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.

Sustainable Organizations and Human Capital Risk Management

Within the framework of Sustainable Organization, I think we can offer a framework for risk and Human Capital. The seeds of this were sown when Lanny Hass of NCSU and I were discussing Human Capital risk management. For a while it seemed we were talking past each other. His concern was with the management of risk related to succession planning and management. My concern was with actual employee behaviors that generate liability; such as failure to update certifications. I also recalled a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with William Fisher of Lexile about a Lexile client who determined his greatest Human Capital risk was the inability of his hourly employees to understand contracts – in effect, their reading comprehension.

Let me offer the following types of risks SO can address related to Human Capital to shape the discussion:

Organizational Opportunity Risk – The organization misses opportunities to grow and develop because the context for the organization is defined to narrowly or too broadly. This is the risk we associate with leadership and vision. In SO terms, it is the risk inherent in a shortfall in Cascaded Context.
Organizational Adaptability (Response Capacity) Risk – The organization fails to anticipate or have mechanisms for reacting to changes in the environment or market – particularly the labor pool. In practice, they have no succession process. In SO terms, it is the risk that results from a shortfall in Adaptive Alignment.
Employee Capability (Absence of Capability) Risk – The organization fails to select, hire, train, or certify competence of employees in knowledge, skills, or abilities required for performance. In SO terms, it is the risk that results from a shortfall in Requisite Competency.
Employee Action/Behavior Risk – For Jaques, this would be the T factor, but it is the management of the intersection between Requisite Competency reflected by the behavior of the employee and Adaptive Alignment reflected by the organizational management systems for detecting and correcting gaps in capacity or performance.
Employee Accountability Risk – If an organization silos accountability or disperses accountability incorrectly, adaptive responses can occur too late. Often this is because the Cascaded Context and concomitant role clarity is unclear. Sometimes trust and commitment among members of the organization is the source of the problem, and reciprocal sabotage or failure to take ownership of emerging or less than definite accountability chains results from a gap in Vested Engagement.