The following article is a little essay about leading (now in version 2).
It is a summary of what young leaders may face within the first 100 days built on my own experiences, enriched by the theoretical approaches of the common literature.

Introduction

Western (2008: Introduction) wrote:
“I have questioned the notion of leadership and tested my early utopian ideals of leaderless groups, I have been a leader, and experienced leadership in many forms and in many professions, organizations, trades, sectors and social movements. I have experienced excellent leadership, mediocre leadership and leadership that has made me despair.”

This is suits perfectly as an introduction to this essay: I had faced questions and ideas as Western during the first years of leading and found possible answers to share through reflection, questioning, theories, coaching and self-development.

My findings are enriched with different sources to round up the picture.

Chapter 2 of my own findings is close to Whettens structure of how to become a successful leader (Whetten 2004):

• Personal Skills
• Managing personal stress
• Solving problem analytically
• Coaching, Counselling, and Supportive Communication
• Gaining power and influence
• Motivating others
• Managing conflicts
• Empowering and Delegating
• Building Effective Teams and Teamwork
• Leading Positive Change

My findigs are summarized in the folloting chapters.

1. Develop self-awareness with support

Self-awareness is seen as the most powerful aspect to predict success in life as a part of emotional intelligence; more important than a high intelligence quotient (Goleman 1997).

On the other hand, the concept of EQ is seem as too generally formulated. Epstein (Epstein 1998, 20) describes a similar concept as “ego strengths”.

However, in this essay, self-awareness is used in the generally understood term of being authentic with self and foreign image. It is about the process of understanding oneself regarding the trait theories; understanding the source of own feelings – self-awareness – and to control them qualifies individuals not to get overruled by emotions.

There are three aspects known of self-awareness (Whetten 2004, 58):

• Personal values
• Learning style
• orientation toward change
• interpersonal orientation

2. Meeting expectations

Meeting expectations – or in this context – meeting the psychological contract (Kotter 1973) makes people feel more connected to the company with higher work output and high quality work (Whiteley 1996). A well met psychological contract delivers satisfaction (Gould 2010).

Expectations should be addressed by both, supervisor and superior but not in the same time. For both exchanges different occasions are recommended.In practical, it I achieve it by the following steps:

• Bi-weekly meetings with whole team
• Bi-weekly meetings with team members individually including feedback
• Yearly feedback of what I expect, including reasons
• Yearly feedback and review of expectations

In brief: exchange frequent.

3. Learn steadily

Whetten (2004) describes this in Coaching, Counselling, and Supportive Communication. It is part of developing oneself further but rather regarding the outside world than self-awareness.

To exchange as a leader, finding sparring partners of trust to discuss issues and maybe to exercise role plays. Further, ones should get familiar with different leading styles (Western 2008, 28).

Develop your knowledge in a particular field through internal and external courses at least yearly.

4. Communicate often

It is a commonly observed mistake that even experienced leader s do not ask if they feel something not going properly. Assumptions are taken and they might be wrong. Plans may fail. (Pearson 1983)

Also vice versa: if a wish isn’t spoken out, employees (people) do not know what is expected.

Despite regular communications, misunderstandings may appear as when the message of the sender does not receive the same meaning. Compare Schulz von Thun (Institut für Kommunikation 2011).

5. Lead as you are

Showing true empathy towards others and understanding. It is part of leading to be an emotional catalyst (Vasella 2011).

For the leader, it is about staying true to oneself. The more authentic one as a person is, the better leading becomes (Whetten 2004, 417). It is not about being bossy – but, a company isn’t a democracy either and the leader has to guarantee a certain quality standard.

The state of the art leading would be transformational leadership or the 4I Model (Wolinksi 2010).

So, act as a leader. Just come as you are.

6. Trust employees

In his article “Vorsicht vor Gutmenschen“ [Be aware of do-gooder] by Boris Grundl (2010), leaders said: “I’d wish, my employees would take more responsibilities and duties on their own”. Boris mentioned, if leaders really wanted that, they had employed such personnel (Grundl 2010).

All parties – superiors and supervisors – are adults. They shall be threatened as such in terms of responsibility, trust and meaning (Whetten 2004, 64).

Empowerment and trust is a key concept. It gives sufficient amounts of personal power to achieve high levels of effectiveness. To balance this is a leaders main task (Whetten 2004, 254) and (Western 2008, 51). Beside power, employees are involved in decision making process as well as information is shared freely.

7. Bring success

Leading without success, in business meaning, wouldn’t last long. It is fine to go beyond rules and habits as long as it isn’t directly forbidden by line managers. A key is to implement things quick but not too many things in one go. Watkins speaks about “the first 90 days” to get ready. It is about finding a rhythm being new in a position – it is just about learning (Watkins 2009).

And mind: the skills and successors of your las position might not be the same values that bring success in your current position. Identify the needs of your new position very well!

8. Play and Enjoy

To forgive mistakes of others as well as own mistakes ensures a climate of compassion (Western 2008, 497). It is about being generous where possible in a climate that allows mistakes.

Playing with minds, thoughts or new ideas is the source to creativity. It stimulates the intellect.

Play. It frees your mind. Give employees free spaces and own projects they like. Remove uncertainties and “small issues”.

Therefore, create free spaces where your colleagues have the freedom to try things out.

9. Use the right style for the right situation

It is not always possible to be the beloved boss. There are times in changing environment, where unpopular decisions have to be taken in one moment, in the other moment, the same leader leads in a democratic way. In real live, this is usually divided by different management levels.

The styles are mostly covered by Kurt Lewin:

• Autocratic leading: quick, maybe unpopular decisions
• Democratic leading: team ideas matter (stakeholder management), maybe difficult to cover all opinions
• Laissez-faire: for motivated teams, difficult to control

Bibliography

Epstein, Seymour. Constructive Thinking: The Key to Emotional Intelligence. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1998.

Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. Boston USA: Bantam Books, 1997.

Gould, Scott. Scott Gould and Friends. 13. 01 2010. http://scottgould.me/the-pyramid-of-expectation/ (Zugriff am 19. 05 2011).

Grundl, Boris. «Vorsicht for Gutmenschen, Gefährliche Harmonie.» ALPHA: Der Kadermarkt der Schweiz, 12 2010: 1.

Institut für Kommunikation. Schulz von Thun. 2011. http://www.schulz-von-thun.de/index.php?article_id=4 (Zugriff am 26. 05 2011).

Kotter, John Paul,. «The psychological contract: Managing the joining up process.» California Management Review, Spring 1973: 91-99.

Pearson, Judy C. Interpersonal Communication: Clarity, Confidence, Concern. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foreman and Company, 1983.

Vasella, Daniel. «Auf der Coach.» Das Magazin, 10. 04 2011.

Watkins, Michael. Die entscheidenden 90 Tage: So meistern Sie jede neue Managementaufgabe. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag and Handelsblatt GmbH, 2009.

Western, Simon. Leadership: A critical text. London: Sage Publications LTD, 2008.

Whetten, David A., Cameron, Kim S. Developing Management Skills. New York: Harper Collins, 2004.

Whiteley, Richard C., Hessan, Diane. Customer-centered Growth: Five Proven Strategies For Building Competitive Advantage. New York: Perseus Books, 1996.

Wolinksi, Steve. Blog: Leadership. 03. 06 2010. http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/06/03/what-is-transformational-leadership/ (Zugriff am 25. 05 2011).

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