Vol. 7 2 / 2002	Soá baùo Xuaân ñaëc bieät
Do hoang Nghia phutavanthu@yahoo.com or nthihoang@aol.com

WE LEARN, WE SHARE . . . . . Adapted / rewritten from Training Materials – Nghia Do

LEADERSHIP - YOUR ROLE

You are in a professional role that is more challenging today than ever before. The truth is, the role of supervisors and managers in your position will be even more challenging in the future. The demands for high quality and performance are increasing, and the workplace is growing more complex. Even relationships with others are becoming more complicated and demanding. In the face of such challenges, your role in the organization is a critical one.

The Pressures of Greater Effectiveness

People are feeling increasing pressures to perform more effectively across organizations of all types – in business, finance, manufacturing, service, research, health care, education, and government. You probably have felt many of these pressures yourself:

§ Insistence on more efficient operations

§ Demands for higher product quality

§ Less room for error

§ Stress on better service to the customer

§ Higher employee expectations

§ The need for people and systems to adapt more quickly to changing technologies and economic conditions

§ Fewer resources with which to accomplish tougher goals.

The impact these pressures have on you, as a supervisor or manager, are profound. They require changes in how work is done, and most of those changes must be implemented by you! Your role is an important one for turning these pressures into progress for your organization.

The Expanding Role

To be successful, now and into the future, the challenges you face require the addition of a whole new leadership dimension to your role. Most of the traditional supervisory responsibilities are still as important as ever, but today’s challenges demand the use of expanded skills.

Traditionally, effective supervisors and managers the responsibility to: Get results primarily by directing people and getting their cooperation Build good followers Get people to understand good ideas Manage people one-on-one Develop strength within their own unit Implement directions from above Help people change when directed and help them make the best of it Communicate well

Today, in addition, you must also be able to: Involve people and help them invests their personal commitment Build good initiators Get people to generate good ideas Build collaborative, interdependent, and supportive teams Develop strength between your unit, other units, and your peers Initiate new ideas and directions yourself at your own level Generate positive innovations with your people without those changes being imposed from above Be masterful at interpersonal relationships

Now your role requires you to help people invest the best of their minds and hearts, as well as their hands, in their work is to be done well. This moves away from doing things to people and toward doing more things with people. It‘s role that no longer just focuses primarily “downward;” it’s an expanded role which now must foster collaboration, involvement, and initiative – not only downward, but upward and across the organization chart as well.

You are in a true leadership position at the frontline of organizational performance. It moves far beyond being a reliable overseer or a technical expert, and closer to being a leader who takes initiative and sets the example in a much broader sphere of influence.

As a frontline leader, you need core interpersonal skills to be masterful at working with people. In addition to these core skills, you need special action skills to:

• Develop people’s performance and gain their active involvement and commitment
• Build collaborative links between people in teams and across functions
• Influence others to make lasting organizational impact
• Manage change and encourage innovation

You, as a frontline leader, are a major player in helping your organization uncover and develop the new strengths it needs to thrive in todays’ challenging world.

The payoffs are enormous for those who choose to master the expanding role of a frontline leader. These payoffs include the satisfaction of being actively involved in building stronger people, stronger teams, and stronger systems that can prove their value in these challenging times. There’s also the knowledge that you ‘re making a major contribution, and the pleasure of growing personally, and professionally, not to mention the recognition and rewards of success.

Home