Beyond Organizational Structures
What happens outside of the organizational structure is more important than what happens within. If you have been trained, like me, in the hard disciplines of finance, operations or technology management, you probably tend to work most naturally through tangibles like organization charts, process flows, scorecards, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Even though we recognize the importance of the intangibles like informal networks, relationships, cultural norms, emotional realities and peer pressure, we tend to underestimate the importance of leading beyond the tangibles. In today’s business environment of rapid change, increasing globalization and web-based social networks, more companies nurture all kinds of informal and nonhierarchical relationships rather than relying solely on formal rules of engagement.
We work in two organizations. The “formal organization” is the management structure, processes, procedures, performance metrics and formal strategies. The “informal organization” is the culture, social networks, peer interactions and communities. We know the formal organization but the key to success is to master the informal one and integrate it into the formal so they will coherently affect each other.
Ignoring elements that operate informally is a recipe for leadership failure. Ignoring the thread of culture, values and relationships by calling them “politics” is like being a person with strong cognitive skills and a weak emotional dimension. What happens informally in our organizations has more impact than what is said and done in the boardroom.
It is not easy to make a shift towards the informal. It demands more of our real selves and less of our professional persona. It is worth making the effort. We can be on top of the game if we provide emotional support, take advantage of the flexibility and speed of social networks, connect people informally, and motivate through emotions.
We feel at ease with formal mechanisms because they are definitive. Informal mechanisms aren’t concrete and measurable. Informal elements influence behavior primarily thorough emotional means.
Integrating informal and formal mechanisms is tricky. After years of negative perceptions regarding informal organizational networks, from “politics” through “pantry talks” to “rumors”, integrating the informal and the formal is a paradigm shift in our leadership behavior. Here are some of the ways we can integrate the two organizations:
Drive Emotions into Strategic Plans
Presenting strategic plans, even signed off by the Board of Directors, does not guarantee buy-in. We will more likely motivate people if we touch emotions and excite imaginations by discussing how the plan will affect their personal and work life.
Form Work Groups Based on Communities
Support of our plans may come from the least expected people. Some of them may even be outside our reporting lines, departments or even the organization.
Offer Value to Satisfy People with Different Ambitions
People have agendas. It is not enough to count on the formal organization to direct ambitions toward a desired direction. “What is there for me?” is the question lurking in the subconscious mind. When we provide value to build interest in our plans, projects or initiatives, we align the corporate needs with personal needs. We want people to feel connected, involved, appreciated and proud of what they are doing.
Enhance Motivation through Pride
One of the strongest positive emotional drivers is pride. Pride in the journey can be as motivating as pride in the destination. Studies show that how people feel about their work and the pride they take in their accomplishments can be as powerful as the formal rewards of money and promotions. Pride is at the heart of what motivates the best performers.
Stimulate Performance with Values
Two organizations posted their values on their websites, manuals and flyers. The first organization’s values were communication, respect, integrity and excellence. Employees’ surveys showed they supported these values – who could disagree with any of those words? – they just didn’t apply them.
The second organization’s values are honor, courage and commitment. Most people in this organization makes daily critical decisions based on them.
The first organization was Enron, which went bankrupt after massive accounting irregularities in 2001. The second organization is the U.S. Navy. The critical difference between these organizations is that Enron was a values-displayed organization where values were nothing but words on paper and the U.S. Navy is a value-driven organization, in which values serve to guide in day-to-day actions and decisions.
The informal organization is responsible for elevating values from admirable statements to a way of life. In value-driven organizations, values are shared by people who act consistently upon them.
It All Boils Down to…
… Pay attention to the informal elements of our organization. We can improve our organizational effectiveness and performance significantly by learning how to connect emotionally as well as rationally with more of our colleagues.
If we put in place new formalities to address an operational challenge, yet are not getting the needed behavior; then we probably have to make more efforts to influence and energize the informal organization and integrate it with the formal one.
Will You Be Redundant in 5 Years?
In the new world of exponential change the current professions, expertise, experiences and roles will be redundant faster than we can imagine. Traditional jobs as we know them will disappear from the landscape. New jobs will emerge. In this world of exponential change, leadership will be more valued than ever before.
Are you ready for the new world? Let’s find out…
The Experience Crash
Our experiences shape the way we lead. In a rapidly changing world, our experience becomes irrelevant or even counterproductive. Jane M. Twenge exposes in her book Generation Me the enormous differences between the baby boomers, generation X (1961-1981) and generation Y (after 1981). Generation Y has a strong sense of entitlement and an unrealistic sense of possibilities. These folks are less likely to accept leadership than any previous generations because of a sense of entitlement. The individual comes first. Twenge also says that the new generation is more depressed and unfulfilled than previous ones. Imagine a workplace where we have three generations from many cultural backgrounds and numerous continents working alongside each other. We can no longer rely solely on our experience to lead.
The Expertise Crash
Business is no longer hierarchical. The new info-com revolution puts the technology at the forefront. Mass participation and collaboration through global sharing platforms make businesses more global and communal. They also change the nature of leadership from power and roles to communal collaboration.
Businesses will rely more and more on expertise beyond their organization as new mass participation, collaboration and co-creation of products and services evolve. Individuals beyond corporations provide the largest content in history (e.g. Wikipedia and YouTube). Products and services are no longer sought after within an organization. Leaders who count on expertise as their core leadership strength could become irrelevant as the world of mass collaboration, participation and co-creation reconfigure the notion of expertise.
The Control Crash
Global, collaborative and decentralized organizations are a complex system of relationships. It’s more important than ever for leaders to find a way of engaging people. This spells the death of leadership as we know it, but it doesn’t make it redundant. Our challenge is to understand the new business landscape and how to engage the communities it forms.
Loss of control can be viewed as a threat or an opportunity. The legitimacy of structures, expertise, or roles is no longer present. The faster we will adjust to the fact that positional power doesn’t work, the faster we will embrace a “new age” leadership role…or mission. Leadership is more than ever more than a job description. It involves every spiritual, emotional, and social dimension of our personality. It is who we are rather than what we have learned.
New Age Leadership Role
As leaders, our role is not only to get people to do, it is to get them to do more than they thought possible. The test of leadership is to make people feel stronger and more capable. As leaders, we are only as strong as our community. Facilitating culture is better than articulating strategies. A great strategy without a community with a winning spirit is doomed to fail. Adopting a sense of community will evoke the leadership style the new world is looking for.
From Position to Reputation
New Age Leadership focuses on reputation. We build reputations by our commitments to the community rather than personal effectiveness. Our community becomes stronger through our actions as leaders. The difference between the current archaic “position of power” and new communal power is that the community needs to agree with us. Leadership evolved from commanding leadership styles to democratic ones in the last decade of the 20th century. Leadership continues to evolve from democratic to consensus. This means we need a buy-in from all members before implementing decisions. Majority rule may try to force decisions but cannot force commitments, attitudes, motivations and obligations. We have to persuade everyone. This is consensus.
From Direction to Contribution
New leaders will be followed by using contribution rather than direction. Our styles will change accordingly from a directive to a helpful style. It requires developing leadership maturity. It means being comfortable in our own skin. It means being able to see mass participation as an opportunity to create value.
From Compensation to Dedication
It is better to help individuals find opportunities to reinforce their own self-image than to reinforce performance through compensation. The reality is that people who truly love what they do will easily accept new commitments and tasks. Commitment means devotion to the organization. It means caring enough about it to maximize efforts. Being committed is about dedication. Financial rewards will not buy commitment. We have to love what we do. We have to identify ourselves with our company’s story.
Engagement
To build a strong community we have to engage its members. To engage its members we should learn to distinguish between what matters and what doesn’t to those members. We can engage by developing a story. The type of story we tell nurtures the engagement of our teams. Is the story of our department, our function, or our organization one of conflict or of change and cooperation?
Alignment
The members of our community need to be aligned in one direction. Our role is to deploy strategies that can help bring different elements together as a whole. We can become an agent and facilitate discussions on what the community stands for. We can articulate problems the community wants to solve. It is an effort toward one cohesive direction. The way to align and build coherence is to help the participants define who they are, what they aspire to and how they hope to get there.
A New Age Leadership Pledge
We will confidently step into the future engaging our community members and aligning them toward a cohesive and worthy purpose. We will focus on tasks rather than roles. We will contribute rather than direct. We will build reputation rather than use organizational power. Above all, we will love what we are doing and the people we are doing it with.
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