Christopher,
It appears that leadership like Elvis is dead, but the legend lives!
Much of what we call "leadership" is more accurately described as a part of a
"network of partnerships". When we narrow our perspective to direct
reporting relationships, we truncate such networks and focus on Leader-Member
Exchanges (LMX). When we change our field to include peers with the same
direct report, we focus on Member-Member Exchanges (MMX). When we expand
further to include the entire work group, we focus on Team-Member Exchanges
(TMX). Finally, when we expand to include the entire workplace network of a
person, we focus on the workplace partnership networks (WPN).
Workplace partnership is defined as negotiated, reciprocal and incremental
influence between people engaged in an interdependent activity. It is
created through a process of partnership making by which the respective
partner roles and relationships emerge. The fundamental unit for this
process is dyadic or two-person, although larger units are possible. Through
this process the parties define their roles in terms of duties and
responsibilities in the partnership and develop their relationship with
partner in terms of trust, respect and commitment. Once these fundamental
partnerships are developed they can be assembled into larger networks. There
networks are the drivers of synergy (aggregated incremental influence) and
serve to transform job holders into team players.
In this perspective the role of leader is problematic. It is not necessarily
the person with the highest rank in the organization. One must study the
partnership networks in operation to discover the functional leaders.
Moreover, these leaders may change over time and activity.
When we only focus on unit heads and their direct report partnerships, we
find LMX and attribute leadership to some of the unit heads. When we only
focus on direct report partnerships we find MMX and attribute leadership to
some partners. When we only focus on work groups we find TMX and attribute
leadership so some of the teams. Finally, when we focus on an entire
network, we find variance from richly articulated and elaborate networks to
poorly defined and truncated ones. But who is the network leader?
Is leadership a characteristic of individuals? dyads? triads, work groups?
networks? The answer is yes. At any level, the partnership process can
generate the incremental influence that we call "synergy". After 35 years of
researching this powerful process at its many levels in organizations, we
have concluded that the process underlying face to face leadership is that
which develops partnership networks. Once a partnership network
characterized by strong and reciprocal relationships of trust, respect, and
commitment is developed, potential synergy exists, but must find a focus.
The person in the most visible position often gets labeled the "leader" by
outside observers. Insiders understand that their synergy was due to their
combined sacrifices in the name of partnership with their network comrades.
We ceased looking for such "heroic leaders" long ago, and instead we searched
for people who developed these partnership networks. These were the creators
of synergy potential. People who develop these partnerships under the most
adverse conditions tend to be successful in organizations throughout their
careers. This was shown by our 30-year career management panel and over a
hundred other LMX investigations.
One thing is clear. If you seek to be seen as a leader in your organization,
build, inherit or fall into a well developed partnership network. Most folks
are forced to build their own while the others must win the lottery to
inherit or fall into the opportunity. Fortunately, we know a good deal about
the technology for building your own partnership network. However, when you
do, don't be surprised if someone else is called your leader now and again,
but in the end you'll be recognized. We hope.
George
/jag
George Graen, Ph.D.
University of Louisiana Lafayette
Management Department
(479) 631-9394
(479) 631-9365 (Fax)
lmxlotus@aol.com