Leading a High Performance Culture

Adrian Furnham

Leadership

• The problem of how to organise collective effort.

• Leadership is the ability to build and maintain a group/team that performs well relative to its competitors

• A high performance team in a high performance culture is the key to organisational effectiveness

The path to leadership

1. Technical: Recruited and selected for ability, knowledge and skill.

2. Supervisory: Promoted to managerial positions as a

function of effort, progress (and politics).

3. Strategic: Elected/Selected to board level jobs as a function of reputation, ambition and history

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The primary colours model

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Leaders need to think about

1. The Task

Vision, Strategy, Direction

2. The Individual

Abilities, Motives, Expectations of Each Key Player Including Self

3. The Group

Morale, Energy, Alignment

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The Gallup Path The Gallup path is used by the world’s most successful

businesses.

The Essentials of Management • Challenge

– Clear Objectives. Setting stretching goals and targets. KPI/KRA

• Support

– Particularly emotional as well as technical, informational, financial

• Feedback

– Regular, specific, action-oriented. Learning the skills of running a progress interview

The Psychology of Disenchantment

• Organisational lying/hypocrisy. This is the perception by the employee that what the organization says about itself in public and even to its employees is a pack of lies. The more the organization tries to capture the moral high ground and come out on ‘the side of the angels’, the more outraged the astounded and angry insider.

• Perceived inequity. The idea that some people in the organization are treated very differently from others. One law for the rich, another for the poor. T.

• Bullying and mistreatment. The belief that some senior people are callous, uncaring, nasty and manipulative and that you are a victim. But some at the top are bullies, bastards and backstabbers.

• Distrust. The feeling that the organization does not even trust its own employees. It may have put in place a number of devious and not-admitted systems to spy on its own people. Whilst top management may talk about and demand loyalty from the staff, it is clear that they are not trusted by their employees.

• Broken promises. This is all about expectations not being met. For some, the selection interview and the induction period are where people set your expectations about working for the organization. They tell you what they stand for, what they expect and how things work.

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How can I help?

1. Job responsibilities

What’s my job?

How am I doing?

Does anyone care?

How is my unit doing?

Where are we

heading?

2. Performance

feedback

3. Individual

needs

4. Work unit objectives,

results

5. Vision, mission and

values

6. Engagement

Agenda for Managers

1. • The Fundamental challenge for management

2. • Deciding what you want to reward

3. • Linking performance, reward and motivation

4. • Designing how/when you want to reward it

5. • Evaluating critical success of the system

Develop, train and support

Recognise, reward, celebrate,

grow

Manage Out

Confront and improve (within

defined timescale)

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Performance, contribution, value to organisation

The Fundamental Problem for Management

Staff want a boss/leader who provides. . .

1. Clear, realistic, attainable goals

2. Informational and emotional support

3. Regular specific feedback on performance

Management of People

Is about:

• Recruiting

• Selecting

• Engaging

• Developing

• Letting go

People

And a work environment /corporate culture that is. . .

1. Open, honest, trusting

2. Equitably rewarding

3. Intrinsically motivating

4. Customer Focused

5. Nurtures creativity

Characteristics of a high-performance work team

1. Develop clear goals and plans

2. Enhance communication among develop & maintain positive relationships among members

3. Solve problems and make decisions on a timely basis

4. Successfully manage conflict

5. Clarify roles for team members

6. Operate in a productive manner

Kouzes & Posner’s

“Five Leadership

Practices”

Bennis & Nanus’

“Leadership Strategies’

Sashkin’s

“Transformational

Leadership Behaviours”

Challenging the Process Management of Risk Risk Leadership

Inspiring a Shared

Vision

Management of

Attention

Focused Leadership

Enabling Others to Act Management of

Communication

Communication

Leadership

Modelling the Way Management of Trust Trust Leadership

Encouraging the Heart Management of Respect Respectful Leadership

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Can you build a real team?

• Are you prepared to reveal your thoughts, feelings, aspirations, fears and dreams likes, dislikes & favouritisms to other people?

• Are you willing to share with others information that helps them understand you better?

• Do you trust those who you work with?

• Do you have confidence in the capability of other people to make good on their promises?

• Are you convinced that others will not abuse your confidence due to your trusting behaviour?

Is your organisation beset by team killers?

• Does your team suffer from fuzzy goals/changing priorities?

• Do you think there is a false consensus among the members of your team?

• Does your team have unresolved overt conflicts?

• Does your team find it difficult to reach closure?

• Are ineffectual meetings characteristic of your team (i.e., people coming late or arriving not at all)?

• Does your team suffer from uneven participation?

• Do the members of your team not feel accountable for one another?

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The essence of selection GOOD BAD

SELECT A Good Decision B Bad Decision

REJECT C Bad Decision D Good Decision

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A simple selection model

MONEY AS A MOTIVATOR

• More a de-motivator if salary is not “market-place” competitive.

(Hygiene factor, not a motivator)

• Very short term effect because

• Adaptation: effect disappears rapidly

• Comparison: now against a different group

• Alternatives: other things (security) worth more

• Increased worry: taxation, burglary

Motivation

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic

The joy of the activity vs a material reward

Does intrinsic motivation decrease with extrinsic rewards?

But all jobs have a mix of intrinsically and extrinsically interesting features and levels of

difficulty.

Intrinsic motivation is increased by a sense of mastery, competence, skill acquisition, control and

self determination.

Bower, 1966, cited in Deal & Kennedy (1982)

Culture is the way we do things

around here

Culture is a system of informal

rules that spells out how

people are to behave most of

the time

Deal and Kennedy, 1982

Type of Change

Love psychological, human resource programmes aimed at changing attitudes, beliefs, behaviour & values

Love changing “systems”, be they organisational charts, structure, process or gadgets

Hate attempting to change others (and probably themselves)

Against “rocking the boat” in any way whatsoever

People

Things

“Chango-philes” “Chango-phobes”

Phases of Planned Change

1. Development of a need for change (unfreezing)

2. Establishment of a change relationship between the change agent (consultant, usually external to the organisation or perhaps an internal organisational member who is championing and leading the change effort) and the client organisation

3. Working toward change (moving)

4. Generalisation and stabilisation of change (refreezing)

5. Achieving a termination in the relationships, that is, ending the “change contract” between the consultant-change agent and the client organisations

Academic

strategy

Change

Strategies

Confrontational

strategy

Engineering

strategy

Political

strategy

Military

strategy

Fellowship

strategy

Economic

strategy

How people need to assume accountability for change

With a little help, people can learn that: • They need a positive attitude • They have to take ownership of some of the change • They need to choose battles carefully • They need to be tolerant of ‘management mistakes’ • They need to keep a sense of humour • They need to determine if what were strengths are now

obstacles • They need to support management in its vision of the

future • They need to help in inventing the future • They need to manage stress and pressure

How leaders need to assume accountability for change

• Clearly articulate a vision of the future

• Create a ‘burning platform’ or ‘sense of urgency’ to help people jump ship

• Solicit others input/involve others in how to get there

• Educate and explain the changes needing to happen

• Hold people accountable for progress toward the new state

• Consider both the task/work changes and the emotional, people needs.

• Develop implementation plans for change which accept that the ‘execution’ is as important as the ‘plan’ for change

Being persuasive at work

• What are the basic techniques of persuasion

• Can you be more office Savvy?

• In short, what it is, the really good leaders understand and do when they have to lead change?

The Six Universal Principles of Influence

• Reciprocation

• Commitment and Consistency

• Social Proof

• Liking

• Authority

• Scarcity

Four styles of Political Behaviour

Clever

Wise

Inept Innocent

POLITICAL

UNAWARENESS

POLITICAL

AWARENESS

Plays

Games

Acts with

Integrity

Baddeley & James, 1987

What distinguishes savvy players?

• Puts the company first

• Keeps career as an outcome versus goal

• Plays above board

• Legitimises the task

• Practices ethical influence

Can we measure political astuteness

• What are the dimensions

• Can and will people respond honestly

• What is the evidence of these measures

1. Social Astuteness

• This is about being perceptive, insightful, attuned to all the vagaries and nuances of everyday interactions.

• It is about being psychologically minded.

• Picking up the clues and cues. Reading between the lines; the subtexts.

• Seeing the meaning in things.

• Aware of self and others: how you are “coming across”; what they are really saying.

2. Interpersonal Influence

• This is about being persuasive in different contexts.

• It inevitably means being adaptable and flexible. • Bi-or tri-lingual in the languages (visual, vocal,

verbal) of persuasion. • It is about monitoring self and others sufficiently

to be able to charm, cajole and persuade. • And it’s about knowing about and practicing

those famous six influencing principles like using reciprocity norms, emphasising similarity etc.

3. Networking Ability

• This is more than having a good address book or being vivacious at dinner parties.

• It is understanding the usefulness of, and more importantly to be able to establish, a range of alliances, coalitions and friendship networks.

• This involves the serious skills of deal making, conflict management and negotiation.

• People are helpful (useful) for different reasons and at different times.

• They can be assets that need to established and then “tapped” from time to time.

• They “come in handy” at different times and for different reasons.

4. “Apparent” Sincerity

• Ah yes, that great oxymoron. It is about being able to look authentic and genuine on all occasions irrespective of what you really think or feel.

• Call it emotional labour or good acting, it is the ability not to show coerciveness, manipulativeness, or that one has ulterior motives.

• What you see is not what you get. • Sincerity is showmanship: it’s good acting and

really understanding emotions.

Six Secrets of Politically Savvy People

1. Partner with your boss

• Unless you have unique and irreplaceable knowledge or skills (or are related to the CEO), your boss has more power than you do.

• Your manager also has greater access to key decision-makers.

• So it’s better to have your boss as a cheerleader than an adversary.

• Politically savvy people know how to “manage up”.

2. Be a 360° team player

• With a wide network of relationships, you will have more information about what’s going on.

• And if people are willing to cooperate and collaborate with you, you will produce better results.

• Politically savvy people develop positive relationships in all directions – with management, peers, and employees.

3. Understand the “power map”

• Organisations are power hierarchies. And from time to time, that power shifts.

• To succeed, you need to know where the leverage lies – who has influence (formal/informal), who doesn’t, and how much you have yourself.

• Politically savvy people always understand the leverage equation and recognise when it may be changing.

4. Practise subtle self-promotion

• No-one can appreciate you if they don’t know what you’re doing. But that doesn’t mean you should become an insufferable braggart.

• Find natural ways to mention achievements and challenges, like sending regular progress reports to your boss or chatting about your projects at lunch.

• Politically savvy people share information without being obnoxious.

5. Connect with the power people

• The big decisions about your career will be made (or endorsed) by people above your boss, so you need to make sure they know who you are.

• Since you may have limited access, look for interaction opportunities and be ready with a question to ask or information to share.

• Politically savvy people enjoy talking to those who have power (which is not the same as sucking up).

6. Commit to the business

• An indifferent, apathetic attitude never impressed anyone.

• If you want decision-makers to think well of you, you need to be interested in and excited about the business, because you can bet they are.

• Politically savvy people choose a career that they find interesting and energising.

• You can’t fake enthusiasm for too long.