Ways of Thinking About Leadership

1. Ways of Thinking About Leadership Andrew Graham School of Policy Studies Queen’s University MPA 823 2017 “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Machiavelli

2. What this is about…. • Different ways of looking at leadership • Giving a framework for your understanding of leadership • Sorting out ideas about leadership so you can decide what your leadership aspirations and qualities are • Assessing the strengths you want to leverage and gaps you want to work on “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” -Rosalynn Carter

3. Outline of the Presentation

4. Part 1: Defining leadership

5. Is there one definition of leadership? • Perspectives vary • Strong tendency towards notions of hierarchical leadership – boss at the top • Command confused with leading • Major gender and cultural biases • Profound failure to really understand what leaders actually do • Blindness to where leadership actually takes place

6. What characteristics, stripped of their hierarchical, sexist and some cultural trappings help us define leadership? • Creating a vision, direction or path forward – sense making • Clarifying what is important • Getting others on board and committed • Getting others enabled • Guiding and correcting individual and group behaviour • Enabling others to fulfill their roles in the process, whether that be subordinates, superiors or significant affectors

7. This is about leadership not leaders.

8. Pubic Sector Leadership has some unique characteristics • There is political and bureaucratic leadership • Often involves leading process that permit others to make decisions – set policy • Time cycles in tension: election cycle versus institutional sustainability • Complexity, rules-ridden environment, issues of equity and universality of programs • Powerful array of stakeholders, impacts and dependency relationships

9. David Siegel’s Model of Public Sector Leadership: Leaders in the Shadows Managing relationships with political and organizational superiors to enable them to decide or direct. Lead Up The traditional role of leading or managing subordinates Lead Down Lead Out Relationships with stakeholders, partners, suppliers, influencers.

10. Influence Leadershipis the ability to influence others, with or without authority. The ability to influence others is a derivation of • Being trusted or relied upon as best of a bad lot • Representing and Practicing Values consistent with the situation at hand • Awareness of Context • Responsiveness to Followers • Interpersonal Communications • Conflict Management • Problem solving • Being capable of mobilizing people, resources and ideas

11. Interpersonal Effectiveness Leadership is a direct function of various elements of interpersonal effectiveness: • Awareness/Mindfulness • Ability to: • Synthesize and define direction, compelling arguments for action and support, • Convince, negotiate, cajole and inspire • Commitment to cause and method • Remain flexible as circumstances change, things are learned and adaptation is required • Knowing when to hold them and when to fold them

12. Awareness in Leaders It is the ability to recognize yourself, others, events and situations in real time. It is the ability to recognize changes in the defined reality and accept them as outside the present paradigm. It is the ability to assess the impact of actions on situations and others, and be critically self-reflective. It is a development process that is a function of experience, communication, self discovery and feedback.

13. Abilities of Leaders Ability to learn and understand technical issues is the basis of our careers. Ability to lead is a function of influence: • Ability to communicate • Ability to resolve conflicts • Ability to solve problems and make decisions As a member of a team, we influence others in a collaborative effort to find better ideas or solve problems.

14. Commitment For leaders, the “one thing” that leads to maturity is the fully aware recognition that one’s decisions make a difference, both positively and negatively, in the lives of others, and that any attempt to solve a problem might have a decided negative impact on some, while helping others. In no-win scenarios, one must still make a hard decision.

15. Attributes of a Leader • Building, nurturing and adapting a guiding vision: • Effective leaders know what they want to do or have a good idea about how to build consensus or direction, and have the strength of character to pursue their objectives in the face of opposition and in spite of failures.

16. Attributes of a Leader Passion: Effective leaders believe passionately in their goals, or communicate it as if they do. They have a positive outlook, often in the face of adversity, on who they are, retaining as they do their basic narcissism, and they love what they do especially the attention they get.

17. Attributes of a Leader • Integrity: Because they know who they are, effective leaders are also aware of their weaknesses. They only make promises they can follow through on. • Honesty: Leaders convey an aura of honesty in both their professional and their personal lives. • Trust: Effective leaders earn the trust of their followers and act on behalf of their followers.

18. Attributes of a Leader • Curiosity: Leaders are learners. They wonder about every aspect of their charge. They find out what they need to know in order to pursue their goals. • Risk: Effective leaders take calculated risks when necessary to achieve their objectives. If a mistake is made, the effective leader will learn from the mistake and use it as an opportunity to explore other avenues.

19. Attributes of a Leader • Dedication: The effective leader is dedicated to his or her charge, and will work assiduously on behalf of those following. The leader gives himself or herself entirely to the task when it is necessary.

20. Attributes of a Leader • Charisma: This may be the one attribute that is the most difficult to cultivate. It conveys maturity, respect for your followers, compassion, a fine sense of humor, and a love of humanity. The result is that leaders have the capability to motivate people to excel. • Listening: Leaders Listen! This is the most important attribute of all, listen to your followers.

21. Reality Check Here In principle, a leader should be Yet, there are times when being a leader really means.... Acting. Disguising your own feelings to let other express their or you have great doubts and fears. Prevaricating with skill and without remorse: "We are going to get through this.” Fighting fiercely for you unit over scarce resources. Being a Productive Narcissist Bringing a realpolitic perspective to flights of fancy and organizational self-deception. Mistrusting alleged allies and having a clear notion of their weaknesses, and then there are the enemies. Inspiring fear and urgency Punishing. • Authentic • Honest • Collaborative • Modest • Visionary • Trusting • Capable of inspiring confidence and security • Guiding and correcting

22. Moving from Attributes to Competencies Canada Style

23. Competency Model of the Government of Queensland, Australia

24. Stop and Reflect: A Leader You Admire Describe the best leader you have ever met. What made that person a leader?

25. Part 2: leadership and management

26. “Smart organizations value leadership and management.” Kotter 1990 – What Leaders Really Do, Harvard Business Review

27. Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader (1989) Managers • Administer and copy • Maintain • Focus on systems & structure • Rely on control • Short-range view - bottom line • Ask how and when • Accept the status quo • Classic good soldier • Do things right Leaders • Innovation and originality • Develop • Focus on people • Inspire trust • Long-range view - the horizon • Ask what and why • Challenge the status quo • Own person • Do the right things “Followers need from their leaders three basic qualities: they are direction; they want trust; and they want hope....” - Bennis

28. Increasing Uncertainty Not either or, but a gradient of behaviors from command to leadership. Wicked LEADERSHIP Ask Questions MANAGEMENT Organize Processes Tame Increasing Collaboration COMMAND Provide Answers Critical COERCION PHYSICAL CALCULATIVE RATIONAL NORMATIVE/ EMOTIONAL

29. Leadership & Management Skills Leadership Communications • Motivation • Stress Management • Team Building • Change Management • Road mapping Implementation Management Scheduling • Staffing • Activity Analysis • Project Controls • Effecting implementation

30. Managers have the following attributes , they • Consider alternatives to design • Estimate costs involved • Establish risks to the organization • Develop a schedule for the project • Include decision steps • Manage change in an orderly fashion • Keep the team motivated and informed • Review responsibilities and goals with each team player • State clearly the basis for evaluation and where each person fits into the organization

31. Managers have the following attributes , they • Monitor progress • Set directions; set expected achievements for each individual within the next work period. Show the team members where they fit in achieving unit goals. • Perform administrative tasks • Report to senior management • Money and job security play a major role in management effectiveness. They act as deficiency motivators.

32. Stop and Reflect: Is this Management or is this Leadership • Assess whether the following activity is best described as leadership or management: • Developing an implementation plan for a new policy (M) • Setting strategic direction (L) • Reviewing financial performance for the quarter (M) • Developing a plan to overhaul a major system (L) • Assembling and guiding a project team (L) • Coaching employees (L) • Explaining your unit’s goals to stakeholders (L) • Organizing a task force that has already been mandated and created (M)

33. Part 3: Theories of leadership

34. Theories are just ways of looking at things not answers…… • Leadership theory is often short on evidence, rife with guru babble and untested • Be wary of the one right answer • These theoretical notions are not mutually exclusive • Think of them as lenses

35. The evolutionary process of leadership theories • Great man theories were the first attempt in studying leadership. • Based on the idea that leaders are born (and all men). • Additional approaches have been developed— trait theories, behavioral theories, and modern-day contingency theories. • Emphasis today is that leadership styles should match the situation at hand, which is a contingency approach. • Competencies are important triggers, but only when used appropriately in context and with the right values.

36. Theories of Leadership

37. Trait Theory of Leadership Theories that consider personality, social, physical, or intellectual traits to differentiate leaders from non-leaders. First major study searched for traits that differentiated leaders from followers. Researched focused heavily on personality characteristics. Suggested that it was possible to measure leadership potential from these traits. • Stogdill/Mann identified important traits found more in leaders than followers. • Ambition and energy • The desire to lead • Honest and integrity • Self-confidence • Intelligence • High self-monitoring • Job-relevant knowledge

38. Trait ApproachLimitations • It assumes that all effective leaders have the same personalcharacteristics that are important in all situations. Reality: Leadership is too complex to have a universal list of traits that apply to every condition • Alternative combinations of competencies may be equally successful. This is where contingency and situational leadership come in. • This perspective views leadership as something within a person, whereas critics point out that leadership is relational. • The trait perspective implies that leaders are born, not developed. On the contrary, competencies only indicate leadership potential, not leadership performance. • Trait theory has gender and culture biases as well as not accounting for non-hierarchical and upward leadership. (McShane & Van Glinow 2009)

39. Trait Theories • Limitations: • No universal traits found that predict leadership in all situations. • Unclear evidence of the cause and effect of relationship of leadership and traits. • Creates the notion of the “white knight” • Tends towards sexual stereotyping, favoring men • Blind to role of followers and notions of quiet leadership

40. A Skills Approach to Leadership • Provided a focus on the skills needed to lead. • Stronger emphasis on notion that leadership can be learned. • Built towards a competency based concept of leadership. • Important because it freed up thinking about leadership from the great man theory – anyone can lead.

41. Skills Mix Reflecting the Job • Robert Katz’s research identified a set of skills needed for leadership success. • Skill 1-Technical skills involving hands-on activity. • Skill 2 -Human skills which is the ability to work with people.. • Skill 3 -Conceptual skills having ability to work with ideas and concepts. Katz argued that, as one looked at leadership in a hierarchy, the mix of skills needed changed. Do you agree?

42. Behavioral Theory of Leadership • Focused on what leaders did and what style they used to get things done • Researchers suggested that understanding leadership behaviour is a way to be successful • Assumes that anyone can be made to be a leader if they behave in certain ways.

43. Behavioral Theory of Leadership • The 1940s saw that leadership effectiveness was dependent upon leader behavior. • RensisLikert’s Michigan Studies surfaced two forms of leader behavior—job-centered (production) and employee-centered. • Attempt made to balance task and relationship emphasis. University of Michigan Studies Identified 2 Leadership Behaviors Employee-Centered Production-Centered Leaders interested in their subordinates as people, encourage worker participation in the organizational goal-setting process. Leaders emphasized technical aspects of job, set job standards, close supervision of subordinates.

44. Behavioral Theory • Ohio State Studies also revealed two leadership forms. • Used questionnaire to assess employee perceptions of leaders. • Consideration behavior (concern for feelings). • Initiating structure (defining roles).

45. Behavioral Theory • Managerial/Leadership Grid developed by Blake & Mouton. • Two dimensions similar to Michigan/Ohio State Studies. • Concern for subordinates and concern for production/results. • 9.9 is the ideal team approach on grid-balance of task and relationship. • This research influenced modern contingency approaches of today.

46. Leadership Styles This chart is quite a famous representation of what are called leadership styles. As you can see, they are based on the analysis on the last slide.

47. Stop and Reflect Which leadership style is the best fit for these types of behaviour? The leader is described as someone who: Manages by the book encourages staff to be a part of the decision making Is known for a hands-off approach Avoids making decisions and uses delay to let problems solve themselves Let’s discussions roll on without bringing them to resolution Exercises detailed control over budgets Avoids drama, but gets the job done

48. Contingency Theory of Leadership • Behaviour of leader depends on situation leader is in • Calls for adaptability • No one right answer • Have to have keen awareness of the environment, risks and emotions at play • Emotional intelligence comes heavily into play

49. Contingency Theory • Situational leadership is built upon the contingency theory, and refined by Ken Blanchard in the 1980s. • Leadership is composed of both a directive and supportive behaviours. • Coaching and delegating were added to provide four styles.

50. Contingency Theory • Path-Goal Theory developed by Evans & House. • Adapting leadership to the situation. • Leader can impact performance of others by offering paths to desired goals. • Rewards contingent on increased performance. The leader’s job is to use structure, support and rewards to create a work environment that helps employees reach the organization’s goals.