Katanya Pemimpin, Tapi...

Tulisan ini sih berawal dari obrolan pagi seperti biasa di rombongan cinere. Mas Uzur mempermasalahkan inkonsistensi ukuran kepemimpinan yang digunakan dan kemudian hasilnya dipertanyakan. Pak Madesu meng-echo dan Pak Wigun manggut-manggut dan senyum-senyum (jangan-jangan inget kejadian yang semalam yaa..).

Saya sependapat dengan para pakar dari CMC (Cinere Motor Club), bahwa harus ada kesepahaman ukuran kepemimpinan sehingga semua memiliki persepsi yang sama mengenai bagaimana seorang pemimpin berperilaku. Tidak untuk menyaingi Stephen R. Covey (bener ya Ki) dengan 4 roles of leadernya, dan juga menyaingi DDI dengan kamus kompetensinya, maka pemahaman saya mengenai bagaimana seorang pemimpin harusnya berperilaku adalah sebagai berikut:

1. Seorang pemimpin harus kompeten;
2. Seorang pemimpin harus memiliki visi;
3. Seorang pemimpin harus punya prinsip;
4. Seorang pemimpin harus memiliki kemampuan manajerial; dan
5. Seorang pemimpin harus berani mengambil keputusan.

Kenapa seorang pemimpin harus kompeten, karena tanpa kompetensi dia tidak akan mampu memberikan pengarahan dan men-challenge suatu konsep secara ilmiah (bukan hanya berdasarkan power saja bo'..). Kalau pada prakteknya konsep selalu disusun tanpa arahan dan kemudian setelah jadi diubah sesuai salero bagindo, wes pasti penyusun konsep akan, kata mas Toto, mulgob alias mulia tapi goblok...:). Pemimpin dituntut tidak hanya mengerti, atau memahami suatu pengetahuan, tapi levelnya juga jauh di atas itu yaitu mempraktekkan dan mengajarkan kepada orang lain. istilah kerennya, jangan level basic practisionerlah.

Pemimpin harus memiliki visi, ini syarat mutlak karena tanpa visi dia nggak akan mampu menjelaskan kemana dia akan membawa anak buahnya pergi. Ibaratnya seorang anak diajak jalan-jalan sama Bapaknya, anaknya bertanya "Pak, kita mau kemana..?". Bapakanya bingung dan menjawab, "kita jalan-jalan menikmati pemandangan saja nak...". Pertama-tama si anak mungkin senang-senang saja. Tapi lama kelamaan si anak akan kelelahan dan tidak mampu meneruskan perjalanan lagi. Berbeda dengan seorang pemimpin yang memiliki visi, "kita akan ke Bandung dan harus sampai disana dalam waktu 4 jam". Kemudian pemimpin tersebut berdiskusi dengan si anak buah, bagaimana cara sampai ke Bandung dalam waktu 4 jama tersebut, dan kemudian menyepakati jalur mana yang akan ditempuh. Si anak buah senang karena ide-idenya untuk menempuh waktu ke Bandung dalam 4 jam diterima dan merasakan bahwa perjalanan tersebut adalah perjalanan bersama.

Prinsip, atau bahasa Inggrisnya Values, perlu dimiliki oleh seorang pemimpin dalam rangka memastikan visi yang ditetapkan dapat tercapai. Kalau tadi sudah ditetapkan ke Bandung dalam 4 jam, tetapi sang pemimpin nggak konsisten, sebentar-sebentar mampir untuk belanja atau ngopi, tujuan 4 jam tersebut nggak akan tercapai. Prinsip menjadi benteng dari ketidakkonsistenan, karena prinsip tersebut sudah embedded dalam diri sang pemimpin dan diperlihatkan dalam keseharian hidup. Prinsip bukan merupakan hal yang selalu diomongkan, tetapi sesuatu yang dipraktekkan. Jangan sampai seorang pemimpin mengatakan bahwa dia sangat mengutamakan efisiensi, kemudian dalam prakteknya banyak belanja dan sering ngopi. Prinsip atau values menjadi pilar utama karakter individu.

Pemimpin perlu memiliki kemampuan manajerial, atau at least memiliki orang yang dipercaya untuk memastikan target terselesaikan. Tapi "manakala" seorang pemimpin tidak memiliki kemampuan manajerial untuk menyelesaikan suatu pekerjaan, tetapi dia juga tidak memiliki orang yang dipercaya untuk menyelesaikan tugas tersebut, selesailah dunia. Sama aja mau ke Bandung tapi dia nggak bisa nyetir, tapi nggak ada yang dipercaya bisa nyetir. Lah nggak akan pernah berangkat. Diam di tempat, tidak bergerak. Wess pasti nggak karuan jadinya.

Kemampuan mengambil keputusan amat krusial dalam melaksanakan tugas sebagai pemimpin. Keputusan untuk pergi ke Bandung. Keputusan untuk mengajak anak buah yang mana ke Bandung. Keputusan untuk menyerahkan tugas menyetir ke Bandung ke anak buah yang mana. Keputusan untuk mengambil jalur mana. Keputusan untuk mengambil jalur alternatif sewaktu ada kemacetan di jalan. Semua membutuhkan keputusan. Kalau setiap keputusan ditunda dan diambil kalau sudah waktunya mepet, lha tujuan sampai ke Bandungnya dalam 4 jam kagak bakalan tercapai cing... mimpi kaleeee.

Ini semua murni dari pemikiran pribadi yang boleh saja berbeda dengan yang lain. Tapi kembali lagi ke awal tulisan yang penting adalah adanya kesepahaman bagaimana seharusnya seorang pemimpin tersebut perperilaku. Jangan sampai katanya seorang pemimpin, tapi nggak punya ilmunya. Katanya seorang pemimpin, tapi nggak punya visi. Katanya seorang pemimpin, tapi nggak punya prinsip. Katanya seorang pemimpin tapi nggak bisa mengatur. Katanya pemimpin, tapi nggak bisa mutus. Don't call yourself a leader my friend... cape d.

Berbeda, Forced Distribution dan Forced Ranking

Di dalam praktek penilaian kinerja, masih banyak yang mempersepsikan bahwa forced distribution dan forced ranking adalah hal yang sama. Pada kenyataannya hal tersebut adalah berbeda. Berikut adalah sari pemahaman yang diambil dari Dick Grote dalam bukunya Forced Ranking; Making Performance Management Work.

Kedua metode, forced distribution dan forced ranking, digunakan dalam suatu kondisi dimana proses penilaian tidak berjalan dengan obyektif, sehingga terjadi inflasi penilaian dimana hampir seluruh pegawai mendapatkan nilai yang tinggi. Dalam kondisi demikian, organisasi perlu menerapkan “alat” yang dapat digunakan untuk melakukan kategorisasi kinerja pegawai mengingat nilai kinerja dapat digunakan sebagai dasar proses pengelolaan pegawai lainnya.

Forced Distribusi atau terjemahan bebasnya distribusi paksa adalah suatu distribusi yang disepakati oleh organisasi untuk diterapkan pada suatu populasi, dalam hal ini untuk penilaian kinerja, untuk tujuan menyusun kategorisasi kinerja pegawai. Dengan menggunakan distribusi yang telah ditetapkan sebelumnya, penilai akan memiliki pedoman kuantitas pegawai yang akan mendapatkan nilai tertentu dibandingkan dengan jumlah pegawai dalam populasi.

Distribusi paksa adalah merupakan penilaian yang berdasarkan perbandingan absolut (absolut comparisons) antara standar yang ditetapkan dengan hasil kinerja pegawai. Dengan demikian penilai akan melakukan penilaian hasil kinerja pegawai dengan kriteria yang sudah dijadikan standar. Contoh dari distribusi yang umumnya digunakan adalah:
Distinguished 5%
Superior 20%
Good Solid Performer 50%
Needs Improvement 20%
Unsatisfactory 5%

Terdapat dua permasalahan utama yang dikemukakan oleh Grote dalam penerapan distribusi ini, pertama, distribusi yang diterapkan kurang memiliki fleksibilitas. Dalam suatu kasus dalam suatu populasi yang jumlah pegawainya 100, maka penilai tidak akan dapat memberikan nilai distinguished lebih dari 5 pegawai. Dalam penerapan distribusi di atas, yang merupakan mirroring dari bell curve, permasalahan yang terjadi adalah penilaian manusia tidak selamanya selalu sama dengan bell curve. Pertama, karena kurva ini hanya dapat diterapkan kepada populasi dengan jumlah tertentu, dan yang kedua agar implementasinnya valid maka distribusinya harus dilakukan secara acak. Padahal propulasi pegawai tidak dapat diacak misalnya penerimaan, promosi atau pengembangan pegawai dilakukan setiap kandidat yang ke 14, tetapi dilakukan secara masing-masing individu.

Untuk mengimplementasikan konsep forced distribution, Grote menyarankan adanya fleksibilitas dalam penilaian kinerja, sehingga distribusi yang ditawarkan tidak diterapkan secara rigid tetapi melalui fleksibilitas tertentu, yaitu:
Distinguished 5% maximum
Superior 20 - 30%
Good Solid Performer 50 - 60%
Needs Improvement 10 - 15%
Unsatisfactory 2 - 5%

Mengapa angka 2% disarankan, ini adalah untuk menjaga tingkat turnover pegawai dalam suatu rate tertentu setiap tahunnya.

Forced ranking adalah konsep penilaian yang menggunakan proses meranking dari seluruh pegawai dalam populasi. Berbeda dengan forced distribution yang absolut, forced ranking merupakan penilaian relatif antara satu pegawai dengan pegawai yang lainnya (person to person evaluation). Mekanisme yang dilakukan adalah melakukan perbandingan terhadap seluruh pegawai di suatu unit kerja untuk diperoleh ranking pegawai. Kemudian ranking tersebut dikelompokkan sesuai dengan skim yang ditetapkan misalnya Top 20%, Vital 70% dan Bottom 10%, sehingga apabila total jumlah pegawai adalah 100, maka akan diperoleh 20 pegawai yang dikategorikan sebagai Top, 70 orang yang dikategorikan sebagai pegawai vital dan 10 pegawai yang dikategorikan sebagai bottom.

Kedua metode sama baiknya sepanjang diterapkan secara konsisten dan filosofinya dipahami oleh pengguna. Implementasi salah satu metode ini tetap akan membawa resistensi yang dapat disebabkan oleh banyak hal. Satu hal yang paling terpenting untuk mendukung governance pelaksanaan adalah pengguna, atau pimpinan satuan kerja. Sistem dan metode hanya sebuah alat, implementasinya dikembalikan lagi kepada pengguna.

The 4 Roles of Leadership

The smooth current of business is history. Today, turbulence reigns in what Stephen R. Covey terms the "permanent white water world." Good management skills are still very important for the day to day, but navigating white water successfully must begin with effective leadership. The 4 Roles of Lead-ership delivers the tools, processes, and context to lead successfully—even in a time of turbulent change.

Leading in a White Water World. Business as usual isn't usual. Today, mergers and acquisitions, downsizing and constant restructuring grab headlines on business pages. The internet and new media are changing customer expectations. Costs and global markets fluctuate from hour to hour.

Stephen R. Covey terms this new business climate "permanent white water," and if you can't keep up, you're going to go under. Yesterday's methods just don't work in the white water world. Managers traditionally manage in the system and focus on doing things right. Leaders, however—particularly real leaders—work on the system and focus on doing the right things. The managerial role is still essential and it performs a vital function, but leadership must come first to make managing more effective.

The 4 Roles of Leadership help you identify and develop the four critical abilities of real leaders and learn how to implement those roles practically and with long-term results—without taking your eye off your day-to-day management needs.The 4 Roles of Leadership is an intensive, three-day workshop for leaders at all levels who want to significantly improve their strategic think-ing, long-term vision, and positive influence on others.

It guides you to understand the change, choices, and principles that affect your decisions and equip you with real tools. These tools give you common sense applications you can use in your teams and work groups to effect measurable improvements.

Pathfinding: Creating the BlueprintGreat leadership begins with clarity of thought and purpose.

Stephen R. Covey says that all things are created twice—that the "mental creation precedes the physical creation." You wouldn't build a home with-out a blueprint. Similarly, it's folly to rush into action without understanding your purpose. The Pathfinding role helps you create a blue-print of action and ensure that your plans have integrity— before you act. Pathfinding is the ability to blaze the path that links what you're passionate about delivering to what your customers are passionate about getting.

These four roles will enable you to lead effectively and achieve meaningful and lasting results.To do this you need to define your mission and values, and create a vision and strategy that link the two passions.The 4 Roles of Leadership helps you answer the following Pathfinding questions:

1. Who is important to us, and what matters most to them?
2. What is our purpose, and what matters most to us?
3. How will we act toward each other?
4. Where are we going?
5. What will we do to get there?
   
   

By answering these simple questions, you begin to explore your mission, values, vision, strategy, and stakeholders' needs. Once you have answered these questions, the workshop helps you apply the information.

The workshop includes the insightful Pathfinding Process and its three guiding principles— three immutable laws which you must follow for success in pathfinding. The process helps you create an organizational mission statement that won't be viewed as "framed whatever," but instead has real buy-in across all levels of the organization.

The process helps you unearth root causes and motivations that help you prescribe direction more accurately. And the process gives you the keys to develop a succinct strategy statement and a "Monday Morning Plan" of action when you return to the office.

Aligning: Creating a Technically Elegant System of Work

If pathfinding identifies a path, aligning paves it. Organizations are aligned to get the results they get. Think about that. If you are not getting the results you want, it is due to a misalignment somewhere, and no pushing, pulling, demanding, or insisting will change a misalignment. Therefore, as a leader, you must work to change your systems, processes, and structure to align them with the desired results you identified through pathfinding.

In aligning, you understand the importance of a balanced ecosystem and how to create it, beginning with answering these key questions:

1. Do we use the right processes?
2. Are people in the right structure?
3. Do we have the right people?
4. Do we get the right information?
5. Do we make decisions in the right way?
6. Do people receive the right rewards?
   

We help you turn your answers to these questions into a real action plan, using the aligning tool of the Six Rights and its two guiding principles. This unique tool helps you understand how the parts affect the whole and how your organization is currently aligned—you learn how to preempt problems and streamline your strategic initiatives using the Six Rights. The workshop gives you permanent reference materials, so you can implement the Six Rights process each time you undertake a new initiative, ensuring that your organization is aligned for success.

Empowering: Releasing the Talent, Energy, and Contribution of People"Empower-ment"— it's an overused term but underutilized in practice.

Empowering isn't abandoning people, letting them "figure it out" on their own. Nor is it allowing individuals minute freedoms while controlling other aspects. True empowerment yields high trust, productive communication between individuals and teams, and innovative results where each member of the team feels welcome to bring his or her genius to the table.

The Empowering role helps you answer the following questions:

1. How do you cultivate an environment where people can do their best and are committed?
2. What is the nature of the work being done?
3. How much responsibility and authority should people have?
4. Who does what? How? With what resources and account-ability? For what reasons?
   

You learn to create the conditions that foster and release the creativity, talent, ability, and potential that exist in people. In turn, they are better able to function in the aligned organization and follow the path you have helped to create.First, you self-assess your current leadership style. This insightful exercise helps you understand where and why you control others, if you are typically supervisory, or if you abandon others.Because the people you work with are all different, you also learn how to use Levels of Empowerment. These levels help you work with others flexibly, adapting your style to the risk of the situation and the skills and character of the person you are working with.At the workshop, you receive convenient, easy-to-use software that walks you throughthe process of creating a Win-Win Agreement, the communication tool to help you develop mutually satisfying work relationships that deliver results. You and those you work with are to develop a clear plan of action to help build accountability between people, teams, departments, even vendors and distributors, and make follow-up more measurable and relevant.

Modeling: Building Trust with Others-the Heart of Effective Leadership
The 4 Roles of Leadership does not just teach you what a leader does, but who a leader is. You will be able to answer the following questions:

1. Who would follow me?
2. Do I take responsibility?
3. Do I "walk my talk?"
4. Am I trustworthy?
   

You learn the essential balance between character and competence-an individual of high abilities will never be a true leader if his or her character is questionable. The processes and tools in The 4 Roles of Leadership enables you to get the results your organization needs while you model principles of effectiveness.

At the workshop, you receive a confidential Profile Feedback Report and Action Planning Guide. Before the course, your direct reports, peers, and supervisor will review your leadership skills in a thorough leadership survey. At the course, you receive a detailed, personalized report on these surveys that equips you with the information you need to refine your leadership skills.

Leadership for Navigating Change, Delivering Results, and Creating the Future

The 4 Roles of Leadership workshop isn't magic. It isn't flavor-of-the-month training, either. It is a real, proven path to effective leadership that takes commitment and discipline.The processes you learn can be repeatedly applied in your organization—each time you plan a new strategy or implement a new initiative. When practiced consistently, The 4 Roles of Leadership yields measurable organizational and personal success and helps transform good managers into true leaders.

"Beyond Succession Management: New Directions and Fresh Approaches"

by William J. Rothwell

A client of mine recently remarked, "So, what's new in succession management? Frankly, I think that stuff has remained unchanged for years." I looked him in the eye and replied, "You are dead wrong. It is true that there is need for fresh thinking about the topic in some quarters. But there are exciting new ideas in this field to address what we are doing, how we should do it, and why we should do it."

But, what are the challenges we face? What is needed for a succession program? Why is there the need for new approaches? And what are some new, fresh approaches to succession planning and management?

The Challenges

Everyone knows that demographic change poses a growing challenge for organizations today. About 1 in 5 senior executives in the Fortune 500 are eligible for retirement now. About 80% of the senior and middle managers in the U.S. federal government are also eligible for retirement now, and the percentages of those eligible for retirement in state, local, and municipal governments are unknown -- but are expected to be alarmingly high. One million college professors and one million public schoolteachers are also eligible for retirement. Fifty percent of all community college presidents are currently eligible for retirement. Many prospective retirees are holding on by their fingernails just long enough for the stock market to turn around so that they can afford to retire.

In all likelihood, the so-called War for Talent is shaping up to be a pitched battle when economic conditions improve. Right now, of course, many CEOs are not thinking about this problem. They are focused on making the numbers for this month, this quarter, or this year amid largely depressing -- if not depressed -- global economic conditions. But, if my view is correct, as economic conditions improve, the War for Talent will soon heat up. And many organizations are unprepared. In many cases, managers will try to hold off on finding replacements. Others will go outside and find that they face bidding wars with other firms also sourcing scarce talent. Others will look inside and realize that years of downsizing have taken their toll on internal bench strength.

A few farsighted managers see the problem coming up and are preparing for it. But those that do face an additional challenge: many HR systems are not well positioned to support a developmental culture geared to growing talent. In many cases, those HR systems are not prepared to support a Succession Planning and Management (SP & M) effort.

What Is Needed for a Succession Program?

Based on research conducted on best practices in succession programs, SP & M programs require at least:

1. A commitment to personal action on SP & M by the CEO and senior managers, and alignment with organizational strategy;
2. Competency models that provide a blueprint for high-performers now;
3. A functioning performance management system that measures individuals against the competency models;
4. Competency models for the future, which provide a blueprint for the talent needed over time as competitive conditions change;
5. Assessment methods that measure how well-prepared individuals are to assume additional, or specialized, responsibility;
6. An individual developmental planning process that helps to narrow the present gap between current competence and current performance and the future gap between future competence needed and potential; and

A measurement method that assesses how well the succession program is functioning over time, as part of an overall HR planning process.

The Need for a New Approach

The reality is that setting up all the right pieces in an HR system to support a good SP & M effort can take time. It can require a culture change of the first magnitude and can realistically take years to put into place -- years that most organizations do not have. The time may come when the CEO turns to the Senior VP of HR and says "Many of our most skilled folks are retiring soon. We are having trouble finding qualified replacements from outside, and we are weak on bench strength inside. What is your quick solution to this problem?"

Three New Approaches to Succession Management:

I. Whole Systems Transformational Change (WSTC)

One new approach to consider in the context of succession planning and management is Whole Systems Transformational Change (WSTC). A philosophy more than a how-to approach, WSTC is all about making change in corporate culture in real-time. It is a solution to the problem of creakingly slow incremental culture change, slow rollout strategies, and the inability to get the critical mass to make change happen. Whole Systems Transformational Change helps to jump-start change. And that is where it holds great promise for a succession management program that may take too long to get off the ground. It also effects corporate culture change, tests the commitment of key leaders, and encourages hands-on involvement of key stakeholders in longer-term, follow-through and follow-up thinking. As part of WSTC is the potential for a so-called Whole System Transformation Conference that allows fragmented parts of the organization to participate collaboratively in creating and integrating what is to be while acquiring a new sense of wholeness (Sullivan, Fairburn & Rothwell. 2002. The Whole System Transformation Conference. In S. Herman [Ed.]. Rewiring organizations for the networked economy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, p. 119.). In short, WSTC may hold the promise of answering a CEO's desire to solve the succession challenge fast and effectively.

II. Thinking About Managing Work Rather than Succession

Too often, managers adopt a knee-jerk reaction when they hear that they are losing experienced talent to retirement. It is just too easy for them to jump to the conclusion that they have only two choices: 1) Replace the person by recruiting from outside; or2) Promote someone from within. Of course, succession management is meant to address, and improve the bench strength and pipeline from within. But this thinking is just too narrow; there are more approaches to meeting the need than recruiting from the outside or promoting from the inside. There are a range of possible choices. The point is that the need is to get the work done, not replace a person.
There are many ways to get the work done. How many approaches can you think of? Generate a list. It is possible to eliminate the need for the work by streamlining work processes, shifting more work onto others, outsourcing the work, insourcing the work to other workers or organizational units, getting suppliers or distributors or customers to shoulder more of the burden, and numerous other approaches. How can you use this approach? Whenever a pending retirement is identified, analyze the situation and select a solution. Of course, promoting from within does remain a possibility. But it is not the only choice. There are many ways to get the work done.

III. Tapping the Retiree Base

There was a time when people who retired got a nice retirement party and a gold watch. Everyone assumed they would go out and golf or fish for the next 30 years. When they left the organization, nobody heard from them again. That kind of thinking has to change. One excellent place to look for talent is within the very group-retiring workers-who are contributing to the talent shortage in the first place. We just have to get smarter about managing the retiree base.
I am not talking about hiring people back, full-time, from retirement. Of course, that is an option. But there are many ways that retirees provide important advantages and can be used in myriad ways. Drawing on retirees to meet talent needs should be almost a no-brainer. They already know the company culture, the customer base, the work procedures, and the organization's product and service lines. They should require minimum training. They are already walking around with the organization's collective institutional memory in their heads, and that knowledge is invaluable in its own right. And they can be accessed in many ways.

Examples:

• Turn them into coaches. If the organization is forced to promote from within, and the replacement is not really ready for the job, then compensate his or her predecessor to coach the person on a mutually agreed upon schedule.
• Give them cell phones and pay them to be available for over-the-phone coaching. In this way, retirees are "on call"-but are not overburdened with needing to be available on a regular work schedule. Visualize a retiree chatting with a worker while on the golf course or in a fishing boat!
• Give them computers and let them do virtual work. Not all work requires an onsite presence. Retirees may contribute work (or a portion of it) virtually.
  There are many other ways that retirees could contribute to talent needs and skill shortages. But, to make best use of retirees, the employer must become much more active in keeping in touch with them, finding out what their skills are, what they want to do, how much they want to do, and what they want to get out of it.
  

Conclusion

Addressing the pending succession crisis is going to require creative thinking. One size will not fit all. With hope the three new approaches outlined in this article may be of use to you as part of you larger strategy to address the need to get the work done, as many experienced workers choose to retire.