"Management capability is about applying management competencies to achieve desired results within an organisation. Strong management capability contributes to the strong performance of organisations."
AMCI 2013 - published by AIM Qld, NSW, ACT, NT
Today I had the pleasure of hearing Dr Roger Collins (Professor Emeritus at the University of NSW, amongst much else) at the AIM breakfast in Sydney. It would be very hard to put in a few words what Roger said. But I like big picture, so I'll do it:
- You have a choice: do what must be done right now, or think about what must be done very soon - and that could be in a year or ten years, or much longer.
- How do you treat your people, are they stuck in today or do you listen to them about tomorrow - and today! Too many companies are caught in the 'response to threat' syndrome, not exploration of the 'response to opportunity'. They are not listening to their people.
- Organisational capabilities come from the uniting of the competencies of individuals. Can you bring groups/teams together to work on the opportunities of the future - i.e. develop the organisation's capabilities? It is from capabilities (not just competencies) that we get safety, corporate governance, foresight, innovation ... all the things we most want from organisations!
- Successful people succumb to arrogance. They no longer listen, they know! Put them on the streets with the NFPs and community groups who have to work with the problems we create. Build their social conscience and thoughtfulness about how they proceed - thinking beyond just profit as the bottom line.
- And throughout all of this is woven the thread of Leadership vs Management - merged and confused even in the Harvard Business Review! We must distinguish:
- Leadership is taking people into the future.
- Management is doing what has to be done today.
Can leaders forget about Management, are they too good for that? No!
Can managers forget about Leadership, that's not their job? No!
The answer is, everyone in an organisation should do both. And when it's not your job to do the management, it is your job to see it gets done!
- Doing Leadership and Management at every level is Distributed Leadership. When you achieve that, you have an entire organisation taking care of the job as specified, and offering thoughts, ideas, contributions and effort for the future. They love it.
Does that sum it up? Probably not, but it's a start. Want to see/hear more of Roger Collins? Click here.
Of course, Leaderskill has a lot to say along these lines, and how you can get there, Click here.
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