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Follow the Manager, not the Leader!

A Blog on my personal development as a leader

“Leadership is not a skill I was born with, but one that I acquired and am still perfecting since my high school, university years till present, due to the needs and opportunities that I have encountered along the way.”

I wrote these words on my Chevening Scholarship application essay in 2018, little did I know then that in result of those words, I would be writing a blog on my development as a leader as an assignment for MBA in Global Business.

In simple terms, leadership the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it (Yukl, 2010:26).  It is an essential skill as effective leaders, who can inspire their people to realize their personal and collective potential are often the deciding factor between a company being good at what it does and reaching greatness (Mullins, 2016). 

Leader or Manager?

Leadership to me is the ability to guide people of different personalities and backgrounds to work together towards the same purpose because it is in their own interest to do so. It is about getting work done. Some will argue that is management, however, as a coordinator, implementer and completer that I found myself to be, as a result of the Belbin profile , I am a manager at heart and if I can do this and still influence and encourage my teammates to aim towards personal development, that makes me a leader as well. 

Figure 1: Belbin Profile Team Role summary based (Belbin.com 2019)

My Leadership Brand

During the my MBA in Global Business, we learned about different leadership styles, such as autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire and situational. I also came across leadership theories, such as leading from the front, where leaders demonstrate their leadership by going first (or leading by example), versus leading from them back, where the leader steps back, playing a support role allowing the team to be participative in decision making and only steps in when necessary (Hill 2019).

Figure 2: Classification of leadership theories (Exportprogrammanagement.com 2019)

Concerning my leadership brand, currently, I am a democratic leader who adopts the leading from the front theory. I say this because there are many strategies with which a team can achieve a goal and we can only learn them if team members are encouraged to provide input. In addition, I personally do not believe in asking my team members to do anything personally I would not do. 

This leadership style had great impact on my teammates because it showed that I valued their opinions and that if I could perform a particular task, so could they. Overall, the MBA experience encouraged me to analyze things from my colleagues perspectives and work towards becoming more empathetic towards their struggles, as we were together, striving for the same goal.

I find that leading from the front would serve in African cultures, as it is encourage the upholding of standards among colleagues when the leader sets sets a positive example with his/her behavior. However, this leadership style “can at times be unrealistic.”[1] Nevertheless, good examples can prove as persuasive as great presence. Serious leaders understand that, both by design and default, they’re always leading by example (Schrage 2016).

Feedback

Figure 3: Quotes from my teammates’ leadership feedback form.

How we perceive ourselves to be is not necessarily as other see us, after receiving feedback from my teammates and conducting the Johari window framework I’ve come to realize despite my coordinator abilities that are (public). I tend to be a perfectionist and focus too much on the details in order to get them right (blind), therefore I simplify work for others in order to manage risk and be able to do damage control if necessary (hidden), this was unknown to others. However, I discovered that the energy that I bring to the environment can highly influence the team’s performance (unknown). Critically analyzing my performance as a team leader, I believe that there is room from improvement. Ultimately, when starting a new project, I should take a step back, listen more to the input of others others and allow my teammates to contribute more and influence them to do better through empowerment.

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Figure 4: The Johari Window Framework

As I develop in my career, I aspire to work in a dynamic and highly skilled team where I would feel less need to be in control of the team and so would listen more and progress into being a better team player.

I had a remarkable experience during a career simulation organized by the University where I participated in group activities with four other girls who I have never met before and got to analyze my performance with a life coach. To be truthful, the energy in that team so elevated that we felt no need to establish a team leader for each task because everyone knew what needed to be done and we combined our individual skills to complete the tasks.

Figure 5: An example of the Helium Stick team building exercise conducted during my simulation session with 4 other girls from the management team (trainershouse.com 2019)

The whole experience was liberating, I felt a personal self-interest to contribute, not because it was expected of me, nor due to a sense of obligation or fear that if I do not take control things won’t be done, but because of the atmosphere. No one knew me and it didn’t matter, what mattered is how they picked up on my distinctive capabilities and used it to achieve the goal. For the first time while working in a team, I felt that some weight was taken out taken off my shoulders and that I could rely on others and trust our synergy just as shown on the picture above.

The energy that I came across by being exposed to that environment is what I would like to provide to my future teammates, because despite the fact that in real life, we cannot always choose who we work with, we can define our team’s energy and I have learnt from the Ricardo Semler case study that the team’s energy is highly influenced by the leadership style. 

In future?

Just as Ricardo and Nelson Mandela, I want to continue being a democratic leader, but one who listens and trust more in her teams’ abilities. Thus, I plan to use the leading from the back leadership style, were I would play more of a guiding and supportive role whenever possible because this is the future for organizations.  (A. Hill, 2019)

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

Nelson Mandela (Davis 2019)

I believe that just like in the Ricardo’s case, this democratic and leading from behind leadership style will create some controversy, especially in an African work culture, for people will be pushed out of their comfort zones. However, it may also result in acquisition of new skills, continuous improvement of processes and, ultimately, better organizational performance (Cummings et. al. 2019). For these reasons I believe that I should be followed as a manager by my future teams.

Figure 6: Memories with My MBA class and teammates

[1] Buckingham, M. (2005), What Great Managers Do, In Harvard Business Review; Mar2005, Vol. 83 Issue 3, p5

A. Hill, L. (2019). Leading from Behind. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2010/05/leading-from-behind [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].

Buckingham, M. (2005), What Great Managers Do, In Harvard Business Review; March 2005, Vol. 83 Issue 3, p70-79

Cummuta, T. (2017) Leading the Way or Leadership from Behind? Leadership Skills [online] [Available from] <https://aboutleaders.com/leading-the-way-or-leadership-from-behind/#gs.ab2fg3> [15 October 2019]

Davis, G. (2019). How to lead from behind. [online] Virgin. Available at: https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/how-lead-behind [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].

Daniel, C. Stephen Remedios , Abdulla Alremaithi , and Sarah Shaw (2010) Humanizing Leadership Development [online] Available from < https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/humanizing-leadership-development.aspx >  [15 October 2019]

Hill, L. (2010) Leading from behindHarvard Business Review [online] October 05, 2016.  Available from <https://hbr.org/2010/05/leading-from-behind&gt; [15 October 2019]

Mind Tools, Core Leadership Theories, Learning the Foundations of Leadership [online] <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-theories.htm>Available from [15 October 2019]

Schrage, M. (2016) ‘Like It or Not, You Are Always Leading by Example’ Harvard Business Review [online] October 05, 2016.  Available from < https://hbr.org/2016/10/like-it-or-not-you-are-always-leading-by-example> [04 August 2017]

From Potatoes to Gin

A Blog on Change management

(Pinintres.com 2019)

Change is inevitable, it is a constant and inescapable part of both the social and the organizational life and everyone is subjected to change of one form or the other (Mullins 2016). Because it is inevitable, only those who embrace change and adapt to their new circumstances will survive. In this Blog, we will analyze the impact that Brexit will have on UK companies, reflect on effective change management strategies and provide recommendations for companies undergoing change based on our finds.

Brexit is an uncertain economic situation that is currently driving change in many UK organizations (Mullins 2016). In case the UK leaves the EU without a deal, it will no longer operate under the European Economic Area (EEA) regulations for the cross-border trade services therefore, UK businesses may face legal, regulatory and administrative barriers (Gov.uk 2019) and as such must prepare to undergo transformations either to their goals, processes or structures in order to stay afloat. 

Figure 1: Share of countries that export hard liquor (oec.com 2019)

The UK is one of the biggest exporters of hard liquor, exporting 7.87 Billion USD in 2017 (OEC.com 2017) and has an alcohol industry worth £16bn (Carruthers 2018). The incoming restrictions brought on Brexit may negatively impact the alcohol industry, a sign of such was the severe decrease in alcohol export value from 2018 to 2019 (Statista 2019).

Figure 2: export value of fatty alcohols in the UK between 2016 and 2019 (statista.com 2019)

Meet the Chase

Introduction to Chase the distillery https://chasedistillery.co.uk

This situation may ultimately affect small UK based business such as Chase, which is a Single-Estate distillery based in Herefordshire that went from being originally a potato farm to producing fine spirits since 2008 (Chase.com 2019). 

Given it success, Chase now intends to export its product cross UK borders. However, in the face of Brexit, the company will no longer benefit from the rights and protections provided by the EU Directives and Treaties regarding rights of freedom of movement and of establishment (Gov.uk 2019) and further below, we apply some frameworks to evaluate the impact this may have on Chase.

Challenges faced by Chase:

igure 3: Diagram of McKinsey’s 7-S Model framework (Kenton 2019).

One way in which Chase can critically evaluate Brexit’s impact on their business is by applying the McKinsey’s 7-S Model, which is a framework for organizational effectiveness that states that there are seven internal factors of an organization that must be aligned together for it to be successful (Kenton 2019). 

The McKinsey’s 7-S Mode helps companies identify areas that are not effectively aligned due to the changes (Kenton 2019), which in Chase’s case are the following:

Internal factorType of factorRemark
Strategy: A plan developed by the organization in order to remain competitive in its industry and market (Kenton 2019). Hard S (Influenced by management)With the threats of increase of tariffs, weakness of the pound and the disruption to the supply chain that might come with Brexit, Chase’ current strategy will have to be aligned so that the company remains competitive in future. 
System: Daily procedures, workflow, and decisions that make up the standard operations within the organization (Jurevicius 2013). Hard S (Influenced by management)Legal factors such as the introduction of the EORI number[1], or the obligation to appoint an EU Authorized Representative under Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)[2] (DPR.com 2019) and other EU laws and regulations may disrupt the natural flow of Chase’s export activities and as such, new procedures and operation standards will have to be created for Chase to remain compliant.  
Staff: Which and how many employees an organization will need and how they will be recruited, trained, motivated and rewarded (Kenton 2019). Soft S (influenced by organizational culture)The alcohol industry employed over 9 thousand workers in 2019 (statista.com 2017), some of which were EU nationals. In the face of Brexit, companies may question whether they will be able to keep their foreign and trained staff, the role they will have to play in order for their employees to retain right to remain after Brexit, or how can they employ foreign staff in future.

All of these changes imply risks and translate into costs for any organization and according to McKinsey, all the seven internal factors are interconnected and as such change in one implies change all the other factors in order for the organization function effectively (Jurevicius 2013).

Advice to Chase

To manage these changes, Chase will have to adopt an efficient change management strategy, such as Lewin’s 3 Step Change Management Model. (Mullins 2016).

Figure 4: Behavior modification model (Mullins 2016).

In accordance to Lewin, the process of organizational change involves three stages, namely: unfreezing, changing and refreezing. Unfreezing entails creating the perception that a change is needed, changing or movement involves moving toward the new and desired level of behavior and refreezing includes reinforcing and solidifying the new values and behavior as the norm (ICMR, 2007). Based on Lewin’s theory, some of the recommendations to Chase when managing change will include:

  • Communicate:

Rather than simply informing what will be changed and how it should take place, Chase management should endavor clearly explain to their employees why changes is need and allow their employees to see the personal gain for themselves as they incorporate these changes (Trybus 2011). This can be achieved through clear and effective communication between in line management and staff (Mullins 2016).

  • Create new habits:

Chase can implement new habits that direct the organization towards the desired result, an example would be to train their managers to provide support to their EU employees and their families on how to apply for EU settlement schemes before the deadline which, will allow them either obtain a settled or pre settled status enabling them to continue reside in UK after Brexit(Gov.uk 2019).

  • Create a support mechanism: 

Chase can create a new support mechanism to solidify new company’s values such as develop a new company policy based on the changes or by establishing feedback system through which employees ask questions and receive feedback on aspects related to the changes (Trybus 2011).

Chase should also be prepared to face opposition to this change. This resistance can arise from various sources such as people’s selective perception habit, inconvenience or loss of freedom, economic implications, security in the past and fear of the unknown (Mullins 2016), for people tend to go through the seven stages below before accepting change (Recklies 2001):

Figure 5: Seven stages in which people perceive change (Recklies 2001).

Chase’s leadership can play an important role in overcome resistance when implementing change by influencing frontline employees to feel a sense of ownership towards the change allowing them to take initiative to drive change (Inserm et. al. 2009). See below some other practical ways in which leaders can overcome resistance to change:

Figure: Methods for dealing with resistance to change, (Kotter et. al. (2008)

The implementation of an effective change management strategy will benefit Chase, not only because it will help it overcome the challenges brought on by Brexit but also because it will help evert fears, build trust, empower and their employees as they undergo any other process of change in the future (Mullins 2016). 

Through this blog, we learned that although change may bring uncertainty, it can be managed with the use of the appropriate change management strategies that will allow companies to identify the internal factors that require change, determine where and how it should be made, gravitate the company towards the desired outcome and continue to evaluate the internal factors, because as mentioned in the first paragraph change is a constant and inevitable fact of life. (Jurevicius 2013).

Lastly, note that change is not entirely negative, it can also make room for discovery and development of new skills, systems and lead to transformations of companies which would have not occurred in an environment of convenience and commodity. Like Tony Robbins says:

Figure 6: A quote by Tony Roberts (Sallykirkman.com 2019)

References:

  • Kotter J. and Schlesinger L. (2008) ‘Choosing Strategies for Change’ Harvard Business Review July-August 2008 pp.5-7.
  • Mullins, L.J. (2016), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th Edition, Harlow: Pearson Higher Education.
  • Trybus, M (2011) Models of Leadership PG 33. Facing the Challenge of Change: Steps to Becoming an Effective Leader

[1] Economic Operator Registration and Identification (“EORI”) is a number starting with GB to continue exporting goods. (Gov.uk 2019)

[2] All UK based company with no registered offices in the EU will need appoint an EU Authorized Representative under Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

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