Business Minded: Leadership Training for Your Laboratory Management Team
Business Minded: Leadership Training for Your Laboratory Management Team
I have had the opportunity to work in a number of vastly different industries as a manager and business consultant. There is one common element in every successful company I have observed: a high value placed on the development of their people and an investment in leadership training and development.
First Who Then What, The Organizational Chart
In my years of study in the area of leadership training and development, I believe the following quote from Henry Ford best sums up the importance of developing your people and leaders:
“You can take my factories, burn my buildings, but give me my people and I will build the business right back”.
I believe this view has proven over the years to be valid and credible. In his best seller book, Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses his study of companies that significantly outperformed their competitors over long periods of time. Collins described these companies as Level 5 Leaders. Level 5 Leader companies made their first priority getting the right people in the right positions. The Who. By having a strong team, these companies were positioned to effectively execute ‘The What”, products, direction, strategy etc.
Therefore, your fist step in developing a leadership training and development program for your lab will be assess your current leadership team. I find that completing a basic organization chart proves to be helpful in getting started. The organization chart exercise will also help you determine if your organization is designed to meet your needs. New materials, products, process and technology often require changes in the way you are organized to meet the demands of your clients. Laboratories that do not make adjustments to their organizational design often suffer from a production and quality standpoint. The exercise should also include identifying ready replacements for the key leadership positions. This can be a eye opening process as your potential vulnerabilities in key positions will be highlighted. What will happen if that key manager leaves for whatever reason? In my experience, this exercise often creates a greater sense of urgency in implementing a leadership development and succession planning program. Your next step will be to assess your managers to be sure they are the right fit. Often times, high level performers are promoted to leadership positions without adequate training and development. They may also be what I call individual contributors. That is, they are great technicians and producers, not leaders.
Assessment - Effective Manager = Successful Manager
An effective manager is more than a supervisor. He or she takes responsibility for ensuring that an individual succeeds and that the team, department or business unit achieves its expected results. This is similar to the way successful coaches develop players in order to win games and championships. Similar to successful athletes, successful managers require both talent and skill. Managerial skills can be developed through training, mentoring and experience. But if a manager is void of natural talent, then the odds that he will be successful diminish significantly. The most productive companies are typically more proactive than their peers when it comes to identifying and developing effective managers. Common managerial success traits include:
- Communication: Listens to others; processes information; communicates effectively
- Leadership: Instills trust; provides direction; delegates responsibility
- Adaptability: Adjusts to circumstances; thinks creatively
- Relationships: Builds personal relationships; facilitates team success
- Task Management: Works efficiently; works competently
- Production: Takes action; achieves results
- Development of Others: Cultivates individual talents; motivates successfully
- Personal Development: Displays commitment; seeks improvement
- Insight to enable coaching and success
The most productive companies also give their managers the information and tools they need to understand the capabilities and styles of their teams. This gives managers a solid foundation for more effective coaching relationships.
Make sure your managers understand What Management Means
What is management? What do managers do? There are a variety of views about this term. Traditionally, the term management refers to the set of activities, and often the group of people, involved in four general functions, including planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities. (Note that the four functions recur throughout the organization and are highly integrated.) Some writers, teachers and practitioners assert that the above view is rather outmoded and that management needs to focus more on leadership skills, e.g., establishing vision and goals, communicating the vision and goals, and guiding others to accomplish them. They also assert that leadership must be more facilitative, participative and empowering in how visions and goals are established and carried out. I would assert that this really isn't a change in the management functions; rather it's re-emphasizing certain aspects of management.
Both of the above interpretations acknowledge the major functions of planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities -- they put different emphasis and suggest different natures of activities in the following four major functions. They still agree that what managers do is the following:
1. Planning - Including identifying goals, objectives, methods, resources needed to carry out methods, responsibilities and dates for completion of tasks. Examples of planning are production planning, strategic planning, business planning, project planning, staffing planning, advertising and promotions planning, etc.
2. Organizing resources to achieve the goals in an optimum fashion. Examples are organizing new departments, Cad Cam, implants, human resources, AP, billing systems, re-organizing businesses, etc.
3. Leading - Including setting direction for the organization or department, groups and individuals and also influencing people to follow that direction.. Examples are establishing strategic direction (vision, values, mission and / or goals),establishing job descriptions, employee training, performance coaching, championing
4. Executing, Controlling, and Coordinating - Getting things done through people. This occurs with the organization's systems, processes and structures to effectively and efficiently reach goals and objectives. This includes ongoing collection of feedback, and monitoring and adjustment of systems, processes and structures accordingly. Examples include use of financial controls, policies and procedures; production management processes, performance appraisals, discipline/termination.
Another common view is that management is getting things done through others. Yet another view, quite apart from the traditional view, asserts that the job of management is to support employee's efforts to be fully productive members of the organizations and citizens of the community. To most employees, the term management probably means the group of people (executives and other managers) who are primarily responsible for making decisions in the organization. In today’s rapidly changing market place, it is vital to a laboratory’s success to place a great deal of attention to their most important asset, their people. Selecting, training and developing your leaders should receive as much of your attention as new technology, facilities, products and equipment.
I will end this article with a quote from a recognized and respected business leader, Jack Welch CEO of GE: “People bring economic value to every company. Every organization’s major asset is its people. Their knowledge, resourcefulness, and creativity translate directly into earnings and profitability. The investment of the company needs to be as much in people as machines. Successful leaders believe the need to redefine the company’s wealth base, not in its physical assets, but in its only source for long-term stability and competitiveness… its people”.
