where necessary, the the team of managers understand, accept and demonstrate ownership of the following responsibilities:

Manager's responsibility:

1. Recognizing both internal and external Customers' aspirations, and understanding and documenting their needs, in order to
2. Set Standards that are consistent with both internal and external Customer requirements, met and unmet needs, and their intentions and ambitions; and delivering these by

3 (a) Building and nurturing Effective Teams (enabled through skills, tools and teamwork; inspired and energized by creating meaning, motivation and engagement; and coached to help teams become "self-directed"); and by

3 (b) Controlling Methods, Processes and Systems, and continually improving their capability and capacity.

____________________________________________________________________ In his early career, Josh was responsible for leading Innovation and Process Transformation within Philips, which involved the interception and integration of leading edge technologies in order to secure and sustain product and market leadership. Josh's work took him across Europe - developing and facilitating multi-nation, multi-function and multi-cultural teams, made up of outstandingly talented individuals.

In his subsequent career spanning over two decades, Josh has helped more than one hundred organizations - of all types and sizes, and from both the public and private sectors - secure significant successes in Key Areas of their operations,

Josh has been widely commended and highly respected as a Leadership Coach and Transformation Leader.