Part 7 – Building Excellent Leadership - Attribute One of the Seven Attributes of Excellent Management (7AEM) (Model 2 of the 9LMM)

This is one of many parts to come of?The Nine Linked Management Models (9LMM)?of the Full Cycle of Sustainable Change

In parts 1-5 we talked about model 8 of the 9LMM, The 3 Phases of Change management (3PCM). You can find those articles below this one on LinkedIn. In Part 6 ?we started looking at the Model 2, “The Engine of Change,” The Seven Attributes of Excellent Management sometimes called The Mobile of Excellent Management. This helps to demonstrate that the 9 Linked Management Models can be addressed or experienced in any order. We started Model 8 but here Model 2 is the backbone or engine of all the other nine models. For this newsletter I rewrote one of my older articles related to the first attribute on Building Excellent Leaders.

The first Step to?Excellent Management is Excellent Leadership

“The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men(I know, “people”) to do what he (I know, “the person”) wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

Theodore Roosevelt

One of my pet peeves is the whole Leadership verses?Management separation. I never knew a true manager who did not have a staff and once you add people you better add leadership. Although leadership is broader, you can be a leader without being a manager. However, one can never be an excellent manager without being an excellent leader.

Bottom Line:?Your company cannot have excellent management without excellent leadership. Leadership is a necessary part of working with people, managing in general, and obtaining excellent long-term results. The difference is related more to excellent verses poor management, instead of management verse leadership.

The Mobile of Excellent Management

Leadership is the first attribute and first step in the seven attributes of excellent management (The Mobile of Excellent Management). Like the hand holding the mobile in the Mobile of Excellent Management, without excellent leadership, the organization falls and breaks apart. However, it’s more complex than that, leadership should be distributed throughout the organization, excellent leadership is everyone’s job. As Victor Dingus, a past Quality Manager at Tennessee Eastman used to say?it, “We use to have 14,000 employees, but only 400 were paid to think. Our goal is to have 14,000 employees paid to think.”?The subject of leadership is broad,?so?we are going to narrow this post to Empowering People.

For more information check out the books we wrote on the subject along with the fun fictional Case Study in the book Geronimo Stone https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07ZQG2YJM .

Excellent leadership is everyone’s job.

Excellent leadership is not a trait only for the top of the organization, but a skill to be developed in everyone throughout the organization. If any one person cannot lead the tasks for which he or she is responsible, that person is likely not needed.?Someone once said,?"The more you need your Boss, Supervisor or Customer the less they need you."?

This is only half of the story.?The other half has two parts. First?you can always tell an ineffective leader by how hard that person works in relation to his or her team. Effective leaders have effective teams.

The second part is as an old friend used?to say, "Sometimes the ones who don't?bother you are the ones who?really bother you." Therefore, leaders who can build the capacity of others to lead (empower them) yet remain?open and approachable are the ones most valuable to an?organization.?

Squirrel Moment – As-long-as I am thinking about that friend, he also said, “There is a fine line between genius and Ut-Oh!”

To paraphrase one of John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, “To grow, lead followers. To have explosive growth, lead leaders[i] .” That is, if everyone just does what I tell them to, we are going to finish the work and get more. But if I serve my team well, empower them to manage their work?and?to continuously improve, then we will be more successful more often and go beyond my capacity.?

Which reminds me of the “Law of the Lid[ii] ,” as a leader we can become the lid that caps the growth of the staff and therefore the organization. A leader's true potential lies not in restricting the pace of their organization's progress, but in accelerating it as a turbocharger would to an engine, driving growth and success towards new horizons.

The word most often used and sometimes abused is "Empowerment."?

As a leader, our goal should be to become the turbocharger, not the governor of our organization's engine (our people).

We know that empowerment "can be"?an effective management tool in motivating employees for the benefit of the organization. "Empowerment acknowledges employee skills and demonstrates management's trust in employees. If done correctly, the organizations' top management can confidently grant authority to employees, which results in employees' greater sense of self-confidence and increased motivation. Empowered employees are liberated to enjoy a more meaningful job and to drag the company with them to success. The people of an organization are the only true power of an organization to meet its goals."?

How can we?empower employees (your staff or team members) to become?leaders??

I used to go around the country speaking and teaching people how to management change and projects, how to use the seven attributes of excellent management, and how to motivate knowledge workers. Whenever we came to the subject of "Empowerment," someone would often say, "We tried that, and it did not work here." So I would ask, "Well, how did you try that?" The answer usually came back like this, "We gave our employees all the tools and said, here you are empowered. Now go do great things." Which reminds me of my favorite mechanic's words, "Well, there's your problem!"

You don't just throw the?keys of?your brand new family car?to your?15 year old son who is learning to drive and say, "Here, go places!" I can attest to that, I once was that 15 year old, trusted with the keys to Big Red. Now, Big Red was the top of the line high off the ground, off road, four wheel drive, bright red, pickup truck, with shiny wheels, and tires that looked like panther claws. It was the pride of my step father (similar to this one).?

Even-though, my mother taught me how to drive at age 11 before my natural father died, so that I could take him to the hospital if he had another heart attack. I drove my dad's?1972 GMC Sierra Grande with an automatic transmission around the farm (similar to this one only we had a fancy matching topper). I only worked our farm on weekends, weekdays was for working at the Holiday Inn that I grew up in, but that is another story.?

But still, I never drove a manual transmission (other than a ford 4000 tractor similar to this one only with a very useful front end loader and usually a bush hog attached at the other end).

Big Red had?both a manual transmission and was four-wheel drive and at 15, I had no clue. So, I jammed those gears in place whether they wanted to go or not, with or without the clutch. I made it about 100 yards before the truck had to be towed to that mechanic.?Which again reminds me of my favorite mechanic's words, "Well, there's your problem!"?

The lesson here, is you don’t just wave a sword and say the magic words, “By the power invested in me, you are empowered. Long live the organization!” Empowering?is a process of incubation. Empowerment is a process of empowering.

How do we?build an organizational incubator for leaders???

Before we can even start the process of empowering people, we must make sure the management team is on board.?

From?the words of John Maxwell - Irrefutable Law Number 12, "The Law of Empowerment, Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others."

Once?we have our management team on board, we can start talking about empowering employees. However, empowering people requires a layered approach applied over time. The first part of empowerment (building leaders) has to do with learning the soft skills of dealing with people and the second part is about building the capacity to influence people to get results.

This takes time and can be hard work. But then, that should be no surprise, everything can be hard work. The process of empowering employees calls for managers to lead, coach and support employees when problems arise. Though many people may want to be empowered, some may fear responsibility and the lack of support from management. It is not a shifting of responsibility but a sharing of?responsibility. You would not hire an inexperienced, untrained person to lead from the top-down so why would we expect it from the bottom-up.

If you knew me, you may also know my two favorite words when it comes to assessing work, "Systematic and Repeatable." You also probably know how I like to focus on the phases and steps of?systems and processes. Therefore, the process of empowering has two major phases, the People Skills Incubation Phase and the Results Oriented Incubation Phase. Each phase requires time.

Incubating Leaders Phase One; The “Soft” People Skills Incubation Phase - It’s All About People!

The process of empowering people starts with the process of learning how to deal with others. The “Soft” People Skills Incubation Phase takes building several layers or steps one on top of the other.?

Soft Side - Layer/Step 1: Commitment:?From Fred Smith, Founder, and CEO of Federal Express Corporation quoted in, Forbes Great Minds of Business tape series.?“All we have at the end of the day is personal Effort and Commitment.”

You cannot give someone commitment.?For example, I cannot give someone an education if he or she does not want it.?I can not just take?someone off the street, give them nice clothes and pay for his/her education?to?Vanderbilt University and expect success without commitment from the person I am empowering. You cannot empower someone who will not cooperate.?Likewise, you cannot empower someone if you (or the company) are not going to commit to the process.?

From?the words of John Maxwell - Irrefutable Law Number 18, "The Law of Sacrifice, A Leader Must Give Up to Go Up."

John C. Maxwell; The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Workbook, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002

Soft Side - Layer/Step 2:?Understanding:??Once we are committed we can start the work on understanding people. Understanding people means understanding what motivates?people and the trials people face. It is helpful?to learn the motivational?theories?and experience some personal trials (maybe sometimes though dialogue).?

Soft Side - Layer/Step 3: Sensitivity:??Understanding people issues helps to build sensitivity.?Sensitivity is not all soft and fuzzy.?Sensitivity is a two edge sword, grace and mercy is important when dealing with people, but so is tough love and high expectations.??

From?the words of John Maxwell - Irrefutable Law Number 10, "The Law of Connection, Leaders Touch the Heart, Before They ask for a hand."

John C. Maxwell; The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Workbook, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002

Someone ones said, “No one cares what you have to say, until they know you care.”

Soft Side - Layers/Steps 4 and 5: Respect and Patience:??Respect comes after Understanding and Sensitivity. Patience only comes after respect.?Management must gently influence employees being careful to not impose their own decisions to allow the empowerment process to unfold.?

Warning: Disrespect also comes from understanding and sensitivity to those things we know are wrong.?Respect the person and expect high performance.?However, do not expect respect in return unless you are also building on your softer skills.?Likewise, if you have habits that reinforce disrespect, do not anticipate respect from others. I’m reminded of the manager who always drank too much at parties and became sexually forward with his employees.?He was the talk of the water cooler, and never in a positive way.?Soon he lost his career because of disrespectful habits.?

From?the words of John Maxwell - Irrefutable Law Number 7, "The Law of Respect, People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger than Themselves"

John C. Maxwell; The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Workbook, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002

Incubating Leaders Phase Two; Getting to Results?Incubation Phase - It’s All About Results!

We are in the business to make a profit.?If we do not get results, we cannot stay in business.?Phase two is the Results Oriented Incubation Phase outlined in the following figure.

Results?Phase?- Layer/Step 1, Leadership:??The first step is the people side of leadership.?We talked about that in the previous sections.?If you cannot influence people, you cannot lead and the desired results will never follow.?First, master the people issues.?You cannot empower employees?and expect results until they can lead people to help them achieve results based on goals.

From?the words of John Maxwell - Irrefutable Law Number 19, "The Law of Timing, When to Lead is as Important as What To Do and Where To Go."

Results Phase?- Layer/Step 2, Communicating Information, Goals, and Expectations:??One must share information, goals, and expectations before one can expect results.?Open communication allows people to understand how to be successful in getting the appropriate results.

Unfortunately, information is power and represents job security.?Not all managers are self-confident enough to grant authority and trust in employees.?Some managers simply cannot “let go” and allow employees to have access and some employees hide information to give an illusion of value to their own positions. This is why I often suggest, your first step is to layout the duties of all processes, jobs, roles, and positions be flow charted (and Value Stream Mapped).?

From?the words of John Maxwell - Irrefutable Law Number 5, "The Law of E.F. Hutton, When the Real Leader Speaks, People Listen.."

Results Phase?- Layer/Step 5, Ownership and Cooperation Education and Training:?This is the point where someone is actually empowered.?Do not expect empowerment to lead to results unless you have built on each of the layers above, over time.

Without employee ownership and cooperation the organization misses the benefits of improved quality of service, effectiveness, efficiency, and a timely response to inquiries.?Lack of empowerment may lead to more organizational bureaucracy, hidden agendas, and a smaller commitment of behalf of the employees (engagement).

Results Phase?- Layers/Steps?6 and 7, Evaluation and Recognition:?Evaluation and performance measures make sense when people are empowered and own the process.?Recognition can then be used to motivate and reward.

The Bottom Line.

Empowerment leads to increased employee motivation.?Increased motivation leads to improved productivity.?As a result, costs decreases and profits increase for the betterment of the organization and the employees.?An added benefit is reduced employee stress with the opportunity to make decisions about business processes for which they are knowledgeable.?In fact, employees actually doing a job know more about it than others.?As a manager, you should expect the ones doing a specific task to know more than you do about that task.?Harness that valuable power!?Use the most valuable asset, the employees.

Additional Notes on?The Leaders’ Responsibilities – Dreams, Missions, Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics: Leaders paint broad pictures of organizational visions, define missions, outline goals and objectives, decided on strategies and tactics, and drive toward change. However, these should not originate only from the top, it is just as important to pull or push great innovative ideas up from the bottom of the organization. In fact, the best ideas will come out of the trenches where the work is being done; from subject matter experts, those vendors who have a stake in your success; or those customers and clients who want and need your product.

The first hurdle related to Strategy is that of creating a vision of our organization’s future. We cannot plan unless we know why we are planning. Answer the question, “What vision are we trying to reach?” Then we can start asking the other related questions, “What are the trends relate to our vision? What risk is inherent to our industry? What are our goals? Who are the competitors who have the same visions? Who are those whom benefit from us reaching our vision?”

To create visions we must first decide what we want to do! This drives everything else. By knowing our vision, we are then able to decide if a proposed change gets us closer to or pushes us farther away from our vision. This works for a nation the same way it does for a small company. In your organization, understanding?what your vision is; is the first step in strategically planning and implementing any change and building your strategies.

Furthermore, as an executive, engineer, military officer, government official, or project manager it is unethical to support a change without first calculating the cost and benefits; understanding the impacts; warning of the risks; and then striving to ensure the delivery of the value and benefits of that change. All that without compromising our legal, moral, and ethical responsibilities. History warns us that our leadership responsibilities cannot be delegated or forgotten without [email protected]?if you have questions.?

Either change or become irrelevant!

Coming Next:?Design Thinking as Applied to the Development of the Convection Microwave Oven. ?

We will put The Engine of Change - The 2st Attribute ?Building Excellent Cultures of the Seven Attributes of Excellent Management on hold until after Design Thinking.

Invitation:

Contact me! Unlock your potential and take your career to the next level by signing up for one of our workshops. We have created some nice, gamified project management training where we look at all the issues of change, the Seven attributes of Excellent Management, and take a full systems approach to the application of PM Tools. Do not miss this opportunity to learn and advance your career!

"Our mission is to transform boring training into an exciting experience with our gamified approach to Project Management, Agile, Change Management, & Lean Six Sigma and others. Boost skills & productivity while having fun!"

1. ?https://www.westbrookstevens.com/leadership.htm ?
2. Calvin Pepper and Craig Stevens, “Project management –Maintaining Quality by Communicating, “Third International Waste Management Conference, ASQC, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1992.
3. Stevens, C.A., “Step 3: Using the Westbrook Attributes For “Quality Management” to Understand and Maximize Organizational Change Effectiveness and Efficiency,” American Society of Engineering Management, 21st National Conference Proceedings, October 4-7, 2000.
4. John C. Maxwell; The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Workbook, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002
5. The Flow Channel by Mihaly Csizszentmihalyi

[i] John C. Maxwell; The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Workbook, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002

[ii] ibid