A System for the Soft Side of Leadership
BySitting beside a Cisco Systems manager on the way to Sao Paolo,
Brazil recently reminded me how our Enlightened Leadership work fits
so well for people who are highly educated in a focused area. I’m
talking about areas of formal or informal education like science,
medicine, manufacturing, engineering, business and others during
which process they probably did NOT learn much about bringing out
the best in people!
These bright, talented people have systems and processes for
accomplishing many aspects of their work, whether a surgeon who has
a specific proven procedure for a particular type of operation, or
a manufacturer with a systematic build process, or an engineer or
scientist who has a proven process for solving problems, or a project
manager who has learned the optimal flow of work to accomplish a
project on time, on quality, and on budget.
These same people, as managers of people, need a system or framework
for bringing out the best in people. This is the aspect of a
manager’s (team leader, executive, supervisor) role that we call
leadership – the people or soft part of their role.
Now, the surgeon begins her operation with a series of specific,
repetitive steps that she has confidence will work. Sometimes,
surprises will confront the surgeon, and she must deviate from her
known procedure to solve a problem. This in no way diminishes the
importance of her known, repetitive process for a particular type
of surgery. Would you want a surgeon operating on you who’s thinking,
“Let’s see, how do I want to do this operation today. Maybe I’ll try
something I’ve never done before?” I don’t think so! I personally
would like to think my surgeon has done at least 100 operations just
like mine and all of them successful!
Realistically, in “doing 100 operations just like mine,” they’ve
encountered the need to deviate from the proven process to solve an
unexpected problem. It is having a proven process for which they have
confidence that allows them to make the deviation when needed.
The “proven process” does not mean it is always the perfect solution,
but it does give confidence that the procedure will work in most
cases, and best positions them for the situations that occur that
require deviations from the norm.
Likewise, there is a systematic approach, our Framework for
Leadership™ if you will, that provides the manager (or professional)
a proven approach for optimizing the performance and effectiveness
of people, teams and organizations.
The Framework very often works exactly as prescribed, giving
confidenceto the practitioner that the process will yield the
expected results they seek — whether to solve, or …maybe it’s
virtually always about solving a problem.
Sometimes it looks like other things, like:
- aligning team members to a shared objective
- getting a project back on track
- solving an individual performance issue
- negotiating for resources needed
- collaborating with other people, teams or institutions to
accomplish a mission
Perhaps, it’s always solution finding. That’s the promise of the
Framework. It doesn’t matter what you’re wanting or needing to
accomplish.
NOTE: Our book, “Leadership Made Simple: Practical Solutions to Your
Greatest Management Challenges,” is 100% about using the Framework
for Leadership, including 40 real examples. If you don’t have it yet,
you can get it HERE for 40% off list price – just for reading this
post! 
Best regards,
Ed Oakley