What successful principals do and what unsuccessful ones don't. The best school director is a former teacher, not a manager from the side of the role of a modern leader in managing a company

The national educational initiative "Our New School" says that the role of the director in the new school will change: the degree of freedom and the level of his responsibility should increase. Why is this important and what needs to be improved in the system of advanced training for principals, Konstantin Ushakov, editor-in-chief of the Principal of School magazine, told RIA Novosti in an interview.

Konstantin Mikhailovich, today directors are increasingly perceived as managers and, to a lesser extent, as teachers. What are the tasks of a school principal?

The main task of the head of any organization, including the director of the school, is the integration and training of personnel. A good director should hire the best possible, and train those who are already working.

Today, there is a lot of talk about competencies, over-subject skills of students, but they are not brought up within the framework of one subject, this is the result of group efforts, and a group needs to be created. School groups are mostly divided, each teacher is engaged only in his own subject. And if someone can solve the problems posed, it is the director.

- What prevents directors from engaging in their teams?

The director simply does not have the strength to do this. He is too busy with other work: meetings once or twice a week, countless letters that must be answered daily to higher authorities, inspectors.

The powers of the director by law are huge, but there are no opportunities for their implementation. The pendulum must swing in the other direction - an increase in real powers and greater independence of the first person of the school. The director should work more with the team. But he needs more time for that.

- Should the director teach?

I'm not sure that in this regard the director should be a model. This is simply impossible if your teaching load is small and half of the hours are replaced - the director is required every now and then for various meetings. Maintaining a high level of professionalism in such conditions is difficult.

The ability to teach adults is a completely different technique, and this seems to me more important. This is the first skill and the first ability to select future directors.

- “The directors” are not taught anywhere, they can only improve their skills in courses. Is this system effective?

We have, it seems to me, a big gap between the system of advanced training and the school. You can say as beautiful things as you like that the students will like, but the result of the work of the course teacher should not be a high level of satisfaction of the students, but what will happen to them when they return to school. Courses are "not responsible" for their final result.

- And how can you track the results - did the director master the knowledge or not?

There should be an intermediate school support service that would provide assistance, especially at the organizational level - advise.

We do not have technologies for diagnosing organizational problems. Organizations, like people, get sick, and diseases need to be diagnosed. But this is almost impossible to do from the inside, and only a specialist from outside can say what exactly is wrong in the school and what can be improved in its work.

For example, the disease of the disintegration of the team - when each teacher is closed within the walls of his office and is busy only with his subject. This problem can only be noticed by an “outer” person. But there are no tools for this kind of diagnosis, no organizational consultants. There are few of them in business.

The methodologists of regional advanced training institutes can provide assistance in one or another subject, but they do not solve organizational problems.

Of course, the work is costly, requiring special qualifications. Without federal, regional, municipal support, these structures will not exist - schools are not able to pay specialists for this kind of consulting assistance.

The Our New School initiative says that directors should be able to study in their neighboring regions. Are these internships useful?

Internships are a big step up from what it used to be, when it seemed that the more teachers and directors would listen to lectures, the better. But the effect is not noticeable, and the understanding comes that lectures are not the most effective way to work with teachers. Professionals learn best from professionals.

But building a good internship is technologically not so easy - and this is the next stage of work. Throughout the world, where progress has been made in the field of education, it is believed that the most effective training is on the spot, namely at school. And trips somewhere are a holiday that is good only in rare cases.

- Is it worth it to invite an outside manager to the position of director?

Management techniques, regardless of their scope, are generally the same. Yes, in the 1990s, outsiders became directors, but there are few such examples. Still, it is difficult to manage an organization without understanding its context, the features of its construction. When a person goes through all the stages from below (from the teacher to the head teacher and director), he understands the essence of what is happening more precisely and deeper.

The material was prepared by Elena Kuznetsova (SU-HSE), especially for RIA Novosti

Polyakova Yulia Vladimirovna

“I believe that the qualities of a manager

should be judged by how well he can

organize a large number of people and

how effectively can he achieve

the best results from each of them,

merging into one."

A. Morita

The school, in the traditions of all times, among different peoples, has always been in the spotlight. Its success largely depends on who manages it. At present, the role of the school principal, who must be able not only to organize the educational process, but also to make it cost-effective, is becoming especially relevant. Today, when school principals work in a market economy, they must make many important management decisions every day - from finding ways to make money to finding ways to improve the quality of education. The question arises - who is he, the effective head of the modern school?

According to the materials of the press conference “On the way to a new school. The role of the director in the modernization of general education”:

I.I. Kalina, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation: “The key figure in the school is the headmaster, who gathers teachers and creates conditions for effective work.”

ME AND. Kuzminov emphasized that “the personal example and personal relationships that the director builds are key. A great manager who doesn't like people, a great manager who isn't a teacher, can't run a school."

N.N. Pryanishnikov: “Being a school director is much more difficult than a modern business leader: fewer resources, but more tasks

K.M. Ushakov: one of the main tasks of the director is “to work out the mission of the organization and make it a personal matter for everyone”, because pedagogical work is not possible without understanding the mission.

Modern requirements for education change the position of the headmaster as a manager. Now you need knowledge on financial management and school economics. This requires strategic thinking, but also a good knowledge of the learning process. The combination of these qualities will improve the quality of education, which is the main task of the modern school.

For the development of innovative activity in the school, it is necessary to have a competent, skillful mastery of new technologies by the director. Only when the director understands from his own experience how important and convenient it is to use modern technologies in his work, then this will become an indispensable condition for changing the attitude in the development of these technologies by the team.

An effective head of a modern school solves the main problem - to ensure the proactive nature of education: to set tasks that are important today and that will become even more important tomorrow, and, most importantly, to be able to find ways to solve them.

School management is necessary not only for the effective management of personnel, coordinating their activities in achieving the goals, objectives, decisions made, as well as in organizing control and analysis of their implementation. In the context of rapidly ongoing changes in education, it is necessary to know well their essence and nature, legal support, and changes in the legislative framework that regulates education. For effective changes in the field of education, the headmaster is a key figure. The fate of Russian education and, ultimately, the future of Russia depends on its ability to accept and implement the main ideas of modernization.

The director manages the child, parents and teaching staff. To do this, he must be a teacher and organizer, possess legal and economic knowledge. He must take care of the role of the teacher in his team, contribute to the improvement of the qualifications of teachers, create conditions for the disclosure of their creative abilities. To create comfortable learning conditions in the school, he needs knowledge of pedagogy, psychology, and various methods. Teaching work, despite the heavy workload, is necessary, because. it helps in strengthening relationships with teachers and students.

Also, any leader must have special personal qualities that ensure the success of management activities. The effectiveness of the school depends on the style of team management. In the management style, the personal qualities of the leader are manifested. The leader, by developing and improving his personal qualities, changing the style of leadership, can increase the efficiency of the educational institution.

The professional competence of the head of the school today, more than ever before, includes managerial, pedagogical, communicative, diagnostic and research qualities, the effectiveness of his work is determined by the level of formation of professional knowledge and skills, the degree of development of professionally significant personal qualities that are necessary for the implementation of managerial functions to achieve intended goals.

One of the essential personality traits of a leader is self-confidence. The leader knows everything, knows how, can! And if he doesn’t know, then he will find out, he will find a way out, he will be able to. What does a confident leader mean for a subordinate? This is, first of all, that in a difficult situation you can rely on such a leader, with such a leader it is easier to think about tomorrow, he gives a certain psychological comfort, provides and increases motivation for work.

Mandatory for the leader is his emotional

balance and stress tolerance. The leader must control his emotional manifestations. He is constantly surrounded by people, and with all of them, regardless of mood and personal disposition, he must have smooth, business relations. In addition, emotional imbalance can reduce a person's self-confidence, and thus his business activity.

There are few people who are born leaders, talented leaders. But it is possible to become such - there would be a desire, a desire for knowledge, the use of new technologies, efficiency, and most importantly, tolerance for others. A wise leader understands that the main thing he has is his subordinates. He prefers them over other people. The leader achieves something only thanks to his subordinates. And therefore, one of the main tasks of the effectiveness of the work of a leader is the ability to understand people, their knowledge, and character traits. “Management is development, impact on people,” said Lawrence Eppley, president of the American Management Association many years ago. There is nothing more to add to this.

Galina Mikhailovna Ponomareva,

head of the organizational and methodological department of the Khabarovsk Regional Institute for the Development of Education in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, honorary worker of education

School management is a special process in terms of management, it is not for nothing that it is defined as a science and an art. The main distinguishing feature of the management process in education is that often school directors in the recent past were teachers from the team they manage. However, in a relatively similar environment (all in the past former teachers without managerial skills and special managerial education), some directors achieve professional success for themselves, teaching and student teams, the city and the region, while the successes of others are insignificant and are at the level of functioning acceptable for the school. Why is the success of some directors incomparably greater than the success of others? What manifestations of success distinguish them from their peers? What is the reason for the success of the best of the best? What strategy of behavior do the leaders of an educational organization choose that leads them to success? What do principals avoid in the process of running a school, and what makes them unsuccessful?

These questions may seem debatable, since managerial work itself is ambiguous for different people. Only long-term practice of interaction with school directors in the system of advanced training and certification of teaching and managerial personnel gives me the right to express my own opinion on such issues: what do and what do successful school directors do and not do?

I propose to focus only on three indicators:

personal professional and career growth of the headmaster;
school personnel management;
Production Management.

Becoming a school principal

The professional growth of a successful school principal begins far in the past, when a young teacher first comes to the classroom as a teacher, and not as a student, realizing the new status of an adult responsible for himself and others; a new role of the leader of the children's team and the learning process.

Over the long years of apprenticeship and studentship, young people develop performance behavior that corresponds to the role position of a “child” (in the classification of interpersonal relations according to E. Berne). The new situation forces the young teacher to change the strategy of behavior to the “adult” position, focused on sound calculation, control over one’s own actions, control over the actions of others, adequate assessments, understanding of the relativity of dogmas, orientation towards actions. A quick change of position leads to cardinal changes in a person’s personality towards the development of a positive “I-concept”, leadership qualities, confident behavior in a familiar environment, and the search for solutions to problems that have arisen, taking into account one’s own opinion.

A young teacher strives for professional growth and takes active steps towards this: he independently searches for sources of obtaining new knowledge, communicates with mentors and adopts their experience with a certain measure of critical attitude towards him and perception. The copying of positive experience is selective, depending on the goals of the young teacher, his own views on the process of education and upbringing, personal qualities, since such a teacher is aware that even the best senior colleague cannot be what he himself should become in the future. Someone else's experience is not an open wide road without bumps and potholes, which was paved by an experienced mentor, but the path to a certain turn, beyond which is the unknown, and everything that happens around this turn will become a new reality. Only the habit of independently analyzing the situation and making decisions based on the experience of others will help the young specialist become himself. And this is an important condition for a future successful professional life, creating your own experience, unique achievements.

A young teacher strives to take leadership positions in the work team, gradually gaining a team of colleagues who share his values, followers of actions and allies in achieving the goal of the leader and the team.

The process of building one's own career is taken under one's own control by the future successful director - young man

knows what he wants to achieve in the future and how long he takes for this. Career grows progressively from horizontal to vertical. Not always, but in many ways, professional success in the "teacher" horizon underlies the future success of the "principal" vertical. The teacher builds his career together with the one who will subsequently decide on the height of career growth, which means that such a person learns tactics and strategies for productive communication with people of various social statuses.

A young teacher motivated to become a school principal is guided by the following rules:

being lazy and looking at your watch is the fate of future performers;
being offended by constructive criticism is in the nature of a weak, capricious “child”;
wait for instructions from the outside - this is what people do who avoid failures, but constantly having them;
not allow others to doubt their current insignificant successes - he will eat the elephant bit by bit while others starve, knowing that they will not swallow him whole;
to be afraid to stumble - the fatality of existing mistakes leads to the destruction of motivation;
to rise above the less successful - weak personalities are endowed with arrogance, who do not understand that there is always a stronger one for every strong one;
to envy the more successful - they should be respected and learned from them; they need to catch up, then go side by side, and then lead.

The issue of giving the teacher the power that the position of director gives is taken after reaching a certain age. Empirical evidence and observations show that the most productive principals are those who assume leadership of a school between the ages of 35 and 45. This is a sensitive period in personality development.

to take responsibility for the actions of other adults in the production process. By this time, the specialist already has professional achievements: a unique experience that clearly distinguishes him from others; stability in relations with colleagues and managers; a portfolio of achievements that proves his professional viability. Leadership positions are such that no one doubts that the future belongs to this person - this is a sign of the true growth of a vertical career and the support of associates. No one, including the teacher himself, doubts that it is this teacher who can be entrusted with the management of the school - he understands that the years of his own professional development were spent precisely in order to lead others, and this was actually his goal.

The young director knows that

one should not strive to "be good for everyone" - he should lead people,

and not on your neck;

narcissism is a sign of a weak director, whose age is short - therefore, spin

in a beautiful chair is not yet an indicator of professionalism;

to motivate the weak is a waste of time and effort for an illusory benefit;
it is pointless to criticize the mistakes of the strong - it is better to turn other people's mistakes

into your experience;

only a staggering one can be pushed down; a self-confident leader will eventually turn things around in such a way that they will please him;
do not forget your friends and fellow teachers - even during working hours you can always find a minute for friendly memories and a cup of coffee;
he is not a workaholic, since a one-sidedly developed professional is like a flux, and it is not worth staying at work until late.

Observations of the circle of successful directors show that only the opportunities provided by the "top" and the support of the "bottom" give positive results in the career growth of the leader. The director will build the next stage of professional and career development in a different way, focusing on the new social status of a manager - on power.

Use of power

The use of power functions for the benefit of oneself and the led team is a hallmark of successful school principals. That's right: for yourself and for others. The director appreciates his power and enjoys its capabilities - and this is not a negative quality of the leader, on the contrary, the gravitation from power leads to the destruction of the development prospects - first the director, and then his school. But the pleasure of power meets all high moral laws. A successful director lives by the rule "I'm good, you're good." Such a life position helps the manager to attract equally successful people to work, thereby expanding his capabilities. Achievement motivation is characteristic of a significant number of team members, since it is based on the charisma of the leader and such sources of his power as the power of the standard, the expert, the power of remuneration, normative and informational power. Power is inextricably linked with leadership. A successful leader is always a leader. He was an informal leader before his appointment, and now he is strengthening the position of a formal leader, and he easily succeeds.

Power allows the director to achieve goals higher than those that were in the past, and since these are humane goals, the leader finds followers and has a strong team of creative, active, success-motivated performers, whose hands the result is achieved. And of course, there are now resources to achieve the goal!

A person in power does not allow himself:

to lose it - power can only be strengthened (by building an even higher career) or let go (leave in time and give way to others);
use power to the detriment of people - it is power that should make a person a Man;
to be afraid of the power of others - one must simply not be afraid of anyone;
hide behind the backs of the performers - you can stand behind their backs only in one case: when you need to be the last to leave the sinking ship;
manage people from the position “I am the boss, you are a fool” - otherwise the day will come when you will become your own boss

and a fool to himself;

coming to work late - the presumptuous boss does not have power over his subordinates, but fear of them, which he covers up with arrogance;
look bad - the spectacular appearance of a successful leader is not a whim of the image, but a severe necessity.

Every successful director understands that his own success is made up of the success of his subordinates. Therefore, one of the first tasks of a manager is to motivate the team for high achievements and help everyone who wants to reach heights. The director's own role in managing the school comes down to finding the right active, motivated, initiative performer, giving him the right order, building an adequate line of control - and that's it. Further, the subordinate himself will bring the necessary result to the leader, which will ultimately be the result of the work of the school, and therefore the director himself. The director's previous experience and charisma will do their job - people will obey a successful leader with great pleasure and will do great things to achieve his positive assessment, which he often gives out to subordinates. Yes, the only way - frequent and positive reinforcement of the activities of subordinates! Criticism, if necessary, allows neither fatality, nor edification, nor emotionality, on the contrary, only the use of constructive criticism helps a successful director to extinguish the resistance of his subordinate to the perception of critical remarks, involve him in joint decision-making, change the situation and activities of the criticized for the better.

The second most important criterion for effective personnel management of a successful director is the ability to delegate authority. In the hands of the leader is the supreme power (of course, within the framework of official competencies), which several more people in the organization would probably like to receive. Formally, this cannot be done, but it is possible to satisfy their need for power by temporarily expanding the powers - firstly, of the management team, and secondly, of subordinates actively seeking power. A successful leader is not afraid to lose power. However, the distancing of people from this power will lead to the fact that subordinates will seek to obtain it in a different way, up to an aggressive one. That's the case and there is delegation of authority to team members, and a successful director often uses this. As a result, he gets high-quality work, loyal employees, a lot of initiative proposals, a close-knit team, and also free time to perform immediate duties in the work process, which cannot be delegated in any way, but for which there is never enough time!

At the same time, the delegation of authority does not exclude the dominance of the leader over subordinates. Unlike power, dominance is dominance, dominance, influence, ambition, the desire for personal independence, leadership under any circumstances and at any cost, readiness for an uncompromising struggle for one's rights. Strange as it may seem at first glance, employees easily obey a dominant leader, and not only do not condemn this personality trait of his, but also evaluate it as necessary for themselves personally, since in the end the leader’s dominance becomes a shield for them in difficult situations.

In addition, a successful school principal is a model for subordinates of such competencies as emotional self-regulation. They say about him - a good leader is like a swan: above the water

on the smooth surface it swims calmly and majestically, and under water it paddles frantically with its paws. The ease and speed of decisions made by the director, his calmness during crisis situations help subordinates feel secure and stable. People highly appreciate the one who is a “strong wall” for them, with such a leader they will go through fire and water, and will do everything possible to lead the school (principal) to success!

Process management

In the process of personnel management, a successful director:

does not select personnel for himself, his beloved, - the school does not have the positions of "matchmaker" and "brother", there is a "professional" and "high professional";
supports the initiative of the subordinate - if the torch is not allowed to flare up, it will quickly turn into a firebrand, will the director look beautiful with a firebrand in his hands ?;
will not nurture mediocrity - no matter how you pile up a pole by the road, apples will never grow on it, it is better to pass by, and let it stand, once it was set up by someone once;
speaks little at meetings - the words "fly" and "five minutes" were invented just for a successful leader who values his own and other people's time;
does not expect gratitude from subordinates for the fact that "I have done so much for them." - it is necessary to do good and throw it into the water;
does not refer to the lack of funds for staff training - the staff themselves will offer creative ideas and various forms of training if they, the staff, are given the opportunity to hang a certificate of professional development in a prominent place.

A successful director is characterized by a triune component: analysis - plan - analysis.

First of all, the leader is a wonderful analyst. Any information received by him, he can quickly connect with the previous one and, based on the analysis, determine the pros and cons of the forecast, which, in turn, will first be determined in the development strategy, and later detailed in tactics. Foresight helps the director to understand the vector of the organization's development, therefore, all the details of information are taken seriously and important by him, since it is never possible to say in advance which fact should be accepted as significant and which should not. The ability to first combine the facts and figures of the information received into a single whole, then group them into various categories, compare them with the expected result, assess the state and predict subsequent results corresponding to the positive and negative vectors of the development of the situation and do everything quickly and efficiently - a striking feature of the director analytics that distinguishes him from all other directors.

The favorite word of a successful director is a goal! What is the purpose of the future action plan? It is from this word that the specific work plan of the school as a whole and all its substructures, in particular, will largely depend. The goal is seen as a real result, achievable in the near future, as a fact that is not questioned. The clarity and realism of the goal enable the leader to determine the circle of performers to the extent that they are able to realize this goal, even if they do not yet understand the full depth of ideas about the result to which the respected director is pushing them. After setting the goal and motivating the team to achieve it, a successful leader will go into the shadows: he is a strategist, the details are in the hands of the performers. His time to return to the plan will come when the framework of all necessary actions will be formed and everything will be prepared for the stage of monitoring and editing the plan, its individual details, for example, the quantity and quality of the necessary activities, predicted results, resources. Only now the director's word will be final as the decision of the person responsible for the idea and steps towards its implementation. At the same time, a successful leader provides an opportunity for team members to fulfill themselves in planning - he can afford to delegate authority.

And as soon as the plan enters the execution stage - immediately analysis: first, step by step, to eliminate unforeseen misses. Then more and more generalized, so as not to load either yourself or the team with trifles that generally do not affect the global result, but are often associated with the emotional perception of the performers.

Resources, their quantity and quality, and especially their content: everything is in the hands of a successful director and under his control.

In the first place are human resources - the school team, consisting of professionals of different levels, but which the director can manage most effectively based on this very level of professionalism of the employees. The director skillfully uses:

the resources of each individual and the potential for its development;
resources of small groups and, accordingly, their potential;
the resources of the organization as a whole.

Information resources, including external and internal information. All information is analyzed from the point of view of the adequacy of its perception by subordinates and only then is it issued by the director to the team. A successful leader knows how to present all the information in such a way that no one has any doubt that the director has no doubts about the veracity of the information and the need to take it into service. Informational power is used by him as a necessary shield from possible conflicts and stresses in the team. In other words - information is not for the sake of information, but for the sake of information! To make it clear to the reader, I will tell the golden rule of a successful interlocutor: if you can count to ten, count to nine!

Financial resources are a special scale of leader's values. On the one hand, there is always little money, no matter how much you give. On the other hand, the rubbish director is also not the best strategy for future success. Therefore, the wisest of directors choose

a promise between high results and a real amount of money, they are able to create a level of school life at the level of luxury even with little funding. How? And this is a company secret. The commercial streak of successful directors is manifested in the conduct of financial activities at the level of a zealous housewife and money is earned and spent wisely. This is also a sign of a successful school principal - a director-entrepreneur. He studied economic issues to such an extent that it allows him to independently make decisions within the organization without external consultations, since any consultant will always provide information that is beneficial to him. That's why in successful schools "all the money is in one pocket."

But a successful director knows the law better than economics. And honors him to the fullest. Whatever temptations arise before making a decision, the leader always coordinates it with the law. The word "law" is also understood by subordinates, it does not matter whether it is the law of a higher organization or the law emanating from the director himself. All school staff understand that the principal is the law in the school by default, albeit a democratic one, but the law. And that's it!

Managing the production process, a successful director:

does not seek to compensate for all the problems of the organization - it is more important for him that subordinates cooperate, be people who understand his ideas and implement them in life;
creates a quality management system that is understandable to all performers;
knows such a science as administration, does not accumulate debts;
allows others to believe in his expert authority, even the chief accountant;
has enough templates in the computer for routine and creativity;
always rich, because he does not earn much, but spends little;
follows the letter of the law;
handles any challenge

and demonstrate it to subordinates.

Journal "People's Education" 10/2013

Necessary knowledge (articles)

Help for a rural school

05.06.2015 9 619 0 Reading time: 14 min.

In this article, I want to review the main the role of the leader in the team and management of the organization. The success of any company, any business structure, at least half depends on its leader, who has to perform several functions or roles at once. Next, we will consider what these roles and functions of a leader are, what each of them consists of, how to perform it correctly, and how to develop the ability to perform these roles. I think that it will be interesting for all current and future leaders of any level.

Leadership roles in a team

So, any modern leader, regardless of what and whom he manages (large or small enterprise of any form of ownership, structural unit, department or any work team), in order to be effective, must combine at least 6 roles:

Diplomat.
Professional.
A member of the team.
Manager.
Entrepreneur.
Master.

It is the performance of all these 6 roles and functions at the same time that the manager differs from the ordinary employee. Even if at least one of these roles is not performed to the proper extent, he will not be able to effectively manage, which will suffer from his own business (if he manages his own business) or the work of the enterprise or its structural unit (if he performs managerial functions there). ). The manager always has a great responsibility to fulfill all these roles and functions, and he must be able to cope with it.

Now let's look at all these roles and functions of the leader in managing the organization in more detail.

Leadership Role #1: Diplomat

First of all, the head of any team must perform diplomatic and representative functions in it. That is, he must represent the interests of the team and its employees in negotiations with senior management, the interests of the business unit in negotiations with customers. In addition, this includes the role of the leader in maintaining a healthy socio-psychological climate in the team: he must diplomatically resolve conflicts between employees and motivate them to work productively.

What is the role of a diplomat?

The leader must develop and improve his own, the ability to negotiate, the ability to listen and hear other people;
The role of a leader is always the role of a psychologist in a team: he needs to be a psychologist for each of his subordinates individually and for the team as a whole. Therefore, it is necessary to study and apply in practice the psychological aspects of team management;
The leader must be persuasive, be able to clearly and competently build his speech, inspire confidence;
The words of the head should never diverge from the deed, he must have an impeccable business reputation;
If the manager was wrong, he must admit it and apologize, including to his employee.

Leadership Role #2: Professional

Any leader must be a professional in his field. He must use his own to achieve the goals and objectives set for the team, be an example in the eyes of his employees. The role of a leader in a team is always the role of an expert, to whom each employee can turn for professional help.

What is the role of a professional?

The manager must have an expert level of knowledge in his field;
The manager must be able to perform the work required of employees at a level no worse or even better than them;
The role of the manager in the organization is also to find ways to improve the efficiency of the work of his team, possibly together with employees, for example, by;
The manager should provide assistance in solving professional problems to his employees, be an example for them;
The manager should constantly improve his level of knowledge in the field of work and improve his professional skills and abilities.

Leadership Role #3: Team Member

The role of the leader in any team also lies in the fact that he acts as one of the participants in this team, its integral part, its link. He must do everything possible to ensure that the whole team works as one, because it has been repeatedly proven that the total performance of a well-coordinated team is significantly higher than the total performance of all its members individually, thanks to. The role of the leader is to make a real team out of a certain number of people, to increase their total potential according to the law of synergy.

What is the role of a team member?

The manager must competently take into account the professional and personal characteristics of each employee;
The leader must ensure the most effective working interaction between all team members;
The leader must contribute to the common cause as one of the team members;
The leader must maintain team spirit and a healthy psychological climate in the team.

Leadership Role #4: Manager

The next role of the manager in the management of the organization is the role of the manager. Perhaps this role of the leader can be called the most important. Each leader is, first of all, a manager who must be able to quickly and efficiently complete assigned tasks, find resources for their implementation, and so on. He must adhere to the strategy of the organization, contribute to the achievement of its strategic goals, and develop the most effective tactical moves for this.

What is the role of a manager?

The leader must develop the best ways to accomplish the tasks facing his organization / unit;
The leader must be able to find and effectively allocate resources to achieve the goals;
The manager must take into account the risks to which the activities of his organization are exposed, and ensure their minimization;
The role of the manager in managing the organization is also to ensure two-way communication at all levels: between the manager and the team, between the manager and senior management, between the organization and clients, between the organization and partners, between the organization and regulatory authorities, etc.

Leadership Role #5: Entrepreneur

Another important role of the leader in the organization is the role of the entrepreneur. He should strive to create new values, see the development opportunities for his company or its division, see the future and bring it closer. In addition, the role of a leader in management is the ability to make decisions and take responsibility for them.

What is the role of an entrepreneur?

The manager must monitor current trends in the development of the industry and timely improve his structure taking them into account;
The manager must follow important news regarding the technological, legal, tax and other aspects of the activities of his organization and respond to them in a timely manner;
The role of the leader is to search for new ideas, borrow effective ideas from others, and successfully implement them in the work of their business structure;
The leader must ensure a decent level of competition for his company in the market.

Leadership Role #6: Owner

And finally, the last, very important role of the leader in the organization is the role of the owner. Even if the manager is not the legal owner of the company, or manages only a structural unit, he must act as the owner for his team. The leader, as the owner, must put the interests of the company above his own interests and the interests of his team, at the right time show his strong-willed qualities, leadership qualities, fully focus his activities on achieving success by the unit entrusted to him.

What is the host role?

The leader must give himself completely to work, put work interests above personal ones. If he fails to do this, perhaps he should not lead, he will not be able to be an effective leader;
The leader must demand the same from each of his employees;
The leader must have a strong will, be able to say “no” if necessary, be able to make personnel decisions;
The leader must always have a personnel reserve and replace inefficient employees with effective ones, regardless of personal likes and dislikes;
The leader must always take responsibility for his failures, without shifting it to someone else. But it is better to imagine victories as an achievement of the whole team, each employee, which will strengthen the team spirit and motivate for further productive work;
The role of the leader as the owner lies in the right choice within his competence.

As you can see, the role of a modern leader in a team is a whole combination of many roles and functions, it is a large set of qualities, knowledge, skills, and abilities that a truly effective leader should possess. In addition, the role of the leader lies in the constant development and improvement of all these qualities, knowledge, skills, and abilities, since in modern conditions they quickly become obsolete and lose their relevance.

Being a leader is never easy. Those who believe that the leader only sits in a chair and gives commands are wrong. If there are such, they are ineffective, they do not cope with their role as leaders, and only pull the company down. In any case, you should not focus on such people, if you take on the responsibility of a leader, you need to give all your best. In any case, you gain valuable experience that will definitely come in handy in your later life and business, even if you leave your position as a leader.

Good luck to you in the complex and multifaceted work of the leader. See you soon on the site, where you will always find a lot of useful tips and tricks that will help you be an effective leader.

Estimate:

Recently, in my papers, I dug up old handouts for the management skills training that I conducted in 1996 ... I don’t even know whether to admire or be horrified :) this anniversary. For 20 years I have been working with managers of various levels, but, as practice shows, the problems in their work remain the same. I'm not afraid of this word - "eternal" problems :).

One of these "eternal" managerial problems is adaptation of the head to the new position. The nature of the personnel reshuffle is not important: promotion or demotion, transfer to a new area of work / to a new division or organization / to a new large-scale project, etc. The important thing is that such movements are often carried out not at the initiative of the worker (" I was offered, so I agreed"), and do not always coincide with his career and work expectations (" Actually, I would like to work in the position of... , and I would be more interested in doing..."). A career choice is proposed ("fork"), where each alternative has its own "pluses" and its "minuses". This choice is not always simple (something has to be sacrificed), and from the point of view of psychology is situation of professional stress and sometimes even leads to a professional crisis.

The heaviest stress occurs when a leader "jumps" to another career level: he was an ordinary worker, and became a lower-level manager (foreman, head of department, etc.); was a specialist, but became a middle manager; was the head of a division, and became a top manager, heading an entire enterprise or responsible for a separate line of business / market of the company. Psychologically, the most difficult thing is to “jump” from an ordinary worker (or specialist) to lower / middle-level managers. Especially if you need to manage your colleagues, with whom you spoke on an equal footing just yesterday. And today you are no longer "your", but "bosses" :). It is necessary to change the entire previously established system of relations, to "put" oneself in the team again in the role of leader.

How to do it ===>

Entering a new leadership role can be called professional adaptation of the leader. I recently came across a monograph A. Reana "Psychology of personality adaptation. Analysis. Theory. Practice" (M, Prime-Eurosign, 2008; browse ;)), which has a pretty good chapter specifically on managerial adaptation.

I'll bring her brief summary(plus some of my comments, plus valuable usefulness at the end ;)) , I hope it will be useful for novice managers:

"...term "adaptation" can be used in relation to the situation when an employee (one’s own or accepted “from outside”) is appointed to a managerial position. In this case, we can introduce the concept of "managerial adaptation" ("manager's adaptation"), by which we mean the process and result of active balancing with the changed professional environment, which allows you to effectively achieve goals and is based on a number of personal neoplasms.

I will translate from psychological into ordinary language :) If you want to be productive in a new position - learn, develop, change yourself! "Personal neoplasms" are new knowledge, skills, habits, competencies, etc.

"The adaptation process is especially important for a specialist, appointed to a leadership position for the first time. As our pilot studies have shown, about 43% of the interviewed managers experienced difficulties at the very beginning of their managerial career, another 18% described their situation at that time as very difficult. This was most often due to a lack of managerial skills and only secondarily due to a lack of special knowledge.

I'll add on my own ... I conducted similar kinds of questionnaires among experienced managers. In fact, 100% of managers experience difficulties at the beginning of their career :). The only question is how they perceived these difficulties then, and how they remember it now. It depends on personal characteristics: there are optimists who "do not dramatize"; have high self-esteem (and believe that "everything is normal, everything is under control"); and there is a property of human memory to selectively retain mostly good memories. As a rule, even if in the questionnaire a person answers that at the beginning of his career there were no difficulties at all, then in the course of an in-depth interview with him, he recalls a pile of these very difficulties :)). He simply treated and treats them relatively easily.

Those who immediately recall the beginning of their managerial career as "very difficult" either have objective reasons (the company was in a deep crisis, and the beginning of their career took place as an anti-crisis manager), or their career began with some serious mistake, and this life lesson they remembered for a long time.

“According to recent studies by Australian scientists, well-established engineers are not natural born leaders at all. This is primarily due to the fact that many engineers, having turned out to be leaders of large organizations, mainly focused on achieving short-term benefits. As a result, the strategic tasks of survival and development turned out to be in the background, which inevitably led to difficulties with changes in the environment".

Typical story :). It is very difficult for a person who is used to being responsible for a specific limited area of work to break away from micromanagement and switch himself to a vision of the whole - a strategic perception. That is why for newly minted leaders (even if they are not top management) courses / trainings / coaching will be extremely useful in Strategic Management and Systems Thinking.

"According to the well-known management consultant Peter Fischer, the newly appointed leader must consistently decide the following seven tasks:

— actively meet the expectations of senior managers, colleagues and subordinates;

— establish and develop productive relationships with key people in the organization;

— constructively analyze the current situation from the point of view of the structure of interactions and development prospects;

- develop a motivating spectrum of immediate and long-term goals;

— to establish a positive climate for transformation based on all the positive potential accumulated so far;

— effectively initiate these transformations with the involvement of all employees;

use symbols and rituals productively."

Please note that there are not only tasks of managerial adaptation, but also tips on how to solve them;)

-communications purposeful building of relations with all stakeholders;

-goal setting(moreover, a certain novelty of these goals is important, so that subordinates feel that "a new broom sweeps in a new way" :));

OWN motivation system(here it is important to understand that any organization has certain motivational resources and mechanisms; but their effective use depends on the specific leader. It is extremely important for a novice leader to master the available motivational tools, demonstrating to his subordinates what "sticks" and "carrots" he can and will use: ))

"Here is how I. P. Volkov describes the specifics of managerial adaptation in the most difficult, perhaps psychologically, situation - the appointment to a lower management position for the first time:

Let's say you were appointed to the position of master for the first time. You still do not have sufficient experience in organizational activities in production ...

First of all, you need to get to know the people with whom you will work. Then you should study the state of production, the equipment of workplaces, the organization of labor, the availability of technical documentation. You must also assess the level of labor and moral-political activity of workers, understand the relationship in the team. Start your acquaintance thoughtfully, slowly, talk individually, take your time with a meeting of workers. Meet the leaders of all departments in the shop.

Having orientated in the situation in general terms, it is necessary to outline an action plan for “entering” a new position. Such “entry” is not a matter of one day or even one month. For some beginners, this process stretches for one and a half to two years. It is necessary to gain experience in order to feel confident in various situations. It is necessary to psychologically master the situation not only in your area, but also in the workshop, even in adjacent subdivisions. Then confidence in decisions and actions will come.

* * *

“We conducted a survey of 231 subjects (heads of various levels of organizations and enterprises, management experience ranged from one year to 16 years). They were asked an open question: “After my first appointment to a managerial position, I encountered such difficulties: . ..” A detailed analysis of the responses received showed that they can be divided into two fairly homogeneous groups.

The first group of responses of respondents-managers is difficulties in goal acquisition and goal formation when entering a new management activity. The most typical answers in this group were: “I didn’t know where to start”, “I didn’t understand the tasks we were facing”, “It was difficult because there was complete uncertainty”, “It was difficult to orient and explain to people what we would do further”, etc.

The second group of answers Difficulties associated with interacting with subordinates. Here, answers are highlighted that describe difficulties in uniting, rallying everyone around a common cause, problems in relations with older subordinates, fear of being alone before starting a new business, etc. The most typical answers in this group are: “It was difficult to establish business relations with some employees, since I myself used to be their subordinate”, “More experienced employees and those who had a long work experience treated me critically”, “I encountered low production discipline, incompetence of a number of employees”, etc.

"Based on the literature data and the results of our own research, we can approach the description of the main personality neoplasms of the adaptive leader.

First, the new leader (especially the first-time manager) needs to move to a different level of goals that become broader and qualitatively more complex. If earlier the scale of tasks was not high and they were rather narrowly specialized, now the leader faces goals that are closer to the global goals of the organization.

So, the first important personal quality that a manager must develop after his nomination is the ability to identify, operationalize the global goals of the organization, turning them into unit goals and tasks for subordinates.

Secondly, after the appointment as a leader, it is required to develop anew or expand the set of techniques, methods of interaction between the manager and subordinates.

The second significant personal neoplasm for a manager in the process of his adaptation to a new managerial activity is the expansion of his role repertoire, adequate development and performance of roles, taking into account the peculiarities of the new professional activity.

Knowledge of the strategic (global) goals of the organization;

The priority of consistency and global goals over the private and momentary goals of the unit;

The ability to formulate the goals of the unit, taking into account the global goals of the organization;

The ability to decompose goals to the level of personal tasks.

Everything seems to be correct, but missing three important points. Goal setting - communication process, which is highly dependent on the corporate culture of the company. For example, in some companies a list of global goals hangs on every wall, while in others it is a secret with seven seals. In some companies, top management is open to discussing the consistency of the goals of the unit with organizational ones, while in others the policy "you yourself are there somehow" has been adopted (but if you do it wrong, you will be punished!). And many novice leaders "do not know what to do" precisely because they find it difficult to fit into "communication on goals."

And the second point: goal setting is very closely related to planning and execution. It is not enough to "cut" tasks to subordinates. It is necessary to plan these tasks; communicate plans to subordinates; initiate the execution of the plan; coordinate and assist (as needed); control the execution of tasks/plan. In my consulting experience, behind the words of novice managers “I don’t know what to do”, in fact, there is not a weakness in understanding goals and setting goals, but other links in the chain - planning, coordination, control, and so on.

And third: it is impossible to organize other people if you are not organized yourself! New managers often do not realize that the higher their managerial level, the more their personal self-organization affects the organization as a whole. If the manager does not set any goals/tasks for himself personally, does not plan his working day, does not know at least the "basics" of time management, if he does not have his own system of self-organization, then what kind of goal setting and goal achievement in the unit/organization can we talk about? ?!

And another opinion: unlike A. Rean, I would not reduce the second "neoplasm" to expand the role potential. Of course, a good leader must be guided by the role structure of the group, as well as be able to recognize and model his own role (roles) in the work team. But in fact, most of the "understanding problems" with employees do not require any special role flexibility or role reversal. For this enough individual communication skills or abilities. For example, such a skill may be the ability of a leader to communicate with difficult people, defuse conflict situations, reduce stress levels, etc. Separate psychological trainings are devoted to the "pumping" of such individual communication skills, a review of which I gave in this post: Psychological trainings for a leader - what to choose?).

Can be described four stages of the manager adaptation process(they are presented as pairs of opposites: on the left is the result of a successful passage of the adaptation stage, on the right is the result in case of unsuccessful adaptation).

1)Goal Identification - Lack of Vision. The first thing that begins the process of adaptation of a manager is a clear understanding of the global goals of the organization, its mission and philosophy. These long-term goals should unite efforts and underpin the work of all departments of the organization. Based on this, the manager must be very clear about the goals facing the unit that he was assigned to lead, as well as the goals of other major units of the organization, and above all those with which he has to interact directly. This stage of manager adaptation is based mainly on the operationalization of global goals.

2)Distribution and organization - detached management. At the second stage of the adaptation process, the problematic task is to determine tasks for subordinates (based on global goals), as well as to organize their joint work. Along with the presence of special knowledge, this requires the implementation of the basic functions of management, the establishment of a network of interpersonal contacts, the organization of information flows and decision-making.

In the implementation of these tasks, planning of both joint work and the activities of other departments (employees) becomes important.

3)Solving a new problem - broadcasting instructions. In the third stage, the manager, who has understood the goals of the organization and the unit, who has managed to organize subordinates to fulfill the plans already outlined, now needs to direct joint efforts to solve a relatively new task - for example, the introduction of a new method of organizing production.

The successful solution of such a task will allow the manager, on the one hand, to recognize his subordinates in somewhat unusual conditions, and on the other hand, to show others and himself that he is a real organizer. This gives the necessary confidence in oneself, in one's subordinates and in the common cause. Successful completion of the third stage implies that the manager will delve deep enough into all the subtleties of the new task, "accompanying" the course of its solution from beginning to end. At the same time, he will be required to update the entire range of his managerial roles, but references to the organization’s global goals and their “decomposition” for subordinates are gradually fading into the background.

When a manager cannot offer something relatively new, representing only a transmission and distribution element in the management hierarchy, there are great difficulties in authority among subordinates. The holistic picture of interpersonal interaction is violated and significantly impoverished, autonomously functional subgroups are formed, even the emergence of personally significant problems does not contribute to the convergence of the points of view of the minority and the majority.

4)Initial Delegation - Online. The main problem of the final - fourth - stage of the manager's adaptation process is the formation of the skill of task distribution and delegation of authority. To do this, it is necessary to determine, based on the results of joint work, several (or at least one) subordinates who could be entrusted with the independent implementation of an integral part of the work. By gaining the first experience of delegating part of his duties to competent and executive subordinates, the manager is able to better coordinate the work of the unit and pay more attention to long-term goals. Introspection of what has been achieved, identification of the strengths and weaknesses of your management style with the aim of improving it can be of great benefit. Under these conditions, the use of roles and the specification of global tasks for each subordinate are somewhat reduced in volume.

When a manager cannot determine the circle of subordinates capable of working autonomously enough, this leads to the need for constant total control, which, in turn, causes inevitable nervousness, haste, and the impossibility of long-term planning.

Successful completion of all four stages leads, in our opinion, to a fairly complete adaptation, that is, to the development of skills for interacting with management and subordinates in order to achieve the goals of the unit and organization.

From myself I will add that I generally agree with the highlighted stages of adaptation. But the problem is that, for example, a situation can easily arise when a new leader is appointed to a newly created division / to a completely new line of work or project. That is, he immediately enters the third (in A. Rean's model) stage of adaptation, and he has to "give birth" to new tasks at his own peril and risk. At the same time, it is extremely difficult to tie them to the strategy (stage 1) and established business processes (stage 2).

But I agree that even if a completely new task arises before a novice leader, it still makes sense to take two steps back and first determine the strategic priorities; then build a certain system of work/communications; and only then to innovate.

Further, A. Rean offers a holistic two-dimensional model of managerial adaptation. At the initial (1 and 2) stages of adaptation, it is important to determine the operationalization of global goals, and at subsequent stages (3 and 4), communication skills and skills become more priority (Rean calls this "role expression"). The 2D model looks like this:

"As follows from the diagram, at the first stage of adaptation, the skills of operationalization of global goals play a leading role, at the second stage both personal neoplasms are already involved (role behavior is added), then the performance of roles to solve a new task comes to the fore and, finally, at the last stage these two qualities are involved to a lesser extent, which means the completion of adaptation.

Duration passing through the four stages of adaptation can be different. If everything goes well, then you can turn from a novice leader into a seasoned manager :)) in about one year. If difficulties arise at some stages of adaptation, the process can stretch for 2-3 years.

According to A. Rean adapting to a leadership position can be unsuccessful. But this does not mean that the leader is unsuitable for the profession, or that the career has finally come to a standstill. The best solution would be to reduce the official level or return to the previous (or similar) position, but at a higher professional level (that is, with greater functionality, responsibility, authority, remuneration, etc.).

And in conclusion, as I promised, the most interesting! ;) Rean thinks that success or failure of the manager's adaptation to a new position can be predicted. And for this purpose, he developed the POMA test questionnaire - the Predictive Questionnaire of Managerial Adaptation ( ). There are only 32 questions, you can answer in 5-10 minutes.

If you got 23 points or less - welcome to my coaching! - write to [email protected] let's agree ;)

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