Sunday, said: “The leadership development is often very time consuming, but the
effort is rewarded with young but already experienced international business man-
agement graduates.” And he seems to know what he’s talking about: L’Oreal was
voted the best European employer in 2003 (see Handelsblatt, October 22, 2004).
However, the ROL is too simplistic, because personnel do not work according to
the pattern “command received – performance – result.” Even if leadership cannot
be measured, it can certainly be felt. Good leaders know they can shape systems
only if they understand themselves as part of those systems and their inherent
powers. Even outsiders can quickly see what impact a manager has on the daily
routines of the employees: whether they act only on instructions or on the basis of
trust and appreciation. Is the fear of losing their job their motivation to work, or is it
the belief that there is more than just the salary that is worth working for?
Does the leader know what his or her employees need, what motivates them, and
what moves them? Do the employees feel that their leader is in contact with them?
An important indicator is whether both sides are not just talking about results, but
also about possible and actual ways to achieve them. An important factor is that all
employees know which potentials make them valuable, which potentials still are
waiting to be discovered, and which ones can be trained. If appreciation and trust
determine the climate, then mood signals will be perceived by all parties in good
time before paralyzing fear and distrust can develop.
Precisely because these factors cannot be assessed with hard figures, but only
intuitively, the measurement of success for managers begins in themselves, in their
personalities, values and motivations. And that is the approach of the seminars on
“systemic leadership” at the Academy.
4.4 Conclusion: Achieving Customer Satisfaction
with Leadership Tools
“A good leader has to make himself or herself superfluous.” This was the slogan a
few years ago. In the meantime, we know that good leadership makes a difference.
The return on leadership is there, although it is not easily measurable. However, this
should not lead managers to underestimate the issue. On the contrary: its impor-
tance can hardly be emphasized enough. Perhaps it will help in this regard to once
again refer to the father of all management gurus: Drucker believed that the success
of a company – and its leadership – cannot ultimately be measured by internal
criteria, but only by the satisfaction of its customers (see Drucker 2000). And smart
leaders have long-since recognized just how right he was.
4.4 Conclusion: Achieving Customer Satisfaction with Leadership Tools 235