MANILA, Philippines – Most lady executives are grappling with the challenge of finding the right leadership style.
If women demonstrate warmth and friendliness at work, they are perceived as too soft and unable to get down to business. Otherwise, they are criticized for not caring enough.
To former Accenture country managing director Beth Lui, who went through this classic dilemma, the solution was to strike a balance between the two.
Her soft-on-people-but-hard-on-results leadership style was something she developed through the years. It all started with a painful realization.
Not a people person
Lui, to put it bluntly, was a cold and insensitive boss.
How she went beyond putting work results above all else and into making a difference in people’s lives is the story she wants to share.
In the early 90’s, when Lui was just a new manager at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), she made significant headway in her career by delivering a huge development project that proved the company's capability as an offshore delivery center.
Lui had about 60 people working on the project with her, and most of them thought she was demanding, unappreciative and emotionally detached.
She was the typical bulldozer, "Type-A" boss.
All she cared about was getting the job done—even if it meant her subordinates must miss out on their personal affairs to put in extra hours in their work.
In her drive to deliver, Lui overlooked and hurt the people in her team.
"I was very much task-oriented. My only concerns then were whether my subordinates would be able to finish their deliverables on time or if they should work weekends to complete their tasks," she said.
"Did I get the job done? Yes. Was the quality good? Yes. Did I have friends? No. I was sad."
Technical to managerial
Lui joined Accenture when she was only 22.
She started as entry level programmer at the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm. She yielded years of experience as she went up the corporate ladder—from programmer to system designer, then team leader, project manager, and finally, country head.
But unlike her managerial roles which involved dealing with a lot of people, her early roles were focused only on her own deliverables.
"I was focused on what I needed to finish. You only have to really rely on yourself. If you work hard, work long hours, manage your own time, you can do your job. That was life for me then," Lui recalled.
She said that as she took on large projects, she realized it was "so much harder to manage people than just manage one’s self."
"If you're supervising a large group, you're not just thinking about your deliverables. Along the way, you need to take time to get to know each one of your team members. There's a lot of interpersonal dynamics," she shared.
She said she discovered that developing good management skills was harder than developing the technical skills that led to her promotions.
She vowed to make a change.
Evolution
She made deliberate steps to shift from push-oriented, micro-management style to an empowerment approach.
She was no longer limited by the belief that she had to think through every problem herself and have all the answers.
She learned to encourage employees to take more initiative in solving problems, guided by the principles and philosophies of the company.
"I hold regular meetings with the core group that works with me on a day to day basis. We talk about issues and how we should solve these."
"This is another evolution of my leadership. You don’t have to tell employees what to do all the time. As long as there are philosophies, principles, the employees can find their own way."
Not that she was letting up. Lui said she remained as decisive as she had always been.
"I listen. But at the end of the day, someone has to make a decision."
Apparently, in Lui's case, soft skills helped deliver hard results too.
With her at the helm, Accenture was one of the leading and biggest BPO companies in the country, employing about 16,000 people—the highest among players in the industry.
Human touch
Lui said treating employees as real human beings, not as machines or tools, makes them more engaged and productive.
"The human touch factor is very important. It doesn't always have to be a big event. It's a lot of day-to-day stuff."
"As a manager, you have the responsibility to deliver what clients ask from you without demoralizing your employees. You have to make them feel you are a team and you have a common goal."
"If you have good rapport with your subordinates, you get things done without being in an emotional rollercoaster with them. You complete projects on a friendly note."
She stressed that forging good relationship with employees must lead to improvement in the company's bottomline and not the other way around.
"You need to strike a balance."
After 31 years of service, Lui has quit her post at Accenture. She is reportedly joining the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Group.
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