Summary

In today’s leader-starved age, leadership is justifiably a favorite topic of study and discussion for students, researchers and companies — what makes good leaders, tips and tricks of effective leadership styles, list of world’s top leaders, etc. There are many theories on leadership too, all of which have their relevance in the practical context of human living. This report is a subjective attempt at discussing the significant qualities of an effective leader and signs of good leadership qualities. To that end, an individual from the author’s real life has been identified — a person who displays worthy leadership traits in his job role. He has been referred to as Mr. Manager and his actions/behaviors have been drawn upon to elaborate his claim to fame as a great store manager and leader.

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Mr. Manager: Who’s That?

One famous quote that I have often admired is that of John C. Maxwell’s quote on leadership: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way“. Well, in my opinion, that is just the way to lead in any industry, at any point in time, with as many (or less) people as can be under one for one’s current role. In that regard, Mr. Manager seems the best fit to me as a good and effective leader.

Mr. Manager (as he would be called throughout this report) is a store manager at a consumer electronics retail outlet at Smithfield, South Australia and he has been managing about a 200 staff in his role for the past nine years now. He is a close association and someone who has always motivated me either by the general exchanges we had or by his sheer personality.

In his job role, he has got his own set of targets and goals to meet, but his biggest challenge has so far been in the people he needs to manage each and every day of the weeks and months. Roles can be defined, processes can be streamlined, monitoring can be made rigorous, but people management has more to it that just these — there is a social, human and psychological side to it that often rocks the managerial boat, if ignored. In order to keep sailing through the rough tides smoothly, a manager need not just manage, but lead. Mr. Manager, in this discussion, has been successfully doing so for the years that he has been in this role. He has, to his credit, a record 10.2% decline in attrition rates in his store, compared to his predecessor. The staff at the Smithfield store love Mr. Manager more than they love their role in the store. That is no ordinary feat.

There are reasons why I choose him as an example of a good leader (which I intend to explore in this report), just as much as there are reasons for his popularity among his staff. What makes Mr. Manager so attractive to work with?

Cocktail of Charisma and Inspiration

Mr. Manager is fondly referred to as the ‘Store’s Storyteller’ by his folks there. He has this almost natural way of presenting small narratives to his people, while explaining complex stuff or solving business issues or even while catching up with an employee at lunch. They say — there’s always a story up his sleeve for everything and a story, which leaves them either smiling, or thinking!

Mr. Manager is indeed a brilliant communicator. The way he communicates even when he is briefing a complex business issue, is a quality that leaves a lot for others to learn from. He does not beat about the bush, speaks clearly and confidently, conveying technical stuff in a simple, easy-to-comprehend language. With that ability, he is often able to transfer his vision to his group and make them believe it’s their own.

While in weekly open house meetings with his staff, he is the patient listener. He would listen more, speak little or only when it’s needed. He encourages each employee to throw up any concern to the house and he does it with such an amicable style, that hardly anyone feels intimidated to voice a personal concern. He handles distraught staff with such ease that it sounds almost rehearsed. Odd work hours, long shifts, pay problems, staff-to-staff fights — he listens to each of these with care and offers comforting solutions that sound convincing. he even has an ear to lend when any of his staff comes to him with a personal problem. Nine years into the role, that is how he has been ironing out the rough patches with his pleasant, approachable personality and charisma.

Mr. Manager also knows his store like the back of his hand. Although his role doesn’t require him to touch every aspect of the operations hands on, unless otherwise needed, — stocks and inventory, accounting, security, customer service, IT, etc . — he has the deepest acumen and technical knowledge into each of these areas. So, even when his staff run to him for the CCTV that is not working properly or an accounting tally mismatch, he provides solutions of substance. He would never put off things or people’s concern for a later time. He would rather do the right thing, than doing things right: to spare time for everyone whenever they need some. This inspires his people to work for him and stay motivated even in an otherwise stereo-type, challenging job.

However, Mr. Manager is not about just inspiration and awe, he has his visions grounded in reality too. He knows his achievement targets, he devises strategies on-the-floor to get things done — rewards are often in the form of kinds (lunch, movies, occasional beers, etc.) in his own improvised Store Finale Day (last Friday of the month) for best male staff, best female staff, most consistent performer, best store personality or even for the most punctual employee. It is fun, not overtly pushy, yet fulfils his operational demands well.

Although he is a manager by his role, his actions and the way he delivers his role make him more of a leader. His qualities in terms of personality, communication skills and ability to motivate are the reasons he is chosen as an ‘effective leader’ for the purposes of this report. For me, he appears to be a charismatic leader who combines transformational and transactional leadership skills to successfully run the show.

Manager vs. Leader

Often used interchangeably, the terms ‘manager’ and ‘leader’ are, in reality, quite different in meaning and action. It is a common mistake though to identify the two as same or even overlapping. While a manager sets goals, appoints resources, plans the work and schedule, monitor process compliance etc., a leader would be one who shares a vision, engages with commitment, influences others by his words and actions and demonstrates the courage needed to succeed (Belcher, 2015). Here’s a quick comparison table to set the differences between a good manager and good leader straight:

MANAGER	LEADER
Manager goes by the set order, maintains rules. Goes by status quo.	Leader develops new ways of order, challenging the old and setting new workable rules.
Focuses more on systems and processes.	People are the prime focus.
It’s about administrating.	It’s about ideas and innovating.
Manager controls to get things done right.	Leader inspires to do the right thing.
Manager asks when and how.	Leader asks what and why.
Has short-term goals.	Has a long-term vision.

Source: Bennis (1989)

 

Therefore, a manager is essentially different from a leader in his role and action. However, interestingly, a manager can grow up to be a leader, but a leader is never a manager. Our Mr. Manager, in this report, started off in this retail store in the role of a manager, but evidently evolved to be a leader in himself, rising above the traits of a good manager to be an effective leader, who has produced tangible positive results for the people and the brand he serves.

Theories of Transformational & Transactional Leadership

In one study, Wiley & Lake (2014) collected employee opinion on what they want from their leaders. The findings revealed that most of them wanted to be inspired, respected and rewarded. Another study on Google’s success story reveals that it is the bottom-up leadership and minimalist management that inspired its employees to innovate and take the company forward in leaps (Strategic Direction, 2013). These types of leadership skills are generally called transformational. Transformational leaders transform/change organizations and people for the better, and inspire subordinates to work towards a shared vision.

Leaders produce transformation through their actions and individual influence (DuBrin and Dalglish, 2003). Bass (1985) defined a transformational leader as someone who inspires his/her people to deliver more than they are initially expected to do. Transformational leaders expand and transform the interests of their followers, and breed awareness and recognition of the group’s overall mission (Albritton, 1998). According to Yukl (1999), transformational leadership is the practice of motivating followers to rise above their own self-interests for the greater well-being of the company or organization that they serve. A leader who knows how to inspire and transform would have certain qualities in them that are loved and respected by others. Some of these qualities of a great leader are that of (Forbes, 2012):

• Honesty and integrity
• Good communication skills
• Delegation abilities
• Confidence
• Sense of humor
• Positive thinking
• Creativity
• Intuition
• Commitment

If a man demonstrates these qualities in his behavior and actions, he will naturally attract love and respect from the people around him. And it doesn’t stop at that. People in this man’s proximity become well-inspired to work towards his shared vision, thus changing organizations and improving work cultures.

In contrast to this transformational leadership, there is also a more traditional leadership style which is transactional in nature. Transactional leadership also motivates employees, but in a slightly different manner; it works on the premise of ‘exchange’ or reward/punishment for good/bad performance, respectively. According to MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Rich (2001), transactional leadership is the practice of motivating people through an exchange process having explicit rewards, rules, and compliance. Rewards can be in any form — financial or promotional or even recognitions otherwise. A transactional leader fixes clear targets for his people, sets finite expectations so that performance is measurable and rewards/punishments can be justified. A transactional leader believes in management by exception — any exception to standard, therefore, needs appreciation and reward for exceeding expectations, and some corrective measures for performances below expectation (Changing Minds).

While transactional leadership is more traditional, it is transformational leadership that has the long-term effects on the motivation levels of followers. Strongest manifestation of this leadership lies in people’s attitude towards the organization and commitment to the leader (Bhupatkar & Maheshwari, 2014). Today, transformational leadership is said to have four dimensions (Caillier, 2014):

• idealized influence — happens when leaders successfully share their vision and win the trust and respect of followers so much so that they relate and act towards the leader’s vision.
• intellectual stimulation — happens when a leader encourages his people to think out-of-the-box and rationalize, challenge status quo and find a new order, thus leading to creativity and innovation.
• inspirational motivation — happens when a leader can challenge followers with high standards, speak optimistically about goals and instill a strong sense of purpose for the job to be done.
• individualized consideration — happens when a leader caters to every individual’s needs, empathizes and supports each one, and appreciates individual contributions to the group’s goal.

Apart from these, there are also many other studies and theories on leadership styles and types — situational leadership, path-goal theories, trait theory, great man theory, participative leadership, etc. (Changing Minds). However, transformational and transactional leadership styles are discussed here in more details as these are the types within which Mr. Manager of this report mainly functions.

How Does Mr. Manager Fit into These Leadership Types

Mr. Manager is a transformational leader, who also exhibits an overlap of transactional leadership qualities in his actions. He leads by his example of undying enthusiasm, relentless encouragement, impressive communication, and much-loved sense of humor, apart from an influential persona.

According to the people who work with him, at work he is quiet; in meetings, he is an eager listener; on the floor, he is always unruffled; over a coffee, he is the guy-next-door; and as the manager of the entire store, he is the visionary with ideas popping up in his head that he puts up on the plate with ardent fervor and passion. Indeed, there had not been a single employee in the past nine years who have had any hard feelings toward Mr. Manager, not even the ones he rebuked for any failing, says popular opinion at the Smithfield store.

If you are crossing him on the hallway, there is always a ‘hello’ and a smile to greet you, no matter how stressed he might be. At times, he displays this impeccable intuition to pick an employee who has been having some issues on the personal front and was not being too relaxed to work. He would call him in at his cabin and chat over a coffee. It works like magic — the employee comes out fresh and happy. As the New York City-based author of communication books puts it, ” Little things mean a lot” (Perry, 2007). Mr. Manager seems to know this all too well. He makes a personal connect with his staff, unlike other managers who preceded him in the store. His people skills are noteworthy.

Mr. Manager is always observing, without much hype. If he ever finds anyone making a late entry to work, he would neither scream, nor dismiss the matter. Instead, he would crack an apparently harmless, witty one-liner as he walks past that employee. The amount of embarrassment inflicted in the guise of humor is enough to ensure punctuality for that employee in future.

His involvement shows in everything. He would often be the last person to leave the store if there is any of his staff still working. Although he doesn’t materially contribute at that point, the sheer presence of him is a deeply motivating factor for the people who work for him. Thus is his commitment.

End of every month, he holds a fun internal event (his brainchild), the Store Finale Day, where he recognizes well-performing employees and rewards them with treats, extra day-offs, etc. His staff works hard to bag a treat on this day and get a badge from him. Even in his transactional methods, he is not pushy; his demands flow subtly among the staff and they yield to that almost spontaneously.

Mr. Manager’s charismatic personality makes him the role model in his store. He inspires his folks to deliver the best service to customers and to work with integrity among each other. Customer feedbacks on this store’s staff had always been 80-85% positive, compared to other stores in that consumer retail chain which only reached 60-65% positive remarks. Mr. Manager has positively transformed his people, improved the culture of the store, brought down attrition rates year-by-year, has happy repeat customers, less customer complaints, well-handled inventory, well-performing staff and more. Justifiably then, Mr. Manager emerges as the transformational leader type, with a delicate transactional overtone.

An Interview with Mr. Manager

I grabbed an opportunity to have a chat with Mr. Manager over lunch and get more insights into his managerial styles. The brief question and answer session further reveals how he loves the store’s vision, respects his people and motivates them to achieve.

1. How would your staff describe your leadership?

Mr. Manager: As least possessive. I give my people full liberty to adopt their individual styles. All I am possessive about is the end goal: quality service, perfect delivery, happy customers. As long as that’s met, I don’t mind anything.

1. What values are most important to you as a leader/store manager?

Mr. M: Honesty and commitment. We all have peaks and troughs in our journey, but unless we hang on to these two, we aren’t really trying to make it work. In any industry and in any role, I believe, honesty and commitment (both to the people and the task) fetch high returns of success.

1. Spot some situations when a leader may fail. Tell me about a time when you failed as a leader.

Mr. M: Certain areas are beyond individual control. For example, the economic downturn was a time when things change, customer behaviors change. I have experienced it and have had a tough time meeting store targets and laying off staff on top management’s directive. More than a failure, it was a setback to the role I was expected to deliver.

1. Who or what is your notable inspiration?

Mr. M: Apart from the people I work with, one person who had always been my favorite is Mr. Kevin Kruse, the New York Times best-selling author and Forbes columnist. His books and interviews have inspired me to become the person I am today.

1. How do you make your staff and colleagues obey orders and meet performance targets?

Mr. M: Oh, that’s their job. I am not running a kindergarten here. My people know what they need to do and how. My only directive to them is to make an impact, and not just an income. That’s inspired by Kevin Kruse, again! …and trust me, that works! (Laughs).

1. How would you best describe yourself — a leader or a manager?

Mr. M: I strictly do not compartmentalize the two. I delegate, but do not impose responsibilities. Nor do I believe in micromanaging. My job is only to show the way, the rest follows.

1. How do you build morale in tough times?

Mr. M: Well in tough times, I am the proverbial ‘duck’ — unruffled on the surface, while furiously paddling underneath. The cool composure I maintain, lends confidence and sense of security to my folks. And that lifts their morale. On a lighter note, I tell everyone that life isn’t ‘La Dolce Vita’ always, there’s also the ‘Good, Bad and Ugly’ in everything. The trick is not to give up.

1. Tell me about something you innovated to inspire better performance from your staff and colleagues.

Mr. M: The ‘Store Finale Day’ is a monthly fun event I improvised to recognize performers. We have Mr. & Mrs. Store declared and photographed for the rest of the following month, apart from other prize-giving, fun and feast. People perform the best when they feel special. I always believe in the saying ‘positive strokes build positive folks‘.

1. What would you have been if you were not in this profession?

Mr. M: A talk show host. I love people. There are so many stories around each of them. Being a talk show host would have given me the opportunity to meet new people and explore them in the most interactive way possible. Even otherwise, each person I meet comes with a story and I assimilate these to refine my life experiences.

(Note: All questions are inspired/sourced from Best Job Interview, 2015)

Conclusion

The interview with Mr. Manager and collective feedback from his staff and colleagues clearly point to the fact that he is a people’s person. He believes in making others succeed by allowing them the freedom to perform individualistically towards a shared vision. He respects their time and personal space. He recognizes and appreciates talent. He has an intuitive interest in all people around him and his own passionate involvement and confidence in the store operations and people management naturally attract a lot of followers for him. His witty remarks can brighten up any dull moment and his outward calmness offers such a profound sense of security to his staff, that they focus only on performance, without having to worry about roadblocks. He knows how to earn respect and instill his vision into others. He gets the job done without having to micromanage. In the truest sense, he is a combination of transformational and transactional leadership that finds best expression in his charismatic personality. That sums up all for Mr. Manager and his claim to fame.

 

References

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