Glimmerick

At first, I didn’t really understand what this book was trying to get at. I read, “There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.” After taking some time out to reflect on this particular quote, I began to digest its true meaning. For example, in a specific office, there are most likely people at different “levels.” What I mean by this is there are many factors and situations which may or may not “separate” people:

• Level of enthusiasm
• Experience
• Self-starter or not
• Potential skills
• Self-Esteem

This list could go on and on, but I think I have made my point. Everyone knows that guy who can be given a project, and the next time you hear from him it will be done. Then there are those people that will only work if provoked by a cattle prod. Others are enthusiastic, but have little experience so they will ask a lot of questions. Additionally, there are many types of different situations as well. Meetings, group projects, individual reports, etc.  Trying to throw a “leadership” blanket over all of these people and situations is not going to be very effective. Being able to identify which people in which situations will respond best to a certain leadership style distinguishes a ordinary manager from a great manager.

I am going to illustrate some a couple scenarios, and then I will show you which style will be most effective and why.

1. I have just hired a new low level employee. I want him/her to run gather information and compile them into a report. Most likely, I am going to use the Directing style of leadership. I am going to tell him how to do it and  when to do it.  There is little to gain by asking his/her opinion, since they will have had little to no experience in this office. After time passes by, and they gain experience, I may choose to assign him/her another report, and I might ask him/her if they would do things different so I can get a more well rounded idea of what is going on.  Listening to their ideas and praising what they did well is what transforms Directing into Coaching.
2. Another example is this: Say I have an employee that has been in the company for twenty years. He won’t need much Directing, and often times he won’t need praise from me. If I give him a project, he will be able to motivate himself, plan it himself, and complete it with himself. Other times, he may need to use the resources of those under him, but as far as me interacting with him, it is minimal. This is delegation.

These are just a couple crude examples, but they drive home a point. If I had told my new employee to bring the report to me by tomorrow without teaching them company policies, procedures, etc, I could end up with a useless, incomplete report. On the other hand, if I kept directing my tenured employee, I may actually be decreasing his productivity.

Book Currently Reviewing: Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Books, Organization, RSS, Self-Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.