Born to Lead

Are leaders born or made?

Since I was a child I always seemed to hold leadership roles whether it was as a captain of an athletic team or acting as the lead with a school project.  Participating in athletics requires technical skills and leading a school project requires having a vision, delegating tasks and planning.  So in a sense both of these circumstances are more management related rather than leadership oriented. 

Once I entered the workforce after university I knew that I wanted to lead in some type of capacity.  So being a leader in my organization and entrepreneur today is not a surprise to me.  Although I feel I was meant to lead from a young age my work experience and education in this area has helped significantly.  I now have the capacity to lead on a much higher level and the opportunity to achieve meaningful outcomes.  So I believe I had the foundations to potentially become a great leader however the experiences and knowledge I gained along the way determined the quality to which I can lead.  If it wasn’t for the experience and knowledge would I be comfortable leading and believing I can do more?

 The answer is no, so to answer the question of “Are leaders born or made?” I believe we are born or adopt at a very young age the necessary leadership traits such as intelligence, drive, motivation, honesty, integrity and self-confidence but will seek out what we have to in order to become great leaders within our respective organizations.   

Do you believe leaders are born or adopt the necessary leadership traits at a young age?

Decision-Making Hierarchy "Are you on the bottom?"

In my last post I discussed delegation and the performance of tasks as part of the decision making hierarchy.  I started with delegation first because it is the most often hardest part of the decision making hierarchy.

Assigning tasks is the first step in the decision making hierarchy with any organization.  Two key elements to assigning tasks are responsibility, which is the duty to perform the assigned task and authority, the power to make the decisions necessary to complete the task.  Organizations often do not have problems assigning responsibilities to their employees; however they are often reluctant to give authority.  This can cause inconsistency which may result in the inability to make quick decisions or provide timely solutions.

The responsibility of performing tasks and authority to make decisions varies depending on organizational structure.  For example, in a centralized organization such as McDonalds’ top management retains the right to make most decisions, and top management must approve lower-level decisions before they can be implemented.  With McDonalds operating such a vast number of franchises their centralized organizational approach allows for standard procedures to be maintained at all locations.  However, when decisions are needed to be made in regards to marketing, staffing and other key elements to the franchise approval must come first from upper level management.

Contrary to the centralized organization model a decentralized organization allows lower and mid-level managers to make significant decisions.  This structure allows companies to be more responsive in their environments and breaks the company down into more manageable parts where they have a greater deal of authority with making decisions for their respective units.   This structure can work quite well if the right staff in place.  It allows managers and business unit teams to be innovative when thinking of their product or service and how to improve upon it.  With a decentralized model the company is much more dependent on its people rather than a centralized organization where all decision making is driven by top management. 

Whether or not centralized is better than decentralized I dont know if that can be determined because a lot depends on the organization's structure and culture.  However, I would personally rather be part of a decentralized organiztion which I am.  The ability to be innovative and have the ability to make decisions for our project appeals greatly to me.

“Is your company a centralized or decentralized organization and does it work well for you?”

    

4 Ways to Improve Delegation

As a manager you may sometimes feel overwhelmed with workloads and timelines.  You are responsible for assigning tasks, ensuring tasks are performed and your ability to make swift decisions may be limited by your organizational structure.  These are all processes of the decision-making hierarchy in your organization.  In this post we will look at the “Performing Tasks” process as this area tends to give managers the most difficulty as delegation is required and is most often the hardest to master. 

The decision-making hierarchy in your organization should run smoothly.  However, trouble often occurs when communication between managers and subordinates in regards to delegation and accountability is not clearly defined.  Delegation begins when a manager assigns a task to a subordinate.  Accountability falls to the subordinate, who must then complete the task.

Common Management Characteristic Flaws

Often the managers are not comfortable or confident when delegating to others.  These managers often exhibit several characteristics:

1)     They assume that employees can never do anything as well as they can

2)     They fear that their subordinates will “show the manager up” in front of others by doing a superb job

3)      They want to control everything

4)     They fail to do long-range planning because they are bogged down in day-to-day operations

5)     Are in the dark about industry trends and competitive products because they are too involved in day-to-day operations

Solutions to Common Management Characteristic Flaws

While managers may not display all these characteristics certainly all of us can relate to a few of these over our careers.  Below are some solutions to these common manager characteristic flaws:

1)     Managers should recognize that they cannot do everything themselves

2)     If subordinates cannot do a job, they should be trained so that they can assume more responsibility

3)     Managers should recognize that if a subordinate performs well, it reflects favourably on that employee’s manager

4 Strategies to Improve Delegation

So when you and your team take on the next project consider these 4 strategies to improve delegation.

1)     Decide on the nature of the work to be done

2)     Match the job with the skills of subordinates

3)     Make sure the person chosen understands the objectives he or she is supposed to achieve

4)     Make sure subordinates have the time and training necessary to do the task

What is your most common challenge when delegating work to your team?

Resource: Business, Seventh Canadian Addition, 2011, Pearson Education, Inc.