Behaviour and leadership style: does it make a
difference?
For some managers, it is conceptually difficult to accept that
changing something as personal as their behaviour can have benefits
that are measurable on the bottom line of a corporation.
Learning points from this chapter
◆ The performance of your people is a strategic matter.
◆ Investors are starting to ask about leadership capability and
succession planning.
◆ Emotional intelligence is the natural partner to rational
analysis.
◆ Industry and technical knowledge combined with a strong
leadership style make the complete leader.
◆ ‘If your head goes down, the business will follow.’
◆ There is no point in thinking ‘if only’; we are not victims of
fate.
◆ We can always improve.
◆ We learn from what we do well.
◆ Improvement is the opposite of ditching your personality.
The links are easier to understand if we remind ourselves that sales,
revenue and profits are simply the end result of what people do.
Profits come from customers, by way of staff, and financial results
are simply the effects of these interactions. Seen in this light, the
performance of people becomes strategic, and not a supplementary
matter.
Consider the following observation by Gerry Robinson, former chief
executive of Granada:
‘It is always people. Always. You know, the number of times that
you are told that something is impossible and can’t be done and
then someone else comes along and says, “No, we can do it!”
And they do it. It really is always about getting the right person
in the right role.
‘Most people are better than you think, but really really good
people whom you can absolutely trust are very difficult to come
by. You should make sure that you reward them, that they have
a career path. You should look after them and cherish them
because they are a rarity.
‘Management quality is underestimated. You tend to get an
approach to business which is analytical about questions like,
“What is its place in the market?” “How big is the market?”
“What is the share?” “Who are the competitors?” All of which is
important, but almost never do you have the question: “Well,
hang on, who is actually managing this? How smart are they?
How lucky have they been?” It is underestimated – probably
less than it used to be, as there is a greater sense now that if
you get the right person then things can happen.’
momentum complete leadership chapter two
25
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Profits come from customers, by way of staff, and
financial results are simply the effects of these
interactions.
The quality of people in the management team matters, as Gerry
Robinson emphasizes; the quality of the staff as a whole matters; and
the motivation of the staff depends on management. Staff pick up
their clues from you, the leader. Later in this chapter we will come
across an executive, Ian Carlisle of the British company Autoglass,
whose behaviour played a part in turning the business round.
Behaviour can be worth millions of pounds, dollars or euros to your
company. It is not fiscally neutral.
Management is sometimes not really seen as a human skill, by its
practitioners or by some cynical detractors. It is somehow ‘up there’,
inhabiting the space of strategic vision or jargon-filled nonsense,
depending on your prejudice. Both these views are inaccurate and
the latter is demeaning. It’s more accurate to see leadership as a
complex skill like Java programming or playing the violin. It is also
valid to recognize our importance as leaders and senior managers, as
the people who, through our logistical, analytical and motivational
abilities, run the organizations that deliver goods, services and
entertainments to people and make civilization possible. It’s easy to
demean ourselves, or be affected by insults like ‘fat cats’, and to
forget the importance of our role and also of the importance of
developing our skills.
Companies may think: ‘We’ve thrived for 150 years without fussing
about leadership development and we had record results this year.’
What one often finds, however, is that the old family members of a
private firm, for example, may be experienced, dedicated trainers
who engage in induction and development programmes for future
leaders without calling it ‘training’ or ‘development’. They
instinctively know that this is actually important for success. They
have known about emotional intelligence for decades, but
instinctively, and unspoken. Because it’s behind the scenes, not the
subject of press releases, and long-term, the links between this
activity and business success are not always evident externally.
In any event executives increasingly can’t ignore managerial
development – including the subtler skills of behaviour, motivation
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