Leadership Flashcards
Briefly discuss the assumptions which underpin a “Heroic” approach to leadership
Assumptions include:
- Leaders know best - They must have all information and don’t ask for the opinions of others as it is a sign of weakness. Indecision is a crime.
- Leaders are strong and decisive - They always take full responsibility for decision making
- Leadership is a function of position - Only those in managerial roles can (have the skills) and should lead
- Leadership is about control - They must be on top of everything and ensure that there instructions are followed, not encouraging independent thinking.
- Leaders take the pressure off their people - Helping others by making all the decisions
- Leaders are born nor made - Leadership can’t be taught. You can either lead or you cannot.
Briefly discuss the negative consequences of the “Heroic” approach to leadership.
Negative consequence of the “Heroics:
- Stress - It is impossible to know the answer to everything but by disempowering your team you have to decide everything.
- Out of control - By trying to control everything you ensure you can, in fact, control nothing. You cannot keep that many balls in the air.
- Lack of flexibility - Heroic Leaders do not change their minds so decisions survive even when circumstances have changed
- Poor buy-in - Teams in the heroic model comply with decisions but, as they are not really consulted or involved they are not really bought in
- Poor decisions - A symptom of lack of control is that leaders cannot know everything, and so, ironically, decisions are made with incomplete data sets and thus are likely to be sub-optimal
- Dependent Teams - The team will look to the leader for all decisions and creative input. This will stifle creativity.
- No time off - Heroic leaders must be available at all times - no one else can, or will, make decisions in your absence.
- Lack of respect - You cannot know everything, the attempt to do so will only expose where you miss something. Sticking to your guns even when wrong will show you as stubborn rather than strong to your peers and subordinates.
Discuss the aspects of Six Sigma which, in your opinion, encourage such a ‘Heroic’ approach amongst Black Belts.
Six Sigma creates a strong focus on the expertise of Black Belts. They are the focal point of the whole activity.
Black Belts have training and status which far exceeds their colleagues and are made to feel special by the process of selection and training. This can lead to an assumption of superiority.
The strong results focus and pressure to perform on BBs can lead to a feeling that they need to be in control the whole time.
BBs work on short term - around 3 month - projects with different teams so that they don’t really have time to build trust and understanding of the team’s strength and weaknesses before moving on.
BBs are often rewarded by the results the team achieves - not the whole team - so there is a tendency for the team to ‘leave it to the BB’.
A “Post-Heroic” approach is a much preferred option:
c) Describe the changes that a “Heroic” leader might make in their behaviour to make this transition.
A post heroic leader is/does the following:
Comfortable with constructive dissent and challenge. Accept that others have a view and that they are in possession of information you lack.
Works with ambiguity and uncertainty. Recognises that data is useful but situtations are often complex. Others have different but valid views.
‘Not knowing’ is acceptable. A BB is a visitor to the area. It is a sign of strength, not weakness to accept that you do not know the answers.
Uses dialogue to build shared understanding and sense-making. If the team is not with you they can be passively - or actively - disrupting your attempts to improve. They will support change much more effectively if involved. Listen to what they have to say and look for win-win solutions.
- Works towards non-defensive behaviours. Being the expert is hard. Let go off the baggage and accept that there may be a different way forward. Seek to understand the views of others before defending your own.
Learning as a key leadership process. As a BB you will encounter similar situations on a regular basis. You need to try to go through a learning cycle each time. Reflect on your experiences and consider what they mean for the future conduct of improvement activities. Explore ideas openly.
Post-heroic leaders seek consensus, involve the team to benefit from the broad range of knowledge and insight and create a learning environment where there is no fear of challenge or conflict - conflict is where we learn the most provided we are open to doing so. As co-creation is the order of the day, so too is sharing credit and benefits; ensure that the part of the team is fully recognised, and ideally rewarded although this many not be in your gift.
Transformation can only be achieved by fostering participation and addressing the mindsets of both leaders and followers in the organisation. Creating opportunities and forums for contributions from team members is vital; as is developing coaching skills, active listening and a win-win attitude.
The principal barriers are the mindsets on both sides, these need to be challenged and experimentation with different ways of behaving encouraged and supported.
In the EFQM model, leadership is considered to be an important enabler of organisational excellence. Briefly discuss the key constituents of leadership which would contribute to this enabler.
The leader should focuse on the inputs and the processes, not outputs.
Leaders create a strong vision for the organisation and deploy the vision, motivating employees to work towards the vision.
Leaders recognise the importance of people to the organisation and view themselves as coaches and facilitators rather than controller/cops.
Leaders focus on customers and treat even the people they lead as customers.
