The impact that good leaders have on people, performance and profits has been well documented. Indisputable evidence that these individuals are worth their weight in gold and companies cannot do without them. Right? Not necessarily, says Marius Joubert, a director of Louis Allen Southern Africa.

Companies and organisations function best when the whole is more than the sum of its parts. For this to be achieved, the management leader has to provide the indispensable business structure, instead of striving to be essential in his or her own right. “This management role of ensuring consistency, sustainability and stability is what organisations cannot do without,” says Marius.

Effective managers know that they cannot create effective balance by themselves; it has to be done within a context, or a system. Marius explains: “People who can make the most of the system in which they operate, create continuity and stability – they build a whole that is indispensable.

People are not indispensable in themselves; but people who know how to use their organisational systems are.”

Destructive behaviour

When managers strive to make themselves indispensable, constructive behaviour is an early casualty. “Such  managers tend to hoard information, maintain silos and build empires – all of which add up to artificial indispensability and a deafening noise of clashing objectives and agendas,” states Marius.

The leader who understands that his role is that of a conductor, however, shares the sheet music not only with his team but with the whole organisation. He works across divisions to break down silos and coordinates the diverse contributions from across the company. Importantly, he also adapts the resultant symphony to the audience: one customer might prefer the string section to be stronger, while another want less percussion.

“It is not individuals who are indispensable, but the system and the performance it enables and the results it yields,” summarises Marius.

It is not individuals who are indispensable, but the system …