For many decades those
who studied leadership sought to identify the variety of skills
that all leaders share. There was a belief that to be successful,
a leader must exhibit those traits in every situation. However,
more recently writers have focused on situational leadership:
the belief that different situations require a different array
of traints and skills. Someone might be successful in certain
situations, but not others. Of course, the leaders who are most
valuable are those who can draw upon the right skill mix as the
need arises.
In this article, Leonard R. Schaeffer,
shares a retrospective of his 30 years as a chief executive officer.
He worked in the Illinois Department of Mental Health, the U.S.
Healthcare Administration and Blue Cross of California (which
became WellPoint Health Networks). In looking back Mr. Schaeffer
realizes that he made distinct choices as to the type of leader
he would be at different stages in his career. He also realizes
that he was aware he was making those choices for a specific
purpose.
These changes in leadership type, he believes,
were driven by carefully viewing the problems and issues at hand
and deciding which approach would work best at that moment in
time. By labeling the type of CEO he became at each juncture,
Mr. Schaeffer morphed himself into a specific leader. These leaders
he calls: The Autocrat; The Participative Leader; and, The Reformer.
THE AUTOCRAT
Mr. Schaeffer officially joined Blue Cross
of California in February of 1986 and jumped right into the role
of Autocrat. After his Welcome Party he immediately fired the
pastry chef after realizing how much money was being squandered
on flash and excess. One can imagine the collective gasp as staff
members froze in disbelief and then ran to their cubicles to
become invisible.
As business at Blue Cross of California
began to turn around Mr. Schaeffer changed his heavy handed style
and allowed managers (who by now had clearly gotten the message)
to motivate themselves to make changes to close up the $165 million
annual operating loss. He had used much the same tact when employed
at the Illinois Department of Mental Health and the U.S. Healthcare
Administration, both agencies congested with wasteful spending.
THE PARTICIPATIVE LEADER
Mr. Schaeffer explains that the term, Participative
Leadership, was first used by a researcher from the University
of Michigan, Rinsis Likert. This style, "...requires that
the CEO receive sufficient information from employees to make
important strategic decisions but that he or she leave the implementation
of strategy up to the line managers." The author also shares
that this form of leadership was first explained by consultants
at McKinsey as a form of "Loose-Tight Management."
This term means that goals are decided by the top mangers and
the decisions on how to meet those goals are given to their staff
as long as they don't break the budget. Now this approach requires
a lot of faith in staff; but, if everything goes as hoped and
planned it would seem that the staff would feel that they are
really making a difference at work -- an example of workplace
self-determination.
THE REFORMER
As a leader, The Reformer thinks and acts
outside the box. This is the type of person who is willing to
stand out in front and show everyone exactly how things can be
done differently, and successfully as well. You could probably
call The Reformer a front man (or woman) who really believes
that he or she has practiced what they are preaching and everyone
else should practice and believe it, too.
Once Mr. Schaeffer turned Blue Cross of
California into a lean, mean healthcare machine, the company
went public in 1993 as WellPoint Health Networks. (As of October
2002 when this article was written, WellPoint was a thriving,
successful company and reading the newspapers about the condition
of the State of California right now, this should be considered
a major feat worthy of praise and applause.) However, Mr. Schaeffer
does not seem to enjoy being The Reformer as much as the other
two CEO types. The strain seems to show when he explains that
he spends most of his time in meeting with "industry and
government representatives discussing health care practices and
policies". It would seem that after spending 30 years getting
to the pinnacle of his career and creating a solid, successful
company, explaining how he did it and convincing others that
they can do it, too, is a lot less fun than the journey itself.
After reading this article one can clearly
see the need for each type of leadership style at specific points
in time. Having the vision and self-knowledge to know when to
implement each leadership type -- now, there's the trick!