Kairology

This month, I’m looking at the common lies around leadership, and how they impact on people and business. Next month I’ll be publishing the related truths of good leadership.

The 7 Lies of Limiting Leadership by Ian A Williams

This article was published in NZ Business Magazine Jan/Feb 2010

Too many people fall short of their potential in the leadership game, and also fail to enable or enhance the leadership of others. Ian Williams provides an interesting insight into some of the barriers to great leadership. In this issue, Ian shares with us his belief about some of the common lies about leadership, and in the next issue we follow this up with his account of the seven truths.

My passion for good leadership often leads me to observe and reflect on what happens in the workplace for individuals and teams. I listen out for comments and frustrations, and have concluded that there are some common misunderstandings about leadership issues, which I have summarised as the seven lies of leadership.

1. I’m not a leader

The person who thinks they are not a leader is in denial, and has missed the point about leadership. Everyone is leading someone - whether or not they know it, recognise it or want it. Even if we are on the same level, we lead our colleagues in some respects. We may lead projects, team tasks, or even a staff outing! We also lead our children and others among our families and friends. At the very least, we leave ourselves - or at least we should! Our only limit on personal leadership is what we put in place for ourselves, or how we allow others to limit us.

2. They (or I) have been trained

The magic land of training is where organisations send people for a few days, and expect them to come back as leaders. A whole host of courses and events, or any kind of qualification, doesn’t make a leader. Training and development will inspire people, inform them, give them practice, provide experiential learning, build confidence, build competence and skills - but all of this will not produce a leader. Too often I go into organisations, and they struggle to understand why their trained leaders are not leading effectively, despite the huge investment made. No human being can be fully trained in leadership, because it comes from within, and needs to be drawn out by line managers and others who are willing to coach people and give them the space to lead. As part of one-to-one coaching, they build experience and confidence and nurture the leader.

3. There’s a personality clash

This is one of the most wonderful leadership cop outs. While personalities do clash to some extent, and ‘problem people’ do exist, the challenge is to deal with it, rather than use it as an excuse for effective leadership. Leaders are accountable for their own relationships, and the relationships around them. They need to rise to that challenge and find strategies for having people work together. Too much time and money is wasted in avoidance, and in living with the consequences of poor relationships. Get people focused back on the goals, find specific reasons to their difficulties, and facilitate finding and implementing the solutions. If necessary get some help, but making work, rather than listen to excuses.

4. They won’t step up

This is often the concern of senior managers who feel that either their people will not step up to lead, or that they fail to step up to strategic leadership from operational. The key to this one is identifying the blocks. Is it a question of won’t or can’t? Are they willing? Are they capable? Are they confident? In my experience the ‘won’t’ part of this question is the lie. If the block is about skills, abilities, and/or confidence, it falls back on the senior leader to coach. Sometimes, it’s a case of making clear to people what you see as strategic versus operational. Ironically, the most common cause for people not stepping up is senior people holding them down. They too often hold on to strategic issues for themselves, tell people what the decision is, and then wonder why everyone is frustrated! If you want to grow strategic leaders, involve them in strategic leadership.

5. Not a people person

How does anyone walk the earth and deny being a people person.  People are everywhere, and we can’t avoid them. And if we want to get anywhere with anyone, getting along with people isn’t a luxury but a necessity. So unless you’re a hermit, or you’re in denial of your leadership role, you have to get on with people. You have to employ others who do this too. If someone is described as not a people person, they need to be given the feedback and required to do something about it, in order to lead themselves and other people. The key here is identifying the specific behaviour that causes the person to think this of themselves, or for it to be attributed to them. Then they need to do some self coaching will be coached. There are three aspects to balanced leadership: task, team and individual. If the leader is not a people person, they are missing two-thirds of their job; so in fact, they are not a leader but a person who just does jobs.

6. It’s not my style

We read about and experience all sorts of leadership styles. There is no right or wrong, they are just different. Any leadership style becomes inappropriate if it is used in the wrong way, in the wrong circumstances, or at the wrong time. That is of course the essence of situational leadership. An effective leader is able to use a range of styles appropriately. They fool themselves, and everyone else suffers, when they are attached to one favourite style, come what may. You will have met the constant bully, the habitual delegator, and the absentee. Adopting just one style is simply me centred, and the leader has to listen, learn and adjust if they are to motivate people and achieve tasks. They need to model a range of styles, so that others are learning from how they operate practically. After all, what is at stake if you have a leader who is not leading effectively?

7. Know it all, done it all

We’ve all met the magic leaders who have made it! We had better sit and listen to them, and sit back while they either do it themselves or give the orders! Who are they fooling with this lie? Individuals and teams are always different. Situations, resources, tasks and circumstances are always different. No season is the same; there is no constancy but there is always change. We all bring our experience and knowledge, we bring the benefit of wisdom, but we still need a refreshing quantity and quality of ideas, and the excitement of discovering something new together. It’s this sense of contribution to creativity and synergy that keeps people engaged. No one has the monopoly on knowledge, wisdom, ideas and solutions. The know-it-all leader is living a lie and fools no one but themselves. Don’t stand for their robbery.

I hope that some of these resonate with your own experience, and that you have found some ways to overcome the lies, and to stand up for the truths. Let’s stop kidding ourselves with all the hype about leadership, and get some of the simple things sorted out for ourselves and those we influence!

Marianne Williamson’s famous quotation (from A Return to Love) goes like this:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?‘ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I can understand why they have been mistakenly attributed to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King – you could almost hear them saying this! I love these inspirational words because they apply to everyone in every situation. What stands out is the encouragement they bring, in a tough world everyone needs encouragement to use their inner and material resources to create abundant life for themselves and others. These words are an important part of my inspiration for developing leaders, and for the tools and approaches I create and use.

No great leader ever achieved great things by playing small. We all need to extend and enhance our game if we expect to make progress, as any athlete will confirm. Leadership itself, though, is huge topic. Google the word and you get 159 million possibilities! The approaches and teachings on leadership from past and present are mind-boggling, and they continue to develop and multiply. A huge industry revolves around the need for leadership skills and development, and that’s hardly surprising for two main reasons.

First, there is such a need for good leadership, and in all areas of life it seems to be shrinking in application and growing in rhetoric. Many talk the talk but fewer live out leadership in a way that does what it’s supposed to – simply take people on a journey for a purpose. And there’s a huge amount packed into that statement. How many friends, family and colleagues do you have who suffer under a ‘leader’ who treats people badly, and has a poor sense of direction and purpose? I meet them everywhere I go. It’s a tragic scene that is easily overcome with a little thought and care. We are desperate for leaders in every area of life, but rarely find them. When an outstanding business, social or political leader emerges, they are very conspicuous. The rest are in a questionable crowd.

Secondly, leadership is such a complex idea to the world. There are so many aspects and facets to it, and so many academics, authors and speakers bring their own principles, approach and checklist. So in dabbling in this area myself, and being a simple soul, I needed a model of leadership that is pure and simple, something I can carry around in my head. The best for that in my book (literally) is Professor John Adair and the Action-centred Leadership Model. I can now be an effective leader by just understand something about the balance between 3 things – Task, Team and Individual. What could be as simple and profound? The problem with making it any more complex is that leaders always feel there’s so much more to learn, and feel constantly defeated by that challenge. They are constantly caught in the blinding headlights of what they are perhaps not doing, rather than bringing simple focus to a task with the right people.

So what has this to do with Kairology? The word Kairos means the right time for intervention or change. So I have simply used the playing cards framework to create 52 simple tools and approaches that I feel are important for good leadership. That doesn’t mean using all 52 cards at once – otherwise it wouldn’t be simple. It means looking at the cards and selecting what you need to work on in order to improve your personal leadership. It means being selective and purposeful, guided by your own instincts and by feedback from others. I also encourage people to select cards at random, and see what happens when they work through it.

The Kairology Cards are intended to challenge, guide and inspire – rather than be yet another text book or checklist. I believe there is no checklist for leadership. There is you, there is a job to do, and there are people to help you. That’s it! So I have attempted to provide a framework for thinking to help leaders do just that. The simple challenge is to play your cards right – to select and use them creatively for your own development and growth.

Have a ball with this, but also take it seriously. Your achievements and the people around you depend on it. Find your passion for people and challenges that bring diamond results. It may be cards-based but you don’t need to gamble with your leadership skills. However, leadership does involve courage and risk-taking, and building a deck that will stand or fall based on a heap of variables. Get yourself a good deal, a good partner or team for the game, clear strategies and tactics, and go for the win. Leadership is not a game of chance, but a game of skill in which you bring the courage to shine your light powerfully.

Order the Kairology Leadership bundle today.

Introduction by Ian Williams

This CIPD article is well worth a read. Once again it reinforces that developing and supporting leaders is crucial for survival and growth in a difficult business climate. We all consider the ‘employee engagement’ issues, but the another concept I was reminded of here is ‘discretionary effort’ – the extra mile we need to get from people every day when we’re up against the big challenges.

Another important aspect of survival is going beyond survival mode into visionary work, in order to inspire and motivate everyone towards future thinking – beyond present worries and distractions. We’re encouraged here to check out the difference between straplines and core values – are they consistent?

Great stuff for inspiration here!

Ian

Proof positive by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones

Good leadership can help to ensure that the recession doesn’t turn organisations into miserable, creativity-sapping places to be.

As we struggle through the most serious economic crisis since 1929, it’s clear that we do not yet know what the business landscape will look like when we do finally emerge from the recession. What we do know, however, is that leadership is more important than ever and organisations that are well led have much more chance of surviving these turbulent times. This is not the occasion to take your eye off critical processes of leadership development – and smart organisations know this.

Perhaps the most significant contribution of good leadership is the provision of meaning and purpose. As the great – and sadly departed – American writer Studs Terkel famously observed: “Work is about daily meaning as well as daily bread; for recognition as well as cash; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday-through-Friday sort of dying. We have a right to ask of work that it include meaning, recognition, astonishment and life.”

If we are not careful in this downturn, poorly led organisations will become miserable places to be. Creativity and innovation are inextricably linked to energy, edge and fun, but the processes of organisational attrition are in danger of crushing the creative spirit that is essential to drive us out of the current malaise. In the knowledge economy, critical to the future of Western Europe, the challenge is not to follow tradition and attempt to “get more” from your clever employees.

Open any conventional management textbook on organisational behaviour and you will see an obsession with extracting more value from recalcitrant workers through the latest fashionable techniques of “motivation”, “engagement”, pursuit of “discretionary effort” and so on. Our view is almost the opposite - the task is to make organisations more attractive to your already valuable, clever people. So often while researching our new book, Clever – Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People, we have observed talented individuals being turned off by bureaucratic process, by internal politics and - above all – by inadequate leadership.

So what are the essential ingredients of successful leadership in these troubled times? And what are the implications for HR professionals?

The conventional wisdom has it that in uncertain times the role of the leader is to provide certainty but our observations of leaders suggest that the most effective offer not the illusion of certainty but the promise of constant change and adaptability. Leaders cannot see the future but they can and must communicate a compelling picture of what the future might look like. It is an over-used concept but vision remains important. The leader must communicate what the organisation stands for, what its purpose is and which values give it coherence. It is when organisations are in difficulties that their true commitment to core values can be most severely tested. In a world awash with information overload, the leader’s visionary voice must be distinctive in order to excite others to exceptional performance.

Barack Obama exhibited exactly that quality of exceptional communication skills in convincing the American electorate that, despite the turmoil, change was possible. He repeatedly resisted the temptation to engage in dirty politics – first with Hillary Clinton and subsequently with John McCain. As organisations contract and inevitably become more political there is a lesson here for business leaders. They must on the one hand understand the political manoeuvring and on the other they must remain - and be seen to remain - above it. It is clear that in his first 100 days as US president, Obama acknowledged problems rather than attempted to deny them.

One preliminary conclusion from these observations is that in turbulent times steadfastness is a leadership virtue. Not in the sense of having a fixed view of what will happen next, but by being true to a set of core values. A naïve reading of this point would suggest that all the leader has to do is to be their authentic self. But that’s not enough. Change will require that they play different roles in different contexts. Effective leadership involves a complex balancing act between using your authentic differences and adapting your behaviours to context. Being authentic is not about being the same all the time. The most effective leaders are authentic chameleons. The chameleon always adapts to context but remains a chameleon.

Effective leadership in these difficult times requires managing a series of inspirational tensions. Three are especially significant in a downturn.

First, since leadership is always contextual - leading in a pharmaceutical company is different from leading in a shipyard – the ability to read and adapt to context is vital. Effective leaders have a real sense of “what’s going on” – they keep one ear firmly to the ground. Remember the old fad of “managing by walking around”- it contained one great truth. You need to be in a position to collect soft data, to know what’s going on before the management information system tells you.

In the current economic climate business leaders are being tested not only by their ability to know what is going on – but also by their capacity to articulate meaning; to make sense of the situation. Andrew Higginson, chairman of Tesco Personal Finance, believes that the unpopularity of the retail banks represents a significant opportunity for the retailer to further apply its popular brand to the financial services business. And the flamboyant boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, welcomes the recession. In his view it will kill off poor operators and show what a great business Ryanair really is.

Both of these examples demonstrate that the challenge for leaders is to both read context and rewrite it. In difficult times the danger is that our business leaders become entirely trapped by circumstance. The leadership skill is to not merely react but to proactively and constructively reshape.

Second, it’s obvious that right now strong task focus may be a prerequisite of survival. Leaders will be energetically focused on hard-nosed, tough prioritisation – including cutbacks and cost control – but this should not be at the expense of team or organisational cohesion. If people must leave, they must leave with dignity. Recessions are not an excuse to be nasty. Nor a time to throw away the cultural characteristics which hold organisations together and make some of them special. BMW, for instance, along with many other automobile manufacturers, faces very difficult times. But the task of the leadership is not to lose the passion for great motor cars that characterises the organisation. They must go on believing in and articulating “the ultimate driving experience” – not a strapline but a core value.

Third, it is inevitable that sensing situations and building team cohesion will require social closeness; a degree of intimacy and identification between leaders and followers. A sense that “we are all in this together”. The criticism attracted by some senior business leaders stems from the view that they continue to pay themselves bonuses while others suffer. But “strong identification with the troops” should not limit the ability of leaders to step back and see the bigger picture – indeed, paradoxically, this is a key situation-sensing skill. They will need to make tough decisions and social closeness cannot get in the way.

Leadership is never easy – nor recipe driven. But right now we need it more than ever. As we have argued, it necessarily involves several tensions. Don’t claim to know the future – but articulate a vision. Understand the politics – but remain above them. Respond fast to situational demands – but act to reshape them. Focus relentlessly on task – but build team cohesion. Identify with your followers – but be prepared to be distant. Be your authentic self – but recognise that you have different, and difficult, roles to play.

So what does this all add up to for HR? First, and most immediately, the current turbulence must be seen as an opportunity to provide “crucibles of experience” (to quote US leadership guru Warren Bennis) for existing and potential leaders. Second, we should avoid the trap of assuming that in uncertain times, the only motive is the search for security. There is a mountain of evidence that for some members of your team this is a wonderful opportunity for risk-taking autonomy and personal development. Third, in these difficult times of headcount reduction and cost control, don’t become the Department of Misery. It is vital to keep your eye on the longer-term strategic people issues of your organisation.

Lastly, the biggest long-term challenge for UK plc is likely to be a talent drain as our best and brightest reassess their options in a low growth, high debt economy. Collectively, the UK HR community faces a creative challenge to make sure this doesn’t happen.

HR top tips

• Concentrate on making your organisation attractive to value-creating people
• Prepare people for change
• Don’t be the nasty department
• Hold things together by focusing on the values
• Guard against negative politics

About the authors

Rob Goffee is professor of organisational behaviour at London Business School. Gareth Jones is a fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and a visiting professor at IE Business School in Madrid. They are the co-authors of Clever – Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People (Harvard Business School Press, forthcoming) and Why Should Anyone be Led by You? (HBSP, 2006).

Publication date: 18 June 2009

Source: People Management magazine (UK)

Introduction by Ian Williams

I was recently reading a book by Abbot Christopher Jamison regarding the ancient virtues that provided a platform for modern values and laws. Sometimes we need to look at the what is negative and works against us, in order to recognise what kinds of things we should be doing that work in our favour, or in other words turn a sin into a virtue!

The Seven Deadly Sins of lifestyle in ancient times were described as: Pride, Anger, Envy, Sloth, Greed, Lust and Gluttony. Perhaps we can recognise how they are still at the root of our problems! The positive comes from establishing values and virtues that counteract these negatives – turning what works against us into what works for us in building positive relationships and getting the right results. For example, switching leadership from pride to humility is a great one!

Mary Gorski highlights eight deadly sins of leadership in the following article. The challenge for us as leaders is to look at what we do to turn these negatives to positives in our own lives and organisations. I’m amazed in my work in organisations how underused evaluation is in relation to people and tasks – and that limits efficiency and effectiveness.

If you run out of ideas for righting some wrongs, or need some great solutions, contact me!

Ian

Eight Deadly Sins Of Leadership by Mary Gorski

What has happened to enthusiasm in the workplace? For many employees, it has seemingly disappeared. They gripe and mutter about their frustrations at work. You hear them complain about managers - and to be fair, managers complain about them. Both complain about the company.

In many businesses, everything seems out of whack. The company has one agenda, the worker has another and the manager can’t mesh the two. Core competencies fail to support the company vision. Worse, company policies and procedures impair efficiency rather than help get the work done in a timely manner. Everyone but the worker doing the job defines the way it should be done and quality improvement means doing faster rather than doing less more profitably.

Sadly, many companies today operate in an atmosphere of distrust where corporate loyalty no longer exists, not to mention “fun” on the job.

“What’s going wrong” is the million-dollar question. For the answer, we can turn to a boatload of self-help books that tell us how to do things right. But sometimes learning what can go wrong so we can determine how to avoid these problems is just as valuable.

Beginning with five people-management transgressions, here are eight deadly sins of leadership for your consideration:

1) Assuming your employees know the company’s objectives and purpose.

You have a vision and a great plan in place. Now who will implement it? Even the best plan is worthless if it’s misunderstood or your employees - at all levels - fail to embrace it. After all, your workforce powers your plan. For success, integrate your strategic workforce planning into your business planning.

2) Approaching selection and hiring in a haphazard manner.

Hiring employees in a haphazard manner is like drawing to an inside straight in poker. Odds are you’ll lose. Statistics show you will hire a less-than-stellar worker 86 percent of the time if you use poor hiring practices. Worse, without careful hiring practices, you could get sued.

If you want your odds to improve, use pre-employment screening. Although rigorous interviews and background checks can help you form an accurate picture of past behavior, pre-employment screening is a better predictor of future behavior. It assesses attitudes toward integrity, substance abuse, reliability and work ethic.

3) Not training your employees.

Training to ensure that your employees have the right knowledge and skills to get the job done are fundamental to a company’s continued efficient and profitable performance. Yet some companies overlook training, often because of the expense.

It’s true that training costs money. But failing to develop your people’s talents, costs more money.

If you truly believe your employees are your number one asset, give them the training they need to do their jobs. Think of creative ways to develop employees so they grow, and stay on the job and with your company. Leadership training is also essential and one needs to consider the wide variety of management training tools that are available.

4) Failing to provide appropriate feedback. We’ve talked before about engaging employees, and how important communication and appropriate feedback is to helping engaged employees stay that way.

Unfortunately companies and their employees often disagree about the effectiveness of feedback in their companies. In a recent Salary.com study of 2,000 employees and 330 HR professionals, two thirds of companies believe their performance reviews are effective while only 39 percent of employees agree.

Make sure you and your employees see eye to eye on the effectiveness of your evaluation processes. Giving meaningful, constructive feedback through performance reviews and conversations during the course of daily activities boosts employee engagement and performance, and their career development.

5) Treating employees as a commodity.

Any company that has experienced the high cost of employee turnover understands its toll: replacement costs, loss of productivity and decreased morale. Treat employees like a commodity and they will respond in kind: They’ll leave as soon as possible for the next best offer.

Your bonus: three business management sins

So there you have them: five deadly “people” leadership sins. Now here, as a bonus, are three business management mistakes:

6) Failing to evaluate and measure.

It’s easy to fall into the “business-as-usual” habit - that is, performing tasks by rote or doing things the same way simply because that is the way we have always done them.

Yet rarely, can we meet changing customer needs by doing “business as usual”.

To avoid this trap, continually assess your business’ activities. Are they necessary and relevant? Track them to determine their effectiveness and efficiency. Further, if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.

7) Assuming you are doing a good job and your customers are happy.

Are your customers happy? Have you asked? Assuming customer satisfaction simply because you have had no complaints, will most likely give you a false sense of security.

Use mechanisms to encourage customer feedback. Carefully listen to and act on that feedback.

8) Not marketing.

Marketing and its related disciplines, public relations, research and advertising, identify new markets, communicate to prospects and clients, and establish your brand and message. In other words, marketing works hand-in-hand with sales.

Unfortunately, many companies do not understand this marketing and sales relationship.

Failure to pursue marketing strategies handicaps your ability to compete. Even if you have an excellent sales force, you should actively market your business.

Feedback and responding to it are keys to correcting leadership Ills

Do any of these “deadly sins” look familiar? Have you seen them in your company?

If so, it’s probably time to “regroup”. Your company’s success depends upon effective leadership. But how in the world do you get effective leadership where it’s lacking today?

It’s not as tough as you might think. Correcting leadership ills begins with simply identifying what they are, and you’ll find leadership tools to help with that process in the marketplace. One of the most powerful being the 360 degree performance evaluation feedback system

With these tools, you can provide your leaders with feedback from people who observe their performance - their supervisors, employees and peers. The objective is to gather specific, job-related information they can use to make positive changes. And then, with the self-knowledge they gain from his feedback, they can:

• Improve their performance.
• Identify training needs.
• Improve their leadership, goal setting, interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Increase their leadership accountability.

Of course, your leaders must be open to this feedback and willing to respond positively. Given this willingness, however, feedback tools can positively impact their individual growth and your organization’s success.

To prosper - even survive - companies must constantly rethink the way they do things. Begin your own evaluation process soon. Then turn the above deadly sins into positive action to leverage your new leadership practices.

You’ll soon discover a new, enthusiastic workplace. Your people will have fun on the job again. They’ll like what they do and do it well. Corporate loyalty will return and so will rising profits.

—

Mary Gorski has more than 15 years of corporate human resource management and assessment experience. She has worked with many levels of leadership and understands the needs of a well-run, efficient business. At the same time she understands the human factor and what motivates people to maximum performance and efficiency.

Using her experience and tools from Profiles International, Mary works with business owners to identify their people talent and help them understand how their workers drive results. She begins with diagnosis, and then designs a plan for improving workforce effectiveness. As a result of her assistance, businesses profit from a more motivated, engaged and productive workforce.

Visit her Web site at http://www.mgassessments.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Gorski

This month I have selected three articles which have a theme around personal style in relation to others. If as leaders we want to get the best from people, we have to value them. That means ensuring they feel included, that their confidence and skills are being built, and that we lead others as we would like to be led ourselves. Leadership comes from position, knowledge and character, and we should be prepared as leaders to demonstrate all three. That includes being attractive and likeable – I know firsthand that people leave leaders, not organisations. Don’t be shy of wanting to be liked! Why else would people want to be around you?

Keep watching Kairology.com for a range of articles on these personal values and leadership styles.

Ian Williams caught up with Shelley Holmes at www.align-lead-inspire.com.

Whether you want to accelerate your personal development, improve working relationships, develop your team or improve the culture of your organization you’ve just tapped into materials that have the power to ignite you, your people, fast-track your career and still get home at a decent hour!

The website is really worth a look - and to give you a taste of what they offer, you can listen to Ian William’s interview online at kairology.com. In this interview Ian discusses the philosophy behind his new book as well as taking control of your life and your workplace.

Download Align-Lead-Inspire Interview (mp3 19m / approx 4m download) [alternate download]