future prospects; such workers do not primarily care about money or working hours
(see Kanter 1998, p. 63 ff.).
Even in our neighboring countries, a rethinking in this direction can be observed:
while at Fiat the former CEO Giuseppe Morchio still wanted to command his team
in every detail like a kind of general, under the leadership of his successor, Sergio
Marchionne and the new Fiat president Luca di Montezemolo, the emphasis is
on collaboration and delegation. The employees set ambitious goals, but also
enjoy considerable freedom and the best working conditions; these are the new
management principles that had once been implemented only at Ferrari, but are
now also being adopted by Fiat.
By European standards German companies encourage their top people in a much
more cost-intensive way than the competition in neighboring countries. A survey of
100 companies in Germany and six other European countries conducted by USP
Consulting GmbH shows: German HR departments spend an average of 2,778
Euros annually on the “development” of each manager. In Britain and France the
amount is only 332 and 219 Euros respectively. This looks very good at first glance.
But, as so often, the second view reveals a different picture: the top German
employees spend an average of only 7.5 days a year participating in training – in
other countries, however, it is about 12 days (seeHandelsblatt, May 23, 2003).
The high investments in leadership development in our country are not a sign of
their importance and quantity, but the result of higher training costs. Content
offered in seminars is often referred to as the “watering can principle,” which
distributes or more or less randomly: whoever hasn’t been at a seminar for a year
is simply sent ‘somewhere’ without regard for their specific development potential
or the needs of the enterprise.
Many German companies also lack systematic and individual career plans.
Unfortunately, these facts tell a different story than the nice figure on the money
spent for management development. It should be on the highest level, in keeping
with its actual and in most cases also theoretically recognized status at most
companies. But how many staff developers actually work close to the executive
and management boards of German companies? What is the position, and hence the
influence of an HR manager in Germany?
Conducting Instead of Dictating
The American management expert Henry Mintzberg compares the leadership of
highly qualified professionals with the leadership of an orchestra. A symphony
orchestra is like many other professional organizations of highly qualified people
that, without prescribed procedures or job descriptions, know what they have to do
and actually do it. Thus, covert and “silent” leadership plays a larger role than
evident and open leadership.
Not the leadership but the activity provides structure and coordination in an
orchestra. Everyone is responsible for their own playing, their own preparation and
knows when their entrance is. Likewise, most knowledge workers hardly require
3.2 Leading with Your Head and Heart 155