…Leadership styles and service experience implications
Those close to me know that I am quite an avid reader, voraciously consuming anything I come across. Books, magazines, e-zines, blogs, short stories, nothing is exempted. All is fair game. There used to be a time when I would read one full-length book every single week. These days, I have deliberately cut down the number to just one book every month.
My close pals also know that aside the Good Book, there are three books that have most impressed me. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck and Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant are arguably the three books that challenged my thinking on a number of important issues.
Over the past week, however, I have been reading a book that might force itself on to my Favourites List. This book is Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman with Greg McKeown. The gist of the book is that there are two kinds of leaders in the workplace. There are the Diminishers and there are the Multipliers. Multiplier leaders were those who bring out the best in those they lead. They multiplied the capacity, creativity and productivity of those they work with. As I went through the book, I could help but mentally go through the list of managers I had ever worked under. It was interesting the way they fell into one category or the other. The descriptions given of these two group of managers was so spot on for all the managers I had ever worked for.
For instance, I quickly realised that the very first manager I ever worked under, Mr. Patrick Odonkor is an out-and-out Multiplier. Anyone who ever worked under him would say the same. Mr. Odonkor had a way of making you feel like you really mattered. As a matter of fact, those of us who were privileged enough to have worked under him will recall that he referred to every one under him as “Manager”. Regardless of the grade, rank or schedule you were on, you were a “Manager” in the eyes of Mr. Odonkor. That is typical Multiplier behaviour.
Then there is the very last manager I worked under, the venerable Dr. P. A. Kuranchie of blessed memory. I think this man had the most impact on me in terms of my managerial style and approach. I learnt so much from him in so short a time that it was such an exciting experience. There were meetings I believed I was not supposed to be in but this man will insist that I sit in those meetings just to give me some teachable moments. Every waking moment with him was a lecture on what to do and what not to do. I can confidently say that Dr. K fast-tracked me to the top. Plain and simple.
One of the things I noticed about working for these wonderful men was that I was ready to go to great lengths for them. I was ready to give 110% to the cause. The thought of failing them in whatever assignment they gave me was just unimaginable. That, according to Multipliers, is the effect Multiplier Managers have on their team members. According to the book, Multiplier managers extract twice the capability from their team members compared to those working for or under Diminisher managers.
In my work life, I was also been “privileged” to have worked under a Diminisher boss once. Everything centred on him. He was the “sun” in the office and everything and everyone revolved around him. As far as he was concerned, those of us under him were not smart enough to think for ourselves, so he had to do all the thinking himself. Interestingly, it took us a while but eventually we got to realise that it was far better to wait for him to come in and shout orders than it was for us to make any independent moves on our own volition. This was a man who would even take credit for work we did independently. He was convinced he has far superior intellectually to those of us in his team—and he never lost an opportunity to remind us of that “fact”.
As I read the book, I could also not help but also place my own kind of leadership under the microscope. Running my own business, I have also had to lead others and the book really showed me how I was really doing. In fact, putting my leadership side by side with those described in the book, I realised I was what the authors referred to in the book as an “Accidental Diminisher”. Although I did certain things “innocently” because I wanted the work to go on, I was actually becoming a Diminisher in a sense. I would say, I am still a work in progress when it comes to my leadership style.
The dangers of having Diminishers as managers is that the firm eventually loses out. One of the things that happens is that employees begin to sit back and let the manager run the show. Liz Wiseman refers to this as a “quit and stay” approach. These are employees who give up on the idea of making a meaningful contribution. They will sit in meetings and not say anything. But can you really blame these employees? Why would they want to make any contribution if in the end, nothing useful will come out of it? If you have a know-it-all kind of a boss, your potential eventually diminishes. That is why they are aptly referred to as Diminishers.
In some cases, employees who believe in themselves and their market value, and will not settle for less, will just leave. Employees who know what they want and will not settle for mediocrity have no problem looking elsewhere to advance their career growth. Those who end up staying under a Diminisher manager are those who really have nowhere to go and thus eventually the Diminisher is left with only sub-average performers. The Diminisher is then forced to do all the job and therefore feeds into the one’s flawed mind-set that the people are no good. This sets a vicious cycle in motion that continues for a long time.
What has the style of leadership got to do with the quality of service experience of customers? A lot, if you ask me. It is a fact that the quality of service customers experience is directed related to the quality of internal customer service. It is common knowledge that the quality of internal customer service is directly related to the quality of the internal leadership. Leadership is cause, all else is effect. So we are told.
From the above discussions, it is clear that the quality of customer service will be dependent on the kind of manager that leads the team. Clearly, the Multiplier Effect on service experience is seen in the kind of environment the one creates. Whereas Diminisher creates a stressful environment for customer service professionals, the Multiplier creates a safe stress-free work environment where employees can feel free to serve customers well.
Based on what we know of them, it is clear the kind of front line employee that Multiplier managers will produce. For starters, Multiplier managers will produce customer service professionals with a sense of ownership. Because they would have been empowered to own the process, these employees will know that they are really in charge of the customer’s experience.
A sense of ownership is such an important but rare quality in the workplace. Managers know that their work becomes easier when they have staff they can trust to “own the place” when the manager is not around. Unfortunately, Diminisher managers do not seem to get this simple truth. Diminisher managers are those who ensure that everything revolves around them. To the point where if they are not around, nothing gets done. Customer service eventually suffers under the Diminisher manager.
It is however important to remember that a sense of ownership also comes with the risk of making mistakes. When Multipliers allow their team members to take the lead in solving customer problems, they are bound to be a few mistakes here and there. When these errors happen, however, Multiplier managers do not go into full reprimanding mode. They actually use the opportunity to teach some important lessons. They know that people learn best from their own mistakes. It is actually said that Multiplier managers believe so much in learning from mistakes that they do not even mind sharing examples of their own mistakes in the past. According to Wiseman, by taking their mistakes public, Multiplier managers make it safe for those who work for them to take risks and fail.
This is not to suggest that Multiplier managers allow their team members to just get away with anything. Far from that! Multiplier managers can be very demanding. They can be quite tough on their team members. But they do this from a place of love—love to get the best out of everyone they work with. In my experience, knowing you have been given a huge responsibility places a big wright on your shoulder. That weight is enough to ensure that you do things right.
TO BE CONTINUED
