The Holiday Leadership Theory

by Dr. Denise Trudeau Poskas

Have you ever noticed just how the holidays can bring out the best of people?  They show their ultimate compassion, work hard to meet goals and expectations of others, and they are simply more giving.

Around the holidays people also tend to reflect and genuinely have a conversation with themselves about what they would like to see change in their lives, what they would like to accomplish, and perhaps, what relationships they would like to build.  They also tend to think about all the wonderful things and grateful moments they experience, as well as, appreciate those around them with a heightened level.  Of course, there is a mindset of many gifts; gifts of having family and friends close by, monetary gifts, gifts from Santa and deep spiritual gifts.

Have you noticed this?  Then might it also be true that there could actually be a Holiday Leadership Theory around this concept?  Think about it.  Happy holiday people generate some of the best leadership characteristics.  Would it also be possible that each and every one of us could actually apply those readily throughout the year?  To show the same deep reflection, inspire compassion in others, show generosity, and have an incredibly positive attitude throughout the year would have some impressive impacts.  Also, taking those reflections to seriously motivate yourself to make changes, or essentially to help others create new changes could truly be impactful as well.

Yes, I think that a Holiday Leadership Theory could be that effective as a model for leadership year round.  Then we would also have a mindset of abundance and we realize that we have and gift gifts; gifts of having family and friends close, monetary gifts, gifts from Santa and deep spiritual gifts.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

May the gifts that you bring to others be felt all year!
 

Aspects Within Team Conflict

by Greg Poskas

At times, it seems that conflict is an inevitability when people are brought together.  This can be seen even when there is the greatest of intentions for that team to be assembled in the first place.  What is fascinating are the different events that can cause the conflicts and the aspects that can deliver the team members from those conflicts.

In my own personal experiences in professional environments, I have dealt with certain challenges such as little or no leadership, no organizational vision, counterproductive policies and procedures, unclear team roles, and a lack of trust.  Of all of these, I found the lack of trust to be the absolute most detrimental to a team’s effectiveness and overall productivity.  It instills resentment and fear within the organization.  Through the use of acronyms, there are ways to identify and deal with conflicts in a very memorable manner.

For example, the use of D.A.R.E. to limit problems you encounter:

• D: discover
• A: arrange
• R: roll out
• E: evolve

The use of T.E.A.M.S. to describe how to bring a team back to a group mentality instead of individual goals:

• T: teamwork
• E: enables
• A: all
• M: members’
• S: success

The Four “P”s to guiding yourself and others though conflict:

• Be proactive: Know your team role.
• Be a problem-solver.
• Be patient.
• Think positive.

In Enhancing Effectiveness on Virtual Teams (2011), Berry discusses the four competencies in for leading effective virtual teams with a superb correlation to identifying and alleviating conflict.  I agree where he describes them as being critical (p. 200).  

1. Communication
2. Establishing expectations
3. Allocating resources
4. Modeling desired behaviors

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision… the ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives.  It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” –Unknown.   I feel this is a reflection of those principles Berry was discussing.

Conflicts will occur.  The challenge is what you do with it.  Try being more observant to your colleagues’ behaviors, and see where they may be avoiding conflict.  Just as General George S. Patton said, “Don’t tell people how to do things.  Discuss what the end result should be and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

  

References

Berry, G. R. (2011). Enhancing Effectiveness on Virtual Teams. Journal Of Business   Communication, 48(2), 186-206.

Obstacles to the Success of Strategies

by Greg Poskas

Ideas come and go. Sometimes, these ideas actually come together to form a plan. And even on rare occasions, these plans can come together to form a strategy. But how can this strategy actually be fulfilled? There are many obstacles that can block even the greatest of strategies. When this happens, that strategy is reduced back to merely the ideas that generated it. Ideas that blow in the wind like seeds from a dandelion on a brisk summer day.

Successful high-level strategies in organizations know they will face obstacles and include tactics to overcome them. Some of the hindrances may include a lack of open communication throughout the organization. This can lead to not finding the real reason a strategy may not work. This can also lead to a reduction in truthfulness within the organization. Additional hindrances may come from change that is not fully prepared for or is not accepted by those involved. Although these may block the strategies, there are ways to overcome them.

Solutions can come to those that have the willpower to persevere. Beer and Eisenstat discuss in their article How to Have an Honest Conversation About Your Business Strategy how crafting a “conversation that matters” can provide lessons that teach means to guide the achievement of a strategy (2004). They talk about ideas such as how addressing the most important issues through various public methods, collecting the responses, and allowing employees the freedom to speak their minds without fear in structured ways promotes a fluency throughout that can bring everyone to an understanding and how each individual is an important contributing member of the strategy. They have brought this together into a nine step “Strategic Fitness Process” (Beer & Eisenstat, 2004). These conversations ideally will uncover what is really holding things back and can eventually show the direction on how to drive the necessary changes. Once this direction is discovered, it is a matter of promoting the change in a way that empowers everyone in the organization.

Organizations that wish to follow these guidelines may find themselves blissfully enjoying the rewards of their flourishing strategies. There are some things to remember as they do this. For example, it is recommended that when people are actually honestly speaking their minds, protect them. Protect that conversation in a confidential manner. Also, it is beneficial when talking with people to open the dialog with those in different areas of the organization to further protect their interests. Additionally, another thing to remember is to keep the conversation on topic, concise, and with the issues that matter. Superfluous information can only take momentum away from what needs to get accomplished. Furthermore, when working with change, test the plan before forcing it out. Pounding a square peg into a hole will get the hole filled, but damages the peg and the hole in the process. Find ways to make the changes smoothly and proceed in a way the intentionally includes measures to evaluate its effectiveness.

What it really comes down to is that this strategy is to improve the organization. Improvements may be internal or external, but as long the business performance is better, then everyone can pretty much walk away smiling. The ideas did after all come together to make a worthwhile strategy instead of merely blow away in the wind.

References

Beer, M. & Eisenstat, R. (2004). How to have an honest conversation about your business strategy. Harvard business review. Vol. 82 Issue 2, p82-89. 8p. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com 

Cynicism vs. Skepticism: It’s about Discernment – Part 3

by Zach Shelley

Now that we have discussed the different ways our communication may be misconstrued, I’ll lay out a few examples that may have been experienced in the workplace as either the communicator or the receiver.  I will also list examples of similar communications that use more beneficial and helpful vocabulary.  These examples will also show the need for clarity and specificity in our leadership based directives.

It can help people immensely to remove certain words from their vocabularies. For example, many theorists suggest that the word “should” is detrimental when used in advising statements.  This has been the subject of many studies, but for now, understand that the removal of “shoulds” from directives can aid in clarity and retention. 

I have some examples and their given alternatives to juxtapose the unintended tones that we may be communicating with the beneficial messages that will aid in cultivating better relationships.

1. “This project isn’t ready, take it back and finish it.”
• This project needs more refining; here are some suggestions that will help move the work forward.
2. “You should spend more time with the team.”
• You may find that if you spent more time with the other team members you may find it easier to communicate with them in the future.
3. “I need you to get this project done using my specific methods.”
• I would like you to use this method for completing this project because it will allow us to better study these specific benefits.

In each of these examples, we see how words can affect the tone of the delivery. 

In the first example, the use of refining calls attention to the work that has already been accomplished while still communicating the need for continued work.

In the second example, we can avoid giving advice and asserting our unsupported opinion by dropping the use of “should.”  Furthermore, by communicating the reason for the suggestion we avoid any kind of resentment founded in reasonless commands.

In the final example, we avoid the “because I told you too” application of leadership and inform associates of the reasons behind a specific set of actions.  By communicating the reasons involved in our methods not only will team members better understand the need for certain requirements, they may better understand their role and function in the team or department framework. 

We will revisit some of these examples in future weeks and take a longer look at the research surrounding cultivating vocabulary, positive affect and its benefits in both intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships.

Cynicism vs. Skepticism: It’s about Discernment – Part 2

by Zach Shelley

In the minds of many people, leadership is about power, influence or control. I would argue that true leadership is about cultivation and stewardship. In either case, leaders are very often tasked with making difficult decisions. 

Any agricultural cultivator worth their salt will tell you that there needs to be some pruning, weeding and effort that will remove unwanted factors from their specific crops growth process.  When “growing” an organization, a community, a team or a department, this kind of “pairing down” will need to happen at some point.

In these circumstances, we may find ourselves looking very deeply at situations, opportunities and choices as we attempt to derive the appropriate course of action. The most effective leaders work in and around teams.  This will mean that we will come into contact with many different opinions, ideas and options.  While navigating such environments communication is key and can set a tone for the entirety of the contract, project or department.

On Monday, we began looking at the “Cynic”. It is not a positive designation.  Recently, I had been labeled as such and took it upon myself to find out why and how to remove such labels from myself. By looking at its definitions and applications we can see how damaging it could be to a group of coworkers or team members.

In my experience, leaders may find themselves being label cynics for several reasons. Communicating realism or realistic outcomes can sometimes feel cynical. Planning for worst case scenarios can be misconstrued as cynical. The perception of decision making can be a difficult road to navigate. However, leaders must be discerning in their decisions making and neither of the previous examples were negative pursuits.

How then do leaders make tough decisions, communicate realism and develop effective contingency plans without appearing cynical or damaging the motivation of their direct community?

Firstly, I want you to think back to childhood.  How many of us can remember experiences wherein instruction was explained with a “because I said so.” I don’t believe I was ever fully satisfied with that answer and I doubt any of you were. As leaders, we can appear very cynical indeed by requiring any member of a team to do anything (or not to do something) based on just our platitudinal designations. 

If a team lead or other member approaches a leader with a new marketing plan that for some reason isn’t worth developing, a leader can immediately alienate himself by shooting the idea down and following it by a “because I said no”. This experience may quell any creativity that had been put into the marketing plan and communicate to the team member that their ideas were unacceptable as a whole. These actions are definitely in accord with the definition of cynical we examined on Monday.

By taking the time to describe the projects benefits as well as problems, a team member may find a more defined target to shoot for in the future, thus refining their work and producing a better product or offering for the team.  This is a cultivating attitude and avoids any cynical action. Although it may take a little more time, it could reap a much better end result for the project and employee.

In similar situations, imagine that a team member suggests an unrealistic solution for a problem that your department faces. It may seem obvious to others, including one’s self, that this suggestion has no possible means of working. However, a response of “that’s unrealistic. Anyone else?” may communicate a cynical attitude. The lack of time spent explaining such a statement may be construed as dismissive.  Even if the suggestion seems obviously impossible by you, the group may not know the factors informing such an understanding.  By calling out the high points of such suggestions, and communicating the unattainable pieces of the statement, it better frames the problem for the group as a whole. This in turn can develop more beneficial outcomes as well as more suitable results.

By communicating our thought process’ and situational motivations, leaders can avoid a myriad of negative social designations, like “cynic”. By using moments such as these examples are teaching or refining moments, team growth and understanding is cultivated rather than annoyed resentment.  Keep these ideas in mind as you work with socially based teams.

As promised, we will finish this post by listing several questions that can help associates see your point of view.  If you help team members arrive at the same conclusion as you have by leading them through your thought process while allowing them to see the steps you took to get there, you’ll avoid any “cynical” denouncements and help cultivate a better approach to discernment. Think about these questions the next time you are adding critiques or refinement to a project:

1. Will the implementation of this benefit the team as a whole?
2. Is this project worth the time investment?
3. Do you feel assured of the success of this project?
4. What are your main critiques of this process?
5. How long will this project take to deliver beneficial results?
6. Does the team believe in this course of action?
7. Have you researched the potential results?
8. Will this create more or less work for the team?
9. Will this benefit us long term?
10. Are there more productive options?

By helping others think through the questions that you ask yourself when discerning the pursuit of beneficial outcomes, team members will be able to have a better understanding of what is helpful for the team, company of community as a whole. More refined and well thought through conversations will always help develop successful personal and professional relationships while avoiding negative social designations.

On Friday, we will spend more time discussing vocabulary and how better to develop cultivating over critical language.