Supervisory Management Leadership, Book Review Example

Leadership

Throughout the reading of Nick Forster’s book “Maximum Performance: A Practical Guide to Leading and Managing People at Work” there is a recurrent them about the specific skillsets that the leader encompasses and that the manager should achieve.  Skills are broken down into two subsets, the hard skills and the soft skills.  Hard skills include those skills that are teachable and can be quantified and measured.  These hard skills include those like mathematics, typing and the ability to use software programs or code programs.  Soft skills are harder to measure because they are based on personality or leadership qualities.  Examples of soft skills include the ability to lead a group of people, negotiate contracts, engage in conversations, or work well with one another.  The manager has a primary focus on achieving metrics through direct actions as forcing functions for their area to perform while leaders guide and direct through influence.

Leadership and management are linked together and are very complementary but they are not the same thing. Leadership is inspiring, motivating and guiding while managing is coordinating, organizing and administering.  Leadership can be described as “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”  This simple statement places the emphasis on how leadership is more than accomplishing goals and objectives but how those achievements are obtained and implemented while also imparting guidance and strategic intent throughout the process.  In the business world, hierarchy is built into levels of authority based on roles, organizational needs and functional expertise.  The levels in the organization include titles such as departmental manager, shift manager, functional manager and general manager.  These areas are broken down into core competencies that require that role to perform certain aspects of the job.  The goal of a shift manager working within the confines of an automotive production plant has specific measurable objectives to reach during the course of his or her shift, week, month, quarter and year.  These goals and objectives are set forth by senior management based upon their goals and objectives in order to meet the senior accountable forces within the organizations business strategy.

Roles and responsibilities do not necessarily determine who a leader is but allows a leader to fulfil their desire to guide and direct.  Leaders are thought to be born and not trained but there is a mixture of internal drive to want to lead and take charge of situations as well as learning to hone the leadership skills to become more effective and efficient in leading differing tasks and objectives.  The goal of the manager is to manage the specific, tactical and operational functions underneath his or her span of control (Zaleznik, 2008).  The manager will more than likely be compared and appraised upon how well he met the metrics established for his group.  The metrics for the manager’s area of responsibility does not necessarily take into account his or her leadership ability and how well the leadership skills are being developed and implemented within the manager’s team (Zenger & Folkman, 2009).

Leadership represents the ability to guide a group of individuals with initially separate and distinct goals into a concerted and synergistic focus toward the same objective.  Leadership is composed of multiple characteristic traits both tangible and intangible all of which synergize together to give certain individuals the ability to lead and promote ideas better than others.  This is a shift in individualistic goals and objectives into those that are for the greater good of the group as a whole.  These leadership traits revolve around building an individual with the ability to guide and direct while also maintaining a level of trust and hope within the organization of people he or she is leading.  Building leaders is achieved through the experience that is provided to the individuals as well as the self-directed situations the individuals take on during their lifetimes.  Leaders come in a variety of skillsets and abilities but the common foundation of the leaders remains a constant.  This foundation is the ability to lead a group of individuals while not only focusing on obtaining the goals and objectives in which they are in charge of but also building the relationships between themselves, the organization in which they are leading and the followers that are providing the vessel in which to achieve their vision.  Management is a subset of the necessary abilities of leadership.  You can be a manager and not a leader but you cannot be a leader without the ability to manage.  In essence, leadership is the ability to guide and direct while management is ensuring tasks are completed, checklists are checked and criteria for tollgates are accomplished.

Communication

In chapter 3 of Maximum Performance by Forester (2011 p.96), it is stated that communication is the lifeblood of organizations and is the primary medium for getting things accomplished. With this simple statement a multitude of variables are addressed.  Great communication accomplishes the greatest of feats while poor communication facilitates some of the biggest failures and debacles in human history.  Communication, being the foundation of how information is transferred from person to person and throughout the organization, is the keystone to successful leadership and management capabilities.

Integrity and Honesty

Historically, unethical, corrupt, and illegal practices have been part and parcel of doing business for centuries, in spite of the considerable damage of such activities have caused” (Forster 2011, p 448).  Integrity is a leadership skill that surpasses the test of time.  It should be easy to understand the term integrity and its ramifications when utilizing or not utilizing its intentions.  When something has integrity it is whole.  The integrity of a system means that it has all of its pieces and can function.  When something is without integrity it is missing components and does not function as it is originally intended to do.  If a wheel is missing pieces it is no longer a complete system with integrity and it will quickly become out of round, lose functionality and eventually stop working.  Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.  This seems like an easy value to maintain but it can be tested on a daily basis in which one misstep at any point will put the character and integrity into question which would mitigate and potentially destroy all business acumen the individual accumulated in his or her career.  Holding a person’s integrity as a number one value will ensure the decisions are based on honesty, good intentions and for all the right reasons.  Integrity is important to the business both in perception by the public as well as internal business operations and stakeholders.  The business goals, objectives and strategies coupled with leadership decisions impact the employees, customers and themselves.  Business leaders make decisions that will provide a ripple effect throughout the organization and have a far impacting reach.  Leadership leads.  They must lead by example even when the decisions are hard.  Living and breathing with business integrity results in employees down the chain of command following the suit of integrity.

Foster referenced an amazing point stating “Echoing the work of Jim Collin’s and Gerry Porras on companies that have a ‘purpose beyond profit’, Levitt also suggested that investors and financial advisors should stop evaluating companies’ share prices solely on their short term performance: ‘If they revert to judging companies on a quarter-by-quarter basis, investors can expect the kind of management that also places overwhelming importance on short-term performances.” (Foster 2011, 455).  Ethics and integrity are of paramount importance because their basis stands the test of time and the people and corporations based in moral and ethical foundations will also stand the test of time.  The understanding of the impact of integrity in the business is important because without integrity the framework of the business culture is in jeopardy of collapse.  An example of how integrity greatly impacts business is that of the Enron financial/accounting misrepresentation and subsequent demise and bankruptcy.  Integrity or the lack thereof, plays a major role in the overall demise of Enron.  Integrity as discussed is doing the right thing in any circumstance even if it is difficult.

Conclusion

Leading and managing individuals can be a daunting task that takes technical expertise as well as honed skillsets that are not readily measurable through quantitative measures.  The practical guide to leading and managing dives deep into the abilities and purpose of leadership as well as the value and necessity of management teams within the organization.  The lines between leadership and management are blurred in many aspects as leaders also manage the organization.  The leadership of the organization is solely responsible for the management of their people.  The people within the organization are a key strategic resource to the overall success of the leadership and shareholders of the organization.

Works Cited

Forester, N. Maximum Performance: a practical guide to leading and managing people at work. Edward Elgar Publishing. (2011). Print.

Zaleznik, A. Managers and leaders: are they different? Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review. (2008). Print.

Zenger, J. H., & Folkman, J.. The extraordinary leader, turning good managers into great leaders. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.(2009). Print.