Coaching Cosmos Newsletter 1 July 2010
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
Winston Churchill
In this newsletter :
Strategy insights - A view on strategy by Roger Martin in the Harvard Review
Change Management insights - The Burke Litwin Model
Leadership insights - The Situational Leadership Model
Personal Development - Ideas on notions of happiness, high impact presentations and NLP insights
Career insights - Changing Career
Roger Martin in the Harvard Business Review ( July/August 2010) provides some interesting insights on strategy formulation and execution. His proposition is that approaches that try to make strategy distinct from execution execution are flawed.
The article describes a metaphor where the brain is the "chooser" and the body is the "doer" . In this sense the executive at the top dictates strategy and expects everyone else to mechanically carry it out.
A better "white water" metaphor is mentioned to bring strategy and execution closer. In this view choices cascade from the top to the bottom. In a company those in charge make broader upstream choices and people downstream are empowered to make choices that best fit the situation in hand. They also provide feedback upstream to inform better choices in a sort of virtuous strategy cycle
The article goes on to consider a cascade of better choices:
1. Explain the choice that has been made and the rationale for it
If people understand the rationale and assumptions used for a strategy and it is made explicit then they are more likely to feel empowered and involved
2. Explicitly identify the next downstream choice
If the next choice is articulated and there is engagement in downstream discussion the process will feel like a joint venture
3. Assist in making the downstream choice as needed
The help required will vary from scenario to scenario but a genuine offer of help should be part of the process
4.Commit to revisiting and modifying the choice based on downstream feedback
There should be an open process for reconsideration and review of strategy informed by the results and outcomes that develop from execution
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
The Burke Litwin Model
The “Burke-Litwin model” has been developed to examine organisational change and performance. It provides a link between an assessment of the wider institutional context and the nature and process of change within an organisation.
It makes the following key points:
• The external environment is the most powerful driver for organisational change
• Changes in the external environment lead to significant changes within an organisation – its mission and strategy, its organisational culture and its leadership.
• Changes in these key factors lead to other changes within an organisation – changes to structure, systems and management practices. These are more operational factors and changes in them may or may not have an organisation-wide impact
• Together these changes affect motivation, which in turn impacts on individual and organisational performance
• The model describes 12 organisational variables (incorporating the 7 variables of the 7-S model) and the relationships between them. Each of the variables interact and a change in any one of them can eventually impact on the others. This is useful in explaining not only how organisations perform, but also how they can be changed.
How do I use it?
• Gather data on relevant boxes based on desk research and interviews with key stakeholders throughout the organisation
• Summarise findings in a report for senior staff. This report can then be used as a basis for identifying which boxes relate to which executives and managers, and can be useful in helping them understand the complex performance and change issues they are trying to manage
• Key questions to include are summarised in the table below.
Dimensions of Model Key Questions
1. External Environment
What are the key external drivers? How are these likely to impact on the organisation? Does the organisation recognise these?
2. Mission and Strategy
What do top management see as the organisation’s mission and strategy? Is there a clear vision and mission statement? What are employees’ perceptions of these?
3. Leadership
Who provides overall direction for the organisation? Who are
the role models? What is the style of leadership? What are the perspectives of employees?
4. Organisational Culture
What are the overt and covert rules, values, customs and principles that guide organisational behaviour?
5. Structure
How are functions and people arranged in specific areas and levels of responsibility? What are the key decision-making, communication and control relationships?
6. Systems
What are the organisation’s policies and procedures, including systems for reward and performance appraisal, management information, HR and resource planning, etc?
7. Management Practices
How do managers use human and material resources to carry out the organisation’s strategy? What is their style of management and how do they relate to subordinates?
8. Work Unit Climate
What are the collective impressions, expectations and feelings of staff? What is the nature of relationship with work unit colleagues and those in other work units?
9. Task and Individual Skills
What are the task requirements and individual skills/abilities/knowledge needed for task effectiveness? How appropriate is the organisation’s “job-person” match?
10. Individual Needs and Values
What do staff value in their work? What are the psychological factors that would enrich their jobs and increase job satisfaction?
11. Motivation
Do staff feel motivated to take the action necessary to achieve the organisation’s strategy? Of factors 1-10, which seem to be impacting most on motivation?
12. Individual and Organisational Performance
What is the level of performance in terms of productivity, customer satisfaction, quality, etc? Which factors are critical for motivation and therefore performance?
Situational Leadership Model
This is a term that can be applied generically to a style of leadership, but that also refers to a recognised, and useful, leadership model.
In simple terms, a situational leader is one who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the situation. Most of us do this anyway in our dealings with other people: we try not to get angry with a nervous colleague on their first day, we chase up tasks with some people more than others because we know they'll forget otherwise.
Ken Blanchard, the management guru best known for the "One Minute Manager" series, and Paul Hersey created a model for Situational Leadership in the late 1960's that allows you to analyse the needs of the situation you're dealing with, and then adopt the most appropriate leadership style. It's proved popular with managers over the years because it passes the two basic tests of such models: it's simple to understand, and it works in most environments for most people. The model doesn't just apply to people in leadership or management positions: we all lead others at work and at home.
LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR
Blanchard and Hersey characterised leadership style in terms of the amount of direction and of support that the leader gives to his or her followers, and so created a simple grid:
Directing Leaders define the roles and tasks of the 'follower', and supervise them closely. Decisions are made by the leader and announced, so communication is largely one-way.
Coaching Leaders still define roles and tasks, but seeks ideas and suggestions from the follower. Decisions remain the leader's prerogative, but communication is much more two-way.
Supporting Leaders pass day-to-day decisions, such as task allocation and processes, to the follower. The leader facilitates and takes part in decisions, but control is with the follower.
Delegating Leaders are still involved in decisions and problem-solving, but control is with the follower. The follower decides when and how the leader will be involved.
Effective leaders are versatile in being able to move around the grid according to the situation, so there is no one right style. However, we tend to have a preferred style, and in applying Situational Leadership you need to know which one that is for you.
DEVELOPMENT LEVEL
Clearly the right leadership style will depend very much on the person being led - the follower - and Blanchard and Hersey extended their model to include the Development Level of the follower. They said that the leader's style should be driven by the Competence and Commitment of the follower, and came up with four levels:
D4
High Competence
High Commitment
Experienced at the job, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. May even be more skilled than the leader.
D3
High Competence
Variable Commitment
Experienced and capable, but may lack the confidence to go it alone, or the motivation to do it well / quickly
D2
Some Competence
Low Commitment
May have some relevant skills, but won't be able to do the job without help. The task or the situation may be new to them.
D1
Low Competence
Low Commitment
Generally lacking the specific skills required for the job in hand, and lacks any confidence and / or motivation to tackle it.
Development Levels are also situational. I might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in my job, but would still drop into Level D1 when faced, say, with a task requiring skills I don't possess. For example, lots of managers are D4 when dealing with the day-to-day running of their department, but move to D1 or D2 when dealing with a sensitive employee issue.
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Blanchard and Hersey said that the Leadership Style (S1 - S4) of the leader must correspond to the Development level (D1 - D4) of the follower - and it's the leader who adapts.
For example, a new person joins your team and you're asked to help them through the first few days. You sit them in front of a PC, show them a pile of invoices that need to be processed today, and push off to a meeting. They're at level D1, and you've adopted S4. Everyone loses because the new person feels helpless and demotivated, and you don't get the invoices processed.
On the other hand, you're handing over to an experienced colleague before you leave for a holiday. You've listed all the tasks that need to be done, and a set of instructions on how to carry out each one. They're at level D4, and you've adopted S1. The work will probably get done, but not the way you expected, and your colleague despises you for treating him like an idiot.
But swap the situations and things get better. Leave detailed instructions and a checklist for the new person, and they'll thank you for it. Give your colleague a quick chat and a few notes before you go on holiday, and everything will be fine.
By adopting the right style to suit the follower's development level, work gets done, relationships are built up, and most importantly, the follower's development level will rise to D4, to everyone's benefit.
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL SUMMARY
The situational leadership model is founded on the belief that real leadership means managing people fairly for mutually rewarding and productive purposes and has nothing to do with manipulation - taking unfair advantage of or influencing others for self-interest, or making people feel uncomfortable.
It proposes that motivating, influencing and controlling people toward accomplishment of planned objectives requires 3 important skills:
1. Understanding past behaviour
2. Predicting future behaviour
3. Directing, changing and controlling behaviour.
From this perspective research studies indicate that effective leaders can be engaged in different types of behaviour: Task behaviour and Relationship behaviour.
Task behaviour provides guidance and direction - the leader clearly spells out duties and responsibilities to an individual or group about everything.
Relationship behaviour emphasises two-way communication with followers and exchanging information with them. This type tends to be more non-verbal than task behaviour.
Synonyms of relationship behaviour are listening,supporting, facilitating, and encouraging.
Some good leaders manage to combine both types of behaviour in their work, though all of them have different leadership styles.
Leadership style is defined as the leader’s patterns of behaviour including both words and actions as perceived by others.
Situational Leadership theory considers 4 leadership styles:
· High task, low relationship behaviour (the leader provides specific instructions and supervises followers closely, sometimes it’s called “telling”)
· High task, high relationship behaviour (the leader explains decisions and provides followers with opportunities for clarification “selling”)
· High relationship, low task behaviour (the leader shares ideas with followers and facilitates decision making “participating”)
· Low relationship, high task behaviour (the leader turns over responsibility for decisions and implementation to followers “delegating”)
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
1.Notions of Happiness
Martin Seligman a pioneer of the Positive Psychology movement suggest the components of authentic happiness.
From his perspective we can experience 3 types of happiness:
1. A pleasant life: Pleasures, instant gratification,hedonism
2. A good life: Getting the things that you want or desire
3. A meaningful life :belonging to and serving in something larger and more worthwhile than just your own pleasures and desires
In this view authentic happiness combines all three lives and in this sense provides for a full life
Visit Martin Seligmans site for in depth information and a range of free self reflection questionnaires
2. Presentation skills - Insights on powerful presentations
Many presentations include too much unnecessary data, try to cover too much, and do little to make impact in the audience's mind.
Here are some ideas to putting together a presentation that is engaging, focused, relevant, and persuasive:
1. Understand the context for your presentation Why is this presentation happening?Who will be there? What do they need to know? What will engage them? What can they do with the information you share?
2. Be clear about your desired outcome and/or the real value to be delivered by your presentation with the general or specific audience in mind.
3. Establish a strong opening using a story,anecdote or question that grabs audience interest and provides a strong theme that can be returned to
4. At conclusion don't just summarise- leave your audience with something to think about or do relevant to the context for the presentation in order to cultivate and grow engagement/leave a lasting impression
3. NLP Insights
Effective communication insights - NLP and Rapport : 7 ways to sharpen rapport
A few insights to help build rapport and by no means an exhaustive list :
* Take a genuine interest in getting to know what is important to the other person. Start to understand them rather than expecting them to understand you first.
* Pick up on the key words,favourite phrases and way of speaking that someone uses and build some of these appropriately and subtly into your conversation
* Be aware of how someone likes to handle information. For example, do the like lots of fine detail or just the big picture. As you speak feedback information in this same portion size
* Keep looking out for the other person's intention-their underlying aim- rather than what the initially do or say. They may not always get it right,but expect their heart to be in the right place.
* Respect the other persons time,energy,interests,people - they will be important resources for them
* Adopt a similar stance in terms of body language, gestures,voice tone and speed
* Breathe in unison with them
Learning point:
It is worth reflecting on how you engage with other people and to what extent you set out to develop a strong rapport by linking into and understanding their agenda. Not in a way that you turn it on and off like a tap - but as part of a built in communication skill delivered with unconscious competence
Changing Career
A career change often becomes an important consideration. Last time most of us had any career advice was either at school or university. It was invariably centred on vocational qualifications and which organisations provided the best training for graduates.
We then set out on a career path with a clear starting point, probably a vague mid point and beyond that often a complete unknown.
Any thought of a subsequent career change is often put off. Instead promotions follow, headhunters call, offers are accepted and life goes on.
Then at some point, often triggered by a major birthday or a material change in personal circumstances or a significant external event such as redundancy, we reach a "career crossroads" when the idea of a career change becomes ever more attractive.
Perhaps our work-life balance is no longer acceptable or we are not enjoying what we do, which raises some important questions:
* Am I going to seek a career change or continue what I am doing for the rest of my working life?
* Is a major career change of direction feasible?
* What do I really want to do?
* And how am I going to make a career change?
The way forward is to take stock of where we are and decide where we would like to be and what it will take to get there:
* Examine our skills, marketability and personal preferences.
* Make decisions about what to do next, plan a strategy and then execute that strategy, just as we'd undertake a business project.
FREE TEST FOR CAREER INSIGHTS: The Jobsite Personal Profile
USEFUL WEBSITES : Career Advice , Career Changers
My profile:
MBA, BA and a member of the CIPD, International Coaching Federation and Association for Coaching.
I am an accredited coach with over 10 years of coaching experience and an associate consultant with Penna (UK) dealing with career, life,executive and business coaching and counselling.
I work in mentoring and coaching partnerships with executives to help achieve gains of importance to them.
In my private practice I have helped people of all ages, different cultures and job levels to understand more about themselves, their impact on others and how to develop across major dimensions in life.
My career experience includes HR Director and senior executive roles in Barclays plc and Tesco plc leading major transformation and complex change programmes reporting at Board level .
My philosophy is to totally respect the integrity and confidentiality of my clients building on their existing great skills and abilities .
Contact : PeterCobbe@coachingcosmos.com
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