DCFS leadership

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D. 1

Bret L Simmons, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Management,

UNRwww.bretlsimmons.com

www.slideshare.net/bretlsimmons

What are we going to do today?

• Turn ALL cell phones OFF• Relax!• Keep an open mind• Ask questions• Interact with me and your

colleagues


Agenda

•Breaks 1.5 to 2 hours•Lunch 11:30 (?)



Topics Today• Behavior• Leadership• Purpose• Change• Followership• Assertive

Communication


Creative Tension

Goal/Ideal“the way things could be”

Current State“the way things are”

Gap Delay

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Exercise 1: Behavior at work

• Introduce yourself• What things do people do at

work to perform their jobs?• What other things do people do that are not part of their job performance?

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D.


Behavior At Work

Task Behaviors Extra-Role Behaviors


Always remember….


Behavior is a function of both the person

and the environment

(system).B = f (P/E)


Why it matters

Your explanation for the behavior that you observe (caused by a combination of person and environment factors) is critical because it determines your reaction to the behavior, and the thing you control the most at work is your own personal behavior.



• Think of an example at work where a behavior is strongly influenced by a process.

• What changes could be made to the process to get a different behavior?

• How much authority do you have to make those changes to the process?

Exercise 2: B = f (P/E)

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D. 11Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D. 11

“When we attribute behavior to people rather than system structure, the focus of management becomes the search for extraordinary people to do the job rather than designing the job so that ordinary people can do it.”

(Sterman, 1994)


What is the single best predictor of work performance across many occupations studied in both the US and many different cultures?


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Single Best Predictor of Performance

General Mental Ability

(Intelligence)

Ok, so what?Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D.


Implications

• Talent is NOT fixed unless you believe that it is. Treat talent as something almost everyone can earn, not that just a few people own.

• Everyone can learn to work smarter



Implications

• When problems occur:–Impression Management

or–Opportunity to learn



Implications

The law of crappy systems trumps the law of crappy people



Implications

• Wisdom, not intelligence, is probably the most important talent for sustaining organizational performance

• Encourage people to be nosy and noisy - it promotes wisdom



Pfeffer & Sutton (2006) The talents of wisdom: people who sustain organizational learning

• Noisy complainers: Repair problems right away and then let every relevant person know that the system failed

• Noisy troublemakers: always point out others’ mistakes, but do so to help them and the system learn, not to point fingers (purposeful vs. egocentric)

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Pfeffer & Sutton (2006) The talents of wisdom: people who sustain organizational learning

• Mindful error-makers: Tell managers about their own mistakes, so that others can avoid making them too. When others spot their errors, they communicate learning – not making the best impression – is their goal.

• Disruptive questioners: won’t leave well enough alone. They constantly ask why things are done the way they are done. Is there a better way of doing things?


What are the TWO next best

predictors of performance?



Next Best Predictors of Performance

• Job Satisfaction•Organizational Commitment


Overall Job Attitude•Satisfaction•Commitment

Individual Effectiveness •Task performance•Extra-role performance (OCB)•Lateness•Absenteeism•Turnover

Conclusion: A sound measurement of overall job attitude is one of the most useful pieces of information an organization can have about its employees

Harrison, D.A., Newman, D.A., Roth, P.L. 2006. How important are job attitudes?

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Job Satisfaction

What are the most common things (5) that people have degrees of satisfaction with at work?


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Job Satisfaction (P or E?)

• Pay• Opportunity for promotion• Supervision• Co-workers• The work itself

• Which are the most important?



Organizational Commitment 1.A belief in the goals and

values of the organization.2.A willingness to put forth

effort on behalf of the organization.

3.A desire to remain a member of the organization.


Organizational Commitment (P or E?)

Job satisfaction Participation Job security Job characteristics

(autonomy, responsibility, interesting work)

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D.27

Leadership• What makes a good leader?

• What makes a good follower?

• Is there a crisis in leadership today? If so, what is it?


Management vs. Leadership

ManagersDo things right

Masters of existing routinesEfficiency


Management vs. Leadership

LeadersDo the right thingVision and judgment

Effectiveness


Leadership vs. Management

To do the right thing, a leader needs to understand what it takes to do things right

(Bob Sutton)


Action Memo

• Leadership is an everyday way of acting and thinking that has little to do with a title or formal position in an organization.

• Recognize the opportunities for leadership all around you and act like a leader to influence others and bring about changes for a better future.


Leadership

An influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their shared purpose.

(Daft, 2002)


Purpose

What is your organization’s mission?

What is your organization’s vision?

WHY do you do these things?


Purpose: The Missing Factor

Mission – who, when, how we will get there

Vision – where we are goingValues – rules of engagement

and norms of behaviorPurpose – why we do what we

do


Examples of Purpose

University of Texas Austin:

To transform lives for the benefit of society

Mary Kay Cosmetics:

Enhancing the lives of women around the world


Purpose

• Never changes• Short and easy for all to remember• Serve as a guide for everyone’s

daily behavior• When reasonable people disagree

on the “right thing to do”, purpose should be the guiding principle


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Followers and leaders both orbit around the purpose, followers do not orbit around the leader. But if the purpose is not clear and motivating, leaders and followers can only pursue their perceived self-interest, not their common interest.

Purpose

Leadership and Change

• Change requires leadership• Leadership necessitates

change• Successful leadership

requires continuous personal change


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Sacred Cows• The barriers to change that everybody

knows about but that nobody talks about. They are the policies and procedures that have outlived their usefulness – but that no one dares touch

• What are the biggest sacred cows in your organization?

• What is it that keeps people from leading these sacred cows to pasture? What are the barriers to change in your organization?


Driving out fear during hard times

• Prediction: Give people as much information as possible about what will happen to them and when it will happen

• Understanding: Give people detailed information about why actions, especially actions that upset and harm them, were taken

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• Control: Give people as much influence as possible over what happens, when things happen, and the way things happen to them; let them make as many decisions about their own fate as possible

• Compassion: Convey sympathy and concern for the disruption, emotional distress, and financial burdens that people face

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Driving out fear during hard times

Exercise #3: Fear

• How pervasive is the climate of fear in your organization and how damaging are the effects?

• Why does the climate of fear exist? What is driving and sustaining fear?

• What can you do about it?

How to spot an asshole (Sutton, 2007)

1. After talking to the alleged asshole, does the ‘target” feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled by the person? In particular, does the target feel worse about him or herself?

2. Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those people who are more powerful? (Kiss up, kick down)

Sutton’s “Things I believe” (some)

• Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive, self-centered jerk

• Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are you will eventually start acting like them

• The best test of a person’s character is how he or she treats those with less power

• The best single question for testing an organization’s character is: What happens when people make mistakes?


Leadership: once again• Do the right thing• An influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their shared purpose.


Exercise #4

• Individually, then in groups:–What is the biggest opportunity for

improvement that you see in your organization?

–What is your suggestion to your leader for how to address that opportunity?

• Pick a leader to role play with me

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•Leaders usually lead as they are led.

•You will probably lead the way that you follow.

What do you think?


Effective Followers

Effective followers are active, responsible, autonomous in their behavior, and critical in thinking without being disrespectful (?) or insubordinate (?).

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Effective Followers

• Practice self-management and self-responsibility. Do not require close supervision.

• Other-centered, committed to the organization and its purpose. Not self-centered or self-aggrandizing.

• Invest in competence and professionalism (they assume the responsibility to develop themselves)

• Courageous, honest, credible


Effective Followers

As a follower, you are responsible for your behavior, not the reaction of your leaders and peers. Do the right thing.

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Effective Followers

What about loyalty?



Loyalty

Both leaders and followers are entering into a contract to pursue the common purpose within the context of their values. The loyalty of each is to the purpose and to helping each other stay true to that purpose.


At its best, leadership is shared among leaders and followers, with everyone fully engaged and accepting higher levels of responsibility and accountability to each other (Daft, 2002)


Courageous Followership

• Courage: The ability to step forward through fear– Accepting responsibility– Nonconformity– Push beyond your comfort zone– Ask for what you want and say what you think– Fight for what you believe

• Whether leading or following, strive to encourage, not discourage those around you


Courage of the follower

An individual who is not afraid to speak and act on the truth as she perceives it, despite external inequities, is a force to be reckoned with.

Because courage implies risk, you should develop contingency plans

“Courage muscle” develops to the degree that we exercise it.



Effective followership requires the courage (Chaleff, 2009): To assume responsibility To serve To challenge To participate in transformation To take moral action, and possibly even

leave Effective leadership requires the courage to

listen to followers



All of the following material on courageous followership (slides 57- 81) is based on the work of Ira Chaleff (2009) The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To And For Our Leaders


Courage to assume responsibility

(look inside yourself first)

• Assume responsibility for themselves and the organization

• Do not hold a paternalistic image of the leader or the organization

• Initiate values-based, purposeful action to improve processes

• The “authority” to initiate comes from the courageous follower’s understanding and ownership of the common purpose, and from the needs of those the organization serves.


Unless and until you assume full

responsibility for yourself, you force others to assume responsibility for

you


Courage to assume responsibility for yourself

• Interdependent relationships: when every one assumes responsibility for themselves

• Dependent relationships: follower does not assumer responsibility for himself or the leader does not acknowledge the follower’s responsible behavior


• Do your people come to you with complaints or suggestions that they then expect you to resolve?

• Or do your people come to you with suggestions for improvement that they are willing to take some leadership in implementing?

Courage to assume responsibility for yourself


Followership style• Partner: high support, high challenge

– Risk taker, purpose driven, holds self and others accountable, confronts sensitive issues, peer relations with authority

• Implementer: high support, low challenge– Dependable, supportive, defender, team

oriented, compliant, respectful of authority• Individualist: low support, high challenge

– Confrontational, self-assured, independent thinker, self-marginalizing, unintimidated by authority

• Resource: low support, low challenge– Present, uncommitted, executes minimum

requirements, makes complaints to third parties, avoids the attention of authority.


Rhetoric of Partnership

• Partner followers don’t “dump” on leaders– “This sucks (and so do you) and YOU

need to fix it. What’s wrong with you?”• Partner followers challenge the leader,

but also try to share responsibility with the leader for correcting the situation– “This does not seem to be working and I

think we can do better. Have you considered these alternatives/options? Here is what I would be willing to do to help.”


Paradox of Partnership

• The only way to develop your partnership skills is to practice them, and you may not be (probably won’t be) invited to be a partner.

• Your responsibility to practice partnership is independent of your invitation to do so.

• You won’t encourage partnership as a leader unless you have practiced partnership as a follower.


Think about it

When was the last time your challenged your supervisor’s behavior or policies? Why did you do it? What were the results?


Improving the Process

• Stop thinking its not your problem. Realize it is your responsibility.

• Courageous followers don’t just tell the leader “something should be done about this,” adding to the burden of leadership, but present ideas for improving the process that the leader can consider and they offer to help with the implementation.


Eliciting Feedback

•Focus on performance and behavior – things that you can control and change


Courage to Serve the Purposeful Leader (Look outside yourself)

• Assume new or additional responsibilities to unburden the leader and serve the organization

• Stand up for the leader and the tough decisions a leader must make for the org. to achieve its purpose

• Are as passionate as the leader in pursuing the common purpose

• Stay alert for areas in which their strengths complement the leader’s and assert themselves in these areas.


Courage to challenge (the leader that has wandered off

purpose)• Give voice to the discomfort they feel when the

behaviors or policies of the leader or group conflict with their sense of what is right with respect to the purpose

• Willing to stand up, stand out, to risk rejection, to initiate conflict in order to examine the actions of the leader and group when appropriate

• Willing to deal with the emotions their challenge evokes in the leader and group

• Value organizational harmony, but not at the expense of the common purpose and their integrity


Courage to Challenge

• Conditioned for others to be responsible for our behavior but we are not held responsible for theirs.

• Immature leaders surround themselves with followers that kowtow to them.

• Skillful followers confront a leader in a way that simultaneously respects the accomplished adult, preserves the adult’s self-esteem, and challenges the immature behavior.



• Should be willing to challenge a leader’s behavior and policies – behavior is the most difficult


Challenging indirectly

• Find ways to engage rather than alarm the leader.

• Questions to shift perspective: “Is there another way we can look at this situation?”

• Anticipating questions others might ask of the leader about her policy: “How would we respond to the concern that….”



• Avoiding knee-jerk rejection– Don’t ask for and don’t expect an

immediate action or decision – allow time for the leader to “think about it”

– Keep the door open for the leader to reflect

• The duty to obey– If we choose to continue being a

follower of this leader and if the policies are not morally repugnant to us, we have the responsibility to implement the policies.

– We have the right to challenge policies, but do not have the right to sabotage implementation.



• Challenge abuse early• Challenging the use of language• Arrogance – leaders believe they are

qualitatively different from their followers

• Leaders who scream• Personal issues (e.g. infidelities,

sexual harassment, substance abuse)

• Leaders who won’t challenge their leaders

• Challenge thyself, too – BEFORE challenging the leader.


The courage to listen to followers• Do you really want courageous followers?

– May say one thing, but behavior and polices encourage other behaviors from followers

– Acid test: do followers actually come to you with tough issues about corporate issues or your own behavior and policies?

• What messages are number twos sending?– Responsible not only for the cultural and

moral tone you set personally, but also for the tone set by those with whom you surround yourself. (example)


Courage to Listen to Followers

• Appreciating constructive challenge more– Do you really appreciate staff who

challenge the way in which you are leading?

– Create a climate in which you hear and pay attention to tough feedback.• Examine your own beliefs about authority,

what is and is not appropriate to say to those in authority

• Reflect on your comfort with criticism



• If you react defensively when criticized, you are unlikely to hear further about the matter or to hear further from the individual.

• A requisite of good leadership is to override naturally defensive feelings, statements, and behaviors, and display genuine interest in what sources of critical feedback are telling you.

• Demonstrate responsiveness to feedback



• Inviting creative challenge–Proactive vs. reactive–Distinguish between challenge to your authority and challenge to your ideas



• When leaders present their own ideas for action before giving their team a chance to generate a range of options, they inhibit further dialogue.


A culture of communication, not complaints

• Complaints should be taken to the person or persons who need to be addressed for it to be resolved.

• Are there complaints about you that you are not hearing?

• Leaders that listen to complaints are colluding with the dysfunctional culture.

• If you listen to complaints, you are creating dependent, not interdependent relationships


Assertive Communication

• The ability to communicate clearly and directly what you need or want from another person in a way that does not deny or infringe upon the other’s rights.

• Use I-statements rather than you-statements; produce dialogue rather than defensiveness.


Assertive vs. Aggressive

Assertive Aggressive

Verbal Statement of wants. Honest statement of feelings. Direct statements which say what you mean. I statements.

“Loaded” words. Accusations. Subjective terms. “You” statements that blame or label

Nonverbal general demeanor

Attentive listening. Generally assured manner, communicating caring support.

Exaggerated show of strength. Flippant, sarcastic style.Air of superiority.

Voice Firm, warm, well modulated, relaxed Tensed, shrill, loud, shaky; cold, demanding; superior, authoritarian

Eyes Open, frank, direct. Eye contact, but not glaring or staring

Expressionless, narrowed, cold, glaring; not really “seeing” others

Stance and posture

Well balanced, straight on, open, erect, relaxed

Hands on hips, arms crossed, feet apart. Stiff, rigid, rude.

Hands Relaxed motions Clenched. Abrupt gestures, fingerpointing, fist pounding.


I-statements: Three components

1. A specific and nonblaming description of the behavior exhibited by the other person

2. The concrete effects of that behavior

3. The speaker’s feelings about the behavior


I-statement examples

Behavior Effects Feelings

When you come late to our meetings

We have to use valuable time bringing you up-to-date, and others end up doing your share of the work

And I resent that

When you interrupt me I lose my train of thought and don’t get to make my point

And that makes me angry

When you don’t complete your team assignments

It disrupts the team’s ability to complete it’s mission

And that concerns me


Assertive communication

• In addition to using I-statements:– Empathize with the other person’s

position in the situation– Specify what changes you would like

to see in the situation or in another’s behavior, and offer to negotiate those changes with the other person

– Indicate, in a nonthreatening way, the possible consequences that will follow if change does not occur.


Assertive Communication:

An example• “When you are late to meetings, I get

angry because I think it is wasting the time of all the other team members and we are never able to get through our agenda items. I would like you to consider finding some way of planning your schedule that lets you get to these meetings on time. That way, we can be more productive at the meetings and we can all keep to our tight schedules.”


Open Discussion

• What does your group see as the biggest “gaps” between where you are and where you need to be?

• How can you help each other “hold creative tension” as you work to close these gaps?

• Any questions of me?


www.slideshare.net/bretlsimmons

Thanks!

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DCFS leadership