Leadership Lives...: In the Infinite Space Between Management and Skill Set

By Matt Hess

The stage on which leadership performs is dynamic, robust and in flux, and then in a moment’s notice, the demand for simplicity, generality and stillness are called to center stage and the leader must rewrite the script on the fly. There are infinite potentialities for every leadership opportunity, but the magic happens when we know and choose the correct approach.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665578233

Book preview

© 2023 Matt Hess . All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/10/2023

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7824-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7823-3 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Contents

Leadership Lives…In The Infinite Space Between Management And Skill Set

Your Personal Leadership Style – Exercise

Chapter 1     The Differences between Leadership and Management

– Requirements of leaders change all the time, and the leader must adapt with those changes’ moment to moment. The possibilities of what will be effective are infinite due to the responses available from the people involved and the dynamics of the situation. Leadership is like swater. Management is like stone.

Leadership, like love, is abstract and intangible.

When we see it, we know it is present,

and equally, when it leaves, we know it’s absent.

Chapter 2     Diversity and the Changing Management Paradigm

– Diversity in thought, appearance, background, age, and so on can spark new and innovative ideas. Really, there should be no separation or distinction amongst people other than their ability to get things done. All approaches should be embraced, but in the end, what really matters is good old productivity. The likelihood organizational objectives are going to be met are considerably greater if the entire world is the pool from which you obtain talent. Diversity should be embraced. Diversity provides a tremendous opportunity to learn, grow and demonstrate acceptance of others. Doing so gains trust and opens channels of communication and commitment. Diversity can be the spark of innovation. Diversity can be the spark of brilliance.

Leaders must react to their followers more than

followers must react to their leader.

That’s the nature of leadership.

Otherwise, we’d call it tyranny.

Chapter 3     Communication

– We can’t argue or even respond to someone until we know their point of view. Shut up and listen. This will demonstrate that we value them and care for their opinions, insights and even complaints.

We must know the other person’s viewpoint

before we can respond intelligently.

The longer one listens attentively, the more powerful

their words are when they speak.

Chapter 4     Motivation

– Understand an employee’s motivation to help propel them where they want to go, not where you think they should go. Answer their Why. Focus on strengths rather than weaknesses.

Intrinsic motivation provides satisfaction that propels

people, feeds their soul and sustains their inner ambition and drive.

Extrinsic Motivation provides fleeting satisfaction

that ultimately leaves people feeling

empty and striving to fill an ever increasing

and insatiable desire for more.

Chapter 5     Organizational Development, Change and Innovation

– Change and innovation need the proper environment; plenty of water, nutrients, and sunlight so change takes root and grows. We can’t sprinkle seeds in a dusty field and expect results. Invest time, energy and effort at the front end of change so the change is not blown away in the wind. So often leaders thrust change onto people and expect people to eat the sh*t sandwich they are force feeding them and then oddly enough, expect to be told how delicious it is. Sometimes, the really good, managers, try to act like you’re ungrateful for the opportunity to partake in their delicacy. This is unrealistic when people generally aren’t hungry for change or sh*t sandwiches.

Invest our effort, energy and time at the

front-end of the change process

and as change occurs, it will get easier. It’s better to

squirt the toothpaste out as you see fit, rather, than

stepping on it and salvaging what you can.

Chapter 6     Conflict Management

– There are two approaches to conflict ultimately. The Buddha sees conflict as an internal struggle. The only thing one can truly control is themselves.

"You have power over the mind – not outside events. Realize

this, and you will find strength." (Marcus Aurelius)

Then there is the opposite view. Karl Marx believes that conflict is inherent to being human and our existence is simply a struggle to obtain more resources, even at the expense of others.

Conflict is necessary for growth, but conflict

unchecked can be destructive.

The key is to have strategies for various types of conflict and apply emotional intelligence to choose the best approach for your style and situation.

Chapter 7     Ethics and Recognition

– An ethical culture does not accidentally happen. Recognize employees for behaviors we want to encourage. Many leaders focus only on the negative and fail to recognize positive behavior because it is expected behavior, which it is, but as we know, not everyone meets expectations. Strengthen the commitment to doing things right.

As the leader, be the culture you want to create.

Live it, practice it and tell people about it. We need

to fill the Infinite Space between Management and

Skill Set with an ethical culture that monitors and

encourages itself to be ethical. It’s just what we do.

Chapter 8     Time Management

– We can’t buy more. We can’t create or build more. All we have is what we’re allotted. Don’t steal time from others or waste our own. It is one of our most precious resources. Ask anyone on the doorstep of death what they want more of.

Improving time management starts with

seeing that our own decisions

are the reasons we can’t seem to manage our time and schedule.

Chapter 9     Calling and Conducting Positive and Productive Meetings

– Meetings can either propel our day, or drag it into the muck and mire. People want to be productive, and they want their meetings to be productive too. If not, don’t meet.

If a clear goal is not evident, rethink having the meeting.

Chapter 10   Speaking in Public, and Capturing an Audience

– We often hit career limits because we are unable to effectively obtain, hold and influence an audience. This is part of leadership, a big part, and if we can’t do it, someone else will and they will likely bump us aside.

It doesn’t matter how great our content is if no one is listening

or interested. We must make ourselves and the presentation

compelling enough to commandeer the audience’s attention.

Chapter 11   Employment Law and Interviewing Effectively – (Hire Hard So We Can Manage Easy)

– Make the right hiring decisions so we can focus on staffing fluidity and teamwork. Take time at the beginning of the employment relationship to ensure we have the right person for the long term. Hire hard so we can manage easily. Leaders often fill immediate gaps instead of making strategic long-term hires.

Prejudice is an irrational idea that passes

unsubstantiated judgment,

and discrimination is acting on that prejudice.

Chapter 12   Documentation, Investigations, Corrective Action and Appraisals

– Objectivity is critical to gain trust and respect. Leaders often make assumptions rather than identify the facts of a situation. Acting on assumptions causes mistrust and poor decisions.

A leader should help people grow. Take a caring,

compassionate and concerned approach

when performing an investigation,

corrective action or appraisal.

Bibliography

LEADERSHIP LIVES…IN THE INFINITE SPACE BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND SKILL SET

Physicists searched without success for the elusive particle that held the universe together from 1964 when Francois Englert and Peter Higgs theorized its existence until 2012 when their theory was proven true, and they found it. The particle was discovered at CERN, the European Council for Nuclear Research, using the world’s most powerful particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland.

This particle and its field were named, the Higgs Boson. Its nickname and what most people know it as, is the God Particle. As theorized it fills the infinite space between all objects in the universe and beyond. It is responsible for giving objects mass. Without the God Particle, or if it were to become unstable, what we know and see in the universe would break apart and implode, or so the scientist’s say.

What does the God Particle have to do with leadership one may ask, or maybe you’ve already made the connection? Business scholars and leaders have searched and are still searching for the elusive material, idea or glue that holds businesses and people together – a silver bullet if you will. There are infinite potentialities in every given situation with every given person, scenario and environment. Leadership resides between Management and Skill Set. Management (policy) keeps people between the guardrails. Skillset (knowledge and ability) gets the work done. Leadership (inspiration) creates excellence and encourages people to be great for their own sake. Just like the God Particle fills the infinite space around all objects in the universe, between them, next to them, adjacent to them, over them and below them. Leadership fills the space surrounding a person when they are working, and subtly influences their work toward a better place, because of the conversations, experiences and discussions you’ve had or shared while they weren’t actually working. Your job isn’t to get them to work, it’s to get them to want to work at the highest level they can, for themselves, and consequently the company benefits. Leadership encompasses everything the employee encounters when they aren’t actually producing work. The key is to ensure that when they do go to produce work, they are inspired toward greatness. This means confidence, tools, ability to make decisions, and even more importantly room to experiment, fail, and learn.

Leadership is everything you do and don’t do. It’s the subtle knowing

nod of acceptance as you pass in the hall, and it’s also the intimidating

glance from across the room at a competitor so your team can see. When

you’re a leader, everything you do or don’t do sends a message.

Like the God Particle, when leadership is unstable or disappears, implosions occur. Scientists theorize that the God Particle will remain stable for millions of years, so we have nothing to worry about there, but leadership has proven to be slightly, if not drastically, or one may say infinitesimally more fickle. It comes and goes in an instant without notice. Sometimes it’s fleeting, startling and then gone. Other times, leadership lingers, influences and stays with a culture, or person and makes things different. The goal is to make things not only different, but better. Many people confuse different with better. They aren’t synonyms.

Leadership is arguably even more elusive than the God Particle. Is leadership even a real thing? The answer is, Yes, but, how do we prove it? We can’t touch it, see it, taste it, smell it or hear it. We only feel it, and not with our hands but our hearts. This is the significant difference between what, the God Particle is and what the idea of Leadership is. The God Particle, can be observed with our senses while leadership is felt by those around us. The God Particle, is present all the time, but only detectible for micro moments in time. The good news is we can develop leadership much cheaper than the 13.25 billion dollars it cost to develop the Large Hadron Collider to locate the God Particle. Leadership is in all of us, all the time, and it’s free. When you boil it down to its essence, leadership is a feeling we give other people. It is not an outcome. Outcomes are the results of people feeling good, valued, motivated and driven with purpose. We all have the ability to harvest the leadership within us and share it with the world.

"Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory,

but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances."

(Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 53)

We simply must focus and develop the skills to identify the infinite opportunities for leadership that manifest from moment to moment and fill that space with practical and positive leadership principles, nods and glances that culminate into our style. What is our style? What should people expect? People should expect to feel good, valued, motivated and empowered.

It’s how we interact with people from moment to moment that makes the difference. Management provides parameters and process. Skill sets get work done. Leadership provides direction, inspiration, well-being, greatness and self-actualization through empowerment to flourish.

Thousands of studies have been performed and thousands of books have been written on leadership. This is just one in a giant pile. I get it. The concept though is easy and readily available. Yet still, there is no single pill or ointment to prescribe for leadership. Conversely, there is no single antidote for poor leadership. Organizations often think that if they can just make one tweak or make that one critical hire, everything will fall into place. This is not true. If it were that easy, we would just write a prescription and fill leadership voids, every day, all the time.

Instead, we are left with traits, behaviors, models, quotes and anecdotes that express what leadership feels like when it occurs and what the results are when there is a leadership void. We want to understand leadership concepts and apply them appropriately, in real time and at the right time. Every situation is different and requires a different approach. It’s not easy, we have to want to understand and continually make adjustments based on the circumstances of each situation.

Life is what happens in the finite space between birth and death. Demonstrations of love is what happens in the Infinite Space between, I love you, in relationships and daily life. Leadership is what happens in the Infinite Space between hiring a person and them deciding to leave the company or to stay and be satisfied, productive and fulfilled.

Everything we do or say as leaders fills The Infinite Space between Management and Skill Set. Inspiration, motivation, commitment and greatness are not attained through management and policies, they are attained through the intangibles of leadership. No spreadsheet has ever inspired greatness, but words, well thought out and emotionally engaging words, demeanor, affect and authenticity have ultimately overcome all conflict and changed the world.

I’ve observed leadership in sports, business, medicine, education, construction and grocery store baggers. I’ve analyzed hundreds of leaders I’ve trained and had the privilege to support. The characteristics and traits that result in leadership success vary greatly, situation by situation and person by person. What we give employees and what employees need are often different. We all have blind spots.

It is common for leaders to have little or no formal leadership training. Leaders in nearly all industries are so heavily focused on skills to perform tasks that we often fail to prepare ourselves to lead and inspire others. This book is intended to provide options to fill The Infinite opportunities with sound leadership practice and concepts rather than bullsh*t, which is what often fills that space.

The possibilities of what will be effective are infinite due to our responses and the dynamics of the environment and situation. This book provides practical, tactical and strategical (quoting former President George W. Bush) options for people at all levels to ensure they are using the right tool for every leadership opportunity. We’ll look at studies, real-life examples, and proven practices that will allow you to develop your personal leadership style. The beauty is that it will be rooted soundly in modern leadership theory, study and practice. There isn’t a prescription for every situation. That’s where our own self-awareness and emotional intelligence must guide us according to our own personal leadership style. Honesty with oneself is critical to developing self-awareness. We just need the wisdom to choose the right approach for the situation. Wisdom comes with experience. Sometimes this comes from trial and error and that is ok, in fact, preferred, if we assess, learn and hone the art of leadership.

With each failure, our focus becomes more acute.

If not, that is the ultimate failure.

I believe people wake up every morning and want to be great. No one wakes up and says, Today is going to be terrible and I’m going to wreck everyone’s day. No one grows up, gets a job and dreams of failing. It’s our job as leaders to help those around us be the best they can be, and we do this by understanding that Leadership Lives… in the Infinite Space between Management and Skill Set.

YOUR PERSONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE – EXERCISE

Following each section there is a very brief retrospective to assist you in identifying your leadership style, what you value, how you prefer to approach leadership and what you will commit to improving. Everyone has different styles, approaches, personality gifts and weaknesses. The idea is to pull from the infinite combination of factors, approaches, and ideas and develop your style, so it aligns with you and what you value from a leader and as a leader. Authenticity matters. You can’t fake it. That’s why it’s important for you to understand what you are able to commit to and then be able to give it to people authentically. What are your benchmarks? Your cornerstones? Your pillars? Your values? You get it. Insert any other corporate cliché, but you need to know what you value, what you’ll give and what you’ll never do as a leader.

What commitments from each chapter are you willing to make to enhance

the potential that you will be the water that inspires growth around you?

There are a lot of concepts, ideas and philosophies discussed in this book. Not all of them are going to be right for your personal style and in fact, many are discussed so you know what not to do.

Take a minute after each chapter to identify your style and what you value in a leader. It is important to know where you stand and what you value so you can communicate clearly to those around you. It’s important they know what your expectations are and why you have them. After you answer the two questions at the end of each chapter, copy those answers to the cumulative list at the end of Chapter 12.

There, your 12 Leadership Style Commitments will be outlined by you, for you so you can use them as a framework to anchor and build your leadership style. You’ll refine it over time, but it will provide a place to begin the discussion. When things get wobbly or feel out of control, refer back to your preferred, personal leadership commitments at the end of the book for stability and traction.

Be sure to transcribe your notes to the "Your Leadership

Style" section at the end of Chapter 12.

CHAPTER 1

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Management and Leadership are often erroneously used synonymously.

They are nothing alike.

Overview on Leadership and Management

Management requires the influencing of tangible things, and leadership requires the influencing of emotion, spirit, motivation and feelings. It is what makes the topic so enigmatic and so difficult to explain from a theoretical perspective. We’re left with a bunch of quotes on leadership, and examples of good leadership, but we are not exactly sure how to prescribe leadership. The difference between management and leadership is the difference between the role of a prison warden and the role of a major league baseball manager.

John Kotter of the Harvard Business School argues that "Management is about coping with complexity. Good management brings order and consistency by drawing up formal plans, designing rigid structures and monitoring results against the plans. Leadership in contrast, is about coping with change. Leaders establish direction and develop a vision of the future; then they align people by communicating this vision and inspiring them to overcome hurdles."

Like our example of the Prison Warden and MLB Manager, the warden sets rules, and ensures they are obeyed. He is the metaphor for management. He certainly isn’t inspiring criminals to greatness, and maybe that’s one fundamental flaw with our prison system but, on the other hand, the MLB Manager is the metaphor for leadership. He is not really teaching his players anything, or setting rules of the game, he/she tries to find ways to get the most from the team and inspire a shared vision, mission and goals which ideally culminates in a World Series appearance. The MLB Manager wants his players to be creative and innovative and approach the game of baseball as a team using each of their strengths for the good of the mission, the World Series.

Management is ensuring a group of people

adhere to policies and procedures.

Leadership is the intangible actions of people that

inspire others to find their own greatness.

The intangibles of leadership inspire us to not only follow policies and procedures but to accomplish our goals in creative and innovative ways. It inspires people to do what some never thought possible; find little nuggets of greatness in themselves and share those with the world, which in turn inspires greatness in others. People then dig into themselves for their own nuggets of greatness to share with the world.

Leadership is Egoless

Great leadership inspires great leaders and that’s the essence of leadership. It’s paying it forward, even if when you were coming up, no one did it for you. Again, that is leadership. It’s that little decision you made to ignore the fact you were treated poorly while coming up. It’s letting your ego go, and then doing what is right for the person looking to you for leadership, in the moment. Your leadership style and principles direct your actions. That’s why we can’t put our finger on leadership and label it well. Each person has different principles and beliefs, and they apply them differently in different situations.

"In organizing and staffing, Management focuses on providing a structure to the work of individuals, their relationships in the organization, and the physical context in which they work. It includes placing people in the right jobs and developing rules and procedures for how the work is to be performed. For Leadership, organizing and staffing take the form of communicating a vision to employees, invoking their commitment, and working with them to build teams and coalitions useful in fulfilling the organization’s mission." (Northouse, 8-9)

Leadership is like water. It is abstract and takes many forms.

It reacts to its surroundings. Management is like stone. It is

tangible and takes one form. Its surroundings react to it.

Like water, leadership changes as soon as you grasp it and drips away.

Like stone, management is easily grasped and stays firm.

Water inspires creativity and innovation to spawn.

Stone refuses to let ideas take root like gravel at the water’s edge.

Leadership is the mist that envelopes us.

Management is the cell that contains us.

In fire, water turns to steam, calms the fire and

reconfigures just as strong, and a little wiser.

In fire, stone cracks and crumbles from heat and deteriorates into dust.

The collective power of water breaks down stone,

yet stone can never break down water.

The reason it is so difficult to theorize leadership or give a step-by-step explanation as to how to be a leader is because, as we may imagine, leadership is something that happens all the time and varies with each decision on a moment-to-moment basis. It is fluid like water. It is organic and complex and requires constant reevaluation. To explain how someone illustrated good leadership would mean being able to decode the workings of their brain which is practically, impossible. Instead, we are left with characteristics of leaders, examples of leaders and a few models as to what characteristics and traits leaders have and how they fall within a given style of leadership.

Management is easy. Leadership is hard.

It is easy to make rules and enforce them.

It is difficult to get people to want to follow them and even defend them..

Leadership Styles

Charismatic Leadership – (John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, Mary Kay Ash, Ted Turner, and Bill Clinton)

Charismatic Leadership Theory states that followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviors.

Five characteristics of the charismatic leader have been isolated:

1. Vision and Articulation: Has a vision – expressed as an idealized goal – that proposes a future better than the status quo and is able to clarify the importance of the vision in terms that are understandable to others.

2. Personal Risk: Willing to take on high personal risk, incur high costs and engage in self-sacrifice to achieve the vision.

3. Environmental Sensitivity: Able to make realistic assessments of the environmental constraints and resources needed to bring about change.

4. Sensitivity to Follower Needs: Perceptive of others’ abilities and responsive to their needs and feelings.

5. Unconventional Behavior: Engages in behaviors that are perceived as novel and counter to norms. (Robbins, 343)

Transactional Leaders (management) – are managers who guide their people through established goals and parameters by clarifying role and task requirements. This style falls under the definition of management. If we interpret transactional leadership into laymen terms it says,

"I’ll give you this, in exchange for that. Deal?

Just stick to the deal – nothing more, nothing less, and we’ll be all right."

Transformational Leaders (leadership) – are leaders who inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests and can have a profound and extraordinary effect on followers. Ideally, their self-esteem soars and they move closer to self-actualization either personally or professionally, because both feed on the other. Especially in our highly connected world.

Transformational leadership is built on top of Transactional Leadership and the two should not be viewed as opposing ways of getting things done but, generally, we do not get to transformation, without transaction. Transactional leadership provides the framework.

In other words, if we view these latter two types of leadership and separate their essence, we notice that Transactional Leadership is more like Management and Transformational Leadership is more in line with our definitions of