John W. Gardner described the task of leaders in his book No Easy Victories (Harper & Row, 1968): "The first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alive." In an age of continuous change, global competition, and corporate downsizing, "keeping hope alive" is a significant challenge. As leaders, we have the opportunity to approach this task in unique and creative ways. What does it mean to "keep hope alive?" It means that we provide those whom we lead with a definite image of where we are leading them to. We lead with a vision. A vision answers the question: "What is the result of all this hard work that we are being asked to do?"
Serving the Vision
A clear, exciting vision of where we, as a team, are going provides the direction and the consistency that inspires hope. Too often, "hope" gets lost in focus on the day-to-day maintenance and production tasks. A vision describes an outcome: "People who fly in our airlines feel safe and valued." "Business people in our community are successful and knowledgable about making effective business decisions." "The world communicates with our computers." These are simply stated, yet they are profound images that provide a sense of direction, define values and inspire hope for those who work in the organization.
Interconnecting Relationships
Effective leaders support and implement the vision by inspiring and encouraging others to carry out the activities that make it happen. This means that people must learn to work together as a team. It's as if everyone stands in a circle around the vision and examines it from a particular point of view. Then they determine what they can do and what it will take to implement the vision. Based on their unique skills, perspectives and goals, each member of the team will create a personal mission that reflects their role in attaining the vision. The leader must ensure that each point of view is shared clearly. Where differences in opin ions and values exist, the leader must facilitate a dialog that encourages mutual respect and understanding. This usually results in a commitment to a set of values that govern the team.
A leader builds relationships. She must first build relationships between herself and the members of the team. Her job is to develop working relationships between team members. Doing this requires an attitude that people are important. In the past, quarterly statistics have been important. Controlling production costs and maintaining quality have been the traditional focus of the leader. Now we must include "building relationships" as being part of the picture of organizational success.
An Investment in People
Interpersonal skills, managing conflict, valuing differences and developing potential have traditionally been left to the personnel and training departments. Leaders in today's world must supplement their traditional management skills with these. Keeping hope alive requires that we invest in the people.
Among many managers, there is the complaint that the work ethic of today's workers is lacking. That may be. Too often, loyalty to a company, investment of time and talent into a company's goals has not resulted in a return for the worker. They feel used, abused and discounted when the company changes directions. This message gets around. Investment is a two way street.
Too often, companies spend more energy, effort and dollars in upgrading computers and maintaining copy machines than they do in training and developing the people who carry out the mission of the organization. Tapping into the talent and the motivation of people is essential in a competitive marketplace. In addition, tapping into the talent of people can provide a valuable resource of creativity and innovation that is so necessary during times of transition and transformation. Effective leaders recognize that investing in their "human capital" provides creativity and energy that money simply cannot buy.
Supporting Solution Finders
One way that investing in people benefits a company is that the workers become solution finders. Solution finders are those people who are willing to invest time, energy and talent into implementing a vision. These people see themselves as part of a team that is going places. They look for solutions. They think about what works and what doesn't. They also bring new ideas to the table.
The role of the leader is to support and encourage solution finders by making sure that they have the necessary information and resources. Sometimes this means that the leader must clear the bureaucratic pathway. In this way, the leader becomes that catalyst for organization change. This is especially true when her team identifies changes in the environment that challenge the vision.
Change Agent
Two skills that support solution finders are resiliency and perseverance. Resiliency is the ability to bounce back after a setback. In any company, there will be times when the best ideas fail. Hope becomes fragile during times of failure. The leader's role is to redirect the thinking and the energy of her team so that they learn from the failure. She teaches them perseverance, creativity, and shows them the path out of the darkness. She helps them change.
As a change agent, the leader encourages changes in processes, systems, and procedures. The goal is to increase quality, reduce waste, and improve profitability. She cannot do this alone. Thus, not only does she understand how her own team works, based on its mission, but she also recognizes her interconnections with other teams in the organization. Understanding the perspectives of other functions within the organization is an important pre-requisite for the leader as change agent.
People won't change things unless it is of value to them. Therefore, the leader must rekindle the idea of hope in the minds of other leaders. She must find ways to encourage them to find solutions. The changes that result, benefit the whole organization. They are accomplished in concert.
Leadership for Today
Leadership in today's world requires the addition of relationship and coaching skills. Some people, often women, seem to come by these skills naturally. They do not replace the rational skills of planning, coordinating, directing, and analysis that have been staples in the past. With constant change as a significant variable in any organizational effort, building relationships, resiliency, adaptability and flexibility, keeping hope alive, and perseverance despite set backs have actually become survival skills.
The economic and demographic realities of our times require the addition of these skills to the traditional management and leadership skills. Where loyalty is fragile, the work ethic in flux and the employment contract ill-defined, command and control attitudes from leaders will not be successful. Collaboration, cooperation, being inspired by the vision and providing room for challenge and innovation will create the results needed in an ever changing world. We will succeed in the marketplace when rational leadership strategies are wedded to relationship leadership strategies. It is essential that we value both in order to keep hope alive in an ever changing world.