My reflection blog this
week is to discuss “A different Kind of Leader” by Stephen Denning. I will
reflect on the dimensions and how I expect they will impact the way I lead in
the future. I will include some examples of how these dimensions’ manifest in my
own application of leadership.
In
the book The Leaders Guide to Storytelling:
Mastering the Art and Discipline of business Narrative, Denning talks about
to be “a different kind of leader you can use narratives to become an
interactive leader.” (p269). He goes on
to elaborate that if “someone who embodies the interactive mode of thinking,
speaking, and acting and takes on the new capabilities that narrative enables
can accomplish what was inaccessible to someone operating solely in the
traditional command-and-control mode.” (p269-270) Within this concept, Denning,
provides a review of leadership within different dimensions. (Denning, 2011)
Interactive
Leader
The
interactive leader “works with the world rather than an against it.” (p270) (Denning, 2011) In this dimension, a
leader is less controlling and does not set boundaries to obtain a result based
on their own will. Instead an interactive leader listens to those whom they
lead and lets others do some of the work. From my perspective, an interactive
leader is available to their teams. This leader needs to “show their face ‘in
the work area, which means getting away from the emails and be available to the
employees. (Groysberg & Slind, 2012)
My
experience with interactive leadership is focused on those who are my leaders,
and then myself as a leader. About six years ago, I had the opportunity to be
asked to have lunch with executive leadership. I was a bit nervous as I did not
know these leaders very well, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I
remember one of the vice presidents asking about issues going on in the
workplace and what they could do to make it better. I usually do not say
anything in these types of meetings, but with courage, I felt I had to. I
offered up to the leadership team that if they wanted to know more about what
was going on in the workplace, randomly walk around and introduce yourself to
the employees. The leadership team
thanked us for the feedback. I enjoyed the free lunch and went back to work.
The very next day, the vice president was walking around the work area talking
to employees. I smiled, as I had the bravery to tell someone of this level of
leadership on how to be more interactive. I did not gloat in the workplace
about my recommendation, however I overhead how people were surprised to see the
executive leader in the area talking to people.
When it comes to being an interactive
leader there are two things that I have to continuously work on: creating
conversation and pulling the plug on technology. I love to talk to people,
however, my life is overcommitted with work, school, leadership association and
family. I have to make sure that I take the time to have a conversation with
those who work around me. My favorite is talking to the younger troops, they
tend to be very intuitive to the newest trends on technology, fashion, or even
just social events. I think sometimes it reminds me of hanging with my own
adult children. The other element that I have to work on is “pulling the plug
on technology.” I love technology, but I have found myself consumed with email,
internet, and instant messaging. I think
instant messaging in the workplace has hampered the ability to be effective at
interactive leadership. It is a larger topic, but I think it creates barriers to
interaction with human people. I will admit using instant messenger is much
faster than email, so it becomes a crutch to getting thing done quicker. (Groysberg
& Slind, 2012)
Leadership
Palette (Addition and Subtraction)
Denning
defines that “interactive leadership supplements the traditional management
functions of command, control, regulation, analysis and optimization by adding
new capabilities, but requires the leader to set aside manipulative and whining
techniques” (p270) Basically, the interactive leader cannot “exercise manipulative
and spinning behavior in their conduct and expect to be accepted as open,
truthful, and trustworthy in other domains.” (p270) (Denning, 2011)
So this past week at work, our team bully
just returned from a week of vacation. I thougth she should be well rested and
have the ability to just relax and work with people without being so
argumentative. She prides herself in team meetings that she is helping our Control
Account Managers (CAM) with cost and schedule integration. Being out for a
week, she missed the email communication that a CAM requested to add a new task
to the schedule. In our work, schedule is king, as it tells the cost team which
month to lay in the associated budget. When I let her know that I would have
the schedule change by the end of the day, she completely flipped out
emotionally on me and the CAM. She tried to manipulate the situations by saying
it was too late in the accounting month to make a change, and the CAM did not
coordinate the work. She sent emails to upper level management about how no one
was following the process, including me. In the end, there was several very bad
emails sent from her, based on her emotional state of the situation. However, the value of email was the savior of
the situation for the CAM and myself. An email was sent two weeks prior
requesting for the work to be accomplished. The bully didn’t read it.
The next day at a team meeting, she was
crying about how no one listens or respects her, and she is just trying to
help. The key is her leadership palette is unbalanced and she is not good at
interactive leadership. She likes to manipulate and control the situation to
her convenience, but does not understand why people don’t trust or like working
her. I would like to think she would change, but I have known her for over a
decade and her leadership behavior is status quo. In interactive leadership if
she would take more from her “learning verses her fears” she could improve on
her leadership palette. (Insight
Leadership Partners, 2016)
Personal
Integrity and Authenticity
Interactive leadership “builds on
personal Integrity and Authenticity” (p270). There are several factors leaders
can have that support integrity and authenticity. If you can “communicate who you are and what
you stand for, others come to know and respect you for just that.”
Additionally, Denning says if you “make your values explicit and act in accord
to those values, your values become contagious and others start to share them”
(p271) ( (Denning, 2011)
I am very passionate in supporting
community service, especially veteran benefits and respect. Being a retired
veteran, I wear my military support attire very proudly. I also have no problem
supporting the homeless person standing at a busy intersection who claims they
are a veteran for some extra financial support. One day my daughter asked me
why I always give money to those who claim they are veterans. She wanted to
know how I knew this person was really a veteran. I let her know that it
doesn’t matter if the person is a true veteran. I educated her on military
benefits to degree of how poor they are. I explained that military pay is low
and I know for a fact that military members, currently serving, turn to the
food stamp system to feed their families. In fact in 2014, it was reported that
over “$84 million dollars of food stamps benefits were spent at a military
commissary.” (Clark, 2015) The point to my
daughter is veterans are very important to me as they serve our country
selfishly for our freedom, while they struggle financially. We don’t know if
the homeless person is really a veteran, but we are fortunate to spare some
money to those who need it, so we do. It’s not about whether this person is
telling a truthful story, but helping a person in need.
Additionally, to this story, my work is
currently doing a canned food drive for the north Georgia. I am required to do
it being in a leadership development program. I immediately cleaned out my
pantry last week, and sent emails to all those I support on the program. People
know I am very compassionate on community service and giving back. Within a
day, my group raised over $1500. I was very honored and proud. People know I am
authentic and have a very strong passion in this area, so they support it. I
know who I am, what I stand for, and people respect that.
Possession of Hierarchical Authority
Possession of Hierarchical Authority
Interactive leadership “doesn’t depend on
the possession of hierarchical authority” (p271). Denning states “anyone who
can help clarify a direction, improve the structure, secure support, or offer
coaching that improves performance is providing leadership” (Denning,
2011)
As a new leader, I do not do well with those who like to control things. I tend
to spend most of my time clarify things and coaching, especially as a parent.
Having four adult daughters and being a woman, I spend time coaching them on
being strong accountable women. There are times I have to clarify my intent of
conversations, as a couple of them automatically go to the negative or judging
of the information being delivered. Before they were adults, I had to control
the situations for them. I have had to transition in the last year to make sure
my delivery is more suggestive and coaching, verses do it my way or you will
fail approach. To do this, I find myself re-clarifying the intent of my words
and learning to listen. I have learned as a mom at this stage of the game,
securing the support from them and vice versa is very important in the
relationship. I will admit it is very hard to not want to control the
situation. I try to make ideas their own and not mine, as they need to own the
situation and be accountable.
Different
Narrative Patterns
Interactive leadership “benefits from an
understanding of the different narrative patterns that can be used to get
things done in the world” (p271) Denning’s states this “involves telling
stories, not talking about storytelling” and “you don’t need to burden the
world with the principles of what you are doing.” Overall, “interactive
leadership entails active participation in the world rather than the detached
observation” (Denning, 2011) I can relate to this when having a
conversation with other people. Often at work or as a parent, when someone is
telling a story, the story teller has to tell us how they got to the story in
the first place, verses just telling the story. This takes up time, verses just
saying what you need to say. (Denning, 2011)
My
future of leadership
The three dimensions that I can improve on in the future is
my leadership palette, understanding the various narrative patterns, and
understanding how I can work with the world rather than against it. My
leadership palette is not surfaced with a control manipulate leadership style
that creates boundaries, and at the same time I do value trust from those I
support. I had to complete a 360-degree
feedback survey that was supported by leaders, co-workers, and various people
that I know. This last week I received the results. A good majority of the
responses were very positive, but there is the one that got the most attention
from me. A remark was made that I am negative when someone wants to change the
schedule. At first I was baffled by that feedback as I consider myself very
supportive, helpful, and easy to work with. The unique thing about the feedback
is it came from the cost team. I had to think about that response and what it
really meant. Since I value feedback, I immediately went to self-reflection to
determine if I am sending the wrong message. The key is when I am very
connected with the schedule and the process, maybe I do come across as a
non-team player. The best part of the feedback is it is information about my
leadership skills and I can use it as a tool to be aware of which leadership
narrative I am currently operating in to make improvements.
References
Clark,
K. (2015, May 25). Military families turn to food stamps. Retrieved May 20, 2016,
from
families-turn-food-stamps
Denning,
S. (2011). The Leader's Guide of Storytelling: Mastering The Art and Discipline
of
Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Groysberg,
B., & Slind, M. (2012, June 20). Four Ways to Become a More Interactive
Leader.
interactive-are-you-as-a-l
Insight
Leadership Partners. (2016). Insight Leadership Palette. Retrieved May 20,
2016, from
Insight Leadership Partners:
http://www.insightleadershippartners.com/insightleadershippalate.cfm
