Guest Post: The Trouble with Leadership By The Numbers
Note from Art: I’m pleased to share the thoughts of Scott Spreier, head of the Leadership and Talent Practice in the Federal Sector at Hay Group, a global management consultancy. I was a happy customer of Hay Group in a prior lifetime, where they provided my team with valuable input and guidance on a complex and fast-moving sales restructuring. I am pleased that they reached out to share this thought-provoking post exclusively with readers of Management Excellence. Enjoy!
You can follow Scott and his colleagues on Twitter @ Hay Group.
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The Trouble with Leadership by the Numbers by Scott Spreier, Hay Group
Ah, those geeks from Google.
After months of crunching numbers, a team of their top statisticians cracked the code on what it takes to be a good leader. Their finding, as reported by The New York Times, was that what employees valued most in their managers was not technical expertise but “even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”
Now, is that surprising?
A few paragraphs into the story, the Times’ turned to human resource experts to help put Google’s research into context.
They quoted Todd Safferstone, managing director of the Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board, who noted that Google is at the “leading edge” of trying to apply a data-driven approach to what the Times calls the “unpredictable world of human interactions.”
Project Oxygen, as the research was named, is unusual, Safferstone says, because it is based on Google’s own data, which means that it will feel more valid to those Google employees who like to scoff at conventional wisdom.
Two observations here: (1) We (the HR experts of the world) are a sincere, but dull lot whose lingo about leadership is indeed often limp; and (2) it is this habit of sounding warm and squishy, not hard and businesslike, which drives organizations like Google to try to create leadership by the numbers.
The truth is, for more than 50 years researchers, particularly behavioral scientists, have been studying and linking these so-called softer attributes of leadership to performance. At Hay Group, we’ve done numerous studies that tie the hard stuff of business − gains in productivity, revenue, and profits − to the human stuff of leadership, such as providing vision and context, showing empathy, and engaging, coaching, and developing employees.
In general, our body of research has shown that when managers and executives use a good combination of these behaviors or styles, the performance of their teams − again in terms of measures like sales, productivity, and even revenue − tends to jump 15 to 30 percent.
That Google had to rediscover this, however, is not cause of smugness or ridicule. Like most organizations and the people who run them, it’s human nature to try to succeed by the numbers. All of us, not just Charlie Sheen, want to win. And winning in our society is defined by the specific, not the squishy: scoring more points, putting up better financial numbers, the number of goddesses one lives with, etc.
David Brooks, in a recent column, The New Humanism, blamed this in part on the fact that we view ourselves as “divided creatures” who try to separate reason, which we trust, from emotions, which are suspect.
“We emphasize things that are rational and conscious and are inarticulate about the processes down below,” he wrote. “When we raise our kids, we focus on the traits measured by grades and SAT scores. But when it comes to the most important things like character and how to build relations, we often have nothing to say.”
And, we might add, when those parents and kids go to work, their focus switches from SAT to ROI.
What our research and Google’s show is that organizations need to put more emphasis on the softer behavioral attributes of leadership. They need to move beyond what Brooks calls the “amputated view of human nature,” and embrace the role that motives, values, and behavior have in engaging people to do their best and ultimately driving performance.
Equally important, they have to let go of this nonsense about technical skills and financial results being the perfect equation for running a successful organization. Certainly they are critical elements, but as Google has confirmed, leading solely by the numbers is not only bad science, it’s bad business.
Looking for A Framework to Rebuild Your Business? Think Baldrige
Filed under: "To Do" List, Crisis Leadership, Leadership, Leading Change, Performance, Strategy, Values
My own personal observation is that the Baldrige National Quality Program is one of the most misunderstood, unknown and poorly marketed great programs for organizations seeking a framework for business performance improvement.
Cash for Clunkers, it ain’t! We would all be better off if it got one-tenth of the airtime of that well documented automobile sales promotion.
What’s the first thing that you think of when you hear Baldrige? Of course, quality jumps to mind and specifically, thanks to advertising, many people think of automobile quality. If you’re like most people, you’ve seen pictures of the actual glass award in commercials and you might have even viewed a clip of one of our Presidents shaking hands with the CEO of a Baldrige winner.
I recently asked a small group of professionals what they knew about the Baldrige program and one person asked whether it wasn’t a quality award for winners of the JDPower survey! At least she was partially right, as quality is an important component.
OK, and in my opinion, that’s the other misnomer. Certainly the program has its roots in Quality (with a capital Q), but it’s much more comprehensive than the many other very good programs and frameworks that focus specifically on quality and process improvement.
Baldrige is a comprehensive framework for organizational performance excellence, focusing on seven core categories (the criteria):
- Leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Customer and Market Focus
- Measurement Analysis and Knowledge Management
- Workforce Focus
- Process Management
- Results
From the Baldrige website: ‘The criteria are designed to help organizations enhance their competitiveness by focusing on two goals: delivering ever improving value to customers and improving overall organizational performance.’
This is much bigger than measuring defects. This is much bigger than a glass trophy.
Resources You Can Use Immediately:
I encourage business professionals at all levels to become familiar with the Baldrige program and the treasure trove of incredible materials…many of which are either free or low cost.
Read: The Criteria for Performance Excellence. It’s better than a month of MBA courses on understanding the criteria in detail and what factors are considered when evaluating high performance in those areas.
Download and Use: the two great surveys: “Are We Making Progress” and “Are We Making Progress as Leaders”. These are free, and you are encouraged to use, copy, distribute and employ these surveys inside your organization. (Note to my many leadership blogging/consulting/training friends, this content is golden!) Even outside of the umbrella of formal pursuit of the Baldrige Award, these survey instruments can prove remarkably helpful for any firm attempting to assess where it is at on many levels.
Review: the Judges Survey of Applicant Satisfaction presentation summarizing the survey results on what prior participants have to say about the program. Most joined for the purpose of driving improvement…not to win an award. The participants also indicate areas of improvement for the Baldrige process and examiners.
Purchase and watch: for $35 plus shipping and handling, the detailed Award Recipient DVDs. While there is a bit of program hype, mostly you’ll gain context on how some now pretty impressive small and large companies have used the program to dramatically improve their organization’s performance. These live case studies are priceless.
Talk: to a Baldrige program award winner or an examiner. The program and participants are remarkably open to inquiries and to sharing experiences and highlighting what to expect if you decide to pursue the process. Watch the videos and place a few calls and you’ll have some remarkably fresh insights and ideas on the program and how it might help your business.
Consider: applying. While there is ample material on what is involved and there will be time required to apply…and of course to assess, you gain access to some of the best, low to no cost business performance consulting on the planet through the Baldrige examiners. Again, don’t underestimate the commitment required to benefit from the process, but don’t run away from it because of that either.
The Bottom Line:
It’s time to shake our misperceptions about Baldrige. It is a powerful framework for business performance improvement. I’ve dealt with many CEOs that behind closed doors admit to not being certain about where to start and what to focus on to fuel results.
Before you call on the expensive consultants, take a few hours and investigate Baldrige. You might just find some great starting points.
Smile, Your Mirror Neurons are Firing Everyone Up & A Homework Assignment
Filed under: "To Do" List, Leadership, Performance, Professional Growth
Intuitively, it makes sense that leaders that are more engaged and engaging tend to elicit better responses and better results from their teams. Perhaps nice people can finish first.
Now, the father of the concept of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (What Makes A Leader), along with Richard Boyatiz are pushing the envelope by integrating new research in social neuroscience with their studies of effective leaders. Their recent Harvard Business Review article, Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership, is fascinating reading for anyone intrigued by the role that our biological makeup plays in our leadership abilities.
For those of you that like the short-story, without all of the intriguing content on mirror neurons, spindle cells and oscillators and how they fire together and impact groups, here’s the scoop:
“The salient discovery is that certain things that leaders do—specifically, exhibit empathy and become attuned to others’ moods—literally affect their own brain chemistry and that of their followers.”
And
“ Leading effectively is, in other words, less about mastering situations—or even mastering social skill sets—than about developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need.”
I wonder if Goleman and Boyatiz new my grandmother who would often indicate, “you capture more flies with honey than vinegar.”
With no intent whatsoever of devaluing this very interesting research, those of us who have been insightful enough to focus on honing our own leadership skills over time generally reached the same conclusions as the authors.
In Practical Lessons and Leadership (2007), I penned chapters that focused on this concept in The Leader’s Charter; Creating the Effective Working Environment, The Power of Paying Attention and Growing Your Leadership Credibility. Both my co-author and I incorporated the theme of “developing others” as a principle task of an effective leader throughout the book.
In workshops and coaching sessions, I ask the participants to evaluate themselves on many dimensions, including their personal leadership practices. I also encourage them to ask their team members to complete these same surveys to identify gaps and gain a truer view of the group’s perspective on the leader’s habits, styles and effectiveness. While simple and non-scientific, the surveys quickly identify issues in the areas that Goleman and Boyatiz now indicate are so critical to a leader’s success.
Your Assignment:
I’ve included a short, 20-question survey entitled, “Your Personal Leadership Practices,” with this post and I encourage you to take this survey yourself and assess the statements as honestly as possible. Then, provide this same survey to your team members and have them assess you from their perspective along these dimensions. For best results, your colleagues should remain anonymous. (Feel free to use and copy this survey freely.)
Personal Leadership Practices Survey (PDF)
The non-scientific, no intensive studies required approach to gauging and using the results are as follows:
-If your ratings or the ratings of your colleagues tend towards disagree or strongly disagree, you are further away from the empathetic and attuned leader than closer.
-Look for gaps in perceptions, especially where you believe you are strong and your colleagues indicate otherwise. That perception gap is closer to the truth than your own opinion.
-Leverage the results…especially the gaps to identify areas to improve and then do it. Use these results as a baseline and conduct the surveys again in a few months after you’ve sought additional feedback and adapted your behaviors. Repeat and rinse.
-Where possible, leverage objective measures of team performance and monitor those measures/indicators over time. Also, look for improvements in softer activities, including innovation, problem solving, and group dynamics.
The bottom-line:
I wrote in Practical Lessons that, “It is nice to be nice, but not necessary.” The context was that you need to have credibility, you need to be respected and you need relate effectively to your team members, but you didn’t need to be everyone’s best friend. I still stand behind that perspective, with just a bit more resolve on the need to empathize with, pay attention to and laugh with my team members.
Thanks to Goleman and Boyatiz, we now have some pretty solid proof that those things count on the road to becoming an effective leader.
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