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Article No.: 13-12, December 1, 2013
Article Title: It's Time for a New Leadership Paradigm,
Part II-Leadership in the Balance (see
November article for Part I)
Author: Linda Gravett, Ph.D. and John Kucia, Ed.D.
Our observation of successful change initiatives lead us to
believe that Leaders in Balance have some common ways of thinking,
being, and acting. Leaders in Balance focus on the work and
the organization’s Mission, Core Values, and Strategic Objectives.
Even when distractions are buzzing about them, Leaders in Balance
manage the information overload and tune into people, events, and
information that will help them achieve the organization’s key
business imperatives.
Leaders in Balance focus first on behavior changes in themselves and
others, understanding that attitudes may not change immediately.
Employees may not fully agree, for instance, that a leader’s
newly-published safety procedures are necessary. The leader
wants employees to engage in safe activities first and foremost,
regardless of their personal beliefs. Once employees
experience a safe, stress free workplace firsthand their attitude
towards following safety procedures is likely to change.
A Leader in Balance establishes methods to build new competencies
for herself and others in the organization. For example, if
the company has decided that one of its key objectives during the
coming three years is to expand its marketplace to Southeast Asia,
key players will need to expand their language skills, operate in a
different culture, and be well versed in the economy and currency of
the target countries.
Through the conventions and traditions that comprise an
organization’s culture, the Leader in Balance achieves results and
effects changes that ensure the company remains cutting edge.
The leadership behaviors that are critical during the change effort
are envisioning; communicating; motivating; measuring; and retaining
change.
Strategic leaders are aware of how events in their environment
affect the organization’s ability to succeed. Given constant
change in a global economy, effective leaders have a vision of how
their organization can leverage employees’ skills, knowledge and
abilities to take advantage of evolving markets. Visionary
leaders regularly ask, “what if we…?” and focus on breakthroughs in
technology, services, and products that will provide a competitive
advantage. From this vision, anchored in Core Values, flow key
result areas or objectives that drive the actions of the leadership
team and all employees.
The critical challenge for a Leader in Balance is finding an
effective means to transfer values and a vision for the future from
their hearts and minds to all the organization’s stakeholders.
A strategic plan, for instance, is only as effective as the weakest
link within the organization, for every employee’s talents,
abilities, and behaviors must be called upon to implement the plan.
Our experience with top executives who have taken their
organizations through significant change efforts is they use a
consistent framework for building commitment to change, a framework
we call the “PACE” of change:
Using the PACE model shown above, we recommend four phases for
communicating and building commitment to change: preparation,
acceptance, commitment, and execution.
In the preparation phase, the Leader in Balance lays the groundwork
for impending change. For example, let’s say that an
organization has decided to implement a diversity initiative as part
of its strategic plan. Successful implementation may require
people to behave differently. Prior to rolling out the
initiative, the Leader in Balance shares information about the world
around the organization, such as changes in societal norms, the
customer base, and the economy, that will necessitate recruiting,
developing, and retaining a diverse workforce. This
information can be provided in several forms: articles on
bulletin boards or on the company web site, company-wide meetings,
or brown bag lunch seminars. At this point, there’s no “pitch”
for people to change; the focus is solely on providing information.
In the second phase, acceptance, the Leader in Balance brings
employees into the change process through solicitation of ideas and
suggestions about how potential changes in their work environment
might affect them personally, their department, and the company as a
whole. The question on most peoples’ minds will be, “What will
coming changes mean to me and the way I do things?” If that
question isn’t addressed in the acceptance phase, real change will
not occur. Continuing our example with the diversity
initiative, the Leader in Balance can build acceptance by
commissioning a culture audit, which is a needs assessment that
surfaces issues regarding recruitment, orientation, training, career
development and compensation. A culture audit focuses on
whether certain employee segments, such as people over 40, believe
they haven’t experienced the full benefit of promotional
opportunities and training as much as other groups. If issues
like this are uncovered, focus groups could be conducted to get
input around ways to ensure every workforce segment is provided with
growth opportunities. The Leader in Balance knows that
acceptance of policy changes is more likely to occur if employees
have been involved in those changes.
When employees are made aware of specifically how their
contributions have affected the organization, the Leader in Balance
has more leverage to establish an environment that will motivate
people to continue those efforts. During the commitment phase
of the change process, the Leader in Balance establishes new
policies and procedures and then acts on the new ways of behaving
himself in order to serve as a role model. He sets and pursues
clear objectives; for example, the following diversity goals:
- Expand our recruiting sources to ensure the organization hires more qualified Hispanic and African-American employees by 12/31/07
- Expand our customer base by 6/30/08 to include the 50-65 year old demographic
In order to execute change and sustain the momentum, the Leader
in Balance empowers employees to remove artificial barriers and
engage in behaviors that will support the change effort. For
example, if part of a company’s diversity initiative is to establish
cross-functional process improvement teams that are comprised of
employees at line, first-line supervisor, and managerial level, the
“senior” person cannot step into the first team meeting and assert
herself as the boss of everybody. If executives announce that
they have an open door policy to hear and discuss suggestions around
expanding a diverse client base, employees can’t be stopped by five
assistants and a waiting period of six months before gaining access
to those executives.
Michael Marks, CEO of Flextronics International, is known for his
disdain of bureaucracy and red tape. He avoids meetings.
He keeps his management levels to a minimum. He gives his
executives financial and creative latitude to make major decisions
and doesn’t micromanage. In a 2000 article he said, “I’ve
surrounded myself with people who are bright and enthusiastic and
don’t want a lot of direction. We grew at 60 percent a year
for six or seven years. If you don’t have this kind of
organization, you can’t grow like that.” (Linksy, Gene, “Heroes of
U.S. Manufacturing: Michael Marks,” Fortune, March 20, 2000,
p. 192)
The Leader in Balance is constantly nurturing change efforts to
allow new behaviors to develop, mature and evolve. Whether the
organization has six days or six months to effect change, the Leader
in Balance allows people to move through the four phases in order to
fully understand, appreciate, and become involved in the change
process.
The Leader in Balance engages in behaviors that establish and expand
networks, as opposed to only following hierarchical structures to
accomplish organizational objectives. The Leader in Balance
understands when to effect decision making by autocratic methods and
when to effect decision making through consensus.
A friend of Linda’s is a surgeon at a Cincinnati hospital. His
demeanor outside the OR is quiet, unassuming and easygoing.
His medical colleagues, however, say that as chief surgeon he is
abrupt, decisive, and demanding. He doesn’t “ask” for a
medical instrument; he instructs the nurse to give it to him.
He doesn’t ask for a discussion from the assisting doctors when
there’s a crisis with a patient on his table; he barks out orders
that he fully expects will be instantly followed. Autocratic?
Yes, indeed. Appropriate for the circumstance? Yes,
again.
A Leader in Balance will assess any given situation and guide the
decision making process to one of consensus or democratic style,
whichever is needed. Jack Kraeutler, COO of Meridian
Diagnostics, promotes consensus among his scientist/researcher
direct reports when he wants to ensure that the complete team is
involved and invested in a decision. When this occurs, the
entire team is responsible for the outcome, not just him.
Everyone has a stake in the outcome of the decision. Before
leaving the conference or meeting room, then, Jack and each direct
report must indicate their commitment to the decision so they
present a united position. Consensus building is time
consuming. It takes practice. Jack is willing to take
the time, and the result is a dedicated team of scientists who
support one another and want the right decision for their
stakeholders.
On the other hand, Linda worked with a Process Improvement Team a
few years ago that thought they had reached consensus on a decision
but were woefully mistaken. The Team Leader encouraged a
discussion about understanding fully the process the team was
attempting to improve. After a few minutes, most of the team
members were comfortable with the suggestion to videotape employees
on all three shifts for short periods of time. They believed
this would provide a snapshot of how the process worked. One
person was very vocal about not wanting to use a videotape because
he didn’t think employees trusted how the tape would ultimately be
used. The Team Leader did not provide this member with enough
“air time” during the meeting to fully expand on his concerns, and
the team reached “consensus” about videotaping employees. Each
team member was asked to videotape a group of employees. When
it came time for the dissenting member to do his videotaping, one of
the employees on the line complained, saying that he didn’t want
“the man” looking over his shoulder. The team member stopped
videotaping immediately and said to his co-worker, “You’re right.
This is stupid. I told them we shouldn’t do this. Never
mind.” The team leader thought there was consensus at the end
of the team meeting. Clearly, that was not the case. The
team leader did not have the right balance between encouraging
dialogue and calling for a decision.
Reflections:
Outdated paradigms, or mental maps about leadership, won’t work
in today’s global society. Critical thinking and analysis,
strategic perspective, fostering collaboration, global focus and
understanding, sharing power, and innovation are all essential
competencies for a Leader in Balance.
A Leader in Balance employs networks to encourage diversity of
thought and creativity. Networks do not in all cases replace
existing hierarchies; but rather can enhance and augment this
dynamic.
New paradigms necessitate new behaviors for leaders:
challenging assumptions; creating breakthrough products and
services; engaging in frequent quality dialogues with all
stakeholders; and mentoring. These may on the surface seem
like “soft skills”; however, leadership behaviors that minimize
conflict, reduce turnover, and enhance productivity directly affect
profitability and organizational resiliency.
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If you have any questions or need more information about this article, please complete our Contact Form, or contact Dr. Gravett by telephone at 513-753-8870.