Management is not leadership!

‘I know I carry the ultimate responsibility, but I see myself as serving the people who work for me. Each one of them, in turn, serves the people who work in their sections. Surely that’s the way it should be.’
“By the way, is it okay WITH you if I go on leave for a few days next week?” Ian asked. “My dad’s been ill and I need to get down to him and my mom to see how they’re doing.”
“Ja, that’s fine by me,” said Jackson. “Everything’s hunky dory here and there’s no issues at the moment.” “You can call me if you need me,” said Ian.
I was bemused. Here was Ian, the part-owner and manager of a highly successful fruit farm, asking his workshop manager if he could go on leave. What was going on? Normally it was the other way around.
Ian had been proudly showing me some of the newly planted trees when we’d bumped into Jackson who was working on one of the spray machines. And now, as we were working between the rows of trees, Ian was enthusing about his choice of cultivar and rootstock, but I wasn’t listening too well – the conversation he’d had with Jackson was on my mind.
I interrupted him. “Ian, how come you asked Jackson if you could go off for a few days?” He hesitated for a few seconds with a puzzled look on his face as he tuned in to my sudden change of subject. “I don’t understand,” he said. “What are you getting at?”
“Ian, you’re the boss here. Jackson’s one of your employees. He asks you when he can take off. But if you want time off, you don’t need permission from anyone. You just tell your guys and go.”
“Oh,” he said chuckling as the point of my question dawned on him. “I’d never go off for a few days without checking with my guys. After all, they depend on me. Now have a look at the incredible growth on this tree …” he went on as he pointed to the new foliage.
When we got back to his office, I was intrigued and I asked him if I could explore a few details of his organisational structure with him. I knew his operation quite well, so I drew Diagram 1 on the flip chart. He watched me for a minute or two and stopped me. “No, no, you’ve got it wrong,” he said. “It’s not like that at all.” He tore the sheet off and drew something like Diagram 2.
For the second time that day I was confused. When I pointed out he had it upside down, he laughed. “Sure, I’m the boss and the buck stops here. But my job is to make the jobs of the people working here as easy as possible. I know I carry the ultimate responsibility, but I see myself as serving the people who work for me. Each one of them, in turn, serves the people who work in their sections. Surely that’s the way it should be.”
While I’d learnt a few things about new cultivars and rootstocks on that visit to Ian’s farm, I’d also been taught a great lesson about leadership and it had huge impact on me.
You see, Ian is a natural leader. He’s never had any business training, but he intuitively understands a leader serves his people and not the other way around. The success of the business he manages demonstrates this.
After the visit, I realised that while formal training in the modern techniques of management might make you a better manager, it doesn’t teach you much about being a leader.
And in the end, everything depends on leadership, a skill which isn’t so easy to learn. In fact, many would say true leaders are born and can never be taught. I’m not so sure of that – but it certainly helps to have been born with natural leadership skills. While I know I never managed to achieve the level of leadership that Ian had, his lesson did change me.
Perhaps for the first time, it made me realise the characteristic most prevalent in truly great leaders is the desire to serve. While they always have great vision, great integrity, great energy and the many other admirable qualities which characterise great leaders, their primary concern is one of caring for others, of doing what they can to assist others and making life easier for others.
If you need examples of these rare talents at work, just think about those two sons of Africa, Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. And if you need some examples of the deficiency of these characteristics, just look at the behaviour of some of our present political leaders. – Peter Hughes ([email protected], or call (013) 745 7303)).     |fw