Are you Managing or Leading?

In his address on his Administration's decision to deny additional bailout money to Chrysler and GM, President Obama told the American people, "It's a failure of leadership from Washington to Detroit that brought our Auto Companies to this point.  Year after year, decade after decade, we've seen problems papered over and tough choices kicked down the road even as foreign competitors outpaced us. But we've reached the end of that road and we as a nation can't shirk responsibility any longer.  Now is the time to confront our problems head on and do what's necessary to confront them." There is a vast gulf between Management and Leadership.  In history it has often been Leadership which rescues businesses, entire industries, and sometimes even nations from the missteps of of Management.  In many environments there is often a culture within Management which marginalizes and ostracizes Leadership.  Management creates hierarchies, specialized niches, doctrines, and mechanisms for its own self-protection.  Leadership is instead focused on achievement.  Leadership is dedicated to the realization of a Goal, Vision, or Mission. Managers; the pinnacle of the Management Hierarchy operate under a self-protection paradigm, which functions like; a game in which the referees are also participants.  And of course, in such an environment, when those player/referees begin to lose; they change the rules or at least the score keeping.  In the case of compensation, Managers create 'guaranteed pay-outs' such as what we have come to know as 'Golden Parachutes.' Leaders; the seed or core around which Leadership coalesces, engage in an endeavor.  There is no score-keeping, because the endeavor is based upon the realization of a goal or vision.  There are no periods or intervals and of course no pre-determined end time at which it is a final score which determines who has won or lost.  Leaders may receive, stipends, salaries, profit shares, etc but no sinecures.  The coinage which matters to the Leader is the experience of having accomplished their goal. As Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, or Self-Employed Individuals we are called upon to decide whether or not we are Managers or Leaders.  Many of us who enter into these pursuits do so with a Management Outlook.  We engage in creating (or recreating) the same sort of interval measured success paradigms and player-referee roles in which we, rather than focus on a Goal/Vision, change the metrics in order to mislead ourselves into believing that we have succeeded. By making our focus the accoplishment of short term achievements, we often do so at the expense of creating a durable Vision which manifests an Enterprise, which; provides not only a higher level of compensation, but a vastly greater level of personal satisfaction. When we operate as Leaders, we have as a result, a much more extensive collection of tools and a much deeper well of opportunities.  As Leaders we have the potential to 'enlist' other 'stakeholders' who are aligned with and supportive of the Vision. Those being led are recognized and rewarded for insight and initiative.  They share in the superior coinage of self-satisfaction for a job well done and achievement of the goal. Managers have only sub-ordinates who are, by nature of being 'managed,' dis-incentivized from participation at the level of stakeholders.  It is an integral part of the Manager-Managed relationship that those below do not exhibit initiative. We have to escape from the mental prison of Doctrinaire Management in order to create the new Economy.  As long as we allow such notions as 'we did it the right way' to substitute for actual performance; our "Business Lysenkoism" will hold us back. In the 1940s W. Edwards Deming created a series of principles which were responsible for our ability to rapidly retool and create an industrial base which was able to build the 'Arsenal of Democracy.'  We discarded these principles in the 1950s, amid the McCarthey era.  Japan opened its arms to Dr. Deming and under his tutelage built the economy that rose from the ashes of WW2 to become a global powerhouse.  We can learn form him, and most importantly become cognizant of his "7 Deadly Diseases" which infect Managerial Businesses as we strive to realize our potential for growth and greatness.  These are: The Seven Deadly Diseases (also known as the "Seven Wastes"): <ol> <li>Lack of constancy of purpose.</li> <li>Emphasis on short-term profits.</li> <li>Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance.</li> <li>Mobility of management.</li> <li>Running a company on visible figures alone.</li> <li>Excessive medical costs.</li> <li>Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees.</li> </ol> A Lesser Category of Obstacles: <ol> <li>Neglecting long-range planning.</li> <li>Relying on technology to solve problems.</li> <li>Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions.</li> <li>Excuses, such as "Our problems are different."</li> </ol> You can learn more about Dr. Deming and the "Deming System of Profound Knowledge" at: http://www.deming.org/     2009-03-30T20:23:04Z