Leadership Building

1
Leadership Building

• Michael Dennis, Ph.D.
• Chestnut Health Systems,
• Bloomington, IL
• Presentation at UT CAN Local Academy 2006
  Celebration, Integration and Painting the
  Vision, June 5-7, 2006, Salt Lake City, Utah.
  The content of this presentations are based on
  S.A. Pires (2002). Building Systems of Care A
  Primer. Rockville, MD Center for Mental Health
  Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental
  Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) under
  contract 270-2003-00006 and several individual
  grants. The opinions are those of the author and
  do not reflect official positions of the
  consortium or government. Available on line at
  www.chestnut.org/LI/Posters or by contacting Joan
  Unsicker at 720 West Chestnut, Bloomington, IL
  61701, phone [phone], fax (309)
  829-4661, e-Mail junsicker_at_Chestnut.Org

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Core Leadership Group

• The group that is managing the change and has a
  vested interested in seeing it succeed
  
• Can include
• Federal, state, and local funders/officials
• Program directors, clinical staff, other staff
• Community leaders, parents, youth
• Researchers, local evaluators, data managers
• Others
• 4 Cs of Effective Leadership groups
• Constituency
• Credibility
• Capacity
• Commitment

3
Change in Typical Leadership Style as the System
Evolves

• Initial Charismatic visionary
• Developing Facilitative (giving away power)
• Maturing Strong Management Skills

A versatile leader may shift between the above
styles as needed These leaders could come from an
y of the constituencies groups
4
Effective Collaboration

• Takes real time, resources and efforts
• Is best done with there is a clear and common
  purpose and set of objectives
  

5
Principles of Collaboration

• Agree on core values and common goal to be
  achieved
  
• Develop common language, respecting the
  knowledge/words of each stake holder
  
• Recognize the strengths, limitations, and needs
  of each partner and identify ways to maximize
  their participation
  
• Assume the best intentions of all partners and
  give them the benefit of the doubt
  
• Build and maintain trust to share information,
  perceptions, and feedback to work as a cohesive
  team
  
• Honor all voices by respectfully listening and
  attending to each partner
  
• Share decision making, risks and credits as a team

6
Busting Common Barriers
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Leadership Skills Test (LST)

• Measures attitudes and beliefs about leadership
  strengths in 10 dimensions
  
• There is no right or wrong answer or style and
  this test is only suggestive. The point here is
  to help you identify where your strengths are and
  to match you up with tasks that take advantage of
  those strengths.
• It is obviously useful to also avoid situations
  that involve your weaknesses, to partner with
  people who have complementary strengths, and/or
  to get assistance in these other areas.

8
Leadership Skills Test (LST)
Higher Scores in a dimension represent are
leadership strengths
Higher Total Scores Represent Greater Versatility
in Leadership
Lower Scores Represent Areas to Avoid, Partner or
Seek Training/ Assistance with
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Matching Leadership Tasks to Strengths

• Coaching Improving the competencies and
  commitment of employees through a process of
  coaching that employs the functions of
  counseling, mentoring, tutoring and confronting
  with respect to problems and situations that can
  affect their job
• Communicating Establishing and maintaining open,
  two-way communication with employees that
  provides them with essential job related
  information and obtains feedback about their
  problems, concerns and suggestions.
• Empowering Developing the competencies and
  influence of employees, both as individuals and
  as teams of individuals, in a way that involves
  shared responsibility, shared rewards and a focus
  on meeting performance objectives.

10
Matching leadership Tasks to Strengths

• Facilitating Intervening in the work activities
  of employees for the purpose of helping them to
  increase their full performance potential, to
  solve work related problems and to achieve their
  performance objectives. Strengthening employees
  by providing resources, clarifying roles and
  norms and helping them develop effective work
  processes.
• Influencing Achieving leader acceptance and
  willing followers by using the process of
  influence based on the power of expertise and
  referent power, by inspiring and by creating
  challenging, achievable goals for employees.
• Communicating Managing Change Being an
  effective agent for change by focusing on goal
  attainment and maintaining a sense of control
  during periods of uncertainty while at the same
  time demonstrating flexibility and adaptability.
  Preparing employees to respond to change in a
  constructive way.

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Matching leadership Tasks to Strengths

• Managing Projects Envisioning future events and
  developing strategies for dealing with them.
  Being able to develop project plans, train and
  develop project team skills and establish and
  follow appropriate project control measures to
  ensure goal attainment.
• Servicing Customers Providing quality service to
  both internal and external customers. Committing
  oneself and ones team to meeting all of the
  customer's needs and expectations. Using customer
  feedback for purposes of continuous improvement.
• Solution Finding Defining the problem and
  understanding the real problem or decision issue.
  Effectively using both creative and rational
  problem solving skills in a way that assures full
  inclusion of all members of the team.

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Matching leadership Tasks to Strengths

• Team Building Accomplishing performance
  objectives through effective teamwork. Building
  teams by training employees in team skills,
  encouraging team interaction and by facilitating
  team development through open feedback and
  constructive critique.

Did your scores match your perception of your own
strengths and weaknesses?
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Questions

• Does our cooperative have a clear purpose with
  common goals?
  
• Who is our leadership group?
• Is our leadership representative, credible and
  committed?
  
• How have we ensured that our leaders have the
  capacity to lead effectively?
  
• Are we paying attention to the types of
  leadership we need at various stages of
  development? For various roles within the
  systems of care?
• How are we helping to match, pair, and/or develop
  leaders based on their strengths and weakness?