THOMAS N. DAVIDSON

Introduction

Leadership studies in the past century have yielded numerous models for leadership.

Today’s environment has made leaders more crucial than ever, but has also rendered existing leadership models obsolete.

Leading Strategic Change

Leadership is meaningless without direction and a means of achieving that direction. In this sense leadership is really about “leading strategic change.” A leader must answer two questions: “Leadership for what?” In what direction

should the organization go? “How can we get there?” How can change be

effected?

Leader

Others Task

Organization

Organizational Design (North-South line)

(Shared Vision East-West line)

Influence Strategic Thinking

Managing ChangeEmployee Bonding

Relationships Are The Key

Relationships between the four elements of the Diamond model are the key to successful leadership. Leader and Task: determines, describes or

represents the leader’s vision. Leader and Others: determines degree of

influence leader has over followers. Others and Organization: determines depth

of employees’ attachment and commitment to the organization.

Organization and Task: determines whether organization is well-suited to meet its challenges.

Others and Task: determines followers’ view of what must be done.

Leader and Organization: determines whether the leader’s style and skills make a good match with the organization.

How The Diamond Model Relates To Other Models Of Leadership

The Diamond model is flexible enough to incorporate many features of popular leadership models, but in a way which is straightforward and practical for practicing managers.

A Diamond In The Rough

Two larger concerns can be added to the Diamond model:

Environment: The Context. Market realities, political forces, and so on have their effect on leadership.

Results: Outcomes of Leadership. These include effectiveness, efficiency, growth, learning, and morale.

The Diamond Model and What CEOs Do

One study of 160 CEOs arrived at five basic leadership dimensions which equate strongly with the relationships in the diamond model. Strategy (emphasis on setting strategic direction):

analogous to Leader and Task. Box (emphasis on organizational control systems):

analogous to Others and Organization. Human resources (emphasis on human relationships

throughout the organization): analogous to Leader and Others.

Change (emphasis on managing change): analogous to Organization and Task.

Expertise (emphasis on creating a competitive advantage through particular expertise): analogous to Leader and Organization.

Basic Definitions

Some working definitions of leadership and related concepts:

“Power” is the ability to get others to do what you want them to do.

“Leadership,” as distinct from power, consists of three components:

The ability to influence others The willingness to do so The ability to influence in such a way that

others respond willingly.

Target Levels of Leadership

Leading strategic change can occur at three levels:

Organizational Work group Individual.

Key Elements of Leadership

In the Diamond General Model of Leadership, four interconnected elements constitute leadership:

Leader. Each leader has unique skills and attributes. Task. The set of tasks facing the organization, as

perceived by Leader and Others. Strategic Thinking. Others. The followers, with skills and attributes of

their own. Organization. Organizational structure and systems and culture,

etc., which can help or hinder the accomplishment of tasks.

Leadership Potentialities (Wheatley)

Each leadership situation encompasses numerous “potentialities,” or possible analytical perspectives.

The leader’s vision, and skill in communicating it to followers, will determine which potentiality members of the organization see.

This, in turn, will determine organizational action and outcome.

Leading Ethically

• The relationship between leader and followers raises significant ethical questions:– Is it one person’s right to influence others?– Who decides what kinds of influence are

acceptable?– How do followers view the leader’s efforts to

influence them?– Do we have the right measures for assessing

leadership outcomes?– Who decides what those measures are?– To what extent should we attempt to influence

our environment, or let our environment influence us?

Level One: Visible Behavior Level Two: Conscious Thought Level Three: VABEs

Body, Head and Heart

Level One activity, directly observable, can be likened to the body. Most managerial systems since the beginning

of the Industrial Revolution have focused on Level One: on influencing observable behavior alone

In the Information Age this approach has become obsolete

Level Two activity, one’s conscious thoughts, can be likened to the mind.

Level Three activity, VABEs, can be likened to the heart. Highly culture- and family-specific An effort required to become fully aware of

one’s own VABEs

All three levels of activity influence one another.

values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations

Connecting Level Three Approach to Scholarly Views

The three-level view of human activity corresponds to Schein’s three levels of cultural manifestations: artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions.

Learning Level Three Leadership

Many people in leadership positions employ Level One leadership: the “carrot-and-stick” approach

But different people value different rewards, a fact that undermines this approach and calls for an inquiry into unobservable, internal processes

Also, the constant threat of punishment for noncompliance does not inspire quality performance.

Moreover, our definition of leadership holds that the willingness of followers to follow is essential. Level One leadership leaves willingness questionable.

The Strong History of Level One Leadership

Level One leadership was very effective for many years: economies were expanding, labor was plentiful, and stable markets made it possible to view labor as a commodity.

But today rapid change and fierce competition have made Level One leadership insufficient

New management principles (TQM, etc.) will fail if other aspects of the organization-reward systems, training, operating cultures-are not targeted at Levels Two and Three.

The Focus of Level Three Leadership

Whereas Level One leadership aims for movement, Level Three leadership seeks engagement.

Level Three leadership proposes that offering workers rewards beyond a monthly paycheck-rewards which tap into their VABEs-will inspire greater performance and lead to enhanced customer satisfaction

Level Three leadership, especially at the outset, calls for greater effort on the leader’s part than Level One

But Level One will not keep an organization competitive in today’s environment

The Dark Side Potential of Level Three Leadership and Engagement

The commitment and enthusiasm which Level Three leadership inspires can lead to an undesired outcome at the individual level: overwork and burnout.

Organizational Implications

Level One, Two and Three leadership can also be examined from an organizational perspective. Level One: the application of the latest

managerial fad or technique with the straightforward goal of influencing behavior

Level Two: Intentional organizational design (structure and systems), the result of conscious thought

Level Three: Organizational culture and operating values, subtly understood and not easy for all employees to articulate

Applying Level Three Leadership at Both The Individual And Organizational Levels

Level Three leadership depends on the alignment of the central features of all three leadership levels

When there are variations across levels-between what people or organizations do, think, and feel-leadership becomes ineffective

Leaders need a general, broadly applicable, four wheel drive “vehicle” to help them understanding human behavior.

Events are what happen around us—we may or not perceive them “accurately.”

VABEs, the way we believe the world is or should be. Compare to what we see in the world around us. This is same as the WANT-GOT model of problem identification: what we want is our VABEs. What we’ve got is “reality” as we see it.

The collision between what we see and what we want forms our conclusions or our judgments about the nature of the world around us.

If the world doesn’t match our wants, we become angry, depressed or fearful.

We filter our behavior (Level One) with what we think we should be able to express—hence there’s always a gap between (for most of us) Level Two and Level One. This is the basis for deception, manipulation, and living outside-in.

VABEs form like limestone caverns, one drip or experience at a time, (when I’m wet, will I be made dry…) and the ones that repeat, tend to create our VABEs—which we then use to judge the world.

We all “jump” to conclusions based on our VABEs. BLINK and Malcolm Gladwell for example.

One of the most dangerous VABEs is “I’m right and you’re wrong.” It’s what makes all the conflict in the world.

Humans can also observe their own behavior and therefore can make judgments about themselves—the basis for self concept and self esteem.

Self concept consists of Ideal Self (what we want, VABEs about self), Self Image (what we’ve got, perceptions about self), and the gap between the two. Just like the Problem solving model. We all want to think well of ourselves. The basic human drive. Abused children will form multiple personalities in order to accomplish this. The basis of excuses and “rationalizing.”

We develop elaborate defense mechanisms to protect our self concepts. (List from the text.)

It’s not events that affect us, rather the view that we take of those events—as colored by our VABEs.

Since people behave their VABEs (can ONLY behave their VABEs) we can observe and backfill to the missing variable: what must he or she believe in order to behave like that? The VABE is the missing variable.

If people won’t change their VABEs, their behavior will not change. Leaders need to understand this. Many do intuitively. Religious leaders. Political leaders. Many business leaders ignore this—focus just on rewards as if the only VABE people had was making more money.

Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain from the battle of Gettysburg -- If volunteers threatened to shoot the deserters, would they really do it? Would any of you? Chamberlain was clear on his ethical center–he said he wouldn’t shoot them, but maybe someone else would, but not him. Are you all equally clear on what you’ll do and not do when the situation, including direct orders from your boss, allows you to do so?

In the martial arts, people try to protect their center of gravity so they can’t be thrown or lose their balance.

In leadership, one must be clear on what you

will and won’t do. The Milgram studies proved that the majority of average Americans will flip electric switches up to 400 volts when encouraged to do so by a person in a white lab coat. If volunteers threatened to shoot the deserters, would they really do it? Would any of you?

Clarifying what’s possible: Chamberlain’s study of history, oddly, prepared him perfectly for this moment–he was able to see in the sweep of history how unusual this war was–“we’re an army going out to set other men free.” So although he wasn’t trained in military tactics, he was prepared to define the purpose of their efforts. That vision was critical to their making voluntary choices–and constituted a Level Three approach.

Clarifying what others have to contribute:

Chamberlain: This regiment was formed last summer in Maine. There were a thousand of us then. There are less than three hundred of us now. All of us volunteered to fight for the union, just as you did. Some came mainly because we were bored at home -- thought this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of us came because it was the right thing to do. And all of us have seen men die.

This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history, you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight for land, power, because a king leads them or -- or just because they like killing. But we are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.

America should be free ground -- all of it. Not divided by a line between slave state and free -- all the way, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here, we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here, you can be something. Here, is the place to build a home.

But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value -- you and me.

What we're fighting for, in the end, we're fighting for each

other. Sorry, I didn't mean to preach. You, you go ahead. You

talk for awhile. If you -- If you choose to join us, you want your muskets back, you can have 'em. Nothing more will be said by anybody anywhere. If you choose not to join us, well you can come along under guard, and when this is all over I will do what I can to see you get a fair treatment. But for now, we're moving out.

Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight, we lose the war. So if you choose to join us, I'll be personally very grateful.

Chamberlain didn’t see the deserters as vermin, rather as potential soldiers that he needed. His ability to see the glass half full helped him influence them in a positive way. “We need you no doubt of that.” This comment is reminiscent of Kennedy’s famous statement, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The underlying message of course is that you have value and we need that. That unspoken message helps people feel good about themselves and energizes their commitments.

Supporting other so they can contribute: Chamberlain was caught between a rock and a hard spot. His ability to think creatively out of that tight spot and reframe the situation allowed him to get a very different outcome than many others would have–and many participants get in the simulation. This often means redesigning the organization or several of its systems to reconfigure the situation to get people to engage. See the Hausser Foods chapter for example.

Relentlessness: Chamberlain was wounded twelve times during the war. Surviving that alone was a major feat. And despite his 70% casualty rate, he didn’t give up, he carried on. Churchill of course said the same thing to the Britons during WWII: “never, never, never, give up.”

Celebrating Progress: Chamberlain was chosen to lead the victory parade down Pennsylvania Avenue after the war, was made Brigadier General, and later president of Bowdoin College and elected twice governor of Maine.

Intelligence has long been though to be an important precursor to effective leadership. But some startling conclusions about the nature of intelligence have begun to emerge.

Not One Intelligence but Many: Gardner’s Research

Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner: the kind of intelligence IQ tests judge is only one of many, all occurring in a single individual.

Daniel Goleman: drew on Gardner’s work to demonstrate the existence of “multiple intelligences.”

Intellectual Intelligence (IQ)

Intellectual intelligence (the kind measured by IQ tests) is largely inherited, but it can be developed through curiosity, disciplined study, and breadth of life experience.

Emotional Quotient (EQ)

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to manage your own emotions. Neurological research has shown that emotions are actually crucial for making seemingly “rational” decisions, so EQ has importance beyond the emotional sphere. It can be broken down into three components:

Recognizing your own emotions. Many people cannot recognize their own emotions for what they are. But conscious effort-stopping periodically to assess one’s own feelings-can improve this ability markedly.

Managing your emotions. Becoming aware of and being able to manage your own emotions will enhance your relationship with yourself and with others.

Productive self-talk out of emotional hijackings. Emotional hijackings, usually involving anger, fear or depression, involve a bypassing of conscious parts of the brain: sudden emotion without conscious thought. People with high EQ have learned how to “talk themselves down” from emotional hijackings.

Common highjackings are ANGER, DEPRESSION and FEAR. Relate to the fear of rejection and the need to be included.

Social Quotient (SQ)

Social Quotient involves the ability to recognize and manage the emotions in interpersonal relationships. It consists of three skills:

Recognizing emotions in others. People do not often put their emotions explicitly into words, so this skill involves accurately reading nonverbal cues.

Listening. Emotional information is also conveyed in people’s words, but to hear it the listener has to learn not to focus exclusively on the pragmatic content of the speech.

Empathy and caring. Once attunement to another’s emotional state is achieved, empathy-and the caring for another’s well-being that usually follows-can be achieved. This is a Level Three connection.

Helping others manage their emotions. True Level Three leadership involves helping followers manage their own emotions. In much the same way that a leader with high EQ can use self-talk to circumvent an emotional hijacking, that leader can defuse a follower’s emotional hijacking by talking him or her through the assumptions which may have led to it and suggesting alternate reactions.

Change Quotient (CQ)

Change Quotient is intelligence with regard to change. Recognizing the need for change. High-CQ

leaders recognize the need for change before it is too late. From a multitude of signals they can pick out the ones which indicate the need for a change of course.

Understanding and mastering the change process. Through experience with small changes people can become more adept at conducting larger, more sweeping change (see chapter 12).

Emotional comfort with change. Most of us find comfort in stability. But an important characteristic of people with high CQ is that they see changing circumstances as an opportunity, not a threat.

What are the major trends affecting my career today?

What are the issues that my generation will have to deal with?

What are my biggest concerns for the future?

What will I have to be careful of as my career unfolds?

What can we do? What might we do? What do we want to do? What do others expect us to do?

Mission Statement Vision Statement Values Statement Strategy Operating Goals and Milestones Leadership

Level One: Visible Behavior Level Two: Conscious Thought Level Three: VABEs

Organizational Work group Individual.

Questions?