Management-leadership chaos

Forty years ago organisations had no idea what the role of a manager was. Managers in organizations were perceived as individuals with clear desks and the privilege of reading the newspaper in the morning. This role was unclear, and no one knew what these so called managers were supposed to do. We realized that being a manager was not the only important thing but that leadership competency played an even more important role in some cases. Louis Allen has never separated management from leadership.

Many researchers embarked on scientific research to identify what these roles are and over the last four or five decades we managed to understand more and more the complexities and challenges of management-leaders. We realised that the job goes beyond dishing out instructions to "subordinates". This job has become a conceptual job where managers have to manage and lead people, manage processes, evaluate and improve technology and systems. It is definitely not the application of technical or operational work. Management is a conceptual job that requires a different set of skills.

It is this conceptual ability that made me think. How is it possible that we have 4 decades of research under our belts, a "clearer" idea of what management-leaders should be spending their time on, but they are still operational, technical and fighting the proverbial fires every day? How is it possible that the majority of managers still fail to engage people in their jobs and their organisations? How is it possible that the majority of managers still do not succeed in motivating and retaining the key talent in their organisations? How is it possible that our managers still do not have the ability to create a value system for employees which they can relate to? How is it possible that a majority of managers fail dismally in creating clear vision and direction for employees? Our management-leadership is in chaos.

Where is the gap then? What are our management-leaders not doing? We should be able to lead and manage the people in our organisations to becoming value adding corporate citizens. We should be able to increase the level of engagement and commitment of our people and get them to believe in the values of the organisation. We should be able to lead them to experience the success of achieving results constructively, and not be managed by fear of those managers who abuse their positional power. We should focus less on the political dynamics of our jobs and more on getting people to work,to add value and to get rewarded for what they have achieved.

In many cases we as managers have lost our ability to apply management basics. The answers to these questions might seem very complex but the reality is that for every question there is a very simple management solution.

Louis Allen Southern Africa has decided to make more effective use of technology available to have electronic conversations with our alumni, existing and potential clients and those that have a vested interest in improving this crucial element in organisations. We will have conversations about management related issues which our management-leaders are facing in organisations. We can help to improve the management capacity of organisations internationally and therefore make them more effective. We also hope to create a place where we can discuss and find answers for these management challenges, especially the challenges that have not been researched or published. I believe there are many of these out there..

I am looking forward to have these conversations with you.