Leadership consists of five elements, each representing a different area, the elements interact with each other, and when you continuously work to clarify and update these five elements, leadership creates the necessary framework for good decisions and actions.
The values creates the company culture, Identities Visualises the company and creates a basis for decision-making for both surroundings and employees. Goals/vision Creates motivation and sets direction. Accept creates commission, engagement and energy. Power Organises work, defines responsibility and empowers action
Values.
In a world that is changing faster, there is a need for faster and "right" decisions, there is no time to take them far up the hierarchy. It's a requirement that those in the field on a daily basis must recognise the situation and take the necessary decisions and actions. But somehow, there has to be some form of control, otherwise you risk decisions and actions that go against the organisation's goals and needs.
More and more organisations have discovered the importance of values as a management tool in this process, and management is actively working to develop and define the company's core values.
Setting values is never enough. For them to have meaning and function, strategy and action must harmonise in relation to the values - with the latter as the supporting element. When companies need to work with values, a value analysis must be carried out.
From this, a portable value base is created that takes into account both the company and its customers.
Identity.
Identity can be divided into two.
Identity is made up of different factors depending on who in the environment views the company. Customers judge the company on product, design, service, competitors on strengths/weaknesses and strategy, suppliers on ability to pay, shareholders on return on investment, etc. Increasing competition requires a clear and distinct identity to a greater and greater extent. Companies that lack identity have a much harder time selling products, services or attracting talent and capital.
How good is your organisation at "reading" the market? In order to "steer" the company in the right direction, it's crucial that your organisation stays informed. The complexity of the world is increasing and it's getting harder and harder for employees to sort out the "right" information from the "wrong" while making more and bigger decisions. Therefore, companies should have some kind of knowledge bank, clear sorting criteria and an ongoing process called "how is our environment evolving", and not least, is there a change in the customers' key value.
Goals/vision.
First there was the dream, which turned into a vision, spiced up with some strategy and finally a concrete goal.
What dreams and visions have in common is that they create direction and energy. Most people have some dreams and visions. Some achieve their dreams because they are lucky or, for most, because they work hard to realise their dreams and visions.
Dreams and visions are the driving forces and motivation for company growth and development. The clearer the company's vision is, the easier it is to achieve it. Yet this is often where most individuals and organisations struggle. It's difficult to set, communicate, and gain acceptance for our goals and visions.
I want a man on the moon. (J.F.K) I have a dream. (M.L.King)
Accept.
What value does a decision that is not accepted in the organisation have? -- None.
Because employees do not or only half-heartedly act on the decision, there can also be direct resistance to the decision.
In between every idea, new situation, decision and action, there is a time lag, a time for ideas to mature, for decisions to be accepted by larger parts of the organisation, for orientation, acceptance and understanding of the new situation.
A process leading to an acceptance can be explained as follows. Let's say that the management has decided to change the work processes in the organisation to give the customer a faster turnaround. When you present this decision, you will typically get 4 different reactions from no acceptance to full acceptance.
As a leader, it's essential that you understand the importance of gaining acceptance. Countless top leaders travel around the organisation telling the same story over and over again. Lia Su at AMD tells this story in the podcast In good company with Nicolai Tangen (definitely worth following). Persö Barnevik (former head of ABB) said "I am in the business of showing slides" as he travelled around the company to gain acceptance for his decisions and ideas.
Achieving and gaining acceptance is dependent on many elements, but a key factor for success is whether the desired change is part of the current company culture, or if it "goes against" the fundamental values and norms of the organisation.
One of the best recipes for success I've heard is:
Success = Simple solution + a high degree of acceptance.
Power.
The clarification of power is crucial for employee empowerment, well-being and development. And thus also for the function and structure of the organisation.
The balance of power must be clarified at all levels of the organisation and in all places where several people are gathered to solve a task and achieve a goal. Sometimes power is concentrated in a few people, other times it is distributed according to knowledge and competence.
The manager must understand how to use power constructively, In the "old" days, managers had power through information dissemination, job authority and dominance. The emergence of the information society leads to "frontline employees" getting information through IT, and not through middle managers, thus the power structure becomes more open and manoeuvrable, it changes with expert dependency, the nature of the problem and the situation and position of the company. The organisation will become more spontaneous and emerge in relation to the problem, and the leader must exercise power through knowledge, emotions, values, identity and vision.
As a leader, you need to be aware of your power and use it actively, but above all, you need to make sure that power is clarified. A lack of power clarity leads to internal noise factors such as power struggles, envy, anxiety, insecurity and conflict - a waste of good energy.
These are both new areas and ways of exercising power, and many leaders are just learning this now, In this process, emotional intelligence (EQ) becomes an asset for leaders who want to use their power constructively.
What is power? The more formal definition is: Being in control of the outcome of important events.
This is to ensure that the outcome is what you want it to be. So power is primarily about control, and you can do that in Community.
My management theory is to work on clarifying these elements. Defining them, putting words, images and actions on them so that it becomes real for the employees. They need to be clarified individually and they need to be in balance with each other. If you can achieve this, the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. There are many different tools and methods to achieve this clarification and they will vary in form and content from company to company, industry to industry, but what they all have in common is that the clearer and better they are clarified, the more successful the company will be in the market.
I have now presented an idea. If you go back to the section on Acceptthat's 4 possibilities. If you're in group 1, I haven't illustrated my idea well enough or you don't agree. If you're in group 2, 3 or 4, I've hit something in you that has created acceptance. This means there is a chance that my idea can be a success.
