Leadership skills and business performance

Leadership - Skills - Performance

As organizations reach maturity, the need for the performance of their leaders in increasing their economic results, in their approach to customers and in the policy of satisfying their needs, and their influence quickly emerges. between the groups and organizations in which they are integrated, promoting human behavior in achieving the goals set and a very important role within the organizational sphere.

From this perspective, the management and leadership processes are continually taken up today to successfully incorporate them into the complex business world. Successful companies increasingly reflect the importance of management, relying on a correct generation of Management Skills and leadership as a process of influence on human behavior, in order to achieve certain objectives and thereby increase the performance of your organization.

Epigraph 1.1: Business Performance.

Competing to win the future, is to compete to create and dominate the opportunities that arise and thus delimit a new competitive space, but this must be based on a rational struggle, which is adapted to the characteristics of the company in question, in that creating the future involves the challenge of building our own map and our own path. Opening a path is more rewarding than taking the path of others as a reference, because the future is not reached first by letting another lead the way.

At this point it is interesting to ask these questions:

What drives some companies to invent their future and why others do not meet the challenge? Why do some companies seem to have a radar to look at the horizon and others seem to walk backwards? Why do some companies create a future with scarce resources and for others that spend millions, the future never comes?

There are four key factors for a company to reach the future first:

1. Understand the differentiation requirements in the future. Look for future opportunities and understand them. Be able to instill in all levels of the organization the trip to the future. Be the first to arrive, taking fewer risks.

All the concepts of competing for the future are aimed at helping the entrepreneur imagine the future, and then create it. Now it is paradoxical to think that, if some company manages to achieve the future, even if it is in design at the level of thought, it cannot be understood that the others do not, stop being leaders to become followers, because there is no unique future., nor a single company. Each company can take or conceive its future and succeed without thinking about the failure of the other or the time frame they take to implement the category of successful company.

The terms efficiency, excellence and competitiveness are some of the most used when rating or analyzing a company, these are the fundamental elements that make up business performance. Competitiveness implies concepts such as efficiency, effectiveness and excellence, although the existence of the latter does not imply competitiveness. Among the basic objectives of a company is to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, self-control and competitiveness in general, that is, every company seeks survival within the economic environment and the market.

Efficiency is a concept related to obtaining results in relation to the use of resources. It is measured from a system of indicators, it is difficult to reach complete conclusions with only one, since the indicators reflect aspects of reality and not all of reality, there are synthetic indicators such as profitability, productivity, cost by weight, which serve to make diagnostic evaluations of efficiency, but always a more in-depth study, looking for cause-effect relationships would imply the use of a system of pyramid-organized indicators.

In Cuba, the term has gone through different moments in its interpretation and application as a performance meter, and the mistake of making inter-company comparisons is made through the use of a single indicator, for example profitability or cost by weight. Efficiency is a fundamental indicator for the growth and survival of the company.

Efficiency is a concept related to the ability of an organization to fulfill its mission. However, effectiveness does not imply efficiency since an organization can be effective, as it correctly fulfills its mission, but this does not imply that it is efficient, since it invests large resources in achieving its economic results. In the same way, it can achieve efficiency and the mission is poorly formulated (it does not correspond to the economic and social need) so that the management of the company could be ineffective. Both terms are implicit in business excellence and in turn the term is identified with the achievement of sustained advantages in the market, therefore, excellence is associated with competitiveness.

Competitiveness means by the author: «the ability of a company or organization of any kind to develop and maintain comparative advantages that allow it to enjoy and maintain a prominent position in the socio-economic environment in which they operate. Comparative advantage is understood as that ability, resource, knowledge, attributes, etc., that a company has, that its competitors lack and that makes it possible to obtain higher returns than these. ” For Porter, in his article "How the Competitive Forces shape the Strategy", this advantage has to do fundamentally with the value that a company is capable of creating for its buyers and that exceeds the cost of that company to create it..

Competitiveness is a relative concept, it shows the comparative position of the systems (companies, sectors, countries) using the same reference measure. We can say that it is a developing concept, not finished and subject to many interpretations and forms of measurement. Depending on the dimension to which the organizational systems belong, different indicators will be used to measure it.

Business competitiveness can be considered in a double aspect; as internal competitiveness and as external competitiveness. Internal competitiveness refers to the competition of the company with itself from the comparison of its efficiency over time and the efficiency of its internal structures (production and services.) This type of analysis is essential to find internal reserves of efficiency but in general it is given less importance than the external competitive analysis, which expresses the most debated, disclosed and universally analyzed concept.

Management style can be defined as the set of behavioral guidelines, psychosociological parameters, information and decision processes, etc., characteristic of the managerial function of a company or organization. Therefore, the management is the one who can determine the organizational culture, which in turn will configure the professional and personal characteristics of the individuals who will be promoted to management positions. In this sense, some aspects of particular importance are the following:

1. The role of management in organizational change processes. The treatment of entrepreneurship within the organization. The commitment to develop and extend a coherent organizational culture aimed at increasing competitiveness. Valuing the importance of managing human resources, which are considered a fundamental element to maintain the dynamics of change necessary to be competitive. The creation of an environment for permanent training and retraining of managers, since the technological spiral and market conditions require a continuous updating of knowledge.

It is essential to understand how to reach competitiveness, linking at least the following link elements: What are the factors that condition it? What is the strategy-competitiveness relationship? These answers are complicated and do not have unanimity in their consideration, but trying a minimum clarification, based on current management practice and the criteria of the scholars of the subject, is always a valuable help to clear the path to competitiveness.

According to Porter, “the national environment plays a stellar role in the competitive success of companies. Some national settings seem more stimulating than others. " The environment provides an important number of forces and circumstances that condition the competitive capacity of the company, and that must be taken into account when formulating strategies to achieve it.

In short, business competitiveness requires a dynamic, up-to-date management team, open to organizational and technological change, and aware of the need to consider the members of the organization as a first-rate resource that must be cared for. However, it can be said that this is usually one of the weaknesses of a large number of companies that have disappeared or have survival problems. As we know, the management team largely determines the attitude of the members of the organization towards work. Experience shows that companies that maintain sustained competitive positions over time, pay great attention to the future, while constantly monitoring their environment.Michael Porter from the definition of "value chain" identifies the lines of action that the company can take to design its competitive strategy appropriate to its needs.

The value chain breaks down the company's activity into its basic elements: product design, supply, production, marketing, distribution and other support functions.

As stated by Carlos Lage "Today it is not the policy of our country to develop competitiveness among state companies, although it is impossible to defend the economy of a country through protectionist laws, today you can only defend the economy based on competitiveness". "The most important thing is to assess if these companies are really in a position to be competitive, given the competitiveness on a world scale, if our companies really are in a position to become true world-class companies."

The paradox is then how to achieve being a competitive company in this environment with techniques that do not go against the policy outlined by the Revolution. Now, it is not possible to understand business performance as the illusion of being perfect, of doing everything well, of being the best in everything or in anything; This is theoretically and practically speaking very difficult to achieve, what is not impossible for any company, whether Cuban or from any part of the world, is to achieve global competitiveness by meeting the most basic requirements demanded by the market. Being competitive globally means, together with efficiency and effectiveness, maintaining good business performance, and for most entrepreneurs in the world, finding the necessary ways to:

1. Satisfy certain social needs at the highest qualitative level. Create wealth. Develop workers spiritually, professionally and materially.

Peter Drucker, Austrian economist and consultant has made innumerable contributions to the development of administrative theory, which has made him today the most important theorist of modern business. In relation to business performance, a group of observations was already made in 1966 that have been corroborated in current business practice and by the studies of other important scientists and consultants, such as Gary Hamel and CKPrahalad of the University of Michigan or Stepen Robin and Mary Coulter. A very tight summary of Drucker's ideas on business performance is presented below:

Conditions that refer to the resources and results of the company:

• Neither the resources nor the results exist within the company. Both are outside of it. The results of a business always depend on people who are not in the business: consumers and government bodies. The same is true of resources, both knowledge and financial and material resources are external to the business and can be acquired by it. To obtain good results, resource management should be directed at seizing opportunities rather than detecting problems. This does not mean a lack of concern for problems, but rather a special emphasis on maximizing opportunities. It is important to do things well, however it is vital to determine or choose well what to do and dedicate the greatest amount of resources to it.Good results do not depend on competition but rather on leadership.

• Leadership is always transitory and often short-lived. The leader's position is never final. Both knowledge and material and financial resources are accessible to other companies and therefore the position of the leader is constantly threatened by its competitors. Therefore, the search for leadership must be a permanent attitude of the company.

Conditions that refer to the efforts necessary to achieve the results:

• The existing is getting old. A company is the result of past actions and decisions and that is why many leaders invest a significant amount of their time in solving problems generated by that past, since the past is the "normal" thing. The right attitude, however, is to look ahead, "create" the future and configure new opportunities that mean an expansion path for the company. What exists is probably misallocated. From this principle it can be deduced that economic results are, in general, directly proportional to income, while costs are directly proportional to the number of transactions and resources are often directed to areas that do not produce results. Concentration is the key to get good results.Achieving greater benefits requires executives to focus their efforts on a “as small as possible” number of products, product lines, services, consumers, markets, distribution channels, etc. The economic results require that these efforts be concentrated on few activities, capable of producing significant results.

These ideas of Drucker may seem contradictory and difficult to follow in their logic, but business analysts and consultants recognize them as true with the condition that reality is very rich, no two cases are exactly the same and what gives some result in others is a failure.

Studying the causes of business success has been an obsession for many years, both by consultants, management professors, and entrepreneurs. Many ideas have been reflected in manuals and works of Administration, but it is not until the 80s that real and serious analyzes begin, which have been based on an important group of methodical and empirical investigations, some of which have been mentioned in This chapter.

The role of workers as a fulcrum and lever of all results is clearly marked. When talking about the need to have a professional management team, with a flexible, creative management style, with a strategic attitude, capable of generating a participatory organizational culture and with a positive orientation to change; it is simply referring to the human group with the skills and knowledge necessary to lead the great human group of the entire business organization to success.

Section 1.2: Management Skills.

Identifying the skills required for effective managerial work has occupied the attention of many specialists in recent years. Numerous works, investigations, surveys, forums, etc. have been dedicated to the topic. The reason that explains this interest is clear, based on the skills that are identified, the centers and specialists that work in the training of managers design the programs that offer interested institutions and professionals, write books, publish articles in specialized magazines; In short, offers of products and services that satisfy needs in this area are proposed to the “market”.

The need for knowledge and skills for effective management can be as broad as desired. It can include technology-related aspects of the type of business the company operates in, work processes, the market, the economic environment, management of indicators and financial ratios, marketing problems, financial operations, just to name a few.

Given this wide spectrum of alternatives, we must select the sphere in which we must focus. For this we can orient ourselves by the more general definition of what it is to direct "obtain results through other people". If we start from this, the sphere of greatest interest is that related to interpersonal relationships. According to Robbins, "The Center for Creative Leadership estimates that more than half of managers and administrators have some sort of difficulty in relationships with people… A survey from Fortune Magazine revealed that the biggest reason for manager failure was their Inadequate Interpersonal Skills… Would it surprise you to learn that more managers are likely to be fired due to the poverty of their interpersonal skills than to the lack of technical skills in the position? ”

The Manager must be an agent of change and manager of social development, whose action generates satisfaction for workers, investors, users and society in general. You must be prepared for constant personal and professional growth, in order to enrich the process of leadership and development of the direction of the work team. It corresponds to him to be a Professional with holistic vision and systemic thinking that integrates the understanding of modern managerial philosophy and its practical application, oriented in a prospective way to the improvement of the human, labor, communicational, spiritual and productive quality of the organizations, making them more competitive in global markets, within a context of competitive sustainable development.

The path to success is constituted by the search for opportunities, maturity in the negotiation processes and the attitude to interrelate and intervene in the positive and negative conflicts that arise in an organization.

The results of the managers' management will be determined by their attitudes towards third parties, the search for opportunities, bargaining power, communication, flexible thinking capacity, positive attitude towards knowledge, positive, realistic and objective sense towards business management, backed by an adequate motivation towards effective communication as a means of action and interrelation between those involved in the business system.

In Goleman's research on Emotional Intelligence, the following conclusion is reached: "Now we are judged according to new norms: not only does sagacity, preparation and experience matter, but how we deal with ourselves and with others… By tracking data on the talents of stellar performances, two skills emerge that had relatively little influence in the 1970s, but have become crucially important in the 1990s: team building and adaptation to change. ” Analyzing insufficiencies of MBA programs (Master in Business Administration), Minztberg argues that, in his ideal management program, he would emphasize the training of interpersonal skills, to collect information, to make decisions in conditions of uncertainty, to manage conflicts, to motivate people,among other.

Once the center of attention has been identified, the second aspect to analyze is the spheres with which a manager is related, which can be summarized as follows:

• The Environment, made up of people or institutions that are outside the organization such as: suppliers, customers, banking institutions, ministries, community organizations where the entity is located.The Council or Management Team, which constitutes the body in which strategies, objectives, policies and other decisions are formulated or approved, results are analyzed, and the execution of tasks is coordinated. The Organization itself, which although works with a certain structure, technologies, systems, procedures, etc., constitutes the main work object of the manager. From the point of view of managerial skills, the fundamental sphere of their relationships occurs with personnel, that is, human resources, which are the ones that really guarantee the conversion of inputs into results.

The main skills that can contribute to greater impact and better results in your relationships with each of these spheres can be summarized as follows:

In his relations with the environment, the manager must set two main objectives.

• The first, to identify the main trends, (technological, economic, political, social), that may constitute opportunities or threats to the current and future development of your organization. The second, to provide the environment with all the information that makes it possible to identify the possibilities of its organization, in the supply of products and services that satisfy the needs and demands in better conditions (quality, cost, time) than those of the competition. Achieve in the environment what Benedetti, in her poem Tactic and Strategy, sets as the objective of her strategy "… that you finally need me…", that is, that the environment not only identify the possibilities of the organization in.

In this sphere, the skills identified as having the greatest impact are those related to: the strategic management approach, communications, and those required to achieve effective negotiations.

In his relations with the management team, the manager does several things: find out about situations and approaches that can help him make decisions, present his criteria and promote an exchange, resolve conflict situations between team members and between different organizational units; finally, promote consensus and commitment in decision making.

The skills that are considered most important in the manager's work in this area are those related to: interpersonal communications, conflict management, teamwork, leadership and motivation, problem diagnosis and decision-making, and conducting productive meetings.

The manager's relationships with the organization, that is, with all its members, play an important role in the results of their work. They allow you to receive feedback on the way in which the defined guidelines and policies have been interpreted and applied, to know the existing states of opinion, to identify new problems that require attention. In addition, to be able to exert a direct influence on the “front line” executors, promote enthusiasm and motivation, generate initiatives, foster affective relationships, resolve conflicts, among other results.

In his research on the differential characteristics of leading companies, which he summarized in the best-seller "Passion for Excellence", Tom Peters identified what he called "itinerant management", which is precisely the practice of the leaders of these companies to visit and hold frequent meetings with plant personnel (in addition to customers and suppliers) and from different levels of the organization. A conclusion by Tom Peters is that this practice “Facilitates innovation and allows instilling the idea of ​​certain values ​​in every member of the organization” and asks “Isn't this leadership?”, To conclude “Itinerant management is technology of leadership ”.

Two skills that have not been mentioned, but cannot be missing in a managerial skills development program are: effective time management and change management.

Time is the means within which the leader carries out all his activities. The manager who does not know how to manage his time well is difficult to manage other things well, Drucker says.

Finally, the speed with which the conditions of the environment in which organizations move - new technologies, new competitors, more demanding customers - are required from the leader behavior and skills that allow him to make changes - in strategies, programs, structures, etc. - that allow your organization to adapt - preferably to anticipate - the changes that may affect you. “Species need to adapt and change, as the environment where they live varies, if they want to survive. Those species that change, survive and prosper; those that remain in the same state, become extinct… ”. These conclusions formulated by Charles Darwin, in The Evolution of Species, more than a century ago have absolute validity in the contemporary business world.

At the moment, one of the weaknesses that is having the most negative impact on the current Cuban company is the lack of high economic knowledge on the part of its managers, which leads to an analysis that, unfortunately, is not profound. and complete it should be.

As a way of minimizing the impact of the aforementioned, the author proposes that managers, in order to carry out their mission more effectively, must take into account the “skills system” proposed by Dr. Alexis Codina, in his book "Themes of Direction" volume 1, and which is shown below:

1. Strategic direction or approach. Interpersonal communications. Negotiation strategies and techniques. Conflict management. Teamwork. Leadership and motivation. Problem diagnosis and decision making. Time management and delegation. Productive meetings. Change management.

This process begins with the formulation of the strategy, which includes the entire set of measures, actions, and policies necessary to achieve the improvement of the manager and thus, administratively speaking, move the organization from the current state to the desired state. This period ends with the change management.

The skills that lie between these extremes are aimed at guaranteeing the processes of interaction, influence and motivation that they foster, from the formulation and implementation of the strategy and the processes of change, to obtaining results.

Section 1.3: Most important aspects of leadership.

Throughout history, there have been many personalities who have spoken about leadership either directly or indirectly; likewise, there have been numerous attempts to conceptualize it, so there are different definitions on the subject.

One can speak of leadership from times as remote and exponents as important as Jesus Christ himself, who knew how to instill in his followers so much confidence and identification with his ideals, that even without him being present, they knew how to carry on with the mission that had been outlined. Also, another example can be cited, as you will see above, is that of the organization of the Jesuits, who, following the commandments of Loyola, its founder, have been able to train leaders.

It is truly impressive to know that from very remote times, back in the 16th century there was already talk of leadership and how current and timely the ideas raised in those remote times by Loyola can be, when talking about the close link that existed between self-knowledge himself and leadership. Loyola and his colleagues were fully convinced that men perform best in positively charged environments, so they exhorted their leaders to create "environments more of love than fear."

The Jesuits equipped their apprentices to succeed, training them as leaders who:

• Understand their strengths, weaknesses, values, and have a worldview. Confidently innovate and adapt to a changing world. Treat others with love and a positive aptitude. Strengthen themselves and others with heroic aspirations.

According to the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (1986), leadership is defined as the direction, leadership or leadership of a political party, a social group or another community. The Dictionary of Behavioral Sciences (1956) defines it as the "qualities of personality and ability that favor the guidance and control of other individuals."

Other definitions with which the author agrees and on which she would like to highlight the similarity of thought on the subject can also be cited:

• Chiavenato, Idalberto (1993), highlights the following: «Leadership is the interpersonal influence exercised in a situation and directed through the process of human communication towards the achievement of one or more specific objectives». Fiedler: “Leadership is part of the management, but not all of it… Leadership is the ability to persuade others to enthusiastically pursue defined goals. It is the human factor that holds a group together and motivates it towards its goals. ”Koontz and Weihrich:" the art or process of influencing people to strive willingly and enthusiastically to achieve the group's goals. " "Process of directing and influencing activities in relation to the functions of group members." Robbins: "ability to influence a group in order to achieve goals." Rozenzweig:«Manner of influencing».Tannenbaum and Massarick: «Interpersonal influence, exerted in situations and directed, through the communication process, towards the achievement of a specific goal or goals».Joseph A. Litterer: «Leadership is the exercise of influence a person exerts on others to achieve certain goals ».Deming:“ natural corollary to direct without fear, your goal should help people, machines and devices to do a better job. ”Leadership: (according to John P. Kotter) It is developing a vision and strategies, getting people who can support those strategies and delegating power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm.exerted in situations and directed, through the communication process, towards the achievement of a specific goal or goals. "Joseph A. Litterer:" Leadership is the exercise of influence that a person exercises over others to obtain certain goals. " “Natural corollary to directing without fear, your goal should be to help people, machines, and gadgets do a better job.” Leadership: (According to John P. Kotter) It is developing a vision and strategies, getting people who can support those strategies and delegate power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm.exerted in situations and directed, through the process of communication, towards the achievement of a specific goal or goals. "Joseph A. Litterer:" Leadership is the exercise of influence that a person exercises over others to obtain certain goals. " “Natural corollary to directing without fear, your goal should be to help people, machines, and gadgets do a better job.” Leadership: (According to John P. Kotter) It is developing a vision and strategies, getting people who can support those strategies and delegate power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm."Leadership is the exercise of influence that a person exercises over others to achieve certain goals." Deming: "natural corollary to direct without fear, your goal should help people, machines and devices to do a better job." Leadership: (according to John P. Kotter) It is the development of a vision and strategies, getting people who can support those strategies and delegate power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm."Leadership is the exercise of influence that a person exercises over others to achieve certain goals." Deming: "natural corollary to direct without fear, your goal should help people, machines and devices to do a better job." Leadership: (according to John P. Kotter) It is the development of a vision and strategies, getting people who can support those strategies and delegate power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm.get people who can support those strategies and delegate power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm.get people who can support those strategies and delegate power to individuals to make that vision come true, despite the obstacles. It manifests itself through people and cultures, it is soft and warm.

It should be noted that although leadership is closely related to administrative activities and the former is very important to the latter, the concept of leadership is not the same as that of administration. Warren Bennis, writing about leadership, in order to exaggerate the difference, has said that most organizations are over-managed and under-led. A person may be a fair and organized effective manager (good planner and administrator), but lacks the leader's motivational skills. Other people may be effective leaders - with the ability to unleash enthusiasm and devotion - but lacking the managerial skills to channel the energy they unleash in others. Faced with the challenges of dynamic engagement in today's world of organizations,many of them are appreciating managers who also have leadership skills.

Professor of International Business and Organizational Behavior at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland Josef J Di Stefano, in research published in March 2001, concludes that one of the dimensions influencing the success of leaders It is the vision, which is communicated by the leader and must be shared by the members of the organization. This communication should be made with optimism for the future and with strong expressions of confidence and enthusiasm.

Mario Borghino (1998) states that "when you have a purpose, you develop what is called" selective perception "in Psychology: when you see clearly what you want, you begin to see opportunities that you did not see before".

This author affirms that when working in teams we act in a more practical, integrated and civilized way and points out that the difficulties we face in working in teams lie in the way in which they have been educated, in which they have incorporated behavioral patterns that contribute to the achievement of the collective, but individual achievement.

According to these ideas, he refers to nine factors or pillars of education, which in his opinion have destroyed the way of conceiving leadership and teamwork. These factors are:

1. Encouraging individual competence before cooperation. Thinking more about individual goals than common goals. Living more in the exercise of power than in the ability to influence. Educated more in high technology than in the human factor. more in arrogance than in humility. Focused more on egocentric aptitudes than on pluralism. Educated in the here and now more than in the long term and the direction of our lives. Educated more in external values ​​than in universal principles. Educated more in the autocratic model than in the synergistic model.

Professor John Kotter of the Harvard Business School offers a good summary of what a leader's duties are:

• Charting the course: exposing a vision of the future (sometimes a distant future) and the strategies to produce the changes necessary to realize that vision. Aligning the people whose cooperation is required: communicating the course verbally and with facts, so that it influences in building teams and coalitions that understand the vision and strategies and accept their validity Motivate and inspire: empower people to overcome political, bureaucratic and economic obstacles to change and thus meet human needs basic, which often remain unsatisfied. Largely as a result of these first three functions, produce changes, often drastic.

Peter Drucker has been a forerunner in management and leadership studies for the past thirty years. He has written convincingly about the ramifications of the changing economy, especially about the technology-driven shift to the “knowledge economy”.

Peter Drucker highlights the human implications of this change. How do workers thrive in this environment? Skills that were once critical only to top executives have become indispensable to everyone. No one can succeed, or even survive, just by following orders. The employee is increasingly self-controlled and makes decisions autonomously. With the rapid pace of change, roles and tasks are constantly evolving, so new judgments and learning along the way are necessary.

Who succeed in such an environment? Those who have the capacity to learn, innovate, take responsibility for their actions and take risks. These characteristics are not like the technical skills required by a lawyer, an accountant, or a salesperson. They are born out of self-understanding, not vocational training. As Drucker argues in the Harvard Business Review, in this new environment, “Careers that are successful are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities, who know their strengths, their work method and their values. " Of course, in no trade can you succeed if you lack the necessary technical skills, but while those skills alone may have been a formula for success,Today workers need to be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses and how their work style enables them for an environment that is constantly and rapidly changing. In other words, they have to know themselves.

Daniel Goleman has done extensive research on self-knowledge in the field of management and, as a result, has written two major bookstore hits: Emotional Intelligence and The Practice of Emotional Intelligence. He has studied in particular how some top executives have succeeded while others have failed.

We know what these leaders expect us to do: point a direction and set a vision, motivate teams to achieve goals, overcome obstacles, and produce change to improve. Companies generally have procedures to identify smart, talented, and ambitious employees with the potential to take on leadership roles. But those selection methods don't always work well. Many proposing stars destroy themselves, never realizing their early potential. No one really understands why some talented individuals succeed while others fail, why the brilliant young manager doesn't make it to CEO. Daniel Goleman has focused his research on this puzzle, and his perceptions are not only valid in the world of top executives.

As Goleman understands "Emotional Intelligence", it comprises five basic competences:

• Self-knowledge: the ability to recognize and understand one's moods, emotions, and motives. Self-direction: The ability to control or change the direction of detrimental moods and impulses, the inclination to suspend judgment and to think before acting. Motivation: passion for work for reasons other than money or position. Empathy: the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. Social prowess: expertise in managing relationships and creating communication networks, the ability to find common ground and create good understanding.

One conclusion can be drawn from Goleman's work, which is that companies are getting wrong results in the selection and training of leaders, since they are looking for skills that are not what are needed. Rising stars in corporations are often distinguished by their lively intelligence, but that is not what empowers them to lead. To look for leaders endowed with qualities that are irrelevant is to beat the blind.

Goleman's five-point summary largely defines the "what" of the basic behaviors and personal characteristics of those with emotional intelligence. The Jesuit method goes one step further by identifying not only the "what" but also the "how", a program to create those skills. Central and irreplaceable in the process were the spiritual exercises. The Jesuit novice left his thirty-day immersion in the program with valuable personal skills, including:

• The ability to systematically reflect on your weaknesses, especially those that manifest themselves as habitual tendencies. An integrated world perspective, a vision and a value system. A deep respect for your neighbor and for all of creation. An appreciation for yourself as a loved one and important. The ability to turn off daily distractions for reflection, and the habit of doing this daily. A method of making choices and making decisions.

NATURE OF LEADERSHIP:

Leadership, unlike the simple exercise of power, is inseparable from the needs and objectives of those who follow it.

Transformative leadership is dynamic, in the sense that leaders fall into a relationship with their followers who will feel elevated and often become more active.

Transformative leadership occurs when one or more people engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers reach higher levels of motivation and morality, stimulating each other. The relationship can be moralistic, but only insofar as it elevates the behavior and ethical aspiration of the leader and the led, it will have a transforming effect on both.

In the case of transactional leadership, its purposes, which may have been born separately, are related, they merge into one. The basic powers are related, not as a counterweight, but as mutual support for a common purpose. Different kinds of leadership are given to this type of leadership: uplifting, mobilizing, inspiring, exalting, and evangelizing.

The transformation leader also takes care of the smallest details, his task is much harder than that of the transactional leader, because he is a true artist, a true explorer.

The art of the creative leader is to build an institution and to work on human and technological materials to form an organism that incorporates new and lasting values. To create an institution is to infuse work with a value beyond the technical requirements, satisfying both individual and collective needs. The leader is primarily an expert in promoting and protecting values.

Mr. C. Barnard in his book "The Nature of Leadership" states that leadership appears to be a function of at least three complex variables:

• The individual The group of followers The conditions

The author, based on the previous concepts and based on what has been stated so far, understands leadership as follows:

Leadership: It is any process of influencing people to try with goodwill and enthusiasm to achieve the goals of the organization. People need to be encouraged not only to develop a willingness to work but also a willingness to do so with honesty, intensity and confidence.

MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES FOR LEADERSHIP IN THE ORGANIZATION:

1. Harmony of objectives: To the extent that they can harmonize personal goals with the goals of the company, the more effective and efficient this will be. The motivation: You must carefully determine the structure of rewards. Leadership: Since people tend Following those they see as a means of meeting their personal goals, as managers better serve what motivates their subordinates and the way motivators operate, they are more likely to be more efficient. Community integrity. Communication: As they are oral, written and non-verbal, as well as the moral conduct of the sender, the greater the acceptance of the message by the receiver.

LEADERSHIP STYLE:

• The leadership style represents their own interests, their techniques and their aptitudes in practice. The style varies according to the motivation, the power and the situation in which they find themselves. The style is related to the model of organizational behavior of each person..

Leadership styles are classified based on how leaders use their authority, they define three basic styles:

• Autocratic style: He who orders and expects compliance, dogmatic and tax and who directs through his power to withdraw or grant rewards and punishments. Democratic style: Consult with his subordinates on proposed actions and decisions and encourages participation. Paternalistic style: Uses their power to a very small extent granting their subordinates a high degree of independence in their operations. These leaders depend to a large extent on their subordinates to set their own goals, they consider that their role is to help their followers, providing them with information and acting as a contact with the external environment of the group.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF LEADERSHIP:

Since people tend to follow their peers as a means of meeting their own personal goals, to the extent that managers understand what motivates their subordinates and how those motivations operate, and to the extent that they reflect this understanding to the The more likely leaders are to carry out their administrative activities.

CONSTITUTIVE ELEMENTS OF LEADERSHIP:

Every group of people who perform almost to the limit of their ability has a person as a boss who has aptitudes for the art of leadership and this aptitude is made up of:

1. Ability to understand that human beings have different motivating forces at different times and in different situations. Ability to inspire. Ability to act in a way that creates a climate conducive to responding to and promoting motivations.

A leader who, when he least knows the current state of motivation theory and understands its elements, knows better the nature and strength of human needs and is better able to define and design ways to satisfy them, while acting on them. them so that the desired responses are obtained.

The fundamental purpose of management is to keep the existing system running.

The fundamental purpose of leadership is to produce useful, especially non-quantitative, change.

A newer definition of leadership is provided by Peter Senge in his book "The Fifth Discipline", when he states:

“In an intelligent organization (that is to say, in which all its members and the organization as a whole are capable of constant learning) the leaders are designers, guides and teachers. They are responsible for building organizations where people continually expand their aptitude to understand complexity, clarify vision and improve shared mental models, that is, they are responsible for learning. They are also responsible for designing better learning processes through which people can productively face the issues or situations they face and develop their mastery… Adopting that position is the first act of leadership, the principle of inspiring (literally “breathe life”) into the vision of smart organizations…. ”

Section 1.4: Relationship between managerial skills or managerial competencies and business performance.

Management is an activity carried out by human beings and as such, influenced by their personal characteristics, as determining elements of what has been called the managerial style.

The leadership, the ability to negotiate and harmonize, are part of the personality and in turn define the style of the manager and their ability to get results with a high level of performance.

Closely linked to the training of personnel, there is a topic of great importance in the area of ​​Human Resources, it is the one related to Management Development, which refers to how managers' performance can be improved so that they can lead a group of better way.

Management Development aims to prepare (through courses, workshops, which promote an elevation of knowledge as well as a change in attitudes, supported on the improvement of skills) managers, with the premise of improving the future performance of all the organization.

It could be said that Management Development is a powerful tool to prepare employees, and especially managers, to assume higher-level positions, leading to an increase in the level of managerial talent as well as promotion "from within" in an organization.

To start developing a Management Development system, it is important to determine the managerial needs within an organization, and then verify the managerial talent that is available through the pertinent information that you have of the people who aspire to have a managerial position (performance evaluation, skills, experience, etc.). Finally, the development needs of each person who aspires to the position are analyzed, indicating what they should be trained in and subsequently choosing the one with the best result.

Another issue, not less important, is managerial training in the same job, through important techniques such as:

Job rotation: "Know a little about everything" would be the motto at this point, where an employee is rotated by different departments, so that he gains experience in all the operations of an organization and can discover his preferences in contact with different activities, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. This point is of utmost importance to a manager because he or she could better understand the needs of others.

Mentoring and replacement method: Explains that the person who will occupy a managerial position works and is trained under the direct advice of the person who is going to replace and this person is responsible for the training and evolution of the teaching process. Communication between the two actors is essential in this process so that the learning is of quality, which would be demonstrated in the subsequent exercise of the activity by the replacement.

Panels of managers in training: At this point, the aim is to provide training and information to mid-level managers about the general procedures of a company and to motivate them to propose solutions to problems or difficult situations that are occurring. The objective is to give these managers experience to improve uncertain situations at the organizational level.

Action learning: it also has to do with training middle managers where they work on solving problems in departments that are not their own and analyze and discuss proposals to later determine results and achievements.

A small inconvenience may be that the full-time services of a competent manager when working in other departments are lost at a certain point.

Management training can take place inside as well as outside the workplace.

In addition to the aforementioned techniques that are developed in the workplace, others can be performed outside of it.

You can find the case study method, where a manager is presented with a written report of a certain problem, he must make a diagnosis and provide a solution; There are also management games, here the groups of managers compete with each other in a simulated market situation, making decisions, mostly computerized.

Other off-the-job techniques include manager training seminars and university-related programs, where continuing education programs, individual courses, and degree programs such as master's degrees or majors are found.

Likewise, they also find the interpretation of roles, in this training a manager in training is asked to assume the leading role in an imaginary situation within an organization; Behavioral models where managers are shown the best way to solve a problem are allowed to practice the correct model and learn from possible failures that may arise. Finally, there are internal development centers that, as the name implies, are located in companies to train potential managers.

Each type of managerial behavior generates a set of relationships and consequences that affect the structure, priorities and quality of an organization's response, the characteristics of which constitute the counterpart of managerial style.

For each type of business, there is a style that maximizes results; The impact may vary if it is an unstructured type of business (management consulting, creative advertising), or a highly structured one (refinery or assembly line).

It is necessary to identify the components of the business most vulnerable to the managerial style, since they are the ones that must be taken into account when defining the manager's profile; which is given by the demands of the processes and mainly by the characteristics of the people to be managed. It is different to manage at a high professional level than at an operator level; to high technical qualification, than to apprentices; in an environment of repetitive works, than in one of variable works case by case.

The best management style is the one that achieves the best results, since its style more frequently coincides with the situations it faces and has the facility to adapt in the remaining cases.

With what has been stated so far, it can be argued that different personality styles can be outlined, which have different effects on the results. Each personality type has a type of job for which their skills / attitudes are appropriate.

For example, the task-oriented hyperactive type is good for transition / transformation situations in which short-term (tactical) sums become important; but once that stage is over, his style is no longer adequate to manage a stabilized activity.

One might conclude that at each stage in the life of a business, a different management style is required.

If each manager were aware of their own style and how it impacts the results, then they would have the possibility to make the necessary adjustments (sometimes impossible to achieve) to adapt to the environment in which they find themselves. Management style is the component of the work environment that has the greatest influence (70% according to Hay Group) on the environment and people's motivation.

The way to limit the variability that can mean the difference between one style and another, is the recognition of the things that should be done and in what way, avoiding those that are not necessary.

An important part of the role of management consists of prioritizing and prioritizing each aspect of the activity of a business. Not knowing how to assign the appropriate criticism to each need, distorts relationships and leads to unnecessary conflict (stress) and eventually failure.

The gap that exists between the demands of the type of job and the characteristics of the manager are the indicator of propensity to the result of an organization:

• If the style matches the requirement, the conditions are in place for satisfactory results. Otherwise, that is, when the gap is large, the manager must modify his style, redefine the elements of work, change the organization system or even quit the job. The best style is the one that works, and in times of transformation such as For those of us who live in Latin America, it becomes important to identify the combination of management style with type of organization, which will result in success.

The effective manager must be humane, benevolent and fair (Confucius).

Develop Management Competencies.

"CG is a combination of the knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes that a manager needs to be effective in a wide range of managerial tasks and in various organizational settings."

Six Management competencies:

• Communication Planning and administration Teamwork Strategic action Globalization Personnel management

Performance evaluation model

• The focus is on discovering how productive an employee is and whether they can perform as effectively or more in the future. Serve to make promotion, promotion, salary increase, layoff decisions. Evaluation forms and personal files are used. 360º.

A self-assessment guide:

Studies show that every time there is a successful case, you have behind you a manager who is primarily concerned with people, making sure that at the lowest levels there are other managers who care about people as well. Here are some characteristics of the successful manager:

• Emphasizes policies and procedures Maintains your independence Avoids authoritarian methods Emphasizes competitiveness Encourages personal development Encourages participation in planning Establishes challenging goals Encourages personal initiatives Encourages new ideas and innovations Offers appropriate economic incentives Encourages unstructured thinking Fosters internal relations Fosters internal relations Balance between authority and debate Promotes commitment to work and to the company Favors the most participatory and contributory Measures the result rather than the effort Favors the intensive use of technological resources within its reach Clearly establishes the expected results and leaves diffuse the means to achieve it Incentive communication inall senses Independently assesses the performance of teams from that of their members Discourages the political game in favor of a face-to-face relationship Corrects when they are wrong and considers it part of the work Evaluates based on past, present and future with equal weight Recognizes orientation yes and dynamic response times Link each allocation to overall business performance Values ​​awareness of costs and expenses but favors profitability Establishes a good reporting and reporting system Manages change Delegates, delegates and delegatesPresent and future with equal weight Recognizes self-orientation and dynamic response times Linking each assignment with overall business performance Values ​​awareness of costs and expenses, but favors profitability Establishes a good reporting and information system Managing change Delegates, delegates and delegatesPresent and future with equal weight Recognizes self-orientation and dynamic response times Linking each assignment with overall business performance Values ​​awareness of costs and expenses, but favors profitability Establishes a good reporting and information system Managing change Delegates, delegates and delegates

The most suitable professional is one who, in addition to knowledge, has skills, attitudes and interests compatible with their role.

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