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Leadership –
Leading to self-responsibility
The last newsletter contained an article about leadership which Dr. Helmut Meyer
dealt with the leadership skills required in order to lead oneself Senior Consultant
and others to self-responsibility. Part 2 deals with the relation of
control and self-responsibility in the development of the leader- MACHWÜRTH TEAM
ship culture. INTERNATIONAL

the area director is in charge. the responsibility is also in

1. Contol und Self- The regional director (superior charge of the controlling.
Responsibilty of area director) tells me exactly
the same when I ask him after This is effective for each em-
the meeting. My input that the ployee and even more for em-
Monday, 10.00 am. As usual, unit managers should be the ployees in a leading role, i.e. the
the unit managers of an insur- ones responsible for the control- unit manager is in charge of
ance company and their area di- ling of their figures caused an in- checking whether his figures are
rector are having a weekly teresting discussion. What does correct. If not he has to think of
meeting. One of the topics is al- controlling mean and who con- a way to deal with the situation
ways the discussion of the trols what? It is impossible to and to apply measures to solve
weekly figures. Each unit has to separate the question of control- the problem. The area director
achieve certain numbers: num- ling from the responsibility. If a checks whether the unit man-
ber of customer visits, number specific responsibility (task) is ager takes responsibility and
of questionnaires, turnover. delegated, the person who took whether his action plans are
These figures are crucial for the reasonable. He
company in order to define a Parent Caring does not check
minimum level and they also in- We are encouraging, helpful, giving.
the figures but
fluence the salaries of the em- how the manag-
ployees. The area director reads ers deal with the
out the figures and asks for ex- Controlling results.
planations if the minimum re- We act based on norms and regula-
quirements have not been tions, jugde, assess and we are au- The difference
achieved. A strange atmosphere thoritarian. might be small at
in the room can be felt compa- first glance but it
rable with pupils who did not do has a huge impact
Adult We appraise the reality objectively,
their homework. The managers on the relationship
try to explain what has hap- make decisions built on facts, between the
pened this week and assure that leader and the
express ourselves clearly.
next week will definitely be bet- subordinate. If the
ter. Or they accuse the ‘shared superior area di-
services department’ of making rector assesses
errors in the reports. The area the figures, he in-
director gets more and more terferes in the
frustrated about the bad figures delegation area of
Child Obedient
and the atmosphere in the room We try to fulfill the expectations of oth-
his unit managers.
gets worse. ers, we are obedient, anxious and shy. How should the
unit manager re-
I am present at the meeting in Rebellious act? Obedient,
We are rebellious by doing the oppo-
the role of a ‘coaching process site of what is expected.
closed, secretive?
consultant’ and I ask the ques- From the perspec-
tion who is responsible for the Free tive of the trans-
controlling of the figures? Both We act spontaneously; we are curi- action analysis he
ous, open and sometimes even care-
parties agree and explain that less.
is in the role of the

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kid and reacts as a child – well-
behaved, whining, sullen. And
his boss is angry, scolds, moral-
ises, threatens and acts as par-
ents usually do. Both parties are
not in the ‘adult roles’. The re-
ciprocal relationship is stable but
both parties feel queasy but do
not change anything.
A superior who emphasizes self-
responsibility has to be aware
that the responsibility is limited
to controlling. The employee
starts to give up his self-
responsibility as soon as the su-
perior gets involved too much.
On the one hand the role is
comfortable because one does
not have to make a decision, on
the other hand it is very un-
pleasant being criticized.
2. Hot topic: Security
Role play in a workshop. The
team leader – inexperienced in
leading a team – has to practice
a feedback conversation. He is
talking to an employee who has
not followed the security guide-
lines several times. He spoke to
him a few times already accord-
ing to the script of the role play
but it has not helped. He agrees
that he made a mistake and im-
proves his behavior but after a
short time he falls into the same
sloppy style again. Now another
conversation – what about?
Should he tell him for the fourth
time that the security guidelines
are very important or should he
give him an official warning? Is
not a warning too hard consider-
ing the circumstances? O.k.,
let’s talk to him again – maybe it
helps. The observing colleagues
tell you that you wasted your
time. He will definitely not im-
prove and you will have to
speak to him again in a few
weeks. The problem of the
manager is that he only knows
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two options; either a useless
conversation or a warning. He
does not know how to make use
of the levels of escalation in a
conversation.
The problem is not the security
guidelines. The employee
agrees that they are useful and
important but it is boring to fol-
low them and a task usually
takes longer. It is very time-
consuming for companies to
constantly observe the compli-
ance of the security guidelines.
It is important that the employ-
ees act in a self-responsible
manner. The sloppy employee
does not have a problem with
the security guidelines but with
the self-responsibility. The
leader is now challenged to find
a way to enhance the self-
responsibility.
3. The development of a
leadership culture
Self-responsibility and monitor-
ing are important topics and in-
fluence the development of the
leadership culture from the be-
ginning.
1890 1920
3.1 From an authoritarian/auto-
cratic to a cooperative lead-
ership style
During the industrialization in
the 19th century the idea of dif-
ferentiated division of labor
arose. Physical work was not
paid very well, therefore a lack
of motivation could be attributed
to the worker. The superior was
in charge of instructing his em-
ployees about their tasks. He
was the one bearing the full re-
sponsibility for the success or
failure of his unit. That is the
reason why control plays a cen-
tral role in his leadership style.
He needed excellent profes-
sional skills, courage to make
his own decision and assertive-
ness. The subordinate was the
recipient of orders and was ex-
pected to be the extension of his
boss. The information they re-
ceived was limited to their job or
task and they did not have an
idea about the future strategy of
the company. They could not
develop any self-initiative and
they were educated not to take
any responsibility.
This leadership style was con-
sidered as ineffective at the end
of the 60ies/70ies. Due to the
technological progress and the
increasing complexity of corpo-
rate processes the qualification
and competence of the employ-
ees was more and more impor-
tant. The implementation of
teamwork resulting in delegation
of (part) responsibilities to the
team required a change in the
leadership style. Influenced by a
change of values which en-
1950 1980 2010
hanced the humanity of the work
life and the worker’s participa-
tion the cooperative leadership
style was developed in order to
lead efficiently. The crucial find-
ing was: not only the working
conditions influence the per-
formance of an employee but
also the attention paid to them.
The characteristics of a coop-
erative leadership style are:
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ƒ Involvement of the employ-
ees in communication and
decision making processes
ƒ Cooperative relationship be-
tween employee and supe-
rior
ƒ Communication in a dia-
logue
The manager is the process
owner who is responsible for the
results but he can build on the
strengths and competencies of
his employees. A cooperative
leadership style is based on a
trustful relationship between the
employees and the superior.
The aim is to enhance the self-
responsibility and the personal
development of the employees.
This leadership style requires
employees who are willing to
develop themselves, to take re-
sponsibility and are motivated
and committed. The basis is a
good communication and con-
flict structure. The manager
sees himself as a part of the
leading team and is also willing
to learn from others.
3.2 Laissez-faire or directive?
What does participation mean?
Who makes the decisions in the
end? And who is in charge? The
involvement and participation
always leads to the question of
how much autonomy should be
given. Can I trust my employee
to make his own decisions? And
can I tolerate this decision and
when do I get involved?
Laissez-faire means not getting
involved. The leadership style of
laissez-faire was soon rated as
being no style at all because the
leader could stay out of every-
thing. But let’s reflect – doesn’t
this leadership style have a very
modern quality? The employee
has the opportunity to work
autonomously. This would re-
quire the following:
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ƒ Open communication of
corporate strategy, clear
definition of objectives for
each employee and com-
mitment of employee to
identify with objectives.
ƒ The employee has the re-
quired competencies and
resources in order to act in-
dependently.
At this time nobody was ready
for this kind of leadership style.
The problems were that the
leaders were not strong and did
not like to take responsibility.
Not only the press was asking
for a ‘renaissance of the authori-
tarian leadership style’ but also
the companies which were look-
ing for more directions. One was
talking about a ‘directive leader-
ship style’ in order to avoid the
disputed expression of ‘authori-
tarian’ and the question arose,
whether the right leadership
style exists or whether it may be
dependent on the situation?
3.3 Situational Leadership
In the 80ies an important focus
was to define criteria for leading
well and successfully. Beyond
giving instructions and commu-
nicating with the employees the
situation in which the employee
was at a specific moment was
considered more and more im-
portant. In order to lead suc-
cessfully and effectively it is cru-
cial how the leader is capable of
adjusting his leading style to the
particular situation. HERSEY &
BLANCHARD define the situa-
tion according to the level of ma-
turity of an employee:
ƒ The task-specific level of
maturity depends on: pro-
fessional skills, methodical
skills, time/task manage-
ment, capability to change
processes
ƒ The psychological level of
maturity depends on: will-
ingness and ability to learn,
taking responsibility, work-
ing cooperatively and team
oriented, moral courage,
conflict management
Four different leadership styles
were developed by the authors:
Telling
Especially for younger employ-
ees, the leader has to give them
instructions about how to do a
specific task. Highly directive
approach, control, high task fo-
cus.
Selling
When the employee can do the
job then the leader has to ex-
plain the importance of the con-
tribution of the employee for the
whole company/process in order
to get his full commitment.
Participating
When the employee gets more
and more responsibility the ex-
pectation of getting involved in
decision-making processes in-
creases. The leader has to
come up now with measures to
develop the potential and abili-
ties of the employees.
Delegating
Motivated and competent em-
ployees who can work inde-
pendently do not need any di-
rections for the daily work. Em-
ployees at this level have less
need for support or frequent
praise, although as with anyone,
occasional recognition is always
welcome.
The right leadership style is not
a fixed behavior pattern any
more but depending on another
factor: the level of maturity of an
employee. HERSEY &
BLANCHARD do not deal with
the level of maturity of the
leader hence his ability of lead-
ing situationally. An immature
leader might use the ‘Telling ap-
proach’ whereas ‘Selling’ would
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be the appropriate style. The
successful practice of the situ-
ational leadership depends very
much on the culture of the com-
pany and strong learning and
development initiatives are re-
quired in order to enhance the
independence of the employee.
The situational leadership style
was considered very attractive
but the implementation was ex-
tremely difficult. The question
‘how do we do it’ was raised and
in the 90ies the management-
by-techniques promised to show
exactly how leading can be
done effectively.
3.4 Management by Objective
The most popular management-
by-techniques are management
by objectives (MBO), manage-
ment by delegation (MBD) and
management by exception
(MBE). MBO describes a lead-
MACHWÜRTH TEAM INTERNATIONAL • Dohrmanns Horst 19 • D-27374 Visselhövede
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ership practice showing clear in-
struction for delegation and con-
trol. In a nutshell MBO works as
follows: the leader defines and
agrees upon specific objectives
with his employees. The rela-
tionship between them is coop-
erative and the expectations are
clarified as well as an agree-
ment on the objectives is made.
The performance of the em-
ployee is assessed on the basis
of these agreements. By reach-
ing his goals and subsequent
remuneration the employee is
committed to maintain the qual-
ity level of his work. On the
other hand the employee is
asked to adjust his performance
if the objectives could not be
reached. Feedback conversa-
tions are hereby an extremely
important tool.
A lot of companies adapted the
management by objectives lead-
ership style in the 90ies and the
impact was twofold:
ƒ MBO was a good concept at
this time of the beginning
globalization, technological
development, rapid devel-
opment of the markets,
breaking with traditions and
structures, management of
complex projects: the an-
nual definition of the objec-
tives reduced the complexity
of leading. Supported by a
series of tools and instru-
ments for the definition of
the objectives becoming a
successful leader seemed
to be a process that could
be trained and understood
easily.
ƒ MBO was at the same time
a challenge. The consult-
ants involved in the imple-
mentation could feel imme-
diately whether the com-
pany was mature enough.
Some managers had diffi-
culties to deal with the new
situation of taking responsi-
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bility for the achievement of
the goals. Even the top
management was struggling
to focus on the objectives
and to overcome old hierar-
chical barriers. It was com-
mon that the agreements on
objectives were an annual
ritual with no consistency.
Individual training alone was
not sufficient to equip the
leaders with the necessary
skills to apply the MBO
leadership style. The whole
company had to go through
a change management
process in order to create
the basic conditions.
Managing by objectives has
been established as a success-
ful concept but it also has some
negative effects. The agreement
on objectives is sometimes lim-
ited to numbers only what may
result in the employee working
for his bonus only or giving him
a feeling of not being personally
important for an organization.
The MBO leadership style
caused a certain degree of de-
personalization by giving major
importance to the bonus.
In times of crisis, high changes
and turbulences the MBO lead-
The impact of Leadership
Leadership
Charisma
Idealised
influence
Agreeing on objectives
Agreed objectives
Remuneration
(depending on
results)
* Source: Bass & Avolio
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ership style reaches its limits
because fast change cycles,
ambivalent objectives and un-
predictable developments are
required and the motivation to
reach the agreed goals drops
because it just becomes impos-
sible. Companies should be able
to build on employees who are
capable of dealing with the
daunting situation. A high de-
gree of self-responsibility and
personality is required again.
3.5 Leadership
The leadership concept trans-
formational leadership (TL) has
been developed in 1990 and is
defined as leadership that cre-
ates valuable and positive
change in the followers. A trans-
formational leader focuses on
"transforming" others to help
each other, to look out for each
other, to be encouraging and
harmonious, and to look out for
the organization as a whole. In
this leadership, the leader en-
hances the motivation, morale
and performance of his follower
group. The personality of a
leader builds the focus of the
leadership concept. The most
Inspiring Intellectual
motivation stimulation
expected
effort
expected
performance
important characteristics are
charisma and ability to motivate
people. The status of this leader
is not built on power and hierar-
chical position but on trust and
personal relationship. The lead-
ership style of TL is very partici-
pative and the objectives deter-
mine the general direction but
not the way of how to achieve
them.
The leader considers himself
(herself) as a coach. He tries to
stimulate his followers by show-
ing and explaining them different
approaches for example for
solving a problem. He creates
challenges and enhances inno-
vation and creativity.
The most challenging task is the
individual development of the
followers. The leader recognizes
the specific abilities and needs
of the employees and enhances
supports and advises them.
Whereas management by objec-
tives rewards results and per-
formance, TL mobilizes the po-
tential and abilities of the em-
ployees trying to get them to a
stage to ‘walk the extra-mile’.
Individual
appreciation
Increased motivation
to reach planned results
(extra-efforts)
Performance
beyond expectation
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The next newsletter will deal with the development of leadership qualities. Established concepts
about leadership development are not always appropriate. An extensive self-reflection is recom-
mended in order to get an assessment of the current situation.

Guide for self-reflection for managers

The following checklist supports you in reflecting about your processes and responsibilities in your own team

1. First step – please name the 10 main processes and allocate the responsibilities according to the hierarchy
levels. Do not consider how the process should be but how it is in reality.

Main processes / tasks Responsibility of my superior My responsibility Responsiblity of my employees

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

2. Now, please check the current situation. Is it reasonable and efficient? Are the responsibilities allocated in a
reasonable way? Are the responsibilities clearly defined? If you are not completely satisfied with the current
situation please develop the desired target situation.

Main processes / tasks Responsibilities which should Responsibilities which should Responsibilities which should be
be accepted by my superior be accepted by myself accepted by my employees
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

3. Compare the current and target situation. What has to be done in order to achieve the desired situation? Who
do I have to talk to? What kind of new agreements have to be made?
4. Please have another look at the list with the main processes / tasks and fill in who controls/checks which ac-
tivities? Please consider the current situation.

Main processes / tasks What is controlled by my supe- What is controlled by myself? What is controlled by my employ-
rior? How does he do it? How do I do it? ees?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

5. Please compare the controlling process with the current situation of the responsibility. Where does re-
sponsibility and control match? Are there any discrepancies/gaps? What are the reasons?
6. Please compare the controlling process with the target situation of the responsibility. Which controlling
measures have to be changed, developed and agreed?
7. What are the next steps?
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