In his article, Managing Oneself, Peter F. Drucker establishes the correlation between success and self-awareness. Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves, their strengths, their values, and how they best perform. We will be able to achieve results, remain competitive and be successful by knowing our strengths and limitations. Furthermore, by knowing our strengths and limitations, we can position ourselves where we can best contribute and excel within the organization. Drucker suggests a self-assessment using the following questions.
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What Are My Strengths? Learning more about our strengths can be done through feedback analysis, and also by comparing expectations versus results. Knowing what our strengths are will allow us to maximize our potential in areas in which we can excel, instead of wasting time trying to cultivate skills in areas of little or no proficiencies. Knowing our strengths will let us determine where we belong.
How Do I Perform? The way we perform is a matter of personality. Everyone performs differently and how we perform is unique. Recognizing if we are a reader or a listener, as well as, identifying how we learn, can help us find out how we perform. Understanding how we perform is essential to prevent wasting time and effort in trying to change the way we learn and operate. Instead, it is far more advantageous to improve our performance and try not to take on work we cannot perform well or perform at all.
What Are My Values? “To work in an organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one’s own condemns a person both to frustration and to non-performance.” People and organizations have values. In order to perform well or be effective in an organization, both the values of the organization and the individual must be close enough so they can co-exist. Value conflicts can result in frustration and poor or non-performance; therefore, values should be a primary focus in situations in where personal values are not in sync with an organization’s.
Where Do I Belong? Knowing our strengths, how we perform and our values can help us answer the question, where do we belong. This is important because by knowing where we belong, we can place ourselves where we can make the greatest contributions within the organization. It also can help us to select the tasks and responsibilities in which we are more likely to excel based on what we know about our strengths, performance and values.
What Should I Contribute? Or what should my contributions be? Contributions to our organizations should make a difference for the better. Its results should be visible and measurable. In addtion, contributions should be based on our given strengths, performance and values, and follow a course of action: what to do, where and how to start, and what goals and deadlines to set.
Managing oneself requires a high degree of self control, self awareness and social skills. Since we are all part of society, we all should be aware of our relationship responsibilities. This is recognizing that an organization’s composition includes people with different values, strengths and performance levels, knowing them will help us work better with others and accomplish more. With regard to relationship responsibilities, it is also important to take responsibility for communication. Effective communication helps to build consensus, increasing efficiency and building trust. Through effective communication, we can learn and understand members of our organizations to ensure we are in sync to achieve our goals and provide our greatest contributions to our firms and society.
What Leaders Really Do
By John P. Kotter
In his article, “What Leaders Really Do”, Kotter establishes the difference between managing and leading. The key distinction he makes is that management involves coping with complexity and leadership has to do with coping with change. “Good management brings a degree of order and consistency to key dimensions like the quality and profitability of products”. According to Kotter, managers promote stability while leaders press for change, and only organizations that embrace both sides of that contradiction can thrive in turbulent times.
Although there are clear differences between managing and leadership, effective leadership cannot be achieved without good management. Management has to do with objectives and results. It does require planning, organizing, leading and controlling. An effective manager will find or will administer the necessary technical and human resources to get things done effectively; this is, with the lowest cost and in the fastest time. Leadership, in contrast, has to do with the social aspect of managing. In our organizations, leaders set up the direction and vision. A manager will make sure to plan accordingly and direct the necessary resources to follow the direction or vision of our leaders in their organization.
Kotter also lists the following as activities that leaders don’t do; “They don’t make plans, they don’t solve problems, they don’t even organize people. What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it”. Leaders inspire change and prepare organizations to manage change. However, based on my work experience, I disagree with the author on the idea that leaders don’t plan, solve problems or that they don’t organize One can argue that a leader may not has the same level of involvement as a middle manager or supervisor in performing these activities; however effective leaders do have to make plans, resolve problems and organize even move people. The degree of contribution of a leader carrying out these actions will depend on the type of leader they are, the situation they are in and organization they are leading. Another idea that is presented in this article is that leadership “has nothing to do with having charisma or other exotic personality traits”. Although it is true that being charismatic is not a requirement to be a leader, it has been demonstrated by many studies and theories that a charismatic leader has a positive effect on their followers. People want to be led by these individuals They inspire and motivate, which in turn makes it easier for a leader to effectively influence others to act or change and work toward achieving the leader’s vision. After all, this is the very essence of effective leadership, to inspire and influence others to act and change.
What makes a leader?
By Daniel Goleman
The term “emotional intelligence” was introduced by Daniel Goleman in 1995. In his research at nearly 200 large global companies, he found that in addition to intellectual abilities and technical skills, effective leaders are alike in having a high degree of emotional intelligence. The five components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. The first three components of emotional intelligence are self-management skills, the last two have to do with the person’s ability to manage relationships with others.
Why emotional intelligence is so important for leaders?
Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation: The ability to recognize, understand and control our emotions plays an important role in decision making in business. People who know how their feelings and impulses affect them and affect others, can make better decisions and can adapt to changes more easily.
Motivation: Effective leaders are driven to achieve. Their passion goes beyond money and status. Motivation ensures organizational commitment and plays a role in the levels of optimism within the organization.
Empathy: Carefully consider employees’ feelings along with other factors in decision making. People feel better when they are led by someone who cares and understands them. Empathy impacts productivity and effectiveness in team work and in retaining talent.
Social Skills: Knowing that in business, as well as, in many other professional fields, nothing important is accomplished individually. Using effective interpersonal skills and networking allows leaders to effectively get the job done through others.
In the organizations in which I have been a member of, emotional intelligence has made the difference between effective and ineffective leaders. On many occasions, high technical and intellectual skills of managers have not been enough to make them effective in their efforts to lead teams or the organization in general. In contrast, managers and CEOs who seem to know themselves well, understand and control their emotions, seem to project their positive attitude and approach onto other members of the organization. They can see the bigger picture in situations of conflict or problems. They remain in control, not allowing their feelings or emotions to interfere with their decision making process, and come up with creative solutions that others within the organization were unable to see (perhaps because they let their feelings and negative thoughts get in the way). They remain optimistic and can efficiently motivate others even in situations when the odds for success seem against them. They also show empathy and genuinely care about others; many of them are involved in activities or programs that help their communities or are mentors for their employees. There is consensus in the way they are perceived. Everyone agrees they are “people persons” with a natural ability to maintain and build relationships in and outside the organization. More than relationships, they establish bonds, partnerships and networks that help to influence to get the job done effectively. More importantly, they seem to always look for the upside or positive side of an issue and make people feel good about being part of the organization, which has a direct effect on productivity and success. They lead by example and treat everyone with respect. For me, these traits and abilities represent what emotional intelligence is and they are as important as technical and intellectual skills in order to lead effectively. Mastering the components of emotional intelligence can make the difference in the effectiveness of a leader.
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What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers
By Barbara Kellerman
There is no leader without follower(s). The relationship leader-follower can be described as interdependent. They need each other to exist, and they impact each other’s actions and behaviors. Many of us share the perception that a follower is someone who willing accepts another’s ideas, vision or assignments, sometimes unconditionally or without questioning the purpose or reason their leader has. Historically, because leaders were in positions of power or authority, followers simply acted as compliant subordinates. According to Barbara Kellerman in her Harvard Business Review article, “What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers”, the relationship leaders-followers has changed. “A confluence of changes- cultural and technological ones in particular- have influenced what subordinates want and how they behave, especially in relation to their ostensible bosses.” The advances in technology and globalization have resulted in less usable power for leaders. Followers now have access to information and tools that were not available to them in the past. The trend in today’s business environment is that followers think of themselves and act more as free agents by not being totally dependent on or submissive to their leaders’ ideas or objectives. More often than not, followers now can challenge leaders’ decision. For this reason, leaders are now more careful in the way they treat their followers. They are aware that their actions may be subject to scrutiny, not only by their followers, but also by their organization and the society as a whole. Additionally, because power is now shared in most modern organizations, leaders look for followers’ feedback and support. At the same time, followers can impact a leader’s behavior. For example, they can withhold support from a bad leader and support good ones, or organize themselves to pursue an objective that challenges or blocks their leader’s action.
Just as there are different types of leaders, there are different types of followers. In general, having high technical skills, knowledge and emotional intelligence are associated with being a good leader. Leaders and followers have similar traits or characteristics; their differences are related to their behaviors and roles. In my personal experience, good followers challenge their leaders. With their knowledge and use of available information, they invest time in making judgments about their leaders. They also contribute to a cause or organization with their engagement and passion. Good followers also actively support a leader who is effective and ethical, and will actively oppose an ineffective or unethical lerader. Good leaders are essential for successful businesses. At the same time, good followers have a direct impact on strengthening their leader’s actions through their support or weakening their leaders to their lack thereof.
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