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[M217]Managers And Leaders Are They Different

by John Wright, Joh

I was flying home several months ago from a management-leadership program I was teaching for a company in Phoenix, and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me on the plane. During the conversation, I asked him if he considered his boss to be a good manager, and he said, “Yes, he is.” I then asked him if he thought his boss was a good leader, and after thinking a moment, he said, “No, he isn't.”

This man was not alone in the way he thought. According to a survey by the marketing information company TSN, “Less than one-third of all supervisors and managers are perceived to be strong leaders.” As a result, increasingly larger percentages of our workforce are disengaged. According to the survey

• 40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers

• Two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employer's business goals and objectives

• 25% of employees are just “ showing up to collect a paycheck”

There is a tremendous opportunity for managers and supervisors to set themselves and their companies apart from their competition. So what does it take for a manager to be “perceived as a strong leader?”

THE FIVE “C'S” OF LEADERSHIP

Character

People will not follow someone for long if they can't trust them. Not long ago a well known CEO was “ousted” after a probe into a personal relationship with a female executive at the same firm. “The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on his judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company…his actions were inconsistent with our code of conduct.” Leaders have to be trustworthy to produce sustainable results.

The old cliché is true: “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” When Lou Holtz was coach at Notre Dame, the second question he used to ask every player before being selected to play after “Can I trust you?” was “Do you CARE about me, your teammates, and Notre Dame?” If a player had a selfish motive for being on the team and didn't care enough to put the team interests first, he didn't want that young man on the team. He also said if the young man didn't believe that he could trust the coach and feel cared about in return, he shouldn't want to be on the team. Leaders show they care about their team personally and professionally.

Commitment

There's a poster on the gym wall in Clint Eastwood's movie Pretty Baby that says “Winners do what losers won't do.” Leaders are like that also. They DO things poor managers won't do. Arguably, one of the greatest business leaders of our time was Sam Walton. What was his number one rule for business success? COMMIT to your business. “Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.”

Confidence

Leaders know where they are going and demonstrate by their words and actions that there is no doubt that they will arrive. Furthermore, they make you want to go with them. They instill confidence in you as well. They get you to believe in yourself and your team and to see yourself as winners before it actually occurs. In his book Reagan on Leadership, James Strock lists Ronald Reagan's accomplishments while in office and concludes “Above all, Reagan restored America's belief in itself.”

Communication

Leaders have crystal clear compelling visions and communicate those visions repeatedly. In his book Leadership, the first principle Rudolph Giuliani shares is his insistence on his routine morning meeting. “I consider it the cornerstone to efficient functioning within any system…We accomplish a great deal during that first hour, in large part because the lines of communication were so clear.”

In addition to letting people also know clearly where they stand, leaders are also exceptional listeners. In his book Team Bush – Leadership Lessons from the Bush White House, author Donald Kettl discusses how President Bush “makes sure he listens” to his top advisors. The lesson? “Make sure you get unfiltered information. Top managers need all sorts of information, good and bad…especially bad. This is why it is crucial to have a mechanism in place that insures a steady stream of information from all quarters.”

Managers that develop these qualities will create an environment where their team will willingly do what they would not otherwise do.

As a project manager, your skills must cross over many different areas. One of those areas is the art of negotiating. Learning to negotiate well takes some practice and patience, but it's well worth the time because, when carried out correctly, powerful negotiations can create positive relationships you can build on and enjoy for years to come.

There are three items which are negotiable in every project:

Scope: What must be accomplished by the project, how much must be accomplished by the project, what level of quality must be built into the end result?
Resources: What is the budget? What tools are available? What people are available?
Time: When must the project be completed and the results achieved?

In almost every project, it may seem that the scope and due date are set in stone, while the resources are not available. In the early stages of a project, getting clear on the exact mix of these three variables is the key responsibility of the project manager.

Your objective for the solution analysis work is to a) find the 'best' viable solution for the company, and b) demonstrate you performed an excellent, logical analysis of all reasonable options before you landed on this 'best' one you will recommend.

To get clear on the 'best' mix of negotiable items, conduct a series of strategic solution brainstorming sessions with key members of your team. Your role is to facilitate and guide the meetings; your subject matter and analytical expert attendees will provide the core content and ideas.

As a team, do your utmost to find a solution that delivers the requested scope, by the targeted due date, using only proposed resources. If sincere, creative efforts to find a viable solution within all 3 parameters have failed, then move forward and create a viable solution that keeps your targeted due date and scope as given, but adds resources as needed. Once you have that solution, create one to two other alternative solutions.

Document your key findings, facts and assumptions as you go along; you will need these notes to help others understand the conclusions reached by you and your team. This information will become part of your Alternatives Analysis Briefing, some integrated into the main body, some included as Appendix items.

Prepare an Alternatives Analysis Briefing for your Sponsor, demonstrating the various 'what / if' scenarios and the pros and cons of each, with a recommendation. Typically, there will be 3-4 reasonable options e.g. lower the scope to meet a due date; add resources to achieve scope and time, or extend the due date to meet the scope within budget.

A powerful additional option would be to assess the costs, pros, and cons of NOT doing, or continuing, the project at all. The more painful it looks to keep things as they are, the easier it will be to 'sell' your recommended option.

Once you have completed your solutions analysis work and have prepared your Alternatives Briefing, read your briefing out loud to yourself and selected key team leads, testing the clarity of your points and the logical flow of information. Aim to be simple, clear and concise. Include meaningful graphics to add visual interest and make key points easier to grasp.

Meet with your Sponsor and present your briefing and recommendation in a confident and relaxed manner. The keys to a successful negotiation are to look for a "win / win" outcome, and to treat the other party(s) with respect. Be at ease, natural, open to options and aware of your requirements and negotiating authority.

As you can see, this is a common sense approach to project negotiations. The 'magic' is in doing each of these items well, putting the best interests and intentions of the business first. If you can lead your team to keep an open mind and face the requested parameters as challenges to their ingenuity and creativity, together you will come up with a solution that sells itself. Then your job in negotiations is easy: just tell the story so others can arrive at the same conclusions.

Article Source : National Youth Leadership Conference

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Both John Wright & Barb Pratt are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

John Wright has sinced written about articles on various topics from Energy Healing, Leadership. . John Wright's top article generates over 590 views. to your Favourites.

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