Why Small Planes Need
the Better Pilots
For Leaders who make
Followers produce better
outcomes
Governance
Growth
Strategies
Global
Expansions
The only definition of a
leader is someone with
followers.
Peter Drucker – The
Leader of the Future
Think of the corporation
as a community of
people spread over
miles of hills, fields and
forests. To get
everyone moving in a
new direction, leaders
need to be dispersed
across the countryside.
Worley & Lawler 2006
article in readings
What Leaders Really Do
• Most small companies are overmanaged and under-led
• Many (young ?) people can play
important leadership roles
• Leaders are everywhere
• There is a difference between
leading and managing
Management v. Leadership
• Management keeps things
orderly – the Rowers
• Leadership keeps things moving
forward – the Steerers
• Managers plan and budget,
control, solve problems
• Leaders set directions,
motivate and inspire
Visionary
Leadership
•
•
•
•
•
Be enthusiastic and inspire to action
Help others to perform in a team
Challenge the existing process
Be a consistent example as leader
Celebrate achievement and show
emotion
Clearly the leader who commands compelling
causes has an extraordinary potential influence
over followers. James MacGregor Burns
What makes a good leader?
Personal experiences :
Say 3 positive things about them
 Say 3 negative things about them
Conclusions
• No one is perfect
• Everyone has strengths and
weaknesses
• We can laugh about everyone
• We can admire everyone
• But: We CANNOT hide!
Leader Formation
• Leaders nearly always had an
opportunity to lead early in their careers
– Trauma
– Planning by the individual
– Connected to established leaders
– Transition planning by the corporation
– Opportunity to broaden and grow beyond
narrow managerial base
– Formal changes in Title/Education
Leadership and Management Audits
• Australian and NZ leaders
are strong on:
– Hard skills – analysis,
budgeting, planning,
controlling
• Weaker on:
– Soft skills –
interpersonal skills,
communication,
evaluating
performance and
giving feedback,
coaching, motivating leadership.
Where are Leaders special?
• Which are the most important
characteristics of leaders?
Leadership realities
• Cannot exist without others
• No followers = no leader
• Only followers (e.g., a team, a workforce)
make leading possible
• Without communication relationships
are impossible
• Communication is the making and talking
of sense
• How we talk, and perceive, shapes what
is possible (e.g. of language you use to
set up a team)
Empowerment
• Leaders enable others to achieve
greatness - and give them full
credit for results
– Information
– Responsibility
– Trust
– Authority
– Tools
Leadership and you:
Total person involvement
• Using communication skills without honesty makes
you manipulative and puts sustainable relationships
at risk
You lie - you die (as a leader)
• If (someone believes) you only say things to get
things then you are unlikely to inspire trust or retain
credibility
• You are your communication (how else will people
know you as a person and as a leader?)
Leadership can be
taught
Absolutely!
Here is what leaders really do:
WWW.WAIKATO.AC.NZ
0800 WAIKATO
www.management.ac.nz l 0800 300 320