Does this speech sound familiar? “Let me say, first and foremost, I am a people person. My door is always open. I would rather grant forgiveness than grant permission. There is no ‘I’ in team. I will always share the credit, and take the hit. You protect me and I will always protect you. You, the people who work for me, are always job number one. I would prefer to limit profit and maintain headcount than have things the other way around. Mistakes are merely new lessons, taught on the job. Errors are not terminal events on my watch. Nobody ever got in trouble disagreeing with my ideas. The only stupid question is the unasked one. There is always enough credit to go around. I play no favorites; there are no politics in my department, just equals. I don’t care if you are white, black, purple, or green; we are all in this together. “Sorry, no time for questions today, make an appointment with my assistant what’s-her-name.” I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of speech that motivates me to update my resume. I work on the assumption that those things others feel the need to tell you in speeches, especially if those speeches are an unending thread of clich?s, are in fact promises that are destined never to be fulfilled. As Shakespeare once wrote, “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!” My concern heightens in direct proportion to the ratio of clich?s to paragraphs. For example:
I realize the “welcome myself onboard speech” is a time honored and cherished tradition in management. It harkens back to our cave ancestors who upon achieving the honor of sleeping on the rock nearest the fire, felt compelled to grunt and scratch to signify their arrival in a place of importance or honor. So into the 21st century, the tradition continues pretty much as before. True, we have replaced the importance of proximity to the fire with the total square feet of your office and the quality of your view to measure your ascension into the hierarchy of management, but the speech remains pretty much unchanged, scratches and all. Furthermore, I have to admit my own prejudices. There are some clich?’s that bother me more than others. For instance I despise the following clich?, “I would rather grant forgiveness than grant permission.” Hey, unless you are my wife or my priest, you can forget about me “allowing” you to grant me “forgiveness!” Administratively discipline me, speak harshly to me, give me a demotion, or bring about my termination: I cede these powers to my bosses. But they don’t have the right to claim the moral authority to grant “forgiveness!” We often use words that “sound nice” without thinking through their implication. If you claim the right to forgive, you may need to deal with an arrogance issue before you become an effective manager. Besides, as “the boss,” you are paid to be aware and accountable. I suspect bosses who resist the duty of “granting permission” are not comfortable in their roles. Why do you think you have your own reserved parking space? When you hear the old “I would rather grant forgiveness…” speech, isn’t your first thought, “Yeah, right!”? I automatically assume “Mr./Ms. Micromanager” has arrived. I also tend to get bothered by people who use the expression, “…white, black, green or purple.” To date, I have never had an HR/staffing issue regarding racial tension or inequities with purple people. There is enough work in the real world of racial interaction that needs attention without inventing a fictitious one. Are some managers afraid that if they keep it “real” somebody might actually bring up an issue? In business we tend to promote people upon achieving competency at their existing level of responsibility. Seldom is training or preparation time allocated to equip this person for the next step prior to pushing them into it. Few, if any companies, engage in any strategic effort to identify internal leadership candidates and develop them ahead of time. As a matter of fact, few companies even understand the need to search of or develop leaders. One day some poor soul is a team leader with “pass down” authority (They do not create policy or make decisions, they merely pass the decisions of others on “down the line”) Before you know it, due to their unblemished attendance record, neat and clean appearance, nice teeth and generally placid demeanor, they are promoted to a supervisory-level position, handed a policy and procedure manual, and told that they are $50K over budget, the ISO audit team is due in three weeks, they have an employee issue with a person who felt they should have been promoted in place of them, they are now on salary and will be working twice the overtime without overtime pay, and their quarterly goal attainment report was due yesterday. “By the way, do you know the bulletin board in your area is out of policy with OSHA, EEO/AA, and somebody put up an ad for an escort service?!” Suddenly this once efficient, productive, and happy employee feels compelled to make a speech. Something like, “Noooooooo!!!” This problem of poorly prepared leaders has many origins:
The need to identify, hire, train, promote, and sponsor true leaders in the corporate culture is significantly more important than any other skill search you can consider. It is also the most difficult and least compatible with modern screening tools. Therein lies the need to identify and deal with this issue as our continued reliance on automation may make this critical goal less and less obtainable. But let us get our vocabulary in line with the topic. The terms “manager” and “leader” are not interchangeable. In fact, they are mutually exclusive:
You can manage time, money, reports, agendas, and to some extent, programs and projects. But people need to be lead, not managed. In the “manage only” role you are in effect “reporting” on events and activities, not impacting them to the fullest extent possible. People react to management, but they respond to good leadership. Quality leadership is in effect a “force multiplier.” By better managing a process you can enhance performance by percentage points. As an inspirational leader you can impact performance geometrically. That is not to say that managers cannot also be leaders, only that the title manager does not automatically insure leadership capability. It also means that you have leaders in your organization who do not have the title manager, and that is a criminal waste of talent. You don’t spill water in the Sahara, you don’t throw away blankets in the Artic, and you do not waste leadership in corporate America. It is too a rare commodity. So what “buzz words” can we use in searching for a leader? What is the correct skill mix? That’s the problem, it is mostly subjective:
This is not a skill profile that readily lends itself to Boolean Logic or other screening assumptions. You cannot assume that the job title indicates the person is a leader. The fact that a person was in the armed forces does not guarantee they are a leader (some of the best leaders I know are ex-military, so are some of the worst). The absence of previous roles in management does not preclude their ability to assume that role now. Career turmoil can be both an indicator and a counter indicator of leadership skills. Bad references from past managers can be bad news, but they may also be indicators of leadership capability wasted in the wrong environment. Consider the source before assigning value to the information. Leaders can alienate and anger non-leaders in management roles. In the next installment, we will consider the methodologies to assist you in incorporating searching for leadership skills into your ongoing recruiting efforts. But first you have to determine if your hiring teams are in fact sophisticated enough to know the value of hiring potential leaders. Do they value the strong subjective skills of a potential leader? Do they know how to interview a leader? Or are they always hiring exclusively based on the objective capabilities offered by a candidate? In other words, are they looking for potential leaders and would they know one if they saw one? You may need to champion new hiring practices that incorporate identifying and hiring future leaders as part of a strategic human capital program, and not just as “a hole plugging the dam.” You must insure that you champion the need before you provide the source. You see, before you can recruit leaders, you have to become one. It’s not easy; it requires a lot of effort and carries risk. For one thing, you have to be willing to stick your head up out of the crowd and be seen saying something that is not already accepted as doctrine. Leaders can only be recruited by other leaders. There are easier and safer career paths to aspire to. Being one of the crowd may lack glory, but it is safe. But leadership is a goal worth aspiring to in your career. On a bad day, during a crisis when you suddenly sense that everybody is looking towards you to offer a solution, guidance, or reassurance?? well, you just cannot put a value on the feeling. Leadership roles carry risks, but they are never dull and never unfulfilling, and you never wonder if what your doing matters. Aspire to management titles, but earn your role as a leader. Remember, leaders give the greatest speech on their first day: “Follow me!” Have a great day recruiting!