Is there a set model of a leader?
(…especially a leader for a multinational company?) In working with a wide range of
companies at all levels I have spent a great deal of time asking the same
question and looking for a profile that describes an ideal CEO. My
conclusion is that passion, integrity, insight and the ability to
understand and manage people are some common attributes, but there is no
set profile. There are many models that look at
people’s personalities and behaviours, all of which have strengths and
limitations. I feel that DiSC is one of the best, as it works on the
principle that people behave a certain way in the context of particular
environments. Most of us over the years, however, do have or develop a
default position or a natural tendency to behave a certain way in most
environments. More important than trying to find
the right profile or label for a leader is for each of us to know what our
natural tendencies are and be aware of our weaknesses and strengths so we
can gather around a team of people that complement our style. To take this
up a notch, a good leader is able to see the big picture and recognise the
most appropriate environments and behaviours that will bring out the
strengths in the team. As leaders I believe we are
responsible for creating the environment in which our teams can work to
the best of their ability, and we can only do that when we recognise that
each of us is different and we each respond differently to situations. If
we choose to be task orientated because we have made a conscious decision
to due to the circumstances, that can be a wise move. However, if we are
task orientated because we know no other way, we will limit ourselves too
much and often act inappropriately according to the outcomes we are trying
to achieve.
We are responsible for achieving
results, but those results will be dictated by how well we can get our
team to perform. Their performance can be at any level from what Peter
Senge calls “skilled incompetence” through to efficient high
performance depending on how we manage them. To tie this into the corporate
world, and after talking with people after a session, it seemed helpful
for many people to know that each of their clients will behave differently
depending on their perception of the environment. Eg: ·
One
person, having discovered that he was very dominant, wanted to know how to
deal with another dominant person on his team in a project as they both
had very different ideas as to how to best achieve the outcomes and
neither was prepared to back down. ·
Another
said that since their company has a reputation for charging a lot (and
being able to deliver) that they often end up with dominant clients with
very high expectations, and seeing the DiSC model was very helpful. ·
One
believed that the their company environment created very task orientated
people, and those that couldn’t cope left. In some cases this was an
unnecessary loss of talent and created an imbalance in workteams, leaving
an attitude in some of “get in … make money ... get out” with no time for people. This attitude, if detected by
clients, could be counterproductive. |
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Do
you have the ability to see your impact on people and adapt Do
you have the ability to recognize your
strengths and those of others Do
you have the ability to rein in ego and
territorialism Do
you respect and project your own authentic Do
you understand and work with the needs and
motivations of others Do
you accept responsibility for your actions Do
you give power away and develop strengths
in others Do
you handle and learn form adversity
“CEOs have to surround themselves with people of diverse talents. That
is not easy to do. It's human nature to place the highest value on our own
talents and dismiss those that are not like our own. Someone else is
"just a bean counter" or, conversely, "all talk." It's
particularly tempting for CEOs to make such judgments. After all, they are
in charge, so their particular skills must be the critical ones. Moreover, most of us prefer the
reassuring company of people like ourselves, who approach problems the way
we do, who speak the same language. We want to be around people who make
us comfortable. This is a luxury today's CEOs cannot afford. They should
deliberately seek out people whose different motivations help provide
balance when the company is buffeted by waves of change. "The command-and-control leadership that sustained a company in the past will not work anymore. What's needed now is leadership that is flexible enough to deal with a series of crises, each one different from the one that preceded it." Source: Alistair G. Robertson Andersen Consulting Organization & Change Strategy Cross Market Unit
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