From Secrets of Effective Leadership by Fred Manske Jr. (With attributed quotes from Business Credit (March 2003) by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky.)
“Let's face it; to lead is to live dangerously. While leadership is often depicted as an exciting and glamorous endeavor, one in which you inspire others to follow you through good times and bad, such a portrayal ignores leadership's dark side: the inevitable attempts to take you out of the game. Those attempts are sometimes justified. People in top positions must often pay the price for a flawed strategy or a series of bad decisions.”—Heifetz and Linsky
WISDOM FROM SECRETS:
Leading others is not always easy. Certain hardships go with the benefits. First, there is the constant stress and tension of having to produce results and to be at your best. You cannot afford to let down and relax. Prior to becoming a leader, when you were only a member of the group, you had more security. If the group did not perform well, it was not all your fault—you shared the blame with others. As a leader, you cannot hide in the crowd. You are directly responsible and accountable for the results of your personnel.
Heifetz and Linsky say, “wrenching organizational transformation” is “adaptive change," which require individuals throughout the organization to find the solutions to challenges within themselves and change accordingly. This requires the organization to “accept a solution that may require turning part or all of the organization upside down.”
“It is at this point that danger lurks. And most people who lead in such a situation--swept up in the action, championing a cause they believe in-are caught unawares. Over and over again, we have seen courageous souls blissfully ignorant of an approaching threat until it was too late to respond,” they say. In their combined 50 years of teaching and consulting, they asked themselves “how do you protect yourself?” time and again--usually while watching top-notch and well-intentioned folks get taken out of the game. “On occasion, the question has become painfully personal; we as individuals have been knocked off course or out of the action more than once in our own leadership efforts.”
WISDOM FROM SECRETS: Never get involved in the dark side of office politics, such as maligning associates, practicing deceit, manipulating others or withholding information to enhance your position. Although you may be successful in doing these things for a while, it will not take long for your colleagues to identify your true nature and turn against you. However, it is natural and normal to be an active participant in the political process that occurs in ever organization, which involves trying to influence others, networking, and exercising power.
The issue, therefore, is not the degree of involvement in office politics, but how you play the game. If you strive to unselfishly assist coworkers, stay on congenial terms with them, and refrain from the dark side of politics, you CAN exert influence without compromising your ethics. Moreover, the example you set will encourage others to follow suit.
Heifetz and Linsky point out, “Leading major organizational change often involves radically reconfiguring a complex network of people, tasks and institutions that have achieved a kind of modus vivendi, no matter how dysfunctional it appears to you. When the status quo is upset, people feel a sense of profound loss and dashed expectations. They may go through a period of feeling incompetent or disloyal. It's no wonder they resist the change or try to eliminate its visible agent.”
WISDOM FROM SECRETS:
Leaders have the courage to face inevitable conflict openly and head on. Whenever strong willed people interact on a frequent basis, there will be occasional disagreements and conflict. The effective leader recognizes this as a fact of life and does not shy away from conflict because of the tension and stress involved.
Occasionally, some conflict is necessary in an organization to get things moving—to obtain action where there are bureaucratic roadblocks or procrastination. In explaining this principle to my staff, I use an analogy: “A little friction is often needed to get traction.” The trick is to keep the conflict controlled so as not to create warring factions that undermine cooperation.
The teachings of Heifetz and Linsky offer the helpful hint to “operate in and above the fray. The ability to maintain perspective in the midst of action is critical to lowering resistance. Any military officer knows the importance of maintaining the capacity for reflection, especially in the "fog of war." We call this skill "getting off the dance floor and going to the balcony," an image that captures the mental activity of stepping back from the action and asking, "What's really going on here?' “
They go on to point out the need to “recruit partners.” It's tempting to go it alone when leading a change initiative. There's no one to dilute your ideas or share the glory, and it's often just plain exciting. It's also foolish. You need to recruit partners, people who can help protect you from attacks and who can point out potentially fatal flaws in your strategy or initiative……have coffee once a week with the person most dedicated to seeing you fail.”
WISDOM FROM SECRETS
The loyalty and support of team members must be obtained before the leader attempts to implement his or her vision of the future….people can learn to become successful at inspiring and energizing others. The most important responsibility of a leader is to develop people. The ultimate leader is the one who is willing to develop individuals to the point that they eventually surpass him or her.