The art and practice of managing requires leadership and communication skills, a breadth of knowledge related to the position, proactive attitudes toward meeting goals and objectives, and personal characteristics that meet the requirements of the organization. We’ll consider leadership from the perspective of the newly appointed manager and not the organizational executive. Although the same fundamentals apply, the application of those fundamentals takes place at a very different level. We’ll consider communications from the perspective of what is being communicated. The entry-level manager is most likely not leading a department that’s looking at the next acquisition or merger or developing the organization’s cost reduction plan, and is probably not involved in high-level organizational decisions.
Taking the Lead
The literature related to leadership is vast and full of contradictions. There are probably more than 200 different descriptions of this activity we refer to as leadership. The difficulty in arriving at a set of coherent and acceptable principles comes from the inability of researchers to capture in real time the actions and processes used by managers in leading their organizations. The differences in people and circumstances create this dilemma. Most discussions on leadership consider leadership at the top political and executive levels. They relate to Winston Churchill’s and Franklin. D. Roosevelt’s leadership during World War II. They relate to Jack Welch as CEO of General Electric. They relate to Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., and the rebuilding of IBM. They relate to Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership during the equal rights movement. They relate to the leadership of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani during the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
Leadership at the entry level is quite different. You’re not waging World War II. You’re not Carly Fiorina working to merge Hewlett Packard and Compaq into a single innovative organization. You’ll be managing the activities of probably no more than ten or fifteen people so your role as leader must be viewed from that perspective: a small department with specific objectives that require interaction with many other departments. Look at leadership as taking the lead. That implies that your focus is both on today’s work and the future work to fulfill your department’s purposes and maintain its viability.