"Putting Paperwork Before People Work"
To summarize Finzel's thoughts on the topic, he observes that most of our leadership roles tend to be very task oriented. The combination of the role (environment) and the tendency for 'type A' personalities to be drawn to/fill those roles tends to foster an environment wherein leaders can lose their way and focus more on results and not the methods/process by which those results are obtained.
Since leadership is insignificant without followership, a major component of the process that a leader influences is his/her followers. In fact, without followers, there can be no leadership of scale. Therefore Finzel says that, "Leadership is essentially a people business" (Finzel, 2007, p. 49).
I would like to make an analogy to Monday evening's classes at our dojo ("martial arts training hall")(Pauley, 2009, p. 20). Monday began our "back to basics" review following a few months of working the technical aspects of various nage ("throws")(Pauley, 2009, p. 118). Reviewing the basics of how to make a proper fist before delving into the general mechanics and kinesiology of ate waza ("striking techniques")(Pauley, 2009, p. 6) may have seemed trite at the beginning of class considering the experience level of those in class (approximately half of the student body in class that evening were experienced martial arts teachers with years of teaching and training experience), but by the end of class, everyone had grown immensely at a technical level by reviewing "the basics".
So what do reviewing choku zuki ("straight punch")(Pauley, 2009, p. 14) and leading people have to do with one another? One answer...process. As skilled martial artists, we tend to overlook the basics in our study until our teacher (or a life lesson) calls our attention to a gap we have. As leaders it is incumbent upon ourselves to continually check our leadership practices in the same way we check our technical practice in the dojo.
But rather than viewing this as a process of continually returning to square one, let us place this discussion within the context of our learning analogy (the theory that all learned activity progresses through the following stages):
- Unconscious Incompetence - you don't know what you don't know
- Conscious Incompetence - you are aware of what you don't know
- Conscious Competence - you can "do" as long as you are consciously thinking about it
- Unconscious Competence - you can "do" without consciously thinking about it
Leadership is the process of creating influence and the "basics" of that are people. As a Special Operations Team Leader, I've come to learn that listening is an important skill to develop as a leader. Listening means creating space where we can focus on those we are leading. In a world of constant communication through cell phones, e-mails, text messages, etc, the creation of space is not easy, but it is important.
I'd like to offer you this challenge/assignment and hear your feedback. Create 10 minutes of space at the beginning of your day where you sit and concentrate on nothing but your breathing. Turn off the TV, step away from the computer, etc and sit someplace that is quiet. Do this everyday and see if you feel any different by the end of the week. If you do, what do you feel differently about? We begin with ourselves on this assignment because leadership begins with us.
The second part of this assignment is that I challenge you to not multitask when speaking with someone in your work environment. This may be a challenge so begin with what is achievable if you tend to multitask - set aside a set time (perhaps 30 minutes) where, if you interact with another person, you will focus on the interaction fully. Again, evaluate the quality of these interactions against the more routine interactions we tend to have.
Leadership is people work. That is as basic as the elements that go into making a proper fist.
Respectfully,
David
Director, Midwest Academy of Martial Arts
References
Finzel, Hans. (2007). The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. Colorado Springs, CO.
Pauley, Daniel C. (2009). Pauley's Guide. Dolores, CO. Anaguma Seizan Publications, Inc.
Posts
I haven't read the book, so I can only comment on what you have posted here. I am also going to connect it to your post on culture because in my mind they are interrelated.
ReplyDeleteThere are innumerable books, seminars, videos, etc. on what we do wrong as leaders or how to better manage people or whatever variation of the same subject the "messenger" decides to call it. I think those ask and/or answer the wrong questions. As followers of a "Do" we do exactly as you said, we go back to the basics to fix a problem. If the punch is not working correctly, we make sure the fist is properly formed, etc. A key factor, though, is that we have learned this through studying “Asian based arts” as you said.
I've spent a lot of time over the past four years or so trying to answer why we are so guilty of “putting paperwork before people work”, among many other problems that I can get lost in a tangent about, but won’t. America has bred a culture that is not people-oriented. We are a material society. We focus on jobs and not the people doing them. We have to see results, and fast. We focus our tasks toward what it does for “me” rather than “us”. We don’t spend time looking at our processes because American society tells us that going back to the “basics” is wrong. It is beneath us. That's why only a small percentage of people that start an art actually make it a "Do". And that is why our “leaders” tend to be task managers rather than actual leaders, since they accumulate tasks and make sure other people are accomplishing tasks rather than spending time figuring out how they can lead people (which requires the process examination you pointed out).
Developing leaders, or teaching an “Asian based art” in this country may not be as simple as “modeling” as you also talked about in one of your blogs. Although, that is a great tool and imperative overall, it isn’t enough to break though the barriers that are culturally ingrained. An American may see what you are doing is successful and try to do it, but may not be able to determine on his/her own why it is so. To develop leaders or teach a martial art (or both in our case), and be successful at it, an explanation of why our results-oriented society really sees only minimal results is also just as important. And constantly going back to that “basic” is fundamental to producing better leaders and students.
Jordan Hestermann
Assistant Director
Kempo Jujutsu Martial Arts Academy