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Organisational and Personnel Development
Leadership –
Leading to self-responsibility
The last newsletter contained an article about leadership which Dr. Helmut Meyer
dealt with the leadership skills required in order to lead oneself Senior Consultant
and others to self-responsibility. Part 2 deals with the relation of
control and self-responsibility in the development of the leader- MACHWÜRTH TEAM
ship culture. INTERNATIONAL
kid and reacts as a child – well- two options; either a useless in charge of instructing his em-
behaved, whining, sullen. And conversation or a warning. He ployees about their tasks. He
his boss is angry, scolds, moral- does not know how to make use was the one bearing the full re-
ises, threatens and acts as par- of the levels of escalation in a sponsibility for the success or
ents usually do. Both parties are conversation. failure of his unit. That is the
not in the ‘adult roles’. The re- reason why control plays a cen-
ciprocal relationship is stable but The problem is not the security tral role in his leadership style.
both parties feel queasy but do guidelines. The employee He needed excellent profes-
not change anything. agrees that they are useful and sional skills, courage to make
important but it is boring to fol- his own decision and assertive-
A superior who emphasizes self- low them and a task usually ness. The subordinate was the
responsibility has to be aware takes longer. It is very time- recipient of orders and was ex-
that the responsibility is limited consuming for companies to pected to be the extension of his
to controlling. The employee constantly observe the compli- boss. The information they re-
starts to give up his self- ance of the security guidelines. ceived was limited to their job or
responsibility as soon as the su- It is important that the employ- task and they did not have an
perior gets involved too much. ees act in a self-responsible idea about the future strategy of
On the one hand the role is manner. The sloppy employee the company. They could not
comfortable because one does does not have a problem with develop any self-initiative and
not have to make a decision, on the security guidelines but with they were educated not to take
the other hand it is very un- the self-responsibility. The any responsibility.
pleasant being criticized. leader is now challenged to find This leadership style was con-
a way to enhance the self- sidered as ineffective at the end
responsibility. of the 60ies/70ies. Due to the
technological progress and the
2. Hot topic: Security increasing complexity of corpo-
rate processes the qualification
3. The development of a and competence of the employ-
Role play in a workshop. The leadership culture ees was more and more impor-
team leader – inexperienced in tant. The implementation of
leading a team – has to practice Self-responsibility and monitor- teamwork resulting in delegation
a feedback conversation. He is ing are important topics and in- of (part) responsibilities to the
talking to an employee who has fluence the development of the team required a change in the
not followed the security guide- leadership culture from the be- leadership style. Influenced by a
lines several times. He spoke to ginning. change of values which en-
him a few times already accord-
ing to the script of the role play
but it has not helped. He agrees
that he made a mistake and im-
proves his behavior but after a
short time he falls into the same
sloppy style again. Now another
conversation – what about? 1890 1920 1950 1980 2010
Should he tell him for the fourth
time that the security guidelines
are very important or should he
give him an official warning? Is hanced the humanity of the work
not a warning too hard consider- 3.1 From an authoritarian/auto- life and the worker’s participa-
ing the circumstances? O.k., cratic to a cooperative lead- tion the cooperative leadership
let’s talk to him again – maybe it ership style style was developed in order to
helps. The observing colleagues During the industrialization in lead efficiently. The crucial find-
tell you that you wasted your the 19th century the idea of dif- ing was: not only the working
time. He will definitely not im- ferentiated division of labor conditions influence the per-
prove and you will have to arose. Physical work was not formance of an employee but
speak to him again in a few paid very well, therefore a lack also the attention paid to them.
weeks. The problem of the of motivation could be attributed The characteristics of a coop-
manager is that he only knows to the worker. The superior was erative leadership style are:
be the appropriate style. The ership practice showing clear in- MBO was a good concept at
successful practice of the situ- struction for delegation and con- this time of the beginning
ational leadership depends very trol. In a nutshell MBO works as globalization, technological
much on the culture of the com- follows: the leader defines and development, rapid devel-
pany and strong learning and agrees upon specific objectives opment of the markets,
development initiatives are re- with his employees. The rela- breaking with traditions and
quired in order to enhance the tionship between them is coop- structures, management of
independence of the employee. erative and the expectations are complex projects: the an-
clarified as well as an agree- nual definition of the objec-
The situational leadership style ment on the objectives is made. tives reduced the complexity
was considered very attractive The performance of the em- of leading. Supported by a
but the implementation was ex- ployee is assessed on the basis series of tools and instru-
tremely difficult. The question of these agreements. By reach- ments for the definition of
‘how do we do it’ was raised and ing his goals and subsequent the objectives becoming a
in the 90ies the management- remuneration the employee is successful leader seemed
by-techniques promised to show committed to maintain the qual- to be a process that could
exactly how leading can be ity level of his work. On the be trained and understood
done effectively. other hand the employee is easily.
asked to adjust his performance MBO was at the same time
3.4 Management by Objective if the objectives could not be a challenge. The consult-
reached. Feedback conversa- ants involved in the imple-
The most popular management- tions are hereby an extremely mentation could feel imme-
by-techniques are management important tool. diately whether the com-
by objectives (MBO), manage- A lot of companies adapted the pany was mature enough.
ment by delegation (MBD) and management by objectives lead- Some managers had diffi-
management by exception ership style in the 90ies and the culties to deal with the new
(MBE). MBO describes a lead- impact was twofold: situation of taking responsi-
bility for the achievement of ership style reaches its limits important characteristics are
the goals. Even the top because fast change cycles, charisma and ability to motivate
management was struggling ambivalent objectives and un- people. The status of this leader
to focus on the objectives predictable developments are is not built on power and hierar-
and to overcome old hierar- required and the motivation to chical position but on trust and
chical barriers. It was com- reach the agreed goals drops personal relationship. The lead-
mon that the agreements on because it just becomes impos- ership style of TL is very partici-
objectives were an annual sible. Companies should be able pative and the objectives deter-
ritual with no consistency. to build on employees who are mine the general direction but
Individual training alone was capable of dealing with the not the way of how to achieve
not sufficient to equip the daunting situation. A high de- them.
leaders with the necessary gree of self-responsibility and
skills to apply the MBO personality is required again. The leader considers himself
leadership style. The whole (herself) as a coach. He tries to
company had to go through 3.5 Leadership stimulate his followers by show-
a change management ing and explaining them different
process in order to create The leadership concept trans- approaches for example for
the basic conditions. formational leadership (TL) has solving a problem. He creates
Managing by objectives has been developed in 1990 and is challenges and enhances inno-
been established as a success- defined as leadership that cre- vation and creativity.
ful concept but it also has some ates valuable and positive
negative effects. The agreement change in the followers. A trans- The most challenging task is the
on objectives is sometimes lim- formational leader focuses on individual development of the
ited to numbers only what may "transforming" others to help followers. The leader recognizes
result in the employee working each other, to look out for each the specific abilities and needs
for his bonus only or giving him other, to be encouraging and of the employees and enhances
a feeling of not being personally harmonious, and to look out for supports and advises them.
important for an organization. the organization as a whole. In
The MBO leadership style this leadership, the leader en- Whereas management by objec-
caused a certain degree of de- hances the motivation, morale tives rewards results and per-
personalization by giving major and performance of his follower formance, TL mobilizes the po-
importance to the bonus. group. The personality of a tential and abilities of the em-
In times of crisis, high changes leader builds the focus of the ployees trying to get them to a
and turbulences the MBO lead- leadership concept. The most stage to ‘walk the extra-mile’.
Leadership
Agreeing on objectives
Increased motivation
expected to reach planned results
Agreed objectives (extra-efforts)
effort
Remuneration
(depending on expected Performance
results) performance beyond expectation
The next newsletter will deal with the development of leadership qualities. Established concepts
about leadership development are not always appropriate. An extensive self-reflection is recom-
mended in order to get an assessment of the current situation.
The following checklist supports you in reflecting about your processes and responsibilities in your own team
1. First step – please name the 10 main processes and allocate the responsibilities according to the hierarchy
levels. Do not consider how the process should be but how it is in reality.
2. Now, please check the current situation. Is it reasonable and efficient? Are the responsibilities allocated in a
reasonable way? Are the responsibilities clearly defined? If you are not completely satisfied with the current
situation please develop the desired target situation.
Main processes / tasks Responsibilities which should Responsibilities which should Responsibilities which should be
be accepted by my superior be accepted by myself accepted by my employees
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
3. Compare the current and target situation. What has to be done in order to achieve the desired situation? Who
do I have to talk to? What kind of new agreements have to be made?
4. Please have another look at the list with the main processes / tasks and fill in who controls/checks which ac-
tivities? Please consider the current situation.
Main processes / tasks What is controlled by my supe- What is controlled by myself? What is controlled by my employ-
rior? How does he do it? How do I do it? ees?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
5. Please compare the controlling process with the current situation of the responsibility. Where does re-
sponsibility and control match? Are there any discrepancies/gaps? What are the reasons?
6. Please compare the controlling process with the target situation of the responsibility. Which controlling
measures have to be changed, developed and agreed?
7. What are the next steps?
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