Management Style

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Managers do things right; leaders do the right thing (Warren Bennis). My primary goal is to be a good leader and a good manager. Managing is about efficiency. Leading is about effectiveness. Managing is about how. Leading is about what and why. Management is about systems, controls, procedures, policies, and structure. Leadership is about trust — about people.
Both managers and leaders may know an organization well. But the leader desires to grasp the essential facts and the underlying forces that determine the trends in the organization, so that they can generate a vision to bring about its future. One telling sign of a good leader is an honest attitude towards the facts, towards objective truth. A subjective leader obscures the facts for the sake of narrow self-interest, partisan interest or prejudice. A good manager can accomplish only what has been defined and documented for him or her, yet a good leader constantly questions why things are done the way they are and is able to recognize the value and potential of doing things differently. A good leader is passionate about excellence and must therefore strive for continuous improvements and change. In other words, a good leader knows that insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.
I have always tried to establish an organizational culture by providing a defining set of shared values and expectations that act to guide the decision-making process within my organization. I have historically used modified principles of Management by Objectives (MBO) which is to attempt to have everybody within the organization clearly understand the aims, or objectives, of the organization, as well as awareness of their own roles and responsibilities in achieving those aims. The complete MBO system is to get managers and employees acting to implement and achieve their plans, which automatically achieve those of the organization.
MBO leaders focus on the result, not the activity. They delegate tasks by "communicating the goals" with their subordinates while not being directive in the implementation. I modified MBO with Situational Leadership. The fundamental underpinning of Situational Leadership is there is no single “best” style of leadership. Every organization has manager’s at different levels of maturity (“the capacity to goal set, willingness and ability to take responsibility for the task, and relevant education and/or experience). Leadership must be person/task-relevant and I believe successful leaders are those that adapt their leadership style to the maturity of the individual being led/influenced. Leadership varies, not only with the person that is being influenced, but also with the task, job or function that needs to be accomplished
Management by Objectives (MBO) is about setting objectives and then breaking them down into results. Results can be defined as performance measurements that monitor the implementation and effectiveness of an organization's strategies, determine the gap between actual and targeted performance and determine organization effectiveness and operational efficiency. Process evaluation assesses the extent to which a program is operating as it was intended. It typically assesses program activities’ conformance to statutory and regulatory requirements, program design, and professional standards or customer expectations. Outcome evaluation assesses the extent to which a program achieves its outcome-oriented objectives. It focuses on outputs and outcomes (including unintended effects) to judge program effectiveness but may also assess program process to understand how outcomes are produced. Cost/Benefit analyses compare a program’s outputs or outcomes with the costs (resources expended) to produce them. Cost-effectiveness analysis assesses the cost of meeting a single goal or objective, and can be used to identify the least costly alternative to meet that goal. Cost-benefit analysis aims to identify all relevant costs and benefits, usually expressed in dollar terms.
The set of common understandings around which action is organized within an organization also play a strong role in MBO. When an organization’s culture is strong – there is less need for a strong structure. All organizations attempt to maintain equilibrium and maximize autonomy. Culture provides the coping, growth, and survival guidelines for maintaining the integrity of the organization environment. Evolution of culture is a way a group preserves its integrity and autonomy, differentiates itself from environment, and provides itself with identity.