Managing Leadership^®

Certainly a key role of a manager is execution. Over the past few days, we’ve looked at that more or less directly from two angles – that of the specialist and of the generalist, sharing the perspective provided by the project management mindset. Unfortunately, this vital role is one that many modern leadership movement gurus disparagingly describe, in one of the more inane metaphors for this false dichotomy, as mere managerial ladder-climbing, whereas “real leaders” are the ones who decide where to put the ladders.

But that sort of distinction is not merely sophomoric nonsense, it is actively destructive of organizational clarity, unity of effort and, consequently, of execution. It is the sort of juvenile thinking that has “big arrow” people pondering schemes beyond the ken of the rest of us, and yet leaving we little people to our own devices to somehow make those clever ideas happen. It encourages separation of effort, of roles, and of individual self-identity within an organization, leading to the sort of strategic and operational disconnects we have noted previously in this discussion.

Nevertheless, there is more for top management to do than to focus exclusively on the strategic plan immediately before them. An executive at this level must back up the “in order to” thinking process quite a bit in order to ensure that the organization is capable of meeting its present and future challenges.

The senior executive needs to ask not merely what he or she must do in order to accomplish the current mission, but to ensure that the organization is prepared to adapt to and execute the next one. Indeed, he or she needs to continuously scan the environment to help ensure that those plans are ready or can be developed. In this sense, the intersection between management and the board is best seen as a strategically interactive one, albeit with ultimate responsibility resting in the latter body, and not in the former group.

But the manager typically has a broader portfolio in the grand corporate scheme of things than even merely that. This is because in order to execute current plans, and to remain organizationally prepared to continue performing this and future missions, he or she must act in a broader capacity as the steward of the organization.

This is absolutely a key role for management of parallel importance with execution. It entails a wide range of activities that aren’t specifically related to current strategy implementation or operations. Following are only a few examples of these:

• Establishing and maintaining the financial health and flexibility of the organization

• Developing compensation (including health care and retirement) and training programs (including both job-specific and general improvement) that meet the needs of employees so that they can meet those of the organization.

• Creating a vital and vibrant management and talent development program that is designed and maintained to meet the organization’s needs at all levels, whether sourced internally or externally.

• Maintaining appropriate governmental and community relations.

The executive doesn’t merely execute – he or she maintains the organizational ability to execute under all foreseeable conditions to the extent that available and discoverable resources permit. So, the senior manager is both the executioner and the steward.

But to be these, he or she must be one more thing. We’ll close out this current topic with a discussion of that next. Have a great weekend, and please don’t forget to stop by again on Monday!

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Today’s tips: Speaking of taking the long view as a steward, please look at this excellent review, in the WSJ, of how some companies are doing that.

And speaking of qualifications for top management, perhaps they aren’t quite as onerous as all that, after all. You will definitely want to see this piece on how one board picks a CEO – it will be well worth your while to see the linked article, as well. Thanks to Cam Beck, of ChaosScenario, for the tip!

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Technorati Tags: manager, execution, specialist, generalist, perspective, project management, leadership, leader, clarity, unity of effort, management, strategic plan, executive, organization, challenge, senior executive, mission, plan, steward, strategy, implementation, operations, compensation, health care, retirement, training, employee, talent, development, government, community, relations, WSJ, CEO, Cam Beck