BUSY = The Enemy of Strategic Leadership

September 21, 2015November 30, 2016 / Justin Irving / 7 Comments

Strategy, Stefan Erschwendner, Flickr

Leaders vs. Managers

The work of managers and leaders is different (See my previous post on key distinctions of leadership and management here). In larger organizations, some roles have the luxury of focusing on one or the other. Increasingly, organizations are looking to individuals to fulfill both roles within the same position.

Individuals are being ask to consider both giving direction (a leadership function) to their team and organizational unit and also guiding processes with efficiency of execution (a managerial function). Drawing on John Kotter and others, here are some key difference between leadership and management.

Leadership is about Doing the Right Thing by:

Direction Setting
Aligning
Motivating

Management is about Doing Things Right by:

Planning and Budgeting
Organizing and Staffing
Controlling and Problem-Solving

Vision, Strategy, & Goals

Both “Doing the Right Thing” (leadership effectiveness) and “Doing Things Right” (managerial efficiency) are vital in organizations. While both of these activities require time and attention, and busyness can be the enemy of both healthy leadership and management, perpetual busyness is especially the enemy of the leadership function of direction setting.

Time is required for setting direction as a strategic leader. It requires time to think. It requires time to reflect.

Healthy organizational vision, organizational strategy, and organizational goals come best to those who pull back from busyness for intentional time to think and reflect.

Identifying the Right Strategy

The issue is not whether or not your organization has a strategy. The issue is whether or not you have the right strategy. Leaders must continually be asking whether or not they are focused on the right things for their organization.

While strategic questions may be asked in seasons of busyness, thoughtful answers to these questions often only come when enough mental bandwidth is freed up in the life of leaders. Strategic insights come most often when there is intentional space to think and reflect.

Hard Work vs. Busy Work

Certainly hard work is core to successful organizations. Organizations thrive when talented members pull together with conscientious, attentive, and coordinated work.

But hard work and busy work are not the same thing. Busy work is not necessarily the hard work that your organization needs. As I share in another post, make sure that you Don’t Confuse Motion with Progress (see related post here). It is possible to be busy and not be effective.

The Work of Leaders = Time for Thought and Reflection

So what is the Hard Work to which leaders must devote their time?

One answer to this is to engage in the work of thought and reflection. This seems simple, but actually there are many factors that often work against this strategic priority for leader time management. Demanding schedules, organizational fires that need to be addressed, requests for time and attention, and just general busyness can work against this “simple” leadership agenda. In response to such demands, it is all too easy for leaders choose busy work over hard work.

Over time, in the face of such realities organizations often create a work climate that validates busy. This validation is rooted in the belief that busy = hard work, and that hard work = organizational performance. While it sometimes works this way, often we are making assumptions that are not accurate.

Sometimes working smarter rather than just working harder requires a different pace—a pace that provides space for the leadership work of thought and reflection. So how are you making time for this vital work of strategic leadership?

Making Time for the Work of Strategic Leadership

Leaders must make time for the work of strategic leadership. This is especially important because the cultures of our organizations are often working against finding this time. It doesn’t just happen—leaders must make time for this vital work.

Some of the most effective public leaders have made time for this work. Warren Buffett is known for insisting on time to just sit and think almost every day. Bill Gates was known for taking a full week off twice a year in order to think and reflect about the strategic needs of Microsoft.

7 Questions for Leaders Engaging the Work of Strategic Leadership

Are we staying focused on what matters most?
What is changing around us that requires a strategic course correction?
What are we doing that needs to be ended or scaled back?
What are we doing that needs to be continued or scaled up?
What are we doing that needs to be improved or strengthened?
What is missing? What are we not doing that needs to be introduced?
What’s next? What is our next top priority for strategic focus?

Taking Time for the Work of Strategic Leadership

The work of strategic leadership is vital for organizational health and effectiveness. Are you too busy for strategic leadership, or are you making time and setting busyness aside for this essential leadership work?

Find some time in the next month to step back from the busy pace of leadership so that you may engage these 7 questions in the work of strategic leadership.

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For additional reading on strategy and leadership see Strategic Foresight: The Past, Present, and Future Focus of Leadership

Solution-Based Leadership

August 17, 2015August 5, 2015 / Justin Irving / 3 Comments

time Equals Solutions Not Problems, by One Way Stock, Flickr

Leadership thinker Brian Tracy makes the following comment about leaders and followers:

“Leaders think and talk about the solutions.
Followers think and talk about the problems.”

This quote reminds us that leadership effectiveness is not just about skill and capacity; it is also about a leader’s focus. Although leaders must face problems, effective leaders take these insights on the problems faced and then work to shift attention toward reflection on relevant solutions.

Dr. Jeffrey Matteson is a friend of mine who works as a district superintendent within the State of New York. Not only is Jeff a good friend, but he is also one of the most competent leaders I know.

Jeff shares the following about the importance of leaders focusing on solutions:

“In acknowledging the problem-based focus of followers, the leadership challenge is to turn their attention to potential solutions. Establishing an outlet for organizational members to provide feedback on problems is rarely necessary in contemporary organizational leadership. Problem and barrier identification come naturally. A solutions-based leader intentionally institutes a feedback loop for solutions from the front line and responds prescriptively so the appropriate medicine is applied to the identified ailment.”

If “problem and barrier identification come naturally,” then a core leadership responsibility is to take these insights and move the organization to the next step of making solution identification of equal importance for the collective thinking and discussions in the organizational community.

Solution-based leadership is about raising the focus, sights, and aspirations of the community toward a positive vision of the future. This happens most effectively as the collective energy of the community—leaders and followers alike—give their time and attention toward solution identification and implementation.

In light of this…

Where is your focus as a leader? Are you spending your time thinking more about problems or solutions?
Where is the focus of the followers with whom you work? How are you intentionally raising the sights of these individuals from a focus on problems to a focus on solutions?

In the days ahead, make steps to move the conversation to a solution-based approach to leadership.

Providing Accountability (Leadership Practice 9)

July 13, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 11 Comments

inspire, by Sarah Parrott, Flickr

I’m in a series highlighting 9 Effective Servant Leadership Practices. Servant leadership is not just a good idea. It works! The 9 effective leadership practices highlighted in this series capture core leadership dimensions that are correlated with effectiveness in the team context.

This week we will take on the final of the 9 practices—Providing Accountability. Before I dive into the final one, here is a snapshot of the core practices associated with team effectiveness:

Cluster 1—Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters
Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation
Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster 2—Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating
Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality
Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster 3—Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity
Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing
Practice 9: Providing Accountability

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

The final servant leadership practice included in this model is the leadership behavior of Providing Accountability. Rather than servant leadership being a weak form of leadership that is disinterested in results, this leadership behavior emphasizes the priority of holding people accountable for reaching their goals.

Misconceptions about Servant Leadership

When the topic of servant leadership comes up, this point is often a misconception I hear. People fear that if they are committed to serving others, they will lose authority in the eyes of followers or their acts of kindness will become opportunities for others to take advantage of what others view as a “weak” form of leadership.

These are misconceptions of servant leadership, though. Servant leaders do make hard decisions. Servant leaders at times do need to terminate employees. Leaders who are committed to serving their followers don’t simply do the job for those followers, they support and resource their followers toward success, and they then hold followers accountable toward agreed upon outcomes. Although servant leadership begins with a focus on followers, servant leadership also “has teeth” and includes a commitment to providing accountability and is consistent with a commitment to valuing and developing followers.

Clear Communication

As with the leadership practice of communicating with clarity, several research participants reaffirmed the priority of clear communication in the providing of accountability for followers. In contrast to some of the negative examples provided by participants—examples where leaders failed to clearly communicate and then terminated or disciplined employees based on poor performance—there was a unified called to proactive and honest communication around expectations and follower performance.

Open and Honest Evaluation

One participant noted “I prefer honest performance evaluations—those which acknowledge both strengths and growth fronts and clearly set goals that can be reached quarterly and annually.” Another participant similarly noted that, “honest and open communication that is regular and consistent at setting and reaching goals is very effective in developing accountability and building trust.”

Inspect What You Expect

Another participant notes that “leaders inspect what they expect,” and this is arguably consistent with the leader-love that characterizes a servant leaders commitment to serving the needs of the follower over the needs of the leader. Engaging in direct and honest conversation with followers around outcomes that are important to followers and the organization provides an opportunity for follower development, a tangible factor associated with valuing and developing people. Servant leadership is not about caring for followers or providing accountability. Servant leadership includes both. Are you inspecting what you expect when it comes to follower goal accomplishment?

Some Final Thoughts

The model covered these past weeks is about (1) beginning with authentic leaders, (2) understanding the priority of people, and (3) helping followers navigate toward effectiveness. We’ve covered the 9 core leadership practices associated with team effectiveness that are both presented in this model and supported by related research.

As you seek to grow as a leader, these 9 effective leadership practices will serve both you and your followers well. Take time in the coming week to think through one or two action steps based on these practices. Enjoy the journey of growing as a servant leader.

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Supporting and Resourcing Followers (Leadership Practice 8)

July 6, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 11 Comments

Support, by GotCredit, Flickr

The third grouping of servant leadership practices in the model emphasizes clear communication and the supporting of individuals toward outcomes for which they are accountable. This third cluster of servant leadership practices is focused on helping followers navigate toward effectiveness and include the following practices: (1) communicating with clarity, (2) supporting and resourcing, and (3) providing accountability. Last week, we highlighted Communicating with Clarity. This week we take on Leadership Practice 8— Supporting and Resourcing Followers.

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing Followers

In addition to clear communication, followers also need their servant leaders to practice supporting and resourcing. On productive teams, leaders and followers focus their energies on movement toward important goals. They recognize that it is not just about being busy, but also being productive. As followers work toward these goals, servant leaders focus on serving the followers through supporting and resourcing activities. They help to remove obstacles that hindering follower progress. They help to provide encouragement and motivation. They help to provide the necessary resources that followers will need to get the job done.

Equipping and Empowering

Rather than leaders viewing their primary role as driving followers toward production, a commitment to supporting and resourcing allows leaders to focus on serving followers toward their success and being responsive to their needs as they work toward organizational goals. Servant leadership is not about doing people’s work for them. It is about creating a context within which followers will flourish in their work.

Leadership supporting and resourcing captures the heart of what is included in James Kouzes and Barry Posners’ theme of Enable Others to Act in their five practices of exemplary leadership. Leaders take a proactive posture toward followers. They work to remove barriers and build bridges so that followers may thrive in their responsibilities.

A Proactive Approach to Leading

On this theme of supporting and resourcing followers, research participants emphasized the importance of removing barriers, and one participant identified the special importance of being active in the identification of needs. They noted that the leader “should be the first to ask ‘what do we need to get the job done’ versus being passive, waiting for requests to come to him/her and then trying to put the requests off as long as possible.”

Other research participants add that because leaders are in the position to see the best allocation of resources and to draw out the gifting of human resources so that followers are fulfilled in their work, it is important that leaders share explanations with followers regarding how resources are apportioned and when resources are not available for certain needs.

Another participant’s response captures the essence of this servant leadership behavior noting that leaders carry out this function best when they release power and resources to members to accomplish critical and expected initiatives.

Setting Up Followers for Success

If the mission of the community matters, then leaders have the responsibility to provide the support and resources necessary for followers to work toward their goals in light of this mission. In your work as a leader, are you taking a passive or active posture toward supporting and resourcing followers? Are you working to remove obstacles that are barriers to follower work performance? Are you working to provide the necessary support and resources that builds bridges to effective follower work performance?

Take some time in the week to consider how you may more effectively support and resource your followers in their work toward the mission of your organization or team.

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Communicating with Clarity (Leadership Practice 7)

June 29, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 12 Comments

Communication, by Paul Shanks, Flickr

The third grouping of servant leadership practices in the model emphasizes clear communication and the supporting of individuals toward outcomes for which they are accountable. This third cluster of servant leadership practices is focused on helping followers navigate toward effectiveness and include the following: (1) communicating with clarity, (2) supporting and resourcing, and (3) providing accountability. This week we take on Leadership Practice 7 — Communicating with Clarity

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of clear communication in the practice of leadership. Although all effective communicators are not necessarily leaders, all effective leaders must be effective communicators.

Effective Leadership Requires Effective Communication

In previous posts, I highlighted 5 Types of Leadership Communication and 7 Levels of Leadership Communication. As noted in these posts, leaders must attend to factors such as verbal and nonverbal modes of communication as well as diverse levels of communication from intrapersonal to organizational.

Sometimes leaders speak through their words. Sometimes leaders speak with their actions (or inaction). The question is whether or not the leader is being intentional in these various types and levels of their communication. Being intentional with effective communication practice will help leaders effectively guide their followers and teams.

Communication Basics for Leaders

As we consider how to help followers navigate toward effectiveness, the seventh effective servant leadership practice in this model is Communicating with Clarity. This leadership practice is about effectively communicating plans and goals for the organization, and research participants note several critical features of effective communication in the leadership role.

Key communication features noted by research participants included the following:

Honesty
Transparency
Authenticity
Clarity
Listening
Timeliness
Confidence without arrogance
Conciseness
Regularity and appropriately repetitious
Congruence of verbal and nonverbal messages
Use of a diverse set of communication media
Use of word pictures
Saying what you mean and meaning what you say
Avoiding emotionally laden and volatile communication overtones

Leaders: Communicate Often — Communicate Well

Leaders who learn to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts and through a variety of communication pathways are helping followers and their organizations navigate toward effectiveness. How are you doing on this front as a leader? What step can you take in the coming workweek to be more proactive in your communication approach with followers and teams?

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Understanding Relational Skills (Leadership Practice 6)

June 22, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 11 Comments

by Chuck Patch, Flickr

The second grouping of servant leadership practices presented in the model emphasizes the importance of understanding the priority of people. In this second cluster of servant leadership practices, leadership behaviors associated with effective teams include: (1) valuing and appreciating, (2) creating a place for individuality, and (3) understanding relational skills. This week we take on Leadership Practice 6 — Understanding Relational Skills.

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

This second cluster, which is focused on understanding the priority of people, ends with the servant leadership practice of Understanding Relational Skills. Knowing how to get along with people is basic to quality relationships, and it is the basis of quality leadership practice as well. Although this may seem simplistic, understanding relational skills is key for leading well in the team context.

Relational Skills and Emotional Intelligence

In recent decades, leadership researchers have identified the importance of emotional intelligence for leadership practice. At the core of emotional intelligence are skills that support intrapersonal and interpersonal engagement. In his discussion of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman emphasized factors such as empathy and social skills, premised on self-awareness. These factors provide a basis for effective relational skills. Self-awareness leading to an awareness of and responsiveness to the needs of others provides a platform on which effective leaders may appropriately humanize the leader-follower relational engagement.

Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Authentic Listening

The themes of self-awareness, empathy, and authentic listening were also highlighted by the research participants in my study on the topic, noting these as important characteristics of effective relational skills. One participant noted that empathetic communication, personal connection, selective vulnerability, and attention to what motivates followers are all critical relational skills. Other participants emphasized items such as:

The importance of authentic listening,
A commitment to fairness and equality,
The ability to tolerate and accept appropriate differences,
The importance of knowing oneself well in order to relate authentically with others,
The embodiment of confidence blended with the ability to see future possibilities and communicate the most appropriate path to get there
Creating a sense of safety and support for followers,
Demonstrating care and kindness,
Reinforcing a commitment to the working relationship, and
Maintaining an open and approachable posture toward followers.

All of these themes comprise key relational skills that help foster positive leader-follower relationships.

Although leaders at times may like to work in the background simply dealing with systems and structures, engaging organizational members, team members, and direct reports with relational intelligence is vital. How are you nurturing your relational skills? How are you engaging followers with wisdom and a spirit of understanding?

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Creating a Place for Individuality (Leadership Practice 5)

June 8, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 10 Comments

Individuality !, Craig Sunter – Thanx 2 Mil…, Flickr

The second grouping of servant leadership practices presented in the model emphasizes the importance of understanding the priority of people. In this second cluster of servant leadership practices, leadership behaviors associated with effective teams include: (1) valuing and appreciating, (2) creating a place for individuality, and (3) understanding relational skills. Last week, we highlighted Valuing and Appreciating People. This week we take on Leadership Practice 5—Creating a Place for Individuality.

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

There is a tendency in some organizational circles to simple view people as cogs in a larger organizational system. But who likes it, and flourishes, when they are viewed in such a mechanistic and replaceable fashion?

Beyond the Cog

In contrast to this approach, servant leaders help to Create a Place for Individuality in their work with their teams. Outcomes matter in organizations. So does holding followers accountable to these outcomes—a point emphasized in this larger research study. But it is also vital to recognize that outcomes are not necessarily achieved in a uniform manner.

Beyond Uniformity

In contrast to approaches that emphasize follower uniformity, this leadership practice emphasizes allowing for individuality of style and expression in followers as well as accepting followers for who they are as individuals. In contrast to the overly mechanized systems encouraged in some twentieth century managerial models, this study challenges twenty-first century leaders to remember the individual and to create space for individuality in work performance.

Beyond Micromanaging

Research participants note the importance of simple expressions of individuality. Of the expressions noted were dimensions of flexibility such as work style, clothing, and office hours. Participants also noted that flexibility for follower expressions of individuality are best supported through the avoidance of micromanaging leadership behaviors.

Moving Toward Common Culture over Uniformity

One participant noted, “Set strategic goals, but allow individuals to engage in creative processes to get there.” On the theme of how follower individuality coincides with organizational unity, participants noted that commonality at the level of mission, vision, goals, and values provides “the glue that holds the organization together,” and that “under this umbrella there is ample room for individuality.”

Arguing that great leaders find ways to meld the needs of individuals with the needs of an organization, one participant argues that this “requires the leader to take an active interest in the capacity of those under their leadership.” They continue noting the importance of assigning responsibility and delegating authority “based on the giftedness of the follower in alignment with the project or task to be completed.”

Moving Toward Individuality and Individualized Consideration

All of this requires an individualized consideration similar to what Bass and Avolio put forward in transformational leadership theory. This calls leaders to a higher level of investment in creating space for individuals to work uniquely toward common goals. While it is sometimes easier to mandate uniformity and conformance, taking the extra time and effort to create space for individuality is a valuable leadership practice that is significantly related to effectiveness in this study.

While a focus on outcomes is important, how are you creating a place for individuality in your work with followers? Think through a step or two you can take in appreciating and providing space for the individuality of your team members.

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Valuing and Appreciating People (Leadership Practice 4)

June 1, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 11 Comments

Value, GotCredit, Flickr

I’m in a series highlighting 9 Effective Servant Leadership Practices. Servant leadership is not just a good idea. It works!

The 9 effective leadership practices highlighted in this series capture core leadership dimensions that are correlated with effectiveness in the team context around three broad areas: Beginning with Authentic Leaders, Understanding the Priority of People, and Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Understanding the Priority of People

I’ve walked through the first grouping in previous posts. The second grouping of servant leadership practices presented in the model emphasizes the importance of Understanding the Priority of People. In this second cluster of servant leadership practices, leadership behaviors associated with effective teams include: (1) valuing and appreciating, (2) creating a place for individuality, and (3) understanding relational skills. This week we take on Leadership Practice 4— Valuing and Appreciating.

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Understanding the priority of people begins with a basic commitment to Valuing and Appreciating people. While this includes the communication of appreciation for follower contribution as a primary focus, it also emphasizes the value and trust of people at a more basic level.

Jim Laub notes the following about valuing people and organizational health:

“Healthy organizations have a different view of people. People are to be valued and developed, not used.”

This gets at a core characteristic of servant leadership. As a leader, do you view the people primarily as resources to be used and deployed, or do you view people as intrinsically valuable?

The Innate Value of People

Laub continues:

“Leaders accept the fact that people have present value not just future potential. People seem to have an innate ability to know whether or not they are being valued…whether or not they are trusted. Effective leaders accept a person’s value up front. They give them the gift of trust without requiring that they earn it first. As leaders work with people in organizations they will serve them by displaying the qualities of Valuing People.”

Many leaders value their followers after the followers have demonstrated their value to the organization. Consistent with Laub’s comments, servant leaders take valuing people to another level. Servant leaders value people not only for what they contribute, but rather value them primary for who they are as people.

Valuing Leads to Appreciating

Several research participants highlight similar observations, noting the importance of trust in valuing and appreciating followers when they are “given responsibility and released to accomplish the task without second guesses,” and when “verbally appreciate[ing] them as people first, then for their contribution to the team.” Another participant noted that a follower feels valued and appreciated “when a leader authentically and legitimately applauds the performance of a follower and acknowledges their unique contributions with concrete examples.” Such expressions must be connected with reality, though, and in the words of this participant must be “genuine, deserved, and observable” if such expressions are to be effective.

How Do You View Your People?

So how are you doing on this front? Are you valuing people for who they are, or merely for what they contribute to the organization? Is this valuing of people translating into expressions of appreciation? Teams flourish as members are valued and appreciated in the journey toward effectiveness.

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Fostering Collaboration (Leadership Practice 3)

May 26, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 10 Comments

Lomography Collaboration, enshahdi, Flickr

The past two weeks I highlighted the first two practices—Modeling what Matters and Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation. This week, we turn to the third practice—Fostering Collaboration.

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Dwight D. Eisenhower is attributed with saying “It is better to have one person working with you than three people working for you.” Such logic is at the heart of collaboration, and effective leaders prioritize fostering collaboration in their teams and organizations. In contrast to overly competitive leadership agendas, this leadership behavior—Fostering Collaboration—highlights the importance of leaders encouraging followers to work together over competing against one another in the organizational environment.

Collaboration and Complexity

Noting the importance of fostering collaboration, one research participant argues that, “solutions to complex problems today often require a collaborative engagement with others, the collective of which will generate the best solution.” Another participant acknowledges that no one person can meet the demands placed on leadership, and thus “collaboration allows a leader to expand the leadership resources brought into the leadership process.”

The Priority of Authentic Collaboration

Providing a key argument for viewing this practice as part of beginning with authentic leaders, one participant in my study noted the danger of collaborative gestures coming across as token invitations for follower participation. When a leader “just wants to appear like he/she is collaborating, but doesn’t really care about input from others,” such inauthentic collaborative gestures become toxic for leader-follower relationships and the broader organizational culture. However, when genuine respect for followers is blended with a listening posture, a suspension of leader predispositions, and a willingness to give credit to others and embrace solutions that come from others, there is great power in leaders working with followers on genuinely collaborative agendas.

Going Far Together

There is an African proverb that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Those who want to go far in leadership enterprises recognize the priority of a collaborative environment.

How are you doing at fostering collaboration in your sphere of influence? Do you recognize the priority of working together in order to go far? Take the next step in fostering collaboration in your work as a leader!

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness

Practice 7: Communicating with Clarity

Practice 8: Supporting and Resourcing

Practice 9: Providing Accountability

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Note: For those wanting to dig a bit deeper, please check out my article entitled “A Model for Effective Servant Leadership Practice.”

Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation (Leadership Practice 2)

May 18, 2015July 21, 2015 / Justin Irving / 10 Comments

Reflection After Reflection, Dia, Flickr

I’m in a series highlighting 9 Effective Leadership Practices. Servant leadership is not just a good idea. It works! The 9 effective leadership practices highlighted in this series capture core leadership dimensions that are correlated with effectiveness in the team context.

Last week I highlighted the first practice—Modeling what Matters. This week, we turn to the second practice—Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation.

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Serving as a foundation for authentic modeling of what matters (Practice 1), the next servant leadership practice is Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation. One of the unique features of this practice is its emphasis on self-evaluation sequentially prior to the leader’s evaluation of others. While it may be easy for leaders to recognize faults and mistakes in others, leaders must first engage in in the hard work of looking in the mirror and engaging in a self-evaluative process of reflection.

The Leader’s First Look

This practice is consistent with the biblical admonition to “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). Engaging in honest self-evaluation requires leader humility. It requires a capacity for self-awareness. It requires a willingness to reflect on personal faults and shortcomings which shape the organizational environment and the experience that followers have in the organization.

Being (and Growing as) Humans

Shann Ferch argued that “one of the defining characteristics of human nature is the ability to discern one’s own faults, to be broken as the result of such faults, and in response to seek a meaningful change.” Leaders are not exempt from such important human characteristics. The issue is not whether or not leaders have faults and make mistakes in their leadership practice at times. Rather, the issue is whether or not leaders have the capacity to reflect on these mistakes and engage in honest self-reflection and self-evaluation. Leaders who do this are able to learn from their mistakes and then grow as persons and as leaders.

Greater Influence Necessitates Greater Reflection

Emphasizing the importance of honest self-evaluation, research participants noted among other things the danger of leader blind spots and unquestioned assumptions. One participant noted, “Honest self-evaluation is utterly important for leaders,” and that, “the blind spots of leaders tend to be far more destructive than the blind spots of non-leaders [because leaders] … impact more people.” In other words, the scope of one’s influence matters. While honest self-evaluation is vital for all people, it is critical for those with significant influence.

Self-Evaluation and Role of Trusted Friends

Research participants further noted the dangers of unconscious self-exaltation and the drift toward arrogance and individualism. They argued that honest self-evaluation is best accomplished when trusted friends are invited to provide the leader with feedback on their growth edges. In addition to effecting the leader’s personal growth, the absence of honest self-evaluation on the part of leaders decreases the capacity of teams to change and attain goals in an effective manner.

Looking in the Mirror

It’s one thing to read about self-reflection and self-evaluation as a leader. It is another thing altogether to actually do the work of honest self-evaluation.

Have you taken time recently to pause for self-reflection as a leader? How are you evaluating your engagement with those on your team? Are you doing this evaluation on your own, or have you invited a trusted friend to provide honest feedback so that you may better see your leader blind spots?

Though pausing for self-reflection and self-evaluation may feel like you are simply not getting your work done, the research study that backs these reflections prioritizes leader self-evaluation as a first-order priority for leaders. Pausing for reflection and evaluation allows you the opportunity to make mid-course corrections in your leadership, contribute to higher levels of follower job-satisfaction, and contribute to the increased effectiveness of your team.

Take time for an honest look in the mirror today.

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Related Posts for the 9 Effective Leadership Practices:

Cluster One — Beginning with Authentic Leaders

Practice 1: Modeling what Matters

Practice 2: Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation

Practice 3: Fostering Collaboration

Cluster Two — Understanding the Priority of People

Practice 4: Valuing and Appreciating

Practice 5: Creating a Place for Individuality

Practice 6: Understanding Relational Skills

Cluster Three — Helping Followers Navigate toward Effectiveness