Leading from the Inside Out: The Power of Deep Blue LeadershipLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Leading from the Inside Out: The Power of Deep Blue Leadership article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
The Story Part 1: The Conundrum When Lynn, the long time leader of a growing organization, drove into the office parking lot at 7:41am, something didn't seem right. He had arrived home late the night before after an extended overseas trip. He was still experiencing jet lag but the parking lot seemed empty to him when compared to six months earlier. He remembered feeling that things were going well then, that everyone seemed motivated, excited and happy. They came in early and stayed late. They were genuinely happy to be back each morning and cheerful when greeting co-workers. The pace of action was quick and efficient. Now, in contrast, people seemed to be dragging. They were just doing their jobs. Morale, it seems, had sagged. As he parked and walked, he made a mental note: 'Our leadership activity needs a shot in the arm,' he thought. Analysis and Perspective In his leadership role, Lynn was appropriately, if informally, monitoring a leading indicator of performance when he noted the waning level of engagement by the organization's members. He appropriately hypothesized that this decline was related to a reduced 'velocity' of leadership across the organization, the amount of time spent on leadership activities. Because reduced engagement and intrinsic motivation are expected outcomes of a decline in a specific type of leadership influence, called deep blue leadership influence, he realized that he needed to initiate programs to reenergize this type of leadership in the organization. Lynn's experience and training had taught him that three steps were required: first gather information about the current situation and diagnose the issues; second, initiate specific leadership activities designed to shore-up the deeply held, social identity of the team members with respect to his organization, the sense of purpose that provides intrinsic motivation; and third, institutionalize change by integrating these initiatives into the organization's culture. Lynn realized this would not be easy. His leadership teams must find ways to influence members' deeply held sense of identity, toward an organizationally appropriate collective purpose. This sense of purpose, identity and vision would provide the intrinsic motivation to increase engagement, quicken everyone's pace and fill the parking lot. Case Study Examples Many organizations face periods where weariness or ennui sets in, where motivation drops. Up and down cycles naturally occur in individuals, even Lynn was dragging that morning, but when reduced motivation occurs broadly across the organization, leadership intervention is required. Otherwise, the culture itself may change permanently. When Lucent Technologies was preparing to spin-out from AT&T, the employees felt discarded. Their identities were injured, their motivation low. Although CEO Henry Schacht didn't have a name for it at the time, he knew that deep blue leadership influence was needed. He began with an intense data gathering effort and a thoughtful assessment and diagnosis of the situation. This was followed by an organization wide identity creating effort that used as many people as practical to develop a shared vision for the IPO 'road show'. Over and over he and his team communicated the essence of their collective experience using the theme 'the opportunity of a lifetime.' They were careful to hone their vision statement in a cascading effort that energized the organization. In a matter of a few months, Lucent employees went from being crushed to being enthusiastic leaders in their own right. Their motivation soared and pushed the organization to a successful IPO and years of strong growth1. * * * When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after many years, he found a demoralized team and a shattered identity. Apple had lost the desktop wars. Collective identity was shattered. There was no vision to motivate people. Like Schacht, Jobs also recognized the need for deep blue leadership. At Apple, deep blue influence was signaled through an advertising program, 'think different.' This was aimed as much at employees, Jobs says, as customers. The idea was to reawaken the strong identity and purpose that had made Apple a successful innovator in the past. Apple needed to recapture its identity and its vision: to build the most innovative product possible. To do this, people had to 'think different,' not just building 'the same old, same old'. You can't systematize innovation, Jobs says, 'you hire good people who will challenge each other every day to make the best products possible.... When I got back, Apple had forgotten who we were.... Fortunately, we woke up'2. These stories demonstrate the power of deep blue leadership. When leadership operates on people's deeply held sense of identity and purpose, motivation comes from the inside out. The Story Part 2: Resolution When Lynn arrived in his office, he immediately asked some tough questions. 'How often are teams getting together to talk about opportunities to realize our vision? Are we passionate about process improvements? How about new ways of thinking? Do we critically review project plans and budgets? Do we talk seriously about personal and career development? Do people share a common vision? What is it? How does the situation compare with six months ago? How engaged are our people? These were difficult questions, but ones that could be answered. The process took several weeks, but once the data was gathered and preliminary analysis was completed, the trend was clear—leadership activity aimed at identity and purpose, deep blue leadershipSM activity, had fallen off in the organization. When he had these answers, Lynn called his leadership team together to share the findings and express his concerns. 'We seem to have lost our edge,' he said. 'I don't feel the energy that I did six months ago, and data that shows our lower activity levels support my concerns. Our leadership velocitySM in the areas supporting our collective sense of deep significance, identity and vision has dropped off. To be the strong company we need to be, we have to do better. How can we bring back the excitement?' The team had a difficult time at first, uncomfortable with the meta-perspective Lynn brought to the discussion. 'Isn't it manipulative to target activities that influence deeply held believes about identity and purpose?' one manager asked. What began as a one-hour discussion, continued in a follow-up two-day session, the second day of which included a much broader array of leaders. It became clear from the interaction that even among the leadership, cracks had formed in the common sense of purpose. Renewal was needed. As Lynn knew, it had already begun. In the course of the discussion, it was agreed that monthly half-day sessions among members of the leadership team were needed to evolve and communicate the collective identity. The process cascaded into the organization until a consistent, invigorating vision became evident to all members of the organization. The quarterly cultural survey in use was modified to include targeted questions about personal versus collective vision, purpose and identity, to provide on-going feedback. The vision was NOT developed by a small group, and communicated downward, but left to emerge in the context of guiding principles. After six months, the vision meetings were integrated into the organizations planning process again. Excitement was evident and morale was high. To close out the cycle of leadership, Lynn asked his teams to propose ways the interventions could be proactive, with continuous feedback and action. He realized that leadership is hard work, and nothing works forever. At the same time, he didn't want to wait until something seemed wrong again. Recently, Lynn told a reporter from a national newspaper: 'Sometimes I feel like we're all sailing on the open sea. At once, what we do is both exciting and mysterious. But I must say, leading from the deep blue is one of the most satisfying parts of my job.' When his teammates read his words, they smiled. They knew exactly what he meant. They had been on the journey with him. ___________________________________ 1Nadler, D.A. A Success Story: The Case of Lucent Technologies. (1999) In Conger, J. A., Spreitzer, G. M., Lawler, E. E. (eds.) Leaders Change Handbook. Jossey Bass: San Francisco, 3-26. 2 Mandel, Michael. This way to the Future. (2004) Business Week. October 11, p. 96.
|
More Articles:1. Make Them GLAD You're Their Boss By Linda Henman Criticism has the power to do good when there is something that must be destroyed, dissolved or reduced, but it is capable only of harm when there is something to be built. --Carl JungPeople won’t leave if they’re glad you’re their boss. They will want to stay with a boss that does what it takes to create a culture that capitalizes on each individual’s strength. However, bosses often don’t know what they should do to contribute to organizational culture, or even to their small part of the c… 2. Direct Mail your money I did a quick, very unscientific survey of 25 of my friends. I asked them to put the mail that they do not open or read in a specific trash bag. At the end of one week they gave it to me to be weighed. Guess how much the bag weighed? Remember, most mail is a fraction of an ounce. 63.4.....not ounces....lbs! Something is wrong with this picture! That's like 2 1/2 pounds per person per week! Holy Cow! Also this was a March survey, what if it had been done in November?Let's get a grip on this abso… 3. manufacturers survival Manufacturers SurvivalThe humanity's cultural heritage is growing in geometric scale. Manufacturer faces every time more efficient competitors.Development of new processes is arduous work. This work suffers opposition from defenders' of the archaic and of the ones that don't understand the progress.To produce goods in the industrial scale we needed to have the product, process, market, strategy of sale [marketing], organization [administration], and safety. The product owes being of quality sam… 4. Conflict, Leadership, And The Leadership Talk PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com Word count: 739 Summary: All leaders have to deal with conflict. The author cites three essentials you must adhere to in your dealings and describes a powerful leadership tool tha… |
||||
