Leaders are Created by Organizations: SMO 500 Reflection #4

Although this week's material did not contain very many new ideas when compared to the first three weeks of classes it did continue to reinforce some important themes of this course. Psychological ownership in a company was identified in week one, and that idea comes across strongly this week.

Taken from: Brains, Heart and Courage: Keys to Empowerment
and Self-directed Leadership by Pamela R. Johnson

At Blinds to Go the Senior Executives Stephen Schiller and Nkere Udofia, were managing their leaders in such a way that destroyed the potential for psychological ownership in the company. Robert Delgadillo, a director at Blinds to Go, is able to describe how this was accomplished, "Udofia and Stephen still get involved in any important decision.... you've got to place your trust in them and leave your egos at the door." Time and time again in this case there were examples of capable intelligent adults not be trusted to make decisions. Blinds to Go would hire leaders, and then they would not trust them to make leadership decisions and act as leaders. When people, especially people in leadership positions, but also in positions all the way down to front-line service or labour, are not given the opportunity to act in the best interest of the company, or experience success based on their ideas, then they do not take pride in their companies accomplishments. They will show up and work, clock-out, and out their "job" out of their minds. This is fine in some situations, indeed there are probably hundreds of organizations that are successful because they hire people to do their job and get paid and that's it, but if the goal is to get the most out of every individual, then this is a foolish strategy. 

If leaders are simply showing up and doing their jobs then
the organization is missing out on their full potential.

Udofia and Schiller were driven by a strategy, they were focused on long-term sustainability, and they were attempting to build a culture that would enable them to execute their strategy, so where did they go wrong? They went wrong by not aligning all of their HR practices with their strategy. Specifically their ability to select the right leaders for their particular culture was all wrong, and their process of motivating and socializing those selected for leadership compounded this problem.  Udofia and Schiller should have realized that they were part of the problem and delegated the selection and socialization of managers to someone else. Udofia and Schiller should not have hired for experience and then socialized their new leaders to "check their ego at the door." Udofia and Schiller should have hired new MBA grads that would be excited to roll up their sleeves, understand this unique business and then lead through the decisions and directives of Udofia and Schiler. 

Blinds to Go is a perfect example of how unaligned HR subfunctions can completely subvert the execution of strategy.

Witness, the laziest transition in writing.

In the Joseph Bower article Solve the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leaders there are two big ideas that have already impacted, and will continue to impact, my personal management approach. One of these big ideas, asked in the section "Now that you're on the job," is "Do you help others? Are you developing their talent? What do you do for your peers? Are you just their in-house competitor?" I was struck by these questions because I often think that I am helping others in my organization, but I know that I am competing far too often. Since reading this article I have started to talk to people about their leadership potential, and ask them specifically, if they need help moving up in the organization. I have become increasingly aware of the schoolboards plans and initiatives for creating and fostering leaders and the culture of schools to often discourage the ambitions of potential leaders. This awareness has already changed how I talk to people about advancement, the openness that I use in looking at my own practices, and it will continue to shape my role in helping develop my own leadership potential, by helping others. 

This course is allowing me to look past the cliche of "helping others"
and seeing it as a best practice utilized by effective leaders. Also, "I'm Batman."

One of the ideas, expressed by Bower, that is critical for my own career goals and my personal management style is the difference between being an inside-outside leader and an inside-inside leader. In our organization their is a powerful and important central office. Many people want to work at this central office in order to become leaders, but then they will become indoctrinated by the long-standing cultural practices of central-office. I was turned on by the idea of, maintaining enough detachment from local traditions, but still knowing the traditions and the people of the company well enough to know what needs to change. The framework of local leaders, principals and assistant principals, that periodically change schools is a perfect example of this idea at work. They know the people, the organization, and the culture, but they are detached enough from that particular school, that they are able to see where change needs to occur.