Leadership vs Management

Business leadership is required to gain commitment rather than just compliance to working tasks. It is also required to ensure endurance, a persistence that mere authority can’t generate.

In some respects, the role of a business leader is to attain those things that management alone is unlikely to attain. A position of authority may give a manager a ‘jump start’ in achieving business missions, but commitment may fade without leadership.

I strongly believe that leadership in any business should focus as much on the characteristics of followers as it does on attributes of the leader.

Business leaders must accept responsibility for others, model values by example, develop the team through praise and shape a team culture. By taking care of the team and empowering each member, business results will follow accordingly.

Business leaders work in an environment of ongoing change. How are we moving change forward?

Strong leadership sponsorship with a clear charter and time-frame for implementation is required.

There should also be a clear project plan, with accountabilities defined. As always, a leader need to make sure that the right team is well placed.

Business leaders should embrace change and help others embrace change as well. The more proactive and structured the approach is, the better one can address the people and organizational risks inherent in any change effort.

Effective and honest feedback process: is it difficult to be fair?

The above seems like a straightforward, simple question. It should not be difficult to be honest. Is it?


No one is in perfect… yet honest and fair feedback process should weight all aspects, good and bad. One should consider inquiring about what worked well and what could be improved. Both views should be equally weighted and considered in the same proportion.

This is extremely important if one asks an opinion or feedback from a team member, regarding peers or managers. Asking balanced questions should be the best way to see the full picture and not in a tendentious manner (intentioned or not). Asking one an un-adjusted questions or "begging the question" in one direction, miss the entire feedback point. It may also cause a gap of expectations from the procedure. In such cases the results are un-fairly clear, known in advance and therefore biased.

Reflecting about such process one should make sure that the purpose of the evaluation is fully transparent. Thinking about how the questions should be rephrased to these supposed to provide feedback is equally important. Try to avoid leading question, use open questions instead, just to make sure that there is no "hidden direction". Asking questions like "How bad is your peer" or "Can you provide examples of bad behavior of your colleague" are obviously leading questions.

I have observed a situation which looked like a kind of an "informal fallacy" where the conclusion that one was attempting to prove was included in the initial premises of the questions. Needless to say, it was an unprofessional feedback process. For the external witness It looked like a "field trial" more than a "fair trial". 

I strongly think that perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not. Be fair.

Business leadership - doing the right thing

Successful companies devote time and efforts thinking and implementing core corporate values.

There might be various business conduct rules, expected behavior guidelines and general instructions concerning anticipated performance. There is one thing in common for all: it is all about doing the "right thing".

It may sound like a general statement, however, if someone is doing the right things, consistently, then about 90% of the rules are already built in. This is also what integrity is all about. Integrity can be summed up simply as doing the right thing for the right reason.

Corporate values need to be demonstrated. In order to develop these shared values, the leadership must transmit a sense of honesty and integrity to each member of the organization.
It was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said: "The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”

I could not agree more…

What differentiates a high performance team from a regular team?

In one word: "commitment". Commitment can be achieved by focusing on four elements:

1. Setting clear mission and goals. Identifying specific, measurable, prioritized goals and deliverables linked to the business.

2. Setting clear roles and responsibilities, contributing required skills and resources for the team to accomplish its goals. 

3. Identifying and agreeing on the procedures and approaches the team will use for getting its work done.

4. Building the necessary openness, trust, motivation and operating rhythm for a high performance team.

Winning team members are proud of the job they do and the corporation they work for when the corporation is making a meaningful contribution to society.

Should leaders, encourage mistakes on their team?

John Maxwell stated in his book "Failing Forward" that honest mistakes should actually be encouraged, not just tolerated.

William L. McKnight, who served as 3M chairman of the board from 1949 to 1966, encouraged 3M management to "delegate responsibility and encourage men and women to exercise their initiative.". He also mentioned that "Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative. And it's essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow."(Source: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_WW/History/3M/Company/McKnight-principles )

Planned as it may be, when someone tries out new things failures are likely to happen. Some companies like to talk about giving employees the freedom to make mistakes. Only a few found a way to incorporate possible chance into company policy. Take Google, for example. Google has placed guidelines around employees’ use of their “20% time”. It is the one day a week an employee spends on side projects. Is it a waste of time, learning process or platform for building the next big thing?

I do think that tolerating honest mistakes and giving employees the freedom to explore creates a culture of learning and innovation. I would say that the key to driving innovation is providing a nurturing environment where employees feel encouraged to take risks and make courageous decisions.