Embedding Transformational Leadership In Practice

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Embedding Transformational Leadership In Practice

• Caroline Patterson
• Special Adviser, Organisational Development,
• Gateshead Council

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Purpose

• Talk about Transformational Leadership (TF)
• What it is, what it really means
• Why its so important
• Practical things weve done to embed it and 360
  degree appraisal in various organisations
• Some of the lessons learned along the way
• Also here to learn from your experience

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Style

• Need to briefly recap the theory, but well do
  that quickly
• Debunk some of the myths
• Challenge what you believe to be true
• Build in some activities around factors to
  consider when embedding TF/using 360
• Handouts and questionnaires to take away

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Why Im Here

• Met Professor Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe
• in 1999
• Programme Director IDeA Modern Managers Programme
• She conducted the biggest study ever on
  leadership in the public sector
• Worked together since then developing and
  embedding leadership cultures in various
  organisations
• National research- MBA Hull, Members 360

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Why Do We Need Leadership?
Quick Recap.
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Importance of Leadership

• Vision, direction and focus real skill is
  aligning people to it
• Clear goals, dont know where you are going you
  are unlikely to get there
• Team spirit.
• Managers managing is important
• Transformational Leadership has the biggest
  impact on morale, motivation, stress, job
  satisfaction, productivity and performance

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Importance of Leadership

• Poor leadership costs in terms of
  stress related absence, and has enormous cost in
  terms of individual health and psychological well
  being
• Increased focus on leadership development and
  assessment in our Corporate Performance
  Assessment
• Leadership is the single biggest factor that
  drives change and organisational improvement LG
  White Paper

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Direct Relationship Between Leadership,
Motivation, Stress and Performance
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3 Variables That Affect Performance

• Performance
• A Ability and competence
• M Motivation
• R Resources

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Motivation Over Time
PERF
motivation
competence
40-50 effective
TIME
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Leadership is about saying How can I interact
with people to improve their performance, give
them just enough stretch to keep them motivated
and help them realise their potential?
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Whats The Biggest Cause Of Stress In The
Workplace?
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Climate Studies 50s to 90s

• 60-75 of people said that in any organisation,
  the most stressful aspect of their work was their
  immediate boss!

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Controlling Styles
Managers with controlling styles who fail to
clarify roles and responsibilities, who exert
undue pressure have working groups with higher
levels of stress and tension
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Climate Studies- Main Causes Of Stress

• Unclear roles and responsibilities
• Lack of autonomy
• Lack of social support

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Levels Of Arousal
Unacceptable level
Perf.
Acceptable level of stress
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Stress is Infectious!
We leak!!!!

• Average correlation within the same working
  groups
• .92

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Leadership Development

• is both a financial and moral imperative.
• Stress is increasing in
• organisations at a phenomenal
• rate
• Cost of stress is also increasing
• (in terms of absence as well as performance)

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The Search for the Holy Grail

• What makes a good leader?

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Leadership Research The Old Paradigm

• 1930s-50s Great Man Approach
• Traits Approach
• 1960s The Behavioural Approach
• 1970s Situational/Contingency
  Approach

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1960s Behaviour/Style Approaches
one best style
Levels of Freedom
Levels of Control
Tannenbaum Schmidt
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Blanchard-Situational Leadership
PARTICIPATE
SELL
DELEGATE
TELL
FOLLOWER MATURITY HIGH LOW
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The New Paradigms of Leadership
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Changing Paradigms of Leadership

• Seismic shift in thinking in the 70s
• Old models only suitable for stable environments
• Research conducted with first line supervisors
• Need to engage with CExs with experience of
  managing strategic and complex change
• Existing research not particularly valid- all
  self rating

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The Myths of Leadership

• Its rare
• Its found mainly at the top
• Its about being super-human
• You can only do it if you are male!
• (Well save that one for another time)

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Research on Charisma

• Early research- charismatic leaders were the star
  performers
• Utter rubbish -completely discredited
• You were perceived to be charismatic if you were
  evangelistic, expressive, waived your arms about,
  had blue eyes, were extrovert rather than
  introvert
• Leadership is about being quietly effective

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Unrealistic Job Ads
Knight in shining armour required to charge in on
their white horse and save the organisation from
ruin- Mere mortals need not apply!
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Whats the Difference Between Leadership and
Management?
Another paradigm shift-leadership no longer
viewed as a subset of management.
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Kotters Comparison of Management Leadership

• Transactional Leadership
  
• (Management)
• Creating Planning
  Budgeting
• Agendas
• Developing HR
• 
  Organising Staffing
  
• Execution Controlling
  Problem- solving
• Outcomes Produces a degree of
  predictability order

• Transformational Leadership
• (Leadership)
• Establishing Direction
• Aligning People
• Motivating Inspiring
• Produces change - often to a
  dramatic degree

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Leadership Versus Management
Management is about coping with complexity,
provides stability, order and consistency - Is
transactional - Promotes the status quo
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Leadership Versus Management
Leadership is having vision, a clear sense of
direction and aligning people to it, helping
people cope with change -Promotes
transformation and drives change
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Leadership Versus Management

• Management is about doing things right
• Leadership is about doing the right thing
• We need to develop both
• But where did the terms transactional
• and transformational come from?..

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Transactional versus Transformational

• Transactional - negotiation exchange or
  bargaining
• Transformational - a vision that things would be
  different or better

George McGregor Burns
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1980s Basss Model of Transformational
Leadership

• Idealised Influence (Vision)
• Inspirational Motivation (Charisma)
• Intellectual Stimulation
• Individualised Consideration

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Vision

• Vision is the dream that invents the future
• Developing a shared vision
• Direction, aligning people
• Painting pictures
• Make people believe its achievable

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Be a Good Conductor
The task is to get the orchestra working to
deliver the music in your head. Its a three
stage operation- hear the music, get it over to
the orchestra get them to give it to the
audience Leonard Bernstein
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Redefining Charisma

• Quietly effective
• Positive role models others look up to and want
  to follow
• Encourage people to give more of themselves, go
  the extra mile
• Can be positive or negative
• Beware the pseudo-charismatics

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Pseudo- Charismatics

• Often do well at interview
• All gloss and no substance
• Highly visible
• Good at self promotion/taking credit for the work
  of others
• Dont deliver results
• Can generate compliance cultures

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Zero correlation between charisma and
performance, strong correlation between charisma
and pay!
Potentially Worrying !!
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Intellectual Stimulation

• Encourage people to question the way things are
  done and are not defensive
• Take a collaborative approach to problem solving
• Intelligent and use a range of behaviours-adjust
  pitch and style according to whom they are
  dealing with, gain credibility quickly

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Individualised Consideration

• Genuine concern for others and their welfare
• Communicate positive expectations of people
• Treat them with dignity and respect
• Not interested in status and hierarchy- treat
  everyone as equals
• Value diversity and difference
• Are you ok?

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Does The Soft and Fluffy Stuff Really Work?

• Research has shown that
• Transformational Leadership has a significantly
  greater impact than Transactional Leadership on a
  variety of subjective and objective outcome
  measures, including
• job satisfaction, motivation, and performance of
  followers
• lower levels of stress burnout amongst staff
• more collaborative, innovative, harmonious teams
• financial performance of organisations
• performance in public sector organisations
• Source Bass, B.M. Avolio, B.J., (1996)
  Postscripts Recent Developments for Improving
  Organisational Effectiveness, Sage

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The Importance Of Balance
Its about being transactional in a
transformational way
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Managers Managing Is Also Important
Appraisal
Clarifying roles and expectations
Competency Framework
Managing poor performance
Constitution
Delegations
Structures
Training on key skills
Decision making
Training on personnel policies and procedures
Reward/sanction
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Why Conduct Further Research?

• Most leadership research was from the US
• Based on commercial military organisations
• Focus was typically on male white top managers
  who were self rating
• Gender race bias

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How Was The Research Conducted?
Interviews with 150 male and female managers, LG
and NHS using Rep Grid

• Think about leaders you have known
• 2 outstanding, 2 average, 2 poor
• Write their initials on a card
• Shuffle cards and pick out 2
• To what extent are they similar but different
  from the rest?
• Elicit and group constructs

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New Model of Transformational Leadership (1)

• (1) Leading others
• Genuine concern for others
• Enabling
• Being accessible, available,
• Encourages change

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New Model of Transformational Leadership (2)

• (2) Personal Qualities
• Honest and consistent
• Acting With Integrity
• Being Decisive
• Inspiring Others
• Resolving Complex problems

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New Model of Transformational Leadership (3)

• (3) Organisational Skills
• Political sensitivity and skills
• Networker, promoter, communicator
• Manages change sensitively and skilfully

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3 Types of Handout In your Pack

• How TF am I/Are We?

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US Versus The UK Model

• US models focus on charisma and vision, the
  leader as a role model
• UK public sector model leadership is about
  engaging with partners, developing a shared
  vision and engagement
• Genuine concern fourth for Bass, top of the LG
  scale
• Ability to communicate positive expectations and
  develop good networks is really important

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Transformational Leaders

• Are outward looking
• Drive change in organisations and make things
  happen
• Clear sense of direction and focus
• Develop a shared vision and bring people along
  with them
• Communicate positive expectations
• Accessible, approachable, are honest consistent
  and act with integrity
• Motivate and empower employees, help them cope
  with change

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The Relationship Between Leadership and Self
Awareness
Leadership and self awareness are inextricably
linked- to be a leader you first need to know
yourself Robert Greenleaf
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Leadership is connecting what I do to who I am
to those I serve You are not a leader if no-one
is following you!!!
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Problems with Traditional Appraisal
BOSS
LINE MANAGER
TEAM LEADER
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360 Is a Great Tool for Developing SAw

• Multiple perspectives on your leadership style
• Encourages a culture of openness and feedback
• Studies have shown it improves all aspects of TF
  ( if development needs are addressed)
• Performance improvement is sustained for at least
  two years

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Particularly As..

• Direct reports are the best predictors of
  performance
• Over and above assessment centres for the first
  seven years
• We all have blind-spots
• Everybody sees me differently but me!

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UK Model, Based on a 360 Approach
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Activity

• How transformational is your organisation?
• How do you know?
• Are you doing enough to develop TF, if not what
  practical things do you need to do?
• (Think specifically about the implications for
  recruitment, A and D, competency frameworks,
  development/ succession planning etc)?
• What practical things would you need to consider
  prior to implementing 360?

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Lessons Learned

• Embedding Transformational Leadership

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Embedding Leadership Cultures in Organisations

• Leadership culture are 2 sides of same
  coin-you cant change one without the other

Schein
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The Culture Behaviour Cycle
Culture
Influences
Reinforces
Behaviour
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Focus At An Organisational and An Individual
Level..
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Embedding TF-Research

• Clear statement about which leadership and
  management skills the organisation values
• Core competency framework which assesses
  management (the what) and TF leadership (the how)
• Dont run out-dated re-cycled management
  development programmes
• Assess the right behaviours when you recruit or
  promote (handout refers)
• Send a clear message-you only get on here if you
  do x!!!

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Challenge The Unwritten Rules
Explore the contradictions
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Some Examples

• We want a high performance culture but reward
  loyalty/length of service
• We want to reward TF but Job Evaluation rewards
  the task/ we dont look for TF in recruitment
• We are committed to equalities but few women make
  it to the top
• We want to focus less on hierarchy and more on
  empowerment- but only senior managers can present
  to members
• Hull research-no contradictions in excellent
  organisations

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Other Lessons Learned

• Never under-estimate the effort it takes to embed
  this down to grass roots-change agents can help
• Have a clear communications strategy that tackles
  the soggy sponge
• Then do some mystery shopping to find out whether
  employees at different levels know what TF is,
  what they can expect in terms of their managers
  and leaders?
• Training is just the beginning-the days of just
  running a conference and expecting it to happen
  are over!!!
• Focus on tangible results.

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Other Lessons Learned..

• Managers at all levels need to work with their
  teams and identify practical things they will do
  to to engender TF in their team/service and
  enhance their own style
• Publicise quick wins (articles, certificates,
  recognition etc)
• Its not just about training
• Recruitment and succession planning are key
  (recruitment fact-sheet refers)

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Other Lessons Learned

• Dont forget to bring your policies into line-
  reward, recognition, bullying and harassment,
  managing poor performance
• This is also about how we do business- the how we
  go about projects is as important as delivering
  to time

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Dont Forget The Importance Of Balance
Its about being transactional in a
transformational way
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• Individual as well as organisational behaviour
  contribute to culture.

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Embedding a Culture of Transformational Leadership

• Commitment from CEx and senior managers is vital
• Studies show there are three major blocks to TF
  in organisations
• Senior managers
• Senior managers and
• Senior managers!!!
• and they are crucial in terms of role modelling
• the right behaviours

Bass, B.M. Avolio, B. J. (1993)
Transformational leadership organizational
culture. Public Administration Quarterly, 17,
112-121.
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Essentially, Culture Management is Message
Management
Culture is created and sustained through the
messages people receive about how to behave.
Carolyn Taylor, Walk the Talk
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Managers Are Carriers Of Culture

• Send important messages about what s
  acceptable and what isnt through the way they
  lead,manage and interact with others
• Whether they are open to feedback and
  suggestions
• By what they choose to reward, how fair they
  are in this process
• Whether they deal with inappropriate
  behaviour, and how well they tackle it
• We must invest in their development

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Quick Levers to Pull In Terms of Culture Change
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Can Leadership Really be Developed?

• It depends..
• On the attitude of the individual
• Preparedness to accept others views as valid
• Whether they are open to feedback
• Quality of feedback
• The organisations commitment to reinforcing
• what is important- supporting development-
  whats the sanction if people dont change?

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Lessons Learned

• Embedding 360 Degree Appraisal

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Critical Success Factors

• Be clear about why you are using it
• Is the organisation ready?
• Ethics/confidentiality agreement- the person owns
  the data
• 360 should be used primarily for development
  purposes rather than performance assessment (360
  should not be linked to performance pay)

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Critical Success Factors

• Supplements rather than replaces A and D
• Chose a valid, reliable instrument which reflects
  your strategic aims
• Cost and complexity can be a problem
• Pilot-light small fires
• Start at the top
• Develop feedback skills first

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Get People To Admit There Is a Problem!!!

• When was the last time you asked for feedback
  about your personal style?
• How frank were the conversations?
• Do you know how your team would describe your
  style, your strengths, what you bring?
• Do you know what they want you to stop doing/ do
  differently?
• Is there two way or one way feedback in A and D?

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Critical Success Factors

• Clear advice on choosing raters
• Brief raters on TF- they need to understand what
  they are assessing
• More detailed briefings may be required for
  instruments which also assess competence
• Online briefings
• Credible qualified facilitator
• Prioritised Personal Development Plans with no
  more than three key objectives
• Get commitment to resourcing development needs

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Embedding Transformational Leadership In Practice

• A Question to close..
• Can an organisation be transformational or is it
  the people that make it?