Leadership Part 2/3 by William Haines

Okay. So we started last week and um so looked at the different approaches of leadership. One was the um the qualities approach. What kind of characteristics of qualities uh leader should have and we saw there that there's not really there lots of different lists of qualities that leader should have and often they don't overlap. Although it's a useful way of looking at and analyzing leadership, it has its limitations. And so we're looking then at some more functional leadership. what are the functions

that a leader has to perform? And so this is the uh good evening. This is the uh diagram we used last week to try to analyze um what a leader has to do. So when you have a when whenever you have a group and or a team and it could be a small team of five or six people or even a huge organizations the basically it groups or teams or institutions or organizations businesses they exist to f to achieve a task. There's a job that they have to do. So if it's a business it may be producing something and

but of course it's not enough just to produce it. you also have to market it and sell it. If you're running a farm then obviously your task is farming. Uh so every group then every team has a certain task uh which needs to be achieved and then also the other element there is is the the team itself and so teams vary depends on you know different teams have a different character. All groups have their own character and also groups naturally made up of individuals and the individuals on a group in a team also have their own character

and so what a leader has to do then is he has to be thinking about these different areas achieving the task making sure the task is accomplished because if a team or a group doesn't have a task you might think of why are we here I might be doing I prefer to be doing something else. So you know if if if a group or team isn't focused upon accomplishing the task then people think of what's the point in us being here it's rather meaningless being here but also the team itself has to have a certain you know group dynamic certain things

that need to be done to maintain the team to inspire the team to motivate the team. So the team works together in harmony that everybody on the team feels that they have some part to play in the team some way in which they can contribute and of course that's because the team's made up of individuals and every individual has their own uh character their own potential their own abilities and if the people on the team can feel yes actually on this team I can fulfill my potential I am needed on this team I can find a niche on this team

and through working together on this team to fulfill this task. I can actually fulfill my own purpose. I can actually develop and grow myself. And so the team leader then needs to make sure that all these areas are are taken care of. The individuals on the team feel taken care of. They feel looked after. They feel that somebody's interested not just in getting something out of them but actually more in interested in investing something into them so they can actually develop and grow through this experience of being together on this team.

And when these three circles are all been fulfilled then people are happy. People enjoy the work. Actually the work is no longer work. It's fun. People enjoy being together. They enjoy working together. They work together as a team and uh they achieve the task and when you actually have a goal and you achieve the task feel an incredible sense of joy and elation and so that's what basically that's what a leader needs to do try and fulfill make sure all the three of these circles are being covered.

So we'll have a look then a little bit more into the functions of leadership. But also it's not just um being a good leader, it's also being a leader for the good. So you can have some very good leaders, but they might be running organized crime units or they may be gang leaders. They may have a task. Okay, we're going to go and, you know, map out and we're going to expand our territory. They may be able to motivate and get their little gang into action and may take care of all the little all the people on their team on their gang.

So, it's not just being a good leader, it's also being a leader for the good, leadership for good. So, have to think about it. Is this task worthwhile? Is it worthwhile to rob this bank or and for some people most people actually almost everybody actually no that's not a worthwhile task it's against my conscience to do this and so there's a tunnel did you read that yes I did get I mean it's a very long tunnel but only got a few thousand pounds it's under blockbuster or something wasn't it anyway never Is this task worthwhile?

And if it's worthwhile and people feel yes, this is worth my doing this. Is it worth my investing myself in doing this? In committing myself to this and you might think, what is the value of this to society? Is the work that I'm doing making the world in which I live a better place or a worse place? Yeah. So again, these are the kind of things that people think about. Is this a worthwhile thing that I'm doing? Is it making my society, my community a better place? And in that case, how would you actually measure

that kind of value? How do you measure the value of what it is that you're doing? Any ideas? Sorry. How how would you measure the value of what you were doing? Whether it you to evaluate is this a good thing to be doing or not a good thing to be doing something from it. Sorry. from what came out of it such as the fruits of your labor the end the result was good or yeah happy yeah at the end of the day am I making people happy in that sense you feel valuable that yes it's making the world a better place

so how do you how do you measure whether you're making people happy or not keep giving you money keep okay keep giving you money give them questions you can give them questionnaires but if you're a business how can you tell whether for making your customers happy. That's right. If you produce good quality things at a reasonable price with good customer service, then generally speaking, you'll be profitable. If on the other hand, you're producing things which are poor quality or which are very overpriced or in which you're really rude to your customers

and you don't take care of them, very quickly you're going to go out of business. Yeah. So one can evaluate these things and in business it's the bottom line. If you're not making a profit then obviously people aren't rewarding you for what you're doing. They don't feel that what you're doing is worth doing. But again if we're in a group we might think well are the values of this group the kind of values that you know I feel comfortable with. Yeah. Some groups I worked on a um when I was a teenager I used to get holiday jobs. One

um holiday I worked on a building site and they were effing and blinding and every other word was a swear word and it was interesting because that's not how I spoke and I felt really uncomfortable when they were talking like this and because I never spoke like this and I was just a teenager after a while they started to feel really uncomfortable as well. I started to clean up the language at least when I was around and you know you think about these things you know these are kind of values that I share the kind of humor

that these people have the kind of attitudes these kind of people have do I feel comfortable here you know or do I have to lower my standards to to to work with this group um the other thing is yeah as I said do I share the same values as a group and is this task worthwhile in my eyes and after a while I had a friend who was um he worked for in the in the city and um you know the particular company he's he was an accountant the particular group he was working with in the city he felt really uncomfortable

because he felt there was something dishonest about the way they were working and he felt this I don't feel comfortable doing this I don't feel this worth work is worthwhile it's against my values and so even though he's you know getting well paid he decided he to to change jobs to find something which he felt this is worthwhile work that I'm doing. This is meaningful work I'm doing. Again, these are sort of things about leadership for the good. Okay. So, let's have a look then at functional leadership. Some of the functions of leadership which I go through more detail. defining the task, planning, briefing, initiating controlling supporting uh, informing,

and evaluating. So, let's have a look at some of these. Okay, one of the most important things then is defining the task. I said every group is together for a particular task. But if you don't know what the task is, you don't know what it is that you're trying to achieve. Is it easy to achieve it? No. So one of the first things a leader has to do is very important thing is to define the task because it's not just his task. He needs as I explained about last time he needs to motivate people so

that people feel actually this is my task. This is our task. It's something which we're working on to accomplish together. not oh this is the boss this is the leader this is the boss he's told us we have to do this so let's we'll do it but I actually need to present this task in a way that people feel this is meaningful this is worthwhile I want to commit myself to do this task but in order to be able to do that it has to be communicated has to be explained very clearly what the task is and also to explain to people why we're doing it you know maybe there's some urgency behind it if people feel well

okay this is interesting but I can't see the point in working particularly hard but if you can explain to a person actually why you're doing it and there may be a time uh deadline by which it needs to be done then people may be more motivated to work hard and get it done quickly. So explain to people why they're doing it and defining achievable objectives as well. So breaking the task down. So the task may be a very big task but then sometimes you think about a task you think about you think about climbing Mount Everest you probably never do it

but you think about oh okay to get there I need to break it down into these objectives as base camp and there's this and this and this and you break it down into achievable t achievable objectives steps and stages then it becomes achievable and then you can think yes I can do that tomorrow yeah I can do that that it becomes something achievable. So you need to break these things down into the task down into into objectives and uh things like that. So this is why planning then is very important.

So planning is bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to be. So this is where we are and that's where we want to be. So the question is how do we get there? You need to draw up a plan to get from A to B. Whether it's, you know, geographically getting from A to B. How are we going to get there? Are we going to fly, going to boat, drive or, you know, we want to make this particular machine? Okay. So, how are we going to do it? What is it that we need? So it's very important then to have a plan

and um so you know answering question how are we going to achieve the task who's going to do what when does it have to be done by and to break down the task into lots of little bits and to make sure that all these little bits are done by somebody because unless you have a very very clear plan then you may set off to achieve something or do something but if you haven't got all the plan worked out in detail Well, and there's some part that's missing. It'll just stop, just fail in some way. That's why a very clear plan is necessary.

So, you may be a very nice person, may have all sorts of wonderful qualities of charisma and this that and inspiring and everything, but unless you're able to come up with a good plan, which is achievable, then you know, people are going to get incredibly frustrated. There's nothing more frustrating than working on it, being part of a team where the leader hasn't got a clear plan of how to achieve what it is you want to achieve because you end up just wasting lots and lots of time and then the whole thing becomes very meaningless.

So even though the person may be a very nice person and they're so organized, able to plan things clearly and show how this plan can be you know fulfilled then it's a disaster generally. As Sam Moon said, the first criteria of leadership is organization. You have to be able to organize efficiently. And so a leader may not be a very nice person. Yeah. But as long as they have a decent plan and they get the job done, you feel okay, I can go along with that. I don't mind work. I'm happy to work with this

because I know that we're going to get the job done. Whereas maybe a very nice person who doesn't able to isn't able to plan or organize things. You can't get the job done. you feel this is a waste of time. So how do you make a plan? Who's going to who who makes a plan then? Should it be the leader who makes a plan or everybody together makes a plan or something in between? If everybody makes it together, but it's not a bad thing for a leader to come up with some ideas and then brainstorm. Okay.

So when would you so when would you say under what conditions would it be good for everybody to make the plan together? Well, if they've all got different tasks within that within that um you know whatever the plan has a different job. So they can say what they could contribute. Okay, different abilities, right? So within the big plan then everybody has their own tasks, small tasks, subdivided task and so they would make a plan how to fulfill their own particular task. Yeah, that sort of thing.

So you're delegating things. So you're saying to write this is what I want this is what I want you to do but you have to work out how to do it. Okay that sort of idea. So that works when the person knows how when you can be sure that person has the not I thought somebody's hand off at the back there. So that works when you when you can be sure that person has a knowledge or skills or ability to do it. So what happens if you say to somebody, well this is what I this is what you need to do, but they don't have the skills, knowledge, ability to do it. Well,

then you either have to help them or find somebody else. That's right. So you have to be aware then. So in terms of drawing up plans, you have to be aware of who who's on the team, how capable they are, how much experience they have, how much knowledge they have to be able to fulfill that. So you may actually have to fill in a lot of the gaps, or you may just be able to say to somebody, right, you've done this before. you know how to do it, go and work out a plan and then that's you know it's also a good way.

So you have to as a leader then you have to be aware of all the different people on the team each one's abilities and capabilities. Um yeah so sometimes the leader may come up with a plan because the whole plan or sometimes may do it together. It varies depends upon the situation. The plan the plan and the goal are not necessarily the same thing. No, the plan is how you get to the goal. So the goal is there, but in order to get there, you need a plan step by step. You have to you have to get there,

but in order to get in order to get there, you have to get here first. In order to get here, you have to get here. In order to get here, you have to get here. So you have to break it. Sometimes you can sort of it's like a reverse engineering. This is where we want to be, but in order to get there, we need to get get to here. And you just it's like rewinding the thing. Yes. Okay. Now this is where we are. Okay. And this is where in order to get there, this is where we need to be tomorrow or next week. Yeah.

So that's the different ways you can draw up a plan. That's one way. It's like a sort of reverse engineering. Um but plan is what you need to get to the goal, achieve the goal, the target. Um okay, this is Sam Moon. Again, I'm telling you this because we should have the best organization in the world. Our planning and organization must be workable, not just idealistic. Why are you laughing Joanna? [Music] It's a great idea, but unfortunately a lot of the time that hasn't been the case. Hasn't been the case.

So, do you think we were a bit too idealistic then? Very idealistic. Yes. And it was very unfortunate. But it was. Yeah. I'm not the only one. So sometimes one can be really very idealistic but more important than being idealistic it has to be something that's going to work the end of the day the goal was idealistic and that's okay but the plan shouldn't be a fantasy the plan should be practical the plan should be practical but it has to be based upon reality not not it has to be based upon understanding this is the way people are this is the reality of our situation you know not this is how I wish people were

and I'm going to assume that people are the way they're not. You know what I mean? That sense you can be very idealistic. So, you know, one has to be, you know, realistic in that sense. Has to be something workable. Okay. He's talking here about small teams. As a team captain, you should always figure out how much better you can do this month than last month. Then you can make a plan taking into consideration all the personalities on your team. Make a workable plan and really stretch yourself to fulfill it.

So a leader then has to do a lot of thinking has to has to understand the psychology the mentality of human beings human nature very well understand each person's you know strengths and weaknesses the way some people are more emotional some people more rational everyone's different in some way and so have to weld the team together into a team well very very different individuals often together into a team so they can accomplish it and once you can do that then you can really stretch yourself and accomplish all sorts of things. Sometimes when you're when you're making a plan, you know, you need to think outside the box. You need to think it's often called lateral thinking. You know, if lateral thinking, you look at it, you look at the problem from a different angle sort of a sideways look at at a problem.

So drawing out plans it it's um yeah it's what you have to do often just look at it from a different point of view a different angle thinking outside the box this sort of thing. Okay. So another very important um thing is a leader you have to is briefing explaining to people what's going on. So communication then and communication skills are very very important for a leader. So you have to explain to people very clearly what the task is. You have to explain to every single person what their particular role is in fulfilling this task

and um and explain the task also as something which is valuable and meaningful because people always feel more motivated to do something when they feel that what they're doing is important or valuable or meaningful. And so before you explain to somebody, before you explain to the team or the group what's going on, you have to think it through for yourself. You have to work it out all in your own mind to clear so you can clearly explain to others very simply what it's all about. Yeah, there's no point in having long rambling speeches

um because people get lost. You have to be able to break everything down into very very clear and simple stages so people can understand what's going on and you explain it very very clearly and very very simply and also trying to bring it alive so people can imagine themselves doing it and they can imagine the task going ahead. They can imagine themselves fulfilling and accomplishing the task. And when you're doing it, you need to be yourself as well. And uh just standing there uh briefing people, explain to them what the task is, how they're going to do it in a very simple way. Everybody feels they have a part to play,

that their part is important in order for the whole thing to be accomplished. Again, some human says about this, the fastest, easiest way to find the best method is to adopt the best man's technique for yourself. You have to standardize your method of doing things. You must have a clear idea what you're going to do and all your members must know what they're going to do. If anyone has a better way of doing things, of course, let him suggest it. Organization, a strong sense of responsibility, enthusiasm, long hours of work are all essential,

but still one more crucial element, clear direction. So, people have to have a very clear direction in order to know where they're going uh in order to be able to fulfill the task. What do you mean by standardize your method? standardize it. You find the best practice what works best. Sorry. Everybody else also uh well yes adopt it if it suits them and fits. Yes. I mean you know that's what uh Ford did with making factory to produce cars. Found out what is the best method that works and he standardized it.

That meant everybody could learn it very quickly. So Peter the great for example when he was uh became the Zar in Russia he realized that Russia is very very backwards very behind and so he travel he traveled around Europe incognito trying to learn from Europeans how it could improve things in Russia and so he went to Holland and observed these amazing boats that that the Dutch made but he also he realized that they didn't do it with any plans. They had no plans for making the works. Every single carpenter in himself knew what to do was

that this a tradition that been passed on for generations and he knew how to carve the wood and what shape it should be and what length and everything. And uh he realized that even though they produced extraordinary boats, he realized he could never bring this method back to Russia without importing all the people. It wasn't something that's reproducible. And then he went to England and he saw the boats that the English are making and he realized yes this is broken down into plans and actually everybody anybody can build this kind of boat. It's very simple. Yeah.

So in that sense it's very standardized and so the English then uh to build the the Royal Navy they created the very first factory in the world down near Portsouth to produce ropes and all sorts of things. So instead of everything being built by hand by a skilled artisan who knew how to do it, it produced a standard method of producing it which which lots of people could learn very very quickly. And so they're able to generate produce vast numbers of ships and end up controlling the oceans. Sometimes it seems European government is obsessed with standardization. It's not good when governments standardize things. No,

because as soon as a government standardized something, then it becomes something which is a matter of law. But as soon as it becomes a law, then to do it differently, you're breaking the law. You're committing a criminal offense, which means it's impossible for there to for to improve things or to have any innovation. Yeah. So as soon as the state steps in and standardizes things, it means progress then becomes impossible because in order to make progress, you need to be able to experiment, find a better way of doing something.

But in order to experiment, you have to have the freedom to experiment and to do it differently. And if the law says you have to do it this way, then you can't experiment without breaking the law. So lots of restrictions then in in in medical research and lots and lots of restrictions because of uh these kind of laws which are laid down. So it's good to have best practice but also to have the freedom to be able to improve you know the best practice. Okay. Another important function for a leader is controlling.

And so that means you know once you set out the plan once you made sure that everybody's clear about what their particular role in fulfilling this plan is and everybody knows what their own individual tasks are and how these individual tasks fit into the bigger plan. It's very important then that once the bowl once the you know the ball has started rolling the it's very important for the leader to keep tabs on what's happening to be able to be aware of everything that's going on be aware of the overall picture

but also to be aware of what all the different groups within that bigger team might be doing what the individuals in that team might be doing and uh to make sure that everything is going smoothly. So if we can see one particular person's got stuck you know instead of just okay well that person's not doing very well has to go and step in and say well you know can I help you know is there a problem here is there an issue which we need to resolve because if you can't do your bit then even if if everybody else does their bit the whole thing is going to fail. Yeah.

So a leader then has to, you know, be listening, watching, observing, listening to reports about everything that's going on. So he can have his finger on the pulse as it were, walking around the factory, for example, observing what's happening. Um, but the goal actually is to intervene as little as possible. If things working well, then that's fine. Don't get involved. Just let just watch the person doing well. And uh so you know if everything is explained very clearly, everybody understands what they're doing,

then actually the leader can often just relax. Sorry, there's an old motto. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah. If it's fix and you might think, well, that person's doing it in that way. It's not the best way, but it's Yeah. It's it that's the way that person finds works best for that person and they're fulfilling the task and getting on with it. And so the goal is to intervene as little as possible actually if everything's work just you know maybe just a little touch here, a little touch there, just a little bit of guidance here or there

uh supporting people, encouraging people, motivating people but not intervening and interfering in another person's responsibility. Yeah. If they're doing it and it's working well, then they're exercising their responsibility and through exercising their responsibility, they're finding meaning in the work that they're doing. If you then interfere, then you're taking that responsibility away from them and that sense you're treating them as less than an adult, as less than a professional and actually taking away the joy of

that person. So you shouldn't interfere. Yeah. Get involved at things that are going on. Um so what's an ideal leader? Well, this is uh Lzu, the Chinese philosopher. He said the best leaders are those the people hardly know exist. Yeah. The best leaders are the ones that people hardly know they exist. The reason is because they set everything up so well that it just takes on a life of its own. If they didn't turn up for work, everything will carry on working because everything is set up. Everybody's motivated. Everybody knows clearly what they should be doing. Everybody feels this is my task. This is my responsibility. I want to do it

because I find meaning in it for its own sake. And then if the leader isn't around, everything carries on. Yeah. It's like So those are the best leaders. The next best leader is a leader who is loved and praised. So everybody loves them and praises them, says lots of nice things about them. Next comes the one who is feared. So people when when the person appears, everybody better get on get on with my work and work harder. So they're feared. And the worst is the leader who that is despised. Okay? They may be despised

because they don't organize things well or they don't plan things well or they don't care or they're not very knowledgeable. All kinds of reasons they may be despised. They go around Well, they go around shouting at people. Um all all sorts of reasons, you know, and people just despise them because they feel I'm getting on with it. What what's your problem? Why are you interfering? Yeah. And um just wanting to, you know, be there. So again, the best leaders value their words and use them sparingly.

So you they don't go around shouting at people. They don't go around telling people what to do but they just watch and you know sometimes may say something to encourage a person or if they can see something is going to go wrong then they very quickly intervene to correct it. Yes. But if otherwise they just let people get on. When he or she has accomplished their task the people say amazing we did it by ourselves. Yes. Okay. is a good leader. He makes everybody feel we did it. Yes. So everybody feels

that kind of incredible sense of accomplishment. We did it ourselves. Okay. The worst kind of a leader is the one who says I did it and takes all the credit and glory for themselves. Okay. So the best kind of leader is one that you know nobody notices there and everybody feels their own personal sense of accomplishment, personal sense of growth, uh feels they've done it themselves. So another important task of a leader then is evaluating. So one of the most important things that leaders have to do they have to make decisions.

But in order to make a decision what do you need? Sorry. A good brain. Yeah. You need authority. What else? ideas. What? Need some ideas. You need ideas. You need knowledge. Yes. Yeah. You need to have all the information, the knowledge to in order to be able to make an informed decision. That means you have to have understanding. You have to understand what's going on so you can make the right decision. So when a leader makes a good decision, things go well. If a leader, a person with a lot of responsibility makes a bad decision, this affects everybody

and everything under them. Okay? So it's one of the most important tasks of a leader then is decision- making and so it's why it's very important that leaders should study be well educated understand very well what's going on but also they have to you know it's called uh what's it called game playing or something when you imagine all sorts of different scenarios you imagine game theory yes you okay everything's going well that's fine but then you imagine well supposing this happened then what would I do supposing

that happened what would I So when something happens, a leader then is not surprised. They've already thought, okay, if this happens, that's the best thing to do. So they're not having it's called making a contingency plan. Making lots of contingency plans. So they go into a situation hoping plan A is going to work, but if plan A doesn't come about, they already got plan B, C, and D. Okay? And you can see this for example you know in government if you're a prime minister you have people sitting in your cabinet

and um you know one day somebody might resign. So I remember one day you probably remember Joanna Michael Hesseline had a row with Mrs. Thatcher and he walked out of the cabinet of a situation and you know at the end of the meeting Mrs. Cabinet announced who his replacement was. she'd already figured it out, you know, if he goes then I'm going to put promote this person if he So it already work game planned everything so not not taken by surprise and oh well um that was a bit of a shock I'll um announce his replacement in a week's time

and you can see that's what's going on now in the situation in the UK Ukraine what happened was completely unexpected nobody had any contingency plans what happens if this what happens if that sorry plan Putin had a plan because he had a big plan and when this when this happened he realized that's an opportunity to do this but it wasn't that Putin planned it to happen in this way it just that when these events came about and these opportunities came about he stepped in and seized the opportunity the west on the other hand Europe America completely taken by surprise had couldn't imagine

that this would happen. Yeah. So they weren't good leaders. They weren't planning. They weren't thinking all the different possibilities that might take place. They just assume that things just carry on like this. So a leader then has to be able to understand okay think okay if I'm going if I do this then what are the possible consequences going to be? Yes. So sometimes a bad leader then will make a decision and then from that will flow all kinds of bad consequences which he didn't expect as a disaster. Yeah.

So you have to think okay if I do this how is it going to affect this and this and this and this and this what are the ripples going to be okay maybe it may look like a good idea at the time you know but what are the implications going to be in the future in in the days weeks months years even decades into the future so people need to think about these things a good leader then he makes the decision and implements it but then of course you have to live with consequences of the decision. So you have to think about what are the potential consequences good

and bad and weigh up the potential consequences and then decide is it the right thing to do or not. Yeah. So again it's a very important thing to be able to do again evaluating your team's performance. So you evaluate so this is the plan. Okay how are we fulfilling the plan? Was it a good plan? you know, how can the plan be improved the next time around? So, continually reflecting, continually thinking about what it is that we're doing. Okay. Oh, that didn't work so well. Next time we'll do it this way. Yeah.

So, always learning. So, it's always a learning process. So, leaders then should always be learning. Should always know much more than anybody else on their team. And um always thinking about, you know, have we what point do have we really achieved the task? But also should be leaders should be very self-critical evaluating their own performance. Oh, when I said that to that person, it didn't have didn't go so well. Maybe, you know, I need to change and do things differently next time around. These are all sort of things. Again, this is some of your moon's ideas on if I see a how he evaluates things. If I see a high team average, I think

that is good. But if I see that each member on a team has a similar high average, then I value that team even more because I know that is a stable team. Once you're stable as a leader, your team will grow. For your first few months or even the first year, it's too easy to tell about you. Too early to tell about you. Thank you. But after a long time if your teams are still up and down with some members having very high results and others very low results even though your team average is very good the situation reflects your poor organization.

So again one needs to look and evaluate and adjust things so that everybody you know can feel that they're working well. Everyone feels that uh you know things are you know suited to to them. Okay. Another thing is very important is motivating. So different theories about motivating leaders need to motivate people. One very common theory I think since the 50s and 60s is the idea of theory X and theory Y. So the theory X as a leader you think oh you know the people on my team nobody wants to do any work. They don't like working. They dislike working. In order to get them to work I have to force them or got to bribe them or got to shout at them to get them to work.

and uh you know they need a strong direction and they're not very creative, they're not very responsible. So I have to keep on organizing and telling them and giving them directions. So if one thinks about the members of your team that that's the way they are then of course your style of leadership will suit that. If on the other hand you think well actually you know work is good for people. I enjoy working. People enjoy working. When people, you know, have work and a task which they feel is meaningful

and valuable, they are self-motivated. They don't need to be driven. They don't need to be shouted out or pushed. They become self-motivated because they enjoy the work for its own sake. And uh you know then people often enjoy getting tasks and targets and being stretched cuz if you can be stretched and pushed out of your comfort zone and you can find wow I could do something I didn't expect didn't think I could do then you feel good about yourself. you feel you're growing because you're being stretched

and um you know then also you expect people to be responsible and to want to be creative and so you delegate you give people responsibility you encourage them to be creative. So again that's a different that leads a different style of leadership. If you think about people, if you think people are theory X, that's the way people are, or as a leader, you think people are like theory Y, different views of human nature, then of course your leadership style will be different. Now, of course, there always are some people who are bone idle

and do need a you know, a carrot or a stick, but generally speaking most people most generally speaking, most people want to be happy. Most people want to enjoy their work. Most people want to work hard because at the end of the day, you feel good if you worked hard and you've been able to accomplish something. Sense of accomplishment. Now, that's what the way most people are like that actually. And so, if you bear that in mind and just, you know, use a theory X only for the odd person, then things are likely to go much better. Okay?

And you know, of course, you know, if you treat everybody like they're all lazy, then the hardworking ones, what are they going to do? The ones who enjoy work and you treat them badly, what are they going to do? Or before they get walk out, walk out and think, I'm going to work somewhere else. I'm going to work I'm going to find a company, a business where they can appreciate me, where they can understand that I enjoy working. They value my kind of ability. They'll give me the freedom to be creative

and to be responsible. And so the best people, they migrate. They leave those kind of rubbish businesses and they go and work somewhere else. I always remember you remember Woolworth when it was around. I always remember walking into Woolworth. And do you ever remember the people used to work in Wworth? What they were always you know, anyway, they weren't the best quality workers actually. And whereas if you walked into a John Lewis, it's very different feeling atmosphere in the store. And the people working John Lewis, they're all partners. They all have a, you know, an interest in the success of the company. They all have the freedom to be able to do things

and interact. And Woolworth though is incredibly badly managed. It was very much ran on a a theory um X kind of thing. So you can, you know, you go into these different kinds of shops and you can, if you just hang around these different kinds of shops, you pick up the atmosphere in the shop. You pick up the relationship between the manager and the people who working there and you can tell, you know, after a while whether that business is going to be successful or not. Another important thing as a leader is delegating.

So how much people delegate depends a lot upon their character leaders character. So for example it also depends upon your subordinates as I said how knowledgeable they are how experienced they are how socially skilled they may be. So if you have people working on your team who are very knowledgeable and skilled then you can delegate a lot of the authority to them. You can delegate a lot of the decision- making to them and actually they'll thrive on that. They'll thrive on that delegation. On the other hand, if you realize actually this person they've just joined the team, I'm not sure about them. It's better to, you know, just to watch them first

and to make sure they're given directions. much easier to take away control over a person than to impose it. If you give someone too much or too much responsibility and freedom and they mess up and you have to step in, it's much worse than supervising someone quite closely to start with realizing actually they're quite capable. I don't need to supervise them that well. I can trust them and then you give them that freedom and responsibility. It's much better to do it that way to supervise somebody new closely

and make sure they know how to do it. If they don't know how to do it, then you need to be supervising them so they you can teach them and show them what needs to be done. But then once they know how to do it, you can see they know, you can trust them and then you can delegate more and more to them. But it's, you know, to to go the other way around is actually quite damaging. Not good at all. And bye. Thanks. And then the situation again, it depends on the task. Oh, okay. It's cold out there tonight.

And uh it depends also on the situation, uh the task that needs to be done, you know. So, for example, if you're um you know, if you're in charge of a fire engine and um you just arrived in the burning building, you know, as the captain of the fire engine, you have to make a lot of decisions very very quickly and you have to, you know, basically do that yourself. Um and also depends sometimes in the time constraints. So, we'll have a look at the the the sort of spectrum of delegation in a minute. There's Sam Moon again. At the same time, let your members give suggestions about the best method to use

and give comments about themselves. If you're confident of having the best way, do not just insist that your members follow your way. If one of them comes up with to suggest his own idea, even if you think he's wrong, don't say, "Nope, just shut up and listen to me." Rather, try to find the good points at his suggestion and agree with him on those. If you come to realize that someone is actually better than you in some way, then you can always accept suggestions from him. You need to have vast information.

So for example, you look at someone like Alan Sugar who left school when he was about 15 or 16 and who never went to university. He had actually established and set up many incredibly successful and profitable companies. You might think, well, how did he do it? Well, the reason is because he surrounds himself with people who are much better educated than he is, who much more knowledgeable about different things than he is. And he his good quality is managing people and you know being able to take in the information they give him

and they make good decisions. So that sort of good leaders like that that they that try to surround themselves with people who are better than themselves, more knowledgeable, more capable themselves and then they their quality their skill is managing the team, taking care of all the individuals, you know, formulating the task clearly so everybody can work, you know, towards that task, fulfilling that task. But it's very important here. Somebody comes up with a better idea than you have, should you be happy or unhappy? Happy. Happy saying great. I got people

that know more than me. So you should harness their ideas and put and put say that's a great idea. Let's do it. Yeah. And how do you think that person feels? Very good. They feel really good. They feel appreciate the value that person is able to appreciate what I have to give and is able to you know take it on board and make my idea you know put the whole team behind it. Yeah. So in that sense leaders need to be very humble not think I'm the leader I have a monopoly on ideas you know if I didn't come up with the idea obviously it's a rubbish idea

and some leaders they feel very threatened if they have people who come up with better ideas than they do but actually a good leader doesn't feel threatened they just feel happy great you know I'm glad somebody's got better ideas than me um is there a temptation for leaders to feel that because they're in power they're also more valuable somehow so they associate power leadership with their sense of value in the group. So if they if they see somebody else who has a bad idea to them and acknowledging

that it's almost like transferring value to that person away from themselves. Yeah. So there's temptation to right but that's what a good leader does because as LSU said a good leader is invisible because actually they're just harnessing all the abilities and talents of everyone on their team towards fulfilling the task and their gift is not that they got all the best ideas. Their gift is and able to formulate the task, keep everybody happy, help everyone to you know take care of everybody and keep the whole team focused on fulfilling the task

and um making sure the people on the team you know he's got the knowledgeable people the kind of people he needs on the team. So is there a difference between a leader and a manager? Uh yes there is. So managing is um much more dayto-day. So you know for example in order to get from London to New York on a ship well okay so you give the direction but managing the ship means adjusting to the waves and the weather and everything like that. You're continuously almost intuitively having to make it up as you go along when you're when you're when you're

um navigating or steering a ship. You know, you feel through this and that's why you need to have all the knowledge to be able to do it because you can you're managing the situation and as things pop up, you're managing it. So that's where you're going. But in order to get there, you have to manage all the little events that come up, all the little mistakes that happen, all the little things that were unexpected. You have to manage everything that comes along. But so you need so leaders also need to be good managers in

that sense. It's not enough just to be charismatic. You have to be able to manage things when they go wrong. Okay, this has gone wrong. What am I going to do? How am I going to adjust to that? So, as a leader, a visionary is somebody who sees an overall goal and you can see the big Well, that that's part of it. But that's not enough because they're function that it's a functional there lots of functions that need to be fulfilled by the leader. one is is the task and be able to explain it but you have to do all the other things as well. It's not enough to be a visionary. There are plenty of visionaries who never got anything done. You know you can have the vision

but unless you know how to get from A to B in a practical workable way and you can put together a team and a plan and you know a lot of these details it doesn't require a lot of vision. And it requires a lot of hard work and a lot of hard thinking. Yeah.