When the best leader’s work is done the people say, “We did it ourselves!” – Lao-tzu 6th century BC.
As already mentioned in the fourth part of this blog series, I will share with you today, what behaviors a strong leader should have to successfully lead a “supertribe”.
Further guidelines for managers
Ray Immelman demands from leaders in his book Great Boss Dead Boss that they must be able to change mindsets and create an environment that allows greater alignment and integration.
- Allay fears around security and instead focus on ensuring your people can clearly associate the relationship between their roles and responsibilities and strategic value
- Identify and address whether there is a command-and control management style at play, restricting the abilities of your best people to deliver
- Encourage healthy debate and dialog, not just consensus management, group-think or blind obedience
- Leverage tribal behaviors by moving focus away from silo functions and towards integrated Value Chain tribes, focused around the delivery of customer value
- Lead by example, put aside your own self-interest and fears around position and instead focus on the growth and prosperity of the organization as a whole
- Build a “supertribe” for your organization that will sustain passion and motivation
- Develop your company’s unique implementation strategy
- Incorporate tribal dynamics into your corporate communications
- Test the strategy under critical scrutiny from other leaders
- Analyze and improve your subconscious leadership style and how other leaders perceive you
- Analyze your leadership strengths and weaknesses and what you should change
- Find out your most and least preferred leadership roles and how to compensate for these
- Have the psychological “guts” to take the company in the right directions. You can’t be perceived as weak along those lines – even if you don’t necessarily have all the answers.
Immelman also points out that tribal roles are fundamentally different from accepted functional roles. Therefore, organizational planners should go back to the drawing board. Also, in-house and traditional media outlets should realize that corporate and individual communication is affected and often ruled by tribal constructs and change their approach accordingly.
I hope the presentation of Ray Immelman`s tribal model has supplied you with an important impetus to optimize the culture in your organization, thereby creating a significant competitive advantage and promote employee satisfaction.
I would be delighted if you would share your thoughts and experiences in a comment to the rest of the readership. What do you think of Immelman`s tribal model? Could you imagine to use it in your business? Or are you already leading a “supertribe”?
