What a refreshing approach to personnel management! If we only took the
time to make them feel at home, make them feel valued and wanted and put a
"human face" to the organisation then old fashioned values like employee
loyalty and commitment might have a chance to develop.
It reminds me of a job I had some years ago where the new "boss" called us
all in soon after his arrival and made a brief speech during which he said,
"As I see it, my role as administrator in this organisation is to help you
do your job better." Most of us said nothing at this revelation and some of
us smiled a little but as it turned out the fellow meant exactly what he
said. Needless to say, he earned a tremendous amount of loyalty over the
years because he would fight for the things you said you needed in order to
do your job well and if you had a good idea he would try to make it work
and also not pass it off as his own good idea but give due credit. His view
of his "leadership" role was so unusual, so refreshing and so compelling
that he won over many "followers". If one of the definitions of leadership
is that in order to be a leader you first need to have followers, then he
was indeed a very effective leader.
Too often, administrators and so-called leaders see their role as primarily
being "in control" of others - directing them, supervising them, taking
charge and "leading from the front", as it's called. Consequently,
management effectiveness courses spend a lot of time dealing with "control
" issues. Sometimes this is vaguely disguised under names like
"facilitation", "coordination" and such terms but essentially it is about
the business of making "control freaks".
Leading from the front in the sense of "controlling" others obviously works
well in certain situations and it has its place but it is my belief that
staff members who willingly give their loyalty make better followers than
those who feel compelled to do so. While this approach may be seen by some
as a luxury or a pipe dream, I still think that many of today's
organisations would do well to take a different view of leadership and move
it a bit further away from the emphasis on control, to an approach that
clearly states that administrators and other leaders are there to "help
others do their job better." Or maybe my head's too far up in the clouds?
Paul
--"Let me suggest that leadership also involves "administrative" things that are easily taught. For instance, maintaining a good inprocessing checklist is an excellent leadership tool. It tells the new guy that you're interested enough in him/her to show them around, etc. "
Paul Baxter PhD, MA, BA(Hons), BA, Dip Teach, MAPS Personal Best Systems (R). Personal and professional coaching. Less pain, more gain. Brisbane, Australia. Ph +61 (0)500 579 257. Fax +61 (0)7 3376 1576 Internet: http://www.personalbest.com.au/~pbaxter/habits.htm Email: pbaxter_at_personalbest.com.au