Leadership so much more than the 'what'. What makes it work is the 'how'.

  “… dragging down businesses, dragging down the economy … stymying the ability of public services to do what we need them to do.” Anthony Painter, the CMI’s director of policy

This is only going to get worse.

I know nothing about nuclear physics but could ask a research candidate to tell me what’s wrong with this equation.

E_b=(m_initial-m_final)*c 

A quick prompt in a well-known AI tool can make me look like an expert - on the face of it.

After that, I’m sunk. I know the equation as a fact (meaning that I can recite it), but don’t understand it.

I know WHAT the sequence of letters and numbers is, but not a clue about HOW to apply it. In fact, I don’t know what any of it stands for.

It is an example of surface knowledge. Yes, an extreme, but worth making.

This is one of the reasons why new managers are failing and dragging their organisation down. The quick fix does not work.

YouGov’s poll for the Chartered management Institute found that 82% of new managers in the UK are “accidental” and have little or no management training.

Why do so many think that you don’t need any decent training in this area?

This is the point. Anyone can do a search or input a prompt on ‘what to do as a leader or manager’. I have a list of actions for finding out the performance of a nuclear physics research department. But what I don’t have is the knowledge of the real team, the real people in order to ask the questions:

• in the right way
• for the right people
• at the right time.

I definitely will not have the understanding of how to react to the outcomes.

 

This is why organisations need professional help. Leadership and management training is an investment with huge ROI. The CMI’s work highlights this.

Ignore it and sink.

If you want to avoid sinking, get in touch.

 

The Guardian (23 Sep 2023). Heather Stewart. Bad management has prompted one in three UK workers to quit, survey finds.