Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader, Certification link.
- Leadership Defined the construct of leadership, the history of leadership. Leadship Competencies & Roles.
- Strategic Self-leadership inviting learners to explore themselves as individuals, including self-awareness, efficient & ethical decision-making, and maintain psychological well-being.
- Leading Others the relationship between leaders and others by exploring emotional intelligence, navigating differences of opinion, and power dynamics between individuals
- Growing as a Leader develop a practice for growing as a leader : Curiosity, Courage, and Commitment.
- Leading Below the Surface: How to Build Real (and Psychologically Safe) Relationships with People Who Are Different from You 2021
- Transforming Leader Paradigms 2019
1. Leadership Defined
- Evolution of leadership theory 2021
- Drive transformation with human-centric leadership 2024 human-centric leadership model — sensing, sense-making, and acting — to help their teams navigate inevitable “turning points”.
- Sensing (感知) : focus on detecting problems early by keying into behavioral and emotional changes among the people involved.
- Sense-making (理解) : Each time they suspect that a problem is brewing, leaders collaborate with all team members involved to work toward acknowledging the issue and identifying and addressing any root causes.
- Acting (行动) : demonstrating engaged leadership, collaborating with others, fostering a culture of inspiration, empowering team members, caring for others, and recognizing the emotional impact of technology.
1.1 Define
The lecture defines leadership as a socially-constructed process where an individual either takes or is given increased responsibility and accountability to empower others in solving problems aligned with an organization's purpose. Key points include:
- Social Construction: Leadership is context-dependent and emerges from relationships and situations.
- Responsibility and Accountability: Leadership can be informal; one does not need a formal title to lead.
- Empowering Others: Effective leadership involves inspiring and enabling others rather than controlling them.
- Collective Problem-Solving: Leaders create a culture that encourages collaboration and problem-solving.
- Embrace the opportunity to develop a culture that allows people to think and act from within to solve problems.
- Alignment with Purpose (organization’s or team’s): Leaders help teams understand their goals and direction.
- Lead to collective goal.
1.2 Brief History - Timeline
- Trait Approach: effective leaders possess certain inherent traits.
- However, it was found that leadership can be developed and that traits alone do not guarantee success.
- Behaviorist Approach: focus on how leaders behave rather than their traits. Key frameworks include:
- Ohio State Leadership Studies: Identified two factors: initiating structure (task-focused) and consideration (people-focused).
- Michigan Leadership Studies: Distinguished between job-oriented and employee-oriented behaviors.
- Contingency Approaches: the effectiveness of leadership behaviors depends on the context. For example, the Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory emphasizes adapting leadership style based on follower development.
- Leader-Member Exchange (LMX): This theory focuses on the relationships between leaders and followers, emphasizing trust and interpersonal dynamics.
- Contemporary Models: Modern leadership theories, such as charismatic, servant, and authentic leadership, blend traits, behaviors, situations, and relationships, emphasizing the importance of trust and context in effective leadership.
1.3 Leadership Competencies
- Leading the Self: This involves developing ethics, integrity, and self-awareness.
- Self-awareness.
- Taking initiative.
- Leading Others: This includes effective communication and the ability to develop others.
- Building collaborative relationship.
- Putting people at ease.
- Leading the Organization: This focuses on navigating change, having a strategic vision, and managing organizational dynamics.
- Strategic persepective.
- Change management.
The content highlights a study by Dr. Sunnie Giles, which identifies key leadership competencies, with a strong emphasis on ethics and safety. It suggests that leaders should prioritize their moral standards and effective communication.
The lecture also stresses the importance of creating a safe environment for team members, fostering trust, and encouraging collaboration.
1.4 Leadership Roles
- Coach: A leader acts as a support system, helping individuals reflect on their choices without giving direct advice. The focus is on guiding them to become the best version of themselves.
- Mentor: This role involves sharing specific advice based on the leader’s own experiences and expertise. Mentors provide guidance to help others grow in their careers or skills.
- Sponsor: A sponsor advocates for individuals by promoting their achievements to others, such as recommending them for promotions or highlighting their innovations to senior leaders.
1.5 Defining Leadership for Yourself
- Three people I think of as great leaders : LeiJun, Musk, Mao. Key Attributes :
- Have a clear goal that transcends personal material interests.
- Be able to share this goal with others.
- Be able to persist on the path of implementing this goal.
- Two people I think of as poor leaders : XX, XX. Key Attributes :
- No clear goal and vision, which leads to random walk.
- Can not persit on the path their chosen.
- Why am I interested in being a leader ?
- One person’s strength is limited, And I want to achieve my goal, which is impossible to one person.
- What leadship opportunity will I seek ?
- What are my leadership value ?
- Have and can share a vision.
- Can activly implement that vision.
2. Strategic Self-leadership
What Is Self-Leadership? Models, Theory, and Examples 2020. Self-Leadership is the practice of understanding who you are, identifying your desired experiences, and intentionally guiding yourself toward them. It spans the determination of what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. Self-leadership is rooted in self-awareness in combination with self-management.
Leader Identity is a sub-component of overall identity, shaped by personal experiences and social interactions.
Leadership is a journey rooted in personal belief and experience, rather than a fixed set of traits or a one-size-fits-all approach.
2.1 Self-awareness
Self-awareness is crucial for leaders to differentiate between internal thoughts and external noise. Our connection with others is limited by our connection with ourselves, making accurate self-awareness essential for trust in leader-follower relationships.
- Two types of self-awareness:
- Internal self-awareness: Understanding one’s own values, reactions, and impact on others.
- External self-awareness: Understanding how others perceive us.
- High self-awareness is linked to positive outcomes such as better decision-making, stronger relationships, and effective leadership.
The existence of personal blind spots that can hinder effective leadership, such as defensiveness when receiving criticism.
- Developing Self-Awareness: Leaders should gain insight into their values, passions, aspirations, fit/environments, patterns, reactions and impact. This involves reflecting on personal traits and seeking feedback from others.
- Inviting Feedback: Successful leaders actively seek constructive criticism from “loving critics” who have their best interests in mind. This helps in understanding how their actions are perceived by others.
Continuous Improvement: Self-awareness is an ongoing process. Leaders should not rely solely on experience or title but should strive to improve their emotional intelligence and leadership skills through feedback and reflection.
2.2 Effective Decision-Making
- Historical Context: The understanding of decision-making has evolved since the 17th century, with contributions from philosophers and economists.
- Rational Choice Theory: This theory suggests individuals make logical decisions to maximize their utility, but this view has been challenged.
- Bounded Rationality: Herbert Simon introduced this concept, highlighting cognitive limitations that affect decision-making. People seek satisfying.
- Prospect Theory: people value losses more than gains, influencing risk preferences.
- Cognitive Biases: like availability, representativeness, and anchoring, can distort decision-making.
- Decision Making Systems: System 1 (fast, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, analytical), both subject to biases.
2.3 Ethical Decision-Making
Complexity of Ethics: Unethical behavior often stems from well-intentioned individuals making poor choices rather than malicious intent.
- Normative vs. Behavioral Ethics:
- Normative ethics focuses on what is considered ethical behavior through philosophical frameworks (utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics).
- Behavioral ethics examines how people actually make decisions and the factors influencing those decisions.
- Human Values: People may not act in alignment with their values due to lack of clarity or situational pressures.
- Bounded Ethicality: Internal and external pressures can limit our ability to make optimal ethical decisions.
- Framing Effects: The way a decision is framed (as a gain or loss) can significantly influence the ethical outcomes.
Skill Development:
- Awareness and Practice: Improving ethical decision-making starts with self-awareness and requires ongoing practice.
- Values as Filters: Clearly defined personal values guide decision-making and help resist temptations that conflict with those values.
- Core Values Exercise: Engaging in exercises to identify and prioritize personal values can enhance moral awareness.
- Career Tragedies Framework: Developed by CK Gonzalez, this framework outlines common pitfalls in ethical decision-making, represented by the acronym TRAGEDIES:
- Temptation
- Rationalization (of your own behavior)
- Ambition
- Group and authority pressure
- Entitlement (“I own this”)
- Deception (from others or yourself)
- Incrementalism (leads to normalizing deviance)
- Embarrassment
- Stupid systems
- Moral Framing: Being aware of the ethical dimensions of decisions can lead to more thoughtful choices.
- Connection Between Ethics and Leadership: Ethical behavior is crucial for effective leadership, influencing organizational culture and decision-making.
2.4 Maintaining Psychological Well-Being
- Leader Burnout: Many managers feel overwhelmed, which affects their ability to lead effectively. It’s essential for leaders to manage their own well-being to support others.
- Psychological Well-Being: This concept encompasses feeling good and living well, involving three dimensions:
- Hedonic Well-Being: Seeking pleasure and avoiding discomfort. In the moment. Happiness set point.
- Eudaimonic Well-Being: happiness achieved by finding meaning and purpose in life.
- Resilience: The ability to adapt and bounce back from challenges.
- Importance of Balance: Leaders must cultivate their psychological well-being to inspire and support their teams effectively. This includes fostering connections, contributing to others, and practicing self-compassion.
3. Leading Others
Leadership is fundamentally about relationships with others, emphasizing the importance of building and maintaining trust. Trust is described as a foundation for effective leadership, necessary for navigating both good and challenging times.
Why you should collaborate through boundaries 2022
- Boundary spanning leadership is the capability to establish direction, alignment, and commitment across boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal.
- Types : Horizontal, Vertical, Stakeholder, Demographic, Geographic.
- Benefits : increased agility,innovation,and achievement of critical results while fostering a more engaged and adaptable workforce.
- Strategies and Tactics for Spanning Boundaries
- Manage Boundaries: Clarify Roles and Build Psychological Safety.
- Forge Common Ground: Build Trust and Collective Investment.
- Discove New Frontiers: Drive Innovation and Transformation.
3.1 Leading with Emotional Intelligence
- Perception & Expression.
- Using emotion to facilitate thinking.
- Understanding emotion.
- Managing emotions: remain open, and regulate motion.
3.2 Building Trusting Relationships
ABI Model: Trust is built on three elements: (1) Ability: The perceived competence of a leader. (2) Benevolence: The leader’s concern for others’ well-being. (3) Integrity: Consistency in a leader’s actions and promises.
High trust leads to better communication, cooperation, employee satisfaction, and reduced turnover. Trust influences brain activity, with oxytocin promoting trust and cortisol linked to stress.
Trust can be built through everyday conservations. Conversational Intelligence :
- Transactional : straight forward way of communication - give & receive information.
- Positional : someone take a side to influence others - selling ideas, or seek specific answer.
- Transformational (co-creating) : collect and consider ideas, lead to deep inside and trust.
Creating transformational conversion :
- Active Listening : (1) Turn off scripts; (2) Listen beyond words (e.g. face and tune).
- Humble Inquiry (ask the right question in right way) four types of questions can help :
- Confrontational inquiry. help gain consense, but need to be careful.
- Diagnostic inquiry. ask others to review their mind.
- Process inquiry. ask about process of the conservations, to be in the same page.
- Humble or Pure inquiry. simple, without your own opinion.
3.3 Using Power and Influence Ethically
The Five Bases of Power (sixth later added) (to understand power source and effect):
- Legitimate Power: Authority from a formal role.
- Reward Power: Ability to provide rewards (tangible or intangible).
- Coercive Power: Using threats to influence behavior.
- Expert Power: Based on unique skills or knowledge.
- Referent Power: Derived from respect and trust.
- Informational Power: Influence from access to valuable information.
Power make us focus more on ourself, and ignore perspectives. Leaders must be aware of how power affects their behavior and relationships, ensuring they use their influence ethically and inclusively.
- Psychological Safety: Leaders should create an environment where employees feel safe to express themselves without fear of punishment. This fosters innovation and open communication.
- Trust and Respect: Building trusting relationships requires both trust and respect. Leaders must treat employees with consideration and provide clear information to create a just organization.
- Ethical Use of Power: Leaders should recognize their influence as a responsibility and use it ethically. Observing power dynamics and being self-aware are crucial for effective leadership.
- Practical Strategies: Encouraging participation in team settings, such as using brainstorming sheets with names, can help individuals feel valued and engaged.
3.4 Negotiation and Conflict
Inclusive Leadership: recognize and incorporate diverse perspectives within their teams, ensuring that all voices are heard and considered in decision-making.
Negotiation is defined broadly as any interdependent decision-making process, not just formal contracts. Effective negotiation involves understanding the interests of all parties involved. Three Goals of Negotiation:
- Create Value: Identify interests to find mutually beneficial solutions.
- Claim Value: Determine how to distribute the value created.
- Cultivate Relationships and Reputations: Build trust for future negotiations.
Leaders should foster an inclusive environment that encourages healthy conflict and dialogue, recognizing that conflict can lead to productive outcomes if managed well. Types of Conflict:
- Task Conflict: Disagreements about work tasks or decisions.
- Relationship Conflict: Differences in personalities or communication styles.
- Values-Based Conflict: Deeply held beliefs and values that differ among individuals.
Conflict is Inevitable: Different interests and motivations among individuals lead to conflicts that leaders must manage.
(1) Self-Awareness: understand yourself, Conflict Management Styles: The Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) identifies five conflict behaviors:
- Avoiding: Low assertiveness and cooperation.
- Accommodating: Low assertiveness but high cooperation.
- Competitive: High assertiveness but low cooperation.
- Collaborative: High assertiveness and cooperation.
- Compromising: Moderate assertiveness and cooperation.
(2) Communication strategy: Open dialogue and asking questions are crucial for understanding interests and building trust.
(3) Focus on interests (not positions). Ask for interests actively.
Psychological Safety: Creating an environment where team members feel safe to express their ideas and concerns enhances collaboration and problem-solving.
4. Growing as a Leader
Curiosity Courage Commitment
4.1 Reading
The six signature traits of inclusive leadership: Thriving in a diverse world 2016 adaptation to a diverse and complex world. Traditional heroic leadership models are insufficient in the face of global mega-trends such as diverse markets,customers,ideas,and talent.Inclusive leadership is identified as a critical capability for thriving in this new context.
Four global mega-trends are reshaping the business environment:
- Diversity of Markets: Emerging markets,particularly in Asia,Africa,and Latin America,represent significant growth opportunities but require cultural and operational adaptability.
- Diversity of Customers: Empowered by technology,customers expect personalized products and services,necessitating a customer-centric approach.
- Diversity of Ideas: Digital disruption and hyper-connectivity demand rapid innovation and diverse thinking to avoid groupthink.
- Diversity of Talent: Demographic shifts,including aging populations and the rise of Millennials,require leaders to optimize a diverse talent pool.
The Six Signature Traits of an Inclusive Leader.
- Commitment: Motivation: Driven by personal values and business case alignment. Actions: Treat diversity and inclusion as business priorities,allocate resources,and take personal responsibility.
- Courage: Challenging the Status Quo:Willingness to confront others,organizational practices,and personal limitations. Humility:Acknowledge personal weaknesses and seek contributions from others.
- Cognizance of Bias: Awareness: Recognize personal and organizational biases. Fair Play: Ensure decisions are fair,transparent,and merit-based.
- Curiosity: Open Mindset:Desire to understand diverse perspectives and experiences. Empathy:Engage in respectful questioning and withhold quick judgments.
- Cultural Intelligence: Cross-Cultural Effectiveness:Adapt behavior and communication to different cultural contexts while maintaining authenticity.
- Collaboration: Empowerment:Create environments where diverse individuals feel valued and empowered to contribute. Team Dynamics:Foster diverse thinking and mitigate process biases to enhance group performance.
Organizations can foster inclusive leadership through strategic alignment,recruitment,capability management,performance management,rewards and recognition,leadership development,and system integration: • Highlighting inclusive leadership in diversity and inclusion strategies. • Ensuring job advertisements emphasize inclusive capabilities. • Integrating inclusive leadership into performance metrics and leadership development programs
4.2 Curiosity
Curiosity – Shifting Mindsets: Moving from being a "knower" (someone who has fixed answers) to a "learner" (someone open to new information) is crucial for personal growth. Leadership Growth: Curiosity enhances leadership by fostering empathy, creativity, and trust within teams.
Asking Questions: Cultivating curiosity involves asking open-ended questions and challenging assumptions, which can lead to deeper understanding and innovation.
Emotional Awareness: Being curious about one’s feelings can help in recognizing patterns and improving relationships with others.
4.2 Courage
- Communication: A significant portion of our communication is non-verbal, and recognizing this can enhance our interactions.
- Courage and Vulnerability: Vulnerability is not a weakness; it is a measure of courage and essential for effective leadership. Leaders must embrace uncertainty and emotional exposure.
- Authentic Leadership: Being a leader requires humility, the ability to have difficult conversations, and the willingness to grow.
- Emotional Armor: Leaders often build emotional defenses, which can hinder their effectiveness. Practicing vulnerability helps lower this armor.
- Self-Reflection: Leaders should reflect on their roles in team dynamics and avoid blaming others, focusing instead on their contributions to problems.
- Somatic Awareness: Understanding how emotions manifest physically can help leaders manage anxiety and improve their interactions.
4.3 Commitment
- Excuse: It’s Too Hard: Growth is challenging, but breaking down big goals into smaller, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-based) goals can enhance motivation.
- Excuse: I Don’t Have Time: Time management is crucial. We often prioritize unproductive tasks over meaningful activities. Reflecting on how we spend our time can reveal our true values.
- Creating Sustainable Habits:
- Develop a regular practice for reflection and learning.
- Be prepared for setbacks and have a plan to get back on track.
- Connect with others for accountability.
- Keep the big picture in mind to maintain motivation.
The lecture emphasizes that building discipline and sustainable habits is essential for effective leadership development.