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The Leadership Dilemma

Learning the discipline of leadership continues to be a challenge for every sector of the Irish Economy. Why do we continue to struggle with implementing the art and science of leadership? Never has there been so much information written on leadership yet, paradoxically, the vacuum seems to get bigger and bigger. “How do I motivate my people?” and “How do I get some teamwork going around here?” continues to be one of the first questions I get asked from business owners and chief executives. It’s like a desperate cry for ‘the magic solution’.

For most business owners and managers leadership is about “getting things done”. It’s about success in increased sales, higher profits, new customers and new products. It’s about action and moving forward. They tend to cynically dismiss the ideas and theories of management academics and thinkers. They regard theory as something MBA students study in their degree programmes and that it invariably lacks immediacy and the practicality of the real business situation. They argue that this theory does not have the transferability to the real world.

You must not get caught up in this way of thinking. You realise that leadership is about ideas and action. All successful innovations, products and results originated in somebodys’ mind as a good idea. Channelling those good ideas and concepts into appropriate action is the key. Knowledge is useful but application is vital.

One of the major universal mistakes of all managers is to take action without the appropriate amount of thinking and planning. The consequences of unplanned actions can be costly. Being the urgent “action man” may be a strength but it may also be a weakness. Too many managers confuse activity with progress and busyness with business. Management decisions must be based on good ideas, concepts and theories as well as instinct, built on previous experience; otherwise there is a tendency to stumble from crisis to crisis. Learning from experience, of course, can be a very expensive school.

Just because there is no “one best way” doesn’t mean you should join the cynics and settle into the comfort zone and the learned helplessness syndrome with regard to creating personal and business advantage. Leadership, like success, is a journey not a destination. Excellent executives love the journey.

My favourite definition of leadership is “Your ability to get extraordinary performance from ordinary people”. It’s your ability to get your followers to reach their full potential.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States of America, demonstrated the art of leadership by using a piece of string. He would put the string on his desk and say to his audience: “Pull it, and it will follow anywhere you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all”.

So many executives ask me “How do I motivate this person, or that team, or this organisation”. They have, of course, confused motivation with movement. Carrot and stick movement is largely made up of external incentives that cause certain actions in human beings. Motivation, on the other hand, is something that comes from within, not without. It prompts or incites an action. This suggests that the best long term approach to get a person to do something is to encourage them to “want” to do it.

Your biggest challenge then is to create the environment and conditions in which your people will want to motivate themselves. The best place to start, therefore, is by taking full responsibility for your own personal leadership. What motivates you? What is the critical motivating factor in your success?

One of the most energy draining experiences and time-wasting activities, and the one that is very likely to have you casting doubts on your own leadership abilities, is the amount of time you will spend trying to “motivate” the people you have recruited. When you recruit the wrong person for a job your ‘ego’ tends to overrule rational thought. The key is not to compound a bad recruitment decision by insisting that they will work out - “they just need more time”. I have made numerous bad hiring mistakes and when the person and job fit don’t match, I can almost always reflect back and find that there was a clue to the non-fit in the interview process … or at least in the very early days. My advise is not to ignore anything, no matter how trivial, because it may be that “clue” to save you anguish and heartache down the road.

Leadership, then, is not something to be taught. It must be lived. Goal clarity is key. The ability to have short-term focus and concentration, and long-term vision is a double juggling act that very few people can master. Role clarity also helps - remember, “no individual is perfect but a team can be”. So how clearly defined is the role of everyone in your team?

©2000 John Butler

John Butler is Managing Director of Century Management and the author of Successful Entrepreneurial Management.  For information contact: 353-1-4595950 or email: johnbutler@centurymanagement.ie

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