Zenger and Folkman meet Kouzes and Posner at the Sustainability Table
In Zenger's interview with David Creelman of http://www.hr.com/, Zenger conversationally defines his five "extraordinary leadership" competencies with their associated sub-competencies. Here they are:
1. Character
a Integrity
b Honesty
c Doing what you say you are going to do
d Predictability
2. Personal Competence
a Problem solving skills
b Technical proficiency
c Being receptive to new ideas
3. Driving for results
a Setting lofty goals
b Having a clear view of what needs to be accomplished
c Being very focused on goals or results
d Taking responsibility to achieve those goals
4. Interpersonal competency
a Inspiring and motivating other people
b Being perceived as a good team player
c Prolific and powerful communicator
5. Leading change
a Having a vision of the future
b Antenna out to look at what is going on in the outside world
Compare these against Kouzes and Posner 5 factors associated with Leadership Behavior. These were drawn down from www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-9644.html
1. Model the Way
a Establish principles concerning the way people (constituents, peers, colleagues, and customers alike) should be treated
b Establish the way goals should be pursued
c Create standards of excellence
d Set an example for others to follow
e Set interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work toward larger objectives
f Unravel bureaucracy when it impedes action
g Put up signposts when people are unsure of where to go or how to get there
h Create opportunities for victory
2. Enable Others to Act
a Foster collaboration and build spirited teams
b Actively involve others
c Understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts
d Strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity.
e Strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful
3. Challenge the Process
a Search for opportunities to change the status quo
b Look for innovative ways to improve the organization
c Experiment and take risks.
d Accept disappointments as learning opportunities
4. Encourage the Heart
a Recognize contributions that individuals make
b Members share in the rewards of their efforts
c Leaders celebrate accomplishments
d Make people feel like heroes
5. Inspire a Shared Vision
a Passionately believe that they can make a difference
b Envision the future, creating an ideal and unique image of what the organization can become
c Exercise magnetism and quiet persuasion to enlist others in their dreams
c Breathe life into their visions and get people to see exciting possibilities for the future
Zenger has added in features that can be better captured through 360 feedback, but let?s ask whether there might be a better way to deal with both 5 competency views. Let?s cluster the lists of associated competencies and sort them into natural or related groups. Use your own judgment to decide if I am fair and reasonable in my grouping. Test to see if these items can be better assigned to other groups.
Cascaded Context 1 - Standards
1. Create standards of excellence
2. Establish the way goals should be pursued
3. Setting lofty goals
4. Being very focused on goals or results
5. Having a clear view of what needs to be accomplished
Cascaded Context 2 - Future
6. Having a vision of the future
7. Being receptive to new ideas
8. Search for opportunities to change the status quo
9. Look for innovative ways to improve the organization
10. Experiment and take risks.
11. Envision the future, creating an ideal and unique image of what the organization can become
Vested Engagement 1 = Character and Trust
12. Integrity
13. Honesty
14. Doing what you say you are going to do
15. Taking responsibility to achieve those goals
16. Accept disappointments as learning opportunities
17. Passionately believe that they can make a difference
18. Set an example for others to follow
19. Establish principles concerning the way people (constituents, peers, colleagues, and customers alike) should be treated
Vested Engagement 2 = Membering and Communication
20. Prolific and powerful communicator
21. Being perceived as a good team player
22. Members share in the rewards of their efforts
23. Leaders celebrate accomplishments
24. Create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity
25. Build spirited teams
26. Foster collaboration
27. Understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts
28. Actively involve others
29. Make people feel like heroes
30. Recognize contributions that individuals make
31. Inspiring and motivating other people
32. Exercise magnetism and quiet persuasion to enlist others in their dreams
33. Breathe life into their visions and get people to see exciting possibilities for the future
requisite Competencies 1 = Skills
34. Problem solving skills
35. Technical proficiency
Requisite Competencies 2 = Methods
36. Set interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work toward larger objectives
37. Unravel bureaucracy when it impedes action
38. Put up signposts when people are unsure of where to go or how to get there
39. Create opportunities for victory
40. Strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful
Adaptive Alignment
41. Predictability
42. Antenna out to look at what is going on in the outside world
Let me now proffer a response to these two commonly touted models of leadership. Look for yourself! You can see how thin their focus on requisite competencies is. That is probably why Jaques, who had such a sound and logical view of leadership, felt so isolated. What should be added is much of Jaques' focus, such as proper organizational layering, rational supervision chains and structures, assignments based on time horizon and capacity. But the other piece that is hugely and obviously missing is the need for Adaptive Alignment. Only 2 items out of 42 can be primarily allocated to Adaptive Alignment. This is why we are so threatened by the adaptive capacity of China and India and others! Our leaders are not being trained or supported in real time feedback and response. A Sustainable Organization frame of reference informs us of the flaws in these maps of leadership. Lest you think we are too harsh on these guys ... notice that we don't even bother to review the pabulum and outright nonsense that Jack Welsh uses to sell his speaking engagements. Remember the good old days when we could actually believe that Tom Peters had found the grail.
posted by Sustainable Organizations @ 11:43 AM
2 comments
Requisite Organization is a total system for Effective Managerial Organization and Managerial Leadership. His total system touches on many things. Some more well known than others.
If I understand your definition of Adaptive Alignment from your other posts, much of it has to do with how people share information across silos. Jaques has not ignored this. It is just not a well known part of his model.
Jaques' model includes explicit mangerial authorities and accountabilities. Explicitly defining cross functional working relationships between functions is an accountability of the "cross over manager". Jaques didn't leave it at that (too nebulous). Jaques defines seven types of relationships - prescribing, auditing, coordinative, monitoring, service getting, advisory and collateral. With these in place, a manager can sit down and say, Susie, you have an advisory relationship with Joe. That means you have access to explain things to Joe, but Joe has no responsibility beyond listening. When both Joe and Susie know this is the process, they need not worry about having to resort to force of personality to get things done. If Susie cannot get access to Joe, she will report this to her manager. Everyone knows this. If Joe doesn't act on Susie's explanation, no action is needed because both Joe and Susie know, Joe is not required to take action based on Susie's explanation.
People with staff roles within organizations could really benefit from having this type of clarity surrounding their roles. As a former Regional Training Manager, I was to "make" operations managers implement an effective on-the-job training program in their plants. What does "make" mean? They didn't report to me, and they quite frequently told me to buzz off. Yet my perfomance appraisal was based upon their doing this. Their performance appraisal was based upon efficiency. If they could meet those numbers without implementing an on-the-job training program, they weren't interested (and I don't blame them.) But I was forced to visit them on a regular basis and pretend like they wanted to do this. They would smile at me, say nice things, and then drag their feet on implementation. What a mess.
As far as keeping your "eye" out to the world (and setting strategy with this in mind,) this would be a stratum six capability and accountability.
Finally, Jaques defines 10 managerial leadership practices that all managers should be accountable for. These cover (or highly enable) many of the items listed by Zenger. These are 1) Regular meetings between mgr and direct reports 2)Context setting 3)Planning 4)Task Assignment 5)Personal effectiveness appraisal 6) Merit review 7) Coaching 8) Selection and induction 9) Deselection and dismissal 10) Continual improvement. Each of these 10 items is explicitly defined by Jaques so there is no confusion regarding what these items mean.
Jaques does not list these as "things good leaders do". He sets them as a requirement and an accountability for all managers. We're back to the system again. If the organization explicitly defines and expects these behaviors of all managers (and provides training toward these behaviors), work is highly enabled. Organizations that wring their hands looking for people who intuitively do these things, they will find some who do and some who don't.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Adaptive Alignment is covered in many systems and managerial approaches. My intent with Sustainable Organization is to package issues of sustainability in a rational and coherent fashion. What you are describing is how requisite structure enables crossing of silos and how clear accountabilities enable crossing of silos. These features, at least for me, fall within Requisite Competencies. Adaptive Alignment is (forgive me for coining words) "Extrapersonal", the organization having built mechanisms and processes and practices that give it real time information about changes in the environment. Nothing in my reading of Jaques addresses this issue. Tying sustainability to a person - the person of the leader - is a terrific problem in Jaques. While stratum is in line with Requisite Competencies and a really important aspect of organizational competence - because it reflects the competence to select and place the right folks - it does not impact Adaptive Alignment itself. Here is the most obvious reason. Look at the list you yourself provide in defense of Jaques' comprehensiveness - prescribing, auditing, coordinative, monitoring, service getting, advisory and collateral - where are the real Adaptive Alignment functions? Monitoring comes closest but is insufficient to cover the real time market, staffing, information, technology, and internal and external "climate" shifts that may be occurring if an organization is to be sustainable. Jaques' point of view is necessary for Sustainable Organizations; but it is not sufficient.