Aspiring Leaders Flip Book

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Dodgy Decisions – When your reality check bounces

Why do managers want to or fail to see some things and not others? What are the filters that screen, cloud, and distort their reality?

Perception is our manufacturing process it leads to an output or product.  In this case the product is a decision, judgment, a conclusion we reach about a situation.  The process of thought involves all the steps that take us to that conclusion.

We all receive a constant supply of data from our senses; we extract clues from our environment at work, an environment cluttered with people, machines, and noise. We cannot pay attention to everything that is happening around us only some of the information leading to decisions can be processed usually spontaneously without reflective thought.  Often this leads us to rely on plausibility or what is believable and appearing likely to be true to help us to judge and make a decision.

Individuals seem to spontaneously expect and welcome events or inputs which conform to expectations influenced by their personal characteristics, personality and those life experiences which have been rewarded or punished in the past. These subconscious expectations are like a hypothesis that helps us to make assumptions that such-and-so will naturally occur.

In this assumptive world, an individual selects those relevant bits of sensory data from the immediate environment which influenced by previous experience has been identified as useful in some way. This data process works negatively as well to filter out of a situation those realities that the individual’s previous experience suggests are not useful.

We see what we expect or want to see and we filter out what we do not want to see

Consequently, plausible decisions are made in the absence of proof and facts yet, plausible accounts of a situation are often good enough, comfortable and acceptable for managers to act upon.

To avoid the many problems associated with perceptual distortions, managers must consciously withhold evaluative judgments about events and situations and focus upon obtaining additional data often this involves confronting situations that they do not want to see. When managers focus upon the pattern into which these events fit that they can begin to understand the situation. This is called taking a functional point of view and it requires withholding speculative judgments until clear verification of the facts relating to the situation are feasible

Managers who recognise those personal influences that distort their view of the world have a stronger base for decision making and that critical small edge over their peers and competitors.  Fact is the only material that can be presented in an entirely non-dogmatic way. Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion, but no one has a right to be wrong in his or her facts.

And so, this reflection leads me to recent situations which involve impaired judgement and a failure to check on reality and the magical poem that follows is dedicated to:

• The British Government, Police and Press – (if) the cap fits!
•   The guy who stepped over the woman who collapsed at the airport in Qatar – what! Don’t tell me – you didn’t see her!
• The three distorted idiots in Jordan
• The manager who completely over reacts to a mistake made by an employee – get a grip on reality!

Senses

A Mouth was talking to a Nose and an Eye.
A passing listening Ear
Said, Pardon me, but you spoke so loud,
I couldn’t help by overhear.”
But the Mouth just closed and the Nose turned up
And the Eye just looked away,
And the Ear with nothing more to hear
Went sadly on its way.

Poem by Shel Silverstein poem by. You can find it in the fabulous book A Light in the Attic

 Ensure your decisions are based on fact – make smarter critical decisions with our problem Solving & Decision Making Training Course Download available here: http://www.spectrain.co.uk/Managing-Myself

Boardroom Babble – Dictionary of Jabberwocky

The request was simple enough – the job was to coach members of a multicultural management team over a period of time to ensure that they were sufficiently prepared with data/facts that supported their agenda items at the monthly management meeting which I would facilitate. The goal was to ensure greater efficiency, commitment, and enhanced understanding from those meetings.

 The first “meeting”:

Prior to the coaching the area manager felt it would be advantageous for me to attend one of the management meetings…

There were 9 people around the table; amongst their native languages were Spanish, Arabic, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Babble and Jabberwocky. Unknown to me the Babble, and Jabberwocky dialogue was strictly reserved for management meetings,

Curiouser and Curiouser

So the verbal humbug began, -The head of purchasing wanted to play hardball so he stuck to his knitting  focusing on himself and the needs of his department often at the expense of others. That of course has a red flag effect on the head of finance who felt he was losing control of his hoard of beans.. The distribution manager forgot his lines completely and blew hot and cold throughout the meeting generally testiculating, he eventually gave up – after all “if at first you don’t succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried and eventually you will be able to say I told you so!”. The marketing manager, ruthless with a perfect smile – a deceptionist, constantly fired arrows at the sales manager who went into combat by throwing in a bag of snakes. The CEO (a Jargonaut”) revealed his true mastery of ridiculous jargon with his robust vocabulary, uttering a monologue of verbal dribble none of this burble made any sense and everyone yet everyone agreed.

The Jabberwocky

Feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland  I was reminded of Alice’s reaction to the poem “Jabberwocky” How is it that a poem can be full of nonsense, and apparently devoid of meaning, but still sound like proper English?  Few people understand what the poem is about just like the meeting I had just witnessed full of nonsense, and devoid of meaning.

Management decision-making is negatively affected by conflicts of interest, emotional attachments, dominant personalities, entrenched attitudes, and expectations which stem from our prior experience and past decisions,

This group had become egocentric and self-focused, this behaviour placed limits on their capacity to understand the viewpoints of others people, which may have provided much needed insight.

Individuals at the group used jargon which created a smoke screen, and had the effect of forcing listeners to create their own meaning behind the speaker’s words, rather than seamlessly receiving the information.

 Just as Lewis Carol used nonsensical words in The Jabberwocky that convey a message that is unique to every reader according to the way one interprets it, and we simply cannot have nine interpretations of the meaning and consequences of actions as people leave a management meeting.

 Perhaps it’s time to slay the jabberwocky

Prior to preparing for your next meeting consider your contribution and its likely effect on outcomes, are you clear about who’s supposed to do what to whom with how much and when?  That analysis will lead to the kind of information that nearly everyone wants and needs to know to enable them to move forward.

Extract from Jabberwocky Lewis Carroll

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!”

 All Clear?

Sound Familiar? Contact us if you feel the need to slay your jabberwocky’s and get your meetings back on track: Http://www.spectrain.co.uk

Leaders, are you encouraging followersheep?

Leaders, are you encouraging followersheep?.

Leaders, are you encouraging followersheep?

Many years ago we were approached by a large public sector department to deliver a leadership development programme. Prior to receiving the materials I had formed expectations about the content of the course; however, when I received the material the content was so fundamentally different to what I had expected that it revolutionised my approach to the future design of Spectrain’s leadership development programmes.

This programme focused on the concept of followership, few leadership development programs focus on developing followers. Instead, the focus is upon discovering the individual characteristics of leadership style and potential and yet someone who is a leader one minute could be a follower the next and so perhaps the key to leadership goes beyond the person as an individual and to their effectiveness as a group member.

Collaboration is essential to the success of our work whether we are a leader or a follower both roles are intricately linked with competencies shared between effective leadership active followers.

In his book “The Power of Followership: How to create leaders people want to follow and followers who lead themselves”, Robert Kelley describes effective followers as individuals who exercise superior judgment, critical thinkers, who possess several essential qualities: self-management, commitment, and focus, courage credibility and honesty – many people would recognize these traits as leadership competencies 

Never Follow

In 2002 Audi created an advertisement with the tag line “Never Follow”. What started as an advertising campaign developed into a worldwide communications programme which honoured innovators in the fields of sports, literature, film and music who embraced the never follow approach. The campaign was abandoned in 2007 but what made it attractive for so long? Perhaps it is our dislike of being associated with the concept of being a follower, one of many, passive, one of a herd that attracted us to the never follow philosophy that encouraged us to embrace the independent thinking that was borne out of the advertising campaign.  There is learning from this for leaders.

 We, Us, and I

John Adair noted that the most important word in the leader’s vocabulary is ‘we’ and the least important word is ‘I’. If we put the focus of our leadership development initiatives from “I” to “We”, we shift the focus from personal qualities to responsibility for the relationships with the groups that they lead.   Developing a sense of “We” is much more likely to encourage individuals to align with the group and its members and contribute to the groups goals. Everyone has a sense of “self” as both a group member and an individual, our contribution to the group appeals to our collective, self-interest, and social identity, This need for positive distinctiveness and affiliation means that people’s sense of who they are is attractive when defined in terms of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’.

Defining Leadership

Perhaps its time to examine how we interpret definitions of leadership. Northouse’s definition – Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. This is interesting because, to influence requires social interaction and identification with the group and a common goal is a collective goal and demands a sense of “we”.  

Leader and Follower Competencies

We are all leaders and followers, Kelley categorized followers into five different types based on their ” independence, critical thinking versus dependent, and uncritical thinking. We tend not to fall into combinations of these categories depending on the situation in which we find ourselves. Take a look at the categories and ask yourself, “What type of follower am I and “What type of follower do I wish to encourage”?  

•  Alienated – independent and critical thinker, lacking in engagement due to a sense of dissatisfaction with the organisation
• Conformist – highly active in their organization but lack independent, critical thinking skills.
• Pragmatist – straddles the “middle of the road”, either questions their leader too much or too little.
• Passive – fails to think for him/herself is not an active member of the team
• Exemplary – a constant critical thinker and is actively engaged in his or her organization.

Avoiding Leader Sheep

The question is how do we develop independent, critical thinking, how do we encourage response-ability? Well the first step is to examine your faulty thinking, if any of what is to follow sounds familiar > STOP IT NOW!

1. Don’t think – do! restricting thinking by acting in ways that tell people their thinking isn’t highly valued.
2. Issuing directives, not providing directions. When people don’t know what to do they wait until the boss steps in, because they’ve not been trained to think things through for themselves and don’t know what to do to achieve the goals they’ve been given
3. Let me tell you what you did wrong. If you know so much, why don’t you provide us with guidance before we go down the wrong path?”
4. This is important – I’ll do it myself (Implies I can’t trust you with anything really important)

Leadership implies a relationship; you can’t lead without people who are willing to follow and who feel a sense of shared responsibility. The following ideas will enable you lead in ways that engage others to follow:

•  Develop your emotional intelligence. The model introduced by Daniel Goleman focuses on emotional intelligence as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance he  identifies five categories of personal and social competence: (personal) self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, (social) empathy, and social skills. Any leader is going to be more effective when s/he is in control of how to express emotions in a business setting, how you fulfil the role can encourage and inspire others, or it can alienate and stifle them.
• Treat people as though they are your business partners – for that’s just what they are!  The key to unlocking the thinking skills of your people is to provide opportunity for them to discuss their preferred approach to a situation, and as their mentor help them to explore the pitfalls and consequences of their approach.  Respect them enough to encourage and settle for nothing less than rigorous thinking on their part.
•  Push people to challenge your ideas. Encourage people to develop their own ideas and reward people for doing so. Thinking is a skill that requires practice and support empowering weak thinkers only leads to them developing poor solutions and that leads to demotivation quickly.  Therefore, teaching people to think, learning from each other and then thinking together as an organization are fundamental activities for avoiding leader sheep!

Free E Book Avalilable for Aspiring Leaders at http://www.spectrain.co.uk/resources/index.php

Want to avoid encouraging leadersheep behaviour? Our innovative development programme will enable you to develop your leadership and followership skills without once using any of those models you’ve seen before and come to expect…..call us for details… or visit spectrain here: http://www.spectrain.co.uk/Managing-Performance