Leadership and what it entails
Ethics on leadership involves authority on self and others to help the organization uphold values that are important to the set up. Society’s need for common good and peaceful interaction and interrelationships are based on honesty, service to others and moral courage. After all, ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the intent, means, and consequences of moral behaviors.
Moral issues such as; equality, safety, properties, respect, human relationships; to name a few, are social consciences to be considered when it comes to our day-to-day interaction with all creatures here on earth. Even though our behaviors and personality has common relation with our culture from where we have established our early environment, as a person, being human, we have distinctive characteristics that are more unique that has more and higher significance with those of other creatures in the planet. Simply because; we possess the moral sense and we have a conscience to distinguish our actions and decisions based on our judgments between right and wrong.
When we are aware of the limits of our actions to deliberate our thoughts to actualization, we then are conscious of all the consequences of them. And, this is the turning point of ones ability to choose what decision to make based on the ethics that society have imposed. We are also all influenced from three formations in our growing years; that is, by association, through books we read, and in our own self concepts. As we grow with reason, we can know what we can act and cannot, based upon our consciousness of the cultural issues of morality which determine our peer’s trust and respect on us.
Ethics as we all know is just as important as values. Some act on their ethical judgments based on self-defined morals as influenced in their growing years’ environment, and from association with our peers, authority, and self-convictions as well as the values we hold. As a leader, it is important to determine our own moral principles and decide ethical conducts in the light of the meaning that it attaches with our own lives; from our own cultures, education, and purposes in life.
Ethics embrace values and morality as an important factor and full partner in the quest for an outstanding performance, not only in leadership but in a person’s daily actuation. Ethics in work and leadership is important more than anything. The work rules, the codes of conducts in the workplace is the determining factors what the organization strive and live for. Reputation and Success are synonymous without question. Everything that is happening inside the operation of the organization reflects the ethical ideals of the ownerships the members hold within their beliefs and values. And then what is transported to the outside world of their circle that determines reciprocity of public trust and loyalty.
We are not born with values, but we become what we are as influenced from our own cultures and societies where we grow and when become aware of them as children. We adopt what is being promoted to us; and from it, thus our own values are born. The more we understand our values deep within us, the clearer we can be with what we want to do with our lives, how we want to live our lives. We have a good picture of our self identity and we become more confident with our actions and actuation in our day to day existence. When we developed good character traits from the values we hold, we then possess qualities of great leadership.
Leadership requires competence; to be caring, having value-based convictions, and must be committed to certain ideals and goals that achieve the group’s vision and mission. As ethics in leaderships are required; leaders will have to have the instinct of higher ideals, possess values, and strive to be just, to serve all for the common good. Commitment to the basic values such as honesty, responsibility, charity, excellence, and persistence are necessary for building trust. And trust must be attained because it is the bedrock of the organizational survival and its growth over the long term.
People will forgive the leader who fails to manage by objectives or in its inefficiency in the use of time, and sometimes when a leader fails to achieve the smoothest human relations; but, they cannot forgive and it is difficult for anyone in society to forgive the leader who are immoral and unprincipled. This is the reason why leaderships must not only be a visionary, but also know the importance and exercise good judgments of actions and decisions based on the principles of right and wrong. And mostly, embrace the ethics of values and morality as full partners in the quest for its performance. To test their actions and decisions for the good of all that they serve and the society is by asking; is it the truth, is it fair to all concerned, will it build goodwill and better relationships, and will It be beneficial to all concerned. Then and only then, can higher ethical climate is obtained. And when it is, profits of the company operations will be
better, as it reflects trust to the stakeholders and shareholders; cultivate loyalty to the staffs, employees, and customers.
People will forgive the leader who fails to manage by objectives or in its inefficiency in the use of time, and sometimes when a leader fails to achieve the smoothest human relations; but, they cannot forgive and it is difficult for anyone in society to forgive the leader who are immoral and unprincipled. This is the reason why leaderships must not only be a visionary, but also know the importance and exercise good judgments of actions and decisions based on the principles of right and wrong. And mostly, embrace the ethics of values and morality as full partners in the quest for its performance. To test their actions and decisions for the good of all that they serve and the society is by asking; is it the truth, is it fair to all concerned, will it build goodwill and better relationships, and will It be beneficial to all concerned. Then and only then, can higher ethical climate is obtained. And when it is, profits of the company operations will be
ReplyDeletebetter, as it reflects trust to the stakeholders and shareholders; cultivate loyalty to the staffs, employees, and customers.
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. This guide will help you through that process.
ReplyDeleteTo inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels.
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience.
ReplyDeleteTo inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels.
While leadership is learned, the skills and knowledge processed by the leader can be influenced by his or hers attributes or traits, such as beliefs, values, ethics, and character. Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make him or her unique.
Skills, knowledge, and attributes make the Leader, which is one of the:
There are four major factors in leadership
ReplyDeleteSituation
Communication
Leader
Follower
Leader
You must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader or someone else who determines if the leader is successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
Followers
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.
Communication
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when you “set the example,” that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the relationship between you and your employees.
Situation
All situations are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation. For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.
Also note that the situation normally has a greater effect on a leader's action than his or her traits. This is because while traits may have an impressive stability over a period of time, they have little consistency across situations (Mischel, 1968). This is why a number of leadership scholars think the Process Theory of Leadership is a more accurate than the Trait Theory of Leadership.
Various forces will affect these four factors. Examples of forces are your relationship with your seniors, the skill of your followers, the informal leaders within your organization, and how your organization is organized.
Boss or Leader?
Although your position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization (called Assigned Leadership), this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you the boss (Rowe, 2007). Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply bossing people around (Rowe, 2007). Thus you get Assigned Leadership by your position and you display Emergent Leadership by influencing people to do great things.
Bass' Theory of Leadership
ReplyDeleteBass' theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders (Stogdill, 1989; Bass, 1990). The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:
◦Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory.
◦A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory.
◦People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational or Process Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted theory today and the premise on which this guide is based.
Total Leadership
What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.
When a person is deciding if she respects you as a leader, she does not think about your attributes, rather, she observes what you do so that she can know who you really are. She uses this observation to tell if you are an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their workers.
Be Know Do
The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your organization. In your employees' eyes, your leadership is everything you do that effects the organization's objectives and their well-being. Respected leaders concentrate on (U.S. Army, 1983):
◦what they are [be] (such as beliefs and character)
◦what they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature)
◦what they do (such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction).
What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.
The Two Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership
ReplyDeleteAccording to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found that:
◦Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.
◦Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key to winning organizational trust and confidence:
1.Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.
2.Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
3.Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing — relative to strategic business objectives.
So in a nutshell — you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate a vision of where the organization needs to go. The next section, Principles of Leadership, ties in closely with this key concept.
Principles of Leadership
To help you be, know, and do, follow these eleven principles of leadership (U.S. Army, 1983). The later chapters in this Leadership guide expand on these principles and provide tools for implementing them:
1.Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2.Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.
3.Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
4.Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
5.Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6.Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
7.Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
8.Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
9.Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10.Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
11.Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
Principles of Leadership
ReplyDeleteTo help you be, know, and do, follow these eleven principles of leadership (U.S. Army, 1983). The later chapters in this Leadership guide expand on these principles and provide tools for implementing them:
1.Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2.Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.
3.Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
4.Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
5.Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6.Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
7.Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
8.Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
9.Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10.Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
11.Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
Attributes of Leadership
If you are a leader who can be trusted, then those around you will grow to respect you. To be such a leader, there is a Leadership Framework to guide you:
BE KNOW DO
BE a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization, perform selfless service, take personal responsibility.
BE a professional who possess good character traits. Examples: Honesty, competence, candor, commitment, integrity, courage, straightforwardness, imagination.
KNOW the four factors of leadership — follower, leader, communication, situation.
KNOW yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of your character, knowledge, and skills.
KNOW human nature. Examples: Human needs, emotions, and how people respond to stress.
KNOW your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to train others in their tasks.
KNOW your organization. Examples: where to go for help, its climate and culture, who the unofficial leaders are.
DO provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem solving, decision making, planning.
DO implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating, supervising, evaluating.
DO motivate. Examples: develop morale and esprit de corps in the organization, train, coach, counsel.
Environment
Every organization has a particular work environment, which dictates to a considerable degree how its leaders respond to problems and opportunities. This is brought about by its heritage of past leaders and its present leaders.
Environment
ReplyDeleteEvery organization has a particular work environment, which dictates to a considerable degree how its leaders respond to problems and opportunities. This is brought about by its heritage of past leaders and its present leaders.
Goals, Values, and Concepts
Leaders exert influence on the environment via three types of actions:
1.The goals and performance standards they establish.
2.The values they establish for the organization.
3.The business and people concepts they establish.
Successful organizations have leaders who set high standards and goals across the entire spectrum, such as strategies, market leadership, plans, meetings and presentations, productivity, quality, and reliability.
Values reflect the concern the organization has for its employees, customers, investors, vendors, and surrounding community. These values define the manner in how business will be conducted.
Concepts define what products or services the organization will offer and the methods and processes for conducting business.
These goals, values, and concepts make up the organization's personality or how the organization is observed by both outsiders and insiders. This personality defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take place.
Roles ad Relationships
Roles are the positions that are defined by a set of expectations about behavior of any job incumbent. Each role has a set of tasks and responsibilities that may or may not be spelled out. Roles have a powerful effect on behavior for several reasons, to include money being paid for the performance of the role, there is prestige attached to a role, and a sense of accomplishment or challenge.
Relationships are determined by a role's tasks. While some tasks are performed alone, most are carried out in relationship with others. The tasks will determine who the role-holder is required to interact with, how often, and towards what end. Also, normally the greater the interaction, the greater the liking. This in turn leads to more frequent interaction. In human behavior, its hard to like someone whom we have no contact with, and we tend to seek out those we like. People tend to do what they are rewarded for, and friendship is a powerful reward. Many tasks and behaviors that are associated with a role are brought about by these relationships. That is, new task and behaviors are expected of the present role-holder because a strong relationship was developed in the past, either by that role-holder or a prior role-holder.
Culture and Climate
ReplyDeleteThere are two distinct forces that dictate how to act within an organization: culture and climate.
Each organization has its own distinctive culture. It is a combination of the founders, past leadership, current leadership, crises, events, history, and size (Newstrom, Davis, 1993). This results in rites: the routines, rituals, and the “way we do things.” These rites impact individual behavior on what it takes to be in good standing (the norm) and directs the appropriate behavior for each circumstance.
The climate is the feel of the organization, the individual and shared perceptions and attitudes of the organization's members (Ivancevich, Konopaske, Matteson, 2007). While the culture is the deeply rooted nature of the organization that is a result of long-held formal and informal systems, rules, traditions, and customs; climate is a short-term phenomenon created by the current leadership. Climate represents the beliefs about the “feel of the organization” by its members. This individual perception of the “feel of the organization” comes from what the people believe about the activities that occur in the organization. These activities influence both individual and team motivation and satisfaction, such as:
◦How well does the leader clarify the priorities and goals of the organization? What is expected of us?
◦What is the system of recognition, rewards, and punishments in the organization?
◦How competent are the leaders?
◦Are leaders free to make decisions?
◦What will happen if I make a mistake?
Organizational climate is directly related to the leadership and management style of the leader, based on the values, attributes, skills, and actions, as well as the priorities of the leader. Compare this to “ethical climate” — the feel of the organization about the activities that have ethical content or those aspects of the work environment that constitute ethical behavior. The ethical climate is the feel about whether we do things right; or the feel of whether we behave the way we ought to behave. The behavior (character) of the leader is the most important factor that impacts the climate.
On the other hand, culture is a long-term, complex phenomenon. Culture represents the shared expectations and self-image of the organization. The mature values that create tradition or the “way we do things here.” Things are done differently in every organization. The collective vision and common folklore that define the institution are a reflection of culture. Individual leaders, cannot easily create or change culture because culture is a part of the organization. Culture influences the characteristics of the climate by its effect on the actions and thought processes of the leader. But, everything you do as a leader will affect the climate of the organization.
For information on culture, see Long-Term Short-Term Orientation
The Process of Great Leadership
The road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that is common to successful leaders:
◦Challenge the process - First, find a process that you believe needs to be improved the most.
◦Inspire a shared vision - Next, share your vision in words that can be understood by your followers.
◦Enable others to act - Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.
◦Model the way - When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do, a leader shows that it can be done.
◦Encourage the heart - Share the glory with your followers' hearts, while keeping the pains within your own.
Leadership Models
ReplyDeleteLeadership models help us to understand what makes leaders act the way they do. The ideal is not to lock yourself in to a type of behavior discussed in the model, but to realize that every situation calls for a different approach or behavior to be taken. Two models will be discussed, the Four Framework Approach and the Managerial Grid.
Four Framework Approach
In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (1991) suggest that leaders display leadership behaviors in one of four types of frameworks: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic.
This model suggests that leaders can be put into one of these four categories and there are times when one approach is appropriate and times when it would not be. That is, any style can be effective or ineffective, depending upon the situation. Relying on only one of these approaches would be inadequate, thus we should strive to be conscious of all four approaches, and not just depend on one or two. For example, during a major organization change, a Structural leadership style may be more effective than a Symbolic leadership style; during a period when strong growth is needed, the Symbolic approach may be better. We also need to understand ourselves as each of us tends to have a preferred approach. We need to be conscious of this at all times and be aware of the limitations of just favoring one approach.
Structural Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a social architect whose leadership style is analysis and design. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a petty tyrant whose leadership style is details. Structural Leaders focus on structure, strategy, environment, implementation, experimentation, and adaptation.
Human Resource Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a catalyst and servant whose leadership style is support, advocating, and empowerment. while in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a pushover, whose leadership style is abdication and fraud. Human Resource Leaders believe in people and communicate that belief; they are visible and accessible; they empower, increase participation, support, share information, and move decision making down into the organization.
Political Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is an advocate, whose leadership style is coalition and building. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a hustler, whose leadership style is manipulation. Political leaders clarify what they want and what they can get; they assess the distribution of power and interests; they build linkages to other stakeholders, use persuasion first, then use negotiation and coercion only if necessary.
Symbolic Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a prophet, whose leadership style is inspiration. While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a fanatic or fool, whose leadership style is smoke and mirrors. Symbolic leaders view organizations as a stage or theater to play certain roles and give impressions; these leaders use symbols to capture attention; they try to frame experience by providing plausible interpretations of experiences; they discover and communicate a vision.
Managerial Grid
ReplyDeleteThe Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid, also known as the Leadership Grid (1985) uses two axis:
1."Concern for people" is plotted using the vertical axis
2."Concern for task or results" is plotted along the horizontal axis.
They both have a range of 0 to 9. The notion that just two dimensions can describe a managerial behavior has the attraction of simplicity. These two dimensions can be drawn as a graph or grid:
Most people fall somewhere near the middle of the two axis — Middle of the Road. But, by going to the extremes, that is, people who score on the far end of the scales, we come up with four types of leaders:
◦Authoritarian — strong on tasks, weak on people skills
◦Country Club — strong on people skills, weak on tasks
◦Impoverished — weak on tasks, weak on people skills
◦Team Leader — strong on tasks, strong on people skills
The goal is to be at least in the Middle of the Road but preferably a Team Leader — that is, to score at least between a 5,5 to 9,9. In addition, a good leader operates at the extreme ends of the two scales, depending upon the situation.
Authoritarian Leader (high task, low relationship)
Leaders who get this rating are very much task oriented and are hard on their workers (autocratic). There is little or no allowance for cooperation or collaboration. Heavily task oriented people display these characteristics: they are very strong on schedules; they expect people to do what they are told without question or debate; when something goes wrong they tend to focus on who is to blame rather than concentrate on exactly what is wrong and how to prevent it; they are intolerant of what they see as dissent (it may just be someone's creativity), so it is difficult for their subordinates to contribute or develop.
Team Leader (high task, high relationship)
These leaders lead by positive example and endeavor to foster a team environment in that all team members can reach their highest potential, both as team members and as people. They encourage the team to reach team goals as effectively as possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various members. They normally form and lead some of the most productive teams.
Country Club Leader (low task, high relationship)
These leaders predominantly use reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from fear that using such powers could jeopardize relationships with the other team members.
Impoverished Leader (low task, low relationship)
These leaders use a “delegate and disappear” management style. Since they are not committed to either task accomplishment or maintenance; they essentially allow their team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to detach themselves from the team process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles.
The most desirable place for a leader to be along the two axes at most times would be a 9 on task and a 9 on people — the Team Leader. However, do not entirely dismiss the other three. Certain situations might call for one of the other three to be used at times. For example, by playing the Impoverished Leader, you allow your team to gain self-reliance. Be an Authoritarian Leader to instill a sense of discipline in an unmotivated worker. By carefully studying the situation and the forces affecting it, you will know at what points along the axes you need to be in order to achieve the desired result.
Leadership & Human Behavior
ReplyDeleteAs a leader, you need to interact with your followers, peers, seniors, and others; whose support you need in order to accomplish your goals. To gain their support, you must be able to understand and motivate them. To understand and motivate people, you must know human nature. Human nature is the common qualities of all human beings. People behave according to certain principles of human nature.
Human needs are an important part of human nature. Values, beliefs, and customs differ from country to country and even within group to group, but in general, all people have a few basic needs. As a leader you must understand these needs because they can be powerful motivators.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Unlike others researchers in the earlier days of psychology, Abraham Maslow's based his theory of human needs on creative people who used all their talents, potential, and capabilities (Bootzin, Loftus, Zajonc, Hall, 1983). His methodology differed from most other psychological researchers at the time in that these researchers mainly observed mentally unhealthy people.
Maslow (1970) felt that human needs were arranged in a hierarchical order that could be divided into two major groups: basic needs and metaneeds (higher order needs):
◦Basic Needs are physiological, such as food, water, and sleep; and psychological, such as affection, security, and self-esteem. These basic needs are also called “deficiency needs” because if they are not met by an individual, then that person will strive to make up the deficiency.
◦Metaneeds or being needs (growth needs). These include justice, goodness, beauty, order, unity, etc. Basic needs normally take priority over these meta needs. For example, a person who lacks food or water will not normally attend to justice or beauty needs.
These needs are normally listed in a hierarchical order in the form of a pyramid to show that the basic needs (bottom ones) must be met before the higher order needs:
◦5. Self-actualization — know exactly who you are, where you are going, and what you want to accomplish. A state of well-being.
◦4. Esteem — feeling of moving up in world, recognition, few doubts about self.
◦3. Belongingness and love — belong to a group, close friends to confide with.
◦2. Safety — feel free from immediate danger.
◦1. Physiological — food, water, shelter, sex.
Maslow posited that people want and are forever striving to meet various goals. Because the lower level needs are more immediate and urgent, then they come into play as the source and direction of a person's goal if they are not satisfied.
A
A need higher in the hierarchy will become a motive of behavior as long as the needs below it have been satisfied. Unsatisfied lower needs will dominate unsatisfied higher needs and must be satisfied before the person can climb up the hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteKnowing where a person is located on the pyramid will aid you in determining effective motivators. For example, motivating a middle-class person (who is in range 4 of the hierarchy) with a certificate will have a far greater impact than using the same motivator to effect a minimum wage person from the ghetto who is desperately struggling to meet the first couple of needs.
It should be noted that almost no one stays in one particular hierarchy for an extended period. We constantly strive to move up, while at the same time various forces outside our control try to push us down. Those on top get pushed down for short time periods, i.e., death of a loved-one or an idea that does not work, while those on the bottom get pushed up, i.e., come across a small prize. Our goal as leaders therefore is to help people obtain the skills and knowledge that will push them up the hierarchy on a more permanent basis. People who have their basic needs met become much better workers as they are able to concentrate on fulfilling the visions put forth to them, rather than consistently struggling to make ends meet.
Criticisms and Strengths
The above statements may be considered generalizations. Maslow's theory has often been criticized because we can find exceptions to it, such as the military, police, firefighters, etc. who will risk their safety for the well-being of others or parents who will sacrifice their basic needs for their children. However, there are very few theories that are not flawed in that once we start drilling down to individualistic levels, then the theory or generalization often starts to fall apart. For example, even Newton's theory of physics, which later became laws, fell apart once we were able to drill down to the atomic level.
A recent study (Tay, Diener, 2011) discovered that as hypothesized by Maslow (1954), people tend to achieve basic and safety needs before other needs. However, fulfilling the various needs has relatively independent effects on a person's Subjective Well-Being. Thus rather than being a pyramid with the basic human needs arranged in a hierarchical order, it is more like a box with the basic human needs scattered within and depending on the situation and/or environment, different needs rise to the top to compensate for the deficient needs.
Maslow's theory remains a classic because rather than looking at psychology as strictly the study of the mentally ill, his theory was based upon healthy persons. And being one of the first humanistic ones, it has its share of flaws.
Expansion of the Pyramid
ReplyDeleteIn Maslow's (1971) later years, he become more interested in the higher order or metaneeds and tried to further distinguish them. Maslow theorized that the ultimate goal of life is self-actualization, which is almost never fully attained but rather is something we try to always strive for.
He later theorized that this level does not stop, it goes on to self-transcendence, which carries us to the spiritual level, e.g. Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Dalai Lama, or even poets, such as Robert Frost. Maslow's self-transcendence level recognizes the human need for ethics, creativity, compassion and spirituality. Without this spiritual or transegoic sense, we are simply animals or machines.
This expansion of the higher order needs is shown here:
Note that the four meta needs (above the inner pyramid) can be pursued in any order, depending upon a person's wants or circumstances, as long as the basic needs have all been met:
◦8. Self-transcendence — a transegoic (see Note below) level that emphasizes visionary intuition, altruism, and unity consciousness.
◦7. Self-actualization — know exactly who you are, where you are going, and what you want to accomplish. A state of well-being.
◦6. Aesthetic — to do things not simply for the outcome but because it's the reason you are here on earth — at peace, more curious about the inner workings of all things.
◦5. Cognitive — to be free of the good opinion of others — learning for learning alone, contribute knowledge.
◦4. Esteem — feeling of moving up in world, recognition, few doubts about self.
◦3. Belongingness and love — belong to a group, close friends to confide with.
◦2. Safety — feel free from immediate danger.
◦1. Physiological — food, water, shelter, sex.
Note: Transegoic means a higher, psychic, or spiritual state of development. The trans is related to transcendence, while the ego is based on Freud's work. We go from preEGOic levels to EGOic levels to transEGOic. The EGO in all three terms are used in the Jungian sense of consciousness as opposed to the unconscious. Ego equates with the personality.
In addition,just as in his earlier model, we may be in a state of flux — we shift between levels (Maslow, 1968). For example there may be peak experiences for temporary self-actualization and self-transcendence. These are our spiritual or creative moments.
Characteristics of self-actualizing people:
◦Have better perceptions of reality and are comfortable with it.
◦Accept themselves and their own natures.
◦Lack of artificiality.
◦They focus on problems outside themselves and are concerned with basic issues and eternal questions.
◦They like privacy and tend to be detached.
◦Rely on their own development and continued growth.
◦Appreciate the basic pleasures of life (e.g. do not take blessings for granted).
◦Have a deep feeling of kinship with others.
◦Are deeply democratic and are not really aware of differences.
◦Have strong ethical and moral standards.
◦Are original, inventive, less constricted and fresher than others
Going Beyond Maslow
While the research of Maslow's theory has undergone limited empirical scrutiny, it still remains quite popular due to its simplicity and being the start of the movement away from a totally behaviorist/reductionistic/mechanistic approach to a more humanistic one. In addition, a lot of concerns are directed at his methodology in that he picked a small number of people that he declared self-actualizing and came to the conclusion about self-actualization. However, he understood this and thought of his work as simply a method of pointing the way, rather than being the final say. In addition, he hoped that others would take up the cause and complete what he had begun.
Which brings us to the next models. Other researchers have taken up his cause and furthered refined them, mostly in the area of organizations and work. Herzberg, Alderfer, and McGregor's research are all closely tied to Maslow's theory.
Herzberg's Hygiene and Motivational Factors
ReplyDeleteFrederick Herzberg was considered one of the most influential management consultants and professors of the modern postwar era. Herzberg was probably best known for his challenging thinking on work and motivation. He was considered both an icon and legend among visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Peter Drucker, and Douglas MacGregor.
Herzberg (1966) is best known for his list of factors that are based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, except his version is more closely related to the working environment:
HERZBERG'S HYGIENE & MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS
Hygiene or Dissatisfiers:
◦Working conditions
◦Policies and administrative practices
◦Salary and Benefits
◦Supervision
◦Status
◦Job security
◦Co-workers
◦Personal life
Motivators or Satisfiers:
◦Recognition
◦Achievement
◦Advancement
◦Growth
◦Responsibility
◦Job challenge
Hygiene or dissatisfiers factors must be present in the job before motivators can be used to stimulate a person. That is, you cannot use motivators until all the hygiene factors are met. Herzberg's needs are specifically job related and reflect some of the distinct things that people want from their work as opposed to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which reflect all the needs in a person's life.
Building on this model, Herzberg coined the term job enrichment — the process of redesigning work in order to build in motivators by increasing both the number of tasks that an employee performs and the control over those tasks. It is associated with the design of jobs and is an extension of job enlargement (an increase in the number of tasks that an employee performs).
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor (1957) developed a philosophical view of humankind with his Theory X and Theory Y — two opposing perceptions about how people view human behavior at work and organizational life. McGregor felt that organizations and the managers within them followed either one or the other approach:
ReplyDeleteTheory X
◦People have an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it whenever possible.
◦People must be coerced, controlled, directed, or threatened with punishment in order to get them to achieve the organizational objectives.
◦People prefer to be directed, do not want responsibility, and have little or no ambition.
◦People seek security above all else.
In an organization with Theory X assumptions, management's role is to coerce and control employees.
Theory Y
◦Work is as natural as play and rest.
◦People will exercise self-direction if they are committed to the objectives (they are NOT lazy).
◦Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.
◦People learn to accept and seek responsibility.
◦Creativity, ingenuity, and imagination are widely distributed among the population. People are capable of using these abilities to solve an organizational problem.
◦People have potential.
In an organization with Theory Y assumptions, management's role is to develop the potential in employees and help them to release that potential towards common goals.
Theory X is the view that traditional management has taken towards the workforce. Most organizations are now taking the enlightened view of theory Y (even though they might not be very good at it). A boss can be viewed as taking the theory X approach, while a leader takes the theory Y approach.
Notice that Maslow, Herzberg, and McGregor's theories all tie together:
◦Herzberg's theory is a micro version of Maslow's theory that is focused in the work environment.
◦McGregor's Theory X is based on workers caught in the lower levels (1 to 3) of Maslow's theory due to bad management practices, while his Theory Y is for workers who have gone above level 3 with the help of management.
◦McGregor's Theory X is also based on workers caught in Herzberg's Hygiene Dissatisfiers, while Theory Y is based on workers who are in the Motivators or Satisfiers section.
Leading & Leadership
ReplyDeleteGoals
Your thinking skills can be considered directional skills because they set the direction for your organization. They provide vision, purpose, and goal definition. These are your eyes and ears to the future, allowing you to recognize the need for change, when to make it, how to implement it, and how to manage it. You find vision by reaching for any available reason to change, grow, and improve. Just as you perform preventive maintenance on your car, you must perform preventive maintenance on your organization. Do NOT believe in the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," for the people who do, go broke! Treat every project as a change effort. Treat every job as a new learning experience.
Good organizations convey a strong vision of where they will be in the future. As a leader, you have to get your people to trust you and be sold on your vision. Using the leadership tools described in this guide and being honest and fair in all you do will provide you with the ammo you need to gain their trust. To sell them on your vision, you need to possess energy and display a positive attitude that is contagious. People want a strong vision of where they are going. No one wants to be stuck in a dead-end company going nowhere...or a company headed in the wrong direction. They want to be involved with a winner! And your people are the ones who will get you to that goal. You cannot do it alone!
When setting goals, keep these points in mind:
◦They should be realistic and attainable.
◦They should improve the organization (morale, monetary, etc.).
◦All the people should be involved in the goal-setting process.
◦A program should be developed to achieve each goal.
There are four characteristics of goal setting (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973):
◦Goal Difficulty: Increasing your employees' goal difficulty increases their challenges and enhances the amount of effort expended to achieve them. The more difficult goals lead to increased performance if they seem feasible. If they seem too high, employees will give up when they fail to achieve them.
◦Goal Specificity: When given specific goals, employees tend to perform higher. Telling them to do their best or giving no guidance increases ambiguity about what is expected. Employees need a set goal or model in order to display the correct behavior.
◦Feedback: Providing feedback enhances the effects of goal setting. Performance feedback keeps their behavior directed on the right target and encourages them to work harder to achieve the goal.
◦Participation in Goal Setting: Employees who participate in the process, generally set higher goals than if the goals were set for them. It also affects their belief that the goals are obtainable and increases their motivation to achieve them.
The Six Steps of Goal Setting
ReplyDeleteAlthough finding a vision can be quite a creative challenge, the process of getting that vision implemented can be fairly easy if you follow the six steps of:
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Vision — Goals — Objectives — Tasks — Timelines — Followup
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Step 1 - Vision
The first step in setting goals and priorities is to personally develop what the organization should look like at some point in the future — a vision. A junior leader, such as a supervisor or line manager, will mainly be concerned with a department, section, or small group of people. While senior leaders set the vision for the entire organization. However, both types of visions need to support the organization's goals.
The mission of the organization is crucial in determining your vision. Your vision needs to coincide with the big picture. The term “vision” suggests a mental picture of what the future organization will look like. The concept also implies a later time horizon. This time horizon tends to be mid to long term in nature, focusing normally on 2 to 7 years in the future for visions affecting the entire organization. However, leaders such as supervisors or line managers tend to have shorter time horizon visions, normally 6 months to a year.
The concept of a vision has become a popular term within academic, government, defense, and corporate circles. This has spawned many different definitions of vision. But, the vision you want should be a picture of where you want your department to be at a future date. For example, try to picture what your department would look like if it was perfect, or what the most efficient way to produce your product would look like, or perhaps if your budget was reduced by 10 percent, how you could still achieve the same quality product.
Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th century economist, theorized that most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the possible causes (Juran, 1988). For example, 20 percent of the inventory items in the supply chain of an organization accounts for 80 percent of the inventory value. This is known as the Pareto principle or the 80-20 rule.
Some leaders fall into the time wasting trap of going after the 80 percent of items that only have a value of 20 percent of the total net worth. Your visions need to picture the 20 percent that will have the greatest impact on your organization. Although it is nice to have small victories every now and then by going after that easy 80 percent, spend the majority of your time focusing on the few things that will have the greatest impact. That is what a good leader does.
Once you have your vision, it needs to be framed in general, unmeasurable terms and communicated to your team. Your team then develops the ends (objectives), ways (concepts), and means (resources) to achieve the vision.
Step 2 - Goals
ReplyDeleteThe second step involves establishing goals, with the active participation of the team. Goals are also stated in unmeasurable terms, but they are more focused. For example, "The organization must reduce transportation costs." This establishes the framework of the your vision.
Step 3 - Objectives
Definable objectives provide a way of measuring the movement towards vision achievement. This is the real strategy of turning visions into reality. It is the crossover mechanism between your forecast of the future and the envisioned, desired future. Objectives are stated in precise, measurable terms such as "By the end of the next quarter, the shipping department will use one parcel service for shipping items under 100 pounds and one motor carrier for shipping items over a hundred pounds." The aim is to get general ownership by the entire team.
Step 4 - Tasks
The fourth step is to determine tasks. Tasks are the means for accomplishing objectives. Tasks are concrete, measurable events that must occur. An example might be, "The transportation coordinator will obtain detailed shipping rates from at least 10 motor carriers."
Step 5 - Timelines
This step establishes a priority for the tasks. Since time is precious and many tasks must be accomplished before another can begin, establishing priorities helps your team to determine the order in which the tasks must be accomplished and by what date. For example, "The shipping rates will be obtained by May 9."
Step 6 - Followup
The final step is to followup, measure, and check to see if the team is doing what is required. This kind of leader involvement validates that the stated priorities are worthy of action. For the leader it demonstrates her commitment to see the matter through to a successful conclusion. Also, note that validating does not mean to micro-manage. Micro-management places no trust in others, where as followingup determines if the things that need to get done are in fact getting done.
Supervision for Leaders
ReplyDeleteSupervision is keeping a grasp on the situation and ensuring that plans and policies are implemented properly (U.S. Army Handbook,1973). It includes giving instructions and inspecting the accomplishment of a task.
There is a narrow band of adequate supervision. On one side of the band is over-supervision (micro-management); and on the other side is under-supervision. Over-supervision stifles initiative, breeds resentment, and lowers morale and motivation. Under-supervision leads to miscommunication, lack of coordination, and the perception by subordinates that the leader does not care. However, all employees can benefit from appropriate supervision by seniors with more knowledge and experience who tend to see the situation more objectively.
Evaluating is part of supervising. It is defined as judging the worth, quality, or significance of people, ideas, or things (U.S. Army Handbook,1973, p304). It includes looking at the ways people are accomplishing a task. It means getting feedback on how well something is being done and interpreting that feedback. People need feedback so that they can judge their performance. Without it, they will keep performing tasks wrong, or stop performing the steps that makes their work great.
Use checklists to list tasks that need to be accomplished. Almost all of us have poor memories when it comes to remembering a list of details. List tasks by priorities. For example, "A" priorities must be done today, "B" priorities must be done by tomorrow, and "C" priorities need to be followed up within a few days.
Double check on important things by following through. Strange things can happen if you are not aware of them. Paperwork gets lost, plans get changed, and people forget. If you have a system of checks and double checks, you will discover mistakes, have time to correct them, and minimize any disruptions. Following through may seem to be a waste of your time and energy, but in the long run, it pays off. You will spend less time and energy correcting mistakes and omissions made long ago.
Inspiring Your Employees
Getting people to accomplish something is much easier if they have the inspiration to do so. Inspire means "to breathe life into." And in order to perform that, we have to have some life ourselves. Three main actions will aid you in accomplishing this:
1. Be passionate: In organizations where the is a leader with great enthusiasm about a project, a trickle-down effect will occur. You must be committed to the work you are doing. If you do not communicate excitement, how can you expect your people to get worked up about it?
2. Get your employees involved in the decision making process: People who are involved in the decision making process participate much more enthusiastically than those who just carry out their boss's order. Help them contribute and tell them you value their opinions. Listen to them and incorporate their ideas when it makes sense to so.
3. Know what your organization is about!: The fundamental truth, as General Creighton W. Abrams used to say in the mid-1970s, is that “the Army is not made up of people. The Army is people. Every decision we make is a people issue.” Your organization is the same. It may make a product or sell a service, but it is still people! A leader's primary responsibility is to develop people and enable them to reach their full potential. Your people may come from diverse backgrounds, but they all have goals they want to accomplish. Create a "people environment" where they truly can be all they can be.
Training and Coaching
ReplyDeleteAs a leader you must view coaching from two different viewpoints: 1) coaching to lead others and 2) being coached to achieve self-improvement.
Training and coaching are two different things, although some people use them interchangeably. Training is a structured lesson designed to provide the employee with the knowledge and skills to perform a task. Coaching, on the other hand, is a process designed to help the employee gain greater competence and to overcome barriers so as to improve job performance.
You might picture it as when you were in school. During physical education, the gym teacher (trainer) taught you how to play basketball. Next you went out for the school team. You had a basic understanding of the game and its rules, but the coach personally taught you (coaching) the finer points of the game.
Training and coaching go hand-in-hand. First you train people with lots of technical support, and then you coach them with motivational pointers.
Both training and coaching help to create the conditions that cause someone to learn and develop. People learn by the examples of others, by forming a picture in their minds of what they are trying to learn, by gaining and understanding necessary information, by applying it to their job, or practice.
Both coaching and training have a few points in common:
◦Evaluate to determine knowledge, skill, and confidence levels.
◦Define objectives that can be measured periodically. It helps to break them down into step-by-step actions.
◦Clarify direction, goals, and accountability. To foster accountability, involve the person or team in the decision making.
◦Encourage peer coaching by reminding them that everyone has a stake in each other's success.
◦Coaching is more than telling people how to do something, It involves giving advice, skill-building, creating challenges, removing performance barriers, building better processes, learning through discovery (the aha method), etc.
◦Deal with emotional obstacles by helping them through change, reviewing and pointing out ways that they hold themselves back, comforting them when they become confused, etc.
◦Give feedback by pointing and hinting towards solutions; try to stay away from critiquing errors.
◦Lead by example! demonstrate the desired behaviors.
Learning
ReplyDeleteThe first condition of learning is that the person must be motivated to learn. You cannot teach knowledge or skills to people who are not motivated to learn. They must feel the need to learn what you are teaching. Most employees are motivated to do a good job. They want to be able to perform their tasks correctly. Their motivation is being able to perform their job to standards in return for a paycheck, benefits, challenges, job satisfaction, etc.
The next condition of learning is to involve them in the process. Keep their attention by actively involving their minds and emotions in the learning process. Have them participate through active practice of the skill or through discussion. You cannot keep their attention with a long lecture. Normally, people pay attention for a short time - less than 30 minutes. They need to use what is being taught or their minds will wander. If you lecture for an hour, very little will be remembered. Instead, give a brief lecture (less than 10 minutes), demonstrate, and then have them practice. Provide feedback throughout the practice period until they can do it on their own. If it is a large complicated task, then break it down into short learning steps.
The Five Points of Leadership Power
Al Capone once said that “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” However, while almost anyone can use power, it takes skill to use leadership. Leadership power is much more than the use of force. Leadership is influencing others to truly WANT to achieve a goal, while power forces others to achieve a goal.
Power refers to a capacity that a person (boss) has to influence the behavior of another so that he or she acts in accordance with the boss' wishes. This power is a capacity or potential as it implies a potential that need not be actualized to be effective. That is, a power may exist, but does not have to be used to be effective. For example, an officer in the Army has certain powers over enlisted personal, but that power does not have to used to be effective. The mere knowledge of an officer's power by an enlisted person has some influence over him or her.
A person has the potential for influencing five points of power over another (French & Raven, 1959):
The Five Points of Leadership Power
ReplyDeleteAl Capone once said that “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” However, while almost anyone can use power, it takes skill to use leadership. Leadership power is much more than the use of force. Leadership is influencing others to truly WANT to achieve a goal, while power forces others to achieve a goal.
Power refers to a capacity that a person (boss) has to influence the behavior of another so that he or she acts in accordance with the boss' wishes. This power is a capacity or potential as it implies a potential that need not be actualized to be effective. That is, a power may exist, but does not have to be used to be effective. For example, an officer in the Army has certain powers over enlisted personal, but that power does not have to used to be effective. The mere knowledge of an officer's power by an enlisted person has some influence over him or her.
◦Coercive Power — Power that is based on fear. A person with coercive power can make things difficult for people. These are the persons that you want to avoid getting angry. Employees working under coercive managers are unlikely to be committed, and more likely to resist the manager.
◦Reward Power — Compliance achieved based on the ability to distribute rewards that others view as valuable. Able to give special benefits or rewards to people. You might find it advantageous to trade favors with him or her.
◦Legitimate Power — The power a person receives as a result of his or her position in the formal hierarchy of an organization. The person has the right, considering his or her position and your job responsibilities, to expect you to comply with legitimate requests.
◦Expert Power — Influence based on special skills or knowledge. This person earns respect by experience and knowledge. Expert power is the most strongly and consistently related to effective employee performance.
◦Referent Power — Influence based on possession by an individual or desirable resources or personal traits. You like the person and enjoy doing things for him or her.
Leadership & Direction
ReplyDeleteDr. Walter Shewhart developed the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act).
This is often called the Shewhart Cycle. While the letters and cycle look easy, it actually takes a lot of work by all the team members to complete the cycle correctly. One of Shewhart's students, W. Edwards Deming later used it, thus the PDCA cycle is often known as the Deming Wheel (Smith, Hawkins, 2004). Deming also used a modified version — PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act).
A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline. And that goal will remain a dream unless you create and execute a plan of action to accomplish it. Every goal that gets accomplished has a good plan behind of it. — Harvey Mackay
Plan
Good plans start with a brainstorming session that includes all the people involved with the project. This allows everyone to be part of the solution, in addition to gathering the best ideas.
Two key questions must be asked (Army Handbook, 1973):
◦What are all the ingredients necessary for its successful execution?
◦What are all the possible forces or events that could hinder or destroy it?
As much as possible, get all the answers to these questions. Listen carefully to the judgment of your team. Then plan the positive forces and events, and then take action to prevent any obstructions that might hinder the project.
A detailed plan normally includes the who, what, when, where, how, and why:
◦Who does it involve and who will do what?
◦What are we going to do? What will happen if we do not do it?
◦When does it start and end?
◦Where will it take place?
◦How will it take place?
◦Why must we do it?
Also, the plan must be organized. Organizing is the process of creating and maintaining the conditions for effectively executing plans. It involves systematically defining and arranging each task with respect to the achievement of the objective. It includes three major steps:
◦Determine all tasks.
◦Set up a structure to accomplish all tasks.
◦Allocate resources.
All essential information must be brought out. It is also important to consider timing — when each task must be started and completed. A helpful approach is to use “backward planning.” Look at each goal and decide what must be done to reach it. In this way you plan from the moment of the project ending point and then work your way back to the present in order to determine what must be done. Backward planning simply means looking at the big picture first, and then planning all tasks, conditions, and details in a logical sequence to make the big picture happen. Include all the details of support, time schedule, equipment, coordination, and required checks. Your team must think of every possible situation that will help or hinder the project. Once the process of mentally building the project has begun, the activities will come easily to mind.
Now, organize all these details into categories, such as needs, supplies, support, equipment, coordination, major tasks, etc. List all the details under the categories. Create a to-do list for each category. This list will become the checklist to ensure everything is progressing as planned.
Do
ReplyDeleteYour team cannot do everything at once; some tasks are more important than others while others have to be accomplished before another task can start. Set priorities for each checkpoint and assign someone to perform each task on the list. Develop a system for checking each other and ensuring that each task is accomplished on time.
Plan for obtaining all the required resources and allocate them out. Not having the required resources can stop a project dead in its tracks. For this reason you must closely track and monitor costly or hard to get resources.
Trial the plan through a prototype (experimental scale). This allows you to actually check the plan on a small scale.
Check
Throughout the project's execution there are three things that you must be involved in: standards, performance, and adjustments.
The standard means, “is this project being completed or accomplished as planned? Are all the check marks being completed as stated in the planning process? The standard, which is set, must mean the same to you and your people.
Performance is measured by completing the tasks and objectives correctly. While the standard relates to the project, performance relates to the people working on the project.
If performance does not meet standards, then adjustments can be made in two ways — improve the performance or lower the standards. Most of the time, improving the performance is the appropriate choice. However, a leader may face a situation where the standard is unrealistic, which means it may be lowered. This is usually caused by poor estimates or the inability to obtain the proper resources.
Act
Now you are ready to execute the plan. If your plans are solid, things will go smoothly. If your plans are faulty, then you might have a very long and hard project ahead of you!
Problem Solving
There are seven basics steps to problem solving (Butler, Gillian, Hope, 1996):
1.Identify the problem: You cannot solve something if you do not know what the problem is. Ensure you have identified the real problem, not an effect of another problem. One method is the "five why's." You ask why five times. By the time you get to the fifth why, you should have found the ultimate cause of the problem.
2.Gather information: Investigate the problem and uncover any other hidden effects that the problem may have caused.
3.Develop courses of action: Notice that courses is plural. For every problem there are usually several possible courses of action. Identify as many as you can. There are always at least two: fix it or don't fix it. Brainstorming with your team will normally generate the most and best courses of action.
4.Analyze and compare courses of action: Rank the courses of action as to their effectiveness. Some actions may fix other problems, while others may cause new problems.
5.Make a decision: Select the best course of action to take.
6.Make a plan: Use the planning tool covered in the first part of the section.
7.Implement the plan: Take the steps to put the plan into action.
The Problem With Problem Solving Techniques
ReplyDeleteProblem solving is simply a method of fighting fires; it does not move the organization forward and it does not create iPods, Google, paper drinking cups made of recycled paper, or Halo 2s. Of course during the actual building of these great products, problem solving is indeed required. The shortest problem solving technique is probably OODA: Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action; while the longest one is probably the one stated above.
Yet how many "problems" really require that you follow any of these methods? Some problems you simply see and then solve — they do not require elaborate methodologies. I have even see some problems solve themselves: you forget about them, you go back to them, and they are gone. On the other hand, these problem solving methodologies are sometimes too simple for complicated problems. The ability to solve many problems is based on a person's skill set rather than it is on a heuristic procedure. That is, the real key to solving novel problems is often a deeper conceptual understanding of the target domain. For example, neither of the above two problem solving techniques will help non-engineers solve an engineering problem when it comes to building a bridge as they do not have the basic concepts. And in turn, many problem solving techniques will not help an expert engineer when it comes to solving a bridge building problem as the models are too simplistic in nature to be of much help.
In addition, these problem solving techniques can often be misleading to novices. Novices think that by following the heuristic, they will arrive at the correct solution; however, difficult problems often require a trial and error method. Yet novices will stubbornly stick to a failing solution, whereas experts with deep conceptual understandings will quickly see that a solution is not working and respond with a completely new procedure. Their problem solving has everything to do with adaptability and deep knowledge structures and nothing to do with the simple problem solving methods described above.
Thus, when using any problem solving technique, realize that they all have limitations and that the two most useful tools are brainstorming and learning all you can about the problem at hand in order to gain a deeper conceptual understanding.
Communication and Leadership
ReplyDeleteNo one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver (U.S. Army, 1983). Effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to transmit. Many of the problems that occur in an organization are the either the direct result of people failing to communicate and/or processes, which leads to confusion and can cause good plans to fail (Mistry, Jaggers, Lodge, Alton, Mericle, Frush, Meliones, 2008).
Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise throughout this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side.
The Communication Process
Communication
That is what we try to do
Speak to those near us
◦Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea, information, or feelings.
◦Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.
◦Decoding: Lastly, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that he or she can understand.
During the transmitting of the message, two elements will be received: content and context. Content is the actual words or symbols of the message that is known as language — the spoken and written words combined into phrases that make grammatical and semantic sense. We all use and interpret the meanings of words differently, so even simple messages can be misunderstood. And many words have different meanings to confuse the issue even more.
Context is the way the message is delivered and is known as paralanguage — it is the nonverbal elements in speech such as the tone of voice, the look in the sender's eyes, body language, hand gestures, and state of emotions (anger, fear, uncertainty, confidence, etc.) that can be detected. Although paralanguage or context often cause messages to be misunderstood as we believe what we see more than what we hear; they are powerful communicators that help us to understand each other. Indeed, we often trust the accuracy of nonverbal behaviors more than verbal behaviors.
Some leaders think they have communicated once they told someone to do something, “I don't know why it did not get done. I told Jim to do it.” More than likely, Jim misunderstood the message. A message has NOT been communicated unless it is understood by the receiver (decoded). How do you know it has been properly received? By two-way communication or feedback. This feedback tells the sender that the receiver understood the message, its level of importance, and what must be done with it. Communication is an exchange, not just a give, as all parties must participate to complete the information exchange.
Barriers to Communication
ReplyDeleteNothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood. — Freeman Teague, Jr.
Anything that prevents understanding of the message is a barrier to communication. Many physical and psychological barriers exist:
◦Culture, background, and bias — We allow our past experiences to change the meaning of the message. Our culture, background, and bias can be good as they allow us to use our past experiences to understand something new, it is when they change the meaning of the message that they interfere with the communication process.
◦Noise — Equipment or environmental noise impedes clear communication. The sender and the receiver must both be able to concentrate on the messages being sent to each other.
◦Ourselves — Focusing on ourselves, rather than the other person can lead to confusion and conflict. The “Me Generation” is out when it comes to effective communication. Some of the factors that cause this are defensiveness (we feel someone is attacking us), superiority (we feel we know more that the other), and ego (we feel we are the center of the activity).
◦Perception — If we feel the person is talking too fast, not fluently, does not articulate clearly, etc., we may dismiss the person. Also our preconceived attitudes affect our ability to listen. We listen uncritically to persons of high status and dismiss those of low status.
◦Message — Distractions happen when we focus on the facts rather than the idea. Our educational institutions reinforce this with tests and questions. Semantic distractions occur when a word is used differently than you prefer. For example, the word chairman instead of chairperson, may cause you to focus on the word and not the message.
◦Environmental — Bright lights, an attractive person, unusual sights, or any other stimulus provides a potential distraction.
◦Smothering — We take it for granted that the impulse to send useful information is automatic. Not true! Too often we believe that certain information has no value to others or they are already aware of the facts.
◦Stress — People do not see things the same way when under stress. What we see and believe at a given moment is influenced by our psychological frames of references — our beliefs, values, knowledge, experiences, and goals.
These barriers can be thought of as filters, that is, the message leaves the sender, goes through the above filters, and is then heard by the receiver. These filters may muffle the message. And the way to overcome filters is through active listening and feedback.
Active Listening
ReplyDeleteHearing and listening are not the same thing. Hearing is the act of perceiving sound. It is involuntary and simply refers to the reception of aural stimuli. Listening is a selective activity which involves the reception and the interpretation of aural stimuli. It involves decoding the sound into meaning.
Listening is divided into two main categories: passive and active. Passive listening is little more that hearing. It occurs when the receiver of the message has little motivation to listen carefully, such as when listening to music, story telling, television, or when being polite.
People speak at 100 to 175 words per minute (WPM), but they can listen intelligently at 600 to 800 WPM. Since only a part of our mind is paying attention, it is easy to go into mind drift — thinking about other things while listening to someone. The cure for this is active listening — which involves listening with a purpose. It may be to gain information, obtain directions, understand others, solve problems, share interest, see how another person feels, show support, etc. It requires that the listener attends to the words and the feelings of the sender for understanding. It takes the same amount or more energy than speaking. It requires the receiver to hear the various messages, understand the meaning, and then verify the meaning by offering feedback. The following are a few traits of active listeners:
◦Spend more time listening than talking.
◦Do not finish the sentences of others.
◦Do not answer questions with questions.
◦Are aware of biases. We all have them. We need to control them.
◦Never daydreams or become preoccupied with their own thoughts when others talk.
◦Let the other speakers talk. Do not dominate the conversations.
◦Plan responses after the others have finished speaking, NOT while they are speaking.
◦Provide feedback, but do not interrupt incessantly.
◦Analyze by looking at all the relevant factors and asking open-ended questions. Walk others through by summarizing.
◦Keep conversations on what others say, NOT on what interests them.
◦Take brief notes. This forces them to concentrate on what is being said.
Feedback
When you know something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say that you don't know. That is knowledge. — Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
The purpose of feedback is to alter messages so the intention of the original communicator is understood by the second communicator. It includes verbal and nonverbal responses to another person's message.
Providing feedback is accomplished by paraphrasing the words of the sender. Restate the sender's feelings or ideas in your own words, rather than repeating their words. Your words should be saying, “This is what I understand your feelings to be, am I correct?” It not only includes verbal responses, but also nonverbal ones. Nodding your head or squeezing their hand to show agreement, dipping your eyebrows shows you don't quite understand the meaning of their last phrase, or sucking air in deeply and blowing it hard shows that you are also exasperated with the situation.
Carl Rogers listed five main categories of feedback. They are listed in the order in which they occur most frequently in daily conversations. Notice that we make judgments more often than we try to understand:
◦Evaluative: Making a judgment about the worth, goodness, or appropriateness of the other person's statement.
◦Interpretive: Paraphrasing — attempting to explain what the other person's statement means.
◦Supportive: Attempting to assist or bolster the other communicator.
◦Probing: Attempting to gain additional information, continue the discussion, or clarify a point.
◦Understanding: Attempting to discover completely what the other communicator means by her statements.
Imagine how much better daily communications would be if listeners tried to understand first, before they tried to evaluate what someone is saying.
Nonverbal Behaviors of Communication
Nonverbal Behaviors of Communication
ReplyDeleteTo deliver the full impact of a message, use nonverbal behaviors to raise the channel of interpersonal communication:
◦Eye contact: This helps to regulate the flow of communication. It signals interest in others and increases the speaker's credibility. People who make eye contact open the flow of communication and convey interest, concern, warmth, and credibility.
◦Facial Expressions: Smiling is a powerful cue that transmits happiness, friendliness, warmth, and liking. So, if you smile frequently you will be perceived as more likable, friendly, warm and approachable. Smiling is often contagious and people will react favorably. They will be more comfortable around you and will want to listen more.
◦Gestures: If you fail to gesture while speaking you may be perceived as boring and stiff. A lively speaking style captures the listener's attention, makes the conversation more interesting, and facilitates understanding.
◦Posture and body orientation: You communicate numerous messages by the way you talk and move. Standing erect and leaning forward communicates to listeners that you are approachable, receptive and friendly. Interpersonal closeness results when you and the listener face each other. Speaking with your back turned or looking at the floor or ceiling should be avoided as it communicates disinterest.
◦Proximity: Cultural norms dictate a comfortable distance for interaction with others. You should look for signals of discomfort caused by invading the other person's space. Some of these are: rocking, leg swinging, tapping, and gaze aversion.
◦Vocal: Speaking can signal nonverbal communication when you include such vocal elements as: tone, pitch, rhythm, timbre, loudness, and inflection. For maximum teaching effectiveness, learn to vary these six elements of your voice. One of the major criticisms of many speakers is that they speak in a monotone voice. Listeners perceive this type of speaker as boring and dull.
Speaking Hints
Speak comfortable words! — William Shakespeare
◦When speaking or trying to explain something, ask the listeners if they are following you.
◦Ensure the receiver has a chance to comment or ask questions.
◦Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes — consider the feelings of the receiver.
◦Be clear about what you say.
◦Look at the receiver.
◦Make sure your words match your tone and body language (nonverbal behaviors).
◦Vary your tone and pace.
◦Do not be vague, but on the other hand, do not complicate what you are saying with too much detail.
◦Do not ignore signs of confusion.
On Communication Per Se — a few random thoughts
ReplyDeleteMehrabian and the 7%-38%-55% Myth
We often hear that the content of a message is composed of:
◦55% from the visual component
◦38% from the auditory component
◦7% from language
However, the above percentages only apply in a very narrow context. A researcher named Mehrabian was interested in how listeners get their information about a speaker's general attitude in situations where the facial expression, tone, and/or words are sending conflicting signals.
Thus, he designed a couple of experiments. In one, Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) researched the interaction of speech, facial expressions, and tone. Three different speakers were instructed to say “maybe” with three different attitudes towards their listener (positive, neutral, or negative). Next, photographs of the faces of three female models were taken as they attempted to convey the emotions of like, neutrality, and dislike.
Test groups were then instructed to listen to the various renditions of the word “maybe,” with the pictures of the models, and were asked to rate the attitude of the speaker. Note that the emotion and tone were often mixed, such as a facial expression showing dislike, with the word “maybe” spoken in a positive tone.
Significant effects of facial expression and tone were found in that the study suggested that the combined effect of simultaneous verbal, vocal and facial attitude communications is a weighted sum of their independent effects with the coefficients of .07, .38, and .55, respectively.
Mehrabian and Ferris caution their readers about the limitation to their research, “These findings regarding the relative contribution of the tonal component of a verbal message can be safely extended only to communication situations in which no additional information about the communicator/addressee relationship is available.” Thus, what can be concluded is that when people communicate, listeners derive information about the speaker's attitudes towards the listener from visual, tonal, and verbal cues; yet the percentage derived can vary greatly depending upon a number of other factors, such as actions, context of the communication, and how well the communicators know each other.
Paul Ekman
In the mid 1960s, Paul Ekman studied emotions and discovered six facial expressions that almost everyone recognizes world-wide: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. Although they were controversial at first (he was booed off the stage when he first presented it to a group of anthropologists and later called a fascist and a racist) they are now widely accepted. One of the controversies still lingering is the amount of context needed to interpret them. For example, if someone reports to me that they have this great ideal that they would like to implement, and I say that would be great, but I look on them with a frown, is it possible that I could be thinking about something else? The trouble with these extra signals is that we do not always have the full context. What if the person emailed me and I replied great (while frowning). Would it evoke the same response?
Emotions
ReplyDeleteTrust your instincts. Most emotions are difficult to imitate. For example, when you are truly happy, the muscles used for smiling are controlled by the limbic system and other parts of the brain, which are not under voluntary control. When you force a smile, a different part of the brain is used — the cerebral cortex (under voluntary control), hence different muscles are used. This is why a clerk, who might not have any real interest in you, has a fake look when he forces a smile.
Of course, some actors learn to control all of their face muscles, while others draw on a past emotional experience to produce the emotional state they want. But this is not an easy trick to pull off all the time. There is a good reason for this — part of our emotions evolved to deal with other people and our empathic nature. If these emotions could easily be faked, they would do more harm than good (Pinker, 1997).
So our emotions not only guide our decisions, they can also be communicated to others to help them in their decisions... of course their emotions will be the ultimate guide, but the emotions they discover in others become part of their knowledge base.
On Discussing Communication
Trying to speak of something as messy as communication in technical terms seems to be another form of the 'math and science' argument, that is, math, science and technology are the answer to all of our problems. — Anonymous
But what forms of human behavior are not messy? Learning is not antiseptic, yet it is discussed all the time — we do not leave it to the academics, such as Bloom, Knowles, Dugan, or Rossett. Leadership and management seems to be even messier, yet we categorize it, build models of it, index it, chop it and slice it and dice it, build pyramids out of it, and generally have a good time discussing it. But when it comes to communication, we call it too messy to play with and leave it up to Chomsky, Pinker, and others to write about so that we can read about it. Yet we all communicate almost every single day of our lives, which is much more than we will ever do with learning or leadership.
Motivation and Leadership
ReplyDeleteMen wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. — Explorer Ernest Shackleton in a 1890 job ad for the first Antarctic expedition
A person's motivation is a combination of desire and energy directed at achieving a goal. It is the cause of action. Influencing someone's motivation means getting them to want to do what you know must be done. (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973)
A person's motivation depends upon two things:
◦The strength of certain needs. For example, you are hungry, but you must have a task completed by a nearing deadline. If you are starving you will eat. If you are slightly hungry you will finish the task at hand.
◦The perception that taking a certain action will help satisfy those needs. For example, you have two burning needs — the desire to complete the task and the desire to go to lunch. Your perception of how you view those two needs will determine which one takes priority. If you believe that you could be fired for not completing the task, you will probably put off lunch and complete the task. If you believe that you will not get into trouble or perhaps finish the task in time, then you will likely go to lunch.
People can be motivated by such forces as beliefs, values, interests, fear, and worthy causes. Some of these forces are internal, such as needs, interests, and beliefs. Others are external, such as danger, the environment, or pressure from a loved one. There is no simple formula for motivation — you must keep a open viewpoint on human nature. There is a complex array of forces steering the direction of each person and these forces cannot always be seen or studied. In addition, if the same forces are steering two different people, each one may act differently. Knowing that each person may react to different needs will guide your decisions and actions in certain situations.
As a leader you have the power to influence motivation. The following guidelines form a basic view of motivation (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973). They will help guide your decision making process:
Allow the needs of your team to coincide with the needs of your organization
Nearly everyone is influenced by the needs for job security, promotion, raises, and approval of their peers and/or leaders. They are also influenced by internal forces such as values morals, and ethics. Likewise, the organization needs good people in a wide variety of jobs. Ensure that your team is trained, encouraged, and has opportunities to advance. Also, ensure that the way you conduct business has the same values, moral, and ethic principles that you seek in others. If you conduct business in a dishonest manner, your team will be dishonest to you, for that will be the kind of people that you will attract.
Reward good behavior
Although a certificate, letter, or a thank you may seem small and insignificant, they can be powerful motivators. The reward should be specific and prompt. Do not say something general, such as “for doing a good job,” rather cite the specific action that made you believe it was indeed a good job. In addition, help those who are good. We all make mistakes or need help on occasion to achieve a particular goal.
Set the example
You must be the role model that you want others to grow into.
Develop morale and esprit de corps
ReplyDeleteMorale is the mental, emotional, and spiritual state of a person. Almost everything you do will have an impact on your organization. You should always be aware how your actions and decisions might affect it. Esprit de corps means team spirit — it is defined as the spirit of the organization or collective body (in French it literally means “spirit of the body”). It is the consciousness of the organization that allows the people within it to identify with and feel a part of. Is your workplace a place where people cannot wait to get away from; or is it a place that people enjoy spending a part of their lives?
Allow your team to be part of the planning and problem solving process
This helps with their development and allows you to coach them. Secondly, it motivates them — people who are part of the decision making process become the owners of it, thus it gives them a personal interest in seeing the plan succeed. Thirdly, communication is clearer as everyone has a better understanding of what role they must play as part of the team. Next, it creates an open trusting communication bond. They are no longer just the doers for the organization — they are now part of it! Finally, recognition and appreciation from a respected leader are powerful motivators.
Look out for your team
Although you do not have control over their personal lives, you must show concern for them. Things that seem of no importance to you might be extremely critical to them. You must be able to empathize with them. This is from the German word, einfuhling, which means “to feel with”, or the ability to perceive another person's view of the world as though that view were your own. The Sioux Indian Tribal Prayer reads, “Great Spirit, help us never to judge another until we have walked for two weeks in his moccasins.” Also note that empathy differs from sympathy in that sympathy connotes spontaneous emotion rather than a conscious, reasoned response. Sympathizing with others may be less useful to another person if we are limited by the strong feelings of the moment.
Keep them informed
Keeping the communication channel open allow team members to have a sense of control over their lives.
Make their jobs challenging, exciting, and meaningful
Make each feel like an individual in a great team, rather than a cog in a lifeless machine. People need meaningful work, even if it is tiring and unpleasant; they need to know that it is important and necessary for the survival of the organization.
Counsel people who behave in a way that is counter to the company's goals
All the guidelines before this took the positive approach. But, sometimes this does not always work. You must let people know when they are not performing to an acceptable standard. By the same token, you must protect them when needed. For example, if someone in your department is always late arriving for work and it is causing disruptions, then you must take action. On the other hand, if you have an extremely good department and once in a while a person is a few minutes late, then do the right thing — protect the person from the bureaucracy!
Drive
ReplyDeleteThis lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.
Informed Acquiescence Vs. Value-Based Self-Governance
The most common form of culture in modern organizations is often referred to as informed acquiescence. They are rule-based in that the workers learn the rules and agree to abide by them. Rules work their way from the top-down in a fairly controllable and predictable manner. Thus a large organization becomes management-orientated and in turn, a bureaucracy. And it is this bureaucracy that tends to slow things down.
However, many of the leading organizations are becoming more value-based self-governance in that rather than the workforce being governed by “should,” they act upon “can” (Seidman, 2007). They have a small core set of rules that are valued by the workforce. Rather then being motivated to do better, they are inspired. Motivation is controlled somewhat by outside factors, while inspired (similar to “esprit”) is more inside the individual (soul or spirit) and is usually considered the greatest motivator. Being freed from the crippling pace of bureaucracy, value-based companies operate and move faster.
Probably no organization is solely one or the other, yet the better and faster ones are closer to being value-based. Nordstrom is perhaps the best known example of an organization that leans heavily towards value-based self-governance. For example, Nordstrom's rule is to “Use good judgment in all situations.” Employees are encouraged to ask questions from anyone because they believe that all information should be accessible to everyone, regardless of seniority or status.
Counseling
ReplyDeleteCounseling has a powerful, long-term impact on people and the effectiveness of the organization. Counseling is talking with a person in a way that helps him or her solve a problem. It involves thinking, implementing, knowing human nature, timing, sincerity, compassion, and kindness. It involves much more that simply telling someone what to do about a problem.
Leaders must demonstrate the following qualities in order to counsel effectively.
◦Respect for employees — This includes the belief that individuals are responsible for their own actions and ideas. It includes an awareness of a person's individuality by recognizing their unique values, attributes, and skills. As you attempt to develop people with counseling, you must refrain from projecting your own values onto them.
◦Self-Awareness — This quality is an understanding of yourself as a leader. The more you are aware of your own values, needs, and biases, the less likely you will be to project your feelings onto your employees.
◦Credibility — Believability is achieved through both honesty and consistency between both the leader's statements and actions. Credible leaders are straightforward with their subordinates and behave in such a manner that earns the subordinates' respect and trust.
◦Empathy — or compassion entails understanding a subordinate's situation. Empathetic leaders will be better able to help subordinates identify the situation and then develop a plan to improve it.
The reason for counseling is to help employees develop in order to achieve organizational goals. Sometimes, the counseling is directed by policy, and at other times, leaders should choose to counsel to develop employees. Regardless of the nature of the counseling, leaders should demonstrate the qualities of an effective counselor (respect, self-awareness, credibility, and empathy) and employ the skills of good communication.
While the reason for counseling is to develop subordinates, leaders often categorize counseling based on the topic of the session. Major categories include performance counseling, problem counseling, and individual growth counseling (development). While these categories help leaders to organize and focus counseling sessions, they must not be viewed as separate and distinct types of counseling. For example a counseling session which mainly focuses on resolving a problem may also have a great impact on improving job performance. Another example is a counseling session that focuses on performance may also include a discussion of opportunities for growth. Regardless of the topic of the counseling session, you should follow the same basic format to prepare for and conduct counseling.
Counseling Steps
ReplyDelete1.Identify the problem. Ensure you get to the heart of the problem. Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota, invented a technique called the Five Whys. When confronted with a problem you ask “why” five times. By the time the fifth why is answered, you should be at the root cause of the problem. For example:
Tom's work is not up to standards
◦Why? — After discussing it with Tom it turns out he has too much of a workload
◦Why? — Tom is considered one of the experts, thus he often gets extra work dumped on him
◦Why? — Susan, the other expert, was promoted and no one else is capable of replacing her
◦Why? — We failed to train and develop the other team members
◦Why? — We did not see the necessity of cross-training
2.Analyze the forces influencing the behavior. Determine which of these forces you have control over and which of the forces the worker has control over. Determine if the force has to be modified, eliminated, or enforced.
3.Plan, coordinate, and organize the session. Determine the best time to conduct the session so that you will not be interrupted or forced to end too early.
4.Conduct the session using sincerity, compassion, and kindness. This does not mean you cannot be firm or in control. Your reputation is on the line; the problem must be solved so that your department can continue with its mission. Likewise, you must hear the person out.
5.During the session, determine what the worker believes causes the counterproductive behavior and what will be required to change it. Also, determine if your initial analysis is correct.
6.Try to maintain a sense of timing of when to use directive or nondirective counseling (see below).
7.Using all the facts, make a decision and/or a plan of action to correct the problem. If more counseling is needed, make a firm time and date for the next session.
8.After the session and throughout a sufficient time period, evaluate the worker's progress to ensure the problem has indeed been solved.
There are two types of counseling — directive and nondirective. In directive counseling, the counselor identifies the problem and tells the counselee what to do about it. Nondirective counseling means the counselee identifies the problem and determines the solution with the help of the counselor. The counselor has to determine which of the two, or some appropriate combination, to give for each situation. For example, “Put that cigarette out now as this is a nonsmoking area,” is a form of directive counseling. While a form of nondirective counseling would be, “So the reason you are not effective is that you were up late last night. What are you going to do to ensure that this does not affect your performance again?”
Hints for counseling sessions:
◦Let the person know that the behavior is undesirable, not the person.
◦Let the person know that you care about him or her as a person, but that you expect more from them.
◦Do not punish employees who are unable to perform a task. Punish those who are able to perform the task but are unwilling or unmotivated to succeed.
◦Counseling sessions should be conducted in private immediately after the undesirable behavior. Do not humiliate a person in front of others.
◦Ensure that the employee understands exactly what behavior led to the counseling or punishment.
◦Do not hold a grudge. When it is over, it is over! Move on!
For more information on counseling, see:
Performance Appraisals
ReplyDeleteSkills + Knowledge + Attitudes = Observable Behavior
Observable Behavior = Performance Appraisal Rating
If you don't keep score, you're only practicing. — Vince Lombardi
Performance Appraisals (often called reviews, evaluations, or assessments) are the measurement of a specific range of skills, knowledge, and attitudes in relation to certain objective standards. The ratings are based upon observations or empirical data in relationship to a set of predefined standards. Although we sometimes make decisions based upon our own personal feelings or gut-level instincts, appraisals must be based upon how well a person has performed to a set standard.
He who stops being better stops being good. — Oliver Cromwell
The objective of performance appraisals is to help employees improve their performance and grow as individuals so that the organization can meet its present and future goals in a timely and cost effective manner. Is this how most organizations use them? No. They are used for protection against lawsuits, to justify different levels of pay increases, or to provide once-a-year feedback. In other words, a lot of managers and supervisors view them as an additional burden required by Human Resources. When in fact, they should be viewed as a performance tool. Just as a leader uses speaking skills to encourage the troops and analytical skills to forecast budgets; performance appraisals should be used to encourage great performance and create goals to improve weak competencies.
For many, the performance appraisal is tied in to their pay as a reward system. Tony Hope, a visiting professor at the French Business school INSEAD, spoke of rewards at the Institute of Personnel and Development's Compensation conference. He believes that we need to stop this practice as trust and commitment cannot be fostered while cost-control imperatives dominate organizational thinking. “Just as we have seen that knowledge workers don't respond to a regime of command and control in management style, so they won't perform according to pay systems that are individually based,” says Professor Hope, “Organizations must hang on to their best people and these people are exactly those that are least impressed by internal competition within tight budgets. . . New and powerful forces that are shaping organizations mean that people management professionals are going to have to find ways of collectively rewarding effort. It will be less pay for performance and more pay for participation.”
Performance appraisals are normally given at annual or semi-annual time periods. They need to provide specific feedback to the individual as to what competencies need improvement:
◦Skills — What areas do I need to train in?
◦Knowledge — What areas do I need to learn more about?
◦Attitude — Are my inner drives coinciding with the organization's goals?
◦Rewards — What am I doing right so I can do more of it? (we all like pats on the back)
Performance Appraisals do not take the place of daily feedback mechanisms. If an individual is shocked or surprised by the evaluation that he or she has received, then you as a leader have not performed your job. An evaluation is the overall scorecard that sums up a person's performance over the rating period, while daily one-on-ones, meetings, and other feedback devices are the tools that leaders use to motivate their employees on to higher performance.
ReplyDeleteThe performance appraisal or evaluation is one of the most powerful motivational tools available to a leader. It has three main objectives:
◦To measure performance fairly and objectively against job requirements. This allows effective workers to be rewarded for their efforts and ineffective workers to be put on the line for poor performance.
◦To increase performance by identifying specific development goals. “If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there” — Lewis Carrol. The appraisal allows the worker to target specific areas for job growth. In addition, it should be a time to plan for better performance on the job.
◦To develop career goals so that the worker may keep pace with the requirements of a fast paced organization. More and more, every job in an organization becomes more demanding with new requirements. Just because a worker is performing effectively in her job today, does not mean she will be able to perform effectively tomorrow. She must be allowed to grow with the job and the organization.
A lot of people consider giving performance appraisals as being quite uncomfortable. However, it is not the judging of people that is really uncomfortable, rather it is the judging of bad performance that is uncomfortable. Thus, eliminate poor performance in the first place, and performance appraisals become a lot more pleasant to give. Now of course you are not going to eliminate poor performance completely; however, with a little bit of planning it can be greatly reduced.
Performance has often been described as “purposeful work” — that is, a job exists to achieve specific and defined results. And what bad performers really do is perform “work activities” (busy work), rather than activities that contribute to effective performance.
The first step in performance planning is to determine the results that you want the performer to achieve. After all, workers generally want to know what they need to do, how well you need them to do it, and how well they are actually doing it (feedback).
In addition, a worker should not walk blindly into a performance appraisal. Past counseling sessions, feedback, and one-on-ones should give her a pretty clear understanding of what to expect from the appraisal. If you blind-side her, you have not done your job as a leader. Helping your team grow is not a once or twice yearly task, but a full-time duty.
The appraisal should be a joint effort. No one knows the job better than the person performing it. By turning the appraisal into a real discussion, rather than a lecture, the leader may learn some insightful information that could help boost his or her performance in the future. Before the meeting, have the worker complete her own self-appraisal. Although you might think they will take advantage of this by giving themselves unearned high marks, studies have shown that most workers rate themselves more critically than the leader would have.
Should Performance Appraisals be Scrapped?
ReplyDeleteThere has been some talk of completely doing away with performance appraisals as they sometimes do more harm than good. Yet performance appraisals are tools and like any other tool, they can be used correctly or incorrectly. Part of the problem might be with its name — “Performance Appraisal,” which has sort of a judgmental sound to it. Perhaps “Performance Planning and Review” might be a better term for it.
Part-time employees at Trader Joe's are reviewed every three months, which is an unusually frequent rate of evaluation (Speizer, 2004). In addition, the part-time employees of Trader Joe's are paid higher wages, as are their full-time workers, than what you will find in the normal grocery store (an average of $16 per hour vs $12).
What is interesting about all of this is that they have been bought three times, and NOT because they are losing money — they make more money per square foot of business than the average grocery store. The new leadership teams have never said that they need to pay them what the rest of the industry pays. Why? Because they see the value in their workers! Rather than giving lip-service to “employees our are most valuable asset” they actually walk-the-talk.
Yet, one of the arguments for scrapping performance appraisals is that ALL workers' pay should be aligned with the labor market — they do not deserve annual pay raises as it inflates the wage and salary structure.
Traditionally, roles have remained the same while goals change (Buchen, 2004). Yet, due to the rapid changes that occur on a day-to-day basis, the roles are actually changing, even though they might remained fixed on paper. Performance appraisals often fail to factor in the changing relationships between goals and roles that are often in a high state of metamorphosis. That is, our attention remains fixed on steadfast goals, while ignoring ever-changing roles.
This type of thinking shows up in a lot of industries as they view their workers' jobs as set roles, even though the world is rapidly changing. For example, the 2004 grocery strike in California forced many shoppers to look at alternatives, thus they started shopping at Traders Joe's (who were not part of the strike). And many of these shoppers never went back to their regular stores (who see their employees playing traditional roles) because they enjoy the experience they have at Trader Joe's. Yet Trader Joe's was not always like this — it started out more like a Seven-Eleven, but because of the competition it went in search of its present niche and recognized along the way that its employee's roles also needed to change. So even though they still deal in the same commodity as the larger grocery stores — food — they not only changed the way they bought food (goal), but also in they way they deliver that food to the customer (role).
Thus, the real argument is not really about scrapping Performance Appraisals, but rather ensuring that once goals are set, that all roles are properly accounted for so that the target can indeed be met.
I believe that if people know the rules and are sensitized by art, humor, and creativity, they are more likely to accept change
ReplyDelete