The First-Time Manager in Asia

8 LEADERSHIP IS A RELATIONSHIP

STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOTING

What are some things that you should do on your first few days as the manager? If you have been promoted from within the organization, you have an edge compared to the person who has been recruited from outside. To start with, you will be more familiar with the corporate culture. And, before you assume your new role you will likely have had a few dialogues with your would-be boss.

In any case, having a meaningful conversation with your new boss will be the first order of business. These are some of the areas that you may wish to bring up:

♦ What is her vision for the organization that she is heading up? What are her key objectives, priorities and Key Performance Indicators or KPIs?

♦ What does she expect of the managers reporting to her?

♦ What does she expect of you?

♦ How does she view the dynamics of her management team—you and your peers? (e.g. Collaboration? Openness? Trust?)

♦ What are her views of the department that you are now leading? Are there areas that are of concern to her?

♦ What is her preferred way for you to work with her?

Once you have had this conversation, the next set of stakeholders you will need to speak with will be your subordinates and peers. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of building a healthy relationship with them.

As a manager, your subordinates are crucial to your success. Without them, you are reduced to a team of one person. It is impossible for one person to accomplish what a team can do. When you’re able to win the hearts and minds of your team members, you are able to multiply the fruits of your labour.

Peers are just as important for you. In this age where matrix reporting is becoming the norm, we need the support of our peers as much as they need ours. There will be many occasions when having the backing of your peers will make a difference between success and failure.

I will have more to say about managing your relationship with your bosses and peers in Part Five. Throughout the rest of this chapter, we shall focus on building that all-important relationship with your subordinates.

We start by listening in on the conversation between Kim, a newly appointed department head, and Joon, his subordinate.

Managerial Anecdote

Kim used to be part of a four-member team in a department. Recently, the department head was assigned to the New York office as part of the company’s leadership development programme. Before that announcement was made, the GM of the division invited Kim for a chat and informed him that he would be promoted to department manager.

On Kim’s first day as the new manager, he met with his team members—three former peers and one new person transferred from another department. It had gone well and all the people present were attentive and quite relaxed about the change of leadership. They all congratulated him on his promotion.

Kim, however, sensed that one team member was very quiet. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. This person was Joon. In the last three years, there had been a few bouts of friction between both Kim and Joon. Both were standouts in the department and were considered the most creative and productive in the company. While Kim was usually composed and empathetic, Joon was intense and impatient.

Now that the company had promoted Kim, it was likely that Joon was concerned about his own future. Putting himself in Joon’s shoes, Kim realized that it was necessary to meet and clear up any misunderstanding that might have existed between them.

Kim walked over to Joon’s workspace and asked him whether he would be available to join him for lunch. Although a little surprised by the gesture, Joon accepted quite readily.

The lunch meeting turned out very well. Both men were very open and shared their thoughts about what had happened in the past. They even had a few laughs when they both admitted that they had harboured no ill-feelings towards each other. It was all in the spirit of constructive conflict, a practice that their company valued highly.

That lunch meeting was the start of a strong partnership between them. By discussing differences that had once divided them, they had now begun to appreciate each other more. The leadership that both exhibited set the tone for the rest of the department. A year later, Joon was promoted to head up another department in the company.

A key success factor:
your relationship with your subordinates

Working with countless managers in various parts of the world, I do notice that those who are outstanding all have excellent relationships with their subordinates. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Although hardly a day passes without news of how the world has become surrounded by a web of networking technologies such as Twitter and Facebook, when it comes to people working with one another, nothing can supplant the old-fashioned relationship.

“Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.”
— Kouzes and Posner
Authors of The Leadership Challenge

In the managerial anecdote that you have just read, Kim knew how important it was to connect with his team members on his first day as their manager. And this was exactly what he did. You might even call it a kind of ritual for new managers

First, he met them all as a team, and talked about how pleased and honoured he was to be working with them. If team members didn’t know him, he would introduce himself and share a little about himself as a person and his background. Then he might have invited each person to say something about herself and anything on her mind. After that, Kim would likely have shared the key points of his conversation with his boss, including what her expectations were.

As these were his first days as the manager, Kim might only be able to touch lightly on objectives and priorities. He should probably mention that he intended to organize regular team meetings to get aligned and coordinated. Also, he would really like to spend time with each member of the team one-on-one to establish a greater understanding and to discuss how to best work with each other.

And in the days ahead, he would be meeting each team member in an informal fashion. It could even be over a cup of tea or over lunch. Starting off a working relationship on a more casual footing puts people at ease and is highly recommended.

Keep the initial conversation relatively short, say, no more than 45 minutes. You may consider:

♦ Saying something about yourself. You may expand on what you had already shared at the team meeting. This is a good way to get connected. You don’t have to tell your life history. But do reveal something personal, such as funny stories about your family and hobbies.

♦ Inviting the other party to do the same.

♦ Saying something about your personal values and about work.

♦ Then asking them to share about what is important to them.

♦ Discussing generally your objectives and priorities for the department.

This is only the start of many one-on-one conversations between you and the people who work with you. As you get to know one another, a sense of mutual trust will gradually be apparent.

CREATE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR EXCHANGE OF IDEAS

Listening is a powerful leadership competency. When you listen to others patiently, you are saying to them that you respect them and are interested in what they have to say. This is an invitation to them to come forward and say whatever is on their mind. Make it safe for them to do so.

In time, you will discover more and more about your people— their world views, values, what motivates them, their strengths and blind spots. And this will provide leads on how you may help them become even more effective.

After each conversation, write down some brief notes that you may refer to later. This will come in handy as you prepare for the next conversation some weeks from now. Also, it acts as a reminder of actions that you have committed to do, and what the other person has agreed to do.

I have come across managers who gradually turn the regular one-on-one sessions into a work review meeting. If this happens, your people will soon dread it. As mentioned, be generous. Devote ample time to work, but consciously set aside some time for the person in front of you to share his or her thoughts with you.

Asian subordinates in general need time to warm up to their bosses. In turn, Asian bosses are themselves rather reticent and unwilling to spend time one-on-one with their people. However, I have witnessed situations where bosses reach out to their subordinates and succeed in breaking the ice with them. That’s when the real dialogue and exchange of ideas begin.

In many parts of Asia, such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam etc, people tend to be modest and reserved. At company conferences, while their American and European dominate these conversations, these Asians tend to stay in the background and patiently wait to be invited to share their opinions. There is also a Chinese saying, “tao guang yang hui”, which means “to hide one’s capabilities and not let others know what one knows”.

There are two key takeaways here for bosses and subordinates respectively. Bosses need to take the first step in creating a safe environment for their people to speak up. For subordinates, they need to realize that ideas are the new currency of the 21st century. They will do themselves a great disservice if they insist on hiding their capabilities and not articulating their points of view. We’ll have more on this in Chapter 24. Perhaps it’s time to realize that the spirit of “tao guang yang hui” has become irrelevant and passé.

HOW TO BUILD TRUST

How the relationship between you and each of your subordinates evolves will very much depend on the trust that is gradually developing. Just as you wish to win the other person’s trust, he or she will need to earn yours as well.

People will start to develop trust in one another only if, in the course of their relationship, they are convinced that the following characteristics are present in the other party:

♦ Competence: Knowledge, skills and judgment to perform the work.

♦ Character: This is synonymous with integrity and honesty.

♦ Authenticity: How genuine each person is.

♦ Consistency: Walking the talk by doing what has been committed.

Trust is essential to effective leadership communication and teamwork. When it exists, decisions are made at a faster pace because people have the confidence that everyone is working in the team’s best interest. Productivity improves and the relationship is inspiring and serves as a source of competitive advantage. The climate is more open and vibrant, with a free flow of ideas. Greater risk-taking and innovation will result.

In contrast, when trust is lacking, work slows down. People are plagued with doubts. They are fearful of hidden agendas and will be concerned about protecting their flanks. Personal and team productivity will suffer.

BALANCING SOFT AND HARD POWER ¹

When you earn the trust of your people as a leader, you have acquired soft power. People are drawn towards you because in you they see someone who possesses competence, character, authenticity and consistency.

Leaders will of course need hard power as well. Essentially, this comes from your position as a manager. For instance, each time you decide which assignments to delegate to your people, it is an exercise of your hard power as their boss. Another example will be the painful but sometimes necessary task of reprimanding an employee who has acted in an irresponsible manner.

Effective managers are able to combine both hard and soft power. This results in smart power. They are aware that purely exercising one to the exclusion of the other will create problems for themselves at the workplace.

♦ Trust is the foundation of leadership. Trust is earned only when people demonstrate the following characteristics: competence, character, authenticity and consistency.

♦ Effective managers exercise smart power by combining both soft and hard power.

Q1: Look at leaders who you know. How much do you trust them? How does that influence your relationship with them at work?