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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on April 27, 1998. Good bosses enlist employees' helpBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to The Post and Courier Leadership and management play key roles in the survival and success of entrepreneurial ventures. Research suggests that the most successful managers today employ a style called transformational leadership. They are managers who enlist employees to help construct the organizational culture, discover opportunities and develop plans to take advantage of them. Transformational leaders provide a vision of the firm to be shared by people at all levels. They recognize that people have many talents and contributions to make, so they empower and encourage subordinates. Transformational leaders differ markedly from the old-style authority figures who separate themselves from subordinates, send plans and orders how to carry them out down through layers of bureaucracy. The old-style leaders controlled the rewards for complying with the directives. This new style of leadership is interactive. Individuals using this style are characterized as encouraging participation, sharing power and information and getting others excited about their work. Organizations managed in this fashion tend to be cooperative, have horizontal structures rather than vertical organizational charts and are more egalitarian. Recent studies suggest that female leaders more than males tend to employ transformational behaviors. More than men, women leaders tend to place greater value on relationships, with emphasis on cultivation and nurturing. Eschewing the traditional perks and privileges, which separate the leaders from the rank and file in traditional organizations, female leaders tend to construct ties to each individual. There may be some good reasons for the differences. According to one study, because women often do not have the same access to formal power as men, they learn to rely on personal power and influence, teamwork and other non-traditional methods to get the work accomplished. Research also suggests that men and women employ different management approaches. In leadership situations, women tend to behave more democratically, placing greater emphasis on maintaining effective working relationships and valuing cooperation more highly. Female leaders tend to seek solutions that address the concerns of all parties rather than viewing issues as resolvable only on a basis of winning or losing. We investigated leadership styles in our study of female entrepreneurs. We found high correlations among items related to being transformational and interactive leaders, interest in people and human resource skills. The entrepreneurs with an interactive leadership style differed from the other entrepreneurs on a number of important management dimensions. They were more inclined to recognize the importance of their employees, indicate high levels of concern for those individuals and place greater emphasis on development of skills needed to work effectively with others. They also were more confident of their abilities to successfully run their firms and more satisfied with their work. In talking about their businesses, these entrepreneurs discussed the challenges involved in empowering subordinates and clients. Dominating discussion of the leadership and management of their businesses were themes related to caring, supportive and empowering approaches to dealing with employees and clients. Interestingly enough, none of the female entrepreneurs in our study said they relied on their prior corporate experience as a template for managing their own businesses. Instead, they often contrasted their team-oriented approach with the management style that had predominated in their prior organization. Susan O'Connor Brown, who formed the Avalon Consulting Group in Pennsylvania after 18 years as a senior executive in the corporate financial services arena, now consults for organizations and executives in the areas of strategic planning, change management and leadership development. "There were a lot of buzz words thrown around in the corporate environment," says Brown. "An example of one is a team player. The definition of a `corporate' team player is doing the same thing, looking the same way, using the same language and saying the same answers. My definition of a team is quite different. I think that a team needs to be more than a group of individuals. We don't all have to have soul bonding, but you have to have a common level of purpose." Getting to the heart of the matter, she continued, "We have to really believe that there is a reason for me to collaborate with you, that if I am open to the knowledge and experience that you have, then we will increase the result that we can get together." Another entrepreneur, who had also found authoritarian management leadership styles counterproductive in her corporate experience, added, "it is important to understand the kind of team member you need. I am a firm believer that all brains have to be at the table." Ann Angel, now owner of a computer training company, described her method of contributing to the teamwork in her business this way: "If they have an obstacle, I remove it, or I'll fix it. If they need equipment; if they need me to smooth something through or help them think something through, they come to me. They say, `Help me think this through.' And I give them my perception. They are just as competent to make the decision as I am. And they have the power to do it. That's the way I like to run a team." Does all this work? Research suggests that the transformational, interactive leadership approach produces organizations that are innovative, fast-moving, competitive, and successful. The styles are typical of the most competitive and fastest growing businesses in the cutting areas of today's technology. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact dot.moore@comcast.net. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |