11/20/08
The Role of the Leader
Emerging Leaders Programme for Times of India Group
20-23 November 2008
Prof. Roger Lehman
INSEAD
Fontainebleau and Singapore
Three Concepts of Management
Leader as Leader as
EXPERT MANAGER
(specific skills, knowledge, (results through people who have
abilities, or relationships) more expertise than you, and focus
on building the business)
Leader as
Authority
(the authority of position or
hierarchical status)
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11/20/08
Three Concepts of Management
Leader as Leader as
EXPERT MANAGER
(specific skills, knowledge, (results through people who have
abilities, or relationships) more expertise than you, and focus
on building the business)
Leader as
Authority
(the authority of position or
hierarchical status)
Four Leadership Roles
• Director: Where are we going? (Visioning, Outside Orientation,
Global Mindset
• Enabler: How are we going to get there? (Designing & Aligning;
Empowering; Energizing
• Motivator: Dealing with obstacles underway (Team Building;
Rewarding & Feedback; Performance Management)
• Coach: Self-Awareness; Developing others and oneself
(Emotional Intelligence)
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Our Challenge, across all business as we grow, is to
encourage creativity but maintain focus and control
within our business….
High
Command and Control
• linear
• hierarchical short term Sustainable growth
• monologue vs. dialogue Difficult to achieve
change culture
• cascading
• non-empathic
• non-involving Inspirational
• non-innovative/creative • facilitating & engaging
• Dialogue
• experiential
Out of control
Deathbed
Deathbed • integrated
• motivational/encouraging
• involving
• innovative/creative
Low High
Alignment: Setting out the strategy is the easy bit ….
continually engaging and encouraging your team is
where the work is !!
1 % vision
99 % alignment
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Strategy is 5% inspiration … and 95%
damn’d hard work!
If you are busy doing other people’s work for them, you
won’t have the time for leadership
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Consider this…..
RELATIONSHIP WITH A LEARNING FROM
MENTOR MISTAKES
EXPERIENCE RESPONSIBILITY
COACHING
EDUCATION
PROVIDING
FEEDBACK
TRAINING
SUPPORT
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Training, coaching & support are …
RISK MANAGEMENT!
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The keys to leadership development
1. ASSIGNMENTS - CHALLENGE!
• Scope: increase in number of people, dollars and functions to
manage
• Project/task force assignment (integrative skills):
working with other experts, defining objectives and working collaboratively
to deliver a result; meeting the often unclear needs/demands of sponsors
• Cross-functional assignments (integrative skills):
moving to a job where one has no expertise, learning how to set an
agenda and get results through people who have more expertise than
oneself
• International or trans-regional assignments
• Change projects: fixing or stabilizing a failing operation or team
• Entrepreneurial projects: the go ahead and resources to test
our a new product, project or initiative
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2. Hardship testing (resilience and EQ)
• Business failure and mistakes; ideas that fail, deals that fall apart
• Demotions, missed promotions and poor job opportunities
• Subordinate performance problems: confronting a subordinate with a
serious performance problem
• Personal trauma: dealing with a life crisis like being fired, divorce,
death, illness
3. Risk Management
• Assessment of the skills, motives, attitudes of the person
• Clarification of the goals and targets in the new assignment
• Coaching (supervision or informal)
• Mentoring : access to people with experience
• Role models
• Training
• Access to people with experience
Leadership development during career
transitions
People develop through key transitions
Stretch assignment: fundamental role changes
• strengths become weaknesses
Multidimensional challenge: need new skills, relationships
and styles of interacting with others
Automatic reflex: relying on what has worked in the past
Provokes deep self-questioning: Who am I? Who do I want
to become? Do I have what it takes? Is it worth it?
Process of learning by doing: iterative, trial and error
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What do you have to give up?
FROM TO
Technical-functional-operational Broad-based business perspective,
expertise base results through others, setting
direction, channeling the expertise to
others
Strong within-group relationships Strong and varied relationships across
(e.g. direct reports, peers, inside the division groups, inside and outside the
or section)
organization
Being part of a team Maintaining social distance
Fixing mistakes Teaching others how to work properly,
coaching
What do you have to give up?
FROM TO
Talking and showing what you Listening, encouraging others to talk
know and interpreting
Only being comfortable with what is Making connections between a vast
familiar and interesting number of parameters
Thinking and acting for short-term Linking up the long-term and short-
performance terms so as to provide appropriate
direction
Style: involving, knowing your
Style: analyzing, knowing &
people, persuasive
critiquing the numbers, directive
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Keller Case: Group Assignment
• How effective has Keller been during his tenure at
Konigsbrau?
• How well has he managed Petrou?
• As Keller, what would you do upon your return?
• As Keller, what medium-term career management issues
do you face?
Wolfgang Keller: What Happened??
Meeting with Hausler to approve budget
• Grill Keller on loss of volume at newly purchased Salonika plant – big drop in sales
after $10M acquisition; insufficient information in budget proposal. Also new proposals
to increase profits are inconsistent with earlier strategic plan
• Strained dinner afterwards. Carrelas comments that Keller will have difficulties if he
retires as Chairman. (Carrelas had warned HQ that there was a lot of “nonsense” in
the budget)
Meeting with Carellas
• “hope you have learned a bit more about management”
Petrou had done well
• Positive comments from four management committee members
• Good job of presenting annual budget to Munich HQ
• Impressive progress on planning new product launch & innovative ideas for
encouraging sales force retention
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Keller asks for meeting with Hausler’s assistant to discuss his
problems with Carrelas
• “Problem isn’t Carrelas, it’s you! You don’t provide adequate info, corporate
staff is upset that you go your own way. The crisis is over, and now things
should be done in the normal way.”
• Messanges: you won’t go further unless you learn to work within the system
and with corporate staff; you have to fully cooperate with your boss; and we
weren’t sure that you have developed strong 2nd level managers to take over.
Keller is determined to spend more time on HQ relations and to
delegate further, making the best use of Petrou’s potential.
Postscript
• Petrou left Konigsbrau and took a consulting job
• It took 18 months and 50 interviews with outside candidates for
corporate to accept Keller’s recommendation of putting Chorafas
in the commercial director position
• Although there was a difficult period due to economic conditions,
sales eventually reached $300m
• Everyone agreed that Keller learned to delegate and was more
willing to work with the corporate “bureaucrats”, although his
preference for action and hands-on remained
• 3 years after the case, Keller was named MD of the company’s
flagship subsidary
• Haussler saw a younger version of himself in Keller
• 2 years later Keller was named to the Vorstand (mgmt board),
given responsibility for “difficult markets” in Asia
• 2 year later he reported that he was “doing well and loving it!!”
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