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Fall 2004
Mentoring and Managing: The Leader’s Endless Quest for Meaning
In a time of great change, we have to remember
that the basics in leadership still count for a great deal. We
sometimes are so caught up in the new and emergent that we forget
that there are foundations upon which to build that are both
sustainable and relevant.
Leaders must keep in mind that postmodern
realities do not eliminate the practices of good leadership and
management. Instead, the age simply changes the context for them
and calls us, as leaders, to create a new goodness-of-fit for them.
The ability to establish relationships, to guide and mentor staff,
to work with others to get the work done and, in all of it, to
fulfill the mission and purposes of the organization is still
central to leadership success.
Too much today, leaders are worn out by the
increasing demands on time and the decreasing amount of time
available for the leadership role. Yet, the more fires leaders are
putting out, the greater the signs that leadership is absent from
the staff. In addition, so many leaders are good caregivers and
exhibit good parenting skills. While parenting skills are wise for
parents, they are disastrous in leaders. The codependency and
passive behaviors that result from the staff are clear signposts
that good leadership is missing. Rather than fight fires and take
care of the staff, the leader should be developing staff
independence and problem-solving so that staff can manage their work
and lives without a great deal of parental stimulus to do so. The
more caretaking a leader provides the staff the more demanding the
staff becomes. Like children, dependent staff generate many needs.
These can easily overwhelm the time and effort of the leader and
suck the very life out of the leader’s role.
The wise leader leaves parental roles in the
home and leads in the workplace in an entirely different way. Using
adult-adult skills of interaction, communication and
decision-making, the leader engages the staff and invests them in
the decisions and actions that most affects their work and lives.
This engagement and inclusion creates a different relationship
between leader and staff; one that is based more on respect and
contribution than power and dependency.
Furthermore, the leader recognizes in the staff
the ability for them to regulate their own work practices and
lives. Instead of handling problems and issues for the staff, the
mature leader gives the staff tools and processes that they can
initiate and use subject to their own needs and judgment. This
leader recognizes in the staff their need to manage the elements of
their own work life and to work out problems in a way that has
meaning and value for them. The leader, in this scenario, sees to
it that the methods and skills necessary to act responsibly and
independently are available to staff. The leader monitors and
evaluates the staff’s skills and utility in problem-solving and
supplements learning and skills where necessary.
In short, the leader in the healthy
organization is a partner not a “boss”, interested in enabling the
skills of the staff in a way that advances their independence and
opportunity. Everyone wants to find purpose and meaning in their
work. This cannot be given or delegated from above. Meaning is a
personal discernment that needs space and stimulus to emerge at the
center of human activity. When meaning gets lost, it is hard to
retrieve and managers cannot find it for the staff they lead.
Leaders have to exemplify in their role the value of meaning and
personal investment. Through that modeling, the leader creates a
context for the staff that not only makes it possible for them to
find meaning, but also demonstrates for them how they might do
that.
The search for meaning in work is just that—a
search. It is not something that can be found and held firm, never
to change. Circumstances, technology, and conditions are forever
changing altering the very foundations of work. Those who are
addicted to their own rituals and routines can only expect to be
disturbed and shaken by the constant demand of change. Work can
never provide meaning—it changes too quickly to be a source of
meaning for anyone. However, all work demands that meaning drive
it; informing it and giving work substance and direction.
Occasionally, the leader must stop the processes associated with
work activity and take a moment to reflect on purpose and meaning.
Here, the leader discusses with staff the shift in demand and how
that affects the work; its value, purpose and meaning. A new
context is created for the work and newer applications of meaning
emerge helping the staff to retain value and meaning in their work
and giving them an opportunity to discern how meaning is obtained in
a different way as the changing times demand.
Clearly, the
effective leader is a good partner and mentor to the staff. This
leader recognizes that the staff is traveling the same path of
change and expectation, as is the leader. This leader simply models
engagement of the realities of life’s journey and makes it possible
for the staff to do the same. The leader is the chief learner along
the path of life and works and models the openness and availability
that is necessary to embrace change and to find the meaning embedded
deeply within it. Rather than simply be a caretaker, the leader is
mentor and model, inviting the staff into a fuller participation in
their own work life and into the life of the work community.
Through blending and integrating the purpose and goals of the work
place and the meaning and values of the worker, the leader helps
create the conditions that make work both productive and
meaningful. If leaders are not doing this as the centerpiece of
their own meaning and value, it should come as no surprise that the
staff do not do it either. The energy and dynamic of the workplace
is the exemplification of the leader’s own energy and focus and
serves as a catalyst to the staff to keep in touch with their own
energy and enthusiasm. Through this confluence of roles and
relationship, both leader and staff remain invested and involved,
continuously renewed by their mutual commitment and a partnership
that assures a continuing and collective affirmation and embrace of
the work journey. Now that’s real meaning! |
