D.Murali

Chennai: The team must be committed to the leader, but even more important, the leader must be committed to the team and to goals that go beyond self-interest, says James M. Kilts in ‘Doing What Matters’ (www.landmarkonthenet.com).

Most companies today are matrixed organisations and require leaders who support one another regardless of the reporting relationships, he explains. “Unless leaders help others achieve their goals and objectives, the company will never be successful, and obviously the leader’s individual accomplishments will be meaningless.”

Another trait Kilts looks for in leaders is their ability to delegate, that is, those who know how to divvy up the work, and they also know when to take action if it looks like things are heading south. “They understand ‘loose-tight management’ – the benefits of rigorous accountability and challenging financial goals along with the flexibility to grow and innovate.”

As eligibility criteria for becoming top team members, brains and the capacity for hard work are givens, but more is required, the author observes. “You must have a certain amount of intellectual wattage and a decent-sized battery… People who aren’t highly intelligent and don’t have a high energy level just cannot be serious contenders for top-level positions.”

He insists that you look for people who walk the walk, those who deliver what they promise. “I especially like battle-tested managers,” says Kilts. “People who have had an easy road through their career and never ran into a tough business situation can be unreliable and unpredictable.”

Check if your leaders can make decisions. The ‘process’ part of decision-making demands an ability to “drill down quickly to find the facts that are important to the decision, the ability to look at things quantitatively, and the discipline to proceed in a systematic way, even if others are urging you to turn right or left, or maybe stop altogether.”

The other piece in decision-making is risk, elaborates Kilts. “You have to be able to step up to the possibility that in spite of your best efforts, your decision may be wrong, and then go ahead and make it anyway.”

The leaders’ ‘feel for business’ – variedly called street smartness, commonsense, or wisdom – is another essential trait. “They do the analysis, but they don’t lose touch with something inside that says, ‘I don’t care what the numbers seem to say, something just isn’t right here.’”

Right read for rising managers.