hwh10

Servant Leadership and Eugene Debs

June 23, 2016 by hwh10

Eugene Debs once said, “I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.” (1918)

I first found this quote many years ago and it spoke to me about a sense of leadership that comes from those that you lead. Now, when I originally stumbled on this quote, I knew nothing of Eugene Debs background or place in history I just truly enjoyed this quote.

Debs was a labor organizer and a socialist in America in the early 1900’s. He ran for president five times as a member of the Socialist Party. Later in his life he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his position on World War II.

This quote by Debs has always inspired me as I have considered my own leadership style. There is an appeal to me that instead of being viewed above followers or superior to them that your role is to be the leader just as others have their roles to play. I viewed this quote as what I thought as servant leadership without ever knowing what that meant.

Robert K. Greenleaf defined servant leadership in 1970 as it “begin with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings on to aspire to lead…The difference manifests itself in the care take by the servant – first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test…is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society, will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived? (p.15)” (Cited in Northouse 2015, p. 226)

This definition of servant leadership aligns with elements of the Debs quote that has inspired me for the duration of my career. The role of being a leader is to serve those who follow us as without them we are no longer leaders. It is our obligation to ensure those who follow us excel as individuals and we actively seek to foster growth for those who have agreed to join us in our efforts. It is particularly appealing to me that

Is this quote from Debs a representation of servant leadership? I believe it is. Debs is stating the essence of servant leadership when he says, “I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.” It is this idea of elevating those who follow you as the essence of his philosophy to deeply connects to the definition of servant leadership.

Debs, E. V. The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech. (June 6, 1918). Retrieved June 23, 2016, from https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/canton.htm

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Authenticate Leadership in Five Easy steps

June 23, 2016 by hwh10

Recently I added a new division to my group at work. This new group does work that I am not a technical expert at but can conceptualize. As I have begun to on-board this group into my world I needed to think about the ways in which I want to connect with them.

This isn’t the first time I have inherited a team but previously I would have been new to the organization and there would not have been an existing relationship. I would have built relationships from scratch. The new team I added has an existing relationship with me. That relationship is not deep or significant but it does exist.

In my assessment of this new team I have found a number of cultural issues stemming from disconnected and cold management. My new team feels unheard and ignored and, truthfully, they have been. This leads me to feel they need an authentic leader approach so they feel they are being treated in a respectful and engaging manner.

I have always aspired to be an authentic leader and I feel if you asked the dozens of people I have managed over the last twenty years they would say I am. However, when assessing this situation and understanding the appropriate next steps it is useful to refer to Bill George’s Authentic Leadership model. According to his model there are five basic characteristics of authentic leadership: 1) Have an understanding of their purpose. 2) Have strong values about the right thing to do. 3) Establish trusting relationships with others. 4) Model behavior and act on their values. 5) They are passionate about their mission. (Northouse, 2015, p. 197)

Using this model I feel like I am on the right path.

1) Have an understanding of their purpose.

In this situation my purpose is to assess the organizational structure to determine the most effective future structure. Congruently, there is a need to assess the work culture and the opportunities for innovation available in the work.

2) Have strong values about the right thing to do.

With this new group I have met with every member of the team individually and have had three conversations. First, what type of work culture do they want and how can I help build that work culture. Second and third, I have asked each of them what is one thing we should stop doing today to be more effective and one thing we should start doing today to be more effective. These conversations have been wide-ranging and we have implemented immediate changes based on some of the feedback provided while some feedback needs to be considered before action can be taken.

3) Establish trusting relationships with others.

The individual meetings and subsequent informal interactions are all intended to establish relationships and build trust. It is through some of the immediate actions we have taken that trust will grow.

4) Model behavior and act on their values.

I go out of my way to ask members of this new team if there is anything I can do in support of their work. In each conversation I am as clear and as transparent about my motivations and my assessment as I can be. I show compassion to each of them as individuals and do my best to recall details about what is happening in their lives. In my daily interactions I am attempting to show each of them how I expect they should work together and with me. Additionally, I have repeatedly stated to them my expectations in direct and simple terms.

5) They are passionate about their mission.

I devote my time and energy to providing them with what they need from me to succeed. I go out of my way to interact with each staff member and continue to restate the value in the work that each of them are doing. I connect the intention of our work back to the mission of the overall organization to remind them our purpose. How can we best serve our university to its success?

Overall, this framework is very beneficial in thinking about opportunities to continue to grow and improve as I take on these new tasks. There are aspects of my growth to be an authentic leader that will take time and growth. However, these are the types of opportunities I seek to stretch my skill set, knowledge and self awareness.

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Three-skill approach: Career growth

May 27, 2016 by hwh10

In learning about the three-skill approach I began to reflect on my own career. Over the last twenty years I have gone from managing a team of student staff to now managing over 40 full time professional employees working in a variety of functionalities. The three-skill approach has been directly reflected in my own career growth as I transition to new phases.

Per Northouse (2015), the three-skill approach “includes technical, human, and conceptual skills.” The idea that as your role evolves and grows the mix of the skills necessary change particularly in the areas of technical and conceptual. “It is important for leaders to have all three skills; dpeending on where they are in the management structure, however, some skills are more important than others are.” (Northouse, 2015, p. 46)

To be clear, technical skill can be equated to functional expertise in a given field or task, human skill is the ability to relate to others, and conceptual skills is working with ideas and loosely formed concepts. (Northouse, 2015, pp. 44-45)

For myself, I see this evolution mirrored in my last 3 roles.

First, at the University of Michigan I was a functional expert with a very specialized skill set. I managed a large number of students and two professional staff. My work was based on a yearly calendar and it involved very little program creation or vision work. In this role, as a functional expert my skills were very high in the technical realm and as I managed more than 200 student employees I exercised my skills in the human realm regularly. Due to the annual focus of the work I practiced very little my conceptual skills.

Next, at my role in Penn State I was once again a functional expert. This time I worked with a team of 20 professional staff all of whom were working from the same knowledge perspective as was my expertise. Part of my role was to mentor this staff and grow their knowledge based on my own experiences. Additionally, as part of this role I was tasked with creating system-wide changes in my area of expertise. My skills were high in the technical area of the work, high in the human skill of interaction and, finally, I was beginning to conceptualize new ideas and exercise that skill set.

Lastly, in my current role at UC Santa Cruz, I am no longer the functional expert in any of the areas my team works. I lead a team of 40 professional staff who all have a higher level of functional expertise than I do in their work. My technical skill set is low in comparison to both where it has been in my past roles and compared to my current staff. Once again, because I am managing a significant sized staff my human skill set is well utilized. Where I have seen the most personal growth and stretching of skills is the realm of conceptual tasks. In this current role it is my duty to develop the vision for the future in partnership with my staff that we all agree to. It is my duty to work with them to develop and secure the resources and discover whats next.

Over time I have experienced the loss of the technical strength of my earlier roles but have seen a dramatic growth in my conceptual skills as my role has grown and evolved. In exploring this three-skill approach it has helped me to reflect on how I moved through these different phases of my career and to see that I have mirrored the dynamic established by this framework.

Taking a leadership team to a new level

May 22, 2016 by hwh10

‘We like the teamwork idea, but Billy won’t let us play with his ball.’

I have been part of a leadership team for the past five years. It has been dysfunctional with poor communication. My feeling has been these colleagues are not to be trusted and I couldn’t find ways to relate to them. By my nature I am comfortable with conflict so my attempts to address issues were viewed as hostile and aggressive. Two years ago a new leader joined the organization. This new supervisor observed the team’s dysfunction and was attempting to correct the dynamic.

After a number of failed attempts at resolving it ourselves our team leaders decided to bring in outside facilitation. At the time I was unaware of the actual process or terminology but as I was reviewing the information the Psychodynamic Approach it became clear this is what we had experienced.

One of the first activities in the process was sharing about our by deep past experiences and how we felt those experiences impacted our current behaviors. This process was incredibly impactful to almost all of us. “When the link between present and distant past relationships is made meaningful, leaders are more likely to arrive at tipping points for change.” (Northouse, 2015, p. 309) I believe this moment helped us reach a tipping point. Through this process of connecting and raising our group knowledge of each other we engaged in breaking down the barriers between each other and softening our relationships. Mirvis (2008) stated that these moments “…a “consciousness-raising” experience that cultivates participants’ self-awareness, deepens their understanding of others, and helps them to relate to society.” (as cited in Northouse, 2015, p. 309)

Our leadership team now functions at a higher level with much more cohesion. The only team member who didn’t participate fully in the process has now left the team while the rest of the team has thrived. It’s been a great learning experience.

Northouse, Peter G. (2015). Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Leadership and Management: Push and pull

May 22, 2016 by hwh10

‘Congratulations! You have been chosen…’

I have cannibalized all of my mentors. That’s a strange line to write. However, it’s a true statement. Throughout my life I identify a mentor. I suck all the knowledge out of them I can. I grow to understand their fatal flaws and because of those flaws I then dismiss them as a source of knowledge or comfort due to that fatal flaw. It has happened over and over again in my personal and professional life. I share this because a few years ago when I entered into a new phase of my career I found myself with no one to guide me from thinking like a manager and to behaving like a leader. I had left myself without someone to challenge me in that process. As I struggled on my own I had to reinvent the wheel so many had invented before me.

In the reinvention I found the truth in the statement by Benus and Nanus “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things.” (as cited in Northouse, 2015, p.14) This resonates so strongly with me. This idea that as a manager you are focused on getting it right but as a leader the focus on defining what is right is inspiring. I have been fortunate to manage hundreds of people throughout my career. It is easy in many ways to manage the work but creating a vision and rallying the team to that is a process that is just so different than ensuring we follow the plan.

I feel Kotter’s (1990) breakdown of the dichotomy between management and leadership is strong. “The overriding function of management is to provide order and consistency to organizations, whereas the primary function of leadership is to produce change and movement.” (as cited in Northouse, 2015, p.13) In my own growth it is a challenge to realize my new work is to create the vision. As a leader I am to set the parameters. I am to push the team in new directions that break from our mold. Otherwise I am just managing us into stagnation.

As I find these new truths about management and leadership I recognize that cannibalizing my mentors is nothing more than me finding new levels of understanding about the work I do. I appreciate all my mentors have given to me and look forward to feeding the next generation of leaders from my own experiences.

Northouse, Peter G. (2015). Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.