Sabado, Enero 26, 2013

Leadership Development by Jolito Ortizo Padilla


Education and training in management needs to emphasise not only interpersonal skills but also a flexibility of approach, diagnostic ability and the realisation that the most effective form of leadership behavior is a product of the total leadership situation.

According to Investors in People,leadership development is not just a corporate issue: "The ability to create and communicate a clear vision ,and motivate people to deliver it, is as important to the small entrepreneur as to the leader of 1000 people. All organizations should be identifying the managers they will need in a few years' time and developing them. All top managers should be planning their succession and supporting the people who will step into their shoes when it's time to move on.

Extensive research undertaken by the GA Consultancy reveals that consistently poor ratings accorded to public sector leaders is a key cause for concern during a period of major reform.The survey of 1900 public sector managers, mostly at middle and junior level, reveals that only 33 percent of managers rate the leadership demonstrated by their most senior management team as high quality. Although a wide and varied range of training activities is taking place, the majority of managers perceive a low priority placed on leadership development. Only a quarter of respondents claimed their organizational budget for developing leaders is adequate and organizations are still tending to rely on traditional and formalized methods of developing leaders.

Referring to action centered leadership model, Padilla  identifies seven key principles of leadership development that can be applied successfully in different kinds of organizations in both public and private sectors:
  • Development of strategy for leadership for each of the three level of leadership -operational, strategic and team.
  • Selection of those with high potential for becoming effective leaders.
  • Training for leadership that implies instruction with specific end in view. Identify your business training needs in the leadership context and assign priorities.
  • Career development through giving person the right job at the right time. People grow as leaders through the actual practice of leading.
  • Line managers as leadership developers by developing the individuals potential and sharing their knowledge of leadership.
  • Corporate culture that is valued at all levels and should encourage a climate of self development in leadership.
  • The chief who should be  leading from the front and who owns the problem of growing leaders.
The seven principles are complementary and are likely to have a synergistic effect if applied as a whole. Although a simple framework, Padilla maintains the seven the principles from the first coherent and effective approach for growing leaders.

GA Consultancy report found that around a third of employees surveyed had never worked for, or been motivated by an exceptional leader.

The leadership jigsaw has six interlinking pieces: vision , example , relationship, motivation, empowerment and communications as a guide to the measurement and development of leadership skills.

Vision -Do you:
  • Work hard at communicating your vision for the organization to all staff at  all  levels?
  • Understand that your vision must appeal to your staff at both an emotional and practical level if they are to join you on your journey?
  • Understand the culture and value of your organization and their impact on its future development?
  • Recognized blind alleys?
Motivation-Do you:
  • Understand that every member has a different set of motivational stimuli?
  • Explain your decisions in terms of their benefit to the organization and its members?
  • Celebrate and reward individual and team achievements?
  • Prefer offer carrot, rather than weird sticks?
Example- Do you:
  • Match your words with your actions?
  • Take full responsibility for organizational problems even if you were not directly responsible?
  • Occasionally muck in when your staff are under pressure at work?
  • Regularly consider what you see in the bathroom mirror?
Empowerment- Do you:
  • Believe that people generally respond well when given greater responsibility for their own performance?
  • Allocate sufficient resources to training and development?
  • Get a buzz when staff set and achieve their own goal?
  • Realize that the organization would still function if you were not there?
Relationship-Do you:
  • Work hard at countering a them and u s' culture within your organization?
  • Set clear codes of acceptable conduct and take action against breaches of them?
  • Stress that everyone contributes to the success of the team(s) they belong to?
  • Admit when you make a mistake?
Communications- Do you:
  • Use your influence to encourage two-way communications at all levels in your organization?
  • Encourage personal contact rather than written, mechanical or technological alternatives?
  • Encourage diversity of opinion and constructive criticism?
  • Walk the talk!


Miyerkules, Enero 2, 2013

Guidelines for Effective Strategic Management by Jolito Ortizo Padilla





Failing to follow certain guidelines in conducting strategic management can foster criticisms of the process and create problems for the organization. Issues such as as "Is strategic management in our firm a people process or a a paper process?' should he addressed.

An important guideline for effective strategic management is open-mindedness. A willingness and eagerness to consider new information, new viewpoints, new ideas, and new possibilities is essential; all organizational members must be share a spirit of inquiry and learning. Strategists such as chief executive officers, presidents, owners of small businesses,and heads of government agencies must commit themselves to listen to and understand managers' satisfaction. In addition, managers and employees throughout the firm should be able to describe the strategists' positions to the satisfaction of the strategists. This degree of discipline will promote understanding and learning.

No organization has unlimited resources. No firm can take on an unlimited amount of debt of issue an unlimited amount of stock to raise capital. Therefore, no organization can pursue all the the strategies that potentially could benefit the firm. Strategies decision thus always have to be made to eliminate some courses of action and to allocate organizational resources among others. Most organizations can afford to pursue only a few corporate level strategies at any given time. It is critical mistake for managers to pursue too many strategies at the same time, thereby spreading the firms resources so thin that all strategies are jeopardized.

Strategic decisions require trade-off such as long range versus short range considerations or maximizing profits versus increasing shareholders' wealth. There are ethics issues too. Strategy trade-offs require subjective judgments and preferences. In many cases, a lack of objectivity in formulating strategy results in a loss of competitive posture and profitability. Most organizations today recognize that strategic management concepts and techniques can enhance the effectiveness of decisions.Subjective factors such as attitudes toward risk, concern for social organizations need to be objective as possible in considering qualitative factors.

Jolito Ortizo Padilla on his book Strategic Management - Proper Perspectives-2nd Edition summarizes the important guidelines for the strategic planning to be effective;
  1. It should be people process more than a paper process.
  2. It should be a learning process for all managers and employees.
  3. It should be words supported by numbers rather than number supported by words.
  4. It should be simple and non routine.
  5. It should vary assignments, team memberships, meeting formats, and even the planning calendar.
  6. It should challenge the assumptions underlying the currently corporate strategy.
  7. It should welcome bad news.
  8. It should welcome open-mindedness and a spirit of inquiry and learning.
  9. It should not be a bureaucratic mechanism.
  10. It should not become ritualistic, stilted, or orchestrated.
  11. It should not be too formal, predictable , or rigid.
  12. It should not contain jargon or arcane planning language.
  13. It should not be formal system for control.
  14. It should not disregard qualitative information.
  15. It should be controlled by "technicians".
  16. Do not pursue too many strategy at once.
  17. Continually strengthen the "good ethics is good business" policy.
Even the most technically perfect strategic plan will serve little purpose if it is not implemented. Many organizations tend to spend an inordinate amount of time, money, and effort on developing the strategic plan, treating the means and circumstances under which it will be implemented as afterthoughts. Change comes through the implementation and evaluation, not through the plan. A technically imperfect plan that is implemented well will achieve more than the perfect plan that never gets off the paper on which it is type.

Strategic management must not become a self perpetuating bureaucratic mechanism. Rather, it must be a self-reflective learning process that familiarizes managers and employees in the organization with key strategic issues and feasible alternatives for resolving those issues. Strategic management must not become ritualistic, stilted , orchestrated , of too formal, predictable, and rigid. Words supported by numbers, rather than numbers supported by words , should represent the medium for explaining strategic issues and organizational responses. A key role of strategists is to facilitate continuous organizational learning and change.