Are you a Manager or a Leader?

Leaders exist at every level of an organisation, whereas Managers are hierarchical pinnacles. By its nature, the role of a Manager is that of control, unless that manager is a Leader. There is nothing wrong with being a Manager as long as it is where you wish to be.

So which one am I (one might ask)? In order to better portray this, I'll use a real example, that I observed yesterday while shopping for clothes. I asked one of the 2 charming shop assistants why he seemed rather low-key. He told me this short story. 

He said that the other shop assistant who is his manager (Store Manager) hired him, some weeks ago, as he was recommended by her husband. He was doing very well from the outset, so the creative Store Manager moved against convention and decided to pool the Store Sales and effectively share her commission with him, while he ramped-up his sales. It created an amazing harmonious, effective, positive, pleasant and rewarding environment for both; a great place to work he added. That lasted about 3 weeks.

Then, the morning of my visit, the pair received a call from the Store Manager's supervisor who asked them to promptly stop that practise. "You are meant to be competing"........... 

The shop assistant is totally disincentivised and is now wondering if this organisation is aligned with his value systems or whether he will just be there and just collect the salary.

Hierarchically, the Supervisor was "enforcing" the organisational edict of how people participate in their internal commission scheme. The Store Manager was incentivising her staff.

The point is that as managers we often forget the purpose of the process, in this case the commission process. Obviously it is, to incentivise the team and individuals specifically, to achieve better organisational results. We seem to fail to realise that the best results are achieved through effective and happy teams rather than through dogma. As a manager this individual was using his position to enforce company policy. As a Leader, he failed, as this achieved the opposite outcome to the intent of the policy/process.

So the answer to the question "Am I a Leader or a Manager?", seems straight forward to me. Am I an enforcer that utilises my position to control outcomes, or am I unleashing that Leader quality within each individual in my team to achieve results that eclipse my industry competitors?

In our definition, Leaders are those that create Leaders and Leadership starts with one owning the responsibility of taking a Lead in their own life! Whether you know it or not, you are a Leader! Leaders exist in all walks of life. They are mothers, CEOs, volunteers, spiritualists, care-givers, receptionists, and the list goes on. However not all these role players are Leaders.

http://www.aldogrech.com

Who's Your Boss?

not relevant but interesting

As a leader, this is a key question to keep in mind.

It is my observation and opinion over the many years that I led businesses, that there are 2 types of businesses, those that focus on the customer and those that focus on the shareholder. Now many will argue that these are not mutually exclusive, and maybe so. However. I believe that in most cases that I have observed, this is a valid statement.i believe that there is only one Organisation that is effective and meets the test of time and that is the Organisation that focuses on the customer. I also happen to believe that the Organisation that focuses primarily on its customer is better serving its shareholders.

The focus on shareholders is usually a short-term view of an Organisation. It is usually a 3 monthly cycle of achieving certain results. Where, if results are not met, the Organisation is severely punished. In order to meet these short term results, so called leaders resort to anything including getting rid of core staff (often not the ones that are obviously bringing the results, but are the hidden jewels, alas), selling core assets and diverting the Organisation away from its true vision, merely to keep investors happy. I use the word merely quite purposefully. As I believe the shareholders are best served if these decisions are not made, if they want long-term "success".

I am not saying that recalcitrant employees should not be addressed appropriately. However, getting rid of employees, merely for short-term results achievement, is tantamount to throwing away the baby with the bath water! This is a different issue and the subject of a separate article.

Shareholders are best served if the Organisation stays focused on its customers; it's vision, even as times get tough and as shareholders want blood. Of course, one needs to stay relevant and the business of a leader is in fact to continually measure the Organisational one page business plan against market ensuring its validity. However, once validated and/or trimmed, a true leader stays focused on the customer and not the short-term blood thirst of the shareholders. Shareholders operate out of fear and a true leader knows this, and is able to stay on course while managing shareholders expectations.

However, back to the original hypothesis. As a leader there is a key choice to make; the customer, or the shareholder. And this is not about politics and rhetoric. It is about conviction.

Practically, what does this mean?

The customer-centric leader understands that the Organisational best asset is the employee. They do everything to ensure that everybody is on board and on purpose. They ensure that training is provided for all to stay on purpose and eliminates those that refuse to adopt the vision and are not on purpose. These are not necessarily recalcitrant employees. However, sometimes, there are valid differences of opinion and there is no place for an employee with opposing views of objectives. This is like letting a cancer grow. An on-purpose Organisation is unstoppable, profitable and has longevity built-in; it can whitstand down-times and maximize profits in good times, better serving its loyal shareholders.

I would not call CEOs and Managers of shareholder-centric organizations leaders. They might be brilliant in delivering great short-term dividends. However, the organizations they build are not sustainable long-term, have tragic customer satisfaction levels and have limited longevity. They are the heroes of investors but create organizations with low morale high staff turn-over and as a result unsustainable. In the long-term, this is bad news for loyal investors and create cronic down-turns as they do almost anything (as shown in the GFC) to ensure short-term results. They might be Managers, CEOs, great analysers, politicians; often charismatic, but not Leaders.

Unfortunately, these individuals are the yardstick for our youth and this is a sad indictment for our civilization that has placed money as a god above all gods.

Obviously, investors are by nature transient and they pick and choose, dropping perceived hot potatoes for the new short term money making opportunity. This is sometimes good for the investors hip-pocket, but always bad for business.

Apple is a great example of my views. Its share-value has been savaged even as it enjoys, unparalleled customer satisfaction, unparalleled profits, unparalleled growth of liquid assets unparalleled equity for a company of its size and has effectively created 5 new global product categories; simply because it has not met shareholder expectations! Absurd...

As a Leader, it is your choice. Choose wisely as true deep-in-the-heart conviction, alignment and happiness is worth much more than the short-term financial reward. And be clear that choosing the customer over the shareholder is a sure guarantee of investor return, almost and oxymoron!

CxO has proven alternative methodologies to turn your Organisation into a sustainable, long term, great entity. http://www.CxOconsulting.com.au. Aldo Grech is the managing Partner and Leader of CxO.

The Winning Curse

News is often full of fallen heroes; fallen to drugs, crime or bribery. Leadership is not the same as management or winning at all costs. Leadership is about being the best of who we are, leading by example and in the process creating other Leaders, not followers.

Hero worshiping is creating serious anomalies in our society and there is a need for our prime caregivers and education systems to re-frame and redefine how we are motivating our youth and what success means.

Ego is not the same as self-worth and self-respect. Ego is the opposite!

In my opinion Ego is the result of self-denial, where the value of oneself is so low, that from a young age we start comparing ourselves with others to create an avatar of ourselves that becomes our Ego; that we manipulate like a chameleon in every aspect of our life (friendships, relationships, work, play, etc) in order to cover-up that innate sense of worthlessness. This is exacerbated by the emphasis of our care-givers, from a very young age, where we are compared with others and where others (winners!) are established as yardsticks of success. Being individuals, we never match those others that we are compared with and that which we are taught to revere and thus starts the process of creating our fake avatar, the chameleon.

In this process, depression is a very likely path as we learn to suppress that who we are while we act in behaviors that make us appear to be successful, as defined by others. That suppression leads to depression.

And depression is not even the worst outcome. Performance enhancement drugs, bribery and crime often are outcomes that destroy our lives and those of those around us.

Our newspapers are currently full of devastating news like Pistorius, Lance Armstrong, extensive doping in Australian sports, and other fallen heroes/organisations.

The issue, is that instead of looking at this as an epidemic of our times, driven by our trained focus to "win at all costs", we look at these disasters as individual cases. Doing so, we continue making a bad situation worse.

The answer is simple but not so easy to deploy. It is simply about motivating our young to explore that which motivates them from the inside and for them to feel contented and loved for simply being who they are; rather than the unnatural pressure from day one to be better than the Jones's, to make more money, to drive better cars, wear set brands, etc...

And there is nothing wrong with aspiring to having the best that this world has on offer, and more. The difference is the motivation that gets us to achieve these, that needs to be internalized rather externalised; meaning, motivated from within rather than motivated by comparing ourselves with others.

Whether you are a mother, a school teacher, a manager or an orator, be a Leader and inspire others by motivating that beautiful energy that lies within them that will yield astounding results to themselves, your family and your organisation.

In our definition, Leaders are those that create Leaders and Leadership starts with one owning the responsibility of taking a Lead in their own life! Whether you know it or not, you are a Leader! Leaders exist in all walks of life. They are mothers, CEOs, volunteers, spiritualists, care-givers, receptionists, and the list goes on. However not all these role players are Leaders.

http://www.aldogrech.com

Beware of "Talking" Managers

Beware of your managers that talk a lot about their strategies, strengths, team building concepts, etc.....

The old adage "the proof is in the pudding" is very apt here. Furthermore, usually managers that talk a lot about these "methods" are often found to be dropping slogans to big-note themselves (usually out of fear) and are a long way from understanding let alone adopting these methods - They require Leadership training.

As an example, I recently observed a manager that whenever involved in meetings (be-it one-on-one or in a group) talks at the rate of knots. She stresses that in her view it is all about listening to the team and operating on the basis of team feedback. However, at no stage did she really stop long enough to catch breath, let alone to create a real space where the team could contribute.

In a particular meeting, one of her team members, who was the only one still eager to rise above the barrage, and raise a point during question time was met with a "close" response! Something like, "I will collect everybody's feedback and take it to management'". Wow; his was feedback had she teased it out!

This is not to say that these managers will not meet the lowest required threshold to performance, embellished by their constant "qualifying" to management that all the negative outcomes are a result of externalities and that they are doing their best in "the given circumstances". Just that these managers end up with a team that is not truly empowered, losing the Leaders (as defined by CxO Consulting) amongst them and always struggling to get there, rather than allowing the team energy and capabilities to truly maximise opportunities and to grow into previously uncharted territories.

These type of managers are certainly not Leaders and will not create a Great Organisation complete with Leaders at every level.

It might be however that as the Leader of your organisation, you prefer this type of "driven" (as often, vocal is confused with driven) manager. Unfortunately, if this is you, then the prognosis is not good for your organisation. Your competition and their Leaders are operating in a different paradigm and will more likely than not, eclipse you.

Be a true Leader and ensure that your managers are Leaders too and that their Leadership shows-up in visible results, without the excessive "talking".

Listening is the domain of the wise, excessive words are the domain of the fearful.


Aldo Grech - CXO Consulting

Energy is Energy

Energy is neither positive nor negative, it is just energy.

Energy is a gift of our nature that passes through us in response to a given situation. As it passes through us it gets coloured as positive, negative or neutral on the basis of our Ego, our upbringing, our state of mind. Based on this judgement, we then respond in a given way, either reacting negatively, positively or, not at all. These moments, unless seized as opportunities, are squandered gifts.

True Leaders, perceptively understand that every time this energy within them is triggered for a given situation, it is a GREAT opportunity to grab the moment and respond with an approach that engenders empowerment, growth, well-being and empathy.

Others that have not understood this basic, and often unconscious reality, automatically react through the filter of right or wrong. They do not understand that ultimately, there is no right or wrong except that, which has been tattooed in their brain. Our brain is a strong and capable resource that protects us on the basis of what it knows - OUR HISTORY.

Leaders understand that our history is not who we are. We are everything there is and our brain is only able to give us a small percentage of reality limited by our years on this planet; and should we be guided by this, then we are missing-out on the bigger picture which is available to each and everyone of us.

So if Leadership is what you are aspiring to, then remember to question any auto-response your brain triggers when faced with what you then perceive as calamities, crises and issues. Better still, feel your way through a situation, trusting your god-given intuitive self rather than being limited by your history; your brain.

These are challenging choices to comprehend as, as you are reading this, your brain might be giving you all sorts of triggers, informing you to view this negatively and to discount it as "a great theory that will never work in the real world", or some similar notion. If this is you, then make the leap of Leadership and allow yourself to see beyond the tyranny of your history to embark, one "calamity" at a time towards your full potential that already exists within you and that your history is holding you back from.

In fact the brain, by its nature is selfish as it, to a large degree, exists to protect you.

Leadership is everything but selfish.

Aldo Grech - CXO Consulting

Leadership Cannot be Trained! But......

Managers, CEO's, and other similar titles, are manufactured human concepts that are based around a set of specifications (job descriptions) mainly designed at the start of the industrial revolution to slot people into roles, to deliver results for business owners or to create support infrastructures around these businesses.

Indeed a very successful number of decades have transpired that seem to have vindicated this structure. However, this is also the structure that created the destruction and greed, that resulted in the GFC (Global Financial Crises).

Like those explorers before us, that gave us access to lands far away and that have reached out into the cosmos, Leaders seem to come out of nowhere and stretch our imagination further than we thought was possible. Leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Larry Ellison were orphans, nerds or school drop-outs. before they redefined the same world we live in.

There is no curriculum that these people followed to realize their visions to achieve such outstanding results. They merely believed in, and focused on their innate intuition, the Leader inside each and every one of us; our purpose.

Now there have been many studies, writings and biographies, designed to explain the phenomena, that these and other similar luminaries are. However, none of this literature will make another person a Leader. One might break down the successes into studies and come-up with formulas for success and possibly emulate some of their successes, but rise to their measure or even create new disruptive directions, highly unlikely.

However, there is a way, (the way these luminaries achieved their amazing feats) simply by tapping into your innate Leader, by following that which your heart tells you. Doing this because of your belief, passion and conviction and not because you need a job, a stylish car, a house the envy of the neighbourhood, or other "normal" objectives. Because you, like each and every one of us, have been blessed with an innate design that created us and made us unique. Humanity needs your unique intellect, creativity and contributions and you know what they are, if you stop the noise of "normality" and tap into the silence of your gifts. Share them with the rest of us, as this is your god given right and duty. Be proud of your purpose and do not be derailed by the voices of fear from those that, "wish the best for you", and plagued and shackled by "normality", divert you from your natural course. They too will be inspired by your eventual achievements. Be a Leader and show us the way in your chosen field, craft, business or adventure.

Go, be a Leader whether you are a store person, a reception, sales manager, CEO, entrepreneur or even a parent, and create the new in whatever you do.