Do We Need Management or Leadership?

Leadership

Do we need management or leadership?  We need both for effective corporate growth.  An old proverb states that leadership is doing the right thing; management is doing things right. Leadership brings about opportunities while management turns opportunities into tangible outcomes.

The leadership function of today’s leaders and managers is in carrying out the traditional role of decision-making, directing personnel, and taking the lead to ensure outcomes are reached.  Traditional roles no longer work in today’s volatile and chaotic economy.  The enormity and anxiety of environmental, competitive, and global market change we are encountering is beyond compare.  

Strategic leadership brings about out-of–the-box thinking.  The textbook contends that Accenture’s strategic leadership model hinges on three key roles for their leaders: value creator (leader provides something of value), people developer (leader helps others develop their own leadership kills), and business operator (leader must promote effectiveness and efficiency throughout the organization).  Accenture clearly believes in strategic leadership as the guiding force for top leaders and management and has adopted this as their model.  The company’s success is largely due to top management performing as “transformational leaders,” i.e., they are not just problem solvers anymore, but rather lead the change of “transforming” their personnel to become leaders themselves.  As stated in several publications and articles, companies such as Accenture succeed by having the right people with the right skills at the right time.  With these characteristics, they are able to carry out the business strategy thereby ensuring the company’s success.

The skills and information that will be needed by its leaders for Accenture to successfully use strategic leadership are: the ability to think and function strategically; an understanding of the corporate business model and their personal commitment to it including knowledge of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities; achieving the right balance - a secure understanding of the organization and its environment/marketplace and how it effectively or ineffectively relates to that environment; the ability to recognize environmental/market trends and take action quickly to improve the current and future alignment without losing quality; the ability to communicate Accenture’s mission and vision which may include a culture that embraces ownership; through encouragement he/she inspires others to act and achieve more than they may ever have dreamed possible; the ability to create a corporate culture that supports and values discussions from others; and the talent to redesign organizational structures to involve personnel across division and departments.  In addition to the preceding skills, top leaders need to know how to motivate and engage their people throughout the organization - getting people to abandon old habits and realizing change for the good; identifying the need to implement strategic initiatives to take the company forward; and the ability to determine what makes sense and possibly enforcing change.  We must also keep in mind the skills of top leaders vary because some leaders are better than others at judging, thinking, motivating, organizing, or empowering).  Oftentimes, top management and leaders are handpicked contemporaries because of their aptitude and competence.