We previously explored the human knowledge base and its importance to building effective human systems. Unfortunately, knowing something isn’t the same as acting on that knowledge. Any roomful of leaders can rattle off a long list of characteristics that define outstanding organizations. The systems headed by those leaders, however, will often fail to manifest the very principles they have articulated. …
We previously explored the idea that leadership is a knowledge-based profession. We suggested that, to excel, leaders must develop expertise not only in technical areas, but also in the human knowledge base, that body of learning about how human beings act, react and interact. When presenting these ideas in our consulting work, the question of leadership “style” often arises. How …
In today’s “information economy” people are often promoted to positions of leadership because of their technical knowledge or performance. Once there, however, these newly-minted leaders are required to exercise human competence as well as technical ability. No longer is someone simply a machinist; she is a machinist supervising other machinists. Where previously she had only to master technical duties like …
Thinking impacts behavior. This is true in all aspects of life, but its effects are particularly pronounced in leadership thinking about employees, where expectations and assumptions can create self-fulfilling prophesies — for both the better and the worse. Douglas McGregor, former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, was one of the first business authorities to explore the impact …
Last week we explored the relationship between the above-the-line world of external actions, behaviors, and choices, and the below-the-line world of internal assumptions, beliefs, and values. The former, we suggested, invariably flow from the latter. Our actions are necessarily driven by our mental models and emotions. Our choices are shaped by the ideals and paradigms we hold. The concept is …
For years our seminars included an exercise that asked participants to think of the best listener they had ever known and describe what made that person so special. Most responses centered on techniques like maintaining eye contact, asking clarifying questions, and mirroring body language. But invariably someone would raise their hand and say that what really mattered was that the …
Much of what we think of as the business of business takes place externally. Tangible activities like striking deals, formulating plans and launching initiatives fill our days and constitute the prism through which we view and understand our work life. But business authorities, academics, and thinkers have long suggested that the most fertile field for leadership attention is the inner …
In our years of consulting work, we have conducted numerous organizational assessments. In that work, we have found that one question reveals more about an organization’s culture than almost any other. The answer employees give to it often tell us all we need to know about the workplace they face. The question has to do with the use of organizational …
Much is made of workplace culture and the effect it can have on organization dynamics, functioning and performance. But what about when culture is overlooked or ignored? What happens then? One way we have tried to help the leaders we work with is to imagine culture as a leader’s back yard. With attention and effort, this land can be developed …
Think about a business you think is fantastic, a place you not only patronize, but evangalize for. Two things are almost invariably true about such an organization. The first is that its service is outstanding. Things like prices, policies, and selection can distinguish a good organization from a mediocre one. But sticking out as really great is almost impossible without …
In our consulting work, we regularly tell leaders that organizational improvement begins with them, individually and personally. Don’t look down at your employees, we tell them. Don’t look up at your supervisors. It’s all about you. Is this an ego boost? A pretext for self-importance? Actually it’s the exact opposite. For pointing the finger at others becomes impossible when we …
Leaders are almost universally judged on their ability to generate revenue. A prospering business must generate enough income to support development and growth. Even nonprofits must secure donations, user fees, grants, or similar streams of revenue to retain talent and achieve real-world results. But how do leaders best secure that revenue? Years ago a group of Harvard Business School faculty …
As a values-based management consultancy, much of our work focuses on the human issues of leadership such as dignity and respect, appreciation and gratitude, vision and inspiration. The idea of being a leader of people, not just processes and programs, strikes a chord in countless managers and supervisors. Yet time and again they say that no matter what they do, …
Easy solutions and quick fixes are commonplace in contemporary society. Results are promised within days and progress guaranteed through a few simple steps. Time and again we are assured that not only can we eat more and still lose weight, but that we should. Swimming in these waters day after day, we all come to expect some degree of immediacy …
Consider the word “discipline” for a moment. In one sense it refers to a subject or a course of study. Within the context of the discipline of reflective leadership, the material to be mastered includes the principles of the human knowledge base and our ability to reflect on how our choices and behaviors, as perceived by those with whom we …
The responsibility for addressing the imperative challenge of creating unity rests upon two different but overlapping groups. First, it is essential that managers and supervisors, those people invested with formal organizational authority, commit themselves to forging the required unity, both between themselves and between the people that report to them. The unity of management is a prerequisite to …
In the landscape of today’s working world, organizations are the fundamental and defining structures within which we work, produce, and get things done. Very few people now work outside of an organization. The pervasiveness of organizations in our society is now so complete that we take them as a given and no longer question the rationale behind their existence. In …
Building reliable habits of personal reflection is not easy. Like mastering any new skill, learning to hang the mirror involves no small amount of setbacks and failure. We might maintain a sense of objectivity for a time, then lose it at a bad turn of events or sharp verbal jab. We might restrain emotional responses when the going is easy, …
Few spheres of human activity are more driven by “results” than the world of business. Visible success is the coin of the realm, and confidence, bravado, even self-aggrandizement are pervasive. Humility, then, stands as a somewhat counter-intuitive characteristic of truly outstanding leaders. Humility is certainly one of the more nuanced facets of leadership. In part, this has to do with …
All of us are attached to particular views of the world and given ways of approaching it. We know that a project is pointless and we have no time for those who think otherwise. We know that a favored employee is a gem, regardless of performance reviews suggesting the contrary. We have our positions and, regardless of circumstances, we are …
Think organizational culture is limited to the formality of dress and the length of coffee breaks? Think again. Culture shapes innumerable aspects of workplace functioning, everything from how information is shared and news is spread to how mistakes are handled and questions are received. But almost no facet of organizational performance is more impacted by culture than interpersonal interactions. The …
How many times have you been in the car, wrapped in thoughts of the day, and found yourself driving somewhere other than where you intended? Defaulting to familiar routines in the absence of conscious thought has uses in life, not the least enabling us to navigate a highly multitasking world. But “auto piloting” in the human sphere ensures that our …
Reflective leaders are distinguished by patterns of regular self-assessment and analysis. Reflective organizations employ similar mechanisms of collective reflection and shared stock-taking. But how are such structures established in the workplace? At the heart of any robust system of organization-wide assessment is the collection of data related to workplace culture and perceptions. Drawing from both quantitative and qualitative evaluations, metrics …
What exactly is a job? A person could work a lifetime without ever explicitly considering such a question. But its importance should not be underestimated, for actions are guided and shaped (as well as constrained and limited) by below-the-line understandings of what one is actually doing day after day. In the most basic formulation, a job could be described simply …
We once worked with a manufacturing company that was trying to move from a top-down leadership approach to a more participation-focused system. Brian, a manager of one of the larger plants, readily accepted the challenge building a new concept of leadership and was doing an excellent job of making unfamiliar and sometimes difficult choices. One day we commend him on …
Vision and the conscious building of culture are central to the individual dimensions of reflective leadership. But both take on additional significance in the context of building and leading a reflective organization. Vision lies at the heart of the unity of purpose needed to sustain long-term collective excellence. A clear articulation of why an organization exists and what contribution it …
To the extent that leaders consider workplace unity at all, they tend to think in terms of fixing what’s broken. Discord is overlooked in countless forms and action is taken only when conditions get truly out of hand, when people are shouting in hallways or departments are refusing to work with one another. But just as peace at its fullest …
Why do leaders accept the largely avoidable costs of disagreement, turf issues, silos, politics, competition, cliques, hostility, and other forms of organizational disunity? Below-the-line beliefs about human nature play a role. But equally influential are related beliefs about the role of contest and competition in society. Competition is almost universally seen (in Western societies, at least) as a powerful source …
Organizations succeed or fail as whole systems. They can no more thrive on the strength of most-favored aspects than a car can use a functioning drive shaft and carburetor to make up for a dead alternator and flat tires. Systems whose elements are mismatched, sub-optimized, disconnected, or otherwise disunited will, therefore, inevitably fail to reach their maximum potential. This is …
Leadership development is, at one level, an individual pursuit, focusing on leaders’ own strengths and challenges, successes and failures. The discipline of reflective leadership itself is grounded in individual attitudes and beliefs, and the personal choices they give rise to. At another level, however, leadership development is concerned with collective patterns of association and interaction. To build effective human …
“In no other area have intelligent men and women worked harder or with greater dedication than…on improving communications in our organizations. Yet communications has proved as elusive as the Unicorn.” These words are as true today as they were in 1973 when Peter Drucker first wrote them. Communication is an area in which many organizations struggle and even more fall …
All of us listen. From morning to night we listen to spouses, kids, clients, friends, coworkers, and employees. But the very fact that we do it so much fools us into believing that we do it well. The reality, of course, is that our superficial and often scattered attention is no more listening than communication is simply telling people stuff. …
All below-the-line beliefs and biases held by leaders influence the functioning of human systems. But few are more important than those concerning human dignity and worth. These qualities address our basic sense of place in the world. They speak to our most fundamental right to exist. And because they are so central to human self-identity and self-conception, they are effectively …
As organizations grow, they become increasingly reliant on one-directional forms of communication such as memos, newsletters, and speeches. These can be quite efficient in some respects, but the complexity, nuance, and detail they are able to convey is inherently limited. To clarify finer levels of understanding, then, conversation is needed. The ask-listen-discuss cycle of two-way communication creates a self-correcting loop …
Content communication — the whats, whens and whys of day-to-day interaction — is extremely seductive in its tangibility. But leaders cannot afford to underestimate the impact of relational communication in the functioning of any human system. To understand the enormity of this influence, put yourself in the shoes of a woman working in an office full of men who …
Communication can be divided into two broad categories: content and relational. Content is the what of any message. It is the facts and figures, the ideas and opinions that we transmit through e-mails, conversations, memos, or notes on the bulletin board. It is anything that can be expressed in words. Relational communication pertains to the who of any interaction. Though …
Of the many content areas workplace communication can be divided into, few are more prone to difficulties than organizational choices and decisions. The who’s, what’s, and where’s of decisions are typically conveyed with acceptable clarity and consistency. The rationale behind them, however, is not. In practical terms, this means that while employees typically receive the operational outlines of upcoming changes—this …
Many factors can inhibit the establishment of conditions that tend to characterize superior-functioning organizations .Leaders’ own below-the-line beliefs, values, and assumptions, however, can be particularly problematic. Consider, for example, the following: Unexamined assumptions that one is already communicating sufficiently with employees A failure to establish formal mechanisms to assess the quality of organizational communication systems Need-to-know approaches to communication and …
When leaders assess organizational communication, they often use generalizations such as “good communication” or “communication problems.” Such expressions seem natural, but in fact obscure a great variety of context and circumstance. To better understand the variety of workplace communication, it can be helpful to think in terms of topic-specific categories of communication. One organization, for example, might excel at communicating …
Few spheres of human activity are more driven by “results” than the world of business. Visible success is the coin of the realm, and confidence, bravado, even self-aggrandizement are pervasive. Humility, then, stands as a somewhat counter-intuitive characteristic of truly outstanding leaders. Humility is certainly one of the more nuanced facets of leadership. In part, this has to do with the hierarchical …
Building reliable habits of personal reflection is not easy. Like mastering any new skill, learning to hang the mirror involves no small amount of setbacks and failure. We might maintain a sense of objectivity for a time, then lose it at a bad turn of events or sharp verbal jab. We might restrain emotional responses when the going is easy, …
Any time two or more people work in tandem, they create a human system. And that system will be only as effective as the patterns of communication that support it. For communication is the means by which diverse talents can be directed toward a shared goal, the way a collection of individual I’s can be transformed into a cohesive and …
Instant gratification is widely prized today, not the least in business circles. The number of leadership books promising tips, tricks, and secrets to achieve quick and painless change — of ones’ employees, ones’ organization, ones’ self — testifies to the number of leaders seeking the silver bullet solution. Of course many leaders realize that things which seem too good to …
Leaders’ assumptions, values, beliefs, and mental models are critically important in shaping their day-to-day choices, choices that mold workplace culture and impact organizational functioning. But an equally important driver of behavior – and one that is far more frequently overlooked and avoided — is fear. Fear is a delicate issue in the workplace, particularly among leaders. Because of the visibility …
Involving employees in workplace decisions has been associated with a wide range of operational benefits. And yet true involvement remains relatively rare in the workplace. Why? Many factors play a role, of course. But the unintended consequences of hierarchical systems of authority pose a particularly stubborn set of challenges. Common to virtually all modern organizations, these hierarchies tend to create …
The benefits of involving employees in decisions that affect them are clear. Victor Vroom, one of the seminal pioneers in areas of motivation and decision-making, once wrote: “Participative decision processes…can provide a training ground in which people can think through the implications of decisions. Participation can also perform a team building function, building positive relationships among group members and helping …
We have previously suggested that recognition is, at the most fundamental level, an acknowledgement of the worth of a human being. But how can we tell if someone really values us? What demonstrates their regard? What are its tangible, outward manifestations? When asked this question in workshops, participants often say things like “they seek me out,” “they spend time with me,” …
Countless leaders seek to strengthen ownership and personal responsibility for organizational initiatives in their workplace. What many don’t realize is that involving employees in decision-making processes can be a powerful way to build such support. We once worked with a fire chief who had been budgeted money to buy a new truck. He was looking through a catalogue one day, …
Recently, I was lucky enough to host a book club discussion for Hanging the Mirror. I was immediately drawn to this book because, in my work as a consultant to small business owners, I feel like the biggest problem they face is not access to smart strategies or good workers. The most pressing problem is a lack of self reflection …
If it is in fact true that organizational performance rises with growing levels of agreement, collaboration, reciprocity and shared vision, why do leaders accept significant (and largely avoidable) costs of disunity? Much has to do with widespread below-the-line beliefs that disunity is just the way things are. “It’s human nature,” clients have again and again suggested in our consulting work, …
Involving employees in decisions that affect them and their work is crucial to capturing the human spirit in the workplace. Leaders, however, often resist involving employees in day-to-day affairs. Such reluctance stems in large part from leaders’ perceptions of both themselves and their employees. Because they were promoted into a position of leadership (and their employees were not), mangers often …
Some leaders rarely, if ever, recognize the efforts of their employees. Others sincerely believe they give sufficient recognition, but in fact do not. Of the two scenarios, the latter is the more challenging by far. When our hearts are in right place, it is difficult for us to realize that our desired outcomes are not actually being achieved. (This is …
Recognition of and appreciation for the efforts of employees is central to a culture of engagement, ownership and commitment. The success of such initiatives, however, depends on more than questions of how, when, and in what venue. Leaders’ efforts at offering recognition are shaped — and potentially limited — by a host of below-the-line mental models, attitudes and values. And …
Recognizing employees’ efforts is critical to building workplace morale and motivation. But it can also play an important role in building new skills and capacities. We once surveyed a software development firm in Nebraska. Meeting with a cross section of staff members, we asked a range of open-ended questions, one of which was, “How do you know if you are …
Sufficiently recognizing and appreciating the efforts of employees poses challenges at all levels of the organizational chart. Everyone from vice presidents to fry cooks say that they hear about every small mistake they make, but only rarely are told when they have done a good job. This is due, in large part, to distortions of perception. We human beings are …
When it comes to the role of recognition in the workplace, the knowledge base is clear: we human beings want to be appreciated and valued in the work we do. Recognition, though, is only as good as the spirit that animates it. As a fundamentally above-the-line behavior, recognition can be disingenuous as easily as it can be sincere, perfunctory as …
The link between recognition and motivation in the workplace are clear. We need only look to our own experience — the pride we felt when our work was praised by an appreciative supervisor, the improvement in our outlook when we were sincerely thanked for the grunt work we do month in and month out — to understand how the one …
Employees can bring many things to the office, but workplace vision is not one of them. Vision is an element of organizational culture, and culture derives most directly from the actions and choices of leaders at all levels. But what does it mean for a leader to instill vision in to a workplace? What does this look like in practice? …
Why do people work? Or, put differently, towards what do people work? Most employees, if asked about their job, will describe the tasks they perform. “I keep the president’s calendar and make her travel arrangements,” they might say, or “I oversee maintenance and repair of the company’s network servers.” If you press further, asking what they are trying to achieve …
A compelling sense of vision is integral to the operation of outstanding organizations. If vision is to go beyond mere talk, however, it must be embraced throughout the entirety of a workplace. Leaders must cultivate vision at all levels of organizational responsibility, for only if vision is meaningful to the frontline employees – those who produce the products and interact …
Vibrant and meaningful vision is intimately tied to leaders’ dreams hopes for the future. To be effective, though, vision cannot, remain at the level of senior leadership. Only to the extent that it is communicated throughout an organization and collectively embraced does vision become relevant to the work of the organization and begin exerting influence on concrete operational realities. We …
Given how frequently the word finds its way into discourse in management circles, it is worth considering what vision is and where it actually comes from. What is the genesis of a vibrant and compelling sense of organizational vision? It is not uncommon to hear people speak about creating or crafting vision. Such sentiments are not inaccurate per se, but …
Perhaps you’ve heard the parable of the three bricklayers. Coming across a group of masons at work on the roadside, a traveler asks what each is doing. “Laying brick,” says the first, remaining at his work. “Constructing a wall,” the second replies with a shug. The third wipes his brow and answers, “Building a cathedral.” The story hinges, of course, …
Much is said today about the role of vision in the workplace. Unfortunately vision is often approached primarily as a tool to be wielded or tactic to be deployed – a mechanistic and relatively superficial understanding unsuited to the task of capturing employees’ imagination, enthusiasm, dedication, and commitment. A client once took us on a tour of an 800-person plant …
Many employees are cynical, apathetic, disillusioned with their work. This is a sad truth of the workplace. What is also true, though, is that none of us want to feel that way about our employment. We would all rather be motivated than unmotivated, rather be fired up about the work we do than indifferent. Given that human beings have a …
Countless leaders have wrestled with the issues of motivation. How do I motivate this or that employee? How do I increase collective motivation throughout my office, department, or organization? These questions address important workplace realities. But are the foundations of such inquiry sound? Do leaders actually motivate employees at all? Research has suggested that a great deal workplace motivation stems …
Previously this series examined those environmental factors that most led to motivation and inhibited it. These might seem like two sides of the same coin, but there are indications that the two are less intertwined than one might guess. Research conducted by Frederick Herzberg suggested that, rather than opposing ends of the same spectrum, they constitute two different scales altogether. …
We previously explored research that Frederick Herzberg did on primary sources of workplace motivation — things like achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, and growth and development. These findings are valuable in themselves, but Herzberg didn’t stop there. He also asked employees to describe times they had been particularly dissatisfied, uninterested, and unengaged in their work. And as was the case …
Motivation is a central workplace concern. Countless leaders ponder what stimulates it, how can it be sustained, how is it destroyed. Luckily such questions caught the attention of Frederick Herzberg, an American psychologist who became one of the foremost authorities on business management. Herzberg explored the issue of motivation through hundreds of in-depth, open-ended interviews. In them, he asked employees …
Almost nothing is more frequently lamented in management circles than “bad attitude” employees, those people it seems nothing can be done with. It’s true that few workplace dynamics are harder to address than antagonism, apathy and hostility. But rarely mentioned is the role that sincere and well-meaning leaders can play in creating such “bad attitude” employees. A friend of ours …
In some ways, motivation is less complicated than one might imagine. Involving people in decisions that impact them, recognizing the value of their contributions, giving them opportunities to assume responsibility in meaningful ways — study after study has shown the importance of factors like these. Yet countless workplaces fail to supply such sources of motivation. Why? Much of the reason …
Leadership is a 100 percent human undertaking. Systems are populated by people. Policies are embraced or rejected by people. Plans are enacted or ignored by people. And because of this, effective leadership hinges on a leader’s ability to access the talent, enhance the capacity, and develop the potential of people. But what are these human beings that leaders are obliged …
Crucial to growth as a leader is a comprehensive process of personal stock-taking, an ongoing discipline of objectively looking at our actions and beliefs and considering the effect they have on the individuals and systems around us. Though such reflection encompasses many constituent elements, three seem to be of particular importance: knowledge, choice, and perception. For any given question, we …
Managers today often perceive relatively little hierarchical “distance” between them and their subordinates. Yes, they might shoulder certain responsibilities and make the final call in certain situations. But they generally see themselves as part of the team. That perception, though, is in many ways a consequence of the very authority they hold (and their subordinates don’t). However insignificant the difference …
Imagine that you wanted to know what kind of husband a certain man is. How might you find out? This simplest approach might be simply asking him directly. But that would only reveal the kind of husband he thinks he is, or tries to be, or hopes to be. If you wanted to know what kind of husband he actually …
The first part in this series introduced the concept of the espoused theories we consciously believe in and the theories-in-use that actually determine our choices and behavior. The second installment explored how it is not only possible, but likely for there to be differences between those two sets of theories. But what can be done about those discrepancies? The issue …
The first part in this series introduced the idea of espoused theories and theories in use. It also raised the possibility that the principles each of us consciously support might not be what are actually shaping our behavior and decisions. But what does this look like in practice? In our consulting work we were once presenting these concepts when the …
Assessing minute-by-minute choices is a key aspect of the discipline of reflective leadership. But building a true picture of how we act turns out to be surprisingly difficult. Part of the difficulty stems from the way we think about our behavior. We all act in accordance with mental “maps” of what we believe to be true about the world. These …