Embedding Transformational Leadership In Practice

1. Embedding
Transformational
Leadership In Practice

2. Purpose
 Talk about Transformational Leadership
(TF)
 What it is, what it really means
 Why it’s so important
 Practical things we’ve done to embed it and
360 degree appraisal in various
organisations
 Some of the lessons learned along the way
 Also here to learn from your experience

3. Style
 Need to briefly recap the theory, but we’ll
do that quickly
 Debunk some of the myths
 Challenge what you believe to be true
 Build in some activities around factors to
consider when embedding TF/using 360
 Handouts and questionnaires to take away

4. Why I’m Here
 Met Professor Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe
in 1999
 Programme Director IDeA Modern Managers
Programme
 She conducted the biggest study ever on leadership
in the public sector
 Worked together since then developing and
embedding leadership cultures in various
organisations
 National research- MBA Hull, Members 360

5. Why Do We Need Leadership?
Quick Recap……….

6. Importance of Leadership
 Vision, direction and focus –real skill is
aligning people to it
 Clear goals, don’t know where you are
going you are unlikely to get there
 Team spirit…………….
 Manager’s managing is important
 Transformational Leadership has the
biggest impact on morale, motivation,
stress, job satisfaction, productivity and
performance

7. Importance of Leadership
 Poor leadership costs ££££££££££ in terms of
stress related absence, and has enormous cost in
terms of individual health and psychological well
being
 Increased focus on leadership development and
assessment in our Corporate Performance
Assessment
 “Leadership is the single biggest factor that drives
change and organisational improvement “ LG
White Paper”

8. Direct Relationship Between
Leadership, Motivation, Stress
and Performance

9. 3 Variables That Affect Performance
Performance =
 A + Ability and competence
 M + Motivation
 R + Resources

10. TIME
PERF
motivation
com
petence
Motivation Over Time
40-50%
effective

11. Leadership is about saying…
“How can I interact with
people to improve their
performance, give them just
enough stretch to keep them
motivated and help them
realise their potential?”

12. What’s The Biggest Cause Of
Stress In The Workplace?

13. Climate Studies 50’s to 90’s
 60-75% of people said that in any
organisation, the most stressful aspect
of their work was their immediate boss!

14. “Managers with controlling styles who fail
to clarify roles and responsibilities, who
exert undue pressure have working
groups with higher levels of stress and
tension”
Controlling Styles

15. Climate Studies- Main Causes Of Stress
 Unclear roles and responsibilities
 Lack of autonomy
 Lack of social support

16. Levels Of Arousal
Perf.
Acceptable level of stress
Unacceptable level

17. Stress is Infectious!
 Average correlation within the same
working groups
= .92
We leak!!!!

18. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe
Leadership Development
is both a financial and moral imperative….
 Stress is increasing in
organisations at a phenomenal
rate
 Cost of stress is also increasing
(in terms of absence as well as performance)

19. The Search for the Holy Grail
What makes a good leader?

20. Leadership Research: The Old Paradigm
1930s-50s Great Man Approach
Traits Approach
1960s The Behavioural Approach
1970s Situational/Contingency
Approach

21. Autocratic Participative Consultative
Levels of
Autonomy
Democratic
Tannenbaum Schmidt
Levels of
Freedom
Levels of
Control
1960’s Behaviour/Style Approaches
“one best style”

22. Blanchard-Situational Leadership
PARTICIPATE SELL
DELEGATE TELL
FOLLOWER MATURITY
HIGH LOW

23. The New Paradigms of
Leadership

24. Changing Paradigms of Leadership
 Seismic shift in thinking in the 70’s
 Old models only suitable for stable
environments
 Research conducted with first line
supervisors
 Need to engage with CExs with experience
of managing strategic and complex change
 Existing research not particularly valid- all
self rating

25. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe
The Myths of Leadership
 It’s rare
 It’s found mainly at the top
 It’s about being super-human
 You can only do it if you are male!
(We’ll save that one for another time)

26. Research on Charisma
 Early research- charismatic leaders were
the star performers
 Utter rubbish -completely discredited
 You were perceived to be charismatic if
you were evangelistic, expressive, waived
your arms about, had blue eyes, were
extrovert rather than introvert
 Leadership is about being quietly effective

27. Knight in shining armour
required to charge in on their
white horse and save the
organisation from ruin-
Mere mortals need not apply!
Unrealistic Job Ads

28. What’s the Difference Between
Leadership and Management?
Another paradigm shift-leadership no longer
viewed as a subset of management………….

29. Kotter’s Comparison of
Management & Leadership
Transactional Leadership
(Management)
Creating Planning
Budgeting:
Agendas
Developing HR
Organising &
Staffing
Execution Controlling &
Problem-
solving:
Outcomes Produces a
degree of
predictability
& order
Transformational Leadership
(Leadership)
Establishing Direction:
Aligning People:
Motivating & Inspiring:
Produces change - often to a
dramatic degree

30. Leadership Versus Management
Management is about coping with
complexity, provides stability, order and
consistency
- Is transactional
- Promotes the status quo

31. Leadership Versus Management
Leadership is having vision, a clear
sense of direction and aligning people to
it, helping people cope with change
-Promotes transformation
and drives change

32. Leadership Versus Management
 Management is about doing things right
 Leadership is about doing the right thing
 We need to develop both
But where did the terms transactional
and transformational come from?…..

33. Transactional versus Transformational
 Transactional - negotiation exchange or
bargaining
 Transformational - a vision that things
would be different or better
George McGregor Burns

34. Bass, B.M. (1985) Leadership &
Performance Beyond
Expectations. London: Free Press
1980’s Bass’s Model of Transformational
Leadership
 Idealised Influence (Vision)
 Inspirational Motivation (Charisma)
 Intellectual Stimulation
 Individualised Consideration

35. Vision
“Vision is the dream that invents the
future”
 Developing a shared vision
 Direction, aligning people
 Painting pictures
 Make people believe it’s achievable

36. Be a Good Conductor
“The task is to get the orchestra
working to deliver the music in your
head. It’s a three stage operation-
hear the music, get it over to the
orchestra get them to give it to the
audience”
Leonard Bernstein

37. Redefining Charisma
 Quietly effective
 Positive role models others look up to
and want to follow
 Encourage people to give more of
themselves, go the extra mile
 Can be positive or negative
 Beware the pseudo-charismatics

38. Pseudo- Charismatics
 Often do well at interview
 All gloss and no substance
 Highly visible
 Good at self promotion/taking credit
for the work of others
 Don’t deliver results
 Can generate compliance cultures

39. Zero correlation between charisma
and performance, strong correlation
between charisma and pay!
Potentially Worrying !!

40. Intellectual Stimulation
 Encourage people to question the way
things are done and are not defensive
 Take a collaborative approach to problem
solving
 Intelligent and use a range of behaviours-
adjust pitch and style according to whom
they are dealing with, gain credibility
quickly

41. Individualised Consideration
 Genuine concern for others and their
welfare
 Communicate positive expectations of
people
 Treat them with dignity and respect
 Not interested in status and hierarchy-
treat everyone as equals
 Value diversity and difference
 Are you ok?

42. Does The Soft and Fluffy Stuff Really
Work?
Research has shown that:
Transformational Leadership has a significantly greater
impact than Transactional Leadership on a variety of
subjective and objective outcome measures, including:
 job satisfaction, motivation, and performance of followers
 lower levels of stress & burnout amongst staff
 more collaborative, innovative, harmonious teams
 financial performance of organisations
 performance in public sector organisations
Source: Bass, B.M. & Avolio, B.J., (1996) Postscripts: Recent Developments
for Improving Organisational Effectiveness, Sage

43. The Importance Of Balance
“It’s about being transactional in a transformational way”

44. Managers Managing Is Also Important
Clarifying roles and expectations
Competency Framework
ConstitutionDelegations
Training on key skillsDecision making
Structures
Training on personnel
policies and procedures
Appraisal
Managing poor
performance
Reward/sanction

45. Why Conduct Further Research?
 Most leadership research was from the US
 Based on commercial & military
organisations
 Focus was typically on male white top
managers who were self rating
 Gender & race bias

46. How Was The Research Conducted?
 Think about leaders you have known
 2 outstanding, 2 average, 2 poor
 Write their initials on a card
 Shuffle cards and pick out 2
 To what extent are they similar but
different from the rest?
 Elicit and group constructs
Interviews with 150 male and female managers, LG and NHS
using Rep Grid

47. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe & John
Alban-Metcalfe
New Model of Transformational
Leadership (1)
(1) Leading others
Genuine concern for others
Enabling
Being accessible, available,
Encourages change

48. New Model of Transformational
Leadership (2)
(2) Personal Qualities
Honest and consistent
Acting With Integrity
Being Decisive
Inspiring Others
Resolving Complex problems

49. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe & John
Alban-Metcalfe
New Model of Transformational
Leadership (3)
(3) Organisational Skills
Political sensitivity and skills
Networker, promoter, communicator
Manages change sensitively and skilfully

50. 3 Types of Handout In your Pack
How TF am I/Are We?

51. US Versus The UK Model
 US models focus on charisma and vision,
the leader as a role model
 UK public sector model – leadership is
about engaging with partners, developing a
shared vision and engagement
 Genuine concern fourth for Bass, top of the
LG scale
 Ability to communicate positive expectations
and develop good networks is really
important

52. Transformational Leaders
 Are outward looking
 Drive change in organisations and make things
happen
 Clear sense of direction and focus
 Develop a shared vision and bring people along with
them
 Communicate positive expectations
 Accessible, approachable, are honest consistent
and act with integrity
 Motivate and empower employees, help them cope
with change

53. The Relationship Between
Leadership and Self Awareness
“Leadership and self awareness
are inextricably linked- to be a
leader you first need to know
yourself”
Robert Greenleaf

54. “ Leadership is connecting what
I do to who I am to those I
serve”
You are not a leader if no-one is
following you!!!

55. Problems with Traditional Appraisal
BOSS
TEAM
LEADER
LINE
MANAGER

56. 360 Is a Great Tool for Developing SAw
 Multiple perspectives on your leadership
style
 Encourages a culture of openness and
feedback
 Studies have shown it improves all
aspects of TF ( if development needs are
addressed)
 Performance improvement is sustained for
at least two years

57. Particularly As…..
 Direct reports are the best predictors of
performance
 Over and above assessment centres for
the first seven years
 We all have blind-spots
 Everybody sees me differently but me!

58. UK Model, Based on a 360
Approach
Self
Manager
0.3
.24
Staff
0.6
0.6
Colleagues.18

59. Activity
 How transformational is your organisation?
 How do you know?
 Are you doing enough to develop TF, if not what
practical things do you need to do?
(Think specifically about the implications for
recruitment, A and D, competency frameworks,
development/ succession planning etc)?
 What practical things would you need to consider
prior to implementing 360?

60. Lessons Learned
Embedding Transformational
Leadership

61. “Leadership & culture are 2 sides
of same coin
-you can’t change one without the
other”
Schein
Embedding Leadership Cultures in
Organisations

62. The Culture Behaviour
Cycle
Culture
Behaviour
Influences Reinforces

63. Focus At An Organisational
and An Individual
Level………..

65. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe
Embedding TF-Research
 Clear statement about which leadership and
management skills the organisation values
 Core competency framework which assesses
management (the what) and TF leadership (the
how)
 Don’t run out-dated re-cycled management
development programmes
 Assess the right behaviours when you recruit or
promote (handout refers)
 Send a clear message-you only get on here if you
do x!!!

66. Challenge The Unwritten Rules
Explore the
contradictions

67. Some Examples
 We want a high performance culture but reward
loyalty/length of service
 We want to reward TF but Job Evaluation
rewards the task/ we don’t look for TF in
recruitment
 We are committed to equalities but few women
make it to the top
 We want to focus less on hierarchy and more on
empowerment- but only senior managers can
present to members
 Hull research-no contradictions in excellent
organisations

68. Other Lessons Learned
 Never under-estimate the effort it takes to embed
this down to grass roots-change agents can help
 Have a clear communications strategy that
tackles the “soggy sponge”
 Then do some mystery shopping to find out
whether employees at different levels know what
TF is, what they can expect in terms of their
managers and leaders?
 Training is just the beginning-the days of just
running a conference and expecting it to happen
are over!!!
 Focus on tangible results….

69. Other Lessons Learned…………..
 Managers at all levels need to work with
their teams and identify practical things
they will do to to engender TF in their
team/service and enhance their own
style
 Publicise quick wins (articles,
certificates, recognition etc)
Its not just about training………
 Recruitment and succession planning
are key (recruitment fact-sheet refers)

70. Other Lessons Learned
 Don’t forget to bring your policies into line-
reward, recognition, bullying and
harassment, managing poor performance
 This is also about how we do business- the
how we go about projects is as important
as delivering to time

71. Don’t Forget The Importance Of Balance
“It’s about being transactional in a transformational way”

72. Individual as well as
organisational behaviour
contribute to culture….

73. Embedding a Culture of
Transformational Leadership
 Commitment from CEx and senior managers is vital
 Studies show there are three major blocks to TF in
organisations:
Senior managers
Senior managers and
Senior managers!!!
and they are crucial in terms of role modelling
the right behaviours
Bass, B.M. & Avolio, B. J. (1993) ‘Transformational leadership & organizational culture’. Public
Administration Quarterly, 17, 112-121.

74. Essentially, Culture Management is
Message Management
“Culture is created and sustained through
the messages people receive about how
to behave.”
Carolyn Taylor, Walk the Talk

75. Managers Are Carriers Of Culture
 Send important messages about what s
acceptable and what isn’t through the way they
lead,manage and interact with others
 Whether they are open to feedback and
suggestions
 By what they choose to reward, how fair
they are in this process
 Whether they deal with inappropriate
behaviour, and how well they tackle it
 We must invest in their development

76. Quick Levers to Pull In Terms of
Culture Change
Behaviour Training and role modelling
Myths and Stories Mavericks, heroes and villains
Positive reinforcement-
integration
Signs and Symbols Eg: Creating a high
performance culture,
performance dashboards,
displaying evaluation data
Pace and choice-see reward
Systems Reward-measure recognise
and reward the right things-
Succession Communications,
meetings

77. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe
Can Leadership Really be Developed?
It depends…..
 On the attitude of the individual
 Preparedness to accept others’ views as
valid
 Whether they are open to feedback
 Quality of feedback
 The organisation’s commitment to reinforcing
what is important- supporting development-
what’s the sanction if people don’t change?

78. Lessons Learned
Embedding 360 Degree Appraisal

79. Critical Success Factors
 Be clear about why you are using it
 Is the organisation ready?
 Ethics/confidentiality agreement- the
person owns the data
 360 should be used primarily for
development purposes rather than
performance assessment (360 should not
be linked to performance pay)

80. Critical Success Factors
 Supplements rather than replaces A and D
 Chose a valid, reliable instrument which
reflects your strategic aims
 Cost and complexity can be a problem
 Pilot-light small fires
 Start at the top
 Develop feedback skills first

81. Get People To Admit There Is a
Problem!!!
 When was the last time you asked for
feedback about your personal style?
 How frank were the conversations?
 Do you know how your team would describe
your style, your strengths, what you bring?
 Do you know what they want you to stop
doing/ do differently?
 Is there two way or one way feedback in A
and D?

82. Critical Success Factors
 Clear advice on choosing raters
 Brief raters on TF- they need to understand
what they are assessing
 More detailed briefings may be required for
instruments which also assess competence
 Online briefings
 Credible qualified facilitator
 Prioritised Personal Development Plans with
no more than three key objectives
 Get commitment to resourcing development
needs

83. Embedding
Transformational
Leadership In Practice
A Question to close……..
Can an organisation be transformational or is it
the people that make it?