Integrity in Leadership

The spirit of an organization is created from the top.

The proof of the sincerity and seriousness of a management is uncompromising emphasis on integrity of character. This, above all, has to be symbolized in management’s “people” decisions. For it is character through which leadership is exercised; it is character that sets the example and is imitated. Character is not something one can fool people about. The people with whom a person works, and especially subordinates, know in a few weeks whether he or she has integrity or not. They may forgive a person for a great deal: incompetence, ignorance, insecurity, or bad manners. But they will not forgive a lack of integrity in that person. Nor will they forgive higher management for choosing him.

This is particularly true of the people at the head of an enterprise. For the spirit of an organization is created from the top. If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top people is great. If it decays, it does so because the top rots; as the proverb has it, “Trees die from the top.”

No one should ever be appointed to a senior position unless top management is willing to have his or her character serve as the model for subordinates.

Action point: Evaluate the character of the CEO and top management when considering a job offer. Align yourself with people who have integrity.

Manager Styles

A manager with a persuading style is like a parent in the way they treat people. They make the decisions, and then try to persuade people that this is the best course of action.

Good points

• People generally feel less dominated than with an authoritarian manager.
• Some people may like this level of control and care.

Bad points

• Some people may resent the manager, as they are not treated as adults.
• The manager may feel hurt if people fail, as if they have been ‘let down’.

With a consulting manager, people are welcome to contribute ideas, suggestions etc, and the manager discusses these and then makes the decision.

Good points

• People feel involved.
• People feel part of a team, and feel valued.

Bad points

• People may resent decisions if their own suggestions were unsuccessful.
• People may try to challenge the manager’s decision.

With a democratic manager, the manager and others all take part in work. Decisions are made by the whole group,and the manager agrees to abide by these, as long as they are within any boundaries or constraints imposed by the workplace and/or organisation.

Good points

• Individuals feel enthusiastic, and tend to take responsibility readily.
• Communication and teamwork are good.

Bad points

• The manager needs to have complete confidence in people.
• The manager can lose control.

With a delegative style, the delegating manager sets limits, and gives problems, work etc to others, who refer back on difficulties, but otherwise take on the entire task as their own.

Good points

• Work is efficient.
• Individuals are given experience of a wide variety of work.

Bad points

• Individuals may feel overburdened with responsibility.
• The manager may not be available to help when problems arise.

Being an abdicator, the manager abdicates – opts out – by becoming so involved in their own work that others are left to their own devices. Often, managers do this because they mistakenly think they are delegating.

Good points

• The manager is free to get on with their own work.

Bad points

• People blame the manager, even when it is their own fault.
• Work is poor, morale is low, and people feel frustrated and resentful.

Leaders Vs Managers

Are you a leader? Or just a manager? What’s the difference, you ask? If you don’t know, you’re probably in the wrong job. A leader energizes and motivates a sales force to achieve seemingly impossible goals. A manager makes sure all reports are in on time. Leaders innovate. Managers...well, they manage. Lest you think this is a bunch of New Age business-seminar babble. In the twenty-first century, understanding the difference between leading and managing is understanding the difference between winning and losing in cut throat markets.

Global competitiveness is so intense today, and there’s so much sameness in products, that you will succeed or fail ninety-eight percent of the time because of your company’s people, and the quality of the people in a sales force comes down to the quality of its leadership. Pure managers make the system work, but leaders make things happen.They make the people around them better. Put in more practical terms, every time you hire a leader who doesn’t maximize people’s potential, you lose market share.

Delegation

A concept related to authority is delegation. Delegation is the downward transfer of authority from a manager to a subordinate. Most organizations today encourage managers to delegate authority in order to provide maximum flexibility in meeting customer needs. In addition, delegation leads to empowerment, in that people have the freedom to contribute ideas and do their jobs in the best possible ways. This involvement can increase job satisfaction for the individual and frequently results in better job performance. Without delegation, managers do all the work themselves and underutilize their workers. The ability to delegate is crucial to managerial success. Managers need to take four steps if they want to successfully delegate responsibilities to their teams.

1. Specifically assign tasks to individual team members.
   The manager needs to make sure that employees know that they are ultimately responsible for carrying out specific assignments.
2. Give team members the correct amount of authority to accomplish assignments.
   Typically, an employee is assigned authority commensurate with the task. A classical principle of organization warns managers not to delegate without giving the subordinate the authority to perform to delegated task. When an employee has responsibility for the task outcome but little authority, accomplishing the job is possible but difficult. The subordinate without authority must rely on persuasion and luck to meet performance expectations. When an employee has authority exceeding responsibility, he or she may become a tyrant, using authority toward frivolous outcomes.
3. Make sure that team members accept responsibility. Responsibility is the flip side of the authority coin. Responsibility is the duty to perform the task or activity an employee has been assigned. An important distinction between authority and responsibility is that the supervisor delegates authority, but the responsibility is shared. Delegation of authority gives a subordinate the right to make commitments, use resources, and take actions in relation to duties assigned. However, in making this delegation, the obligation created is not shifted from the supervisor to the subordinate — it is shared. A supervisor always retains some responsibility for work performed by lower-level units or individuals.
4. Create accountability.
   Team members need to know that they are accountable for their projects. Accountability means answering for one’s actions and accepting the consequences. Team members may need to report and justify task outcomes to their superiors. Managers can build accountability into their organizational structures by monitoring performances and rewarding successful outcomes. Although managers are encouraged to delegation authority, they often find accomplishing this step difficult for the following reasons:
   

• Delegation requires planning, and planning takes time. A manager may say, “By the time I explain this task to someone, I could do it myself.” This manager is overlooking the fact that the initial time spent up front training someone to do a task may save much more time in the long run. Once an employee has learned how to do a task, the manager will not have to take the time to show that employee how to do it again. This improves the flow of the process from that point forward.
• Managers may simply lack confidence in the abilities of their subordinates. Such a situation fosters the attitude, “If you want it done well, do it yourself.” If managers feel that their subordinates lack abilities, they need to provide appropriate training so that all are comfortable performing their duties.
• Managers experience dual accountability. Managers are accountable for their own actions and the actions of their subordinates. If a subordinate fails to perform a certain task or does so poorly, the manager is ultimately responsible for the subordinate’s failure. But by the same token, if a subordinate succeeds, the manager shares in that success as well, and the department can be even more productive.
• Finally, managers may refrain from delegation because they are insecure about their value to the organization. However, managers need to realize that they become more valuable as their teams become more productive and talented.

Voice of Influence

To model conscience, set a good example. To engage in pathfinding, jointly determine the course. To achieve alignment and discipline, set up and manage systems to stay on course. And to empower and evoke passion, focus on results, not methods. And then get out of people’s way and give help as requested.

These modeling roles are sequential. We must first strive to find our voice personally before attempting to build high trust relationships and practice creative problem solving.

Before you respond to a situation, decide whether or how to use the voice of influence. The boss may be a jerk, but you can choose your response. The key question: What’s the best thing you can do under these circumstances? You choose which level of initiative to use on the basis of how far the task lies within or outside your “circle of influence.” This choice takes sensitivity and judgment, but gradually your circle will expand.

There are seven levels of initiative. They are:

1. Wait until told. Unless you have the influence of someone who can do something about a problem, don’t waste energy on something you can do nothing about. Otherwise, you risk the “emotional cancers” of criticizing, complaining, comparing, competing and contending.
2. Ask. Ask about something within your job description but outside your circle. If the question is intelligent and preceded by thorough analysis and careful thinking,
   it could be very impressive and may widen your circle.
3. Make a recommendation on an issue outside your job and at the outside edge of your circle. This process works great in many situations, and can enlarge your circle.
4. “I intend to.” Here you’ve done more analytical work. You’ve owned not only the problem but the solution, and you’re ready to implement it.
5. Do it and report immediately. This is on the outside edge of your circle but within your job. Report to the people who need to know.
6. Do it and report periodically. You are clearly within your job description and your circle.
7. Do it. When something is at the center of your circle, it’s at the core of your job description, and you just do it.

You empower yourself by taking initiative in some way. Be sensitive, wise and careful about timing, but do something and avoid complaining, criticizing or negativity. In our culture of blame, taking responsibility means going against the current. It will also require some vision, a standard to be met, some improvement to be made and discipline. It requires enlisting your passion, in a principled way, toward a worthy end.