Category Archives: Developing as a leader

Leadership: more than skin deep (4 of 5)

Developing as a leader

What does it take to bridge the gap between theory and practice?

Clarify desired outcomes: For organisations in which there is a commitment to bridge the gap between theory and practice, holding a clear intention to understand what differentiates the most outstanding leaders and to develop leadership across your organisation in line with these findings is a common starting point. This implies understanding leadership theory and its implications for your organisation.

Start from where you are: Whether we are talking about individuals or organisations, the kind of leadership described by researchers becomes possible when we go beyond surface behaviours to adopt and practise values, beliefs, thoughts and behaviours that are aligned both with the theory of leadership and with who we are. This takes a clear intention and plenty of time, planning steps which take account of where you’re starting from.

Take action in every area of current practice: At an organisational level, successfully bridging the gap between your current practice and your aspirations for the future permeates every aspect of your current practice, from recruiting people who have the clear potential to develop in line with your chosen leadership approach, through creating a climate which supports leaders in their development to providing the support leaders need for their learning. Looking at developing leadership in this holistic (“whole organisation”) way can make the difference between a temporary shift in leadership style and an ongoing and sustained progression across the organisation.

Take account of the needs of the learner: The initiatives organisations commission need to take account the reality of learning for individual leaders, including their most talented individuals. This learning can stimulate a great deal of emotion for people who may not be well schooled in acknowledging or managing their emotions. At the same time, being present to their emotional and other responses is an important part of the learning journey for men and women in leadership roles. Refusing to be present to the challenges that face them on their learning journey (including the inner voices, often known as “gremlins”, that tell them not to make changes) can keep even the most talented individuals “stuck”.

Choose your partners wisely: If you’re serious about bridging the gap between leadership theory and practice, you will choose your partners wisely. These may include recruitment consultants, leadership trainers, executive coaches and more. Especially when it comes to your partners in learning it is not enough to brief them on your aspirations: your partners (trainers, coaches etc.) need to embody the learning you aspire to for leaders across your organisation. As well as choosing your partners with care, you need to reach clear agreements with each partner. The agreements you reach are in themselves an embodiment of the approach you aspire to as well as providing the foundations for a working partnership which successfully supports you in making progress towards your goals.

Leadership: more than skin deep (3 of 5)

Developing as a leader

Leadership development: up close and personal

Early in her life, Susan’s* mother told her “if you want to succeed in your career, you need to outshine all the men around you”. Throughout her career, Susan took care to measure herself against her male peers and to be sure to surpass them in a number of areas of performance.

Susan’s drive and determination made her an asset to her employing organisation and she was rapidly promoted to a senior level. At the same time, her intense effort often exceeded the level of investment needed to achieve her goals and she started to suffer from exhaustion. What’s more, Susan’s leadership style was such that even her most senior staff depended on her for answers to the team’s most significant questions. Susan often felt anxious about taking a break, knowing that her staff depended on her so much. She was also unaware that, by positioning herself as the ultimate source of answers, she was limiting the team’s performance in line with her own limitations.

It took the curiosity, compassion and insight of her doctor to help Susan to identify the link between her behaviours as a leader and her mother’s early advice. Listening to her doctor’s questions, Susan was immediately able to understand that yes, there was a link. Something was driving her behaviour of which she had previously been unaware. At the same time, understanding the link was only the beginning: it was the help of a skilled Executive Coach that enabled Susan to adjust her values and beliefs to support a new leadership approach.

John* joined his organisation from school and worked his way up the career ladder. By the time he was eligible to participate in his employer’s leadership development programme he was already well schooled in the official and unofficial rules of the business.

John came away from the programme with a clear understanding of the impact across the organisation of a largely coercive and pacesetting style of leadership. Leaders exemplified excellence and expected others to emulate them. They often gave orders and rarely took the time to get to know their employees, seek their views and opinions or provide feedback and coaching support. During a period of rapid growth, there had been some benefits to this approach. However, John recognised its limitations and decided to develop his repertoire of styles to provide a clear vision for the future and coaching support for his staff.

Back at work, John found the reality of this journey far more challenging than the theory. He recognised that there was a gap at times between his aspiration and his practice (or “theory in use”). Even when he was seeking to provide coaching support, his direct reports were wary at times, accustomed to his former style and lacking trust in the changes he was beginning to make. The fact that he was learning and his coaching style was inconsistent contributed to the unease of staff members.

What’s more, John was under pressure from his own line manager to push for business results which he thought were unrealistic in a challenging business climate. After a while, John used his learning to begin a search for a new employing organisation in which the predominant leadership style was more closely aligned to his aspirations as a leader.

Susan and John’s stories illustrate both the deeply personal nature of leadership development and the challenges of adapting your leadership style in an organisation. Together, these examples begin to point the way to the steps organisations need to take if they’re serious about bridging the gap between leadership theory and the day-to-day practices of leaders in their organisations.

*Susan and John are fictional characters designed to illustrate the nature of leadership development. Any likeness with specific individuals is unintended.

Leadership: more than skin deep (2 of 5)

Developing as a leader

Given the clarity of the theory, why does so much leadership development fail to “hit the spot”?

From parenting, via education to leadership, it’s rare for people and organisations to dig beneath the surface and identify a fundamental and integrated set of beliefs, values, thoughts and behaviours to which they make an ongoing commitment. Many efforts to develop leaders are not rooted in a clear understanding of research findings and may even be rooted in beliefs and behaviours which are in some way internally inconsistent. No wonder then, that many attempts to support leaders in their development fail to hit the spot! This is about the foundations which underpin leadership development programmes and other interventions.

Why isn’t this gap obvious to those who commission leadership development programmes or participate in them? One reason is that many programmes are limited in their scope so that participants never identify the inconsistencies within a programme. As well as the failure to identify a fundamental and coherent leadership philosophy, limitations also include training at a behavioural level only and failing to provide sustained support to leaders’ development over time.

Perhaps the most significant reason why so much of leadership development fails to hit the spot is because the parties involved – from commissioning clients, their partners in leadership development and the leaders themselves – fail to voice and acknowledge one of the fundamental truths of leadership development: that developing as a leader is deeply personal and involves exploring personal values, beliefs and behaviours. This can mean that development programmes are designed without taking into account the nature of the journey and what it takes to support participants as they learn.

Leadership: more than skin deep (1 of 5)

Developing as a leader,

My newsletter went out last week and I decided to share the article I wrote here on my blog in chunks – this is my first chunk.

Given the abundance of research into what differentiates the most outstanding leaders, why does leadership practice fall so far short of the theory? And what are the implications for organisations as they plan for the development of their leaders?

Outstanding leadership: what does the theory tell us?

In 1960, Douglas McGregor proposed a simple theory of leadership, in his book The Human Side of Enterprise, which has become commonly known as the XY Theory. According to his theory, leaders fall broadly into two types. The X-type manager believes that staff dislike work and will avoid it if they can, relying on the threat of punishment to compel staff to work. The Y-type leader believes that effort in work is as natural as work and play and trusts staff to apply self-direction in pursuit of organisational goals. Both types of leader, according to McGregor’s theory are “right”: their beliefs predict the behaviour of staff over time.

More recently, Daniel Goleman has shared a view of effective leadership in his book The New Leaders which outlines a range of leadership styles which the most effective leaders are able to draw on to meet the needs of the situation. Goleman and his co-authors draw on rigorous academic research which has been widely tested in organisations.

These are just two models of effective leadership amongst many and have in common an underlying belief that people are self-motivated and can be relied on, with the right support, to draw on their own resources to work effectively. This is a theme which Daniel Pink has explored, drawing on research findings, in his recently published book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

The essence of leadership

Developing as a leader,

Recently author, marketeer, blogger and all round “good bloke” Seth Godin wrote about Finding Your Brand Essence on his blog. His comments, which I capture below (with amendments to the formatting and a typo or two removed) resonated with me:

I got an email from someone who had hired a consulting firm to help his company find their true brand selves. They failed. He failed. He asked me if I could recommend a better one. My answer: The problem isn’t the consultant, it’s the fact that if you have to search for a brand essence, you’re unlikely to find one. Standing for something means giving up a lot of other things, and opening yourself to criticism. Most people in the financial services industry (or any industry, actually) aren’t willing to do that, which is why there are so few Charles Schwabs in the world. First, decide it’s okay to fail and to make a ruckus while failing. THEN go searching for the way to capture that energy and share it with the world. Clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the man. Clothes (and the brand) just amplify that.

I shared them with Lynne and Kathy – my coaching team. Kathy recommended Godin’s book Linchpin and I added it straight away to my Amazon wishlist. Lynne wrote (which also resonated with me):

What popped in my mind is Wayne Dyer’s revelation that “you aren’t in charge of your own reputation.” And the subsequent freedom of that. People are going to think what they think, based largely on a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t control, like their own experiences and perspectives and filters. What counts is that you find the solidity of the truth within you, and stand on it and for it, no matter what anybody else thinks. There’s never a crowd on the leading edge.

Reading both Seth’s and Lynne’s words I am struck by the implications of their words. To me, they suggest we are all leaders and we get to choose what leadership messages we share. It’s not that everyone will follow – and still, we lead.

Essential resources for leaders: understanding the theory

Developing as a leader, ,

What does the theory tell us about leadership? At least some of the research suggests that people are most motivated when they draw on their inner resources and that the best leaders understand this. The following recommendations provide more information about the research, together with a DVD to illustrate what this looks like in practice.

The Human Side of Enterprise
Douglas McGregor

McGregor’s XY Theory addresses one the most fundamental question leaders have to answer: are people self-motivated or do they need to be incentivised with “carrot and stick”? And what outcomes accrue from either approach?

The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee

The New Leaders is also rooted in research, describing a range of leadership styles which are used by the most effective leaders and highlighting those styles that are most likely to predict outstanding performance. Whilst this research is quite distinct (as far as I know) from McGregor’s own theory its findings are consistent with the XY Theory.

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes
Alfie Kohn

If you want to understand why the XY Theory works you need look no further than Alfie Kohn’s comprehensive review of research into human motivation. This highlights the fundamental truth that people are intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated and describes the impact – as demonstrated by science – of seeking to use the carrot or stick to motivate.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Daniel H. Pink

The question of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation has also been reprised by Daniel Pink in this book. You can also see Pink talking on this subject at http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html.

Twelve O’Clock High (film)

If you can get past the war-time subject matter and the grainy black and white film, Twelve O’Clock High illustrates the predictive power of leadership – for better or for worse. If you like, this is what McGregor’s XY Theory looks like in practice.

Leadership: taking stock of your approach as a leader

Developing as a leader

As I write I am dotting ‘i’s’ and crossing ‘t’s’ before sending out my newsletter with its main article Leadership: more than skin deep.

In this posting I offer some questions for individual leaders who want to take stock of their leadership approach. These questions mirror the questions I have shared for CEOs and HR professionals who are taking a whole organisation view of leadership development. They reflect beliefs I share below:

  • The quality of leadership you display is a significant factor in your effectiveness and contributes to the effectiveness of your staff. To what extent do you have clear and concrete aspirations as a leader? To what extent do you understand the values, beliefs, thoughts and behaviours that characterise your desired approach to leadership? To what extent are you ready to see your leadership style(s) as a matter of choice?
  • If you want to be effective as a leader you need to understand how different approaches work in practice. If you like, you need to understand the difference between your intentions as a leader and how people respond in practice. To what extent have you tested your aspirations against leadership research? What books have you read, for example, and how many of them are rooted in academic research? What courses and other events have you participated in and what are their underpinning foundations?
  • Developing your leadership requires you both to develop clear aspirations and to know where you are starting from at any particular point in time. What means do you have of assessing your current approach? When did you last go through a 360 degree assessment, for example? What means do you have of getting clear, specific and honest feedback from those you lead?
  • The effectiveness of your leadership reflects multiple factors. These include the fit between you and your job and the culture and climate you work in, as well as your own effectiveness as a leader. To what extent are you taking account of all the factors that effect you as you shape your leadership approach? To what extent are you able to adapt your leadership approach to meet the needs of your current situation? To what extent are you able to differentiate between what you bring and what is beyond your control?
  • Learning is deeply personal, requiring a willingness on your part to reflect on your leadership practice, to gain new insights and to adjust your approach. This learning can stimulate deep emotions and leave you feeling deeply vulnerable. To what extent are you willing to embrace the personal nature of this learning in order to develop as a leader? To what extent are you willing to “go deep”?
  • Leadership development requires skilled partners. What support do you need (and to what extent do you have it) at this current stage in your learning and development? What additional support do you need at this time?

I wonder, what additional questions would you add to this list? And if you would like to learn more about my own work with leaders, have a browse on this blog or contact me directly (at dorothy@learningforlifeconsulting.co.uk) to arrange to meet.

Leadership: questions for you and your organisation

Developing as a leader

As I write I am putting the finishing touches to my newsletter, with its main article Leadership: more than skin deep. I wrote about this article yesterday on my blog.

It occurs to me to offer some questions for readers who are taking a whole organisation view of leadership development – you are the CEOs and HR Directors of the corporate world. These questions reflect beliefs which I share below:

  • The quality of leadership in your organisation is critical to its success. To what extent do you have clear and concrete aspirations for leadership in your organisation? To what extent do you understand the values, beliefs, thoughts and behaviours that characterise your desired approach to leadership?
  • It makes sense to invest in approaches to leadership which have been proven elsewhere. To what extent have your aspirations been tested against leadership research? Have you, for example, reviewed leadership research findings so that you can reliably predict the outcomes from your chosen approach? Have you conducted research in your own organisation to determine what leads to success?
  • Effective approaches to leadership development take account of where you are starting from. What investment have you made in assessing the size and nature of the gap(s) between your current and desired leadership approach? How do your resource commitments (time, money etc.) stack up against your findings?
  • A well-planned leadership development approach recognises that the quality of leadership in your organisation reflects multiple inputs, including organisational and job design, leadership recruitment, performance management and training and development. To what extent do your plans for leadership development reflect all the areas that contribute to leadership effectiveness? To what extent do your plans reflect a true understanding of where your organisation is starting from and what initiatives will best support your progress?
  • Learning to lead is deeply personal, requiring a willingness on the part of the individual to reflect on his or her practice, to gain new insights and to adjust his or her approach. This learning can stimulate deep emotions and leave leaders feeling deeply vulnerable. To what extent have you taken account of the nature of learning in designing approaches to leadership development? To what extent does your organisational culture and climate support leaders in their learning?
  • Leadership development requires skilled partners. How are you choosing your partners (recruitment consultants, trainers, consultants etc.) as an organisation to support you in making progress towards your aspirations as an organisation? How are you assessing their ‘fit’ to the values, beliefs, thoughts and behaviours to which you aspire? To what extent does your way of working with them reflect and embody your deepest aspirations as an organisation?

What questions would you add? And if you would like to learn more about how I work with client organisations to support their leadership development, please go to my website at http://www.learningforlifeconsulting.co.uk/ or contact me directly (at dorothy@learningforlifeconsulting.co.uk) to arrange to meet.

Leadership: more than skin deep

Developing as a leader

Today I am putting the finishing touches to my newsletter which will go out next week. The main article focuses on leadership development, exploring what it might take to close the gap between theory and practice in the field of leadership: with so much research to tell us what differentiates outstanding leaders, why is this gap so wide?

Taking a moment away from the final edits I consider the depth of reflection and self mastery that characterises the most committed leaders. This gives me the title of my article: Leadership: more than skin deep. One the key questions I reflect on is this: to what extent do organisations recognise what it requires of individual leaders to learn and grow when they comission leadership development events?

I welcome your comments: please add them to my blog. To readers of my newsletter I ask, what does this article evoke for you? To readers of my blog I ask, what are your thoughts on this subject?

It’s my aim this year to make my newsletter more accessible by using a third party platform. You can be sure I’ll let you know when the time comes. Meantime, if you’d like to sign up for my newsletter, you can contact me directly at mailto:dorothy@learningforlifeconsulting.co.ukm for more information.

The life and death implications of unilateral control

Developing as a leader,

Today, I opened my intray to the monthly newsletter of Roger Schwarz and the heading: How Unilateral Control Can Kill You. Whatever your setting, this brief article highlights the life and death implications of unilateral control and I am glad to take Roger up on his permission to reproduce his article:

This is not a headline from the sensationalist tabloid National Enquirer. It is the conclusion of Dr. Peter Pronovost, an MD and a Ph.D. in hospital safety, who is medical director of the Quality and Safety Research Group at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Pronovost’s group is responsible for increasing safety and reducing iatrogenic illness and death – those caused inadvertently by physicians, surgeons or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.

Each year, a lot of people become ill or die in hospitals not despite health care, but because of it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in American hospitals alone, healthcare-associated infections account for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths each year.

So, what does this have to do with unilateral control? It turns out that some of these infections and deaths can easily be prevented, but unilateral control takes over. Pronovost says, “As at many hospitals, we had dysfunctional teamwork because of an exceedingly hierarchal culture. When confrontations occurred, the problem was rarely framed in terms of what was best for the patient. It was: ‘I’m right. I’m more senior than you. Don’t tell me what to do.’” This is the classic “I understand, you don’t; I’m right, you’re wrong” unilateral control mindset. The impact in healthcare is the same as it is anywhere: many, many people stop sharing relevant information when they are treated this way. The difference? If a nurse clams up you may die.

Take the case of doctors washing their hands. According to Pronovost, even with improving safety records, 30% of the time, doctors in hospitals were not washing their hands prior to surgery. So, at Johns Hopkins hospital, they made a number of changes, including empowering nurses to make sure the doctors washed their hands. If the doctors did not, the nurses were empowered to prevent a procedure from beginning. Initially the nurses said it wasn’t their job to monitor doctors; the doctors said that they would not allow nurses to prevent a procedure from moving forward. Yet, over four years, the hospital got their ICU infection rates down to nearly zero. What Pronovost doesn’t say is whether these medical teams changed their mindsets about hierarchy and unilateral control or used checklists and other simple structures that treated the symptoms but bypassed the fundamental causes of unilateral control.

As Pronovost points out, unilateral control also exists between doctors. Once, during a surgery, he was administering anesthesia and saw that the patient was developing the classic signs of a life threatening allergic reaction. He told the surgeon, “I think this is a latex allergy, please go change your gloves.” “It’s not!” the surgeon insisted, refusing. Pronovost responded, “Help me understand how you’re seeing this. If I’m wrong, all I am is wrong. But if you’re wrong, you’ll kill the patient.” When communication between the surgeon and him broke down, he asked the scrub nurse to phone the dean of the medical school, believing that the dean would support him. As the nurse was about to call, the surgeon cursed Pronovost and finally pulled off the latex gloves.

For most of us in organizations, the costs of unilateral control can be difficult to pinpoint. We lose time, our commitment, innovative ideas, the organization’s money, our faith in leaders, and some of our mental health. Pronovost’s work reminds us that when the stakes are high, unilateral control can cost people their lives.Click here to read the New York Times interview with Dr. Peter Prosnovost, on which my article is based.

This article is written and edited by Roger Schwarz, copyright Roger Schwarz & Associates, 2010 and all rights are reserved. You can learn more about Roger and his work and also sign up to his monthly newsletter at http://www.schwarzassociates.com/ .