| ORGANISATIONS AND LEADERS |
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| A conversation about values and leadership with Marius Persinaru, GM, Xerox |
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Marius, I was very happy about your feedback regarding my previous article "What should today's leaders know!"! In that piece I talked about 3 management abilities: the ability to give life to company values, adjust your focus through reflection and action as well as management flexibility! The question that encouraged me to provoke this subject was a legitimate one: "how do we measure and develop these abilities?".
Viorel Panaite: First of all I think that in order to ensure the self-susteinability of any program or leadership process, the GM or CEO of a company has to believe in constructive values! It is absolutely necessary! No matter how "intelligent" the instruments are, no matter how "precious" the consultancy company is, the personal values of the top management will have a strong influence on the transformation and education process.
In a discussion, on the same theme, I had with Adrian Stanciu, Managing Partner Human Synergistics Romania, he told me that: "The first step that needs to be taken is individually developing a management team [...] that leads by personal example, as well as feedback and coaching[...] I would sooner envision coaching sessions based on personal values". How do I think we can measure the progress being made in that direction? By assessing the frequency with which we consciously practice actions and decisions that strengthen company values - this is also true for a GM/CEO, as well as any manager in the company! I found a relevant example in the recent article "Are you Practicing Like Lang Lang?", on our partner's (Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner) site, authors of "The Leadership Challenge" (one of our licensed programs), using the "Leadership Practices Inventory - LPI" instrument.
Knowing that you are involved and preoccupied with the organizational strengthening processes at Xerox Romania, can you give us a few examples of tasks that you did in order to influence the values of those you are managing? How did you determine them to do the same thing to those that they supervised?
Marius Persinaru: You said that the CEO has to believe in constructive values. Actually, I think that the CEO has to believe in the values he intends to implement or strengthen in the organization. Of course they have to be constructive, I can hardly imagine a company that isn't promoting - in theory at least- constructive values.
The problem lies in the fact that most of the times things that are being done are different from those that are declared. The English have a saying "walk the talk", that applies here. It's not enough to declare that you are promoting certain values, you have to prove it first of all, all of the time. If there is anyone that isn't given any slack, it is the leader, due to the personal example idea. I think this is the best way to convince those you are working with to do the same thing you think they have to do, to those they are supervising.
What we did? First we defined the values that we wanted in our organization, we saw where we were, identified major differences and established what we had to improve as a team. It is a very long program, it takes a while to change attitudes, values, behavioral norms...this also being the reason why it's sometimes frustrating. But when improvements appear, the satisfaction is very high!
Viorel Panaite: A couple of months ago I discovered a practical sense of the word "adjust"! Not only is it practical, but used correctly it can relieve decisions and improve business processes as well as the response time of individuals! In my article I talked about the basis of the "The OODA Loop" process. The speed with which events unfold, won't let you make the right decision, but we can navigate through the obstacles, rapidly adjusting course when they appear. The bigger the speed of the OODA process is, the safer the navigation!
How does this process translate into everyday business life? First of all, analyzing and measuring the quality of the structure, systems and mechanics (the means by which resources are turned into results) of a company. What is the degree of influence, concerning decisions for adjustments, of employees that have first contact with the changes? What is the degree of training and autonomy they have in order to implement an adjustment, if necessary? What is the quality of interdependent processes? These categories of markers that can be measured (and many others), give a measure regarding the capacity of company managers in order to rapidly adapt to the new business conditions.
How can we develop the company's navigation abilities? Through a coherent and permanent education process, until individual abilities, become business and organizational practices. I don't know any other way! Is it worth it (financially speaking)? It depends on the CEO or GM's values! It depends on the personality and character of the organization they wish to build! Some would say yes! Others would say it isn't worth it! Both answers are correct!
I am curious to know Marius: what did you change in order to increase the reaction time and navigation ability of the company? How about sharpening the survival instinct of individuals?
Marius Persinaru: As you said - it depends on the organization's values. Actually, this is where the leadership and management style matters. There are companies where initiative is encouraged and valued, others where the decisional process is hierarchical. This makes your reaction time slower. This is where the differences will appear during the economic period we are going through. I think we need flexible organizations with rapid reaction times. My mistake, it isn't a need so to speak, I believe they are the only ones that have a real chance of making it out alive.
What we did? We are trying to move the decision making process to an operational level. I am not saying that we did it 100%, but at least we agreed to follow this path. Plus, control is only exercised based on a periodic assessment of common established objectives, for each division in Romania. It is possible for this recurrence to fluctuate depending on specific conditions, but we certainly intend to keep the decision making at an operational process and the senior management focused on tactics/strategies.
As for the survival instinct, I think we all need it, especially now. One sure way of sharpening this instinct is making people feel directly responsible for the result of their work. We are living in interesting times - it will be relatively easy to do so. It's harder to do when market conditions place you on a self developing upward curve, as in the last 6-7 years. There is no survival instinct there, it's just about living better. There are a lot of comfortable people around us. It's different now, it's about survival and we need true leadership for that. Leaders that know the way and can convince people to follow them. Hard but interesting times!
Viorel Panaite: The theme of management flexibility seemed a simple subject for a long time! But as time went by, meeting and working with a lot of managers, listening to my colleagues' feedback, hearing the problems training participants face every day, I realized its strategic importance!
How tangible is this concept? How is it present? Where can we find its DNA and alter it? In the hundreds of thousands of management talks being heard every day! Do people in a company listen in order to understand or oppose? How preoccupied are managers with holding talks, while at the same time checking to see whether they could make decisions on their own? How fast do managers change their style of leadership during a conversation? These are questions that can measure flexibility!
How would I measure and develop management flexibility? In the same way - through feedback, analyzing if the management styles are in accordance with employee needs, training managers to change leadership styles, encouraging them to supervise each other's progress, and request the help of their superiors! The best instrument I discovered for measuring management flexibility is "Leader Action Profile (LAP)" - it can show us if we are flexible and efficient when using management styles. Rigid managers (although their intentions are good) are a burden to the company, they don't allow it to adapt, and they consume resources, energy, creativity and proactivity!
How important is management flexibility to you? Is this a strategic subject for a GM/CEO in this difficult time? How did you manage to increase flexibility in your company?
Marius Persinaru: I give a great deal of importance to management flexibility, because I strongly believe that it increases your chances of success. I succeeded with some of my managers, I didn't with others and with very few, I haven't gotten around to them yet. Those who couldn't do it, left the organization, and for those that haven't started the process, there will be a crash course seeing as the market is extremely volatile.
First we need to close ranks, understand that we can only succeed as a team. It isn't a catchphrase, its reality. We will definitely need to learn how to use our resources, because wasteful spending must go. We had had to understand what products give us an edge on the market, based on the fact that we want to offer customers what they need and build a correct strategy to be efficient on the market.
All of these were made together with the management team. What's left is implementing it and here is where flexibility comes in. The management team actively participates in establishing the strategy it wants to implement, as a result the chances for a clear understanding increase.
And yes management flexibility is a strategic subject for a CEO that believes in success. It is for me, because I will continue to believe that you can find opportunities in every situation and you can grow. It might be the same in the case of companies that focus on cost cutting and restructuring. In my opinion the bear that hibernates doesn't need reaction time. Only when he wakes up, provided it is not to late...
Marius, thank you for your time!
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We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
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