Why So Many Senior Managers Become Junior Leaders

Here are five solid reflections of how ‘Junior Leaders’ operate, compared to real leaders:

1. ‘Junior Leaders’ are always talking about the need for ‘change’, and so they threaten to rearrange all that the organisation’s teams have become comfortable with in recent times. Real leaders never talk about the need for change, instead they talk about the need for progress. Interestingly, you can’t have progress without change, but the point is that progress is the goal, change is the strategy. No one should talk strategy before they discuss goals, and yet ‘Junior Leaders’ do this most of the time. Rather than present the taste first and then the recipe, they do the reverse and complicate matters, confuse and depress people and fail to introduce change successfully. All of this usually happens because ‘Junior Leaders’ are forever playing catch-up with the real leaders in business. The problem is that they only see the ‘changes’ made by real leaders, and not the progress goals and true motives of real leaders.
   
   
2. ‘Junior Leaders’ place an emphasis on ‘getting budget’, or at least they do with the sales force, whereas real leaders focus on potential. Real leaders make absolutely sure that everyone in the business knows about the need to achieve budget, and about progress to budget, and they engage all teams in this process – in the language of the teams. However, for real leaders budget represents ‘minimum performance expectation’, because aiming for potential is the major goal. To real leaders, potential represents immediate opportunity to improve service and sales, and it reflects ‘future’ opportunity through market expansion. So, by being limited to getting budget, ‘Junior Leaders’ engage the business in indulgence. By focusing on potential, Real leaders commit the business to excellence.
   
   
3. ‘Junior Leaders’ operate as ADMINISTRATORS, while real leaders behave as ARCHITECTS. Real leaders understand that the role of management is not to manage staff; it is in fact to ‘manage markets and lead staff’. To perform this critical architectural business role, real leaders understand that they must be connected to markets, so as to understand and influence markets. The medical profession learns about the human condition from serious, ongoing study, and not by ‘talking to patients’ now and then. ‘Junior Leaders’ might occasionally run ‘focus groups’ and attend customer functions when they have time, but these two disconnected processes are the equivalent of merely ‘talking to patients’. Real leaders form a ‘board of customers’ and meet with the same group several times over many years, hence their connection is serious. And such a connection means that Real leaders have external accountability to perform for markets, as well as internal accountability to perform for the business. And at a personal level, if ‘Junior Leaders’ lose their jobs they also lose their power, for their power was created internally.
   
   If real leaders lose their jobs they retain their power, for their ultimate power is external: involving knowledge of markets, influence of markets and leadership of staff into markets!
   
   
4. ‘Junior Leaders’ talk about improving service for customers, and then contradict themselves by offering poor management service to the organisation’s teams. Real leaders practice superior service within the business and commit teams to giving excellent service to customers. Talking about service to customers means nothing if service from management is less than impressive. ‘Junior Leaders’ believe that paying salaries to staff automatically earns team spirit, team work, a commitment to service and results. It doesn’t. The money goes into bank accounts, wallets and purses but not into the minds and hearts of staff. Real leaders understand two facts: one is that service is like a disease in business, positive or negative, and the disease starts with management, flows to staff and then infects customers. Two is that a service commitment to customers is the equivalent to an organisation of what a declaration of war is to a nation. A serious and worthy customer service commitment should, like a declaration of war, engage all divisions in an external team focus on victory.
   
   
5. ‘Junior Leaders’ offer to markets products or services that are MUNDANE, in the sense that they are identical to most other offerings and easily accessed. This is why ‘Junior Leaders’ are constantly experiencing problems with reducing margins. Real leaders offer MODERN products or services to markets, which simply means that such items are always providing improved business performance to customers. So ‘Junior Leaders’ respond to what customers want (good products/services, at good prices with support), while real leaders respond to what customers want and to what they need (better business results). Accordingly, ‘Junior Leaders’ are involved in distribution and real leaders are involved in distribution and contribution! This explains why real leaders have sales teams that are ‘Gung-Ho!’ and expansive, while ‘Junior Leaders’ have sales teams that are ‘Ho-Hum’ and expensive.

Organisations that are run by ‘Junior Leaders’ can produce quite reasonable results, despite the obvious defects outlined. The reason for this is that most organisations are run by ‘Junior Leaders’ and so the defects go unnoticed. Ultimately, what separates the two kinds of senior managers are their greatest goals. For ‘Junior Leaders’ the goal is achieving SUCCESS and for real leaders the goal is improving VALUE. Again, one focuses on internal demands while the other builds additional strength to deal with external demands. Real leaders know that building value not only assures continued ‘success’ for the business, it provides satisfaction for customers and exhilaration for staff.

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