Transformational Leadership

presented at

Texas Child Care Administrators Conference

Angelo McClain, Ph.D., LICSWChief Executive Officer

National Association of Social Workers

October 1, 2019

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Presentation Overview

• Technical Problems vs. Adaptive Challenges

• Transformational Leadership– Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership

– Four Key Elements

• Transformational leaders– What the Leader Needs

– Personal Resolve

• My Biggest Leadership Lessons: Things I’ve Learned– Continuous Quality Improvement

– Leading Through Crisis

– The Wicked Problem

• Leadership Success– Questions for YOU

– Those Who Can Must

©2019 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net2

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Today’s Adaptive

challenges require

transformative

leadership

©2019 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net4

The single biggest failure of leadership is to treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.

Adaptive Challenges Require Adaptive Solutions

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Transformational LeadershipFour Key Elements

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A departure from traditional and reactive management styles, transformational leadership provides a proactive and engaging way to inspire happy and productive teams.

Transformative Leadership What the Leader Needs

• A Mandate – a clear directive

• Solid Cohesive Leadership Team

– “leading leaders”

• A Strategic Plan

– Plan your work & work your plan

– The gift that keeps on giving

– A thorough assessment

– Stakeholder buy-in

©2014 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net9

Transformational LeadershipLeader Personal Resolve

• Best Idea Wins!

• “Thy Will Be Done” (indominable spirit)

• Big Challenges – “have your ducks in a row”

• your Personal Resource Reservoir is far deeper than you’ll ever imagine– “sit with it”

– “in & down”

– Remain Exceedingly Calm

©2014 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net10

My Biggest Transformational Lessons:Continuous Learning & Improvement

• Improvement, Innovation,

Integration

• Knowledge informed

decisions

• Keep the fear of failure in

its place

• Management by Objective

©2014 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net11

My Biggest Transformational Lessons:Leading Through Crisis

• Stay the course – keep your eyes on the prize

• Outliers don’t drive things

• The Accordion Effect

• Over Communicate

• Be Overly Inclusive

• Be Authentic (be vulnerable)

• Excuses, Excuses (not acceptable)

• Difficult but not impossible

• Leverage the crisis for good

©2014 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net12

The Wicked Problem - that shaped my thinking about leadership best practices”• Assert yourself as the customer

• Horizontal & Vertical (Getting in the weeds has its time & place)

• Don’t over-rely on delegation

• Trust your instincts…don’t over-rely on the experts

• People do what you inspect, not what you expect (held accountable for 5 weekly deliverables)

• Symbolic moments are important– Printing the service plan

– Hourly updates throughout the weekend

– May 17th 2002

• Don’t accept no as an answer

©2014 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net13

Questions for YOU

• The Human Services Organizational Environment– What’s changed as you look back over your work as a leader?

– Are the problems harder today?

– What if anything has changed in the human services environment, and how has that shaped how you now think about leadership?

• Stability is a Liability – no organization looks today like it did 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. From this perspective, “stability is a liability”. – As you think about setting strategy for your organization, how

do you measure the need to both preserve core aspects of your organization’s identity and foster this adaptability to meet and respond to new opportunities, or to meet new challenges?

©2014 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. …strengthening America’s social safety net14

Those Who Can, Must!

• Be the Best You can Be

– Why is it so important that we do all we can?

– Why is it so critical that they be the best they can at it?

– What difference does that make, whether you are “your best” or not?

• Because your skillset could be the difference between positive youth development and/or putting those lives at risk, at greater risk!

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The Quiet Warriors Saving the World

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