Ensuring Employee Engagment: A Leadership Series
Number Two of Seven (or maybe a few more than seven)
Approximate reading time: 2 minutes
In This issue:
- Leadership and Delegation
- Upcoming Public Workshops
- More Original Content from FSTD : Current Blog Posts
- Featured Product: Team Effectiveness Questionairre
Last time we looked at the fact that Mindset drives Behavior. We discussed the process of Mindset change:
This week we’ll start to look at leadership. In this series we will look at the leader as part of his or her team. In this context we’re looking at those things which impact the leader and his or her team jointly.
Many leaders do things, preparing the budget or writing his or her monthly letter for example, outside the context of the team. These things, although important, do not directly impact the team and are, therefore, technically not aspects of leadership.
When is comes to choosing a course of action that impacts the team, the leader can:
- Choose the course of action without any involvement by the team, in other words, lay it on ‘em
- Consult the team / team members and then, using the input solicited, choose the course of action.
- Consult the team and allow the team to choose the course of action. In this context the leader is just one “co-equal” team member.
- Delegate choosing the course of action to a team member.
Let’s look at #4 above first. In the dictionary we find the following:
Delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities. Delegation empowers a subordinate to make decisions, i.e. it is a shift of decision-making authority from one organizational level to a lower one.
From the point-of-view of leadership, delegation is not a leadership behavior. Once delegation has taken place, the person who did the delegating may be a member of the team of the person to whom the issue was delegated, or he or she may just be an “interested” on-looker.
That leaves us with #s 1, 2, & 3 as the leadership behaviors at which we will be looking for the next 6 weeks, or so. They are all appropriate or inappropriate depending upon the circumstances. At the risk of being accused of “beating a dead horse”, I need to confirm that, from this point on in our discussion of leadership, the leader is part of his or her team.
Tip of the Day: Delegation is often the best way for a leader to “resolve” an issue. Once you delegate an issue to someone, it is now their issue, not yours. If you are not willing to turn control of the issue over completely, don’t delegate!
Lead!
George
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Rob's Corner:
Leadership & Decision Making
United States Coast Guard / Associated Press
Dr. Robert Bea, principal researcher of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, was interviewed this past week by MSNBC.
"Bea says he's been down this road before, after Hurricane Katrina. He says the revelations about why the levees failed then are similar to the revelations about why the oil rig failed now. 'We had this long slide down this slippery slope of incremental bad decisions [regarding the levees],' Bea says. 'This is following the same trail.' "
Leaders choose.
They set the direction for the enterprise. They determine how resources will be allocated or conserved, what risks will be taken or avoided. The quality of their decisions matters, and how they involve others in their decision process will determine the ROI for that particular choice.
We are presenting a series of articles - as George alludes to, we're not quite sure how many, the number keeps growing - on proven principles for involving others in the decision process. Vic Vroom and Philip Yetton demonstrated that, if certain guidelines are followed, the success of the decision rises dramatically.
It is a simple truth that effective leadership is situational. We're just going to shed light on what that means.
Rob
PS. If you want to know more about our approach to situation-based leadership, see an overview of the workshop Mastering Involvement. Register for an upcoming workshop. |
- Experiential Expertise Train-the-Trainer (T3) - Openers, Initiatives and Low Elements - May 27-28, 2010, Utica, MS
- Experiential Expertise Train-the-Trainer (T3) - Trust, Low Ropes, High Ropes and AlpineTower - May 31-June 1, 2010, Utica, MS
- Trouble Shooting Logic
- August 24-26, 2010, Atlanta, GA
- September 20-22, 2010, Atlanta, GA
- October 25-27, 2010, Atlanta, GA
- The Sales CODE, September 14-15, 2010, Atlanta, GA
- Performance Coaching, September 23-24, 2010, Atlanta, GA
- Mastering Involvement, October 28, 2010, Atlanta, GA
- Trouble Shooting Logic Train-the-Trainer (T3), November 8-19, 2010, Atlanta, GA
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