Hello Professor and Classmates,
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“Push” vs. “Grow” approach
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All leadership requires balance. In one of my favorite leadership books, The Dichotomy of Leadership
(1), Jocko Willink and Leif Babin discuss the importance of balance to
lead effectively. Willink and Babin are former U.S. Navy Seals who led a
highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War and now apply
their lessons learned as leadership consultants and authors. I gave
copies of their earlier book, Extreme Ownership (2), to my leadership team members.
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“Push”
and “pull” change approaches also need to be balanced. From my civil
engineering degree, I learned the fundamentals of “force” and have two
key takeaways: F=m*a and “you can’t push on a rope.” Both of these
takeaways apply to leading change. Moving something from A to B requires
force. The F=m*a equation says that the magnitude of a force equals
mass times acceleration.
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Kotter’s
(3) urgency, vision and strategy, and communication establish the
acceleration. His guiding coalition is the mass in the force.
Combined, they start moving the organization from point A to point B.
An initial push is needed to overcome organizational inertia (Bucy,
Hall, and Yakola, 4). However, ongoing brute force does not work in
leading people, similar to “trying to push on a rope.” To achieve real
change, people need to “pull” the enterprise from A to B. The “pull”
comes from “growing” and empowering the organization to do the heavy
lifting with the ongoing support and guidance from leadership.
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Senior and local leaders empowering employees during “push” and “grow” approaches
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During
the initial push phase, my leadership team and I engaged employees and
listened to their input during the identification and development of the
compelling vision/ burning platform and vision/strategy. We also
created a guiding coalition that enlisted early adopters. These
approaches helped seed the organization for greater buy-in and
engagement. Giving the early adopters leadership and active roles in
progressing the change efforts initiated the empowerment roll-out.
Next, we will establish supporting processes, specific objectives and
timelines, data sets, training, best practice sharing, rewards and
recognition, and two-way communication structures to lay the groundwork
and support the further empowerment of staff (3; 4; JWI555, 5; Welch,
6).
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During
the growing phase, my leadership team and I will be carefully assigning
accountabilities and responsibilities (5), so staff can further roll
out, develop, design, and implement the changes. We will set context
and boundaries for staff to work within, ensuring alignment with the big
picture, ongoing business needs, and the multiple change projects.
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Formal structure as a driver of change
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The
key is setting the appropriate balance of structure and latitude for
staff to successfully take ownership and drive the change effort . As
Willick and Babin (1) discuss, one of the dichotomies of leadership is
that with appropriate structure comes the freedom to operate during the
heat of battle. Lee, Willis, and Tian (7) discuss that empowering
employees by delegating authority and decision making, sharing
information, and asking for input motivates certain types of people and
performance, but not all. Again, balance is required.
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Role of learning
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We
are asking people in our organization to go somewhere they have not
been and do things they have not done before. We must train staff on
both the “what” and “how” of their new role and the path to get from A
to B. Of course, training by “telling” is only the start, so senior
management and the change leadership team (4) need to continue to
provide coaching and mentorship and constant reinforcement of context,
practical application, WIIFM, and urgency. Ultimately, staff need to be
confident and motivated to self-learn, ask questions, offer ideas, and
share their learnings with others (Welch, 8).
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Role of personal vision, skill mastery, and intrinsic motivation when empowering employees
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Effective
leadership starts with the leader setting the example and walking the
talk. Lee, Willis, and Tian (6) highlight that employees’ perception of
their leader’s behavior determines the effectiveness of the empowerment
efforts. Trust is a critical element, and leaders must take care in
how they roll out empowerment as some people will relish the opportunity
while others will overstress.
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Leaders
need to be able to read their organization and individual employees.
Management must find the right balance of approach and timing for each
individual. People do what they want to do unless forced otherwise, and
then they only comply until they do not have to. Enabling employees
to internalize the company’s change vision with their personal vision,
master skills they perceive as desirable and beneficial to their future,
and feel great about actively helping lead a change that benefits a
higher calling and themselves personally is a winning move.
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I look forward to reading your comments.
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Cheers,
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Mark
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References
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1. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. September 1, 2018. The Dichotomy Of Leadership
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2. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. November 21, 2017. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
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3. John Kotter. 2015. Leading Change
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4. Michael Bucy, Stephen Hall, and Doug Yakola. November 7, 2016. Transformation with a capital T. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/rts/our-insights/transformation-with-a-capital-t
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5. JWI555. Week 6. Lecture Notes: Empowering Your Employees
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6. Jack Welch. JWI555 Week 6. Video: Many Ways to Give Employees Voice
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7.
Allan Lee, Sara Willis, and Amy Wei Tian. March 2, 2018. When
Empowering Employees Works, and When It Doesn’t. Harvard Business Review
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8. Jack Welch. JWI555 Week 6. Video: Give Employees a Voice
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