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their leadership styles when
they are receiving bonuses,
accolades and promotions
for doing a good job?
Leaders locked in the
hindrance trap might never
detect their predicament
and break free without honest
reflection, feedback and
reform. A good place to start
is to consider three behaviors
associated with helpful
leadership.
1. CLARIFY
Even highly motivated
professionals struggle to hit
moving or vague targets.
“My boss keeps rolling out
initiatives that compete
with one another for scarce
resources,” one marketing
manager reports. “When I
press her for prioritization,
she makes it crystal clear
that the initiatives are all
high priority.”
Helpful leaders clarify
strategic intent so that it
resonates throughout the
organization. They show
how various initiatives align
with the strategy. They give
team members a sense of
purpose. At the same time,
they leave room for individual
initiative as circumstances
change.
2. INSPIRE
Ineffective leaders overload
their teams with tasks
and initiatives without
stopping to consider if their
people are past capacity.
Many of these leaders underestimate
the amount of
work required to meet their
demands because they are
too far removed from daily
operations. Their response
to missed deadlines or
targets is to turn up the fear
factor. Yet even the most
passionate pep talk will not
rally the troops when the
underlying problem is lack
of capacity rather than lack
of effort.
Helpful leaders
take a different
approach
to inspiring
performance.
They start with a clear
understanding of “strategic
pathways,” meaning the
processes and tasks involved
with implementing strategy
as it cascades through the
organization.
These leaders remain
mindful of capacity. Then
they rally their teams by
conveying a sense of purpose
and belonging. Along
the way, they emphasize the
potential joy that will come
through accomplishment as
the team works together to
create value.
3. ENABLE
Ineffective leaders often
view themselves above the
people they supervise. Helpful
leaders, sometimes called
“servant leaders,” invert the
pyramid and place themselves
at the bottom. Their
role then becomes to enable
the people above them to
accomplish strategic goals.
Servant leaders make sure
their teams have sufficient
time, training and other
resources to succeed.
Few people look in the
mirror and see a bad boss.
It is always easier to critique
others than ourselves. Yet
if we are willing to look
inward and don’t like what
we find, the good news is we
already have taken the first
step to improve.
Kannan Ramaswamy,
Ph.D., is the William D.
Hacker Chair Professor of
Management at Thunderbird.
Bill Youngdahl, Ph.D., is
an associate professor of project
and operations management at
Thunderbird.
thunderbird magazine 51