Charl Viljoen: Care and Growth Leader

A platinum mine is a harsh and hard working environment. Being a mine manager who prefers to be in touch with what is happening in his mine, requires a tough, “take-no-prisoners” management style.

This way of thinking was the driver for Charl up till 2010 when he had a strong personal experience that confronted him with the question: “Is what I have done up to now as a manager what I want to be known for?” His answer was a very strong “no,” and the next morning in his management meeting he took his first step to do things differently. It was an extremely high risk thing to do: he apologised to his team for his management style!

In his mental library, and as a reborn Christian, he had the alternative style that was dormant, waiting to be utilised: Care and Growth leadership. Even though he had been on the training with Etsko, and liked what he heard at the time, it was as if he qualified the content with a “but not in my job; not in the mining environment; not now.” That is, until the evening before his new intention, which became reality with an apology to his team. This was when he upgraded to become a leader with the intent of finding legitimate power.

Features in Charl’s Care and Growth Leadership Style Part 1.

1) His overall frame of leading his people he calls the MAA-principle. This acronym stands for Means, Ability, Accountability. Essentially, it really consists of three questions he asks and answers repeatedly:

• Do the people doing their work have the means (tools) they need to do the job right?
• Do the people doing their work have the ability and knowledge to do it effectively? An important subset in this question is giving the person the understanding of “why“ he is doing what he is tasked to do
• How do I respond to them doing the work: Acknowledge? Praise? Coach? Discipline?

2) The source of this MAA-frame, its energy, and rules for implementation, came from a drastic review of Charl’s intention. The way Charl did his MAA-principle is the realization of the importance of giving (unconditionally!). Typical leadership definitions are I do-to-get interactions. I give to employees to get a result out of them. Charl turned this around and defined his job as “growing people through their work,” i.e. a giving frame of mind, demonstrated and executed through the MAA-principle. That this intention and way of working was a very high risk method of doing things, was a constant in Charl’s thinking. To mention three potential risks he was taking with every meeting and contact with the people who did the work:

• His intention to open himself up, and show that he is caring, or wants to care for the person, raised the possibility of them rejecting him as a person. Caring is an intrinsically personal thing. This is a “me” statement: this is who I am. (to make it “me”-personal, not “just the job,” and therefore the possibility of being rejected on a very personal level).
• He could fail. People might not respond to this leadership style. Not trust it. He had to step out and be there first in demonstrating trust to be trustworthy. As a certainty, he would be tested, challenged. The people have a history of “do-to-get”, and now this new style? In the mine?
• Paying the price of being perceived to be nice or cruel, rather than holding people consistently accountable. The people are a priority. They are more important than success. Through caring and making excellence possible, the job takes care of itself. The risk herein is the people who cannot (ability) or don’t want to (willingness).

3) Establishing a legitimate relationship of power.

• The more difficult behaviour to learn as part of driving the MAA-principles was to learn to give unconditionally. What is there to give? Charl mentions two of many options: to give his time, and to give understanding. A conversation, and the quality of that conversation amidst a load and rush of activities, is one form of giving unconditionally. Understanding the person and their context, would be another example. Charl took his management team to go visit the places where some of the mine workers were staying to appreciate what they deal with and why they sometimes arrive late in getting to work.
• A consistent message, both verbally and through actions, is that we are here to care for each other. Charl realised that the validity of this message, and for people to trust and “allow care into their lives” will be determined by the consistency and unconditional way this message is demonstrated.

Part 2 to follow