Leadership in Human Service Organizations

1. Leadership in Human Service Organizations Class 9 August 3, 2010

2. What makes a good leader? • Think of a person you know to be an excellent leader (either personally or from afar; living today or someone in the past). • What are the 10 qualities that make you think highly of that person’s leadership? • Consider a specific incident in which you thought that person evidenced exceptional leadership skills. Which of the 10 qualities were most important. Why?

3. What is Leadership? A leader is best When people barely know that he exists, Not so good when people obey and acclaim him, Worst when they despise him. “Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you”; But of a good leader, who talks little, When his work is done, his aim is fulfilled, They will all say, “We did this ourselves.” -Lao-tzu, circa 600 BC

4. What is leadership? • Traditional top-down; command and control leadership does not encourage risk and innovation • Future leadership will be something everyone throughout our organizations and society will be involved in from time-to-time • Not just about doing things right, but about doing the right things

5. Dynamic InteractionManagers, Staff, Situations • Leadership styles: • Directive: takes personal responsibility for major decisions • Participative: present ideas and invite feedback from staff • Delegative: derive satisfaction from giving decisin making responsibilities to staff

6. Dynamic Interaction: staff • Factors operating within staff can influence decision making style • Staff are experienced, motivated to make decisions, identify with agency goals, manage unstructured work and work independently leads to a delegative approach • Staff are inexperienced, reluctant to take on responsibilities, require structure, resist making decisions may require a more directive management style

7. Dynamic Interaction: situations • Values, habits, and traditions of organization • Organization size and structure • Organization’s location • Types of problems that organization targets • Time pressure and deadlines Exercise flexible leadership and combine approaches

8. Leadership Competencies • Effective managers have an outstanding ability to get things done by: • Articulating a future orientation • Being a social entrepreneur • Treating staff with dignity • Communicating significant messages • Engendering trust • Inspiring top-level performance

9. Leadership Attributes • Emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1998) • self-awareness • Self-regulation • Motivation • Empathy • Social skills

10. Transformational Leadershipin Public Service Agencies • Managers in public/social service have an obligation to maintain the social values and integrity of the institution (Terry, 1995) • Leader’s role is to “conserve” the public service values that are part of the organization’s mission • Need to balance professional expertise, political skills, and social service values

11. Leadership in Public Service Organizations • Street Level Leadership (Vinzant & Crothers, 1998) studied 100 public workers • Front-line leadership in public service agencies • Social service workers have considerable discretion in how they act and decisions they make • Exercise leadership in their relationships with clients and others • Exercise influence and influenced by and accountable to others = transformative leadership

12. Leadership in Public Service • Skills of shared leadership • Focuses on clusters of individuals working together; team leadership • Leadership that energizes the group or the organization • New leadership: • Helps group understand its potential • Integrates and articulates the vision of the group • Acts as a “trigger” or stimulus for group action

13. Questions for Discussion • What types of leadership do you see in your organization? • What are considered the most important leadership competencies?