Leading Professionals the Natural Way Lex A. van Gunsteren [ 3 ] Parthenon Publishing House www.uitgeverijparthenon.nl © 2012 Lex A. van Gunsteren / Parthenon Publishing House. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other- wise, without prior permission in writing from the proprietors. Citation is allowed on the condition that the source is credited. COVER: Löss graphic designers, Amsterdam KEYWORDS: management, leadership, HRM, industrial R&D, innovation, entrepreneurship, family business. ISBN/EAN: 978 90 79578 382 (Paperback) ISBN/EAN: 978 90 79578 399 (Epub) [ 4 ] Contents 1. Introduction 7 2. How a herd is managed in nature 14 Wolves – Horses – Humans – Succession of the leader 3. What motivates professionals? 19 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory – The only real motivator: self-actualisation 4. Natural and formal hierarchy 31 How to establish the natural hierarchy – Upward delegation – Medical records – Wandering around – Measuring output – Sharing judgement – Natural versus formal hierarchy – The succession paradox 5. Time management 41 The secretary, time saver number one – Delegation – Terminating meaningless work – Balance between the urgent and the important 6. Leadership 50 7. Entrepreneurship 57 8. The essence 65 Rules of Nature 67 Appendices Horses Rescued from drowning 70 The Bielski partisans 77 The Innovation of a novice 81 About the Author 85 N0tes 86 [ 5 ] y The best way to lead a group of professionals – engi- neers, physicians, accountants, lawyers, IT experts, etc. but also secretaries and craftsmen – is as if they were a herd in the wild working together to increase its chances of survival. y The effectiveness of the group will be best if the natu- ral ranking of its members is reflected in managerial decisions. y The formal hierarchy, as follows from the organisa- tion chart and the remuneration of the professionals, should not deviate too much from the natural one. Unrest, good people leaving, and lack of loyalty to the organisation will spread if the natural ranking is not reflected in the formal one. y The position of the Alpha, the leader, is of particular interest. If the official Alpha lacks the characteristics that are required in changed circumstances, a new leader must replace him. y In power struggles between departments, it is useful to think in terms of herds fighting for territory. Who belongs to which herd? Who are the Alphas of those herds? How strong are those Alphas? y In managerial decisions, the interest of the group should prevail. This includes firing a person, like a herd in the wild leaving behind a member that slows it down too much. Leading professionals this way is natural, since it reflects mammals’ behaviour in nature. Urbanisation, living in cities separated from our ecosys- tem, has alienated us from our natural environment. As a result, all kinds of unsound artificial practices in regard to managing groups of professionals could grow to become commonplace. To mention a few: directors of hospitals not [ 12 ] 2. How a herd is managed in nature Many species of mammals – apes, dolphins, whales, hor- ses, wolves and many more – live in groups to increase their chances of survival. Such a group is called a herd, a band, or a pack. Humans also organise themselves in groups, which we call organisations. Below, the features are summarised of packs of wolves, which are related to dogs, and herds of horses since these species are most familiar to us as domesticated animals. 2.1 WOLVES Wolves live in packs consisting of four to forty wolves de- pending on territory size.3 The pack hierarchy is a strict social order. The Alpha male and female are the leaders of the pack. They pair for life. Breeding is usually confined to the Alpha pair only. They are the first to eat from a kill. Next come the Beta male and female, acting as the Alpha pair’s second in command. The Alpha and Beta wolves occasionally fight for their position in the pack and some- times change their position. The lowest ranking wolf is known as the Omega and can be male or female. The Omega wolf serves an important purpose by absorbing the pack’s aggression, thereby main- taining balance within the pack. This submissive position is displayed by means of body language: Ears back, head down, tail between the legs, a raised leg to expose the stom- ach and genitalia. The Omega is the last wolf to feed from [ 14 ] any caught meal. The pack feeds their pups and their aged family members by regurgitating food. Wolves communicate in many ways: they establish dominance by growling; they use body language with their ears, nose teeth, and tail; they howl. Each wolf has its own howl; howling indicates the pack’s whereabouts to lost members and demarcates territories. Wolves are hunting animals. The Alpha wolf leads the hunt like a general guiding his army in a battle of war. 2.2 HORSES Horses are prey animals with a well-developed fight-or- flight instinct.4 Their first response to a threat is to flee, although they are known to stand their ground and defend themselves or their offspring in cases where flight is unten- able, such as when a foal is threatened. Horses are highly social herd animals that prefer to live in a group. There is a hierarchy in any herd, which estab- lishes a ‘pecking order’ for the purpose of determining which herd member directs the behaviour of others and is allowed to drink and eat first. This behavioural pattern also applies to their interrela- tionship with humans. A horse that respects the human as a ‘herd member’ who is higher in the social order will be- have in a more appropriate manner towards all humans than a horse that has been allowed to engage in dominant behaviour over humans. Wild horse herds are usually made up of several sepa- rate small bands that share a given territory. A band usually consists of one adult male and a group of females. A mare that is dominant in the hierarchy, called the ‘dominant mare’ or the ‘lead mare’, leads each band of three to twelve animals. The band contains additional mares, their foals, and immature horses of both sexes. There is usually a sin- [ 15 ] 3. What motivates professionals? The literature on the question of what motivates employees is so extensive that no practitioner can afford the time to study and digest it. Nevertheless, it can be useful to be aware of the following two theories, by now classics in the field, which offer guidance in regard to leading professionals: y Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs y Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS 6 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is usually depicted as a pyra- mid, with the largest and most fundamental levels at the bottom, and the need for self-actualisation at the top. Self- actualisation Esteem Love/ belonging Safety Physiological Figure 3.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom. [ 19 ] The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called ‘deficiency needs’: esteem, friendship and love, security, and physical needs. Features related to self-actualisation are called ‘being needs’. Maslow introduced the term Metamotivation to describe the motiva- tion of people who go beyond the scope of the basic needs and strive for constant betterment. Metamotivated people are driven by Being needs, instead of Deficiency needs. The relevance of Maslow’s theory for our subject of lead- ing professionals is that, as a manager of a group of profes- sionals, you have to focus on self-actualisation to achieve intrinsically motivated collaborators. The need for self- actualisation pertains to what a person’s full potential is and realising that potential. It is the desire to become every- thing one is capable of becoming. This is a broad definition of the need for self-actualisation, but when applied to indi- viduals the need is specific. For example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent, an- other to become a top athlete, and a third to become an original artist. In order to clearly understand the need of self-actualisation, one must first not only achieve the previ- ous needs – physiological, safety, love and belonging, and esteem –, but also master these needs. For me, the need of self-actualisation implied doing creative industrial R&D work and writing a PhD thesis about it. Max Lips recognised this instantly in our first con- versation and reacted promptly by offering to include a clause to that effect in my contract. In hindsight, I realise that this was decisive for my decision to accept the offer despite warnings that such a family owned company (Max Lips was 100% owner) might confront me in later years with some nasty consequences. [ 20 ] FREDERICK HERZBERG’S MOTIVATION-HYGIENE THEORY The famous article ‘One more time: How do you motivate 7 employees?’ by Frederick Herzberg , printed three times in the Harvard Business Review (1968, 1987, 2003), describes the important distinction between motivation and move- ment. Movement is a function of fear or punishment or failure to get extrinsic rewards. Motivation is a function of growth from getting intrinsic rewards out of interesting and challenging work. While the immediate behavioural results from move- ment and motivation appear alike, their dynamics, which produce vastly different long-term consequences, are differ- ent. Movement requires constant reinforcement and stresses short-term results.