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The Four Faces Of Leadership

Written by: Leonard Scott

Article Overview: Leadership, that is consistently making the numbers, consists of four competencies represented by the acronym VIMP. These competencies are vision, interaction, motivation,and politics. Other aspects of leadership involve grasping the "rhythm and beat" of an organization, learning how to manage by walking or flying around, keeping employees "brains in the game," maintaining consensus in organizational change situations, and always being ready to share financial success.

The Four Faces Of Leadership

A mountain of words have been written about leadership, but in reality it boils down to four basic activities which can be expressed by the acronym VIMP: vision, interaction, motivation, and politics.

Every successful leader, that is, one who consistently “makes the numbers” must have sharp vision. He or she must know where to steer the organization for profitable outcomes. This activity deals with new product or service development—what the market in the future will demand or accept with open arms. It also deals with operational innovation and technological improvement—how to build or deliver the product or service better, faster, and more cost effectively. It further involves creative marketing and sales activities—developing strategies in these areas to always stay one step ahead of the competition. Finally, it deals with knowing when to press for rapid growth, when to put the brakes on to maintain profitability or minimize losses, and when to stand pat to see which way the industry or market trend is going.

And how does a leader get this vision? Some are born with it; some learn it by understudying a great leader; some by securing it by developing the right side of their brain through learning to draw and paint, learning to play a musical instrument, or practicing meditation. There is one thing that is certain in leadership—if a leader does not have vision, he or she will fail.

Some examples of leaders with exceptional vision are: George Patton, the first officer in the American military to use automobiles in military operations; Andrew Carnegie, the iron and steel magnate who saw before all others in his industry that a move from iron production to steel production would be very profitable as the market changed from the use of iron as building ornamentation to the use of steel in building frameworks; and Steve Jobs, in more recent times, who saw before others the tremendous potential of the mini-computer, the iPod, and the iPhone.

I have covered the esoteric aspects of vision, but there is the other half of it—understanding and acting on the many metrics of company performance in all the functional areas of the organization and gleaning hard facts and figures from managers, suppliers, and employees on the front lines, getting their ideas about innovations, the what and why’s of what is working and what is not, and learning from them what competitors are doing especially in sales and marketing. It is surprising what information is available from these sources if they are just tapped on a regular basis through one-on-one contacts. This avenue to vision entails interaction with the entire organization—the management by walking around or flying around activity. In the area of leadership, there is no substitute for a leader’s personal experiencing the “rhythm and beat” of an organization. If a person does not understand this concept of organizational “rhythm and beat,” he/she will never be a successful leader.

Now, the third aspect of leadership is motivation. The interaction of a leader with his/her employees in and of itself has important motivational effect. A CEO talking to a machine operator about his/her equipment and tools, the production process, and the quality of the raw materials will result in significant motivation of the employee and the opportunity to secure information about innovation and equipment and process improvements. No one knows in the in’s and out’s of an operating process more intimately than the frontline employees who deal with it every day. Another objective of this interaction with managers and employees is to impart the desire to make and impact on the success of the organization. And how does this work? Asking managers and employees for their ideas and what is going on in their area motivates them. Employees like being heard and often times have great ideas for improvements. Giving them special projects that enlarges their area of activity and enables them to learn new things also motivates them. Asking them for their view of why certain things are going well and why certain things are not is also a strong motivational activity. In the business parlance of today, this is called “keeping their brains in the game.” Further, a leader’s interaction with the men and women of his/her organization enables the leader to identify first hand the high potential employees.

The other aspect of motivation deals with motivational programs such as monetary awards for exceptional performance, recognition awards for perfect attendance, training programs that enable managers to be effective and high potential employees to move up the organizational ladder, establishing a corporate climate where decisions are moved down to the lowest organizational level, and putting in place superior working conditions and competitive compensation and benefits.

Finally, a leader to be effective must take into account the differing views of the many groups in an organization and the politics that must be employed to get consensus. This involves building coalitions, selling ideas to groups that may see change as intimidating because of a short term rather than a long term view, and communicating regularly with all groups to insure that they all “stay on board.”

Some who will read this article will say this analysis is superficial and that there is much more to leadership. There is not! The modern day “explosion” within the leadership field
which includes executive coaching, conflict resolution training, psychological analysis,
learning theory, and a myriad of other arcane academic subjects are largely babel and reflect leadership development overkill. In my forty years in the American corporate and consulting worlds, the leaders who were highly successful employed the four “faces” of leadership discussed in this article, had no coaches, and knew next to nothing about personality types, psychopathology, family systems theory, or organizational learning theory. They were high energy individuals highly goal oriented who had sharp vision, exceptional people, communication, and persuasion skills and a belief in sharing financial success, and who understood human motivation in all its aspects. Some were charismatic and others were not, but they all shared these four basic competencies. That is the leadership story, straightforward in content, but quite difficult in execution.

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Article Tags: acronym, activity deals, andrew carnegie, creative marketing, george patton, iron and steel, iron production, market trend, military operations, mini computer, musical instrument, operational innovation, ornamentation, profitability, rapid growth, sharp vision, steel magnate, steel production, steve jobs, technological improvement



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