Management Blog

Traits of Modern leaders

Here's an Excellent 30 minute BBC Radio 4 Discussion about Modern Leadership - (first broadcast 2 Sept 2006). The discussion highlights the need for effective modern leaders to have emotional strength and sensitivity, far beyond traditional ideas of more limited autocratic leadership styles.

Philosophy is the platform on which great leadership is built. Get the philosophy right, and the foundation is strong. Ignore the philosophy and all that follows here will be built on sand. Different leaders have different ideas about leadership.

Article by Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze on leadership behaviours - Cont'd

The Transformational Leadership Style Inventory (TLSI)

Building on my work with Rick Roskin, further research indicated that managers have three basic ways in which they go about their work:

• An orientation to Action – taking initiative, focusing on results, focusing on personal achievements.
• An orientation to People – investing in people, delegating responsibility, coaching and supporting.
• An orientation to System – implementing and improving systems and processes, integrating and coordinating things, and taking a strategic view.

In addition, it started to become clear to me that the terms “leader” and “manager” were being used interchangeably but that there was a real difference between managing people and leading them.

At that juncture I came across a book by John Kotter at Harvard in which he made the case for a sharp distinction between management and leadership and argued that an appropriate balance between the two was critical for organisational success. Kotter confirmed I was on the right track. I then spent a lot of time working out how to differentiate between leadership behaviours and what I called “stewardship” (management) behaviours.

But I also knew from long observation and experience that there was a third set of behaviours about which nobody wanted to talk. These were things that people did which consumed great amounts of their time and energy but which had no positive outcomes. If anything, the behaviours had negative outcomes. In the TLSI I called them “energy loss behaviours".

Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze Behavioural Theories

Read on to find out what happens with the next installment of Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze's situational leadership principles

Fiedler’s Contingency Model

So the focus switched to determining how different situations affected leadership style, and a great academic, Fred Fiedler, developed the first comprehensive contingency model for leadership. Strangely enough he called it the Fiedler Contingency Model. We won’t go into the model here because it is difficult to apply in the everyday world of business. Suffice it to say that Fiedler was the person who brought the concept of situation into the main stream of leadership thinking.

Reddin's 3-D model

Bill Reddin made the breakthrough to the next level of practical leadership theories. He developed the first relatively simple method of measuring what he called “situational demands” – i.e. the things that dictate how a manager must operate to be most effective.

Reddin’s model was based on the two basic dimensions of leadership identified by the Ohio State studies. He called them Task-orientation and Relationships-orientation. However he introduced what he called a third dimension – Effectiveness. Effectiveness was what resulted when one used the right style of leadership for the particular situation.

Reddin, like Blake, identified four major leadership styles on the high effectiveness plane and four corresponding styles on the low effectiveness plane, effectiveness being where the leadership style matched the demands of the situation. So a manager who demonstrated a high level of task-orientation and low relationships orientation (equivalent to Blake’s 9,1) where it was the style that was required was called a Benevolent Autocrat while a manager who applied that style of behaviour where the situation did not call for it was labelled an Autocrat.

The real theoretical breakthrough with Reddin’s 3-D model was the idea that one could assess the situation and identify what behaviour was most appropriate. (Effective Situational Diagnosis, W. J. Reddin and R. Stuart-Kotze, MEL, London, 1972.)

Read the next installment in a few days.

Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze Behavioural Theories

Behavioural Theories

World War II provided a huge stimulus for studies into leadership, particularly in the United States. Experience with a large number of people in leadership roles in the armed forces showed that some of them were highly effective and some were ineffective. Given that most of these people had undergone a relatively similar selection process, the question was what made some of them better leaders than others. One example was bomber commanders, some of whom managed to fly hundreds of sorties, drop their bombs on target and on time and return to base on schedule, while others got lost, got shot down, dropped their bombs on the wrong target and failed to get home. Why were some commanders better at the job than others?

About $500,000 was spent in the early 1950s by the US Department of Defence to investigate this phenomenon. The result was what are known as the Ohio State Studies. Vast amounts of data were collected, analysed and subjected to various statistical techniques. The resulting conclusion was that two variables accounted for about two thirds of what leaders did. The Ohio State researchers called these two things initiating structure (essentially a focus on task, organising things and getting them completed) and consideration (essentially a focus on people and relationships).

Out of this came the first big commercial leadership style model, the Managerial Grid (Blake and Mouton.) Blake talked about styles in terms of numbers on the grid – i.e. where a person’s behaviour fitted on the two scales: their degree of concern for people and their degree of concern for production. Essentially he was saying that these two scales are independent of one another. That is, your score on one does not affect your score on the other.

Article by Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze

This is an article written by Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze - The Leadership Theory guru.

This is a somewhat personal note. In some sense it is a reminiscence of my life in the field of leadership and of some of the interesting people I have been fortunate to have met, known and be friends with. It will give you the context of my Momentum Radar model – how it was developed and where it sits in the world of leadership models and diagnostics. It all began when I met Bill Reddin in 1967 and began working with him a couple of years later. He was my great mentor and friend and he got me started on my lifelong interest in leadership.

In this note I have stuck to talking about leadership models that are applicable and practical and have omitted any of the more academic stuff like Vroom and Yetton’s Leader Participation Model, Path-Goal theory and some of the more esoteric things written about leadership. That reflects my bias. I am only interested in things that can be made to work easily and simply and that address observable behaviour. (However if you are interested in some of the more academic approaches but don’t want a heavy treatment you can look at Management, Robbins and Stuart-Kotze, Prentice Hall, any edition – it’s currently in its 7th.)Early leadership theoriesDiscussions about management style have been going on since antiquity. Confucius, in about 500 BC, travelled around China trying to persuade the various feudal kings that he had the formula for effective leadership. His view was that one simply had to be benevolent, humane, just and moderate and all would work well. About 200 years later the first Emperor of China, Ch’in Shih Huang Ti, made his opinion about this formula pretty clear by having 460 Confucian monks buried alive or buried up to their necks and decapitated.

The Trait Approach

Early twentieth century writing and thinking on leadership was based on what one might call "The Great Man Theory." The idea was that if one studied the lives of great leaders one should be able to identify the qualities that differentiated them from ordinary people. This resulted in long lists of characteristics like energy, intelligence, articulacy, assertiveness, determination, focus, etc, etc. The underlying assumption was that leaders were born, not made.People with nothing better to do still try to argue this issue despite the fact that we know that leadership, like pretty well all behaviour, is learned. There are still large numbers of people, many occupational psychologists among them, who claim that there are a number of specific traits which define effective leaders. Unfortunately for them, extensive and definitive research by R. M. Stogdill in 1948, extended and revisited 25 years later, proved without any doubt that there is no set of traits that universally defines effective leadership. Instead Stogdill concluded:

“the qualities, characteristics, and skills required in a leader are determined to a large extent by the demands of the situation in which he is to function as a leader.”

(Apparently, Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership listed over 4,000 studies of leadership. His conclusion was that "the endless accumulation of empirical data has not produced an integrated understanding of leadership." ed.)

Remember the word situation as we go through the sequence of major management/leadership models since then

Management Thinkers

Kenneth Blanchard

With Paul Hersey, the originator of Situational Leadership which argues that the appropriate management style depends upon the situation, largely the maturity of the subordinates. They seem to have taken the work of Blake and Mouton and added the situational element, missing in the earlier work. There are four management styles in their model - Telling, Selling, Participating and Delegating - which form the maturity curve laid over the (fairly standard) four box model, created by a vertical axis of Supportive Behaviour and a horizontal axis of Directive Behaviour.

Subordinate maturity is analysed by answering questions such as "Is the individual or group able to set high but realistic goals?" and "Are they willing and able to accept responsibility?"

Blanchard is more famous as the main author of The One Minute Manager, a short but brilliant book published in 1982, that shows how situational management works in practice - praise people and set clear goals. He now runs a family consulting business with a turnover of about $40m.

The book "The One Minute Manager", which is basically a parable, demonstrates the sequence of setting goals and giving negative as well as positive feedback. It shows how to do this. Its emphasis is positive, however, with statements like "Everyone is a winner. Don't let appearances fool you." and exhortations such as "Catch someone doing something right." The importance of the latter comment is that most bosses check that people aren't doing things wrong, rather than seeking opportunities to praise people for getting things right.

Personal Leadership

Personal leadership

It is a fallacy to believe that the world is divided into leaders and followers. Everyone, at some time and in some circumstances, practises leadership. Indeed, most of the time leadership is a shared activity. This may sound a new thought but as long ago as the early 1900’s Mary Parker Follett, as Jim Stroup says in his book Managing Leadership:

“... observed that individuals had a natural tendency to seek organization in groups. She went on to argue that groups possessed a natural internal dynamic that led to the consensual formulation of goals, and plans of action for attaining them.”

It is Stroup’s thesis - and in this he follows Mary Parker Follett - that leadership arises spontaneously in any group of people and management’s job is to facilitate, enhance and focus this process. In other words, leadership is a natural event, something that happens with many people not just a chosen few. This may sound a little academic, so try the following:

In one of his Thoughts for the Month, Johan Campbell asked What are you doing to deserve your place on the team?

This is an extract from Call of the Wild's on-line development academy. For more information visit the site.

Recruitment Becomes PC

Having just written a job description and then a job advert you become acutely aware of how politically correct we have become in this country. It's amazing how delicate you have to be when wording such ad's to ensure you don't fall foul of the law.

One of the greatest leaders of men has to be Sir Ernest Shackleton and how different it was in his day. When he was recruiting for his Imperial Trans-Antartic Expedition of 1914-1917 he didn't beat about the bush concerning the realities of what lay ahead. This is how he worded his job advert:-

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages.Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

I wonder how many responses you'd get today if you placed this ad in the recruitment sections of the Sunday Supplements?

The Secret Compliment

THE SECRET COMPLIMENT

"I can live for two months on a good compliment."

-Mark Twain

I found this tip on the excellent Genius Catalyst website, Micheal Neil is always worth listening to.

One of my first personal development teachers, a rather roguish meta physician
named Stuart Wilde, was trying to convince me that I had a constant stream of
largely negative chatter going on in my brain throughout the day. This negative
'chatter stream', Stuart asserted, accounted for a great deal of my unhappiness
and the discomfort I habitually felt around strangers and in new situations.

You can read the whole article on Michael's site

http://www.geniuscatalyst.com/public/MNCT.php

Stress Busting

Five Tips to Reduce Stress

Stress Relief tips, techniques and strategies

NOTE: This stress article is a composite of five articles first published in A Daily Dose of Happiness

Stress Relief Tip #1: Do one thing at a time.

Do it mindfully. Do it well. Enjoy the satisfaction.  Then go on to the next thing. Multitasking might work for computers, but humans have yet to get the hang of it. It leads to careless mistakes, shoddy work and unreliable performance. Worst of all, having to do things over. This is no way to live. Give what you're doing your undivided attention. Take the time to get it right. And enjoy the experience.

There are 299 more simple stress relief strategies, tips and techniques in Why Make Yourself Crazy?

Stress Relief Tip #2: Cut down on competitive stress.

It is Day 2 of our stress-relief strategies.  G. Gaynor McTigue, author of the best-selling "Why Make Yourself Crazy?", is with us all week, and he offers another of his top 5 tips to reduce stress.

Today, we compete for everything: the space around us, to be first to own a new product, to get our kids signed up for programs, to get our viewpoints across, to be faster, smarter, richer, sexier. Our days are filled with stressful competitions. And most are absolutely unnecessary. Because they're driven by insecurity, fear of being left behind, an ingrained need to always have more or better than the next guy. Try to get above all that. If you want to compete, vie to be the one who stays calm and in control, who isn't easily sucked in by material things, who avoids being caught up in the daily grab-bag that robs people of health and peace of mind. Compete for that and see how pointless all those other competitions become. And how misguided those who partake in them begin to appear.

There are 299 more simple stress relief strategies and techniques in Why Make Yourself Crazy?

Stress Relief Tip #3: Throw something out every day.

We are at the mid-point of stress-relief week.  G. Gaynor McTigue, author of the best-selling "Why Make Yourself Crazy?", offers another favorite stress-relief strategy:

You've got too much stuff in your house. Office. Garage. Attic. Useless clutter that's weighing you down, getting in the way, obscuring the things you really need. Be realistic. If you're not going to use it, lose it. And you don't have to make a humongous project out of it. Every day, find one thing you don't need and toss it. Or give it away. Over time, the clutter will begin to vanish and space and order will magically appear in your home...and your life.

There are 299 more simple strategies and techniques to reduce stress in Why Make Yourself Crazy?

Stress Relief Tip #4: Eliminate meaningless deadlines.

This is stress-relief week at http://www.TheHappyGuy.com.  G. Gaynor McTigue, author of the best-selling "Why Make Yourself Crazy?", offers this stress-relief strategy:

Our life is full of them. Arbitrary and unrealistic time constraints imposed by ourselves and others that serve only to make us more pressured, anxious, stressed out. For no worthwhile reason. Avoid the trap of assigning time frames to everything you do, especially if you have little idea how long it will take. Instead, make your goal one of completing a project in a careful, profession- al, satisfying manner. In other words, as long as it takes to do it right.  Save your nerves, and your energy, for the few real deadlines we face...like April 15th.

There are 299 more simple stress relief strategies and techniques in Why Make Yourself Crazy?

Stress Relief Tip #5: Get more out of life by doing less.

All week we have been featuring stress-reduction strategies from G. Gaynor McTigue, author of the best-selling "Why Make Yourself Crazy?"  We thank him for being with us as we learn from the final of his top 5 strategies to reduce stress:

What a concept! Is your life fulfilling? Or is it merely crammed? Know the difference and you'll realize it's not the quantity of activities you engage in (or possessions you collect) that ultimately determine your happiness. One naturally unfolding, enriching experience can easily surpasses many rushed and distracted ones. But you may be so chronically overscheduled, you never give yourself a chance to enjoy anything to the fullest.  Experiment. Choose an occasion and give it your complete, mindful and unhurried attention. Then imagine an entire life of such enrichment. It's absolutely attainable.

There are 299 more simple stress relief strategies and tips in Why Make Yourself Crazy?

For more personal development guest articles, check the menu to the left.
For personal growth articles by The Happy Guy, check his personal growth library.

The five stress relief tips are excerpts from G. Gaynor McTigue's Why Make Yourself Crazy?, a book offering 300 stress-relief techniques and tips, and adapted for web article format from their original appearance in A Daily Dose of Happiness.