Education & Training > Professional Development > Leadership

Self Leadership

A Synopsis of “Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager” (Blanchard, Fowler and Hawkins)

Ken Blanchard is the co-author of "The One minute Manager", which has been a bestseller for more than 25 years! In this collaboration, the primary message is “that power, freedom and autonomy come from having the right mindset and skills needed to take personal responsibility for success”.

In the introduction, Ken Blanchard makes the point that the workplace has changed rapidly. In the past employees “traded loyalty for job security”. But today the business world is looking for people who are problem solvers and are willing to take initiative and ownership. In return, employees want honesty and the opportunity to learn new skills, and there can be no better way to do this than by taking initiative, becoming a problem solver and thinking like an owner.

The problem is that most managers are not willing to let go! They prefer good subordinates who do as they are told. But whereas previously the average manager typically supervised 5 people, in today’s organisational structures this ratio can be as high as 1:25 or even 1:75. To accommodate this, the hierarchy of leadership has evolved “into a new order of leadership: empowerment of individuals”. Some individuals embrace this “empowerment”, but others become “immobilised” by it.

While many people have taken to the modern “empowerment of individuals” approach to leadership, there are many more who feel that they are victims of this approach and they view their manager as an “incompetent enemy”. They complain about all the things that they feel their boss should have done but haven’t. But most bosses today can no longer play the traditional role of telling people what, when and how to do things. Managers just don’t have the time, and in many cases their people know more about the work than they do.

How can people move from a “victim mind-set” to that of an empowered problem solver? The book states that there is no best leadership style that can be applied to any situation. The best style will always depend on the situation, so managers need to be “situational leaders. It goes further to state that the principles of situational leadership can also be applied to self-leadership, and that situational self-leadership holds the answer to helping people take the lead even when they feel powerless.

Part 1: Empowerment and knowing what motivates you.

There are a number of key points made in the book, the first of which is that “Empowerment is something someone gives you. Self leadership is what you do to make it work”.

The book states that “there is only power in empowerment if you are a self leader. You are ready for self leadership when you take responsibility for your own success.” Problems need to be turned upside down so that you are the one who is in control. You need to stop making excuses and blaming everyone else. You have been empowered to do a job and you must take initiative and responsibility for succeeding in it. But how?

“Ultimately it is in your own best interest to accept responsibility for getting the kind of leadership you need to succeed in the workplace.” People / bosses are not mind readers. Everyone is motivated by different things and so they think differently. No boss can know and provide the motivation that every individual needs. Each of us has a different motivation for doing what we do, so it is up to us to take responsibility for creating a work environment that is motivating to us.

Do you know what motivates you and those who you work with? The book encourages people to first rank what motivates them in the workplace and then to survey their colleagues to find out what motivates them. In order to stay motivated you need to know yourself and know what motivates you.

Instructions: Rank the following workplace motivators according to their importance to you. Place the ranking (one through ten) beside the motivator, with one being most important and ten being the least.

Motivator
Interesting work
Full appreciation of work done
Feeling of being “in on things”
Job security
Good wages
Promotion and growth within the organisation
Good working conditions
Personal loyalty to employees
Sympathetic help with personal problems
Tactful disciplining




Source:
Self leadership and the one minute manager
(Ken Blanchard, Susan Fowler and Laurence Hawkins)

Leadership

Leading a team or group successfully is a skill that takes time, thought and dedication. The key fundamentals of leadership are the ability to look to the future, motivate your team and provide them with direction. It is also important to learn to adapt your leadership approach to deal with different situations.

Looking to the future
The ability to look ahead and plan a strategy or path for your team or group to follow is an essential skill. To do this well, you need to keep an eye on the horizon, both externally and internally. This means keeping in touch with employee opinions, technological advances and industry trends. Ask yourself 'what if?' questions. What opportunities and threats can you foresee and what options exist for dealing with these? This process and knowledge will help shape your vision.

Providing direction
Leaders, by definition, must have followers and followers need to understand and buy-into the leader's vision. Once you’ve looked to the future, you need to communicate your vision with conviction and confidence. Powerful and successful visions have been shown to have a number of themes in common: they are compelling (not necessarily the same as popular), inspire and unite people to believe in a better future in a way that energises a team and garners commitment.

Leadership style
Leadership involves leading people with different needs, skills and personalities in a range of circumstances. A good leader therefore needs to be able to adapt their approach to suit the circumstances that they face. The leadership style required in times of extreme crisis is different to the style needed to manage the complexities of change.

Learning to use more than one or two different leadership styles on a regular basis, takes a bit of practice.

Traditionally, traits such as confidence, ambition, drive and self-control have been linked to successful leaders. Recent thinking has identified other successful leaders who succeed in transforming their organisation from 'good to great' as quiet, modest, shy and unassuming. Yet they combine these characteristics with a fierce professional will to succeed which they transfer to their team, with spectacular results. This leadership style has been called 'The Level 5 Leader'.

Similarly, there have been some interesting studies into how a leader's Emotional Intelligence, (a term referring to the sensitive awareness and management of emotions) and mood can have an impact on a team's results. In summary, this research reveals that the more a leader can modify their mood and emotions, the greater their effectiveness.

Leading during times of change
Driving change can be particularly challenging. Not only do you have to cope with and adapt to change positively, but you also need to navigate your team through the phases they are likely to go through when experiencing change: from initial disorientation, right through to peak performance.

One of a leader's main responsibilities during a change process is to manage the communication effectively. During times of change, uncertainty is rife and fear of the unknown is a common factor. As a leader, if you can show that you understand these concerns, you are working to resolve the issues, and that there is a compelling vision for the future, then you have far more chance of successfully implementing the change.

Developing a high-performance team
Motivating people so that they perform at their best is the ultimate aim of effective leadership. But how can you unleash the full individual and collective potential of your people so that they achieve higher levels of performance than they thought possible? While you can drive performance using pressure, coercion and fear, you cannot expect the extra energy that comes from positive emotional commitment unless employees really believe that the give and take in their work place is balanced. Awareness of this 'Psychological Contract' between you and your team is crucial if you are to achieve sustainable success.

Generating widespread emotional energy and commitment demands time and attention from the leader to ensure that the right balance between achieving the task, building the team and developing the individual is achieved.

Source:
CIPFA