Leaders Inspire Creative Thinking - Managers Make Rules and Policies

I found the quote “Rules and policies are created to help make jobs easier” in a book about leadership. Clearly the author does not understand what differentiates leadership from management; To protect their ego, I left the name of the author out.

Rules and policies are the tools of management to protect the organization. They set out lines that are not to be crossed. Rules and policies are necessary for organizations to operate and protect employees from harm, each other, and potential criminal and civil penalties for violating state and federal laws. If you need to know how to request time off you “follow the policy”. If you need to fix a widget you follow the “procedure”.  You follow the rules or you pay the consequences. This is about management, period.

The reason why everyone encourages out of the box thinking is it shows leadership through courage and a willingness to break the rules. . Leadership is about freeing people to innovate and use their energies to be greater than they thought possible. Management, on the hand, tries to quell out of the box thinking because of the loose of control. Management is used to rein employees in and keep them following the rules.   Companies that have high performance cultures cleverly integrate management and leadership techniques to create synergy and take their organizations to the next level.

History is filled with organizations that once were innovative and on the cutting edge of technology for that day. Leaders lead and people dreamed of taking the company to the next level through a shared vision of what could be. As success came someone always decides we need more “rules and policies” to keep things running smoothly. Then as more rules piled on innovation was stifled and the most creative people left to start their own companies. The large management centered company then looses product share and eventually closes. Don’t lose cutting edge leadership by becoming a bureaucratic organization centered on management. If you have people who think being a good leader is setting out clear rules and policies then it is time to realize your company’s days are numbered.  

Encourage leadership that creates motivates, inspires and takes your organization to the next level of success. Never let your company be run by managers who think they are showing leadership by creating rules that stifle your employees creativity.

Leadership versus Management models

Management: P-3
                     Process
                     Policies
                     Procedure

Leadership: I-3
                     Inspire
                     Innovate
                     Include

Which one do you do?

A good manager ensures a "well oiled machine" form of production. A good leader can motivate people to do more than they though possible. A Transformative Person blends great management and leadership skills to take their team into the stratosphere of efficiency, effectiveness and innovation.  

Great Comment on Supervisor Resonance

Theoretically every fire starts with a single spark but it starts either by accident or on purpose. So anything that starts accidentally is as a result of an action that is goes unnoticed by the one who starts the fire. Just like the supervisor or manager who is unaware of the effect that they have in the work place upon whom they work with. Like a bull in the proverbial China shop.Unaware of their effect the people around them. They may be in a bad mood because of what is going on in their lives or oblivious and insensitive to their own actions or words to the people around them. In either case it starts with a single spark...
Posted by anonymous

Organizational Branding: More than a Logo - Its a Way of Life

A Vision and Mission statements describes your organization and where you want to go in the future. When in doubt, it provides a platform for people to make decisions, eg. a potential action is consistent with the values of the organization.

The Brand is much more; it describes what makes your organization special and differentiates you from the rest. The organizations brand strikes at all of the senses. It is more than a logo, it is a way of life.  It answers the question, what does it mean to work for your organization? It should describe your history, customs and traditions that differentiate your organization. It connects and engages current employees to your organization. It energizes and builds pride in your community and potential customers. It attracts potential employees to you, while repelling potential applicants who may not "fit" well within your organization.

The potential impact of your organizational brand is enormous to your organizations success. Every organization has a brand. You can either control it yourself, or someone else will be in control.  

When Seconds Count - The Police Are Only Minutes Away

When seconds count, police officers are only minutes away. Officers being out of position, or unable, to immediately respond to emergency calls should generate concern for any community, regardless of their crime rates. Let us examine this concept a little more in-depth. These types of situation can be caused by several reasons. However, for this blog we will look at two situations.

First, the platoon is unable to respond because a lack of engagement, or ability, prevails through the shift. Direct supervisors have the greatest impact on an individual’s success throughout out the individual officers career. Supervisors should ask the officers his or goals and begin to develop the individual towards fulfilling those goals. Little victories slowly add up to create an atmosphere for engaged and knowledgeable shifts.  However, the problem may not be disengagement or ability. The problem may stem from a policing philosophy which is not supported by the actual structure of the organization. You may not have enough cars or offices to accomplish your new goals. likewise, the officers may not beleive in your new philosophy. Officers are hired to ago out and arrest law breakers. Most organizations operational structures are designed to support that mission. If you change philosophys you must also obtain buy-in from the officers who have to go out an implement the new idea.

When you add intelligent policing, advanced community policing, private sector/police partnerships, then the demands on the organization grow. It no longer focuses on “you call - we hall” crime and punishment practices. With the new philosophies you need more equipment and a new bread of officer. No longer can you simply train someone to go to a call, determine if an arrest is to be made, and resolve the issue and move on. Officers now go to community meetings where they forge relationships with community leaders. They get involved in the actual building of communities. This requires a different mindset, a more liberal point of view, where an “arrest is a failure of society and its community” prevails. In this scheme, officers become very connected with the life cycle of communities and its inhabitants. They try to change the individual’s habits and perspectives before they commit serious trouble. This holistic approach is very good in theory and romanticizes the “man walking the beat and knowing his community” style of policing.

Now for reality, our personnel units are not good enough to select people who fit that mold. They, they are interested in getting people to apply rather than preselecting people who will “fit” the philosophy of an agency. Therefore, as people get hired, trained, and sent to their units they have an expectation in their mind what “policing” is about. When they find out their agency wants in-depth community relations they may begin to feel frustration, anger, and later disengage because the though they were here to “lock people up” and save the communities be removing the criminals. With lower engagement, they will take longer on calls and have slower responses. Also, for changing police strategies after someone is hired requires a lot of preplanning to get buy-in from the street officers. The command staffs may expound a new practice, but if the street officer refuses to follow along it will not get done. The command staffs must overcome the “what’s in it for me” mindset inherent in human nature. If the agency does not prepare the ground before building the new “touchy-feely” philosophy then it is doomed to fail. Entire shifts can then become disengaged and thus slower response times. The entire department must be “willing and able to participate” for the scheme to be successful.

Even if an entire work force realizes the benefits of the new philosophy and is excited about becoming a part of the process you will have to obtain more officers, vehicles, and other equipment. By shifting from the enforcement of laws to community policing philosophies the offices will necessarily have to spend more time on each call to determine underlying problems, making calls and referrals and as a last resort making an arrest. This takes more time per call and thus you will need more officers on the street to keep individual response times down to an acceptable rate. With the need in additional personnel and equipment budgets will have to increase in the face of slow economic conditions. Politicians will then be forced to determine what their priorities are in government services. Are they willing to add to police budgets and cut other departments? Are they willing to accept slower police response times in order to take credit for a new philosophy where police are guidance counselors?

The problems and rewards of changing philosophies of policing are many. The cultures of the community and police agencies must evolve to accept the changes and expectations of different police styles. Unfortunately, if done in a haphazard fashion where, “somehow this will work out, I just don’t know how right now” implementation strategies are undertaken then time lags will develop. Employee engagement will drop, and when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.     

The New Interdependence of the Working Class - We Need Each Other

Think about work from a different perspective. When you call 911 you need help. When you buy a car you need transportation. When purchase new chairs, televisions, or anything else, it is because you need that particular items or service.  

You have a job because someone needs something that you are producing or providing a service for. If you own a business you must have customers to survive. Your work may be directly impacted by situations half way around the world, which you may not even understand. Case in point, a bank in Europe crashes. The wealthy investors loose everything. One of the investors owns a soccer team. The soccer team now goes into receivership. The best players leave and the team now has a loosing record. Therefore, no one comes to watch the team play and the local economy dries up. Then the person in China making the team’s uniforms and souvenir shirts loses his job because no orders have been placed for a while. He is then forced back to the farm and kicks a young farming boy off of the plot of land he has lent him to work.

So, reverse this and see what happens. The farmer needs the bank to work and the investor to make money, so he can effectively run the soccer team. The local economy needs the team to be successful so people come into town and buy goods at the stores. The person making the souvenirs in China needs to team to win so people buy his products. Back to the farmer who needs everyone to do well so he can work the plot of land and survive.

As you can see, everyone working in manufacturing or providing a service needs someone above them to want what they do, in order for them to survive. We are all connected now