“How to Lead for Best Business Performance”
Entrepreneurs Brief Guide – Volume 6
Dr Jim Porter
This e-book consists of twelve “Entrepreneurs Brief Guides” for leadership success. It addresses briefly all you need to know about how to lead business for best performance; including leading mentoring, motivating teams, and delegation. It also contains independent and practical advice for entrepreneurs and business leaders. This guide is invaluable to individuals, entrepreneurs and aspiring leaders who are seeking personal growth and success.
Learn how to:
Select
the Right Leadership
Style for Your Teams
Assign Tasks to the Right People
Get Your
Team off to an Excellent Start
Help Teams Perform
Effectively
Improve Job Satisfaction
Delegate Your Work in an
Efficient Manner
Mentor and Praise Your Employees
Motivate Your
Team to Perform
Resolve Conflict
Deal with Substandard
Performers
Manage the Creative Process
Improve Performance
Through the Balanced Scorecard
Copyright
How to Lead for Best Business Performance
Dr Jim Porter
Revision: SW.06.001
Copyright © 2011 – All Rights Reserved.
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the author.
ISBN:
978-1-4659-5861-7
Publisher: Smashwords, Inc.
CHAPTER No.1: How to Select the Right Leadership Style for Your Team
As business managers and leaders you may have encountered situations where you hand some work to be finished to your team member and then rush out of the office. Later, when you return, you find that the work hasn’t been completed. This situation can be overcome through the application of “The Hersey Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory”. Instead of focusing on and using just one style of leadership, successful leaders must change their leadership style depending on the maturity of the people they’re leading
Learn how to:
Appreciate the different styles of leadership
Achieve a balance between tasks and people oriented leadership styles
As business managers and leaders you may have encountered situations where you hand some work to be finished to your team member and then rush out of the office. Later, when you return, you find that the work hasn’t been completed. This could be because your team member had doubts about how to proceed but you weren’t there to help.
In this situation, the team member and you as a leader are equally to blame. In order to avoid situations like this you could use the Hersey Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory.
This publication will provide information on:
The Hersey Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory.
The maturity level of followers.
How to achieve a balance between task and people oriented leadership styles; the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid.
How to use the grid
The Hersey Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory
This theory was developed by Dr Paul Hersey, author Ken Blanchard and many others. The theory states that instead of focusing on and using just one style of leadership, successful leaders must change their leadership style depending on the maturity of the people they’re leading.
Using this theory, leaders will be able to place more or less emphasis on the tasks, or on the relationship they share with the people they are dealing with.
The different leadership styles
Hersey and Blanchard outlined four main leadership styles:
Telling/ Directing (S1)
Leaders tell their followers exactly what to do, and how to do it.
Selling/Coaching (S2)
In this style, the leaders provide information and direction to the followers. Leaders try to sell their message to get the team on board.
Participating/Supporting (S3)
Here leaders focus more on the relationship and less on direction. They work with the team and share decision making responsibilities.
Delegating (S4)
In this style, leaders pass most of the responsibility to members of the group. They monitor the situation but are less involved in the decision making process.
The first two styles focus more on getting the task done while the last two styles are concerned with developing the team members’ ability to work independently.
The maturity level of followers
Hersey and Blanchard stated that knowing when to use each style of leadership depends on the maturity level of the person being led – the follower. They have broken down maturity into four different levels:
M1: Individuals at this level have maturity at the bottom of the scale. They lack the basic knowledge, skills, confidence and so on to work on their own. They usually require a push to take a task on.
M2: Followers at this level might be willing to work on the task but they still don’t have the skills to do it successfully.
M3: At this level the followers are ready and willing to help with the tasks. They are comparatively more skilled than the previous levels but are still not confident about their abilities.
M4: The followers at this level are highly skilled, confident and are committed to their tasks. They are able to work on their own.
Maturity levels are task related and cannot be generalized – a follower does not belong to just one level. A worker may be committed, focused and confident (level M2) yet not possess the skills to complete a particular task.
The Hersey Blanchard model matches each leadership style with the maturity level of the followers:
M1 matches with S1
M2 matches with S2
M3 matches with S3
M4 matches with S4
This depicts what Hersey and Blanchard considered a leadership style suitable for people of a particular maturity level.
Low level matured people were matched with the telling style of leadership. Medium level matured individuals with limited skills were matched with the selling style of leadership. Medium level matured individuals with higher skills but lack of confidence were matched with participating style of leadership. Whereas high level matured people were matched with the delegating style of leadership.
How to balance task and people oriented leadership; the Managerial Grid model
The Managerial Grid model was developed in 1964 by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. It is a behavioural leadership model which identifies five different leadership styles.
The Managerial Grid is based upon two behavioural dimensions:
Concern for people
This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team members, their interests, areas of personal development and so on, while deciding on the best way to accomplish a task.
Concern for production
This is the degree to which a leader places emphasis on concrete objectives, high productivity and so on when deciding how best to accomplish a task.
The managerial grid model is represented as a grid with concern for production on the X-axis and concern for people on the Y-axis. Each axis ranges from 1 (low) to 9 (high). Using the axis to plot leadership concerns for production versus concerns for people, Blake and Mouton defined the following five leadership styles:
Country Club leadership (High people/ Low production)
This style of leadership is mostly concerned with the needs and feelings of the members of the team. These leaders work under the premise that as long as people feel secure and happy, they will work hard. The work environment is relaxed and fun but at times the production suffers due to lack of direction and control.
Produce or perish leadership (High production/ Low people)
This is also referred to as authoritarian or compliance leadership. The leaders use employees simply as a means to an end. The employee needs are secondary to the needs of the workplace. This type of leader is very strict, authoritative with rules and policies and uses punishment as a means of motivating employees.
Impoverished leadership (Low production/ Low people)
This type of leadership style is considered highly ineffective, as the leader has no regard for either creating interesting systems to get the work done, or for enhancing the work environment to make it highly motivating and satisfying for the workers. As a result there is dissatisfaction and disharmony among the members and this leads to complete disorganization.
Middle of the road leadership (Medium production/ Medium people)
This style of leadership seems like a balance of the two competing concerns: production and people. At first look, the compromise may seem ideal, however when you compromise you give away a bit of each concern; neither the production’s needs nor the needs of the people are fully met. Leaders opting for this style of leadership settle for average performance and have no great expectations.
Team leadership (High production/ High people)
According to the Managerial Grid model, this is the pinnacle of managerial styles. These leaders consider production needs and the people’s needs equally. When employees are motivated and understand the needs of the organization, then their needs and those of the organization’s coincide. The premise here is that employees are involved in understanding organizational purpose. The employees also help in determining the production needs. This leads to the creation of a team where there is mutual respect and trust and where the individuals are committed to and have stakes in the organization’s success. The team members are highly motivated and this leads to high productivity.
How to use this tool
The three simple steps for using this Managerial Grid model are:
Step one: Identify your leadership style.
Step two: Identify the areas for improvement and for developing your leadership skills.
Step three: Put the grid in context.
You must understand that team leadership isn’t the best approach for every situation. The benefits of democratic and participative management are universally accepted but there are times when other management styles should also be taken into consideration.
Opt for the most suitable leadership style which will lead to maximum utilization of resources, and an increase in production with a satisfied workforce.
Conclusions
In conclusion, remember that teams and team members aren’t created equal. Hersey and Blanchard stated that leaders are more effective when they use a leadership style based on the maturity level of their followers.
Start by identifying who you are going to lead, rate them from M1–M4 and then use the appropriate leadership style.
To differentiate between task and people oriented leadership, you could make use of the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid, which is a practical and useful framework. By plotting concern for production versus concern for people, this grid will show you how placing too much emphasis on one factor can lead to low overall productivity.
The grid is useful as a good first step for critically analyzing your performance and to improve your leadership skills.
Leadership Quotes
The following quotes on leadership offer you an opportunity for learning and food for thought and reflection.
Leadership and Vision
"If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere." - Henry Kissinger
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt
"Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps." David Lloyd George
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
Leadership Character
"Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change." Peter F. Drucker
"A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity." Baltasar Gracian
"Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy." Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod." Sir Winston Churchill
"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader." - General George S. Patton Jr.
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." John F. Kennedy
Leadership and Management
"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives." Theodore Roosevelt
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." Stephen R. Covey
"You manage things; you lead people." Grace Murray Hopper
Leadership and Empowerment
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." Ralph Nadar
"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." Bill Gates
"The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey S. Firestone
"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in others the conviction and will to carry on." Walter Lippman
CHAPTER 2: How to Assign Tasks to the Right People
Task allocation is one of the most important jobs of a leader. Selecting the right people to work for you is crucial for achieving the targets of your team. Using the right people for the right jobs could mean the difference between success and failure for your team.
As a leader, you must pick people based on their experiences, skills and abilities. You must first understand what situation you are in and what you need doing, and then select the right candidates.
Learn how to:
Pick the right people for the right jobs
Deal with overlaps and gaps
Brief each team member
Know if you have selected the right candidate
Task allocation is one of the most important jobs of a leader. Selecting the right people to work for you is crucial for achieving the targets of your team. Using the right people for the right jobs could mean the difference between success and failure for your team.
As a leader, you must pick people based on their experiences, skills and abilities. You must first understand what situation you are in and what you need doing, and then select the right candidates.
This article will provide information on:
How to pick the right people for the right jobs
How to deal with overlaps and gaps
How to brief each team member
How to know if you have selected the right candidate
The Benne and Sheats’ Group roles for functioning in a group
How to pick the right people for the right jobs
First you must understand the position of your opponents before you proceed with assigning jobs. When you have a good understanding of your opposition you can then assign positions to your subordinates and start work. This step sounds easy but is messed up by most leaders. First, create a goal for your team and then begin to assign tasks.
Rank each task and write them down. Identify the skills required for each task and then list the skills of each member of your team. Compare the skills required by the task with the skills of your members and match them. This is the simplest form of task allocation.
Just like in any sport, where a lot of time is invested in choosing players, the selection process in the business world also involves deciding the position of each team member depending on their skills.
Leaders need to select the right people for the right jobs and assign them with tasks that fit their skills and proficiencies.
You can use the four step BALM method to allocate tasks:
Break down the broader goals into specific, individual ones. List all the tasks and then rank each task in terms of their importance
Analyze and list the competencies and skills required to perform each task
List the competencies and skills of each team member
Match individuals to task competencies.
How to deal with overlaps and gaps
The BALM method is a great and simple starting point for allocating tasks to your team. However, in the actual business world you will come across various overlaps and gaps.
With overlaps, you have two choices; either allot important tasks to highly qualified individuals, or allocate the tasks to the person at the lowest level who might be qualified to do the job.
Where you have a gap, you may be required to train existing team members or to recruit in order to fill the gap. Training is considered the best option as it is not only cheaper but also a good opportunity for you to learn more about the individual’s talents and expertise.
Recruitment is a long and tedious process which needs to be done carefully, as human resources are a long term investment for the organization. It can be expensive and quite risky. Use the best interviewing and testing methods to filter candidates. You could make use of social media platforms such as Facebook, My Space or Twitter to reach out to suitable candidates for the job.
How to brief each team member
Once you have decided which team member will take up what role, you need to communicate this decision to your team.
Ensure that all the members are aware of their position in the team. The roles of each team member should be clearly defined with their responsibility, accountability and authority.
In short, all members must be aware of their presence in the team, their importance, the role they play, what they are supposed to do, how they are to execute their tasks and who they should report to.
Six ways to check if you have chosen the right candidate
Research has shown that on the basis of these following statements, you can assess whether you have selected the right candidate for the job:
The right candidate fits the company’s core values and policies.
The right candidate doesn’t need to be closely managed.
The right candidate understands that he/she has responsibilities.
The right candidate fulfils his/her commitments.
The right candidate displays maturity.
The right candidate is passionate about the company and its work.
The Benne and Sheats’ Group Roles for working in a group
Back in the 1940s, two theorists, Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats, devised an interesting way of looking at group behaviour: the Benne and Sheats’ Group Roles.
They defined three categories of group roles: Task roles, Personal/Social roles and Dysfunctional/Individualistic roles.
Task roles
This refers to the roles that relate to getting the work done. It represents the different roles needed to take a project from its initiation through to the final step.
There are the following roles:
Initiator/Contributor: He/she proposes the ideas or different manner of approaching the problem. The discussion is initiated and new areas are explored.
Information Seeker: He/she asks for expert information or facts relevant to the problem.
Information Giver: Provides the much required factual data and information to the group.
Opinion Seeker: Checks and asks for clarification of the values and opinions of the team members. Ensures that different perspectives are expressed and debated.
Opinion Giver: Expresses opinions and beliefs about the subject being discussed.
Elaborator: Adds relevant examples and facts to other people’s ideas. Looks into the consequences of the proposed ideas.
Coordinator: Explains the relationship between ideas and may pull together different ideas to unify them.
Orientor: Clarifies the group’s position and provides summaries of what has been accomplished.
Critic: Evaluates and assesses the proposals and checks for their validity.
Energizer: Challenges the group to move forward and concentrates the group energy in the right direction.
Technician: Take care of the logistical concerns.
Recorder: Like a secretary, notes down the minutes of the meeting. Keep a record of what has been covered in each meeting.
Personal/ Social roles
The following roles contribute to the positivity of the group:
Motivator: Supports, praises and encourages the efforts of all fellow members.
Harmonizer: Solves the differences between individuals and aims to diffuse tension.
Compromiser: Always looks out for the best of the group by altering his/her own personal opinion for the greater good of the team.
Gatekeeper: In charge for the flow of communication. Regulates and ensures all members get a chance to express themselves.
Observer: Provides much needed and adequate feedback to the group on its functioning.
Follower: A listener and not a contributor, he/she simply does what others say and doesn’t give any input.
Dysfunctional/ Individualistic roles
These are the negative roles which disrupt the group progress and weaken the unity:
Aggressor: Makes rude remarks and comments about others and always tries to belittle others in order to decrease their status.
Blocker: Vehemently opposes every idea that is put forward and yet does not make any contributions.
Recognition Seeker: A braggart or an attention seeker who uses meetings to draw personal attention rather than focus on the actual requirements of the meeting.
Disruptor: Plays unnecessary pranks and jokes and wastes time. Uses the meetings for wiling away time and is highly distracting.
Dominator: Different from the leader, he/she tries to control the conversation and what other people should do.
Self Confessor: Uses the meeting to vent out personal feelings or emotions. May resort to narrating stories of old times or present troubles.
Help Seeker: The sympathy seeker always acting helpless and self deprecating.
Benne and Sheats’ role definitions are useful for looking at specific behaviour that occurs in a group. By going through these roles you will know which behaviour to encourage and which to discourage for the betterment of your team.
Conclusions
In conclusion, remember that allocation of tasks is very important if you want to achieve your goals. You can use the BALM method to allocate tasks.
Within a group, there are various roles and functions and the Benne and Sheats’ role definitions can help you better understand the different roles. These role definitions will help you understand which behaviour is positive and which is negative. Hence, you will know what to encourage and what to discourage.
Quotes
"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don't have to manage them." Jack Welch
"Make your top managers rich and they will make you rich." Robert H. Johnson
"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." Proverbs
"Catch someone doing something right." Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." Paul Dickson
"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out." Ronald Reagan
"Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end." Immanuel Kant
"Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven't." Peter Drucker
"Don't equate activity with efficiency. You are paying your key people to see the big picture. Don't let them get bogged down in a lot of meaningless meetings and paper shuffling. Announce a Friday afternoon off once in a while. Cancel a Monday morning meeting or two. Tell the cast of characters you'd like them to spend the amount of time normally spent preparing for attending the meeting at their desks, simply thinking about an original idea." Harvey Mackay
"Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish." Marcus Aurelius
"We cling to hierarchies because our place in a hierarchy is, rightly or wrongly, a major indicator of our social worth." Harold J. Leavitt
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." Stephen R. Covey
"Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it . . . ; Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine." David Ogilvy
"When hiring key employees, there are only two qualities to look for: judgment and taste. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard." John W. Gardner
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." Casey Stengel
"A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. John Le Caré
"Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them." Paul Hawken
"I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people." Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
"Focus on a few key objectives ... I only have three things to do. I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I'm really in the business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas." Jack Welch
"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work." Peter Drucker
"Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet." Henry Mintzberg
"If you are the master be sometimes blind, if you are the servant be sometimes deaf." R Buckminster Fuller
"The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work." Agha Hasan Abedi
CHAPTER No.3: How to Get Your Team off to an Excellent Start
For a team to go in the right direction, Team Charters should be drawn as soon as the project is formed. They ensure that everyone is aware and focused on the right things from the beginning. You can also draft a Team Charter when you’re in the midst of a team crisis, to help the team regain their view of the bigger picture.
Learn how to:
Draft your Team Charter
Improve team performance
Understanding Belbin’s team roles model
We have all had the experience of working in a team and it has been either a wonderful or an awful experience. If team members are running in opposite directions and without leadership, then the team is bound to sink.
Team Charters are used to take care of the management of the team. They are documents that define the purpose of work, how it will be done and what the expected outcomes are.
For a team to go in the right direction, Team Charters should be drawn as soon as the project is formed. They ensure that everyone is aware and focused on the right things from the beginning. You can also draft a Team Charter when you’re in the midst of a team crisis, to help the team regain their view of the bigger picture.
This article will provide information on:
How to draft your Team Charter
Why team roles are important for improving team performance
Understanding Belbin’s team roles model
How to draft your Team Charter
There is no particular format of a team charter, and it can vary from team to team. The actual charter can take any form and much of its value comes from its elements.
The following elements should be included in a charter: