- Orientation on resources
It should be the first maxim of a good leader to truly make use of existing
opportunities. They should ask the employee: “What do you need in order to
perform?” This kind of leadership increases loyalty and the employees’ willing-
ness to contribute significantly.
The decisive difference between the classical and the modern understanding
of leadership is that modern leaders not only consider the desired goal – such as
turnover, sales and profit – but on the way to achieving it keep in mind their own
and the employees’ emotions. And again, this is not about “buying harmony”;
it is about sensing and accepting people’s actual emotions.
3.2.2.3 The Supreme Discipline
Leading staff is not a part-time job. However, almost no leader can afford to devote
their time entirely to the “supreme discipline” of leadership. Many good approaches
fail in practice due to a (perceived) lack of time, increasing job stress and the
insecurity of the leader. Hence, insecurity is an emotion that can also be used
constructively. Only leaders who are able to analyze their own position and
performance can lead teams to give their best.
Leading managers need to keep observing not only their own employees but also
stay close to costumers, markets and products. Thus, there is a great danger that in
times of crisis the leaders save time at the wrong end. Instead of taking their time to
weld together their team, they try to run everything themselves and make them-
selves even more indispensable than before.
This is a slip in judgment that can backfire badly: teams and departments can
only cooperate optimally if they are dedicated to common goals and visions.
Therefore they need room and opportunities for personal exchange, talks and
orientation. If in difficult times fewer and fewer people want to be part of the
(corporate) world that a leader has created, because that world is dominated by
the spirit of “every man for himself,” fear and pressure, then the manager has failed
in their job as a true “leader.”
In addition to technical know-how, each company and each team has its own
“group wisdom” and its own “grammar.” It is essential that the different characters
in a team (strategist, controller, heavy hitter, etc.) can actually live out and feel
their positions. Only in this way can they develop their individual potentials and
transform a group of people into a team. This cannot be achieved with formal
instructions. Team development, feedback conversations, coaching and above all
open communications are indispensable.
Due to alliances and fusions, today organizations can change their face and their
structure overnight and old connections can become meaningless within hours.
Then a leader has to rely completely on his or her personal authority, integrity and
acceptance. However, this only works within a corporate culture that supports trust,
openness and appreciation.
128 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of