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Manleader – The infusion of leadership and management

By Lanre Olusola
11 May 2017   |   3:48 am
Great businesses and the entrepreneurs that build these great businesses, especially in Nigeria, are those who have good management skills combined with good leadership skills and strive to be better at both. 

Great businesses and the entrepreneurs that build these great businesses, especially in Nigeria, are those who have good management skills combined with good leadership skills and strive to be better at both. 

In Nigeria can you be a Great Entrepreneur just through Leadership and not management?
The answer is NO!!

I have read several good books written on Leadership and most highlight the many differences between managing and leading. I would like to establish this premise first.

Management focuses on the “tactical” or “operational” aspect. Routine/daily tasks such as budgeting, targets, stock, planning etc. While Leadership focuses on the “strategic” i.e. The vision and the people.

You can be a Leader ONLY and occupy that position if you’re running someone else’s business or an already established BIG brand BUT if you’re an ENTREPRENEUR building your own business from scratch and you’re planning to run a successful enterprise that will eventually become a BIG brand in Nigeria you’re going to have to do both at the same time and then once you’ve grown to the level of the BIG brand you would have groomed some managers and some leaders in the process.

For you to be an effective manager and leader at the same time you must understand and accept that the skill sets and mindset of a manager and leader are completely different. It is a very rare combination in business that a person is effectively both manager and leader.

Great businesses and the entrepreneurs that build these great businesses, especially in Nigeria, are those who have good management skills combined with good leadership skills and strive to be better at both.

Here are the most critical skills required for this Combo to be effective:
To be an effective Manager, always see the people as assets and relate with them as such.

To be an effective Leader always see and relate with the people as living breathing people who have critical life wants and needs, and people who daily face challenges with a life outside of the workplace.

These two different perspectives about your people will colour how you relate with and treat them. Everyone desires success, fulfillment, satisfaction, actualization, tranquility, peace and happiness in Life and on the job.

A successful business is one that consistently positions its people in the right roles that will allow them perform optimally and succeed.
The mindset of the manager and leader is that they know that the success of the people ultimately translates into the success of the organization.

No business will ever be more successful that it’s people’s individual success on the job and in life. So a start up entrepreneur, ManLeader, has to understand the importance hiring the right people for the right roles and placing them in those roles that give them the greatest possibility to succeed.

As a ManLeader:
1. Never sentimentally employ or promote anyone into roles and positions that they have no chance to succeed in.
2. Ensure you look out for technical and mental skills, emotional intelligence, aptitude, the right attitude, the right competencies and experience and most importantly the right temperament or personality.

Note however, that the ManLeader COMBO skills may not be required together all the time but it is key to know when it’s required and flexible enough to deploy.

There are times when as an Effective Leader you will need to Manage to be Effective and times when you will need to Lead to Manage Effectively. Once you get the right people to occupy the right roles there are critical things that you must do as a ManLeader and there are specific competencies that you must deploy also.

Here are 6 Critical Competencies of ManLeaders; 
1. They Develop and Empower People through Coaching. Coach and Empower your people to succeed  … they will never forget your investment in them
Coaching is the key to empowering your people; If not as a ManLeader you may get bogged down in the detail. Ensure that you coach your people. If you don’t know how, here’s a framework.

Ask the following questions:
What do you want to achieve?
What is your goal?
By when should you achieve your goal?
What is stopping you?
What have you tried doing to overcome this barrier?
What resources do you have at your disposal towards achieved g your goal?
If nothing could stop you what options will you create towards achieving your goal?
What are the possible steps you need to take towards achieving your goals?
When will you take those steps?
How will you measure your achievements?
How motivated are you towards achieving your goals?

2. They Have and Deploy Emotional Intelligence: Especially Empathy.
Empathy being the ability to listen to people, relate to their emotional experiences and letting them know that you understand them.

As a ManLeader you must have the ability to understand people and connect with them in a genuine, meaningful way that motivates them, and rewards them.
85% of Successful ManLeaders are Emotionally Intelligent.
So ManLeaders are highly emotionally intelligent.

3. They Communicate Clearly 
Communication is the key to fostering transparency and building trust in relationships. Open and honesty communication with your team is very important. Always create time for your people to talk and to ask you questions in a non-threatening environment.

Ensuring that your team understands your expectations of them and allowing them seek clarification and communicate their expectations of you as a ManLeader is equally important.

In communicating know that 93% of your communication is non-verbal which leaves 7% to Verbal coaching communication. The implication of this is that you’re communication 55% of your message through your body language and 38% through your tone of voice.
ManLeaders must let Communication flow unhindered in all directions; Bottom up and Top Bottom.

4. They are Exemplary Leaders 
Taking responsibility for the office climate and how your own behaviour shapes this. Do you realize what you do that sets people off Positively or negatively.

As a ManLeader you can dictate the atmosphere and energy in the office the moment you step into the office in the morning.The culture in the workplace is shaped by what the ManLeader consistently does. So always practise what you preach. Your staff shouldn’t work harder than you or be more productive than you.As a ManLeader understand that, ‘Respect isn’t positional I.e it doesn’t come from your position – It is however earned.’

This automatically means that you also can’t do everything by yourself hence While it may be quicker to get things done on your own in the short term, in the long term you will save a lot of time by mastering the art of delegating to team members. Delegation and measuring performance over time builds your people’s skills and eventually helps them attain their highest potentials on the job.

Also BEaWARE of micromanaging your people. Give them a free hand, let them take responsibility and ownership once you’ve coached them, however check in with them and follow up with them from time to time based on pre-agreed terms.

When you periodically check in with your people in line with agree Goals as a ManLeader Provide timely and meaningful feedback to your people but agree on what kind of feedback they each want.

Use the S.O.I framework to guide your feedback;
S – what is the Standard Expected?
O – What Observed Behaviour do you notice that’s getting in the way of the Goal (Not inferences)
I – What is the Impact of the Observed Behaviour on the overall Goal of the Team or Organization.

5. They Thank, Reward and Celebrate their people
This area is often neglected by many but ManLeaders know that it makes a world of difference how people feel on the job. ManLeaders find the best way to appreciate and reward their people; Especially in the way, format and manner they will most individually appreciate. For some it’s the Handshake, hug or physical touch; For others it’s Quality time so going out for lunch or diner with the boss; For others it’s receiving gifts while others it’s going the extra mile to surprise them with an act of service i.e. Doing something they couldn’t do for themselves. Don’t appreciate or reward people in the way and manner that you will appreciate ManLeaders know that there are different types of people

6. They Encourage Initiative and Innovation
ManLeaders constantly think outside the box and encourage their people to also be out of box thinkers. Innovation without initiative leads to frustration so both innovation and initiative have to go together. So empowering your people to develop and maintain a dual culture of initiative and innovation is critical to the business success. Create an enabling environment where 
people have the freedom to work through problems and solutions themselves, and most importantly are encouraged to fail and make mistakes. It’s only in this kind of environment that innovation, creativity and resourcefulness are nurtured.
ManLeaders must develop the flexibility to make all of these happen. Flexibility pays of. A recent survey by Leadership Management Australia list flexibility in terms of work place time spent and how as the 5th most important performance trigger for workers and the 4th most vital reason why people stay in an organization.

Be a listening flexible ManLeader.
We coach individuals and organizations.
Also if you want to be a ManLeader and need coaching, call or email us on 08077077000 and info@olcang.com
For ICW (International Coaching Week) you get a 50% discount on ALL our coaching services and products from the 14th to 25th May.

The Catalyst, Lanre Olusola
Africa’s Premier Life, Mind, Emotions & Behavioural Change Coach
www.olcang.com, www.olusolalanre.com, www.thecatalystng.com, Info@olcang.com, coach@thecatalystng.com, 08077077000

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