Praxis Management Ltd.

‘Values-Based’ leadership will increase productivity by a factor of 4. These writings are dedicated to helping leaders understand and implement a management style, good for people and profits.

My intention is to bring together my collected work over the last 30 years and place it in the public domain, making available not only my attempts at writing but the training and presentation material I have collected and created, free for anyone to use.

Thirty years is an interesting time span. Henry Drucker, the father of scientific management, shortly before his death reflected that his most important insights into management and leadership would not be recognized and implemented until at-least thirty years after his death.

I too experience resistance from leaders to reflect on insights which could benefit them greatly. Although I will refer to companies and profits the lessons are valid for all sectors. In fact they should be easier and quicker to apply in a cause related organization. One reason why corporate leaders resist a change to a more profitable leadership style is time. If you can’t demonstrate results in 2 quarters, that is a six month reporting period, then its too long. This short termism is a result of shareholder pressure and poor governance, which should not affect other sectors.

I am toying with calling the collected work Purpose = Productivity x 4 which is a reference to the greatest of insights. This insight enables companies to multiply their profits by four.

Now, what leader would fail to use a method that could have such an impact upon their profits? Well, the answer is that 86% of corporate leaders in the UK turn a blind eye to this insight.

Has the information been placed before them?
In 2001, a little known paper Full and Fulfilling Employment signed by four senior cabinet ministers and supported by grant funding introduced evidence to the management community.

The evidence showed that companies, who adopt the process of “values-based leadership”, achieved a return on shares four times greater than the average of the all share index. In other words, companies who employed the methods of “values-based leadership”, were four times more productive and profitability.

But, why do less than 14% of UK companies use this style of leadership?

Maybe the management guru and wit Charles Handy had it right when he said British Management was so badly infected with inertia that change would only come about when the current generations of leaders saw their own coffins going down the street.

I will attempt to explain as clearly and as briefly as possible the fundamental components of “values-based leadership”, not so much in the hope that it will be implemented, but to record what I have learnt, so that leaders can’t say they have not been shown a better way.

In the next posting you will find a route map, essentially a diagram that explains the “ Logic of Values’ and sign posts the management tools required at each stage.