If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Leadership Defined

Positional Leadership:

Positional leadership is ‘leadership by default’, where the holder, regardless of their actual “authority”, has been placed in a position to  influence others by the rank held over them. The main motivation of followers is fear. Fear of sanctions if they do not follow the direction of the leader. Further, this type of leadership position needs no ‘natural born leadership’ qualities, as the person was chosen, often, by outside factors.

Situational Leadership:

Drastically different from Positional Leadership, Situational Leadership leaders derives their authority from their followers – followers who want to be led. The leader’s most powerful tool is their natural leadership style, which allows them to get others to participate willingly and eagerly. There are little or no threats of sanctions and is considered the truest form of leadership styles.

John Maxwell said, “leadership is the ability to obtain followers”. In an organization, often the wrong individuals are promoted to positions of power. Because of this positional leadership, their followers grow to resent them and diminish productivity. In many cases, individuals are promoted because they excelled at a certain task – often nothing to do with leadership itself. For example, at a software firm, a programmer who completes his projects on time, sticks to a budget, arrives on time, and follows the rules, may be picked to lead the group. However, this programer, whose passion is coding software, not leading a group.

In a recent study, 80% of corporate leaders said they do not feel their skills are being used efficiently. Why is that? It is because our culture attempts to force-feed leadership qualities into individuals who have no desire to be leaders. A “promotion” is a good thing, and one would be out of their mind to decline, right? But what if that promotion came with tasks and responsibilities that made you hate your job? What if you dreaded going to work each day because you didn’t feel that you were equipped to do it properly?

A colleague, owner of a high-end fabric/textile importing shop, was sharing part of his life story. He had it made. He was making six- to seven-figures a year, had a nice house, nice car, travelled the world, met with royalty to purchase his textiles – yet he was unhappy. Every day.

Unhappiness among corporate leaders is a poison that drips from the top down. His unhappiness was reflected in the employees of his business. No longer were they happy to be at work. Like their boss, they dreaded going to work each day. Finally, it occurred to him that he got into the business because of his love for people and fabric. He did not want to lead the company, he wanted to be with the employees each day, working along side them. What did he do? He demoted himself. He hired someone else – who had natural leadership skills and the desire to lead a team. A company full of positional leaders is destined for trouble.

Rather than force-feeding skills that impact the company directly, why not focus on an employee’s strengths? Why not encourage employees to seek out training that they find interesting? Identify employee’s weaknesses and avoid putting them in a position where they will be forced to use them.

Happy employees lead to a more efficient company. Period.

Next: Modeling The Way as a Situational Leader

When the geeks at NCR in Australia threatened to go on strike, it was a move that could have paralyzed ATMs, supermarket cash registers and airplane check-in. This underlines the fact that IT has become so central to almost all corporations, that any disruption may cost a lot of time and money, which again means that keeping the geeks happy at work is an absolute requirement for a modern business. Happy geeks are effective geeks. The main reason IT people are unhappy at work is bad relations with management, often because geeks and managers have fundamentally different personalities, professional backgrounds and ambitions. Some people conclude that geeks hate managers and are impossible to lead. The expression “managing geeks is like herding cats” is sometimes used, but that’s just plain wrong. The fact is that IT people hate bad management and have even less tolerance for it than most other kinds of employees.

So where does it go wrong? Here are some top ways that managers can lead geeks effectively and respectfully.

1. Value training. If a boss thinks that training is a waste of money and expects you to teach yourself, you feel pretty demotivated in any job. Training matters, especially in IT, and managers must realize that and budget for it. Sometimes you get the argument that “if I give them training a competitor will hire them away.” That may be true, but the alternative is to only have employees who are too unskilled to work anywhere else. Also, if you pay them well and have good benefits, they won’t go somewhere else.
2. Give recognition. Since managers may not understand the work geeks do very well, it’s hard for them to recognize and reward a job well done, which hurts motivation. The solution is to work together to define a set of goals that both parties agree on. When these goals are met the geeks are doing a great job.
3. 

   Keep overtime down. Avoid taking the approach of wringing as much as possible out of IT employees just because you figure they don’t lead a normal life. Wrong! That’s a huge mistake and overworked geeks burn out or simply quit. It’s a complete myth that long work hours are good for business.

4. Avoid using management-speak. Geeks hate management-speak and see it as superficial and dishonest. Managers shouldn’t learn to speak tech, but they should drop the biz-buzzwords. A manager can say “We need to proactively impact our time-to-market” or simply use plain English and stick to “We gotta be on time with this project”. The latter makes total sense to everyone involved.
5. Don’t try to be smarter than the geeks. When managers don’t know anything about a technical question, they should simply admit it. Geeks respect them for that, but not for pretending to know. And they will catch it – geeks are smart.
6. Act consistently. Geeks have an ingrained sense of fairness, probably related to the fact that in IT, structure and consistency is critical. The documentation can’t say one thing while the code does something else, and similarly, managers can’t say one thing and then do something else.
7. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring the geeks. Because managers and geeks are different types of people, managers may end up leaving the geeks alone. This makes leading them difficult, and geeks need good leadership – the same as all other personnel groups.
8. 

   Include them in decisions. Never make decisions without consulting geeks. Geeks usually know the technical side of the business better than the manager, so making a technical decision without consulting them is one of the biggest mistakes a leader can make.

9. Give them the tools needed. A fast computer may cost more money than an older one and it may not be corporate standard, but geeks use computers differently. A slow computer lowers productivity and is a daily annoyance. So is outdated software. Give them the tools they need. Understand that tools come in many forms. Caffeine is considered a standard tool among Geeks. It’s good to keep a supply of the caffeinated beverages your team prefers handy.
10. Remember that geeks are creative workers. Programming is a creative process, not an industrial one. Geeks must constantly come up with solutions to new problems and rarely ever solve the same problem twice. Therefore they need leeway and flexibility. Strict dress codes and too much red tape kill all innovation. They also need creative surroundings to avoid “death by cubicle”.
11. Recognize the outcomes of not treating geeks with respect as outlined above. Happy geeks are productive geeks, and the most important factor is good management, tailored to their situation. Doing the opposite to what has been outlined in this article has serious consequences for your organization, including:
    • Low motivation
    • High employee turnover
    • Increased absenteeism
    • Lower productivity
    • Lower quality
    • Bad service

    Additional Information & Tips

    • Some of the most basic principles of management apply to all employees, geeks and non-geeks. Be fair. Be open.
    • Geeks are smart. Don’t assume smart people always have sound judgment- they don’t. Rely on the ones who have it; learn from them- evolve.
    • Geeks don’t like dead weight. No one does. If you have any, get rid of it, and your team will be better off. Teams only work when everyone is pulling their weight.
    • Find out what your geeks like besides work, and take an interest when you can. They’ll appreciate your effort.
    • If you’re a “geek managing geeks,” as many of us are, don’t wear your boss hat like a crown. They know you’re in charge- don’t carry it like a sign.
    • Caveat: not all geeks are the same; take the time to know the ones you work with. This article is not saying that all IT-people are geeks; some are, some aren’t.
    • This advice would work well with most employees, not just geeks.
    • Don’t call geeks, ‘geeks’. As noted below it is normally derogatory (and in some cases brings back horrible memories from high school).
    • The word ‘geek’ in this article is not used in a derogatory manner: “definition 3: an enthusiast or expertespecially in a technological field or activity <computer geek>.”^[1]
      • The word geek is normally derogatory, but it is thought of as meaning a person with skill and knowledge in the computer arena.

I worked from home for over 6 months before moving across the world and taking my first office job. For those wondering why anyone would give up working from home, there were a few reasons that contributed to my decision:

• Getting to work with like minded people in the same industry
• Traveling across the world and being independent
• Working with large clients I couldn’t have gotten on my own

That aside, I’d like to get into my tips on becoming more productive in the office, especially when you have access to the internet. I work in the social media industry and when you spend a lot of time on sites that promote amazing content, it can be difficult not to get in a situation where you have 20 browser tabs open and minimal work completed.

1. Set a time for emails
   Email is a very big feature in most office environments but this handy form of communication can easily become a huge distraction. Whenever we are at work, we are usually busy with one project or another; incoming emails just add more to the to-do list. In fact, seeing more emails come in when you are already working on a few projects can add to your stress levels and cause you to become less productive.

   What I’ve been trying, is to have a set time for emails. You could have:

   • A scheduled time each day to check email (i.e. 9am & 2pm)
   • A plan to only open them once current tasks are finished

   Of course, if you are going to do this you might want to speak to your boss / coworkers to explain the situation. The benefit of having a time for emails is that you are left to focus on the jobs you do have left, rather than worry about all your jobs piling up and getting distracted by responding to emails during jobs.

2. Ban yourself from websites
   I’m actually serious about this and this has been one of the best techniques to help me increase productivity. If there are certain websites that you keep going to during the day for enjoyment, even a few minutes now and then, then your productivity is going to decline and your tasks will quickly ad up.

   If you use Firefox, then you can install the Leechblock extension. There are other extensions that do the job but the thing I like about this is it’s actually takes about a minute just to unblock a website. Therefore you resist the urge to go and do it because it’s not just a ‘enter your password’ quick job to get back on one of your favorite productivity killers.

3. Don’t finish everything
   This is a tip that is most often given to programmers but I’ve found it to help me even when doing client reports or proposals. The idea behind this is that you don’t finish each day with all tasks done, unless the deadline is for that day.

   For example, if you are writing a proposal full of ideas on how to help a client, leave room for more ideas and head home. When you get back the next day you’ll be able to read your previous ideas and that will instantly get you back into work mode with your mind on the tasks at hand.

4. Change your lunch hour
   The times when I tend to be the most productive are when there are less people around me. For most of you, this is when most staff are on lunch. So for example, if most people go on lunch at 1pm then you should go at 12 or 2. That way, you have a complete hour of less distractions and noise.

   If you tend to go to lunch with a few people then see if they can change their schedules a little so that you can all become more productive. Just be careful to make sure that the rest of the office doesn’t follow suit.

5. Hide on screen distractions
   If you work on a computer then do your best to hide any on-screen distractions that might interrupt whatever you are working on. For example you may want to close things such as:
   • MSN or other instant messengers
   • Skype
   • Inactive programs such as Photoshop or Gimp
   • Distracting pop-ups and auto running programs

   Even when I’m writing, I completely cut off all on screen distractions. For most of my writing I use a text editor known asDarkRoom, you can see how this looks for writing this blog post below:

   Darkroom actually makes your whole screen black so that you can’t see anything else. This is a bonus because even if someone is chatting to you on an instant messaging program then you can’t see it until you are prepared to be interrupted.

6. Set yourself false deadlines
   This is a productivity / motivation tip that could really be used anywhere but works very well for me in my office environment. Basically it is about giving yourself false time deadlines so that you prioritize a task and push to get it done without wasting time.

   If you have 3 hours to get a report done then see if you can get it done in 2 and tell yourself that you must get it done in two. Of course, don’t lose quality in favor of quantity but I find this method means I just instantly cut out all noise and distractions and just focus immensely on the task at hand.

I advise people to only try the ones they think will help them the most; I think banning websites has been the most effective solution for me. If you are going to do all of these, then prepare to have more hours free than you know what to do with.

Dumb Little Man

I don’t know about you, but in my own professional life I often get so bogged down with the details of my daily work that I forget – or I ‘don’t have time’ – to sit back and widen my vision, to fly up and take a bird’s eye view of the whole landscape. Being in the thick of it all, I often don’t see the wood for the trees. In fact, the very idea of ‘sitting back’ and looking at the bigger picture somehow seems like laziness – shouldn’t I be working, doing something, being productive, not just floating around watching while everyone else gets on with things?

I am going to suggest that this attitude is quite wrong and that we should, in fact, be habitually taking in the bigger view, surveying the entire terrain of our lives and our world. If we don’t do this, we run the risk of being reduced to machines, trudging along, doing what we do without really thinking about why.

I suggest that coming up with a mission statement can, as part of a package of changes, be a very effective way of bringing more meaning and happiness into your life.

Most individuals don’t have a mission statement. They don’t have a clear idea of where they are going in life; they don’t know what they want to achieve. They just drift along, year after year, decade after decade. Most people live like that and they die like that. Napoleon Hill, in his famous book Think and Grow Rich, wrote that most people did not have a goal, did not now where they were going. He also presented a six step plan by which anyone could achieve financial success. If you want to find out about the plan, it’s presented in chapter 2 of the book, but the key element in the plan is that a clear statement of purpose, and a mission statement, can be a powerful way of achieving this.

A mission statement, however, cannot just be thrown together. It needs to be carefully crafted. Here are the elements of a good mission statement.

• Your goals should be specific and clear
  What are your values? What do you stand for? What are you going to achieve? What are you going to contribute to the world? This isn’t about what you want to achieve – it’s not a wish list; it’s a definite statement of intent, it’s your ‘order’ from the menu of the universe, it’s what is going to happen. When you start to get bogged down in the details of daily life, think back to your mission statement – it will act as a compass to keep you on track; your decisions and actions will be guided by it. In this sense, it provides you with a wide angle lens through which you can keep the bigger picture in view.
• Your goals do not need to be (SHOULD not be) ‘realistic’ or ‘attainable’
  We’ve all heard about ‘SMART’ targets which have to be measurable, realistic etc., etc. The point here is that the universe can do anything, however unbelievable or ‘unrealistic’ it is.

  It should indicate how you are going to achieve your goals – this does not contradict the previous statement. You must not include a specific, detailed plan, but a statement about what you are going to offer in exchange for meeting your goal. For example, your goal is to be the best sales person in your company – you will achieve this goal by giving outstanding service to every customer. There’s nothing here about sales targets, how many clients you need to see, how many sales you need to make etc. Once you have written down the ‘how’ in general terms, the universe will do the rest.




• It should be short
  Some organizations produce long rambling mission statements which nobody ever reads! Napoleon Hill suggests you read through your ‘mission statement’ every morning and evening; you’re not going to do this if it’s going to take twenty minutes. And the ideas aren’t going to be as powerful if they’re not focused. So keep it short, focused and powerful, like a laser beam.




• It should make you feel good
  If you know where you’re going, you’ll live a life of eager anticipation and joy. Just as if you are sailing somewhere on a ship – you know you’ll get to your destination and in the meantime you’re enjoying the view. This attitude of anticipating a future you have already chosen (you bought the ticket, you got on the ship, the ship’s moving) whilst living in the present moment (you’re looking out at a wonderful sunrise, enjoying the view) is, to me, the only sensible way to live.

Taking time to write and regularly review your mission statement is one of the most important things you can do in life. Next time you get bogged down in the day-to-day detail of life, stop and think about your mission statement. It will keep things in perspective; it will clarify your vision and it will keep you moving on the right course.

Your life is like a ship – of course, you need a crew, busily working away to keep afloat and keep moving, but even more importantly, you need a map, you need a compass and you need a captain. Without them, your ship just won’t get anywhere.

Dumb Little Man