I’ve been thinking about two concepts related to leadership and management: Real and Organic. I’ve noticed that effective leadership and management have a real and organic nature to them; but I write this entry to note that both elements correspond well with established aspects of management (and life, for that matter); those aspects are Focus and Execution.
“Real” management has to do with results and their influence on the momentum of your people. When people see something real, they believe and, as a result, start to volunteer their ability and potential, thereby producing more and better results in an continuous cycle of achievement.
To achieve this, a leader has to be real in his Focusing process (goals & action plans), and ultimately in delivering results. This requires conceptual objectivity, lots of listening, and suspension of judgment for you to develop your Focus. Once you state your plan, if it is real, your people will react positively as they see that it highlights the really important issues.
Real Focus is both the “what” (or the right goals) and the “how” (or the right action plan). Once a leader defines his goals, he has to make sure his action plan is also Real. It has to take into consideration all the constraints of reality and all the needs of the stakeholders as part of his plan. If a leader starts to focus on being theoretically correct at this stage (the meas opposed to us), then he will remain theoretically correct , but not “Really” effective. Results most probably won’t materialize.
“Organic” leadership steps in at the execution stage. The basic concept here is that momentum is more important than being 100% right or even right at all. The premise is that, as humans, we are the only ones that have power over our minds and hearts, and as a leader, you have to ensure as much as possible that your people continue to want to achieve and volunteer their hearts and minds. Otherwise, especially in a the knowledge intensive age we live in, they will start to feed you excuses and misinformation that will hinder the execution of your plan and stifle the effort of other team members.
There will always be mistakes, but what is important is that the team generally executes effectively and, like all things living and “organic" (as apposed to machines), our momentum and morale is more important than correctness.And let's not forget that humans, if a leader takes care to maintain their momentum, will self-correct themselves by learning from their mistakes and modifying their action accordingly, which is a very important trait that leaders, who treat their people like machines, tend to neglect. An important note is that emotional intelligence is very important at this stage. A leader has to be able to accept people for what they are and give them room to think for themselves and choose the best means for achieving their objectives; all organic creatures have to breathe!
I would also to note that Real is closely related to management and “asking the right questions”, and “Organic” is closely associated with leadership and “listening to your people”.
All of the above has to work for results to be delivered. As such, I like to refer to them as the Result-Chain; breaking the chain at any point will hinder or severely compromise your results.
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