GOOD READSMinding The Gap:
Leadership In
Flat Business Structures"Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? What It Takes to Be an Authentic Leader"
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
Harvard Business School (HBS) Press
ISBN 1-57851-971-3 Many companies utilize a "flat" organizational structure, wherein there may be only a few layers between line workers and ownership. This is particularly so in the independent automotive repair sector, whether "Mom and Pop" shops, sole proprietorships, a partnership or a limited company. Like operating a vehicle, they must be able to read their business' dashboard gauges and check the mirrors, while also maintaining direction by ensuring they are looking far enough down the road. In a recently released book titled "Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? What It Takes to Be an Authentic Leader," by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, the authors address this dance that leaders face. The book is available from Harvard Business School (HBS) Press, and an excerpt from it can be viewed at the HBS Working Knowledge Web site. Some of the insights within the book can be applied to independent shops. Flatter organizations are the nature of many aftermarket businesses, by choice or by necessity. Within a flat structure the advantage of being closer to the workforce and clients is the potentially quicker response to customer feedback and changing demands. But being effective as a leader is not just being everyone's friend, but knowing what is really happening inside a business. Leaders must keep or create enough distance - a distance gap - to maintain perspective on the forces that shape the competitive terrain a shop faces. Balancing and managing that gap is no easy feat. Nor is balancing a static process over time; rather, the balancing is dynamic and changing over time, amidst the swirl of shop concerns, industry issues and consumer expectations. It's human nature that one finds it easier to be close with those with whom one perceives similarities, or to those folks one likes. Yet shop leaders don't always get to deal with just those they like - disgruntled clients or a dissenting employee come to mind. Leaders must therefore develop both the skills to interact and manage different personality styles by keeping some distance, as well as be capable of jettisoning their own personal views so as to establish a basis for employee relationships and team building. As individuals, leaders exhibit different preferences to being closer or more distant. Recognizing where one's tendencies lay is critical. Owners and managers must again nurture the skills they have in their dominant areas, whilst growing and developing skills in the other. Given that there are often cultural influences at work within mixed employee and customer bases, maintaining an awareness of this dimension also is necessary. Managing the proper distance is leadership's habitat. Working with skilled service professionals can establish shared understandings and opinions. Yet without the presence and perspective of distance, common opinion and interests can blind a person to the needed changes to move forward, such as new training, new tools or even how to effectively access service information. Resisting change isn't going to keep a shop competitive, let alone profitable or even present down the road. Owners and managers must navigate skillfully to ensure their individual, as well as their shops' collective prejudices and preferences are tempered by prudence and progress. Running between those lines is the key. It's about minding the gap.
Leadership In
Flat Business Structures"Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? What It Takes to Be an Authentic Leader"
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
Harvard Business School (HBS) Press
ISBN 1-57851-971-3 Many companies utilize a "flat" organizational structure, wherein there may be only a few layers between line workers and ownership. This is particularly so in the independent automotive repair sector, whether "Mom and Pop" shops, sole proprietorships, a partnership or a limited company. Like operating a vehicle, they must be able to read their business' dashboard gauges and check the mirrors, while also maintaining direction by ensuring they are looking far enough down the road. In a recently released book titled "Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? What It Takes to Be an Authentic Leader," by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, the authors address this dance that leaders face. The book is available from Harvard Business School (HBS) Press, and an excerpt from it can be viewed at the HBS Working Knowledge Web site. Some of the insights within the book can be applied to independent shops. Flatter organizations are the nature of many aftermarket businesses, by choice or by necessity. Within a flat structure the advantage of being closer to the workforce and clients is the potentially quicker response to customer feedback and changing demands. But being effective as a leader is not just being everyone's friend, but knowing what is really happening inside a business. Leaders must keep or create enough distance - a distance gap - to maintain perspective on the forces that shape the competitive terrain a shop faces. Balancing and managing that gap is no easy feat. Nor is balancing a static process over time; rather, the balancing is dynamic and changing over time, amidst the swirl of shop concerns, industry issues and consumer expectations. It's human nature that one finds it easier to be close with those with whom one perceives similarities, or to those folks one likes. Yet shop leaders don't always get to deal with just those they like - disgruntled clients or a dissenting employee come to mind. Leaders must therefore develop both the skills to interact and manage different personality styles by keeping some distance, as well as be capable of jettisoning their own personal views so as to establish a basis for employee relationships and team building. As individuals, leaders exhibit different preferences to being closer or more distant. Recognizing where one's tendencies lay is critical. Owners and managers must again nurture the skills they have in their dominant areas, whilst growing and developing skills in the other. Given that there are often cultural influences at work within mixed employee and customer bases, maintaining an awareness of this dimension also is necessary. Managing the proper distance is leadership's habitat. Working with skilled service professionals can establish shared understandings and opinions. Yet without the presence and perspective of distance, common opinion and interests can blind a person to the needed changes to move forward, such as new training, new tools or even how to effectively access service information. Resisting change isn't going to keep a shop competitive, let alone profitable or even present down the road. Owners and managers must navigate skillfully to ensure their individual, as well as their shops' collective prejudices and preferences are tempered by prudence and progress. Running between those lines is the key. It's about minding the gap.
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