Leadership Monthly Update - Leading for Tomorrow
What do leaders this year need to be doing differently than last year, and last decade, and last century? What are the unique qualities required to lead the organization of tomorrow? What are the actions, skills and strategies that leaders will need to sustain a competitive advantage in tomorrow's fast paced world?
Five key factors are seen as being clearly more important in the future than in the past. These factors are:
- Global thinking – realizing that the world is getting smaller, and that overseas events have the potential for significant impact on our business.
- Appreciation of diversity – as the world gets smaller, we work with people from a variety of cultures, with different world views and values.
- Technological awareness - appreciating new technology, and the ability to spot its potential for your organisation. This doesn’t mean you have to be a techno-geek – just be aware of the new gadgets on the market, and be prepared to think “outside the square”.
- Partnership building - Reengineering, restructuring and downsizing are leading to a world where outsourcing of all but core activities is becoming common. The changing roles of customers, suppliers and partners has deep implications for leaders. It is becoming increasingly common to find that the same organization may be your customer, supplier or partner – and also your competitor.
- Participative leadership - The employee of the future will also be different. Most will be “knowledge workers”. Peter Drucker noted that knowledge workers are people who know more about what they are doing than their managers do. In dealing with knowledge workers old models of leadership will not work - telling people what to do and how to do it is not an option. Knowledge workers will expect to be asked for input, and to have a measure of control of their own.
Source: Global Leadership: The Next Generation, by Marshall Goldsmith, Cathy Greenberg, Alastair Robertson and Maya Hu-Chan.
In addition, Rosabeth Moss Kanter asserts that “Kaleidoscope thinking is the ultimate weapon to help leaders meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
She defines the concept of “kaleidoscope thinking” as the ability to “think across borders and through boundaries, almost as if turning a kaleidoscope to examine the same basic set of circumstances in a hundred different new ways”.
Tomorrow’s successful leaders will:
- Be open-minded and constantly innovative.
- Provide opportunities and develop new leaders. Great leaders see even day-to-day business tasks as opportunities to let someone else lead… and grow.
- Regularly visit other parts of their organisation and exchange ideas.
- Regularly visit their customers, even if their role does not require daily client contact.
- Encourage discussions and debate with people who disagree with them, or have a different world view.
- Recognise and admit their mistakes - then learn from them.
- Focus on learnings and build on them, when others make mistakes. Avoid blaming.
- Admit they do not have all the answers. Have the courage to say “I don’t know” and challenge the person to come up with a solution for themselves.
For information about Nexus Partners' leadership programmes, email us or call on 0800 4 LEADERS. More information is also available online.
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What makes for a Bad Boss?
A recent report by Florida State University revealed the impact of bad bosses. A survey of more than 700 employees at different job levels and situated in various industries suggested that:
- 39% of bad bosses failed to keep their word
- 27% of bad bosses insulted those they supervise behind their backs
- 23% of bad bosses blamed their mistakes on others
- 31% of bad bosses used the silent treatment to show their displeasure
By looking at each of these findings, the management of any organisation can begin to see specifically the drain on the bottom line when leadership ethics are not internalized by leaders.
Failure to keep your word is a values or ethics issue that affects performance. When employees receive promises or verbal contracts from their bosses and then these contracts are broken, morale suffers and so does productivity. Nothing will improve motivation when employees know that this behaviour is going to go unchallenged.
Insulting fellow employees is another values or ethics issue. Gossiping about employees to other employees builds a culture of distrust rather than high performance.
This type of behavior can create a culture of fear where what looks good can take precedence over what really works. Successful leaders have the internal discipline to keep and honour confidences.
Not accepting responsibility for mistakes is a failure to take personal accountability for one’s actions. Blaming employees for your own failure will create a negative work environment. The ability to own up and openly say “I got it wrong” is a quality that followers look for in their leaders.
Silent treatment as punishment, used by bad bosses to communicate their displeasure, says more about the boss's values and beliefs than anything else. With ineffective communication being one of the greatest obstacles to a high performance culture, the silent treatment can only achieve destructive outcomes.
When senior management tolerates bad bosses in the ranks the credibility of the whole leadership suffers. Research by Kouzes and Posner found that for leaders to be seen as credible they must first of all be honest. Honesty in today’s workplace means facing up to unacceptable leadership behaviours and drawing a line in the sand, visible to all.
HOT TIP: Use tools such as 360 degree feedback and goal-setting to encourage self-reflection,
improved self awareness and personal development amongst the leaders in your organisation
.
For information about Nexus Partners' tools for leaders, email us or call on 0800 4 LEADERS. More information is also available online.
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Team Development - Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement in your Team
Last month we discussed interpretation, concluding the series on team development factors. This month we're beginning a series on building a culture of continuous improvement in your team.
Missed last month's segment? Read it online!
Continuous improvement begins with openness to learning
which produces personal and organisational
growth. As a leader, your role is to create an environment conducive to team learning.
The most important factor in this environment is YOU, the team leader. Studies have shown that team members watch their leader for "cues" on behaviour and expectations. If you model openness to new ideas, willingness to learn and enthusiasm, your team environment will take on the same characteristics.
Alternatively, if the team leader shows lack of interest in new ideas, unwillingness to explore possibilities for change and disinterest in the task or project, team members will be unlikely to look for possible improvements.
So, how can you create a learning environment?
1. Be accessible.
This makes it clear that you welcome and value others' input and opinions. Let your team members know how they can get in touch with you, and when they do, give them your full attention.
2. Ask for input
Availability on its own may not be sufficient. When your team is taking on something new, let them know you want their feedback and contributions. Make times for this - put it on the agenda at team meetings, or have dedicated "feedback sessions".
3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes
Fear of making mistakes is one of the most significant barriers to learning there is. Don't be afraid to let your team know when something has gone wrong. If the mistake was yours, say so. Behaviour like this from the leader signals to the team that mistakes or issues can be discussed openly and are opportunities for learning. If one of your team members makes a mistake watch your reaction carefully. Show them by your actions that you understand how this feels, and encourage them to learn from the mistake.
William McKnight, one of the fathers of 3M said "Mistakes will be made (by giving people the freedom and encouragement to act autonomously), but the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes management will make if it is dictatorial and undertakes to tell those under its authority exactly how they must do their job. Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative and it is essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow."
4. Model enthusiasm
Be excited about new challenges! Nothing gets in the way of learning faster than a leader saying "It might work, but we'll wait and see." Let your team see your commitment and enthusiasm, and they will follow with commitment and enthusiasm.
Want some help with building a learning environment? Email us for more information about Nexus Partners' team development programmes, or call on 0800 4 LEADERS. More information about team development is also available online.
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Tips for Avoiding Ineffective Listening Behaviours
A large proportion of conflict has its roots in miscommunication and misunderstandings. Ineffective listening is the leading cause of communication misses. Effective listening is an active process. It involves focusing on the speaker, and using questioning and reflection to ensure you understand the message being sent.
Be careful to avoid the following ineffective listening behaviours:
Faking
Giving the impression of listening attentively - nodding, eye contact, receptive body language. However, we are actually busy thinking about something else, and therefore miss all or part of the other person ’s message.
Over-Sympathising
Trying so hard to focus on and understand the needs of the other person that we become sympathetic rather than empathetic. We may lose sight of our own needs and end up feeling used or ignored.
Interrupting
So focused on what we want to say, we do not listen properly. Things that the other person says become ‘cues’ and the we interject with our idea, not waiting until the other person has finished. Interrupters divert the speaker from their train of thought, damage rapport, and can cause the conversation to get sidetracked.
Self-Conscious Listening
Worrying so much about the impression we are trying to make that we forget to listen!
Categorical Listening
Slotting what we hear into categories or under topic headings. We focus on processing the information we are hearing along with other information we already have on a specific topic. This can lead us to make wrong assumptions, miss important parts of the message, especially non-verbal cues.
Improving your Listening:
- Don’t butt in.
- Use silence.
Silence shows you are listening and can help to draw the other person out.
- Remove distractions.
Fidgeting and doodling show you are not listening.
- Express interest. Use body language and verbal support to encourage the speaker.
- Paraphrase what you hear to ensure you understand.
Also, be alert for indications that the words aren't the whole story - for example, tracers such as 'quite well', 'pretty happy' or incongruent body language. Reflect what you observe as well as what you hear.
- Ask for clarification as required. This signals that you are really listening and helps you understand the other person and the issue at hand.
Want some help with communication? Email us or give me a call on 0800 4 LEADERS.
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Website Launch
After many late nights and far too much coffee, we have “knocked off” our new website! A lot of work has gone in to making sure this site will be a valuable resource for you, and naturally we would appreciate your feedback.
So click here to check it out, and enter our website launch prize draw – to celebrate we’ve got a fantastic $300 Jetter merino wool jacket from Icebreaker to give away, along with 10 copies of the must-read book, Reaching The Summit, Edmund Hillary's Life of Adventure.
Simply find the Nexus Partners “x-man” logo (below) somewhere on our website, then click on it to enter the draw.
Hurry - prize draw closes on 11 May 2007! Good luck!
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