By Arthur F. Carmazzi
Re-Identifying the Leader: A new Perspective on Leadership Development
With the leaders accustom to the dynamics of the organizational culture change and a greater understanding of themselves and the group reasoning that is effected management, we must re-identify the leaders in in the context of onward movement with positive change, change that will be foreseen as making a difference in the daily work life of the individual.
According to “finance guy” David Rogers (also the man behind The Psychology of Money), the influence of culture to the Bottom Line is often overlooked, but still it is capable of making a difference of up to 40% toward profitability in some circumstances. So how can productivity be affected by re-identifying the leader?
Fundamental principles:
- Do not try to be everything to everybody, people will react differently to individuals from different categories and thinking processes. This requires rebalancing the management team to adopt whole brain management.
- Reevaluate current policies in accordance with basic human needs.
¤ Allow for further progress if goals are completed .
¤ Allow for achievement in recognizing the implementation.
¤ Assist in belonging through proactive teams.
¤ Allow responsibility by letting staff decisions stand.
¤ Promote positive reinforcement for acknowledgment.
¤ Assist in their control of their destiny by promoting risk taking.
¤ Promote challenge by introducing trust.
¤ Build scope for excellence with training.
- Get feedback form management team on creating new, more empowering policies.
- Allow middle management the opportunity to involve the remaining staffs in the brainstorming process for new policies.
- Go through acquired information to determine what policies can be adopted in accordance with the companies overall strategies and objectives while keeping to the foundation of human need development.
- Once new policies are imposed be inflexible to the rules, this requires the leaders to interpret the rules clearly to the staff of every level. Arrange a public event to instruct staff on why the company is doing this, exactly what the new rules and policies are, and what advantages the staff will receive.
- The leaders must then give consistent feedback / guidance through the use of directive questions to focus on achievements and finding solutions to the problems.
- Leaders must deliver accountability individuals fully trusted and fully responsible. Job functions must be clearly defined and acknowledged in writing by managers and staff.
- Build a winning attitude. Give positive reinforcement of tasks well done, or good ideas. Reprimands should not be used for faults, rather, leaders should use directive questions. Reprimands should be used only in correcting purposeful negative behavior.
Strategies for Faster Leadership Development and Re-Identification:
It is impossible to have an overnight change in the perception of the leaders, most individuals that see some initial changes in leadership development of their managers may discount them as one off instances that will not last. If a blame culture prevails, the level of trust for the leaders is usually not very high. To overcome this problem and expedite the leaders re-identification, the implementation of some extreme strategies relating to the fulfillment of humane needs would be in order. Some strategies are as follows:
- Tactics to show the leader will put himself at risk to protect his staff, and take full responsibility for the actions of others.
- Example: (a prearranged scenario with an important client that the leaders have good rapport with) The client would complain and blame an employee of the company about a meager mistake. The leader would then publicly reprimand the client, expressing that he should not criticize the employee, that the employee is one of his best employees and that if the client wishes to complain, he should address to him regarding such complaints since none but he is responsible.
- This works on the responsibility and the belonging principals.
- Expression of trust, this must be done on an individual basis with a valid reason.
- Example: the Leader may speak to competent managers about an important projects they have been working on acknowledging their contribution and giving them more autonomy in their positions (autonomy will be a necessary shift for an empowered organization, this is simply a means by which to get it started and let the individuals feel good about the additional responsibility and accountability that comes with it).
- This works with recognition, challenge and control.
- Conscious effort to acknowledge performance and competencies.
- This works with acknowledgment and excellence.
- Putting the Human foot ahead
- Example: The leader publicly and honestly communicates past shortcomings and takes responsibility for the company’s status. He asks for the help of the staff in feedback and suggestions to help him and the company improve.
- This works with Belonging (the leader for his honesty and advanced efforts, gets more respect from the managers and staff ).
In the following article we will have details on Re-Framing of the Staff – the third step of Corporate Re-Culturing for changing organisational culture.
Continued in Part IV
By
Arthur F. Carmazzi, Founder of the Directive Communication Organizational Development Methodology and Ranked as one of the Global Top 10 most influential Leadership Gurus by Gurus International. Arthur specializes in psychological approaches to leadership and corporate culture transformation. He is a renowned International Speaker and bestselling author of “The 6 Dimensions of Top Achievers”, “Identity Intelligence” and “Lessons from the Monkey King”, “The Psychology of Selecting the RIGHT Employee“, and “The Colored Brain Communication Field Manual“.
More from Arthur can be found at: www.directivecommunication.com and www.carmazzi.net
