Comments on: Democratic Dictatorship

By: NinaSimosko.com » Blog Archive » Striking the Right Balance

NinaSimosko.com » Blog Archive » Striking the Right Balance — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:49:52 +0000

[...] and control approach. I have written about a related topic in the past in a piece entitled “Democratic Dictatorship“. In this piece I made the point that a leader is ultimately responsible to the [...]

By: Nina

Nina — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:17:22 +0000

Hi J,
No doubt you are correct and it is a difficult relationship to manage. However, ultimately, this is in the best interests of the company and all parties involved. In my experience, people recognize the role of the leader is just that and, generally, don’t take things personally.

By: J. Macedo

J. Macedo — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:16:19 +0000

I specially enjoyed the following: “But they are not in friendship positions, they are in leadership positions.”
This is extremely difficult to achieve if you have been promoted from within the company and your ex-peers are now your direct reports. It is a difficult thing to do at times, but there must be a clear differentiation between friendship and leadership roles.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:06:58 +0000

Fine post, Nina. It’s always important for a leader to be clear with everyone about how a decision will be made. Otherwise, the people you ask for input may take your request as a promise that you will make the final decision the same way they would . You need to be clear about how the final decision will be made, especially if your style is to solicit lots of ideas and input and even more if you sometimes give the group or part of the group decision rights.

By: Steve Roesler

Steve Roesler — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:06:03 +0000

My favorite lines:

1. “. . .they are not in friendship positions, they are in leadership positions.”

2. “always know who your primary responsibility is to.”

Since my first crack at leadership was, like Jim, in the military, the stakes were high and the mission was crystal clear. That’s actually a pretty good combination of factors to guide decision-making.

But the same is true in business, with your family, or leading a volunteer organization. If the goals are clear and people have agreed that this is where they want to be, then one has an obligation to make decisions accordingly.

The trap lies in believing that deviating in order to make people happy will somehow boost one’s stock. Once people realize that you are willing to make exceptions for them, they begin to see that you are willing to sacrifice your organizational obligation in order to be “liked.”

As a result, you lose the respect of those around you. And the ones who claim to be friends are only “friends” as long as you continue to make exceptions that benefit them.

Good one, Nina.

By: Jim Stroup

Jim Stroup — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:05:01 +0000

Hello Nina,

This is an excellent description of the core skill of a manager, and of the various ways effective ones express it – I especially like your note that these can vary not only across individuals, but across time in the same individual.

Everything a manager does flows from the ability to make decisions – from framing the issue to executing the outcome. It is the defining characteristic of a manager upon which the value of everything else we spend our time talking about depends, and without which none of those things matters.

Again – thanks for the nice treatment of this, and the memorable title phrase!