LtCol J. D. Fleming 2 Oct 2014

 Why study leadership behavior? ◦ Simple: To learn why some people win and some people lose ◦ I want to be successful so I am going to do what she did to make her successful, and I am going to avoid doing what he did to make him fail ◦ Learn from good leaders ◦ Learn MORE from bad leaders!

 Care about your people and care about your job.  Know when one has to trump the other to make both possible. ◦ “Troop Welfare”

Easiest to directly observe and easier to change, this chapter’s focus. Difficult to directly observe and hardest to change.

 Effective Leaders across cultures are: ◦ Charismatic/Value-Based  Inspire, motivate ◦ Team Oriented  Influence toward common goal ◦ Participative  Involves others in decisions ◦ Humane Oriented ◦ Supportive, Considerate ◦ Self-Protective  Ensure safety/security of the team ◦ Autonomous  Independent / individualistic

 Organizational competency model has four major categories: ◦ Intrapersonal skills (adapting to stress, goal orientation, adhering to rules). ◦ Interpersonal skills (communicating, building relationships). ◦ Leadership skills (building teams, getting results through others). ◦ Business skills (analyzing, making decisions, thinking ahead).

 Adapts quickly to new situations and requirements.  Keeps cool under pressure.  Clearly explains missions, standards, and priorities.  Sees the big picture, provides context and perspective.  Sets high standards with a “zero defects” mentality.  Can handle “bad news.”  Gets out of HQ and visits troops.  Sets a high ethical tone; demands honesty.  Knows how to delegate and not “micromanage.”  Can make tough, sound decisions, on time.  Builds and supports teamwork within staff and units.  Is positive, encouraging, and reasonably optimistic.

 360-degree (multi-rater feedback) tools allow managers to get accurate information about how others perceived their on-the-job behaviors.  Tell leaders about their strengths and development needs  Questionnaire construction is very important. Poorly designed questionnaire items can lead to false feedback results.  Leaders who received 360-degree feedback had higher performing work units.

 Managerial derailment: Individuals who at one time were on the fast track but had their careers derailed.  Patterns of derailment: ◦ Problems with interpersonal relationships (inability to build relationships) ◦ Failure to meet business objectives ◦ Inability to lead and build a team ◦ Inability to adapt ◦ Inadequate preparation for promotion

 Females more likely to derail because of inability to deal with broader and more complex organizational issues or lead people from different technical backgrounds than their own (practical intelligence).  Males more likely to derail because of arrogance, inflexibility, or abrasive interpersonal style (bold/cautious/or excitable dark side traits).

 Why? ◦ Responsibility, promotion, job/boss/mission change, dip in production  How? ◦ Development Planning  Recognize, plan, commit ◦ Coaching (Formal & Informal)  Forge, inspire, grow skills ◦ Mentoring (Formal & Informal)  Guide, sponsor, role model

 Care about your people AND your job.  Four main factors to competency model are interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills, leadership skills, and business skills.  360 degree reports are effective tools for identifying others’ perception of your leadership behaviors  Leaders with high potential can fail through managerial derailment.  Development plans, coaching, and mentoring can assist in making behavior changes to make better leaders.

Questions?

 A key distinguisher between an effective and ineffective leader is their everyday behavior. ◦ Leadership behavior can be observed. ◦ Certain traits, values, or attitudes may contribute to effective performance of some leadership behaviors.  Ease in which we exhibit or can change behavior will partly be a function of our values, personality, and intelligence.  Two other factors that should influence leadership behavior are the followers and the situation.

 Many leaders either cannot build teams, get results, or do not realize the negative impact of their behavior.  Leadership behaviors are a function of intelligence, personality traits, emotional intelligence, values, attitudes, interests, knowledge, and experience.  Over time, leaders should learn and identify the most appropriate and effective behaviors. ◦ Individual difference and situational variables play a pivotal role in a leader’s actions.

 No universal set of leader behaviors always associated with leadership success ◦ Situation/Follower impact  Alternative conceptualizations are concerned with: ◦ Identifying key leadership behavior ◦ Determining if these behaviors have positive relationships with leadership success ◦ Developing those behaviors related to leadership success  Leadership Grid: Profiles leader behavior on two dimensions: ◦ Concern for people ◦ Concern for production  The most effective leaders are said to have high concern for both people and for production.

 Community leadership: Process of building a team of volunteers to accomplish an important community outcome.  Community leaders do not have position power, and they also have fewer resources and rewards. ◦ Cannot discipline followers who do not adhere to organizational norms  Three leadership competencies needed to successfully drive community change efforts: ◦ Framing- helping a group recognize opportunities and issues that result in effective action ◦ Building social capital- developing/maintaining relationships that allow people to work together in the community ◦ Mobilization- engaging a group to take action to achieve a specific outcome

 Insight about strengths and development needs is important.  Development plans that address the skills identified as having the highest payoffs need to be built. Focus on only one or two needs at a time to avoid being overwhelming and unachievable.  A written plan seems to aid in the continuance of development.  Good development plans capitalize upon on-the-job experiences to hone needed leadership skills.  Leaders can build accountability by: ◦ Having different people provide ongoing feedback on the action steps taken to develop a skill. ◦ Periodically reviewing progress on development plans with the boss.

 Coaching: Process of “equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities needed to develop and become more successful.”  Used for follower development and is a key leadership skill to help improve strength of the group  Informal coaching: Takes place whenever a leader helps followers to change their behaviors.  Coaching plan: Designed to lay out how a leader will support a followers’ development plan.  Formal coaching: Programs provide a service similar to those of informal coaching for executives and managers in leadership positions.  High & low performers need coaching.

 Mentoring: Personal relationship in which a more experienced mentor acts as a guide, role model, and sponsor of a less experienced protégé. ◦ Informal mentoring- established by friendship, similar interests, and mutual respect ◦ Formal mentoring- organization assigns inexperienced with leadership potential to an experienced leader  Leaders should look for opportunities to build mentoring relationships with senior leaders whenever possible.  Key difference from coaching is that mentoring may not target specific development needs.