Tag Archives: leadership

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Measuring Leadership

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We praise and admire the practice of leadership.  We seek out leaders and appreciate being part of a culture, organization or other group where positive and effective leadership is evident.

Yet, exactly what makes us admire and praise someone for demonstrating leadership.  Specifically what measure is used, objective, subjective or a combination.

In the case of subjective measures is there not a risk of judgemental error? That is we might classify someone as a strong and effective leader only to find out later, they really are not.

Objective Measures

Purely objective measures could provide greater confidence in our assessment of a leaders greatness.   The question remains, what are these things and how do we measure them?

I urge you to try an experiment to help answer this question.  Take some time and list the five greatest leaders you know.  There are no restrictions on this.

That is, organizational or granted power (e.g., a police chief) should not be considered.   List five leaders because you believe them to meet your definition of a leader and they stand out within the hundreds of people you might consider to be leaders.

That is, create a short list.  The next step is to write beside each name a brief explanation of the thing that makes them a great  leader and your qualification (measure) of why it is great.

I have asked many friends acquaintances and past colleagues to do this.  The result is always the same.  The selected leaders were the cause or catylst of  some accomplishment which was viewed by their selector as significant.  The measures and exact rationale for the significance varied widely.

Does anyone really know what constitutesa great leader?

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Good Leaders

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All of us rely on leaders in some way.  Like many animal species (humans are still animals after all) we form groups and somehow either through a natural or unnatural process (e. g. voting) someone assumes or is given the role (or perhaps roles in the case of multiple leaders).

Why do we need leaders?

Vision, mission, and  strategy are invaluable in all organizational situations.   From government, home, charitable to corporate and all types of organizations in between having a single point of reference to define, coordinate or facilitate the organizational road map  is only practical.

That is to say, multiple places where the buck stops has been proven experientially throughout history to be impractical. Consensus and collaberation are worthwhile ideals but ultimately even in collaberative high performing teams, the group looks to a single point.

What defines a leaders success?

Everyone has unique requirements of a leader.  This is why self awareness is such a critical skill for leaders.  Understanding what the people want, person by person is the first step.

Knowing the needs of others and facilitating their achievement is the foundational behaviour of great leaders.  Of course, there is more to it than just helping others achieve success, but also creating an understanding of what the objectives are.

Most simply put, leaders enable the achievement of success. Those that enable success the most seamlessly and where the results are most notable, are the best.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Telling Your Story

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Taking on an organizational leadership role means your prime accountability is motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal.

There are many behavioural approaches to achieving this goal.  Sucessful leaders adopt the approaches that work best for them.  This enables them to leverage behaviours which they are most comfortable with and probably best at practicing.

Nature and Nurture

There is a plethoria of studies on foundational leadership behaviour and analysis on how to best employ them.  Things like, communication, empathy, self awareness, confidence and so on.

The research continues on how much of the basic skill can be learned (nurture) and how much you are born with (nature).  There is no consensus yet but most research indicates there is some balance between natural abilty and learning.

Gaining Power

Typically, when appointed, the leader is granted power comensurate with their organizational level.  Their ultimate success will depend on the combination of granted power coupled with the power they earn following the appointment.

Earned power comes from the quality of exercise of leadership behaviours.  A key first step is getting to know your group and perhaps more importantly them getting to know you.

This leads to everyone becoming comfortable  on a personal level.  Beginning with this collegial approach begins the building of trust and respect which are the foundation of earned power.

Simply put, before embarking on the communication of strategy and objectives, specific plans and approaches, build a foundation that will support  ollaboration.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Earned Power

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From a personal perspective, the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events is the exercise of power.

Exercising power others have endowed on you through a role or title (e.g., policeman, manager, organizational leader) is more about others recognizing the authority granted to you.

This type of power is often supported by consequence or penalty if ignored.  For example, ignoring a judge could result in a fine or even imprisonmen ( contempt of court).

Granted power does have some limitations, the motivation for others behaviour is not necessarily a result of agreement but possibly fear of negative consequences.

Earned Power

The exercise of power, whether earned or granted has the same purpose.  The difference is in how the behavioural influence is initiated.

Dictorial behavior is an extreme exercise of granted power.  The person welding the power relies on obedience based on their authority.

In many ways this type of power is easier to weld.  Just do it, is the mantra.  And if you don’t, you’ll be sorry, is the threat.  Intuitively it is obvious this type of power can be the hardest to sustain over time.

Self Motivation

Earned power empathizes the value equation to motivate actions.  Those who exercise earned power create an understanding of the the results and what’s in it for you.

In brief, people follow the influence of earned power because  they want to.  As long as this desire continues, because it makes sense, the behaviour of others can be influenced and is more likely to be executed with passion.

A key attribute of good leaders is the exercise of earned power more frequently than granted.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

It’s getting better all the time

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Improvement is the act or a thing that makes something better.  This requires a change. By definition the improved state is better and so different from the starting state.

Bad to Good

A common misconception about changing for the better is the starting state was bad.  This is not necessarily the case, in fact, improvement from dire straits to an acceptable level in one step is relatively rare.

Incremental improvements or continuous improvement are both more common and better.  When the environment is at rock bottom sometimes just starting over is more practical than seeking improvement.

Consider an Olympic silver medalist attending the next Olympics and winning gold.  A silver medal is an exceptional achievement in and of itself.  Improvement to gold is a great improvement but, as noted, does not mean tbe starting point was bad.

Managing Change

At it’s core, improvement comes through change .  Whether it be internal change ( you change yourself), external to you or a combination.  Like all change, it is most effective when well planned and communicated.

In  essence, all change will have improvement as an underlying motivation.  There may be a variety of specific reasons to make a change, for example to reduce costs or increase revenue or quality,

Whatever the reason, to be executed effectively with a positive outcome,  those affected by the change must have a clear understanding of what the improvement is and why it’s of value.

Embracing Change

As we go through our lives understanding and believing in the value of change, we can lessen our natural resistance and this allows us to be part of the improvement, we become better.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Structuring for Success – Part 2

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On Wednesday I described the strata theory of organizational structure.  In summary, the workof an organization  (e.g., build a plane) can be categorized by it’s type, e.g., level 1,2,3 ……… and so on.

The type of work at each level generally goes from  long complex tasks requiring a lot of earned power to short simple tasks (i.e., level 1) based on granted power.

My earlier posts describes this in a little more detail. Today I will focus on how the model can help identify problem areas, ultimately leading to resolution. (hopefully)

Comprehension

When direct reports are doing the same kind of work, that is they are both level 3 for example, conflicts quickly arise.  Intuitively you can imagime the angst and confusion when the boss is doing what you have been assigned ( often by the boss).

Terms like micro managing or constructive dismissal can be applied to this scenario.  To solve, study the work done in your organization, based on the length and complexity of the tasks, ensure direct reports are not working at the same level.

Gaps

When someone doing level 2 type work is reporting to a boss doing level 4 work, things can be missed.  Gaps in the work flow , not unexpectedly, create challenges at the lower level of work.

Working Across Multiple Levels

For me, this is both the most common and frustrating.  In this case the resource at (for example) level three sets the direction and goals assigning them to people who work at level 1 & 2.

Unfortunately they then go and proceed to do the work.  That is the senior manager assigns projects aligned to the strategies and then goes and runs the projects alongside those assigned to do this type of work?

The project managers accountable for the work become quickly disaffected and impotent.    Most often, ultimately, they leave the organization.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Your Behaviour

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When asked how you act in response to a given situation or stimulus (i.e., your behaviour) it is probably not difficult for you to respond.  Not only can you describe your actions, but your intent as well.

Other also have an opinion about your behaviour and intent.  Your views and others, both can be subjective to a large degree and may differ.  In truth, often differ.

How are you viewed?

Perception is reality.  What others believe about your behavior is fact.  Their beliefs influence all thier interractions with you.  Your own considerations mean little.

If you are a devious liar in practice, but are viewd by others as someone trustworthy and honest, your opportunity to deceive and succeed is enormous.  This is how a “conperson” (aka conman) operates.

It has been said when truth is blurred by lies and misinformation, perception becomes reality and all is lost.  This is a real danger we all face.

Others perceptions may be founded on lies and misinformation, yet it is a very powerful driver of how they may respond to you.  Respect, trust and support can be earned but largely this must be done based on how you are percieved, rather than what you think.

I am me

The intersection of what you are and what people think you are is within your control.  Believing good sense will prevail and people will perceive your behaviour accurately is naive.

Using self awareness to understand what others think of you and then use that knowledge to shape thier perceptions to what you want them to be, is much more practical.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Cultural Behaviour Categories

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At a summary level, the types of behaviour patterns which underpin a groups culture (organization, city, country) are the comprised of the  following:

  • reactive
  • planned
  • strategic
  • innovative

The predominant style of behaviour is influenced by the leadership, whether Corporate or Political.  Multiple styles of behaviour can be in play at any given time but normally there is a default style.

What, not How

These behaviours define how the group accomplishes what they are working on.  Whether the work or activities being performed by the group are operational, support, project or consulting , the behaviour style wil  impact the outcomes.

Culture are a combination of both what is done as well as how it is done.

What works best

Projects can be worked in a reactive way, and often are.  Experience and best practice have shown a greater degree of planning tends to lead to better project results; however, this is not an absolute.

Conversley reactive behaviours are sometimes very effective in support cases where a quick response is frequently needed.  A fire is underway and needs to be extinguished, damm the torpedoes.

In general a single approach to how to get results can constrain a groups ability to perform at a high level.  Typically though an organizations culture leans toward a particular style (e.g., reactive, planned, strategic).

Open Culture

The more effective leaders recognize this and work to create an environment where all approaches are balanced, conciously.  That is before reacting, strategizing, planning or innovating there is a pause and a consideration of the best approaches or combinations thereof.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Leading Change

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Change can be good if effectively managed.  Change management is a critical skill employed to increase the probability of a successful change.

Submit and hope methods involve announcing a change and then hoping it proceeds without issue.  Changes implemented this way can work, but the risk of failure is high.

Communicate

The most important practice to ensure positive change is two way communication.  The message should be structured so what, why and how are clear.

Feedback is essential, as is responding to others ideas and comments including modifying approaches.  Successful changes require everyones participation.

Top down approach to change often leads to passive resistance.  Simply put, those affected by the change will outwardly accept it but in turn do everything they can to sabotage the result.

Plan and monitor

While ongoing two way communication is the key to success, as a practical matter, defining the approach and methodolgy (i.e., the logistics) and then monitoring the activities throughout the change is needed to allow for issue management.

The unknown and unexpected can and almost always will occur.  To avoid issues from derailing the entire change you want to identify and resolve them as they arise.

Validate the Result

Hopefully changes are not being driven based on some random whim.

The reasons for making the change (i.e., the benefits) should be freely and honestly shared (this is key to getting buy in) and those objectives need to be checked ongoing to confirm they are being achieved and allow for modifications if not.

This is the reason for making the change, after all.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Leadership Skills – CommunicationI often

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For this post I am using a narrow definition of leadership.  In this context, leaders are individuals providing guidance, direction, support and influence.

This does not necessarily need to be done from the front (a traditional view of leading) but the results need to be better than they would be without leadership.  That is the leader needs to facilitate a positive change (result).

If you aspire to lead, whether in front or from behind there are a number of skills that can assist you to be a top performer.  Of these the most important is communication.

Many of the other key leadership skills like empathy, self awareness, confidence and innovation all both support and require strong communication skills.

What to Communicate?

I often find conversations I have with others about communication often start with a focus on how.  That is things like clarity, brevity, retention, listening and so on.

For me good communication from a leaders perspective always starts with what.  Leaders influence, guide and motivate.  How you do this is key but the content trumps all.

WIFM

What’s in it for me is foundational content for any communication.  To get attention and direct behaviour toward action, most if not everyone starts with the personal motivation question?

It is all about me after all so why do I care about what you are communicating.?  Give me a reason.

This does require using self awareness, empathy and other skills to some extent to understand what is the most appropriate and grabbing content.

Top quality  communication practices are not just for leaders.  Everyone can benefit from strong communication capabilities.   More on this in future posts.