Keeping the Workplace Cool During the Crisis

By Jacqueline Irons

HRMAJ Conference 29

November 2009

Good Leadership

• Failing organizations are usually over managed and under-led……………..Warren G. Bennis, Professor at the University of Southern California, author
• In times of crisis good leadership makes a difference

Good Leadership

• Warren Bennis – 1994

‘The first basic ingredient of leadership is a guiding vision. The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do – professionally and personally – and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. Unless you know where you are going, and why, you cannot possible get there’

Visionary & Transformational �Leadership

Bennis identifies three basic ingredients of leadership:

1. A guiding vision
2. Passion
3. integrity

​

Visionary & Transformational�Leadership

• Top 5 characteristics of visionary leadership:
• Clear vision
• Determination
• Great speaker, great presence
• Tough when needed
• Able to stand alone

​

​

Visionary Leadership

Persons in the United Kingdom was asked (2002) to name significant leaders of change and the answers were:

• Winston Churchill
• Margaret Thatcher
• Nelson Mandela
• Adolf Hitler
• Martin Luther king Jr.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership involves the leader raising the followers’ sense of purpose and levels of motivation. Transformational leadership consists of:

• Charisma
• Inspiration
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualized consideration
• Extraordinary men and women

Managers and Leaders�(William Bennis)

A Manager

• Administers
• Is a copy
• Maintains
• Focuses on systems
• Relies on control
• Has a short range view
• Has an eye on the bottom line
• Accepts the status quo
• Does things right

​

​

A Leader

• Innovates
• Is an original
• Develops
• Focuses on people
• Inspires trust
• Has a long range view
• Has his eye on the horizon
• Challenges the status quo
• Does the right thing

Emotional competencies of leaders

In order to guide leaders need to have:

Self awareness

• Knowing one’s internal states, preferences,

and intuitions

• Recognizing one’s emotions and their effects
• Knowing one’s strengths and limitations
• A strong sense of one’s self worth and capabilities

​

Emotional Competencies of Leaders

Self Management

• Keeping disruptive emotions & impulses in check
• Maintaining standards of honesty & integrity
• Taking responsibility for personal performance
• Flexibility in handling change
• Striving to improve or meeting a standard of excellence
• Readiness to act on opportunities

Emotional Competencies of Leaders

Social Awareness

Awareness of others’ feelings, needs & concerns

• Sensing others feelings & perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concern
• Reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationship
• Anticipating, recognizing and meeting customers needs

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Emotional competencies of Leaders

Social Skills

Adeptness at inducing desirable response to others:

• Sensing others’ development needs and bolstering their abilities
• Inspiring and guiding individuals & groups
• Welding effective tactics for persuasion
• Listening openly and sending convincing messages
• Initiating or managing change
• Negotiating and resolving disagreements
• Nurturing instrumental relationships
• Working with others toward shared goals
• Creating group-synergy in pursuing collective goals

Goldman’s 6 Leadership style�(2000)

• Coercive – telling people what to do when
• Authoritative – persuading and attracting people with an engaging vision
• Affiliative – Building relationships with people through use of positive feedback
• Democratic – Asking the Team what they think, and listening to this
• Pace-setting – Raising the bar and asking for a bit more. Increasing the pace
• Coaching - Encouraging and supporting people to try new things. Developing their skills

Golman’s Leadership styles

Daniel Goleman – American author, psychologist & science journalist

When do you use these styles?

• Coercive – when there is a crisis
• Authoritative - When step change is required.

- when manager is both credible and enthusiastic

• Affiliative – when relationships are broken

​

Golman’s Leadership style

• Democratic – when the team members have something to contribute.
• Pace-setting – When Team members are highly motivated and highly competent
• Coaching – when there is a skills gap

Goldman’s Leadership styles

Disadvantages of each:

• Coercive –Encourages dependence
• Authoritative – Has a negative effect if manager is not credible
• Affiliative – Not productive is it is the only style used
• Democratic – may lead nowhere if the team is inexperienced.
• Pace-setting –exhausting if used too much. Not good when members need help
• Coaching – manager needs to be a good coach

Goldman’s Leadership styles

• One needs a combination of all 6 styles in order to operate
• Depending on the circumstances the leader needs to be able to shift from one style to the other
• When any style is overused, this can lead to problems in the organization
• This is the meat of “ keeping the workforce cool during a crisis”

Communication

• Leaders need to communicate, communicate, communicate!!!!!
• People need to know what is happening.
• Surprises cause problems
• Use all methods of communication

- e.g.meetings, e-mails, notice boards, one & one

• Helps to eliminate the rumours
• Maintains or increases productivity
• Provides stability

Leadership by example

• One is a leader ALL THE TIME
• People are looking to leaders for guidance
• People are looking to leaders to basically have the answers or to try and get them
• Leaders are not only leaders of countries
• Leaders are not only CEO’s
• Leaders are supervisors, managers and informal leaders
• Leaders are community leaders

Leaders

• The question is are you a leader or a follower or a manager?
• Do you walk the talk?
• Do you just talk the talk?
• Can you keep the Workforce cool during the crisis?

​

Thank You

Any questions?????