The best of 'frenemies'

'Frenemies” is a horrible word. It sounds like a children’s action cartoon adventure circa 1985. Working recently in the US with a leading global publishing organisation, I noticed it was by far and away the word of the week. It describes those market players with whom we can both work and compete. Friend and foe; opponent and compatriot; Tory and Liberal. But once you decide to focus on the ‘friend’ part of the word, what does that mean to an organisation behaviourally? How do leaders in particular have to amend their way of working – and thinking? Seeing not opponents, but partners.

Let’s look at behaviour we see regularly at CHPD. Senior leaders in all walks of life can quickly become very single minded in the pursuit of organisational goals. Driven variously by shareholder demands, market sensitivity and personal ambition – a case of tunnel vision develops. They work towards the next shareholder report, the next election, the next winning tape. At CHPD we call this the ‘tyranny of the tunnel’. Three of our behaviours are chronically affected by this condition, while the rest can be impacted periodically. The chronic behaviours are concept formation; conceptual flexibility and influence.

Concept formation is essentially about creating ideas. The ‘tyranny of the tunnel’ can mean that a leader sticks rigidly to pre-existing concepts that are not anchored in relevant data. If new ideas are suggested they will reject them instinctively, citing how they could not work in practice. The analogy that springs to mind is the precocious chef, who rejects the concept of a new or altered menu.

The first cousin to this behaviour is conceptual flexibility. Having rejected even the notion of creating new ideas, this leader adopts a permanent strategy rejecting alternatives despite them being relevant and valued by others. It’s like a football manager sticking week in, week out, to the same tactical approach, regardless of opposition, because it has worked in the past. They refuse to alter their game plan regardless of the new available information on the opposing team. Only momentarily concerned with the loss of yet another match, they turn up at training on Monday with their ‘one last push’ speech.

Finally, influence. Given the closed approach detailed above, influencing by attacking others’ interests is inevitable. Leaders in this frame of mind are always trying to force other people down their preferred route through coercion and threats. Celebrity chefs and football managers again?

It’s very easy for any leader to enter the ‘tyranny of the tunnel’. The line between supreme self confidence and dogmatism is very thin, and what we see originally as purposeful leadership can mutate into belligerence. The contrast between former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher’s, early and late years in office are the most clear, recent examples of this behavioural cross over. Her political life ended because she rejected the formation of new ideas, refused to countenance alternative policy perspectives in any meaningful way and used stridency of argument in place of sophisticated negotiation.

In short, Thatcher’s approach to ‘frenemies’ was clear cut. You were either with her or against her, there was no cross over. In working with anyone she would often ask: “Is he one of us?”

Following the 2010 British General Election, many of us who follow current affairs have been astounded by the audacity of the Tory/Lib-Dem coalition. Many people thought, including this author, that the arrangement would be a much looser ‘supply and demand’ agreement, not actually one where Cameron and Clegg share Government. However, what both party leaders have shown is how ‘frenemies’ could be a viable political, and business, strategy.

So what did the party leaders do? Firstly, the willingness to think differently about what was possible. Cameron saw that the result of the election, far from being a mousetrap for the party who assumed office, was an opportunity to reshape the political landscape. Behaviourally, his concept formation (creating ideas) was of a very high level. Given the disposition of the parties he saw that it was possible to reframe post war political assumptions – away from a centre left coalition to a centre right one. How many of us said as the results came in: “Yes, but the Lib Dems will never do a deal with the Tories”? To which Cameron said: “Says who?”

This daring, which showed an immense level of self confidence and political courage, brings us to another of the CHPD leadership behaviours: conceptual flexibility. The creation of the coalition exemplifies this behaviour at a very high level. As CHPD’s definition explains, the leader:

“Compares the merits of two or more realistic alternatives, by stating the pros and cons of each. [Creates] an over-arching plan or strategy as a result of this analysis, which maximises the benefits and minimises the downsides of the original options”.

We do not have space to recount individual policy conflation here, save to say that the output appears to be, as foreign secretary, William Hague, has said, “the best of the Liberal Democrat manifesto and the bulk of the Tory one.”

Once the strategy was set, the most difficult task was to begin for Cameron and Clegg: to persuade three key constituencies. They comprised of a) each other b) their own parties c) the public. The use of influence at a high level was now paramount. Convincing each other was the easiest part: when offered power most politicians will take it by gut instinct. How they influence their own parties was, and remains, the most formidable challenge. But, concentrating on the ‘friends’ part of ‘frenemies’ has worked wonders. Three examples: the abolition of the third runway at Heathrow appeals to the Lib Dems environmental instincts, as well as Tory parsimony; the rejection of ID cards meets Lib Dem civil rights concerns and again Tory parsimony; and the use of PR to elect the House of Lords appeals to Lib Dem electoral instincts and to Tory …well they have lots of other policies that will rebalance this. But how do they persuade the public? The simple answer is: they don’t have to … yet. The combined majority of the Con/Lib Dem coalition should keep them in power for a full five year term (this is almost assured by changing the ‘no confidence’ rules). Naturally, Clegg and Cameron will hope that their success in office will be the best influence on the electorate.

If a week is a long time in politics, half a decade is a lifetime. Asked what was his biggest challenge as Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan famously replied: ”Events, dear boy, events”. How this new kind of Government deals with these events will reveal if these best of friends can really avoid the ‘tyranny of the tunnel’.

Russell Deathridge

CHPD leadership consultant

Power-crazed leaders are not what we need ...

So the Work Foundation has just discovered what we have known for some time – power-crazed leaders are not what we need (The Guardian, Saturday 16 January 2010). The trouble is that’s exactly what we’ve got (I’m exaggerating to make a point).

Our global benchmark data for leadership behaviours explains this very dilemma.

The high performance benchmark level for each High Performance Behaviour (HPB) is indicated by the horizontal purple line.

Ideally what we would like to see is for all HPBs to be developed above the benchmark line. Clearly that isn’t the case. What we see is a skewed profile of HPBs across the world.

The well developed behaviours on the left side of the diagram are those needed to run a unit in a more traditionally structured organisation. This is characterised by people who are good at planning, can solve problems, they have good presentation skills and are able to build confidence in others and make things happen. These skills are important, but the Work Foundation claims that these aren’t so important today.

According to the Work Foundation what we do need is “a much more subtle, people-centred approach to leadership.” We agree, but if that’s what we want them we’ve got to do something about developing the behaviours on the right side of our diagram. Three HPBs in particular (empathy, team work and conceptual flexibility) are critical in building relationships and fairness, but as the diagram above shows they tend to be poorly valued and developed.

Without urgent attention on these HPBs in particular – and we’re talking reliable individual assessment to identify gaps and then tailored development to address them – the new, ‘people-centred’ leaders that we urgently need, will fail to materialise.

Father Christmas's leadership profile

CHPD specialises in high performance and leadership. There is no better seasonal performer than Father Christmas, so this month we take a light-hearted look at his leadership profile.

CHPD’s research identified 12 leadership behaviours that underpin outstanding performance in dynamic, complex and competitive environments. We call these High Performance Behaviours (HPBs).

Father Christmas is world-renowned, universally popular and has a long-lasting, positive public image. Not only that but he has a magical workforce of happy and devoted elves who work all year round to help him achieve his goal and deliver presents to all the world’s children.

He understands what everyone wants
Father Christmas has created a system for finding out what the children want for Christmas every year by asking them to send him their list every December. This traditional letter writing scheme is an embedded part of the Christmas culture all over the world and everyone takes part in it. It enables Father Christmas to gather accurate data on his customer’s needs and is a great example of how to use the information search HPB at the strategic level five.

He works out a strategy to deliver
The thinking cluster of HPBs is crucial to coming up with and evaluating new ideas. Father Christmas has to be able to consider a number of different solutions for challenges like making the right toys, meeting tight production schedules and efficient delivery routes. Then he must weigh up the pros and cons of these and make a final decision about which to implement. The conceptual flexibility HPB encapsulates this process. It enables a leader to make the right decisions first time, rather than hoping for the best in a trial and error approach. An approach that would be too risky, for someone who’s reputation has been built on consistently high performance and meeting a fixed deadline.

He develops others and recognises diversity
By identifying Rudolph’s red nose as a special talent and asking him to guide the sleigh, Father Christmas found a way to develop Rudolph’s ability and turn him into a high performer. He took personal responsibility for Rudolph’s development and presented him with an opportunity to use his talent whilst supporting and encouraging him as he undertook the task. This is a clear example of the developing people HPB at level four; a high level use of the behaviour.

Areas for improvement
Nothing stands still and with the world changing more rapidly than ever, Father Christmas might want to consider some development to prepare for the future. An area for Father Christmas to consider for development is his influence. Strengthening his use of this HPB may help him with one of his biggest business challenges which is how to get all of those presents delivered in just one night. Creating ‘win win’ alliances with other people and identifying how their goals are aligned could help him gather support and achieve his goals more easily. So, if Father Christmas started to work with the Tooth Fairy, for example, and use her up to date knowledge of which children live where and the best access routes to their chimneys, then this would save him time on his rounds. In return, Father Christmas could offer to collect teeth from under the pillows of the children he visits on Christmas Eve and give the Tooth Fairy a valuable night off. Whilst their ultimate goals are different, Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy have a lot in common and by understanding these alignments they can work together to achieve their own interests more easily.

Are you a Father Christmas performer?
Whether you share Father Christmas’ HPB strengths or not, all leaders benefit from a better understanding of how they perform. An online behavioural questionnaire, such as CHPD’s Sentio, will reveal where you can improve your performance for a magical year in 2010.

Merry Christmas from all at CHPD.

Find out more about behavioural assessment from CHPD - Info@chpd.com

Writen by Caroline Warren, HPB assessor and Rachel Woolf, senior client partner, both at CHPD.

‘Liquid modernity’ drives us to be flexible and adaptable

This month Trendwatching’s musings highlight the work of German philosopher Zygmunt Bauman and offer an interesting insight into the leadership qualities most needed today.

‘Liquid Modernity’ is Bauman's term for the present condition of the world. According to Bauman, we now have to splice together an unending series of short-term projects and episodes that don't add up to the kind of sequence to which concepts like ‘career’ and ‘progress’ could be meaningfully applied. Such fragmented lives require us to be flexible and adaptable — to be constantly ready and willing to change tactics at short notice and to pursue opportunities according to their current availability. In liquid modernity the individual must act, plan actions and calculate the likely gains and losses of acting (or failing to act) under conditions of endemic uncertainty.

This reflects our own leadership research. Flexible leadership is key to success during turbulent times and through to recovery. Without flexibility, leaders will become the ‘rabbits in the headlights’ of the business world.

There are certain key leadership behaviours which enable the flexible and adaptable approach that Bauman talks about. These are:

Conceptual flexibility – the ability to identify multiple solutions to a particular challenge, to hold different options simultaneously in focus and evaluate pros and cons

Continuous improvement – the ability to set challenging yet realistic goals and targets to continually improve performance. Measuring and reviewing progress towards goals and taking action to ensure these are achieved

Empathy - finding out and encouraging others to express openly their real thoughts and feelings

Teamwork - creating and developing cohesive teams within your unit and across related departments, functions or sectors

Contact CHPD to find out how to accurately assess and develop strengths in these high performance behaviours.

Request copies of CHPD’s white papers on flexible leadership and turbulent times.

www.chpd.com

Men may be to blame, but where do we go from here?

Robert Peston (BBC blog, Why men are to blame for the crunch, 29 July 2009) may be right, but will things ever change? Commission after commission reveals that discrimination against women at most work levels is only improving at a snail’s pace, if at all. In Norway, they’re tackling the problem with a minimum 40% quota of women on plc boards. But would that work here? Indeed, is it enough?

I’ve been coaching, developing and working with big business for many years and it seems there are a number of issues that need to be addressed – and soon.

We need diversity

The first thing to say is that this isn’t just about being ‘fair’, it’s about being better. With all-male boards and executive teams comes a very real tendency to think the same way and then develop similar solutions to the challenges the business faces. People have a natural tendency to recruit in their own image. Everyone agrees, so it must be the right thing to do. Organisations need diversity of all kinds; race, gender, style, experience, approach, background. Only with true diversity can organisations become more dynamic and creative in the market.

Cultures must change

Some organisations have recognised that they need to be more diverse; they’ve established ways of employing people from more diverse backgrounds, even setting quotas. But there is a significant risk that this will all be for nothing, unless the fundamental cultures of organisations are addressed at the same time. Too often organisations aren’t seeing the added value of diversity, because once, for example, women join, they soon realise that their skills aren’t really valued and they leave. Either that or they realise that they have to copy the dominant group to get things done. They become ‘more male’ in their approach and organisations fail to realise the true benefits of diversity.

Leaders need help

At CHPD we’ve been assessing and developing leaders for more than a decade and something continues to trouble me. The fact is that vast majority of leaders that come to us have weaknesses in the very leadership capabilities that they need to operate effectively in today’s complex and dynamic environment.

No individual leader can be expected to have strengths in all areas, but across boards and executive teams you would want to see a good spread of strengths. That’s why diversity is so important; in a team you’ll cover each other’s weaknesses and complement the strengths.

We find that the least developed behaviours are those complex interpersonal and cognitive ones which enable people to understand and value others’ perspectives, think outside the existing paradigms, and create powerful ideas within a group – we call them empathy, teamwork and conceptual flexibility.

Women are more likely to be naturally stronger in empathy, teamwork and conceptual flexibility, so there is a real chance that the right women could help redress the balance in the boardroom and beyond. However, in my view there is such a dearth of strategic strength in this area that we should look urgently at development activities for all genders to improve these key behaviours.

And finally …

So diversity makes excellent business sense. It can’t just be about quotas, it must also be about changing systems, structures and values, to create cultures which value and encourage diversity. And we need to help all of our leaders develop the vital skills that redress the imbalances that have contributed to our current economic predicament.

For all our efforts to date, we’ve done barely more than scratch the surface. Let’s stop tinkering and start shifting the paradigm.

More on leadership behaviours

Chris Parry, 2009

“Ain't no mountain high enough”

“The speed at which we'll recover will depend on the international cooperation we can achieve” Gordon Brown – Wall Street, March 25th 2009.

Nobody walked out, everybody had something to call a victory and they all got to bathe in President Obama’s spotlight. While debate will continue about exactly what the world leaders achieved at the London G20 summit, one thing is for sure: the work of the faceless diplomats behind the scenes was invaluable. These so called ‘sherpas’ (leading the mountaineers to the summit) have to prepare all the detailed ground work for their heads of government and draft various communiqués before the meeting has even taken place.

The sherpas' work involves numerous face-to-face meetings, conference calls and e-mail exchanges together with an ability to coax, manoeuvre and negotiate with their opposite numbers. The delicacy of this task cannot be understated. It requires forensic analysis of complicated issues, deft diplomatic communication skills and, most crucially, teamwork - one of CHPD’s core behaviours contributing to high performance leadership. The ability to create teams that truly work together is all too rare. In a recent snapshot of results from years of assessment of leaders in the UK, we found that, on average, leaders were under-developed when it came to ‘teamwork’. (see diagram below).



At CHPD we find that many leaders believe they are good at ‘teamwork‘ because the team themselves say “we have a great team spirit”. This is commendable and to be maintained yet it is actually the output of an entire leadership approach rather than the application of one behaviour like expert facilitation of the team and fostering effective team results.

CHPD’s definition of teamwork at a high performance level is as follows:

“The leader facilitates dialogue between two or more team members so they create shared ‘team concepts’, that are more powerful than any of the individual ideas that were contributed at first”.
This means that the team is constantly working together not only to complete group tasks but also to harness disparate ideas into team strategies and solutions. In essence it is the work of the perfect ‘sherpa’.

CHPD both assesses leaders against 12 behaviours and helps them achieve a higher level of performance through training and coaching. To find out how your leaders stack up against the key benchmarks, email info@chpd.com. In the meantime, try the following tips to boost teamwork in your business:

· Encourage teams to pool knowledge and develop a shared sense of purpose through regular update and progress meetings

· Promote participative decision making rather than imposition of decisions from above

· Promote the cross-fertilisation of ideas by bringing people from your own and other teams together to improve co-operation

· Task teams to talk things through to develop shared thinking and to integrate different perspectives where appropriate

· Build bridges between the ideas of team members by asking them to build on the linkages of their ideas to create broader team concepts

· Stimulate a wide-ranging debate amongst all your employees on the decisions that affect them; encourage team members to understand their colleagues

Having reflected on the use of teamwork you may start to question who had the real leadership behaviours at the G20 meeting – the mountaineers or the sherpas?

“Where are the Oscars for us mortals?”

The news coverage associated with the Oscars underlined a lesson for effective leadership in times of economic dislocation. It makes one think "Where are the Oscars for us mortals?"

Kate Winslett, Sean Penn and Danny Boyle were recipients of much more than a small, gold statuette. They got something money can't buy - recognition.

In fact, it's something we all crave. As psychologist Frederick Herzberg found, satisfaction does not come from pay but from challenging work, responsibility and ... recognition. Maybe the business world can learn something from Hollywood in this challenging economic environment.

Pay cuts are becoming more commonplace than pay rises. If a salary and bonus ever could help you keep your talent, it's doubtful it could today. Recognition need cost nothing - assuming you don't go for the Vanity Fair party - yet too often it is forgotten. The issue has everything to do with two leadership behaviours identified by CHPD as crucial to high performance leadership - 'building confidence' and 'developing people'.

Dr Tony Cockerill, CHPD founder and expert in leadership, explains: “There are 12 behaviours that have been identified as making the difference between average and high performing leadership. Two of these are clearly linked to recognition; ‘building confidence’ ties in with the public or external recognition of good work, while ‘developing people’ links to the one-to-one feedback that you give people about their performance. As a manager, if you have strengths in both behaviours, you are likely to have staff who feel recognised and valued for their contribution.”

Strengths in both behaviours necessary for recognition can be rare. In a recent snapshot of results from years of assessment of leaders in the UK, we found that, on average, leaders were under-developed when it came to ‘developing people’ (diagram below).

CHPD both assesses leaders against these 12 behaviours and then helps them achieve a higher level of performance through training and coaching. To find out how your leaders stack up against the key benchmarks, email info@chpd.com. In the meantime, try the following tips to boost the satisfaction of your people:

• Be specific with your recognition – don’t just say ‘you do a great job’, tell someone exactly what they did that has been appreciated. This way you not only make them feel valued, but they are also clear about what great behaviour looks like and what they need to focus on in the future.
  
• Try a handwritten note – something that stands out from a regular email and that you’ve put some effort in to
  
• Don’t combine praise and criticism – if there are issues with performance raise them separately from the praise, otherwise the recipient with only focus on the criticism not the praise you’re trying to impart. People are wise to the ‘feedback sandwich’ now – good thing, bad thing, good thing – and can be waiting for the ‘bad’.
  
• Present your own Oscars – why not get hold of a few statuettes or certificates to hand out to worthy winners. Having them around the office and pinned to notice boards can stimulate positive conversations and ensure that colleagues know why someone has been recognised.

After all, if it’s good enough for Kate, Sean and Danny, it’s good enough for you!

For more information on CHPD's leadership behaviours email info@chpd.com or visit our website http://www.chpd.com/