I recently noticed a program at my current employer called xplorer Leadership, which officially focuses on contributing to custom education for leaders or people who aim in the same direction. After filling out some self assessment, you might come into a recall. I like the approach, as you destinguish between motivated people and someone who just focus on their curriculum vitae. As I am functionally responsible for 5 external colleagues onsite and up to 11 people in off-shore, I am sometimes thinking about the challenge keeping up the motivation of my teams. Escpecially external employees tend to give up after a few years at customer locations due to lack of self confidence, integration into the own company or drop out from a skill perspective. As I need to rely on a strong team, I need to gain trust into my own skills and carry my team into the desired direction while ensuring challenges, which motivate the spread skill sets. As I can also influence the environment in which my teams work, I am always aiming to generate a place where people would like to work.
During filling out the form sheet of the mentioned program, I remembered an interesting graphic I once found on the internet, which describes the difference between leadership and management in a fashionable way:
When talking to my people and requesting an honest oppinions, they pin-point out, that I am more like the first one in a line to get work done. Other colleagues feedback reminds me on the Management by Motivation methodology; however it seems to work out, as people are highly motivated and do the extra mile; required or not. If I moved my results into numbers, I noticed a lots higher througput and achievements during the year compared to other teams. Even compared to internal teams, without offshore resources, the business results were lots more positive; without any bonuses sold out to my teams due to external company.
Therefore I do think, that functional responsible people can make a difference by their leadership skills, if they understand the effect their actions can have across a company. These skills decide about strong relations and therefore strong departments and performance and fluctuation; inside and outside the company. Never the less, I used to say “because human matters”; they make the difference – and I may support them on their individual journey to a better self.