Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
Leadership skills for today’s business Sound management skills are more needed today than ever for the simple reason that we are constantly confronted with ‘change’ at a much more challenging rate than before. Besides, today’s business is far more dynamic with constant pressures from every aspect. One needs an array of skills that are particularly well-suited for the particular context of industry. In this chapter, however, the focus is to examine ‘Leadership Skills’ from a generic viewpoint that should, in general, be applicable to all business contexts. All successful leaders and managers possess a similar set of skills which makes them stand out. This is irrespective of the field or industry. Being it Tourism, IT, Finance or Customer service there are certain skills, knowledge, and attributes which are essential requirements for standing out. People who naturally exude leadership attributes are sure to be effective and successful in management roles. Strategic Thinking Today’s leaders are required to think and believe that they have what it takes to compete (both internally and externally). This requires the constant awareness of other active competitors (internally and externally) combined with a strong will to achieve, improve and to succeed. The word ‘STRATEGIC’ here denote ‘competitiveness’. It means you are mindful that others are constantly striving towards achievement, but you do so in a competitive way. For this to be possible, you need a strategy. Hence, Strategic thinking, not just thinking. Every manager thinks, but every one of them thinks strategically. The word ‘Strategy’ reminds me of the game of chess. The idea is to win using a mixture of strategies while being mindful of the fact that your opponent is equally trying to win. Thinking strategically involves having a mindset which constantly drives towards achieving best results regardless of changing circumstances, difficulties, challenges and limitations. This subject is a big one which requires a whole chapter. For now, let’s say that your mindset must be one which constantly drives you through reviewing systems, setting priorities and ensuring that they aligned with major goals, and encouraging innovation by backing good people who take smart risks. Collaboration Good managers know that they cannot exist alone. They need to pull resources together for the basic reason that resources, in general, are ‘woefully limited’. Which is why most leading modern organisations are appointing experts into resource management positions. Effective collaboration means you have a wider resource base with which to achieve more in quantity and quality. Collaboration is very much in the centre of ‘thinking strategically’. ‘Strategically’ here means carefully selecting members of your collaboration team/organisations. You only want to link up with ‘entities’ (individuals or organisations) whose activities and input will benefit you and your organisation. Be business-minded and let that focus drive the relationship. Collaboration itself needs careful management in that you will need to ensure that any risks arising from the relationship can be reasonably and readily absorbed in a manner that the impact on you or your organisation is kept to zero or barest minimum. Collaborate strategically. Clearly, you cannot collaborate with everyone/organisations out there. There are other things you can do beyond collaboration which can add value to the work you do. For instance, you can build a list of service resources, which you use for signposting your own client where you are unable to provide them with certain services. These may be services which fall beyond your organisation’s own services. Customers are always pleased when they know that you have taken the trouble to protect their interest by thinking ahead of them. This is only one of the several strategies for inducing a ‘wow’ from today’s customers. Collaborating strategically here would also mean carefully choosing organisations that
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
provide complimentary services to your own products/services. Carefully enter into a working relationship while being mindful of to cover all potential risks factors resulting from the relationship. Be a networking Leader Networking is an important element here. It is not the same as collaborating in that the latter goes further, and sometimes to the point of the other organisations being perceived as an extension of your organisation’s service/outlet. Networking, on the other hand, provides a platform for generating resourced, exchanging ideas, learning new things. However, individual organisations retain their own identity in terms of service provision. Networking can greatly enhance your awareness in respect of what your other competitions are doing. Today’s organisations pay colossal amounts just to obtain market-related activities and the latest moves by your competitors. Sometimes it's not just about simply being competitive, but also about changing in response to or adapting to the ever dynamic external environment/forces timely in order to give your organisation/department a better chance of survival Both collaboration and networking will work well only if you see its importance to yourself and to your organisation. Educate yourself and your staff about the work of your collaborative partners when necessary do not hesitate to appoint a coordinator or a resources development manager to look after things. You will need to check your demands and systems to make certain they aren’t undercutting collaboration. Rather, what you do must work in harmony with your entire resources (which includes your collaborative and networking partners) Emotional Intelligence Good leaders must radiate energy, hope, resourcefulness and be able to boost the energy of others. To earn respect, trust and confidence of your followers, you must be a source of energy, empathy, proving optimism and realism for all. You must show understanding, tolerance, and patience when necessary especially in moments of change or general stressful periods. Emotional Intelligence must be displayed that the right moments to avoid unproductive responses. EI is also about building your self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management strongly. People in leadership positions are contagious. What they do or fail to do are more scrutinised, analysed and assessed. They are more susceptible to scrutiny than the average person. Critical Thinking Critical thinkers question conventional wisdom. They are vigilant about identifying and challenging assumptions that underlie actions or inaction. They are automatically wary of generalisations, inferences, and unproven theories. Among their favourite questions is: “How do we know that?” They strive to independent thinkers, careful to check how their own biases might colour their decisions. They do this automatically to speed up good decision-making, not to cause “paralysis by analysis.” Communication Effective communication is the bedrock of human relations. The subject of effective communication is detailed in another chapter. In this section, we will restrict ourselves to a summation. Bosses who don’t communicate effectively get in the way of their team’s effectiveness. Bosses are expected to be good at all forms of communications: one-to-one, small group, full staff, email, and social media. Effective communication also means being a good listener – active listening is the key. Become an expert on framing, storytelling and finding the master narrative in a situation. The challenges confronting today’s workforce means that many workers are becoming very good at this for the simple reason that general
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
concerns and challenges confronting people are on the on the increase. It is a default expectation of every leader to be an effective communicator. It is a matter without a choice Motivation Supporting and motivating your staff is covered in another chapter. What needs to be emphasised here is that this must attain a strategic context for it to achieve a leadership-type result. I must also emphasise that they must be seen as a fundamental staff productivity enhancement tool rather than just ‘a matter of course’. Several motivational strategies exist. But the core matter lies within the leader's ability to deploy these tools at the right time, the right places, and using the right vessels. The key intrinsic motivators are competence, autonomy, purpose, and growth. Of course, context is critical. ‘Context’ in industry, stage of organisational cycles, or the nature of challenges confronting the organisation, etc It cannot be emphasised enough that while Motivation and Support tools are a must, utilising the strategies in the wrong context can nullify potential benefits. Feedback Employee feedback is one of the most undervalued activities in the business world. If the aim is to enhance productivity then, this is the key. Feedback opportunities do not only impact positively in job outcomes but also it touches on the very nerves of basic human needs. Leaders who view employee feedback as an opportunity to build, improve and strengthen relationship with staff always smile. Effective employee feedback speaks back at you. Your workers will feedback to you (whether this is done consciously or subconsciously). They will watch your back and be your eyes, nose, and ears. You will hardly miss anything wrong in your business. Or course there are bound to be negative ‘feedbacks’. But, I won’t call them negative. Always see the positive side of the negative behaviours/actions of your staff. While you must not miss your words in pointing out wrongs, make them realise that it is human, bring in a compliment (perhaps referring to a previous positive feedback) and then concluding by stating how valuable the employee is to your team/organisation/department. It needs to be emphasised that you must be active in looking for both something to feedback on and an opportunity to do so. Feedback must be specific, customised, and helpful. It must also be performancerelated (rather than ‘a friendly advice’). I have encountered managers who believe their authority over their staff extends to the private lives of their staff. Tough Conversations Difficult conversations are very much a part of what we must do in business. They come up from time to time and very often punctuate our work life with positive or negative feelings. Good leaders anticipate tough talks way ahead before they happen. Failing this means exposure to bullies, poor staff productivity, and unhealthy work environment. Managing touch conversation well also has something to do with how much trust you have built amongst your staff. Are you consistent, straight forward, reliable, respectful, facts-driven, thorough, or holistic in your assessments and evaluation? The impression which you have left upon your staff in the past can either feed into the eruptions of difficult conversations or create the context for it. Give people the chance to recognise your good intentions even in the midst or challenging conversations. Coaching Good leaders aim to empower their staff rather than thinking its best to tell them what to do at all time. You must aim to create staff who can think, take decisions and work Independently whether or not they are under your watch
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
Coaching helps people learn to improve their work and make decisions for themselves. Your staff will feel better motivated when they begin to take pride in their own individual achievements. Coaching involves, inspiriting, supporting, motivating, signposting, recognition, and mentoring. All of these works to create skills that will endure and fuel the motivation of employees. Project, communicate and instil productive values Work with, work within and project a set of core values which ‘normal’ people and your employees can relate to. Values like integrity, diversity, community, quality, accountability, commitment, openness, dignity, respect and service are great for business. Apart from sending a message of hope and confidence, you will help create an enjoyable work environment. Particularly, so as these values will help to create bond and unity, and break down destructive barriers which are common in the workplace. You can design workflows, policies and procedures around these values or even find creative ways of reminding staff by using posters in common areas like canteens, staff rooms, and toilets. You can also use staff meetings, and various staff supervision structures to reinforce the message. Trying to instil core values into the work life of your staff require consistency and persistence. This means the values must be supported, believed in, and all other systems in place must work in harmony. First your staff must in the values, and then they will be able to own them. Once they hit the road (after the initial hard work) the multiplier effect of those productive values will begin to show as positive results in all aspects of work life. Objectives setting Successful leaders must be able to set and communicate clear objectives. Communicating a clear direction to your people helps unite minds, vision, purpose, gaols, etc. Objectives setting must be at various levels so that every staff can relate to the picture being created regardless of where they work within the organisation. Here, I have used the word ‘Objectives’ generically. Perhaps we need to look at the words Vision, Goals, Objectives, and Targets, so we can correctly place things in perspective. Our daily targets feed into our team objectives, which in turn feeds into our organisational goals, which also then feeds into the vision of the organisation’s leader/senior management board. Successful managers are able to establish this link clearly and translate the overall vision of the organisation into targets and quotas for even the lowest ranking employees to appreciate how their contribution fits into the overall picture of what the organisation stands for. Objectivesetting also helps motivate staff for the simple reason that one can tell if an achievement has been made. When you meet your targets there is always a sense of good feeling and inspiration. It needs to be said that the objectives should be discussed and agreed with the relevant people and adequate resources identified and made available in order to achieve required outcomes. People development The subject of coaching has already been mentioned. However, the aim must be towards developing people to the point where they begin to value and trust their own self-expertise, abilities, and skills. They must be able to connect to the enhancements factor deposited through strategies like mentoring and facilitation. Developing people can, of course, take other several methods such as training, job tasters, job rotation, secondments, job enhancements, the use of challenging targets, staff shadowing, work-base courses (e.g. NVQ) and workstation tours. A good plans well to ensure that the HR policies in place prioritise staff development, and also that such functions are well resourced.
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
You need to evaluate and measure the impact of development methods on your staff. You must convince yourself that your strategies are working, and if they are not effect changes without delay. The ability to manage performance and provide constructive and encouraging feedback is also key elements to supporting and developing people. Decision making A leader who cannot make decisions is not a leader at all, but rather a follower. Being able to weigh up several different options, make effective decisions and take appropriate is critical to leadership. The issue confronting most managers in this area is not just the simple fact of making decisions, but rather, when, and how much. Having good judgment and knowing when the time is right to generate and implement decisions is crucial to appearing credible and dependable. Motivation Good leaders know how to motivate their followers. You cannot be a leader without followers, and you cannot manage anything in today’s business without people. There are simply no shortcuts. This aid motivation must lead to enhanced production. In other words, it's not all about people making people feel good. No matter what you are selling there is always going to be people out there to buy. If you motivate people well enough to sing your praises or stop moaning that is certainly not the objective for business. Good leaders are able to motivate their followers for all round positive results. A win-win situation where both the organisation and the people that work for it feel a sense of appreciation in either direction is what matters. Inspire and motivate your staff to raise their levels of performance and achieve their full potential. Motivation is such an enjoyable topic in that everyone can easily connect to it. It touches on the very centre of human livelihood in a way that resonates with our basic human needs. The focus here is not necessarily to cover ‘the ‘how to’ as the subject of motivation has already been covered extensively in another chapter. Rewarding and recognising achievement and encouraging people to achieve their personal best is key to successful management. Delegate Wisely Good leaders understand the true meaning of teamwork and therefore appreciate the contributions of individual members. Furthermore, they strive towards encouraging perfection in those contributions through effective delegation strategies. The act of delegation itself represents trust, confidence, and faith in your own staff. Particularly so because delegation involves authorising someone to do something, for which they may share in absorbing the glory that accompanies the end success. These elements will certainly be mirrored back in several positive actions if delegation is done effectively. Of course, delegated authority goes with responsibility. These dynamics denotes the need for ensuring that your staff are properly trained and therefore are able to handle the delegated duties as well as any eventual success or failures. Since effective delegation in this context is about productivity or rather it to determine the measure of the managers abilities, it must be anchored to a number of important variables including timing, training, motivation, individual abilities and limitations, team dynamics, Health and safety in the workplace, conduciveness of the work environment, supervision systems, and coaching. Effective delegation equals staff motivation. The investment of your trust in your staff can be paid back with multiplied amount of work you can accomplish when trying to tell people what to do at all times. As a bonus, you also develop your employees’ confidence, leadership, work skills and they are more likely to be cooperative, loyal trustworthy and look after your interest.
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
Make quality Time for staff Make your staff feel that you care about their wellbeing by making quality time for each of them. It does not matter if you are at the very top and you believe that this is the responsibility of the various submanagers under your command. Yes, you must make time for the managers you supervise directly, but go beyond them. You will never understand what people go through unless you ‘seat on the same bench’ with them. Making quality time for staff is even more effective where you are able to connect to frontline staff who may be several levels below you. I am not talking about adding to your workload. Grabbing a cup of tea in the staff room and asking to sit next to juniors, and chatting to them about things they find helpful working within the organisation, is great. Now let's come to your own staff. Do not be the leader type which prides on looking ‘extremely busy’ or ‘important than all’. Don’t let your job title mess up your mind and your behaviour. Every employee is unique, and managing employees effectively start with knowing them as individuals, not as a team. An employee must feel first of all that he/she is valued if they are to settle comfortably into team roles. Going further, I must say that good leaders go beyond ‘what is expected’. For example, every employee in a forward-thinking organisation can expect a monthly supervision session with a line manager. Expected sessions are commonly perceived as an employee right. Hence, it does not carry as much ‘wow’ as an unexpected version. When an employee asks to talk with you, show that he/she is important by making sure that you set aside the time to do so (regardless of what it is). Listen first, then where necessary you can schedule the detail bits for another moment. Put your work aside for a moment, put down your smartphone, or shift the folders in front of you to one side and show interest in what the employee has to say. Recognise Achievements openly The recognition of achievement in this context is for a number of specific reasons including: To help create an enjoyable workplace To reinforce positive messages about positive outcomes and thereby encourage repetitions or similar actions Openly and collectively celebrate achievements Use such recognition opportunities to establish stronger ties with staff Encourage involvement/inclusion You really want to focus on achieving a lasting connection rather than simply giving out bonuses and perks. You want to ensure that your staff are able to connect to the reason for the open recognition beyond the fact that a good thing has been achieved. Also, you want then to see how any achievement connects to the organisation’s core mission, vision, goals, values and priorities. It is only then that productivity can be expected in the right direction. Celebrating achievements only also sends clear messages of what is accepted/frown upon in the workplace, and thereby setting the cultural tone for the work environment. Do not miss an opportunity to hail achievement (not matter how small). This means you must design your work systems in such a way that there will always be opportunities to identify good practices and flag them up for celebration Be a Lasting Solutions Manager Don’t just find solutions, but also, those that last. No frill problem fixing manager are never trusted, or respected. They are popularly called ‘cowboy managers’. They may be reacting to limited budgets, or it could be the case that they simply have no solutions at all, but just want to ‘do something’. A solution which breaks apart in minutes or days or weeks is always bound to discredit it’s source. Good leaders
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
manage with solid decisions and directions that are bound to present them as effective, reliable and dependable When it comes to problem fixing, ‘experience’ is best. However, you can compliment your own experience with ideas from your networking and your collaborative partners. You can also draw from your mentors’ resources. Also, don’t hesitate to involve the brains of your own staff and where necessary put one of them in charge to see the project through. In actual fact, the proactive manager will have fewer problems to fix. This comes down to thinking ahead. Taking a holistic assessment view of things you do and pre-amping on potential problems and risks will help make your own work life as well as those of your staff better.
Effective leaders pick the right team Ensuring you have the correct balance so that there's a diverse set of skills, personalities, and perspectives is very fundamental to achieving production targets. With such an array of mix, you can expect mix viewpoints, and lines of thinking and these differences can lead to creativity and innovativeness. Good leaders are able to encourage and support people through the process of team formation; so that they can help their team become as effective as they can be throughout all the stages. Getting the foundation of your team right in the first place is an important element for building towards success. With the right team in place, your task will be to develop the skills needed to steer those differences in a positive direction. Simply striving towards a perfect harmony in a staff team will not necessarily lead to achieving a productive team. In fact, the reality is that often times such team members become frustrated out of petty complains and blames directed at each other. Tell me training will fix it, and I will tell you that will be a waste of money. You are better off disbanding the team and forming a new one with a good mix of experience, characters, personalities, qualities, and skills. Belbin (www.belbin.com) defined a range of roles in a team which helps it to be effective. A good manager will ensure that his team will not be deficient in its performance by ensuring a good balance. TEAM MEMBER ROLE Team workers Implementers Coordinators Shapers Plants Resource Investigators Monitor Evaluators Completer Finishers Team workers
TRAITS create harmony but may be indecisive get things done systematically but may be inflexible help others to work towards shared goals are single minded people who want to achieve but may offend are the creative innovators in your team are those extroverts who assist communication within and outside your team are analytical people who critically reflect on what is being, or should be done someone to see that a job is completed. support their colleagues with tact and diplomacy
Selecting and Developing the Right People This part must be distinguished from the one above in that it focuses on the effectiveness of the actual strategic tools used in the selection and development people to the extent that they become the core productive human resource which is capable of driving the core corporate strategic agenda. The theme must run all throughout, starting with designing a recruitment agenda through to mentoring and
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
coaching. This means you must use sound Recruiting strategies (e.g. applying the use of a set of right questions for interviewing, using Recruitment Tests , using Aptitude Testing and In-tray Exercises). You will also aim to achieve successful induction, be able to assess employees’ development needs effectively as well as impliment effective training programmes. Furthermore, an effective coaching and mentoring arrangements are necessary for ensuring a good match between your corporate objectives and the quality and skills resources available to you as a leader. It needs to be said here that you must aim to build a work culture that works well with your individual and collective styles towards the leader's vision Using controls effectively Effective leaders know how to manage disciplinary arrangements and deal with conflicts for best results. They can use authority sensitively, sensibly, timely, in measured proportions and selectively for achieving the appropriate results at the right times. Moments of staff discipline must not be managed with a personal grudge; neither should it be seen as a revenge channel. Rather, good managers will use the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships, while ensuring that the target staff is provided with meaningful reasons and also being transparent with complying with laid down processes. You must time ensure the target staff has access to any rights available to them under corporate staff arrangements. You must be able to deal with undesired behaviours promptly so as to avoid risking negative impacts on team members as well as inducing undesireable reactions from customers. A clear message must be sent in the face of employee misconduct, and it must be decisive prompt and effective. However, always aim to distinguish between your own personal feelings from what is a professional duty. There is nothing wrong in reminding the staff of his good moments during the disciplinary hearing. This should be preferred to showering guilt upon guilt because of one wrong. For controls to be more effective, its best to ensure that the team members are familiar with them from the start. It is also important to ensure that the template is applied consistently to all employees. Conflicts within staff team is a MUST, rather than a MAY BE. In actual fact is helpful to have a conflict now and then as they can highlight underlying structural problems within the team. They offer important opportunities to learn, to grow, and to mature as a team. However, to achieve these positive potential outcomes, it takes a good leader with solid conflict management skills. The manager must be capable of identifying the root causes of conflicts and facilitate lasting resolution. The Planning, Problem Solving, and Decision-Making Triangle Decision making has already been covered here, but it fits in very well here too. Planning is about mapping out where one is going. A leader leads. The entire rationale of leadership is formed upon the assumptions that there are followers who rely on the leader, the leader has a destination in mind, and the leader has a plan for taking his followers to that destination. It is only upon reaching the destination that an achievement can be determined. This highlights the important role planning plays in leadership skills. Good leaders do not only plan well but they do so strategically – conscious of the fact that there will be problems and challenges on the way. On the way to the defined destination, there can be sundry internal and external pressures e.g. manifesting in resource limitations, reactions to environmental and political factors as well as actions of competitions. Focusing on human resources, the loss of key members or industrial actions can seriously undermine internal stability and create chaos. The emphasis in this paragraph must be to caution managers on the importance of being able to plan ahead, anticipate
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah
Book Title: Leaders & Managers Alert: Productive Leaders and Managers of Forward-Thinking Organisations in Modern Businesses By Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah Published 2016
potential dangers, have contingency plans, and be good at managing those problems and challenges with first class decision-making skills. Absorb responsibility openly Good leaders know their own authority, and responsibility and they know how to make these work for the better good of their team and for their own career. Unfortunately, too many managers enjoy the ‘authority’ and are very quick at fast-forwarding problems and challenges in the direction of their staff or other managers. Good managers do own up, absorb their mistakes and apologise where necessary. Doing so openly is a bonus as this shows that you are human, and it creates a platform for bonding with your own staff. Sadly, some managers think openly accepting ‘defeat’ represent a weakness which will diminish their authority. Don’t pass the buck. Openly accepting your mistakes can have a unique form of motivation for your staff. It will make you approachable, human, likeable, easy to talk to, and more sociable.
See the publication ‘Managers Alert’ for more on professional ideas and tips for leadership success
Professor Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah