A New Age Of Small-Unit Leadership
Recent mergers in many
industries remind me of a point that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
often made, "Generals move the pins on a map," he would say,
"but the front-line troops have to get the job done."
And the key to the job is leadership, small-unit leadership,
leadership of the most basic units or teams of an organization.
Without good leadership in front-line units the squad leaders
and platoon commanders or their business counterparts, the
supervisors and first-level managers organizations stumble, no
matter how skillfully the pins are moved on the map.
Yet in bringing leadership programs to many businesses in a
variety of industries during the past 20 plus years, I've seen
many companies neglecting small-unit leadership.
Time and again, I have seen technologists promoted right off
the lab bench to become team leaders; I've seen assembly workers
promoted off the line to be supervisors; and salespeople made
local managers and yet they were not helped in substantive ways
with their leadership skills.
Instead, their employers were focusing on the pins and maps, the
re-engineering, acquisitions and divestitures.
Sure, the stocks of those businesses got quick boosts, but I
wonder how well-positioned the businesses are to achieve
consistent earnings growth over the long haul without skilled,
small-unit leadership.
Consistent earnings' growth is linked to consistent top-line
growth. Such growth rests on a tripod. One leg is strategy, the
pins on the map; the other leg is resources; and the third leg
is execution. Small-unit leadership is the execution leg.
So I submit that in the coming years, businesses will come to
realize the importance of small-unit leadership to top-line
growth and earnings' growth.
In fact, the coming years will reveal an exciting new age in
small-unit leadership. Businesses that champion such leadership
will be tremendously competitive.
Here are a few ideas on how to make it happen.
First, the CEO and senior executives must recognize the vital
importance of small-unit leadership. I'm not talking about their
simply paying lip service but having instead a passionate
conviction that small-unit leadership is indispensable to growth.
Senior executives must encourage small-unit leaders. Celebrate
their achievements. Help them overcome their failures. Measure
their leadership performance. Develop compensation that
stimulates them to advance as leaders.
The Marine Corps, an organization with a robust tradition of
small-unit leadership, has institutionalized high-level
commitment to small-unit leaders. For instance, in chow lines in
the field, the lowest ranking troops eat first, the highest
ranking last.
(How might the cultures of some organizations start to be
changed for the better if, for instance, its executives gave
small-unit leaders parking perks, while they, the executives,
took their chances in the main lot?)
Top leaders who demonstrate commitment to their small-unit
leaders will have committed small-unit leaders.
Without top-down commitment, effective small-unit leadership
will not flourish through the whole business but instead in
relatively ineffective, scattered islands.
But top-level commitment, though necessary, is not sufficient. A
passion for small-unit leadership should soak the entire culture
of the organization. Everybody must catch the spirit of and
contribute to maintaining a culture of small-unit leadership
excellence.
The word culture comes from the Latin root meaning "to
cultivate." To grow small-unit leaders, everybody in the
organization must cultivate them. Spot them early. Bring mentors
into their lives. Set their expectations high, not only for
themselves but for their colleagues and leaders above them.
Encourage them to develop leadership in others.
A successful executive told me that his career was changed by a
small-unit leader. At one time, the executive was a high school
dropout working on the assembly line.
"During breaks," he said, "I always had people gathered around
me. I had this knack of getting them interested in what I had to
say. One day, my supervisor told me something that changed my
life. He said, 'I've been watching you with people, and you're a
natural leader. With more education, you could go far.'"
The executive said, "Until then, I had never looked at myself as
a leader. Suddenly, I had a vision in life. I was something I
didn't know I was: a leader. I finished high school, went to
college, and came back here.
"That supervisor 's passion for leadership defined my career..
He was always spotting potential leaders and helping them become
leaders. His teams consistently racked up the numbers because of
his leadership. He had me understand that his level of
leadership is tremendously important in our company."
Finally, the business that is serious about small-unit
leadership must systematically develop them through
well-thought-out, comprehensive training programs.
In the coming New Age of Small-Unit Leadership, leadership
development people will have extremely important roles to play.
They will be seen as some of the most important leaders in the
organization, since their interaction with small-unit leaders
will be contributing directly to top-line growth, to having
people get the job done where ever the generals place their pins
in the map.
2005 © The Filson Leadership
Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE
LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO
GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and has worked with thousands of
leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve
sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his
free leadership ezine and get a free guide, "49 Ways To Turn
Action Into Results," at www.actionleadership.com
About the author:
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE
LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO
GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He has worked with thousands of
leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve
sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his
free leadership ezine and get a free guide, "49 Ways To Turn
Action Into Results," at www.actionleadership.com
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