the choice — to be a manager or an individual contributor. Winners perform well in either position.
Winners come in all sizes, shapes and with different job responsibilities. Leaders build their people into winners. And winners do not wait for leaders. They lead, take responsibility and perform in life in an empowered way.
We have provided concepts and skills for winners to master as part of The New American Leadership System™.
Over the years it has become clear to me that Character is the central foundation of excellent management and leadership for students of The New American Leadership System™. The 21st Century has started. It is yours to structure. We hear much about the concept of Character as essential to political, organizational, and governmental effectiveness. It penetrates religion and spiritual life. Simply put, Character is a blend of ethics and morality. It is thinking and doing good, right, helpful and better all the time. It is not its opposite: bad, wrong, hurtful and worse. In the audio clips, you will hear references to Character Based Management and Character Coaching. All of the concepts and skills of The New American Leadership System™ are defined in our text as well as in the audio clips. They are the direct practical applications of longstanding principles of high character demonstrated throughout history. In our experience, the value of using our Character Based Management and Coaching techniques has very long-lasting positive impact — beyond your lifetime in many cases — with your students, employees, family, co-workers, suppliers, and everyone else with whom you associate. A well-structured life of personal Character development and Character Coaching will leave you with a legacy well worth leaving.
“Effective Leaders Manage and Effective Managers Lead”
The Underlying Foundation of Leadership and Management
Our goal as effective leaders is to empower and ensure maximum levels of ownership-not rationalization-at all levels of the organization, starting at the top.
Management is the Process of Getting People to Want What You Want Them to Want ... and Then Getting It Done.
•by being straight and open about what you want ... without manipulation
•by being sure to find out what others want too by checking it out with them
•by applying it up, down and sideways ... whether you are a manager by positional power or not
•It may come as a surprise that super managers perform precisely as leaders do minus the requirement to be visionaries. They may be visionaries but it is not a requirement.
Self-Management is for individual contributors who do not manage people directly. They need to get people to want what they want people to want and then to get it done. So they need to apply the same process as the manager does. Sometimes they have fewer and sometimes they have more people to influence and persuade.
The use of honesty and truth, principle, integrity, good and right practices are valued and appreciated by employees, customers and peer managers. Effectiveness, quality of products and services, productivity and efficiency, ownership and commitment are assured outcomes of departments, units, plants, labs and companies that are managed according to The New American Leadership System™.
These definitions are not traditional and they are not textbook definitions. They are built on personal ownership and personal commitment. Therefore, management is not just a position on an organization chart. Nor is it them — it is YOU.
Management Skills
Management and Self-Management Skills fall into three categories:
1.Technical skills are those that come from knowledge and training in a specific field or functional area of expertise.
2.Conceptual skills are those that aid in understanding how one's role and work fit into the whole of the organization. How does my part affect the rest of the organization? What am I needed for? How do I depend on others and they on me to serve our customers?
3.Human skills are the skills necessary to work effectively with other humans. They are also the skills that enable one to understand past behavior, predict future behavior and guide, coach or direct the behavior of people to get what you want. Coaching must be without manipulation, through direct, open and honest communication.
The lack of Human Skills and Conceptual Skills are first and second in reasons for most business failure. The New American Leadership System™ deals with both.
Responsibility, Accountability, Authority and Power
Operational Definitions:
Accountability — The reward and/or punishment given out by the manager who assigned the responsibility and also expected that it be done well.
Authority — The decision-making and problem-solving power that is given or is taken freely without permission.
Power — Either positional or personal.
•The source of Positional Power is from above. Someone above determines that you are now the person in a position of authority.
•The source of Personal Power is within an individual. Personal Power is given to an individual from below, from the side and from above based on ability and skill to influence and persuade.
•In most organizations, Personal Power is more effective in achieving results than Positional Power.
Ownership vs. Rationalization
Ownership is taking full responsibility, accountability and authority for your own:
•Feelings
•Attitudes
•Knowledge
•Behavior
•Performance
•Relationships
•Skills
... or the lack of them ... . It is a can be and can do philosophy. With it you will accept yourself for your strengths and shortcomings and freely express your level of ownership and get it done.
Rationalization is the opposite of Ownership. It is:
•Blaming others
•Making excuses
•Explaining mistakes away
It is a can't do and can't be philosophy. With it you will not accept yourself for your strengths and shortcomings, and you will close out options to freely express your potential, and you cannot achieve high levels of success.
The New American Leadership System™ affords everyone the opportunity to become a manager and not a managee. It redefines the real world of organizational life so as to give power, freedom and authority to those who seek it. It is completely consistent with the rapidly changing needs of organizations and the people who will make them flourish in the coming decades.
Management of Behavior by the Measurement of Behavior
It is foolish to assume that the management of humans is a “ho-hum”. It is dangerous to assume that individuals, teams and total organizations are currently functioning at a high level. Experienced leaders know that errors or miscalculations have had a high cost for them and their companies. Ask them.
Managers and leaders can best utilize The New American Leadership System™ by checking out their assumptions and uncertainty about specific behavior and people's propensity to behave in a given way with concrete