1. forum.com http://www.forum.com/blog/are-you-leadership-overhead/
Are you “Leadership Overhead”? | Forum Corporation
April 28th, 2011 by Maggie Walsh
Is overhead good or bad?
By definition, “overhead” is good—it constitutes all the things that are needed for a business to
function, even though they can’t be associated directly with products and services. And yet, the
usual perception of overhead is that it represents waste and unnecessary costs.
Yesterday, this article arrived in my inbox under the subject line, “Leadership is Overrated.” The
author implies that leaders are, essentially, overhead. The bad kind. His implication—that a leader is just a
micro-manager with a title—is at best debatable. However, the article does surface some taboo corporate
questions: What do leaders do anyway? Couldn’t we just cut their salaries and be more profitable today?
I recently spoke with a leader of a major sales function for a Fortune 100 organization. He told the story of
saving his organization $3 million by supporting its team of senior leaders as they made and implemented a
series of difficult decisions. These decisions allowed them to execute more effectively. “I could have told
them who to get rid of and insisted they do it immediately. In fact, a few years ago that is what I would have
done. And we would have had a great short-term result. But I need leaders who can generate these kinds
of results over the long-term: leaders who know how to make the hard decisions and feel comfortable doing
it.”
In other words, the leader did not take the easy way out. That would be something we’d associate with “bad
overhead”: overpriced, easily duplicated behavior. Instead, the leader:
Took time to reflect on how he could lead more effectively despite the short-term pressures the
business put on him
Provided clarity for his team on the market strategy and the performance expected of all team
members in their respective functions (The leader then stepped back, re-entering to emphasize and
build clarity on the strategy and to help with course correction as needed.)
Built the confidence of leaders who needed to make hard choices by sharing his own experiences and
how his choices had affected the business in both good and bad ways (And he increased the leaders’
confidence by refusing to step in and make decisions for them, despite pressure from above.)
Encouraged and supported his team members, and allowed space for their decisions and execution
timeframe (He thus created short- and long-term ownership of the business. By his own estimate, it
will have a $20 million impact on the bottom line over the long term.)
All these skills are ones the leader has learned—ones that translate to significant value for the organization
in untold ways.
For more on Forum’s beliefs on leadership and on building a pipeline of leaders who can truly lead and not
take the easy way out, download our whitepaper, Align Your Business and Leadership Strategies.