PUBLISHED ARTICLES

There are many management and leadership styles and personalities described in writing and even more practiced every day around the world. To find our own management style is important since people will only follow and trust a person leading from his true personality. Managers pretending to be something they are not, end up pushing their employees instead of being followed. The word leadership is today confused and is commonly used to describe all levels of managerial duties.

When setting a development program in your company it is important to distinguish all levels clearly to easier see what is really needed for different functions. I typically see four function levels in a company:

•    Employee
•    Supervisor (incl. team leader, project manager)
•    Manager
•    Company Leader

A great company leader usually has had some success at all stages of the functions above before becoming a successful leader. This means that all the functions build upon each other to some extent when climbing the corporate ladder. Our preferred behaviours and education will though make us more suitable to develop ourselves on a specific level. It is important to realize that one does not necessarily need to become a manager or a company leader to have a successful work career. The alternative career choice is to become a specialist or authority in ones field or industry.

To be successful as a specialist or as an employee it is important to master things related to personal achievement. Except industry specific skills and knowledge this includes time management - including goal setting, communication, self awareness and presentation skills. In addition supervisory and project management functions usually need an understanding of team dynamics, coaching skills and effective enforcing skills.

The big difference when moving into a management function is that the responsibilities evolve from handling oneself, time and money to managing and being responsible for other people. This means setting their salaries and take care of theirs as well as the company’s long term development. Therefore people management skills and a high level of self awareness are needed in the management function in combination with a holistic understanding of the industry and the challenges of managing a business.

Company leaders manage the managers in a company. All positions may hold a leader. A leader inspires the people around them. What differentiates the company leader function from the management function is the heart of the person. A leader without a vision will not be followed; simply because he does not know where he is going himself. When all functions are inspired and motivated by the company leaders’ vision in a company, then great and extraordinary things can happen. To only achieve good performance and a functioning company, good management skills are enough. To create extraordinary results and long-term high performance a clear vision and faith is important.

A company can successfully train staff to become good company managers. From these good managers some will develop into and become great company leaders. This last step cannot be trained - only facilitated. Therefore a company needs to develop and train good managers continuously to prepare for growth and its succession planning. By training company managers, company leaders will emerge…

- Peter J Karlsson