Five Foundations for Leaders & Managers

An individual or teams will only work the extra mile if their manager/supervisor / leader has a deep knowledge of and be able to apply what we call the Five Foundation Learning Elements for managing and leading teams.

By understanding and applying all these elements as the defacto approach for management /leadership of teams – a bedrock of management excellence will be delivered to maximise the discretionary effort of staff in any organisation.

Foundation 1 – Maslow & Herzberg

Abraham Maslow’s hierachy of needs are Physiological -Safety –Social –Esteem –Self-Actualisation. Individuals cannot satisy higher level needs unless the lower level needs are satisfied first.

The hierachy does not apply to individuals equally or apply to any one person all of the time.

Frederick Herzberg proposed the Motivator - Hygiene theory, also known as the two-factor theory of job satisfaction. According to his theory people are influenced by two independent sets of factors which influence an individual’s behaviour in different ways. The idea is that hygiene factors will not motivate, but if they are not provided, they can lower motivation. Hygiene factors include salary, working conditions,company policies,job security. Motivators include respect, personal growth,recognition, responsibility,achievement.

To maximise the discretionary effort of an individual it is essential for managers to understand how Maslow and Herzberg apply to every member of their team.

Foundation 2 – Douglas McGregor X & Y Management Style

Theory X and Theory Y are about how a manager regards their staff.

Theory X – Management assumes staff are lazy, need constant supervision, and will avoid work if possible and they don’t like to work.

Theory Y – Management assumes staff may be ambitious and self motivated and enjoy their work.

The important thing to determine is if a manager is predominantly X or Y in how they manage staff on a day to day basis. There may be situations when either theory may be needed in order to lead effective teams.

But it has been proven that a predominantly Theory Y management style is - without any doubt - the only way to produce high performing teams and maximise the discretionary effort of staff in any organisation.

Foundation 3 – Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

EQ is the foundation for a host of essential skills as it impacts most of everything said or done by an individual. People can be intelligent but not emotionally intelligent.

Strong EQ skills are a mandatory requirement for good, effective leadership and management.

The foundation elements of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) are :

Situational Awareness

Self Awareness

Self Management

Social Awareness

Relationship Management

Foundation 4 – Action Centred Leadership & Discretionary Effort

John Adair’s simple Action Centred Leadership model is a great blueprint for leadership and management of any team, group or organisation. Action Centred Leadership is also a simple leadership and management model, which makes it easy to remember and apply.

Good managers and leaders should have full command of the 3 main areas of the model and be able to use each of the elements according to the situation. Being able to do all of these things, and to keep the right balance, delivers results, builds morale,improves quality, develops teams and productivity and is the hallmark of a successful manager and leader. It is the manager’s role to ensure that the needs of the individual, team and task are met.

Adair’s 3 core management responsibilities:

Achieving the task
Managing the team or group
Managing individuals

In developing his model for teamwork, Adair understood that for any team to respond to leadership, it needed a clearly defined task, and the achievement of that task related to the needs of the team and individuals within that team.

The American psychologist Aubrey Daniels defines Discretionary Effort as follows:

“Discretionary effort is the level of effort people could give if they wanted to, but above and beyond the minimum required. Many organizations manage performance in such a way that motivates employees to do only enough to get by and avoid getting in trouble (negative reinforcement)”

Only doing enough to get by is not sufficient for an organisation’s long term prospects - given the ever increasing external challenges facing public and private companies. Organisations need motivated employees who are willing to go the extra mile in their daily activities. More productive, more efficient and happier employees are what all organisations need to strive for.

Because discretionary effort is all about an employee’s willingness to give effort - above the minimum required for any particular task - the key thing is to provide an environment that caters for their needs and personal development. It is not about employee engagement . It is not about regular surveys of staff ! A continuum approach of learning needs to be adopted for both staff members and managers. Like the maxim ‘Leaders need Followers’ staff will only do more than the minimum required at their own discretion.

Foundation 5 – Leader Manager

Being able cope with major changes is more and more necessary to survive and be competitive.

Leadership skills can be acquired and improved. Obviously not everyone necessarily can be good at both leading and managing but anything can be learned and adopted with sufficient application and practice.

Organisations need to understand the fundamental differences between leadership and management and begin to develop people to provide both.

Management and leadership both involve deciding what needs to be done, organising people to deliver the required tasks and ensuring that the work actually gets completed. Management and Leadership work is complementary but each goes about the tasks in different ways.

Planning and Budgetting versus Setting Direction

The aim of management is predictability and orderly results. Leadership’s function is to produce change. Setting the direction of that change is essential. There is no mystery about this work but it is more about using ideas than budgetting and planning. It requires the search for patterns and relationships to then ask the question “What should we now do differently ?” in response to the particular situation.

Organising and Staffing versus Aligning People

Managers look for the right fit between people and jobs. This is essentially operational work to ensure plans are implemented precisely and efficiently. Leaders look for the right fit between people and the right vision. This is more of a communication function which involves getting people inside and outside an organisation first to believe in an alternative future – and then to take initiative based on that shared vision.

Aligning is different – it is more of a communication challenge than a design problem. Aligning invariably involves communicating to many more individuals than organising does.

When a clear sense of direction has been communicated throughout an organisation lower level employees can initiate actions without fear of reprimand - as long as their behaviour is consistent with the vision.

Controlling Activities and Solving Problems versus Motivating,Empowering and Inspiring

Management strives to make it easy for people to complete work and routine tasks day after day. Since high energy is essential to overcoming the barriers to change,leaders attempt to touch people at their deepest levels- by stirring in them a sense of belonging, self esteem and excitement.

The Leader-Manager needs to adopt a philosophy of lifelong learning for themselves and their teams and empower all their teams to enjoy and expand their responsibilities.

Motivation and inspiration energize people by satisfying basic needs for achievement, a sense of belonging,recognition,self-esteem, a feeling of control over one’s life and the ability to live up to one’s ideals. Such feelings touch people deeply and elicit a powerful response.

Leaders need followers – but these followers only come if they are motivated and inspired. Coercion, command and control will not produce willing followers for long. Leaders need to obviously put in more than the minimum effort required in order galvanize teams in a positive productive way.

The Sow to Reap Leader Acronym

Sow to Reap have written the following definition for what LEADER stands for:

Lifelong learning (for you & your team)

Empowers

All of your

Delegated team(s) to

Enjoy & expand their

Responsibilities

The definition above encapsulates all the qualities required to be a great leader.

Learn. Delegate. Empower people so that they continually enjoy and expand their learning and their responsibilities.

To maximise the discretionary effort of individuals and teams - managers and leaders need to be well versed and be able to apply in the work place, via a continuum approach, the Five Foundation Learning Elements for managing and leading teams.

References

Abraham Maslow – A theory of Human Motivation 1943

Frederick Herzberg – Motivator –Hygiene Theory 1987

Aubrey Daniels – Discretionary Effort - Aubrey Daniels International Inc. 2019

John P. Kotter – What Leaders Really Do - Harvard Business Review May 1990

John Adair – Action Centred Leadership 1970

For copies of this article or further information on how Sow to Reap can help your organisation please email us at: info@sowtoreap.org