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Gary Cokins
What Distinguishes Good From Weak Leaders?
Having all the knowledge means nothing without the right types of people. One person can make a big difference. They can be someone who somehow gets it altogether and changes the fabric of an organization’s culture not through mandating change but by engaging and motivating others.
For some leaders irritating people is not only a sport but it is their personal entertainment. They are rarely successful. Dunn referenced studies that conclude that the three primary success factor for effective leaders is technical competence, critical thinking skills, and communication skills.
You know there is a problem when a leader says, “I don’t do that; I have people who do that.” Good leaders do not necessarily have high intelligence, good memories, deep experience, or innate abilities they are born with. They have problem solving skills.
Ford Motors CEO Alan Mulally came to the automotive business from Boeing in the aerospace industry without deep automotive experience. He has been successful. Why? Because he is an analytical type of leader.
Analytical leaders are adaptable and possess systematic and methodological ways to achieve results. It may sound corny, but they apply the scientific method that involves formulating hypothesis and testing to prove or disprove them. They rely on searching for root causes and understanding cause-and-effect logic chains. Ultimately a well-formulated strategy, talented people, and the ability to execute the executive team’s strategy through robust communications are the key to performance improvement.
Key Characteristics of the Analyst as Leader
The popular book Moneyball, and subsequent movie, demonstrated that traditional baseball scouts methods (“He’s got a good swing,”) gave way to fact-based evidence. Commonly accepted traits of a leader, such as being charismatic or strong, may also be misleading.
The scarcest resource in an organization is human ability and competence. That is why organizations should desire that every employee be developed for growth in their skills. But having sound competencies is not enough. Key personal qualities complete the package of an effective leader. For the analyst as a leader three personal quality characteristics are needed: curiosity, imagination, and creativity. The three are sequentially linked. Curious people constantly ask “Why are things the way they are?” and “Is there a better way of doing things?” Without these personal qualities then innovation will be stifled. The emergence of analytics is creating opportunities for analysts as leaders.
Weak leaders are prone to a diagnostic bias. They can be blind to evidence and somehow believe their intuition, instincts, and gut-feel are acceptable masquerades for having fact-based information. In contrast, a curious person always asks questions. They typically love what they do. If they are also a good leader they infect others with enthusiasm. Their curiosity leads to imagination. Imagination considers alternative possibilities and solutions. Imagination in turn sparks creativity.
Creativity is the Execution of Imagination
Good analysts have a primary mission: to gain insights relying on quantitative techniques to result in better decisions and actions. Their imagination that leads to creativity can also result in vision. Vision is a mark of a good leader.
In my mind, an executive leader has to hire good employees and grow them. But perhaps his most important job is to answer the question, “Where do we want to go?” With that answer managers and analysts can then ask, “How are we going to get there?” That is where analytics are applied with the various enterprise performance management methodologies, such as strategy maps, scorecards, customer profitability analysis, and driver-based rolling financial forecasts and plans. It is to fully execute the strategy.
In Dunn’s studies other perceived characteristics of a good leader are overrated. These include ambition, team spirit, collegiality, integrity, courage, tenacity, discipline, and confidence. They are nice-to-haves but pale compared to technical competency and critical thinking and communications skills.
Be analytical and you can be a leader.
Gary Cokins, CPIM
(gary.cokins@sas.com; phone: 919-531-2012)
blogs.sas.com/content/cokins
Gary Cokins (Cornell University BS IE/OR, 1971; Northwestern University Kellogg MBA 1974) is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and enterprise performance and risk management systems. He is a Principal in business consulting involved with analytics-based enterprise performance management solutions with SAS, a global leader in business intelligence and analytics software. He began his career in industry with a Fortune 100 company in CFO and operations roles. He then worked 15 years in consulting with Deloitte, KPMG, and EDS. His two most recent books are Performance Management: Finding the Missing Pieces to Close the Intelligence Gap (ISBN 0-471-57690-5) and Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics (ISBN 978-0-470-44998-1). Mr. Cokins can be contacted at gary.
cokins@sas.com
123 words.
Having all the knowledge means nothing without the right types of people. One person can make a big difference. They can be someone who somehow gets it altogether and changes the fabric of an organization’s culture not through mandating change but by engaging and motivating others.
For some leaders irritating people is not only a sport but it is their personal entertainment. They are rarely successful. Dunn referenced studies that conclude that the three primary success factor for effective leaders is technical competence, critical thinking skills, and communication skills.
You know there is a problem when a leader says, “I don’t do that; I have people who do that.” Good leaders do not necessarily have high intelligence, good memories, deep experience, or innate abilities they are born with. They have problem solving skills.
Ford Motors CEO Alan Mulally came to the automotive business from Boeing in the aerospace industry without deep automotive experience. He has been successful. Why? Because he is an analytical type of leader.
Analytical leaders are adaptable and possess systematic and methodological ways to achieve results. It may sound corny, but they apply the scientific method that involves formulating hypothesis and testing to prove or disprove them. They rely on searching for root causes and understanding cause-and-effect logic chains. Ultimately a well-formulated strategy, talented people, and the ability to execute the executive team’s strategy through robust communications are the key to performance improvement.
Key Characteristics of the Analyst as Leader
The popular book Moneyball, and subsequent movie, demonstrated that traditional baseball scouts methods (“He’s got a good swing,”) gave way to fact-based evidence. Commonly accepted traits of a leader, such as being charismatic or strong, may also be misleading.
The scarcest resource in an organization is human ability and competence. That is why organizations should desire that every employee be developed for growth in their skills. But having sound competencies is not enough. Key personal qualities complete the package of an effective leader. For the analyst as a leader three personal quality characteristics are needed: curiosity, imagination, and creativity. The three are sequentially linked. Curious people constantly ask “Why are things the way they are?” and “Is there a better way of doing things?” Without these personal qualities then innovation will be stifled. The emergence of analytics is creating opportunities for analysts as leaders.
Weak leaders are prone to a diagnostic bias. They can be blind to evidence and somehow believe their intuition, instincts, and gut-feel are acceptable masquerades for having fact-based information. In contrast, a curious person always asks questions. They typically love what they do. If they are also a good leader they infect others with enthusiasm. Their curiosity leads to imagination. Imagination considers alternative possibilities and solutions. Imagination in turn sparks creativity.
Creativity is the Execution of Imagination
Good analysts have a primary mission: to gain insights relying on quantitative techniques to result in better decisions and actions. Their imagination that leads to creativity can also result in vision. Vision is a mark of a good leader.
In my mind, an executive leader has to hire good employees and grow them. But perhaps his most important job is to answer the question, “Where do we want to go?” With that answer managers and analysts can then ask, “How are we going to get there?” That is where analytics are applied with the various enterprise performance management methodologies, such as strategy maps, scorecards, customer profitability analysis, and driver-based rolling financial forecasts and plans. It is to fully execute the strategy.
In Dunn’s studies other perceived characteristics of a good leader are overrated. These include ambition, team spirit, collegiality, integrity, courage, tenacity, discipline, and confidence. They are nice-to-haves but pale compared to technical competency and critical thinking and communications skills.
Be analytical and you can be a leader.
Gary Cokins, CPIM
(gary.cokins@sas.com; phone: 919-531-2012)
blogs.sas.com/content/cokins
Gary Cokins (Cornell University BS IE/OR, 1971; Northwestern University Kellogg MBA 1974) is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and enterprise performance and risk management systems. He is a Principal in business consulting involved with analytics-based enterprise performance management solutions with SAS, a global leader in business intelligence and analytics software. He began his career in industry with a Fortune 100 company in CFO and operations roles. He then worked 15 years in consulting with Deloitte, KPMG, and EDS. His two most recent books are Performance Management: Finding the Missing Pieces to Close the Intelligence Gap (ISBN 0-471-57690-5) and Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics (ISBN 978-0-470-44998-1). Mr. Cokins can be contacted at gary.
cokins@sas.com
123 words.
