|
Much has been said about the difference between Managers and Leaders. To narrow it down, Henry Mintzberg states that “if you ask Managers what they do they will say that they: plan, organize, coordinate and control. If you then watch them, do not be surprised if you can’t relate what you see to these words”. That is because Management is about coping with complexity whereas Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change. (HBS Prof. John Kotter).
The Manager will be leading the team constructing a road through the Amazon Jungle shouting commands and solving the problems along the way. The Leader will be regularly climbing up the nearest tree to ensure that they are still in the same jungle.
Leadership is the process of providing direction, energizing others, and obtaining their voluntary commitment to the leader’s vision. A leader creates a vision and goals. A vision is an articulated picture of the future that conveys purpose, direction, and priorities. Leaders are thus concerned with bringing about change and motivating others to support that vision of change.
One of the most overused cliché’s today is: “People are our greatest Asset”, espoused by any number of CEO’s the world over. Fortune Magazine October 2007 quotes: “Most companies maintain their office copiers better than they build the capabilities of their people, especially the ones who are supposed to be future leaders”.
Which companies actually have leadership-development programs? Does yours?
Those global companies that actually practice this cliché are easily identifiable by their current leadership quality and subsequent organisation success, as well as by their developed leadership going on to holding leadership positions in other global companies. For example Alumni of Proctor and Gamble include Steve Balmer of Microsoft, Ebay’s Meg Whitman, Intuit founder Scott Cook, AOL founder Steve Case and even GE chief Jeff Immelt. Unilever has supplied nearly 200 CEO’s to other companies worldwide over the years. GE is famous for their alumni running scores of top Dow Jones industrial average companies.
In South Africa, we can discuss the Stanbic Group, Jaco Maree of Standard Bank, Bruce Hemphill of LibLife, Myles Ruck before him. At FirstRand, everyone knows the trio of GT Ferreira, Laurie Dippenaar and Paul Harris. Other great leaders have been Rupert, Oppenheimer, Ackerman, Wiese etc. Today we have new leaders emerging, of the likes of Sexwale, Ramaphosa, Ramos, Mosepe and a number of others.
These leaders all have one thing in common; all went through structured development programs either within their current organisations or elsewhere, augmented by relative academic qualifications.
Development of your leaders will ensure realisation of your business strategy.
The SQC Leadership Development Model
or
The SQC Executive Coaching Model
will assist you and your leaders in optimising your business performance
|
