Leadership - The first leadership level of development

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explaining-the-first-level-of-leadership Dear reader,

leadership is action and not position – a guiding principle that most managers underestimate and often use incorrectly in practice. As early as the job interview the manager can do a lot of things right – and just as easily commit decisive mistakes that lead to negative developments in the course of working together. Employees are frequently “sucked into” a company and convinced with a multitude of promises and undertakings to start collaborating in network marketing without the manager taking into consideration the fact that all of these will at a later point fall back on the manager like a boomerang. Because the actions of a manager make him into a manager in the eyes of an employee – and definitely not a pleasant-sounding title on a visiting card or a position in a marketing plan. A bitter truth that many “managers” do not want to accept.

In practice managers are confronted with a multiplicity of management styles and in view of the variety the decision about which style is correct is difficult. Just take a look at the following list of management of different management styles and consider how much you know about each particular management style:

• Coaching

• Directing

• Laissez-faire

• Helping

• Team player

• Training

• Delegating

• Testing

• Browbeating

• Japanese style

• Chinese style

• „relaxed tightness“

But which style is the best? How should I manage? Who should I manage in the first place? Only employees, i.e. management downwards in the organization, or also management upwards? Should management be dependent on the situation or remain consistent? What if somebody does not let himself be managed? And finally the classic question that every manager asks at some stage:

Is It at All Permissible to “Change” People?

Question upon question that show that management should without fail be systematized if you want to transport it further within an organization and ensure that all employees can develop themselves further.

After having learned more in the last issue about how to run a job interview and which questions help you to choose the right employee (I hope you have downloaded the interview questions. If not you should definitely do so now!), in this issue we will look at the first level of development of a new member of staff. Here you should consider that members of staff and also organizations always go thorough all five levels of development. And it should be your goal as a manager to bring every member of staff up to the fifth level. Each level of development is important an necessary for the member of staff. None of the levels of development here is bad or even negative. Each has its legitimacy. Members of staff can also fall back from a higher level to a lower one. But why a system of development with five levels?

If you remember the article in the last issue, then you will certainly have the example in mind in which you thought about which answers 7 different painters, dentists, lawyers etc, would give you to the question what their tasks, tools and principles are. And you will certainly also remember my question what answer you would get if you asked five different managers in your company or organization. If you want to have lasting success, then you require a management system that helps you to systematize management and at the same time leaves enough leeway to manage each individual member of staff. Let us assume you had a system to hand that shows you exactly how to manage every member of staff correctly in every single phase of their development. How would you feel as a manager?

Two important parameters

When you concern yourself with the systematization of management, it is important to consider which parameters are available to you to judge most quickly and effectively how a member of staff is developing and where he requires what kind of management from you. If you think deeply about it, you will discover that you can attribute all results to two decisive parameters: commitment (motivation) and competence. But what do these two parameters consist of?

Commitment = Goals x Self-confidence

Competence = Knowledge x Experience

These parameters essentially determine the development of a member of staff within a company or an organization. And precisely here begins a further important process of reconsideration for you: Members of staff are not there in order to help a manager to achieve his goals – just the opposite! A manager should therefore never by a tyrant, but rather see himself more in the role of a “”server.” And you serve your members of staff best by encouraging them properly and making proper demands on them. Because a good manager stands out by achieving not only the goals of a company but also the goals of the staff of the company.

Here the right balance between demanding too little and demanding too much is important so that the member of staff has the opportunity to yield the best possible performance in his area. It is therefore important that the abilities of the staff member and the demands are matched since otherwise either excessive strain or alternatively boredom will set in. And precisely for this reason too you need a management system because otherwise you only manage intuitively (on the basis of gut-feelings) and that carries the danger that you will allow a disparity to arise between abilities and demands. In addition management that is purely intuitive cannot be duplicated and so cannot be duplicated within your company or organization.

Each level of development is distinguished by a certain “combination” of the two parameters commitment and competence. Therefore each level of development requires a different style of management so that your staff members can develop themselves. Before looking more closely at the first level and learning how to deal properly with your members of staff, you should understand that you should give the most help to those members of staff who have earned it and not necessarily to those that need it. Before reading this article this sentence will appear incomprehensible, but it is a question of a paradox that will only be resolved when you develop a deeper understanding of this management system and live it more and more. Make yourself aware that most managers in network marketing (and also in many other companies) do not possess such a system: This system has been used and tested successfully in practice by myself over many years. Today I still use this system to successfully manage my staff and my companies.

While doing so I have noticed that most managers help staff on the first level too much while at the same time giving too little support to those on the fifth level. They delegate too little because they are afraid to make themselves replaceable. Furthermore, they underestimate the dangers of the second level and rely very much on staff on the third level. Finally they do not really loosen their grip on staff on the fourth and fifth levels, do not tie them enough to the company or even give up checking on them. You will learn how to avoid these traps and you will learn to recognize when you are in these situations so that will know how you will be able to get out of them again and help your staff.

The first level

Every member of staff begin at the first level of development. This is the level where the staff members orientate themselves. They listened to what you said in the interview, you have agreed to work together and now they are standing at the beginning of this work. This level is shaped by a high level of beginner‘s euphoria on the part of the staff member. At this level they have many questions. Your staff are looking for orientation in your company or organization. Speaking metaphorically, staff members on the first level of development are looking for their place in the team or the company.

Now look at the two parameters that staff members at this level have and you will establish that these staff members have little competence with regard to your company or organization because as a rule they still know little about the activities of your company, about your products or services. And since they know little and are new in your company they automatically have little experience. Therefore their competence is low. At the same time these staff members are full of elan and have great and ambitious goals (often unrealistic goals) and they attempt to do much more than they can actually achieve in their new position as a result of their lack of experience.

leadership-factsheet-1

And this is precisely what many managers allow themselves to be deceived by. Blinded by the ambition and the elan of the new staff members many managers think it is sufficient here to provide them with expertise and then you can let them get on with it more or less on their own since they are so full of elan. But precisely that is mistaken here and is not helpful for the development of the member of staff. Staff members who are at this first level of development must be directed by you. This means that they require and expect exact and clear instructions from you as manager and that you check whether your exact instructions were carried out and complied with. In this phase of development the goals are set by the manager. Just as the planning has to be done by the manager, you must check whether the staff implement them.

At this level managers often experience inhibitions about managing staff so directly and so clearly as if you had to explain to a child what they had to do. Only these managers forget that a new member of staff is precisely that with regard to your company or organization – a kind of child who has to grow into your company or organization. But although the manager gives clear exact, the staff must be allowed enough room to implement these instructions independently. You staff members can only develop to the next level – grow into it, if you want – if they develop more competence. This can only be done through growing knowledge and growing experience.

So the first level of development will be characterized by high commitment and low competence. Therefore you do little to help staff members at this level but give them lots of directions. The goals, planning and monitoring are in your hands as the manager. Pick up your staff list and consider which of your staff members are at this level. In the next issue you will learn what you must pay attention to when a staff member leaves the first level and enters the second level of development. Bear in mind: Knowledge is power – however, only when you do something with it: Leadership is action and not position!

Kindest regards,

Your Coach Nuno F. Assis