Mike Holt Enterprises Understanding the NEC
Mike Holt
Being a leader is about living your life in a way that inspires or encourages others. To lead is to serve. If you make it your goal to do the best that you can and to help people, then you can't fail. I encourage you to commit to keep learning.

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Choosing Your Management Style
Your management style is strongly influenced by your own self-confidence.

Your leadership or management style is strongly influenced by your own self-confidence and by the way in which you make decisions and relate to the people around you. It’s also strongly influenced by your beliefs and assumptions about what motivates people.

“Theory X” and “Theory Y” were created and developed by Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s.

Theory X stresses the importance of strict supervision and external rewards and penalties. If you believe that employees dislike work, you’ll tend towards using this authoritarian style of management. It assumes that:

  • Most people dislike work and will avoid it when they can.
  • People must be pushed and threatened with punishment in order to get them to produce enough to achieve objectives.
  • The average person has very little ambition, wants to be directed, and will avoid responsibility whenever possible.
  • Life isn’t fair; rewards don’t follow results.
  • Leaders must do all of the planning for the team.

Theory Y highlights the motivating role of job satisfaction and allows workers to approach tasks creatively. If you assume that employees take pride in doing a good job, you’ll tend to adopt this more participative style. It assumes that:

  • People naturally want to work, as children want to play.
  • People will manage themselves in order to achieve goals they set for themselves.
  • Peoples’ level of commitment to goals and objectives is related to the rewards for the achievement of them.
  • Under the proper conditions, people will learn to accept and seek out responsibilities.
  • The ability to imagine, demonstrate ingenuity, be creative, and to develop solutions to problems is naturally shared by most people to some degree.
  • People want to participate in planning their own future.
  • People want to contribute to the highest degree they can.
  • People believe that rewards follow results, that the game is fair.
  • Leaders should only review plans that have been developed in collaboration with the team, not totally develop the plan for it.

Re-read the previous statements and make a note of which ones you agree with, and which ones you don’t. You may be surprised—but your beliefs influence how you interact with the people on your team, and those that you lead.

The finding is that managers who tend toward Theory X may be effective short-term but won’t be successful in the long run. By always creating tension and competition, you inject an element of fear which might result in pulling the team apart instead of keeping them together and working toward a common goal. Managers who employ Theory Y will allow their team to learn and grow, and as a result produce better performance and results. In order to achieve long-term success, you need a team of people who want to be at work and want to do good work—together. The key to Theory Y’s success is in building commitment through great communication, clearly stated goals, and a strong relationship with your team or your employees.

Since not everyone responds to learning or direction in the same way, many managers find themselves employing a combination of styles based on the dynamics of the group, the type of work being done, the types of decisions that need to be made, and the deadline for completion of the work.

The mold of a good leader isn’t cast from one personality type. Some people are naturally bold, brash, dominating, on-their-feet thinkers, and are quick to give orders or make decisions. Others are silently strong, careful, thoughtful, considerate, not taking risks but always choosing the safe, solid path. Both styles will win and lose (depending upon circumstances) and both will produce results, but at very different paces and with different consequences. Whatever your personality type, you need to determine how you can use your traits (both positive and negative) to be effective with the people around you, set the tone, and create an atmosphere of commitment.

Some managers might confuse management with power. They believe that being a good manager is having the ability to make people do what needs to be done. Great managers, however, possess the ability to make people want to do what needs to be done. Being an effective manager isn’t about enforcing your will on others; it’s not about control or influence over your team by virtue of your position. If you’re a good manager and leader, set a good example, are respected, open, and approachable, you’ll have natural power.

Get in the habit of observing the people with whom you associate regularly so you become familiar with their communication style, individual mannerisms, and their body language. You’ll find that the more you understand them, the more things will be accomplished without misunderstanding—and be especially aware and respectful of cultural differences.

• • •

We'd love to hear from you about this series, and the ways you're using it. Send us your comments and feedback by clicking on Post a Comment below. Look out for the next part in this series a month from now, and please share with your colleagues.

The above content is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills textbook.


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