Page 266 - The extraordinary leader

The Organization’s Role in Developing Leaders • 243

financial acumen, project management, strategy, organizing skills, process
improvement, financial control, and information technology.
We understand that distinction and find it to be conceptually helpful
but hard to implement in the real world. First, few people have the luxury of
functioning only as a leader or a manager. Most everyone in a position of
authority whom we have observed is pressed into both leadership and man-
agement activities. These activities seem to be inextricably mixed together in
day-to-day work in every organization. They connect with each other in obvi-
ous and subtle ways. We find making a distinction to be a bit like going to a
tennis camp and having the instructor focus entirely on the forehand ground
stroke, and then being told that we can come back in a month or so and have
similar instruction on the backhand stroke. Yes, we understand the difference,
but if you want to play tennis, you need them both, and you can never
predict when one or the other will be needed.

Define the Results You Seek from Leaders

and How Those Results Link to the Strategy
of the Organization
Leadership is not an end, but a means to an end. That end needs to be made
explicit. If an important part of being a good leader is to produce excellent
results, those results must be clearly defined so that leaders will know when
they are succeeding. We have presented evidence that effective leaders pro-
duce improvements in productivity, product and service quality, and customer
satisfaction, and that the willingness of people to work hard and expend energy
invariably rises.
Clearly, those results must flow from the organization’s broader strategy. Help-
ing leaders to understand that strategy, and how to think about the main strate-
gic alternatives their organization faces, is a valuable element of a leadership
development process. We highly recommend Perry, Stott, and Smallwood’s
Real-Time Strategy: Improvising Team-Based Planning for a Fast-Changing World. 5
We reiterate the message in Ulrich, Zenger, and Smallwood’s Results-Based
Leadership regarding the importance of results being balanced, long-term,
and selfless, and that the necessary balance we seek is between the interests
of customers, employees, organization, and the shareholders. 6
Some executives have come into organizations and immediately imposed
massive layoffs, slashed research and development, eliminated employee