Country Club Management!!!!!

25th February, 2010

This is something interesting that I experienced during the Leadership lecture. I was supposed to present the Leadership Grid Styles - a topic assigned to me by our dearest Prof. Pandugala Narendar in class as part of my internal evaluations. I was explaining the Blake & Mouton Grid, which had Country Club Management as a leadership style in addition to team management, task management, middle of the road management and impoverished management.

I had put a question to the class, that apart from team management, to state a style which they find best and to justify the same. One of my classmates, Divya voted for the country club management style. Now to explain this style in detail, the leader only has concern for people and no concern for production. A leader following this style is only concerned with maintaining harmonious relations throughout the organization even at the cost of attaining results.

Divya said that it all has to start with total concern for people. Now this is not a style of leadership which management professionals would prescribe, but it got me thinking.

Being HR students, we are taught about human capital and how investing in the same can reap excellent results for employees as well as organizations. So it would all have to start with a genuine concern for people, by making them feel at home before they move on to the next level.

Team management is a concept which is the best combination of concern for people as well as production, but before moving on to this style of leadership it is of utmost importance to make people feel at home. One cannot be production centered at the beginning and all of a sudden when most of your subordinates hate to look at your face, you start showing a concern for people. It does not work out that way.

I think what Divya was trying to get at was, that you can start off with a country club management style and then move on to the team management style to reap the benefits of a long partnership based on mutual understanding.

A leader is never complete without a group of motivated and loyal followers.

Please note - The line above is not inspired by the Raymond advertisement.

Think about it!!!!!!!