Recent mergers in many industries remind me of a point
that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower often made, "Generals move the pins
on a map," he would say, "but the front-line troops have to get
the job done."
And the key to the job is leadership, small-unit leadership,
leadership of the most basic units or teams of an organization.
Without good leadership in front-line units the squad
leaders and platoon commanders or their business counterparts,
the supervisors and first-level managers organizations stumble,
no matter how skillfully the pins are moved on the map.
Yet in bringing leadership programs to many businesses in
a variety of industries during the past 20 plus years, I’ve seen
many companies neglecting small-unit leadership.
Time and again, I have seen technologists promoted right off
the lab bench to become team leaders; I've seen assembly workers
promoted off the line to be supervisors; and salespeople made
local managers S and yet they were not helped in substantive
ways with their leadership skills.
Instead, their employers were focusing on the pins and
maps, the re-engineering, acquisitions and divestitures.
Sure, the stocks of those businesses got quick boosts,
but I wonder how well-positioned the businesses are to achieve
consistent earnings growth over the long haul without skilled,
small-unit leadership.
Consistent earnings' growth is linked to consistent top-line
growth. Such growth rests on a tripod. One leg is strategy,
the pins on the map; the other leg is resources; and the third
leg is execution. Small-unit leadership is the execution leg.
So I submit that in the coming years, businesses will come
to realize the importance of small-unit leadership to top-line
growth and earnings' growth.
In fact, the coming years will reveal an exciting new age in
small-unit leadership. Businesses that champion such leadership
will be tremendously competitive.
Here are a few ideas on how to make it happen.
First, the CEO and senior executives must recognize the
vital importance of small-unit leadership. I'm not talking about
their simply paying lip service but having instead a passionate
conviction that small-unit leadership is indispensable to growth.
Senior executives must encourage small-unit leaders.
Celebrate their achievements. Help them overcome their failures.
Measure their leadership performance. Develop compensation that
stimulates them to advance as leaders.
The Marine Corps, an organization with a robust tradition
of small-unit leadership, has institutionalized high-level
commitment to small-unit leaders. For instance, in chow lines
in the field, the lowest ranking troops eat first, the highest
ranking last.
(How might the cultures of some organizations start to be
changed for the better if, for instance, its executives gave
small-unit leaders parking perks, while they, the executives,
took their chances in the main lot?)
Top leaders who demonstrate commitment to their small-unit
leaders will have committed small-unit leaders.
Without top-down commitment, effective small-unit leadership
will not flourish through the whole business but instead in
relatively ineffective, scattered islands.
But top-level commitment, though necessary, is not
sufficient. A passion for small-unit leadership should soak the
entire culture of the organization. Everybody must catch the
spirit of and contribute to maintaining a culture of small-unit
leadership excellence.
The word culture comes from the Latin root meaning "to
cultivate." To grow small-unit leaders, everybody in the
organization must cultivate them. Spot them early. Bring
mentors into their lives. Set their expectations high, not
only for themselves but for their colleagues and leaders
above them. Encourage them to develop leadership in others.
A successful executive told me that his career was changed
by a small-unit leader. At one time, the executive was a high
school dropout working on the assembly line.
"During breaks," he said, "I always had people gathered
around me. I had this knack of getting them interested in what
I had to say. One day, my supervisor told me something that
changed my life. He said, 'I've been watching you with people,
and you're a natural leader. With more education, you could go
far.'"
The executive said, "Until then, I had never looked at
myself as a leader. Suddenly, I had a vision in life. I was
something I didn't know I was: a leader. I finished high
school, went to college, and came back here.
"That supervisor 's passion for leadership defined my
career.. He was always spotting potential leaders and helping
them become leaders. His teams consistently racked up the
numbers because of his leadership. He had me understand that his
level of leadership is tremendously important in our company."
Finally, the business that is serious about small-unit
leadership must systematically develop them through
well-thought-out, comprehensive training programs.
In the coming New Age of Small-Unit Leadership, leadership
development people will have extremely important roles to play.
They will be seen as some of the most important leaders in the
organization, since their interaction with small-unit leaders
will be contributing directly to top-line growth, to having
people get the job done where ever the generals place their
pins in the map.
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2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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