from the book:
“Most people now spend most of their waking lives at some kind of work. One view of working and personal life in this year, 1984, is that it has become impersonalized. The excellent corporations seem to be the ones that have minimized this trend.” [Peters & Waterman: In Search of Excellence. New York: Harper Row, 1982]
“Yet the others prevail. They tend to be characteristic of high-level management that has lost touch with the human needs and the creative energies of the people down below. And so, important decisions affecting so many lives are made impersonally. Robert Townsend has made this point effectively in Further Up the Organization.” [Townsend, Robert: Further up the Organization. New York: Knopf, 1984.]
“We see that in 1984 people need a more personalized and participative connection to their lives and work. Years of divorce, television, loud music, drugs and the mobility and non-availability of parents have caused ‘Impersonism.’ Guidance, coaching, and feedback have been replaced with ‘doing’ many things without solid, authentic relationships. People have adapted. They do not expect too much from their leaders in government and organizational life.
“In 1957, S.I. Hayakawa predicted that there would be places where people would go for sex without communication, and Plato’s Retreat came into reality in the 1970’s. They would not expect good relationships, he predicted. Has that come to pass? He believed, then, that extreme amounts of television watching would pull people away from each other. Many people have fallen into television viewing as a simple, relaxing alternative to personal relationships. Relationships at work or at home take work while television does not. Surely it has some merit and value. Yet a good thing taken to the extreme can and will become a weakness, and it has become that for many.”
What Is Impersonism?
It is the inability and/or unwillingness to see human relationships as crucial in work, business, and family life, church and in social settings. Technology today flourishes as does impersonal leadership in politics, finance, service and most human endeavors. In the book I was optimistic because I believed that people were vigilant to the phenomenon but now, I see that I was wrong, as I review leadership in technology-based companies. There are dramatic exceptions to this generalized observation. Only with the herculean leadership and management in some of the outstanding companies referred to in this NALS course did we see ‘Impersonism’ beaten. It is our hope that many ... not few managers will see the need to provide and promote NALS as the solution to ‘Impersonism’ in organization life for today and all time. It seems obvious, as I talk with 25-38 year old people who earn a living wage that they strongly feel that they have missed some basic education in learning how to communicate with peers and colleagues, customers and clients, neighbors, family, relatives and friends. Instead of nasty e-mails and simple, non-personal conflict resolution through text messages there are ways to be more effective. These ways are found inside this course in ideas, concepts, skills and stories. Assimilate them and live long to prosper.
Theory L Management
The Theory L Management concept is built on an old premise. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. It requires sensitivity to the other person, who, though he/she reports to you, is a fellow human being.
Does Love Work Better Than Fear?
We have found that leaders who practice love have greater success over the long run than leaders who practice fear. We have also found that some managers are afraid to practice love. They tend to fear it and its positive motivational power.
Theory L Management is founded on Caring, Respecting, Accepting, Valuing, Encouraging and Understanding. It applies downward, upward, to the side and outside the organization. It is not soft. It is hard-nosed in its application. It does not mean touchy-feely behavior, just common decency and Business Common Sense™. We elaborate on Caring, Respecting, Accepting, Valuing, Encouraging and Understanding in the section on Relationship Excellence™ and how a leader establishes a winning Zone of Commitment™.
The Future Direction of Leadership
There is more than enough fear among people at work as we approach the working world well into the twenty-first century.
Leaders, managers and employees all want to be treated according to Theory L Management. People who are treated in a way that is Caring, Respecting, Accepting, Valuing, Encouraging and Understanding tend to return that same behavior to their leaders.
Cynics naturally doubt these assertions. People who have lost or been hurt find Theory L Management to be idealistic and therefore unrealistic. These people lose to the competition that does find it realistic. These people also shortchange themselves because they are capable of changing and growing. It does require an organizational commitment and transformation in most cases. This is both desirable and achievable.
Many people have gotten to positions of power without possessing the proper personal skill power. Therefore, they believe there is no need to change. Many are callous. Some are ruthless. Some see no connection between organizational success and the humanizing, decent way to treat people. We do. And we hope that you do. This is the basis of The New American Leadership System™. We also hope that you want to take a quantum leap in your own practice of leadership. The payoff for you and for your family at work and your family at home is definitely worth it.
Leadership and Management
Everything of value begins with sound leadership. Nearly everyone has an idea about leadership. So do we. Try it on.
Leadership or Management?
How do you differentiate? After years of working with leaders there are some clear distinctions. Leaders need to develop concepts of a vision, a mission and ideas about some deliverables. Managers need to implement the concepts, input to the vision, mission and deliverables and manage the resources-human, technical and capital, to get the job done.
Years ago, leadership was simply believed to be setting the vision and having managers and employees carry it out. This notion has lost power. It was simple when managers and other people were heavily dependent on the leader. In some instances, it is still so. But not in very many successful organizations.
So today we look at leadership and management and finding a blending. Sometimes leaders manage. Sometimes managers lead. Is initiative a quality of leadership? Is taking authority to execute responsibility without asking a quality of leadership? The answer to both questions is yes. Finally, is it leadership when a manager is so well tuned-in to his/her leader that he/she can go back and lead people to the mission in a special and unique way? Here many might disagree. The answer, we believe, is a judicious blend of leadership and management.
Our operational definition of leadership in the organization for the 21st Century is:
The Leader inspires people to want what he/she wants them to want and then to do it... without manipulation and by being direct and honest. If there is one major requirement of the leader, it is to be inspiring.
Does a leader want managers and employees to practice management and leadership according to this definition? Generally, yes. So, really effective leaders put high priority on developing managers and employees to become leaders. They would like them to lead projects, teams, branches, divisions and staff units, in line with the organization's vision, values and mission.
Winners: People with titles of manager and people without them can be winners.
1.Winners practice Ownership and never Rationalization.
2.Winners manage and lead