Leadership Toolkit

Executive Summary As one of the five LARGE keys at the 2003 RAISE conference, Leadership has been highlighted as a key issue for the voluntary/community sector. This toolkit defines Leadership as ‘the ability to motivate and guide the people connected to a voluntary/community organisation to meet its goals’. In Section One the toolkit defines what Leadership means in the voluntary/community sector and why it matters. It compares the job of leading a VCO to the role of the leader of an expedition, who must think about the terrain, the weather, the skills of the team, and the best route to the destination. Section One also looks at the functions of a Leader and at the benefits of good leadership. It looks at the different people who can and do play Leadership roles in VCOs, and the skills and qualities that they need. Section Two looks at how Leadership helps a VCO to reach its destination, focusing particularly on how to use the vision, mission and strategy of the organisation to encourage people to achieve its goals. Section Three highlights how Leaders can inspire and motivate people by rallying them round shared beliefs and values and creating a positive culture. In Section Four, the Toolkit looks at the leadership of the change process, whether planned or driven by crisis and gives some techniques to use to guide people to the right destination. In Section Five, the Toolkit briefly reviews how the Leadership role is split between the Board and the Chief Executive and looks at the links between leadership, representation and accountability. Section Six suggests some ways in which Leaders can carve out the time to do ‘the big stuff’, particularly being creative about future directions. In Section Seven, some tools and techniques to enhance the all-important communication skills of Leaders are explored. And finally, in Section Eight, the Toolkit looks at learning and how the individual can profit from their experiences, both the things which are successes, and those that didn’t go so well. It highlights the conditions in which learning for everyone can be encouraged.

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About RAISE RAISE enables voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in the South East Region of England to influence regional policy, wherever it is made or implemented, for the benefit of the people they serve. If yours is a VCO in the Region, it can join RAISE for free. It can then: •

join in the election for members of the RAISE Board;

•

join in the election for VCO representatives at the South East Regional Assembly.

It can also nominate people to a host of other strategic regional bodies. In this way you and your VCO get a grass roots perspective into regional policy. RAISE also organises events, seminars, workshops and conferences. We publish a variety of papers, guides and other publications that our members say they need. We work to find funding for all we do so everything is delivered free to VCOs – including travel and childcare for very small community groups. RAISE strives to ensure that, in the Region, the voice of VCOs is heard and respected. We demand that the sector is always treated with equity. But RAISE can only be as good as the sector in the South East, and vice versa. So, if you are from a VCO in the South East, get involved. We need you. You can contact RAISE in a number of ways, and we will always be glad to hear from you.

POST us a letter to: Berkeley House Cross Lanes GUILDFORD Surrey GU1 1UN You can TELEPHONE us 01483 500770 FAX us something on 01483 574439 Send us E-MAIL to [email protected] or visit the website at www.raise-networks.org.uk

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About the LARGE Toolkits At their 2003 Conference, RAISE presented five keys for the voluntary/community sector. Collectively termed LARGE, the five keys are: • • • • •

Leadership. Accountability. Representation. Governance. Equalities.

Prior to the conference, a think tank was convened for each key. This group met to agree on a working definition for the term and discuss the key issues it presents from a sector point of view. At the conference, workshops were held – two for each key – giving the wider RAISE membership a chance to put forward their views, informed by the findings of the think tank and helped by an external facilitator/expert. In addition, RAISE commissioned five new toolkits, each one building on one of the five conference keys. In common with the existing RAISE toolkits, the LARGE toolkits will act as a resource for those involved in the voluntary/community sector - providing advice, information and ideas in a clear, accessible format and signposting the reader to other sources which may be of interest. The toolkits aim to help groups to take a critical look at their organisation, identify areas for improvement and implement change. The new toolkits each form part of the LARGE series and therefore consistent definitions have been used for each key across the five documents. Each one is a self-contained document although there is necessarily some overlap between the keys and so the interested reader may find it is beneficial to obtain the full set.

Existing RAISE Toolkits • •

The Step by Step Guide to Successful Partnership Working A Compact Toolkit

Hard copies of both have been distributed to RAISE members and can be downloaded from the RAISE website: www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Index

Page

Executive Summary About RAISE About the LARGE Toolkits Finding your way around this Toolkit Toolkit Map

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1 2 3 6 9

Section One: Understanding Leadership What is Leadership? What does a Leader do? Why do we need Leadership in our sector? Who provides Leadership in the VCS? What are the characteristics of Leaders? What can be said about Leadership qualities? What leadership does your VCO need? What do followers want from Leaders? ‘Principle-centred Leadership’ Section One summary

11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Section Two: Leading People to a Destination Achieving clarity on the vision and mission of your VCO Creating or reinforcing your VCO vision Summing up your VCO’s mission Checking out if your mission is up to date Establishing a clear strategy for your VCO What is a strategy? How do you lead on strategy? What are you like? Section Two summary

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Section Three: Leading People Leading on values and beliefs Do you really act on your values and beliefs? Creating a healthy working environment Building an ‘emotionally intelligent’ organisation Symptoms that your values and beliefs could be lost Creating a supportive culture Section Three summary

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Section Four: Leading Change The challenge of leading and managing change Dealing with planned change Mapping the environment and forecasting trends Scenario planning and the Help/Hinder model

41 42 43 43 44

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Changing direction mid-stream The GROW method and Handy’s four levers of change Some warnings about the pitfalls of change Risk assessment and analysis Crisis management Leadership styles in times of crisis ‘Emotional intelligence’ in times of crisis Section Four summary

45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

Section Five: Leadership Roles in VCOs The link between Leadership and good governance Where should your Leadership line be drawn? The link between Leadership and accountability

53 54 55 56

Section Six: Making Time to Lead Time management and ‘the Clock’ and ‘the Compass’ Making the time to deal with important things What are the important leadership tasks for you? ‘Luxury!’ – How do we find the time? Terms and conditions for ‘player-managers’ Balancing responsibilities Herrmann’s theory of creativity De Bono’s method of being creative Section Six summary

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Section Seven: Communication Skills for Leaders Why strong communication skills are so important Why are you setting out to communicate? Being a good communicator Understanding your audiences Preparing to communicate with your audiences Being representative and accountable Section Seven summary

67 68 69 70 71 74 75 76

Section Eight: Learning from Experience Leaders as learners How does learning take place How do you learn? Are you in the mood for learning? The five steps in coaching How to stop people learning Workplace stress and how to overcome it The importance of feedback The importance of caring for ‘followers’ Section Eight summary

77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

Glossary and Jargon Buster

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Finding your way around this Toolkit This toolkit is designed to help voluntary/community organisations (VCOs) to: •

Understand the concept of Leadership and why it is important.

•

Explore the roles and responsibilities usually associated with Leaders.

•

Hear what some of the key writers have had to say on the subject, and view some tools and techniques designed to handle the major issues.

•

Undertake some exercises to enhance their understanding and that of their VCO about how to motivate and guide people to reach their goals.

The toolkit is divided into eight main sections: Section One:

Understanding Leadership

Page 11

Section Two:

Leading People to a Destination

Page 23

Section Three:

Leading People

Page 33

Section Four:

Leading Change

Page 41

Section Five:

Leadership Roles

Page 53

Section Six:

Making Time to Lead

Page 57

Section Seven:

Communication Skills for Leaders

Page 67

Section Eight:

Learning from Experience

Page 77

Each section (apart from the brief section 5) ends with a summary page which provides a quick overview of the main points. The sections do not have to be read consecutively – the document has been broadly designed to allow the reader to dip in and out when they need to find out more about a particular topic. The toolkit map should be used to guide the reader to the areas of most interest and relevance. Throughout the document, readers will be signposted to other resources and further sources of information. There are also tools such as checklists and activities which we hope will encourage critical analysis and inspire change.

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The different elements of the Toolkit are designed to be as self-standing as possible, and appear generally within rounded borders. More explanatory material tends to occur without borders.

Case Studies. Throughout the text, illustrative case studies are indicated by this symbol and are enclosed in boxes like this.

Further Reading. This symbol highlights where you might find further material on a given topic.

Key Concept. Where a particular concept is really important to our understanding, it is given this symbol, and put in a box like this.

Activity. These are designed to be done either alone or with colleagues and aim to stimulate thought and action. They might not be quite as energetic as the symbol implies....

Bright Idea. Quotations from key thinkers and good ideas you might like to copy are shown like this.

Occasionally, stray thoughts or comments by the author that may or may not lead anywhere in particular are put in speech bubbles.

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Toolkit Map

Understanding Leadership

What is Leadership? p12

What does a Leader do? p13

Why do we need Leadership? p14

What is a Leader like? p20

Who can provide it? p16

What are the characteristics of good Leaders? p17 How do you learn to be a Leader? p80

Leadership and accountability: p56

Undertaking Key Leadership Tasks

Mapping the environment and forecasting trends: p43

Scenario planning: p44 Being creative and innovative: p64-65

Creating a Vision for your VCO: p25

Summing up your mission: p26

Risk assessment and analysis: p48

Preparing a strategy: p29-30

The duties of the Board and the Chief Executive: p54-55

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Leader Relationships with Key Others

Building an emotionally intelligent organisation: p37

Understanding your audiences: p71-74

Creating a supportive culture: p39

Being representative and accountable: p75

Reinforcing positive values and beliefs: p35

Symptoms that values and beliefs could be lost: p38

Workplace stress and how to overcome it: p84

Leading on Review, Change and Problem-Solving

Checking if your mission is up to date: p27

Following the Clock or the Compass? p58

Risk assessment and analysis: p48 Changing direction / problem solving: p45-46

How to stop people learning: p83

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Crisis management: p49-51

Making time to do the important things: p59

Creating a healthy working environment: p36

Emotional intelligence in a crisis: p51

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SECTION ONE Understanding Leadership This Section looks at what Leadership means in the Voluntary and Community Sector, why it matters and what kinds of knowledge, skills, behaviours and personal attributes it is thought to require.

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Section One

Why do we need Leadership? 2 pages on

Who provides Leadership? 3 pages on

What is Leadership? In this toolkit we define leadership as: ‘The ability to motivate and guide the people connected to a voluntary/community organisation to meet its goals.’ There are hundreds of books about leadership, and dictionaries provide numerous definitions, but one thing that unites all of them is the idea of movement - how do we get from where we are now to where we want to be. If we are to be purposeful, we need to know where we are going and how we might get there. In a well-run VCO, everyone will be clear about the destination: there will be agreed goals and a broad consensus about the problems we are there to solve. Not everyone, however, will be clear about how to meet those goals, or solve those problems, and we therefore need leadership and management to show the way, and to provide advice, encouragement and guidance. Meanwhile, other VCOs have lost their way. Their reasons for existence have been forgotten or overtaken by events. Without a clear purpose, the people connected to the organisation lose their sense of direction and have to decide for themselves what they should be doing, and how they should be doing it. If the senior people are fighting among themselves, contradictory messages are sent out, and loyalties are divided. Without leadership, without guidance, the organisation will eventually founder. So ‘good’ leadership has to be about:

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Knowing the goals and the mission of the organisation

•

Being able to work out how to achieve those goals

•

Having the ability to take everyone with you

•

Having the skills to deal with the obstacles that emerge

•

Being able to communicate and explain what is happening

•

Being able to revitalise and renew initiatives, when needed.

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What does a Leader do?

Imagine. . . .

The best way to understand ‘Leadership’ is to think about what a leader does. One helpful comparison is to think about what would be involved in guiding or leading an expedition. If it were your responsibility to take a group of people on an expedition, you would need to think about: The destination

=

the vision and mission of your VCO

The lie of the land

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the external operating environment

The weather conditions

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prevailing economic factors

The proposed route

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the strategic plan of your VCO

The people in the group

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their skills, morale, welfare etc

The logistics of the trip

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time, pace, equipment and approach

Day-to-day management

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the daily review of progress

Internal communication

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the daily briefings and debriefings

Your own ability to cope

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your skills, style and personal state

Crisis management

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plans on what to do if things go wrong

External communication

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keeping in touch with the outside world

Rounding off the trip

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reviewing your experience and learning

There’s rarely the luxury in the VCS of doing just one thing at a time, so the comparison with an expedition is obviously a simplified one. VCS leaders are usually dreaming up one project, planning another, crisis managing a third and finishing a fourth all at once……

Why not dream up your own analogy? It can be a creative exercise. US writer Warren Bennis said leadership was like ‘herding cats’, which prompts some great mental images!

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Why do we need Leadership in the VCS? (1) A very good question, and one we sometimes find difficult to answer because so many of us instinctively prefer the principles of joint endeavour, shared decision-making, equality and empowerment. We can be suspicious of the whole concept of leadership because we think it might go against these principles. But on legal and practical grounds, we do need ‘Leadership’. In ‘Understanding Voluntary Organisations’, Charles Handy says that people in VCOs often prefer the idea of ‘direct democracy’, in which all the participants in an organisation have equal responsibility for all the tasks that need doing – including leadership. However, Handy thinks this model is suitable for only the smallest groups. As VCOs get bigger, says Handy, they need to opt either for a representative democracy’ or for a ‘stakeholder democracy’ because on a practical level, not everyone can be involved in everything. In a ‘representative democracy’, the participants agree that a crosssection of members can form a committee to act on behalf of everyone (like the House of Commons). A ‘stakeholder democracy’ also involves a larger range of interest groups from the wider community who might need to have a say (like the House of Lords). The Board of Trustees/Management Committee thus created then has legal responsibility for the VCO, in which case we have to accept their leadership: we can’t ask them to accept the responsibility without also giving them the power to make the appropriate decisions. As the VCO develops, the volunteers who did run everything also tend to appoint paid staff, including eventually, a chief executive and senior managers. Again, there is little point in paying their salaries if they are not allowed to exercise any responsibility.

Further Reading ‘Understanding Voluntary Organisations’, by Charles Handy, published by Penguin Books Pages 79 & 133. ISBN: 0-14-014338-6

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Why do we need Leadership in the VCS? (2) We need ‘Leadership’, even if we might disagree with the idea of having ‘a Leader’ in the very traditional form of a figurehead. One of the defining characteristics of the voluntary/community sector is that we have a passion, a conviction, a sense of purpose because we believe in our cause, and we care deeply about the well-being of our users. We work in the sector because we want to. Let’s be honest, though! Sometimes, we get bogged down. There is too much to do. There aren’t enough resources. The demands seem to be contradictory, and they can be relentless. People get burned out. A lot of the time, it seems as if no-one is listening to our views. This is when we really need leadership. We might need: • • • • • • • • •

To be reminded about why we exist and what’s important To be inspired and re-energised by real life success stories To be enthused and purposeful in our work To feel a sense of relief that a plan of action is going to work To be thanked and appreciated for our efforts To be reassured, or protected in times of vulnerability To get help when we don’t know what to do To witness someone being brave and principled To have our achievements celebrated

And the photocopier keeps breaking down........

Good leadership can bring us these positive rewards. Conversely, many people have experience of working in organisations where these things do not happen – and they can testify to how miserable life can be without a leadership that provides this kind of support.

The impact of all stick and no carrot A 40-year old charity had got into desperate financial straits and the trustees decided the solution was a hard-nosed senior manager from the private sector who would drive up income and cut the costs. The strategy was a success for the first couple of years, as all the staff cooperated with the efficiency drive. Unfortunately, the trustees and the director forgot that they needed to thank and praise the staff for their efforts and they thereby created a bitter, disaffected workforce.

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Case Study

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Section One

Why do we need Leadership? Last 2 pages

Leadership Qualities: 2 pages on

Who provides Leadership in the VCS? A lot of literature was generated in the twentieth century on the subject of leadership, and the British and American books of the last 20 years have focused very much on the personalities of key leaders, particularly from the private sector. We will see in the next few pages that we can learn some valuable things from the literature, but one idea we should immediately dismiss is the idea that we need a few big, charismatic personalities to take on chief executive roles and provide us with leadership. In fact, leadership can come from all quarters, and different contexts need different kinds of leadership. For example: The community activist who gets together with like-minded others to start a campaign or respond to a local need The volunteers who start up a new project and through hard work and persistence, get the initial funds to set up a new community-based initiative The first member of staff who writes the first business plan and begins the fundraising campaign that eventually lead to the establishment of a substantial new voluntary organisation The chief executive and/or the senior managers who keep a larger, more established organisation going successfully The chair and board members who provide the governance function for a VCO, whether at start-up or through to maturity The individual who finds him/herself in a situation in which someone needs to do something, and who steps forward to take the initiative. An example of a community activist leader Case Study

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Mrs A set up an extremely successful care agency from nothing. As an Asian Muslim woman, she was concerned that the care services provided by the state were not sympathetic to Islamic tenets about health, illness, death and the family. She now employs nearly 100 specially trained home visitors who provide culturallysensitive care through a contract with social services.

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What are the characteristics of ‘Leaders’? This Toolkit has so far deliberately steered away from the question of what leaders are like in terms of personality. This is because much of the leadership literature seems – perversely – unhelpful and disempowering. The distinct impression is that only a tiny percentage of people can aspire to being a leader, given the huge lists of special skills and larger-than-life personal qualities required. Professor John Storey of the Open University Business School has tried to debunk this literature by talking about how ‘inflation’ has happened to the leadership claims. His theory is that researchers ask existing leaders about their distinctive personal qualities, and the leaders wax lyrical about their own abilities. The researchers are only too happy to ‘discover’ that the leaders have extraordinary attributes, and as a result the accounts of personal heroism become more and more embellished over time. Professor Storey suggests that people in authority also find it more palatable to believe that they are special than to believe they were promoted by chance. At the LARGE conference in 2003, RAISE members came up with a list of key leadership values rather than characteristics. There was a clear consensus on the most important values. In ranked order they were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Vision Honesty Respect Creativity Flexibility Productivity Learning/Personal Growth Achievement/Success

These seem to offer much more fruitful lines of enquiry, and later sections of the Toolkit explore these values and behaviours in greater depth. ‘Leadership in Organisations: Current issues and Key Trends’ Further Reading

edited by John Storey, published by Routledge, London 2004 see pages 19 - 22. ISBN: 0-415-31033-4 See also ‘Governance – A RAISE Toolkit’, which talks about the specific leadership tasks that the Board of a VCO should be addressing.

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What can be said about Leadership qualities? For his book (see previous page) Professor Storey surveyed the mainstream leadership literature and dismissed the hyperbole about charismatic personalities and ‘superman’ type skills. However he concludes that there do appear to be three generally-accepted behavioural requirements and capabilities for leaders. These are what he calls: • • •

‘Big-picture sense-making’ ‘Ability to deliver change’ ‘Inter-organisational representation’

Helpfully, two out of three of these tie in neatly with the leadership skills of visioning, creativity and innovation prioritised by RAISE members at the 2003 conference! Notice, however, that both Professor Storey and RAISE members are talking in terms of behaviour and capabilities rather than about personality traits and personal attributes. Discussions of leadership ‘behaviours’ and ‘capabilities’, or even of ‘leadership tasks’, are far more empowering and egalitarian than discussions of leader-like personalities. Now we can talk about what leaders do, how they might need to act, what their behaviour might look like, and what skills they might need in various contexts.......In other words, we all have the potential to be leaders sometimes.

Some new thinking on leadership theory…… One theory says that we must firstly understand the context in which a leader needs to operate, and from that, identify the particular skills and behaviours needed in that context. Another theory says that leaders must first understand the competences they need to demonstrate (ie. the particular mix of knowledge, skills and behaviour that need to be displayed in order to perform a particular job). A third strand of thought begins with organisations, and asks if individuals can actually change them, and if so, how. Some new theories focus on what ‘followers’ want from leaders and with how power can be exercised in a legitimate way.

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What Leadership does your VCO need? If we can’t recruit new leaders just by advertising for people with a particular type of personality, then the job of defining what we need becomes more onerous. We have to start thinking more stringently about what we need our leaders to be able to do. Stage One is to be clear about the leadership role we have in mind. Is it the job of the chief executive? Are we looking for a new Board member? Do we need a team leader or a departmental head? Or someone who – for example – needs to coach or lead or teach a group of users, say young people?

Activity; defining a person specification for a Leader role

Stage Two is to clarify some key points about the context in which this work will be done and the department/organisation in question: • • •

What are our goals: what do we want to achieve? What is the operating environment like? What is the culture of the organisation like?

Stage Three is to ask ‘In the light of this information, what will this potential leader need to be able to do?’ Stage Four queries ‘In order to do this list of things, what will this potential leader require in terms of: • • • •

Knowledge? Skills? Beliefs and values? Behaviours?’

Perhaps we should also check: • • •

What do we mean round here when we talk about ‘good’ leadership? Is there a fit between what we say we need and what we secretly think we need? If there isn’t, how do we reconcile our differences?

We might also enquire of ourselves: • •

What do we already have in-house in terms of skills and competences? How can we develop some of the talents we already have within our organisation?

This information should give you a good basis for a job description and person specification for the job you have in mind.

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Section One

Activity: Defining a leader’s job spec: previous page

Section One Summary; 2 pages on

What do ‘followers’ want from Leaders? As was said above, one of the new theories says how important it is to ask what ‘followers’ want from their leaders. For all our democratic sensibilities in the voluntary/community sector, do we ever ask this question of people who work in our VCOs? There is some research, however, from the NHS, local and central government agencies about what UK public sector workers would like to see from their bosses. The researchers, Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe and John Alban-Metcalfe, say their opinion surveys generated an impossible but very interesting ‘wish-list’. The behaviours sought from UK public sector leaders were: • Demonstrating genuine concern for staff as individuals • Delegating effectively and empowering and trusting people • Being accessible and approachable • Encouraging people to think for themselves and try new things • Being honest, consistent and transparent in behaviour • Acting with integrity, but being open to other opinions • Ability to make decisions, even difficult ones • Being excellent - even inspirational - communicators • Being capable of solving and dealing with complex problems • Being able to gain commitment to visions and values from third parties • Ability to focus and lead team effort • Ability to pull others together to work on a shared vision • Being non-judgmental, encouraging learning from mistakes • Being sensitive about the impact of change on staff. They said this list showed that staff are most interested in what their bosses can do for them. But it also showed the importance of shared vision, collaboration, partnership working, shared responsibility and creative thinking – all things that resonate in the VCS.

Further reading

‘Leadership in Public Sector Organisations’ by Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe and John Alban-Metcalfe in ‘Leadership in Organisations’, edited by John Storey, published by Routledge, London, 2004, p177-178. ISBN: 0-415-31033-4

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‘Principle-centred Leadership’ Although Section Three deals with the issue of values and beliefs in detail, this introduction would not be complete without some reference to the question of the personal values and principles of leaders. One American approach that we in Britain might find a little over the top, given that we tend to have a more secular and down-beat approach to things, is put forward by Stephen R Covey. Covey is best-known for his promotion of theories about personal effectiveness, his most popular book being, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, but he also promotes the concept of ‘Principle-Centred Leadership’. According to Covey, the eight characteristics of principle-centred leaders are: They are continually learning They radiate positive energy They lead balanced lives They are ‘synergistic’

They are service-orientated They believe in other people They see life as an adventure They exercise self-renewal.

Covey’s ambition is said to be to help leaders to transform their organisations and staff by sharing the Principle-Centred Leadership message. This entails ‘communicating vision, clarifying purposes, making behaviour congruent with belief, and aligning procedures with principles, roles and goals.’ His upbeat messages are continued in his list of ‘Seven Habits’: • Be proactive • Begin with the end in mind • Put first things first • Think win-win • Seek first to understand, then to be understood • Synergise - don’t compartmentalise your life • Sharpen the saw - ie hone your skills and look after yourself

Further Reading ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, 1994, and ‘Principle-Centred Leadership’, 1992, by Stephen R Covey published by Simon & Schuster, London. ISBN: 0-671-71117-2 and 0-684-85841-X www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Section One – Summary Understanding Leadership

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•

Leadership is defined here as ‘the ability to motivate and guide the people connected to a VCO to meet its goals’. It is about moving the VCO from where it is at present to where it wants to be in the future.

•

An analogy would be the leadership of an expedition, where task, team, route, logistics, the environment and crisis management are all important activities for a team leader.

•

Power and responsibility go hand in hand. Leadership can be provided by all kinds of people in a whole variety of settings, including by individuals who step forward in an emergency.

•

Leadership is not about personality or extraordinary personal attributes. The most helpful leadership literature talks about the skills and behaviour of leaders – an approach that is much more empowering and inclusive.

•

Attributes which are universally mentioned by writers of all kinds are: ‘big-picture sense-making’, the ‘ability to deliver change’ and ‘interorganisational representation’.

•

Newer theories say we must understand the context or the organisation in order to talk about leadership requirements, or that we must understand the competences required of the individual or the expectations on him/her of ‘followers’.

•

As a result, we cannot look for a blue-print leader; instead we must ask what the leader needs to be able to do and what he/she will require in terms of knowledge, skills, beliefs and values, and behaviours for a particular context.

•

Research into what public sector staff want from their seniors backs up the idea that people are primarily looking for support and considerateness from their leaders.

•

An American theory about personal leadership highlights the importance of values, principles and beliefs – which links neatly with Sections Two and Three, which deal with visions and values.

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SECTION TWO Leading People to a Destination In this Section, we look at how Leadership helps voluntary/ community organisations to achieve their goals by focusing on vision, mission and strategy

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Achieving clarity on the vision and mission of the VCO

Imagine. . .

In Section One, we likened Leadership of a VCO to being the leader of an expedition, and we said that part of the job of the expedition leader was to be clear about the destination and the journey. In this analogy, the expedition leader would probably be the expert, the person who had been to the top of the mountain before, and who was the most skilled at climbing mountains. The job would entail showing the expedition members how to get to the top of the mountain, and guiding their activities and behaviour so the whole party got there safely, efficiently and in a timely way. It would also include encouraging the team members to keep going and maintaining their morale. In the everyday context, the job of the VCO leader includes reminding people why the organisation exists and what it is there to achieve, as well as guiding people about how to set about realising these goals. A good leader will also think about how to enthuse people and maintain group morale. In formal terms, these would be referred to as the organisation’s ‘vision’

‘mission’ ‘strategy’

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The symptoms of a loss of focus Case Study

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A group set up a charity to campaign against the destruction of historic buildings at a time when modern architecture was being heavily promoted. For 20 years the charity was really successful and drew in lots of funding, but the trustees did not notice when public tastes changed again. A member of staff who was more on the ball set up a new department which would focus on new government priorities. As this department drew in more funds, the heritage experts got more and more angry that the charity’s traditional focus was being lost. Who was right; who was wrong? Who could say? The organisation needed leaders with the skill to unite the charity again under a new, agreed vision and mission.

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Creating or reinforcing a ‘vision’ for the VCO The ‘vision’ describes the ideal or aspirational goal for which your VCO is working. An international aid agency might aspire to ‘an end to world poverty’. An environmental charity might be working for ‘GM-free foods’ or ‘a shift to renewable energy sources’. A medical charity might seek to ‘provide a cancer nurse for everyone who needs one’, or give ‘access to confidential advice, day or night, at the end of the phone’. All of these phrases say quickly and simply what is the ultimate aim of the organisation. They use language that everyone can understand. They sound purposeful and ambitious. If you want to inspire the people who are connected to the VCO and encourage them to give their best, why not try to create a vision statement to sum up in a pithy way what you are there to achieve? This can be very useful both internally and externally. At internal meetings and events, you can use it to remind people of the direction in which all their energies need to be channelled. It can be useful at external events, when people say, ‘So, what do you do? ’and you know you have only a few moments to capture their interest. It can be vitally important at difficult times, when everyone is demoralised or there is a lot of controversy. To be able to say, ‘Let’s not forget that we are here to ….’ can be enough to rally everyone to the cause again.

Creating a Vision The process has to involve your users, your staff and your volunteers, as well as the Board and the senior management because everyone has to feel personally committed to the vision.

Activity

Allow a couple of hours at an Awayday or in a workshop setting and encourage people to imagine and describe the ideal for which you are all striving. Make sure the verbs are the right ones. Hone the wording until it’s crystal-clear. Use positives rather than negatives, if you can. Get everyone to agree on the neatest, pithiest encapsulation of your aims. www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Section Two

Creating a Vision Previous page

Establishing Strategy: Next page but one.

Summing up the ‘mission’ of the VCO Whereas the vision statement tries to sum up the ultimate aim of the organisation, the ‘mission statement’ is more of a practical explanation of what the VCO actually does, and how. One theory says that a mission statement summarises five key things: •

The target groups or users you want to serve

•

The needs you want to meet

•

The services or products you want to offer

•

The skills and capabilities you can deploy

•

The resources - equipment, time, money - you can bring.

The idea is to give headline information in half-a-page to a page of text about these five topics. Again, this is a useful communication tool for both internal and external use. The mission statement should be broad enough accurately to sum up your VCO over the medium-term - say, five years or more. It might need to be reviewed at intervals: the circumstances of your users could change, or qualification standards in your field might go up, for example. In the meantime, however, it should give the Board, the chief executive and senior managers – as well as other people with a stake in the VCO – a clear idea of whether particular activities or clients fit into your remit and are appropriate to take on, or not.

Key Concept

Mission drift Organisations of all kinds can suffer from this phenomenon over the medium to long term, for two key reasons. Sometimes no-one stops to ask why new activities have been taken on, and they wander further and further away from the stated aims. Or all too frequently, organisations adapt their work to fit with the available funds without making an explicit decision that this is the right thing to do.

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Check out if your mission is up to date Why not check if your VCO is still clear about its mission? If there are lots of arguments about priorities, or resentments about particular bits of work, perhaps confusion has crept in about what your VCO is there to achieve. You could go about this in two ways. Firstly, you could ask individual board members, senior managers and others how they would sum up the objectives of the VCO. You could then compare this information with the feedback from members or users, and with what your last official documents said about you. Are all these interpretations compatible with each other?

Activity

Alternatively, if you suspect that everyone really is working at crosspurposes, you could schedule an Awayday to go through the five components of a mission statement listed on the left and come up with new definitions. You may find that new people had no clear conception of what the mission is, or you may find that key groups have moved apart over time. The discussion may well generate arguments as some people want to move on, and others want to return to the original objectives and activities. You may need an independent facilitator to guide you to a consensus. You will also need some facts and figures on the table so you can have a sensible discussion about the current operating environment and what is a realistic and feasible agenda for your VCO to set itself.

In ‘Managing without Profit’, Mike Hudson reminds us that fundamental choices about mission, or objectives, have to be made, and that these are often the cause of the biggest disagreements within the VCO. For example, Key Questions

• • • •

Do we campaign for change, or provide services for those affected by the issue concerned? Do we try to tackle the underlying causes of a problem or do we set out to treat the symptoms? Do we provide a little help for a lot of people, or set out to help a few in a more substantial way? Do we shift our objectives to win new resources?

‘Managing without Profit’, by Mike Hudson, published by Penguin, London, 1995, p140. ISBN: 0-14-023886-7

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Establishing a clear strategy for your VCO The ability to think strategically is a real gift, and a VCO that does not have at least one person who can work out how to get from A to Z is an organisation that is doomed to muddle along. It sounds simple enough – working out how to get from A to Z – but whole books are devoted to strategic development and few people find it straightforward to prepare a strategy, or strategic plan, despite the fact that it lies at the heart of a sound business plan. Imagine. . .

Route planning for the leaders of expeditions It may be helpful to use our analogy of the expedition leader to cast a light on the complex task of developing a strategy. In Section One, we suggested that amongst other things, the leader of an expedition was responsible for ‘the proposed route’, and we likened this to the strategic plan. We also said, however, that the expedition leader would be responsible for thinking about ‘the lie of the land’, ‘the weather conditions’ and the ‘logistics’ of the trip – all fundamental factors that would have to be taken into account when planning the route. The expedition leader would need to consider whether the terrain was easy or difficult, and whether the weather conditions were likely to be favourable or adverse. Both factors would influence the overall plan: is the expedition likely to be a gentle stroll through a friendly landscape, or a dangerous scramble through a hard and rocky place? Are there any unknowns to take into account? Turning to the question of logistics, what kit and equipment would need to be taken along, and what kinds of skills would the team need to be trained in before departure? What should be in the first aid kit, and what kind of back-up support might be needed? Given the likely conditions, what should be the timetable for the expedition? As can be seen, strategic planning is not just a case of deciding on a destination and setting out towards it. External factors and the capabilities of the expedition members are among the major influences on the plan. Alertness to such factors is vital.

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What is a strategy? •

It is a plan of action that is designed to help you achieve your vision and your mission over a specified period of time

•

It explains how you will cross the gap from where you are now to where you want to be at a stated point in the future

•

It expresses what you want to achieve in clear and specific terms under about half a dozen headings, often called ‘strategic objectives’. These sum up the key targets for the main strands of your work

•

It shows how all the programmes, projects and activities you run fit into a logical and coherent package

•

It shows you are responding to the external conditions in which you operate, addressing the economic, political, social, environmental and legislative factors that will help or hinder your work

•

It shows a thorough understanding of your users/clients and your own strengths and weaknesses, and an accurate analysis of the resources and skills you can deploy, or develop

•

It should be stimulating and challenging but also realistic, with some discussion of the risks and how you would address them

•

It can be a high-level 5 to 10 year plan or a more detailed 1 to 3 year business plan, depending on what is more useful at this stage in your development.

Further Reading

Two excellent guides to strategic development: ‘The Complete Guide to Business and Strategic Planning’, by Alan Lawrie, published by Directory of Social Change, London, 2nd edition 2001. ISBN: 1 900360 87 X ‘Managing without Profit’ by Mike Hudson, published by Penguin, London, 1995. ISBN: 0-14-023886-7 Also see Mike Hudson’s website at: www.compasspartnership.co.uk

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Section Two

What is a Strategy? Previous page

Section Summary Next page but one

Creating ownership of the strategy

Activity

Look at the description of a strategy on page 29. There is one huge thing missing from it. Nothing has been said about ownership. Think about how you would set about preparing a strategy to which everyone in your VCO was committed. Who would you involve in its development – and how would you make sure they had a chance to influence its contents?

How do you Lead on strategy? In any walk of life, what we really want from our leaders is the clear impression that they know where they are leading us and what they are doing. That does not mean that we would follow them without question over the edge of a cliff: in these less deferential times, we subject our leaders to a running commentary on their performance, and we protest vigorously if we disagree with them. Nonetheless, we do expect them to be better than us at deciding what to do and then pushing on to achieve it. And we expect them to be better than us at coping with set-backs and crises. In a voluntary/community organisation, there is always a delicate balancing act between making a decision and taking into account the opinions of everyone who is affected by that decision. We will come back to that in a later Section. However, there are several contexts in which we might want leaders to take a lead on strategy: •

In the early days, before there is a clear idea of what to do and how to do it

•

At times of crisis, or when things are going wrong or getting confused

•

When there’s an opportunity which could benefit the VCO

•

At the appropriate intervals when we have decided we will review progress, think about the future and make new plans.

Different kinds of leadership skills are needed in these different contexts, and different personal styles might be required.

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What are you like? What do you enjoy? Do you love sitting down with a blank piece of paper, generating masses of new ideas, getting excited about how you’d set about making new projects fly? Do you like the thrill of selling new concepts to people? Or do you prefer taking an idea and making it work? Does your skill lie in turning broad-brush plans into workable programmes of action? Can you just look at a budget and see where its strong and weak points are? Do you enjoy working with a team of people on a day-to-day basis?

Key Concept

Organisations need both kinds of people, but if you are more of an ‘ideas person’, you may be more suited to a startup situation when the vision, mission and strategy are being developed for the first time. If you are more the second type, it may be more satisfying for you to lead an established VCO which needs a strong, steady hand on the tiller.

Different horses for different courses

Case Study

A small group of imaginative activists set up a new agency to provide information and training to the VCS. They wrote books and reports, delivered training courses, spoke at conferences and lobbied the government on issues of concern. The agency developed a high reputation for the quality of its work. Over time, all but one of the original group left. The remaining founder stepped down from being director, but still went into the office every day, still wrote reports and lobbied government, and still told the staff what to do. The new director had to cope with having a back-seat driver on the premises, telling him what to do and how to do it. The trustees felt it would be ungrateful to tell the founder to go away. The founders did a good job of having the idea, setting up the agency and making it work – but perhaps they should then have moved on to another new project. They were opinion formers and innovators, but not the most ideal leaders for an agency that now needed continuity and stability. Different leadership skills are needed at different stages of development.

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Section Two – Summary Leading on the VCO’s vision, mission and strategy • The job of the VCO leader includes reminding people why the organisation exists and what it is there to achieve, as well as guiding people about how to set about realising these goals. • The process of creating or updating the vision for your VCO has to involve users, staff and volunteers, as well as the Board and the senior management because everyone has to feel personally committed to it. • A ‘mission statement’ is a practical explanation of what the VCO actually does, and how. In essence, it summarises five key things: the target groups or users; the needs you want to meet; the services or products you want to offer; the skills and capabilities you can deploy; and the resources you can apply. • If there are lots of arguments about priorities, or resentments about particular bits of work, perhaps confusion has crept in about what your VCO is there to achieve. • A strategy is based on an understanding of where you are now and what you want to achieve, and explains how you will cross that gap. • Strategic planning is not just a case of deciding on a destination and setting out towards it. Alertness to external factors, like the funding situation, and to internal factors, such as the capabilities of the team, is a vital activity for leaders. • In a VCO, there is always a delicate balancing act between making a decision and taking into account the opinions of everyone who is affected by that decision. • Different kinds of leadership aptitudes and skills may be needed at different points in the life-cycle of the VCO.

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SECTION THREE Leading People In this Section, we look at the role of Leaders in establishing and maintaining the values and beliefs of voluntary/community organisations and in creating strong and positive organisational culture.

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Imagine. . .

Leading people In Section One, it was suggested that one part of the expedition leader’s role was to think about all the people involved in the expedition, and their morale, welfare and skills. We also tried to show how unhappy a workplace can get if leaders do not praise and thank people, give them reassurance in troubled times, provide advice and guidance when they are unsure, or inspire and enthuse them about the meaning of their work. In Section Three, we explore this theme in greater depth by looking at how leaders can create a positive environment within a voluntary/community organisation. We look at three key areas: •

Creating and reinforcing positive values and beliefs

•

The role of the ‘Emotionally Intelligent’ leader

•

Whether the culture of the organisation is supportive.

Leading on values and beliefs In all sectors, the creation and reinforcement of positive values and belief systems are seen as vital parts of the job of the leader. In the voluntary/ community sector, values and beliefs are seen as particularly important. The world, however, seems to get more and more cynical about the integrity and honesty of people in authority and the institutions in our society – even those in the charitable sphere. How do we make sure that our values and beliefs really count? How do we persuade people, internally and externally, that we are the ‘good guys’? In one respect, it is easier for the voluntary/community sector to get respect for its honourable values and beliefs. As VCOs have charitable aims and are non-profit making, we can defend ourselves against some accusations of self-interest. The majority of VCOs have causes that meet with general approval: people will often say, ‘I wish I worked for a worthwhile organisation like that!’ In other respects, it can be more difficult to be true to values and beliefs: when funds are tight, or when there is under-staffing, everyone is overworked or worried and our caring, sharing halo can slip a little.

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Section Three

Creating a healthy working environment: Next page

An emotionally intelligent VCO: Next page but one

Do you really act on your values and beliefs? Fons Trompenaars – a Dutch management theorist – has been much concerned about ethics and organisational culture, and he suggests: Ask the people in your organisation, ‘What are our values and beliefs here?’

Activity

Get people to spell out the values and beliefs they believe apply to the organisation, and encourage them to discuss them freely and in depth. Get the group to agree the list of values and beliefs. Now pose some challenging questions: ‘So what? Where does that get us?’ and note down the indignant replies. The questions will generate a list of do’s and don’ts and behaviours. For example, ‘It means we always follow clients up!’, ‘It means we never cut corners!’, and so on. Trompenaars suggests you discuss the second list because this is where the real substance lies. Any organisation can have a list of fine words, such as ‘Respect’, ‘Equality’, ‘Integrity’ and so on, but they don’t actually guide anyone’s behaviour because they don’t say what these concepts entail. Your discussion should throw up dilemmas and tensions, and differences between departments, which in turn can lead to fruitful debates about how the organisation can safeguard its standards and guide behaviour. Shortcomings and lapses can then be dealt with through action plans that help to reconcile the ideals with reality.

Further Reading

In ‘Did the Pedestrian Die’, by Fons Trompenaars published by Capstone Publishing, Oxford, 2003. pages 195 – 198 ISBN: 1-84112-436-2

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‘Methinks the Lady Doth Protest Too Much!’ Interesting Thought

The management consultant, Trompenaars, who was quoted overleaf, wrote of his annoyance at seeing big displays on corporate values in the lobbies of his clients’ premises. He wondered why he got so irritated. To test his theory, he hung a big notice on his porch at home, which said, ‘We do not kill people here’. All his visitors reacted with alarm when they saw the notice, and he asked them why. They said, ‘Why reassure us that you won’t kill us? Shouldn’t we take that for granted?’ Fons Trompenaars concluded that going on about values can be counter-productive because it can make people think that you need to remind yourself to live up to them. In other words, the trumpeted values aren’t really genuine.

Creating a healthy working environment One of the latest leadership theories concerns the ‘Emotional Intelligence’ of the workplace. Daniel Goleman, who coined the phrase, believes that it is the vital component in successful leadership, and that ‘to prime good feeling in those they lead’ is the fundamental task of leaders. One American review of organisational stress surveys concluded that for an average of 60–75% of employees, supervisors were the worst source of stress. Goleman talks about the disillusionment caused by ‘harmful attitudes, rules and policies’ in the workplace, and the problems that start when there is dissonance between the published values and beliefs and the reality. He suggests that some organisations can become positively toxic to the health of the people who work there. This is a very new angle in the literature, which has rarely considered problems like bullying, fear, anger or browbeating in organisations. Goleman says that ‘emotionally intelligent’ leaders can address unhealthy workplaces by questioning the ‘emotional reality and the cultural norms’ of the organisation, and paying attention to the undercurrents. He believes that the emotional intelligence of leaders is more important to organisational success than their IQ, educational background or technical ability. Goleman’s advice on how to build a healthy workplace is given on the next page.

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Building an ‘emotionally intelligent’ VCO Daniel Goleman suggests that leaders have to do several things in order to build emotionally intelligent organisations. They have to: 1.

Recognise the truth about what is happening in the organisation

2.

Be brave enough to talk about what is happening, and to help people to discuss any damaging norms, assumptions and behaviours

3.

Look for organisational strengths on which to build

4.

Bring people together to work on a dream, or ideal, of how they would like things to be instead - and then making sure they are genuinely signed up to any new vision

5.

Set out to demonstrate to people how to work together differently.

Australian organisational psychologist, Margaret Thorsborne says that developing healthy workplace relationships depends on: 1.

Developing a climate in which it is ok to be open and honest, and to talk about feelings

2.

Listening to what people have to say and respecting their opinions and their feelings – both positive and negative

3.

Explicitly discouraging attitudes and behaviours that diminish others in any way - and checking all policies and procedures to ensure they are not negative either.

‘The New Leaders’ by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee published by Time Warner Paperbacks, London, 2003

Further Reading

‘Integrity’ by Margaret Thorsborne in: ‘The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership’

p283

published by McGraw-Hill Australia, New South Wales, 2003

ISBN: 0-7515-3381-5

ISBN: 007471258-6

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WARNING If you recognise the following symptoms as applying to your VCO. It might be time to take some remedial action..........

Symptoms that values and beliefs could be lost Bad behaviour … ‘In my work, I have observed that certain actions are always present in the chronically toxic workplace. These include abuse and criticism; letting people down; office gossip and back-biting; bullying and harassment; poor management of performance reviews; poor management process; and lack of engagement, explanation and clarity of expectation.’ Lack of enthusiasm … ‘I have asked audiences to ‘guesstimate’ how many people are passionate about their work, and some 80% of respondents say that less than 20% of our workforce impress them as being passionate. This anecdotal evidence is persuasive and I believe it is close to the truth, regardless of the exact definition of passion that each person may use.'’ ‘And yet I cannot remember speaking to a person who was not genuinely excited, enthusiastic, indeed passionate, about starting a new job. What happens to this excitement, enthusiasm and passion? I believe that it’s the quality of leadership that is a fundamental factor in destroying new employees’ passion.’ Margaret Thorsborne and Charles Kovess, writing on ‘Integrity’ and ‘Passion’ in ‘The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership’, p73 & p142. Full reference on previous page. Questionable priorities … ‘In a very real way, what a person spends his or her time doing is the most direct expression of his or her values…How you choose to allocate time transmits strong messages about what matters to you. For example, if you say the customer comes first, and yet you spend less than 10% of your time with customers, your organisation hears the message loud and clear – customers don’t really come first. In fact, they come a poor fourth after internal budgetary issues, staff meetings and e-mails.’ ‘Alpha Leadership’, by Anne Deering, Robert Dilts & Julian Russel published by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2002, p156 ISBN: 0-470-84483-3 38

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Creating a supportive culture Trying to change the culture of an organisation is one of the most difficult things you can do. If there is an unhealthy culture, it has probably taken many years to set in. It will take concerted hard work at a senior level to reverse it. However, it is not enough just to set out to defeat unattractive or destructive patterns of behaviour – this strategy won’t work. In ‘Managing without Profit’, Mike Hudson says it is essential to understand the roots of the unhelpful beliefs and behaviour. Culture is partly affected by people’s underlying assumptions and beliefs, and by the explanations or justifications they develop over time. For example, the inconsiderate treatment of staff and volunteers could stem from a belief that it is wrong to use resources for the benefit of the organisation, when the needs of the users are very acute. To change the culture, says Hudson, you have to appreciate – in a nonjudgmental way - what these hidden assumptions and explanations are. He suggests taking the five actions identified by US professor of management Edgar Schein: •

Pay most attention to the things you want to encourage - you will send out clear signals about what you consider most important

•

Put funding towards the things you want to emphasise - this will show that they have a high value for you

•

Make sure the qualities you value come through in your recruitment and promotion decisions

•

Be very aware of the priorities you show when you react to a crisis people will deduce your beliefs from your behaviour

•

Coach staff by putting out consistent messages through your actions, your advice and your comments so you are a role model for the behaviour you want to encourage.

In ‘Managing without Profit’ by Mike Hudson published by Penguin Books, London 1995 p297 ISBN: 0-14-023886-7 www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Section Three

An emotionally intelligent VCO: 3 pages back

Symptoms of losing values and Beliefs: 2 pages back

Section Three – Summary Leading on the VCO’s values and beliefs • A critical part of the leader’s role is to think about the morale, welfare and skills of all the people involved in the VCO, which can become an unhappy, unproductive place if this is neglected. • The creation and reinforcement of positive values and belief systems, the development of a supportive culture and the use of ‘emotional intelligence’ are all vital to a healthy VCO. • It can be difficult to be true to values and beliefs when funds are tight, there is under-staffing, and everyone is overworked or worried. And any organisation can have a list of fine words, such as ‘Respect’, ‘Equality’, ‘Integrity’ and so on, which don’t actually guide anyone’s behaviour because they are not genuinely assimilated and pursued. • To get people to think through the values and beliefs that guide the VCO, ask what difference they actually make to the way that people behave. If the supposed values and beliefs are not permeating people’s behaviour, talk through with them how you can put the principles into practice. • One new leadership theory is that ‘emotionally intelligent’ leaders can increase the success of an organisation by questioning its ‘emotional reality and the cultural norms’, paying attention to the undercurrents and by demonstrating to people a more healthy way of operating. • Unpleasant behaviour, lack of enthusiasm and priorities that are questionable can be signals that the culture of the organisation has become debilitating and demoralising. It is essential for leaders to understand the roots of the unhelpful beliefs and behaviour and challenge them constructively. • Leaders are role-models for the rest of the organisation. Other people watch and pick up clues from the values shown and the criteria used by their leaders to make decisions. Make sure as a leader that you are consistent in displaying the values and beliefs you want to encourage. Lead by example.

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SECTION FOUR Leading Change In this Section, we look at how Leaders can successfully guide VCOs through a change process, including crisis management and planned change.

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Leading Change There are three contexts in which people in leadership roles will contemplate change: •

As part of the normal development process for the organisation, for example during the first stages of drawing up a new business plan

•

During the course of the year, if it transpires that programmes of work are not proceeding as anticipated, or it seems that targets may be missed

•

When there is a crisis, and the situation must be rectified as a matter of urgency, and the choices made could be critical. Imagine. . .

For our expedition leader of Section One, the first situation would be akin to planning the expedition in the first place, thinking about the potential destination, the terrain, the weather conditions, and the experience of the team. The second and third situations could arise after the expedition had started. Bad weather, a climb that was more difficult than anticipated, a broken piece of kit, might all lead to a rethink about the approach and the speed of the second half of the trip. An accident, or another catastrophic event could lead to the need for radical action on the spur of the moment. This Section makes suggestions on how to approach change in all three contexts and gives advice from a range of writers on leadership. Change Management is probably the most testing job for the leadership of an organisation, because it brings to the fore all kinds of fundamental questions about culture, ethics and beliefs. It carries questions about all five of the LARGE topics about which RAISE has published Toolkits: Key Concepts

Governance: what are the respective decision-making roles of the Board and the chief executive/director? Representation: to what extent are the leaders responding to the views of the members or users or attempting to shape their opinions and preferences? Accountability: how answerable will the leaders be for the consequences of their decisions and their actions? Equality: will some groups suffer disproportionately or be disadvantaged by the proposed changes, and if so, who?

Check your change proposals against these considerations 42

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Dealing with planned change Although it ought to be more straightforward to deal with planned change – that is, change as part of the normal development of the organisation – most people seem to prefer things to stay the same as they were, and it can be difficult to shift mindsets and ways of working. In older, more established organisations, habits can seem almost impossible to break. Leaders may need to work hard to bring about differences, even when it is obvious that things can’t go on as they are. A few tools and techniques are suggested on this and the following couple of pages.

Environment mapping and forecasting trends In the ‘Complete Guide to Business and Strategic Planning’, Alan Lawrie suggests a number of really useful exercises, one of which focuses on the investigation of future trends and developments. Lawrie advises considering potential changes of five types: • • • • •

Available resources How we work Demand for our services and the needs of users/members In the political or economic arena In the environment and the market

And that you consider what might happen in each of these areas: a) in the next 12 months b) in the next 1 to 3 years c) in the longer term Lawrie also advises VCOs to be realistic about how they prepare to deal with change. If your typical response to problems is a ‘chaotic’ or ‘bureaucratic’ one, you have to allow yourselves extra time to identify and work out how to deal with changing circumstances.

Further Reading

‘The Complete Guide to Business and Strategic Planning’ by Alan Lawrie published by Directory of Social Change, London 2nd edition 2001, p35 ISBN: 1-900360-87-X

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Scenario planning Another method put forward by Alan Lawrie to get people to think about the future and the possible need for change is ‘scenario planning’. This exercise is ideal for an Awayday. • Draw up about three hypothetical scenarios for your VCO. Choose things that are real possibilities - such as a major change in the way your services are funded. Don’t choose too many to work on.

Activity

• Get people to work in small groups on: ð ð ð ð

the dangers and opportunities presented by each scenario how you would spot each one if and when it started emerging some alternative ideas about how you could respond short and long-term action plans to back up the best ideas.

• Include the most likely ones in your business plan, showing how you plan to detect and respond to any of these potential scenarios.

The Help/Hinder model This is another method to stimulate thinking about change, probably most useful when your plans just need ‘tweaking’ rather than radical change. Again, it is a good way to generate discussion. Activity

Draw up a form on a large piece of paper with four columns right to left: 1. 2. 3. 4.

The factors which hinder our progress Ideas on how to counteract these hindrances Ideas on how to boost the helpful factors The factors which help us to succeed in our work

Get one small group to generate a list under heading 1, and a second group to make a list under heading 4. When the lists are complete, get the two groups to swap lists. The group with list 1 now works on item 2, generating ideas about how to counteract hindrances, and the group with list 4 generates ideas about how to boost the helpful factors listed under heading 3. Collect feedback on the ideas generated and decide which ones are most suitable to adopt and work up for your next business plan.

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Section Four

Tools for planned change Previous 2 pages

Midstream changes This and next page

Changing direction mid-stream It is almost inevitable that a business plan will be changed in one respect or another during the course of the year. Monitoring information will show that targets are not being hit, budgeted income has been slow to arrive, or that satisfaction levels are down. The departure or illness of a key person, or a change outside the organisation, can herald a series of other problems. Staying alert to the possible consequences and reacting appropriately are key responsibilities for both Boards and senior managers.

The best laid plans can go astray A Surrey-based arts organisation based in a disused church had a number of tenants, all paying rent for various spaces, some big, some small. One of the major tenants stopped paying rent after their key person left and their own takings plummeted. A risk analysis had been done which highlighted that if one of the tenants went bust, the organisation’s reserves would provide a financial cushion for four months. However, the Board quickly realised that with rent and bills payable on a quarterly basis in arrears, just two missing payments from the tenant would put them into debt as well. Fortunately, the advance warnings gave them enough time to respond and put in place an emergency plan.

Case Study

‘Detecting weak signals’

Good Idea

Deering, Dilts and Russell say that the ability to ‘detect weak signals’ will increase your feeling of being in control and reduce your levels of stress. You can do this by listening to your hunches, by paying attention to what front-line staff and volunteers say, by going to meetings you don’t usually attend, by finding out what other VCOs are doing, by noticing things that don’t add up, or that you didn’t expect to hear. People who are good at anticipation tend to pay attention to tiny clues and signs, say the authors. ‘Alpha Leadership’, by Deering, Dilts and Russell Pub. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2002 ISBN: 0-470-84483-3

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The ‘GROW’ method of problem solving In his 1996 book, ‘Coaching for Performance’, author Sir John Whitmore devised a four stage problem-solving model with a helpful acronym: G R O W

What is the Goal that is being sought? What is the Reality of the current situation? What Options are available? What will you do, and by When?

Whitmore stresses the importance of undertaking a wellstructured and thorough investigation of the problem. At stage 2, don’t skimp on analysis of the situation. Try asking: • • • • •

Activity

What exactly is not working? Who is involved? What precisely are they doing or not doing? When/how often exactly is it a problem? How do you know there is a problem?

At stage 3, it is essential to consider all the options, even ones that initially sound unlikely. Test them out by asking: • •

Which idea would have the most impact? Which idea seems to be most realistic? Further Reading

Sir John Whitmore’s ‘Coaching for Performance’, is reviewed in ‘Writers on Leadership’ by John van Maurik Penguin Books, London, 2001. ISBN: 0-14-029305-1

Handy’s four levers of change Charles Handy says there are four ‘levers of change’ that can be pulled: • • • •

You can Redefine the Task of the VCO or departments within it You an Alter Systems and adopt new ways of doing things You can Change the Structures of the VCO You can Address the skills, jobs or knowledge of the People

‘Understanding Voluntary Organisations’ by Charles Handy published by Penguin Books, London 1988, p151 ISBN: 0-14-014338-6 46

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Some warnings about the pitfalls of change

Don’t be too sure! ‘To become more effective, leaders need to break through the information quarantine around them – and the conspiracy to keep them pleased, even if uninformed.’ ‘The New Leaders’ by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, published by Time Warner Paperbacks, London 2003, p170. ISBN: 0-7515-3381-5

Enough is enough!

Professor John Storey and Iain Mangham in ‘Leadership in Organisations’, edited by John Storey, published by Routledge, London 2004, p342. ISBN: 0-415-31033-4

‘If leaders do not act with respect to the organisation’s historical antecedents, codes of order and practices, they risk losing the support of their followers.....For instance, if traditional leaders [try to change] their relationship with their followers, these followers may well see them as behaving inappropriately’’’…and may react by seeking to replace the leader with a more traditionally oriented alternative.’ Tim Ray, Stuart Clegg and Ray Gordon in ‘Leadership in Organisations’, edited by John Storey, pub. by Routledge London 2004, p177-178 ISBN: 0-415-31033-4

‘If organisations have stagnated, there may be a desire for a change-oriented leader. If, conversely, the organisation has experienced a prolonged or intensive period of change management, there may be a desire for a leader who promises to consolidate and stabilise.’

Don’t be too different!

‘Organisations only change when the people in them change, and people will only change when they accept in their hearts that change must occur.’ Sir John Harvey-Jones quoted in ‘Managing with the Gurus’, by Carol Kennedy, published by Century Business Books, London, 1996 p61 ISBN: 0-7126-7604-X

Hearts and minds must want to change! www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Section Four

Changing midstream Previous 3 pages

Leadership styles in time of crisis Next page but one

Risk assessment and analysis The Charity Commission’s Statement of Recommended Practice for Accounting and Reporting (SORP 2000) says that VCOs with a gross annual income of more than £250,000 should undertake risk analysis, but even those VCOs too small to attract this obligation can benefit from undertaking the process anyway. It can be woven into the annual process of preparing a business plan; this highlights its general usefulness to the VCO and reduces its administrative burden. Step One is to make a comprehensive assessment of all the events, internal and external, that could pose a risk to the organisation. Even positive things, such as winning new funds, could carry risks for you. External developments in social, economic, legal, environmental or public opinion terms could have consequences for you. Step Two is to analyse the potential risks. This involves ‘scoring’ the items on your list for their likelihood and their potential impact, saying whether they present a ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’ risk on each measure. This enables you to prepare a ranked list, which guides you as to which you should deal with first. Step Three is to devise your risk management strategy. This is partly a question of deciding how risk-averse your VCO wants to be. Do you prefer to avoid high risks, control them through policies and procedures, or expose yourselves to highly-managed and monitored risks? This partly depends on what kinds of things you do as a VCO, and whether you are able to be riskaverse. Step Four is to work through your list of risks in a systematic way, putting in place systems, policies and procedures to ensure the VCO deals with the potential hazards according to the decisions of the Board. The Board should remember that it bears responsibility for risk. Monitoring and reporting systems are absolutely vital.

‘Managing Risk: Guidelines for medium-sized voluntary organisations’,

Further Reading

by Caroline Clark published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, London, 2001 ISBN: 0 7199 1593 7 48

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Imagine. . .

Crisis management Even in the best-run organisations, there will be crises from time to time. Using the analogy of the expedition leader, there could be an accident, a terrible storm, a landslide, or some other catastrophic event to deal with. The team members would turn to the expedition leader to rescue them, or perhaps someone else would step in and save the day through their quickwittedness and good judgment. However, on a well-managed expedition, you would expect the leader to have undertaken risk analyses, put in place avoidance strategies and to have the experience to get the group safely through the hazards. Ditto in a well-run VCO. In other organisations, there is a constant sense of crisis. For some personalities, this can be an exciting environment in which to work. However, it takes its toll on the majority of people in the medium to longterm, and since employees have started to receive compensation from employment tribunals for stress-related illness, Boards and senior management should perhaps start to take more responsibility for sorting out, rather than perpetuating, stressful cultures. There is little advice in the literature on handling crises. Some of the techniques in the previous pages will be useful – in particular, the problemsolving models. A few writers outline the dangers for all involved in a crisis, and others warn leaders of the pitfalls. In the next couple of pages, some of these insights are passed on.

Wise Thought

‘As leaders, we must know how to diagnose organisational problems and opportunities and how to intervene efficiently and skilfully. Leaders are often attracted to the role because they are doers who prefer action to analysis. The danger is that doers often misdiagnose in their haste to act. There is no substitute for defining the problem or opportunity accurately for, without that, the intervention may make the problem worse or lead us to miss the opportunity........ Intervention skills are mostly learned through apprenticeship and mentoring; on the job or by doing.’ ‘Wisdom’ by Dexter Dunphy & Tyrone Pitsis in ‘The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership’, edited by Carolyn Barker and Robyn Coy The Australian Institute of Management, published by McGraw-Hill Australia, New South Wales, 2003, p182. ISBN: 007471258-6

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Leadership styles in times of crisis It is increasingly accepted that the style and tone of a leader can be guided by the situation in which the organisation finds itself. Thus, if there is a crisis, the leaders might respond in a different way than in times of calm, suggest Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee. In an emergency, leaders can take a ‘commanding’ approach in order to try ‘smooth fears’. This means calling for immediate compliance by the group, issuing clear directions to people without explaining why, and taking tight control of the situation. When firm or decisive action is called for, leaders can act in a ‘pacesetting’ way. This means rallying people round, asking for a bigger effort from them and demanding faster and better performance until the problem is sorted out. However, they warn that outside the armed forces, these are not wellaccepted leadership styles. They can work well if they are used selectively and in the very short term. The authors also stress that leaders who use these styles should never accompany them with anger, impatience, contempt or disgust, because of how damaging these behaviours are for members of the group. There are also warnings about getting ‘so used to the adrenaline rush of handling crises that we become dependent on it for a sense of excitement and energy.’ High profile US author, Stephen Covey, knows all about the kick crises can provide: ‘How does urgency feel? Stressful? Pressurised? Tense? Exhausting? Sure! But let’s be honest. It’s also sometimes exhilarating. We feel useful. We feel successful. We feel validated. And we get good at it. Whenever there’s trouble, we ride into town, pull out our six-shooter, do the varmint in, blow the smoke off the gun barrel and ride into the sunset like a hero. It brings instant results and instant gratification..... Addiction to urgency is every bit as dangerous as other commonly recognised dependencies.’ ‘The New Leaders’, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, pp90-100, op cit. ‘First Things First’, by Stephen R Covey, A Roger Merrill and Rebecca R Merrill published by Simon & Schuster, London, 1994, p33. ISBN: 0-684-85840-1

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Emotional intelligence in times of crisis ‘No leader can afford to be controlled by negative emotions, such as frustration and rage, or anxiety and panic...... self management – which resembles an on-going inner conversation – is the component of emotional intelligence that frees us from being a prisoner of our feelings. It’s what allows the mental clarity and concentrated energy that leadership demands, and what keeps disruptive emotions from throwing us off track. Leaders with such self-mastery embody an upbeat, optimistic enthusiasm.'’

Hmmm..... I hadn’t thought of that before....

‘Because emotions are so contagious – especially from leaders to others in the group – leaders’ first tasks are the emotional equivalent of good hygiene: getting their own emotions in hand. Leaders who freely vent their anger, catastrophise or otherwise let their distressing emotions run amok, can’t also lead the group to a positive register, where the best work gets done.’ ‘The New Leaders’, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, p56, op cit.

Are you an emotionally intelligent leader? Questions to ask yourself - and your team if you are brave enough! • Are you emotionally self-aware? Do you understand how your feelings affect you and your performance? Can you remember your values, even when you are under stress? Activity

• Can you exercise self-control? Are you capable of managing your emotions and impulses in a crisis? Can you stay calm and clear-headed in order to deal with challenges and problems? • Are you optimistic? Are you able to recast threats as opportunities in order to get out there and deal with them positively? Do you demonstrate to people the behaviours you would like to see them adopting? Are you a role-model for them in terms of being helpful, constructive and respectful?

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Section Four

Risk Assessment 4 pages back

Leadership in times of crisis Previous 3 pages

Section Four – Summary Leading change • There are three contexts in which change is contemplated: as part of the normal development process; to alter course when things are not going to plan; or in a crisis. • Change management is probably the most testing leadership job because it brings to the fore fundamental questions about culture, ethics and beliefs, and has implications for the governance of the VCO, and the accountability, sense of equality and representativeness of the leaders. • Planned change involves mapping the environment and forecasting trends, thinking in particular about changes in available resources; how the VCO works; future demand and needs; and developments in the external environment. The ability to pick up early clues about impending change can be vital. Advance planning is crucial. • Getting people to change is possibly the most challenging issue. A sense of crisis helps, as well as a strong motivation, a vision and clear direction, excellent communication and senior co-operation. • Accurate diagnosis is the most important part of problem-solving. It is also vital to think through all the options before making any decisions about what course to take. • Various ‘levers of change’ are available: you can address the design of the task, system or structure, or you can work on the people. Choices are always affected by cultural considerations, including the amount of risk your VCO is prepared to accept. • In times of crisis, leaders often change their style of operating, but people may respond badly if leaders’ styles are dramatically different. More forceful styles of leadership should be used only selectively and for limited periods of time in real crises. • Self management in leaders is vital – avoiding anger, contempt, the expression of fear and anxiety and addiction to adrenaline rushes.

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SECTION FIVE Leadership Roles In this Section, we briefly review the respective responsibilities of the governing body and the chief executive, and highlight the importance of accountable leadership.

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The link between Leadership and good Governance The legal and financial responsibility for a VCO lies with its governing body – its Management Committee, Board of Trustees or Board of Directors. As the ultimate responsibility rests with this group, it is the de facto leadership group. However, in practical terms, the governing body, where it employs staff, relies on the chief executive and other senior staff actually to run the organisation.

But where is the governance/management line? In ‘Managing Without Profit’, Mike Hudson says that each VCO has to decide where to draw the line between ‘governance’ and ‘management’. In some VCOs, the Board plays a limited role, focusing solely on the mission, the strategy and the policies, whereas in others, Board members are more closely involved in implementation. Hudson says that the age of the organisation and its circumstances help to determine where the line is drawn. It must, however, be the governing body that makes the decision about ‘what is governance’ and ‘what is management’. As Hudson says, these cannot and should not be watertight categories, but it is vital for the Board to focus its energies on governance and not to get bogged down by things that in theory have been delegated. Typically, the governance line is redrawn after natural phases of development throw up new kinds of challenges and crises. A chief executive plays a very complicated role, acting as the executive agent for the Board, but also providing leadership in his or her own right. As Hudson comments, there has to be a ‘partnership’ between the Board and the Chief Executive. This should be dynamic but the Board should always be the ‘first among equals’.

Further Reading

Governance: A RAISE Toolkit, available from the website below or in hard copy from the address on page 2. In it, you will find a list of Board roles and responsibilities, a job description and person specification for Board members and more advice on the relationship between the Chair and the Chief Executive.

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Where should your Leadership line be drawn? Mike Hudson strongly advises that the leadership line be redrawn at intervals during the life-time of a voluntary/community organisation. It may be appropriate for you to revisit the issue, given the developments in your VCO over the last few years – or perhaps it’s a new issue for you. Either way, it will be helpful to consider where the leadership roles of the Board and chief executive begin and end.

Activity

Draw up a list of the roles and responsibilities involved in running your organisation. This should certainly involve ‘big issues’, such as who sets the mission and the goals, but can also include specifics, like ‘who checks the bank balance?’ You may need someone to give a big chunk of time to devising and organising some comprehensive lists of items. Board and senior management should discuss what ought to be seen as ‘governance’ and ‘management’, bearing in mind the legal and financial responsibilities, but also time-factors for the Board and realistic levels of ‘freedom to operate’ for the chief executive, who must be seen to have some authority. Further Reading

‘Managing Without Profit’ by Mike Hudson, published by Penguin Books, London 1995, pp 40-88 ISBN: 0-14-023886-7

Are there checks and balances in the system? The suggestions of the new Chief Executive about new trustees were eagerly seized on by a depleted Board of a training charity. A couple of years later, a few older trustees had to retire at the AGM. The Board was now dominated by close associates of the chief executive and the only candidate for chair was also a personal friend. Although everyone acted at all times with total propriety, there was a widespread perception that this was a clique. Even worse, when there was a crisis to deal with, they all realised that their personal relationships impeded their decision-making and their conflicts of interest were hampering their ability to act.

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Case Study

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The link between Leadership and Accountability Section One mentioned a leadership theory that focuses on ‘followers’ and what they feel about the exercise of power by influential people. In the VCS, we think in this respect not only about employees, but also users/ members and volunteers. Of course, in some legal structures, members have the power to vote out governing bodies, but this is a radical solution which is rarely exercised. On a day-to-day level, users, volunteers and staff are stuck with board members and senior managers. So how leaders remain accountable – above and beyond the legal minimum – is a core issue for VCS leaders. Charles Handy suggests that decisions can be made in one of five ways: • • • • •

By exercising power and authority By majority By consensus By a minority exercising a veto By a sheer lack of response to proposals put forward.

How do you remain accountable, and to whom? To which individuals and groups do you consider your VCO accountable? List the various stakeholders to whom you should be answerable in moral, legal and financial terms.

Activity

What do they expect of your VCO’s leadership? What do you consider is due to them? In which of Handy’s five ways does your VCO make decisions? In what ways do you make yourself accountable to your stakeholders for your decisions? Is the way in which you make decisions as inclusive as it could be, or could you do more to involve people?

For further discussion on this topic, Accountability: A RAISE Toolkit, available from the website below or in hard copy from the address on page 2.

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SECTION SIX Making Time to Lead In this Section, we look at a few ideas about how to make time to lead, especially being innovative and creative, given the time pressures and weight of work associated with working in a VCO.

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Making Time to Lead In the 1970s, venerable management theorist, Henry Mintzberg, studied how top and middle British and American managers spent their time. He found that 50% of the activities of American chief executives lasted less than 9 minutes apiece. In his British study, he discovered that chief executives spent only 5 to 6 hours a month on activities lasting longer than 30 minutes. Although this style of work led the job holders to think they had everything under control, Mintzberg commented, it actively blocked them from creative or strategic thinking, planning and reflection. As these latter activities are amongst the most important ones for leaders, it is obviously vital to be able to carve out an appropriate amount of time and space to do them properly.

Time management and the ‘clock & compass’ One time management theory advises us to classify activities in one of four ways: • • • •

Important and Urgent Important but not Urgent Urgent but not Important Not Urgent and not Important

Stephen Covey has a more interesting angle, which is to introduce the concepts of ‘The Clock’ and ‘The Compass’ into self-management. The Clock represents time, and the Compass a sense of direction. Covey suggests that people who live their lives just according to time rather than to a sense of direction will never be able to prioritise in a way that they or others find satisfactory. In order to be able to decide what is truly important, Covey suggests that we need to have worked out a fundamental sense of direction for ourselves.

Further Reading

Henry Mintzberg’s ‘The Nature of Managerial Work’ is quoted in ‘Managing with the Gurus’ by Carol Kennedy, published by Century Ltd, London 1994, p141. ISBN: 0-7126-7604-X ‘First Things First’ by Stephen R Covey, A Roger Merrill and Rebecca R Merrill published by Simon and Schuster, London 1994 ISBN: 0-684-85840-1

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Making the time to deal with important things In ‘First Things First’, Stephen Covey relates a story to illustrate the importance of finding time to deal with important things. He uses the analogy of a large jar into which large rocks are placed. The large rocks represent the ‘important but not urgent’ tasks that make a qualitative difference. If the large rocks go in the jar first, many can be fitted in, and the small rocks, stones, gravel and sand that represent other (urgent and/or less important) activities can be fitted in around them.

Useful Concept

If however, the small rocks, stones, gravel and sand that stand for urgent and unimportant things go into the jar first, then there is no room for the large rocks. In other words, unless time is carved out in advance for important items, the less important items will continue to crowd out our diaries.

Good Idea

‘Progress tasks’ and ‘maintenance tasks’ Another idea is to classify all the things on your task list as either ‘maintenance tasks’ – which are things which keep you in your current position – or ‘progress tasks’ – which are things which move you on in a substantive way. Then you can make sure you block out some time to do the latter.

How to make sure you spend time on these tasks The key suggestion from the time management field is based on the ‘large rocks’ principle. That is, given that there is a limited amount of time in the working week, put big things in the diary first, then small things can pack in around them.

Activity

In practice, this means getting a time planner or diary that allows you to survey a month at a time. Before the start of that month, you block out large chunks of time for the most important, qualitative tasks. The same process is repeated for a weekly basis, ensuring that the other kinds of tasks are being fitted in effectively around the larger responsibilities already blocked out. This is one of those disciplines that sounds too simple in theory, but in practice, demands an assiduous approach.

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What are the important leadership tasks for you? The latest thinking is that every leadership job is highly individual and that it is for those involved to decide what the important parts of it are at any given time. In other words, you have to decide what the priorities are. Here, though, are some ideas on how to sort your ‘To Do’ list. The annual cycle of events Are there things that need to be done at a particular time of year? Are there cyclical things which are always important? Decide when they need to be done and block out time in your diary now. Make a policy of sticking to that commitment. Schedule in ‘big rocks’ or ‘progress tasks’ Activity

Sort your ‘To Do’ list by asking, ‘Which of these tasks will progress our position, and which just maintain our current position?’ Can you block out a day or half a day a month to lock yourself away to get on with the progress tasks? One theory says that 20% of the things we do tend to yield 80% of the results. One secret of success is to prioritise that 20% and do it first. Can you identify that critical 20%? Can you persuade people not to disturb you for a couple of hours a week so you can work on this 20%? Look for a balance John Adair, one of the most noted leadership gurus, says leaders need to divide their time between three interlocking issues: ‘Task’, ‘Team’ and ‘Individual’, and to make sure they give sufficient attention to each. Can you say you are doing this? If there’s an imbalance, what could you do about it? Still not able to prioritise? If your ‘To Do’ list still misses the mark, one idea is to ask ‘If I had an extra hour a day, what would I do with it?’ This question usually elicits guilty admissions about the things you are currently short-changing. Block time out to do those very things before you put anything else in your diary.

‘Not Bosses, But Leaders’ by John Adair with Peter Reed, 3rd edition published by Kogan Page Ltd, London, 2003 ISBN: 0-7494-3899-1

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Further Reading

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Section Six

Ideas for time management Last 3 pages

Terms and conditions for player-managers Next 2 pages

In early 2005, a Wall Street Journal reporter was allowed to accompany Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, on one of his sixmonthly retreats. The journalist, Robert Guth, revealed that Gates went on his own twice a year to a remote coastal location for a ‘Think Week’. Case Study

Gates lived on diet coke and cheese toasties and spent up to 18 hours a day reading 100 working papers. Many of these were suggestions that had been submitted by Microsoft employees, a company practice which Gates encourages. Apparently Bill Gates returns from these ‘Think Weeks’ with lists of brilliant ideas for new products and various strategic proposals for the development of Microsoft. This is a prime example of how to make time for ‘the big stuff’.

Fortunately The diet coke isn’t compulsory!

“Luxury!” “Resources are tight and it’s all very well saying people should take the time out to do ‘visioning’ or ‘strategic planning’, but I have got to juggle a whole variety of tasks including supervising my colleagues, looking at balance sheets and preparing papers for board meetings!” This might well be the response from many quarters to the earlier parts of this section. A hectic working environment is common in the VCS, and indeed, participants in the 2003 RAISE workshop on leadership put ‘productivity’ as one of the leadership qualities they rated most highly. In that context, how do leaders cope with a varied portfolio of responsibilities? An intriguing new book about the ‘Player Manager’ may cast some light on the tensions involved. Authors, Philip Augar and Joy Palmer transfer the term from the sporting field to the business world to describe the senior staff member who has to ‘combine the roles of producing and managing’. This is a familiar picture for the VCS!

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Terms and conditions for ‘player-managers’ In many organisations, people who are perceived to be successful at their jobs have managerial duties added to their remit. Few of their former responsibilities are taken away. Authors Augar and Palmer call these people ‘Player Managers’. The combination of roles can come about for many reasons. Perhaps your organisation: •

Believes that only a respected practitioner from your field can be accepted as a leader or senior manager

•

Does not rate other qualifications very highly and doesn’t believe leadership or management demand any particular skills

•

Sees additional responsibility as a reward for good performance

•

Genuinely sees this as a way to enrich your job and empower you

•

Cannot afford to let you spend all of your time on leadership or management

•

Has financial problems that mean you and others have been forced to take on more and more responsibility.

On the basis of their experience, Augar and Palmer give advice to others who have to combine the ‘Player’ and ‘Manager’ roles: • Don’t think that you have to do everything yourself. You have to learn how to delegate. Don’t under-estimate your colleagues. • You must reconcile yourself to spending less time on your former role in order to get to grips with new elements of the job. If this suggestion rankles, ask yourself why you agreed to the promotion. • Don’t take refuge in the task-orientated parts of your job in order to avoid the more threatening people-related elements. You have to face up to problems, because they don’t go away on their own.

Further Reading

‘The Rise of the Player-Manager: How professionals manage while they work’ by Philip Augar and Joy Palmer published by Penguin Books, London 2002 ISBN: 0-14-028665-9

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Section Six

Being creative. Next 2 pages

Section summary Third page on

Balancing responsibilities Are you one of these people Augar and Palmer talk about, who have to juggle a professional task within your organisation with the job of leading it? Are you managing to make a success of balancing the two roles, without being permanently torn in two directions? If having to continue to be a ‘Player’ is preventing you from carrying out your ‘Manager’ responsibilities, there are some questions Augar and Palmer suggest that you ask: 1.

There are a number of reasons why people consent to being overworked. For example, you might be doing it temporarily to advance your career in the longer term. But if you are persistently overworked, you could ask yourself why it is so difficult for you to draw a line. All this hard work - what is in it for you?

2.

What kinds of additional support could your VCO usefully give you so you could make this arrangement more of a success for everyone?

3.

If the most important thing is for you to be a leader in your organisation, what would enable you to give this role the importance it deserves?

Activity

Leaders should spend more time on conceptual stuff

Key Concept

A definitive essay in the January 1955 Harvard Business Review by RL Katz has influenced thinking ever since it was published. Katz’s theory is that people at different levels in organisations should spend varying percentages of their time in the exercise of three types of skill: technical skills

human skills

conceptual skills

Katz suggested: Top managers should spend 40% of their time using conceptual skills, 40% on human skills and 30% on technical skills. Middle managers should spend 40% on human skills and 30% each on conceptual and technical skills. Supervisors should spend 40% on technical skills, 40% on human skills and 20% on conceptual skills. www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Making space to be creative and innovative Other leadership qualities which were highly rated by RAISE members at the 2003 conference were ‘creativity and innovativeness’. Again, this is a vital element of the leadership role that can easily be side-lined because of day-to-day pressures. Some leadership theorists believe that creativity is the particular responsibility of the leader.

Herrmann’s theory of creativity In his 1989 book, ‘The Creative Brain’, American consultant Ned Herrmann suggested that there are four ‘modes of thinking’:

Thinking ‘type’

Organising principle

Skills and abilities

The ‘A’ Brain

Rationality

logical, analytical, fact-based and quantitative

The ‘B’ Brain

Organisation

organised, sequential, planned and detailed

The ‘C ’ Brain

Feelings

interpersonal, emotional, expressive and sensory

The ‘D’ Brain

Experimentation

intuitive, imaginative, synthesising and holistic

Contrary to traditional approaches which value ‘A’ and ‘B’ type thinking most highly, Herrmann believes that ‘D’ and ‘C’ type thinking are more important for leaders, who need above all else to be creative. However, whatever mode of thinking comes most naturally to you, Herrmann thinks that you can strengthen the other types of mental ability by deliberately setting out to practise. The keys to success are to be flexible and to tolerate experimentation. Being creative, says Herrmann, involves six stages which bring all the types of thinking into play in turn: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 64

Questioning present methods Gathering evidence Generating lists of ideas Getting inspiration Testing practicality of ideas Implementing plans

Uses all types of thinking Uses ‘A’ and ‘B’ type thinking Uses ‘D’ and ‘C’ type thinking Comes from the ‘D’ brain Uses ‘A’ and ‘B’ type thinking Uses all types of thinking

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Further Reading

Ned Herrmann’s theories on the facing page are outlined in ‘Writers on Leadership’ by John van Maurik Penguin Books, London, 2001, pp162-171 ISBN: 0-14-029305-1

De Bono’s method of being creative An alternative approach is to use Edward de Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’. The idea is that instead of doing several things at once, groups of people can pool their energies and co-operate fruitfully by deliberately doing one kind of thinking and then another, each characterised by (metaphorically) putting on a different coloured hat: Blue hats mean taking an overview and thinking about the reason for doing something and the process being used Green hats stand for creativity and new ideas

Good Idea

Yellow hats stand for positive thinking and hopefulness White hats mean neutral, factual, objective thinking Red hats stand for emotional, intuitive, non-rational thinking Black hats mean pointing out the risks, looking for a ‘fit’ with our current work, being cautious, being evaluative. De Bono stresses that black hat thinking is positive thinking: it does not mean being negative or dismissive. It should not be used in order to squash people’s ideas or parade egos. De Bono’ says organisations can make the best use of everyone’s intelligence, creativity and experience by explicitly asking people to engage in particular kinds of thinking. ‘Six Thinking Hats’ by Edward de Bono published by Penguin Books, London, 2000 ISBN: 0-14-029666-2 ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’ Key Concept

James Collins and Jerry Porras, US academics specialising in the visionary side of leadership have coined this term which has recently become a popular and much-cited concept. What they mean by ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’ are ideas that are so ambitious that they make hearers gasp. BHAGs may be very long-term objectives, or very bold ones, but they must have the sheer power or bravery to make people passionate and inspired. As a result, their levels of motivation and commitment will soar.

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Section Six – Summary Making Time to Lead In all walks of life, senior people often have very fragmented days in which lots of things vie for their attention. Time management experts warn that unless the big things get put in the diary first, the smaller but more urgent activities will crowd them out. It is also important, however, to have a sense of direction because being ruled by the clock alone does not move you forward. Activities can be divided into ‘progress tasks’ and ‘maintenance tasks’. It can also be helpful to think about the balance of time spent respectively on Task, Team and Individual, or about the 20% of activities that will yield 80% of the difference. However your agenda is sorted, the key thing is to plan in advance how you will reserve good thinking and planning time. There are particular difficulties when organisations want you to continue to be a practising specialist in your field and a manager or leader. Great clarity of purpose is required and you probably need to examine what support you will need to enable you to play both roles satisfactorily........ without getting burnt-out. The ability to delegate effectively will be vital. Leaders also need the space and time to be creative and innovative. Some theorists think creativity is the real job of leadership. It requires a certain kind of thinking to be creative, but anyone can learn the mind-set that is needed to generate ideas and test them. The ‘Six Thinking Hats’ model is one way of encouraging a group to think big and discouraging the clever criticism that can be self-defeating. Another way of inspiring people is with what two US authors called ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’!

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SECTION SEVEN Communication Skills for Leaders In this Section, we explore tools and techniques to enhance the communication skills of Leaders, giving ideas on how to hear and be heard, and focusing on the external role of being an ambassador for a VCO.

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Communication Skills for Leaders

Imagine. . .

There is a strong consensus in the Leadership literature that the ability to communicate well is one of the most vital skills for leaders. If we go back to our analogy of a leader of an expedition, we can see how important it is for him or her to brief the team at the start of every day, to debrief in the evening, and to handle planning and problem-solving discussions in a way which inspires confidence and respect. The team needs to feel that it can trust the expedition leader, whether he or she is very consensual, or very authoritarian. Strong communication skills enable the Leader to put across the key messages so that people can hear and understand them. Open University Professor John Storey says that ‘inter-organisational representation’ is one of the three top leadership skills on which all theorists agree. It is also extremely challenging because key audiences can have wildly different values, beliefs and levels of understanding. Leaders may have to strive to get their messages across to people who have all kinds of preconceptions, and will have to do so in a number of different contexts – on platforms in front of audiences and in meetings large and small, with partner organisations, sponsors, critics and interested parties from all sectors. Further Reading

‘Leadership in Organisations: Current issues and Key Trends’ edited by John Storey published by Routledge, London 2004, see pages 24-25 ISBN: 0-415-31033-4

Why strong communication skills are so important ‘Socially skilled leaders tend to have resonance with a wide circle of people – and a knack for finding common ground and building rapport. Relationship management is friendliness with a purpose: moving people in the right direction, whether that is agreement on a marketing strategy or enthusiasm about a new project.’ ‘The fundamental task of leaders is to prime good feeling in those they lead…Leaders typically talk more than anyone else and what they say is listened to more carefully. They are [also] watched more carefully than anyone else in the group.’ ‘The New Leaders’ by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee published by Time Warner Paperbacks, London 2003, p64, preface & p10 ISBN: 0-7515-3381-5 68

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Good Concept

Why are you setting out to communicate? It is said that the great majority of people fear nothing more than the prospect of having to speak in public. As a result, they don’t consider themselves to be good communicators. Think for a minute, however, about all the different reasons you might have for communicating with others, and the wide range of attributes and skills needed to perform brilliantly in every conceivable situation. Perhaps only a small minority of people will be excellent all-round communicators, and the majority of us will prove to be better at some types of communication than at others. What are you best at doing? • • • • • • • • •

Team building and coalition building? Training and supervising people? Information gathering and giving? Being an advocate for your members or users? Being an ambassador for your cause? Explaining ideas and concepts? Selling projects and persuading people? Giving pep talks and ‘rallying the troops’? Telling stories and entertaining people?

These are all very different communication tasks, so it’s hardly surprising that talent in one area may not translate into proficiency in another. You may feel very confident doing some of these tasks but really very modest about your ability to tackle others. However, there are some core skills that apply across the board, and some theories about communication that can help to enhance performance even in the most demanding situations.

Who do you need to communicate with? Make a list of all the people and organisations with whom you need to communicate, ensuring that your list includes both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ audiences.

Activity

Against the names, list the reasons for which you need to communicate with them. Being clear about the purposes for which you are communicating is the first step to being a good communicator.

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Section Seven

Why are you setting out to communicate? Previous page

Understanding your audience: next page for 4 pages

Being a ‘good’ communicator The most important skills of a good communicator are not, ironically, good speaking skills: they are careful listening and open-minded understanding. Audiences - internal or external - are not like baby birds, waiting trustfully in a nest for morsels of food to be stuffed down their throats. To get people to hear what you say, understand it, accept it and be willing to follow it, you have to get through the filter of their critical faculties. These critical faculties consist of a system of values and beliefs, cultural assumptions, preconceptions about ‘the way things are’ and whatever moods or emotions might be present at the time. To communicate successfully, a leader has to understand these variables and be willing to craft his or her message in the light of such factors. The truth is that other people can’t be made to see things our way, so the starting point for communication has to be the way that they see things. This means thinking critically about who is in the audience, what they are like and what will be the best strategy to get through to them, given their characteristics and attitudes. Presentation skills trainers will tell you to spend nine tenths of your preparation time working on the first five minutes of your presentation. This rule probably applies to most situations in which you set out to communicate with others. Whether it’s fair or not, the vast majority of people make decisions about new acquaintances within a few minutes of meeting them. On the plus side, people generally start out well-disposed, so good communicators will consciously use those first few minutes when they are being ‘sized up’ to create a sense of rapport with their listeners.

Key Concept

Taking responsibility for communication Sometimes you can think, ‘They just won’t listen to me!’, but for a communicator, it is far more empowering to believe, ‘I must try something different because I am not getting through to them.’ In other words, you take personal responsibility for the effectiveness of the communication. By taking this attitude, you give yourself more choices about how to act and react.

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Understanding your audience Fons Trompenaars specialises in understanding the cultural differences between different nations and working groups. Together with Charles HampdenTurner, he has devised a model to explain cultural diversity. This model has seven dimensions covering beliefs and values about relationships, time and the environment. It suggests that successful interactions with others start with an accurate analysis of where people or groups are on the dimensions below. 1. How much emotion are people allowed to show in this culture? Are people generally demonstrative, or low-key, in this culture? How OK is it to display feelings overtly -for example, anger, amusement or distress? Or are emotional displays and signals suppressed? 2. Is this culture governed by rules or by relationships? Do people in this culture operate according to formal standards, rules and objective selection criteria? Do deals depend on detailed contracts? Or are social connections and introductions from mutual friends what count in business? Does a handshake confirm a deal? 3. Who has the highest status in this culture? Does high status come as a result of personal achievement in this culture? Or do social origins, family connections, educational and professional backgrounds and senior job titles confer high status? 4. Do you have to be a member of the golf club in this culture? In some cultures you have to bide your time and pass through some gatekeeping function -such as being accepted to join the golf club - to be recognised as a suitable person with whom to do business, but once you are ‘in’, relationships are both personal and professional. In other cultures, you can quickly get friendly and respected in the workplace but never be invited home to meet the family. The degree of cross-over affects how open you can truly be about your opinions. 5. Is the group more important than the individual in this culture? For some groups, the welfare of the group – eg the family, the company, the profession, the faith - comes before the welfare of the individual: members are expected to put collective benefit first. In other cultures, individual freedoms and satisfactions are more important, and it is believed that the group is better off when its individual members are allowed to think and act for themselves.

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Understanding your Audience (cont.) 6. Attitudes to time in this culture There are cultures where the present and the future are more important than the past, and as a result, time-keeping and adherence to schedules are highly valued. In ‘historical’ cultures where people look to the past for explanations and value antecedents and older generations, people are much more relaxed about deadlines or about arriving on time. 7. Attitudes to the environment in this culture In some cultures, the expectations are that mankind can and should prevail over external forces, and that individuals should be able to control their own destinies. To fail to do so is a sign of weakness. In other cultures, people feel that external forces - for example, the weather or the economy - are more powerful than themselves, and that mankind will always be at the mercy of his environment How does all this help with communication? These understandings help in both external and internal contexts. If you have witnessed a speaker ‘lose’ his or her audience by making a gaffe that offends beliefs and values, you will know just how quickly rapport can be lost. Conversely, you may have seen someone win over an audience through persuasion and what seems to be sheer force of personality, but is really an ability to hit exactly the right note. As a preparation for a negotiation with, or an attempt to influence, a partner organisation, why not think through what you know about them against the above headings ? Having done that (and also perhaps thought about your own organisation’s norms and how they might see you in return), work out what separates you, what unites you, and how you might work together in future.

’Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business’,

Further Reading

by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd, London second edition 1997, pp29-154 ISBN: 1-85788-176-1

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Section Seven

Selling or selling out? Next page

Being representative and accountable: 2 pages on

Communication and marketing

Case Study

There were two charities in the same town doing much the same kind of thing. The director of one was always to be found on platforms with the chief executives of the local authority and local businesses. Its numerous staff were much in evidence, buzzing round town selfimportantly, getting articles in the newspaper, putting out glossy publications, and hosting swanky events. The staff of the other agency could not understand how this could be. The first agency was so showy.....their level of expertise was so shallow.... they didn’t do any ‘proper’ work..... they didn’t evaluate things properly.... they dumped projects overnight. How come they seemed to have so much money and got invited to everything? How come their own director, who was so clever and erudite, and so conscientious and thorough was rarely invited to sit on a platform? The bitter truth was that the first charity was so much better at selling itself than the second. Its director was a magnetic speaker and its staff could rustle up funding bids that hit all the right buttons for potential sponsors. The events and publications convinced the world that the agency was achieving great things. The second agency was much more worthy, but it did come across as much more dull. Its director had a sardonic, little ‘Muttley’ laugh which frightened people, and as its staff got crosser and crosser at being overlooked, the second agency began to be viewed with dread. Finally a vicious circle was created when it downright refused to market itself professionally just in case people thought it was too much like its rival.

Marketing yourself or selling your wares is not a sin!

Key Concept

Tailoring presentations to audience expectations is not a dishonest thing to do. There is a difference between ‘content’ and ‘presentation’. Just because slick and glossy things can be deceptive, that doesn’t mean that things which are good, sound and honest have to be dowdy to be true.

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Selling, or selling out? The literature on persuasion and influence is very clear: trying to ‘sell’ ideas and projects to others from the point of view of your own values and beliefs will always be far less successful than appealing to the values and beliefs of your audience. Good Idea

This is not to suggest that anyone should betray his or her own beliefs and values when liaising with others and seeking to persuade them. It is vital to stay true to your principles. And on a practical level, there is little point in seeking alliances with those who have fundamentally different attitudes because the relationships will be too fragile to survive. However, there is a big difference between ‘selling out’ and pausing to consider whether you are focusing on the things that appeal to you, or the things that will appeal to the other. Before an exchange with a key stakeholder, run through the materials on pages 71-72, and see if your answers give you new clues about how to create a positive and beneficial connection with them. What common ground do you have? What can you agree on? How can you get them to hear what you have to say?

Preparing to communicate with your audiences Bringing together all of the suggestions above, why not try to prepare for a piece of communication by considering: Activity

• With whom do you need to communicate? • What are you trying to achieve through this communication? What outcome are you seeking from this exchange? • What do you know of the cultural norms of this audience? What do you understand about their values and beliefs? • What do you know about this person’s/these people’s styles of operating? For example, do they want broad-brush information, or will they want to hear the detail? • How can you shape your language and presentation in order to maximise your chances of being heard by them?

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Being Representative and Accountable Other Toolkits in this RAISE series focus on the issues of Accountability and Representation. These are vital considerations for the Leaders of VCOs, particularly in their external communications. On Accountability, the relevant Toolkit says that Accountability is about ‘providing effective ways of explaining how power is or has been used’ and that communication is ‘the most important way of being accountable’. The Toolkit suggests that Leaders will be trusted to the extent that they make themselves Accountable for what they say and do. The Representation Toolkit says that being a Representative is ‘acting, speaking or being present on behalf of someone else’ and that someone in a Leadership role must be particularly scrupulous about the extent to which he or she is entitled to make commitments or negotiate on behalf of these others. The Toolkit says, ‘The “pure” representative will wish to speak accurately on behalf of those they represent without distortion, and will feed back to them’. Leaders are advised that if they ‘see fit to influence those they represent’, they should frankly acknowledge this intention. The Toolkit advises against taking a Leadership role in the external world unless there is a mandate to do so from those who are being represented. This issue of how much power and autonomy Leaders are allowed to exercise is one that is common to all sectors, although perhaps the people engaged in VCOs are more anxious than others about what is said and done in their names. Literature from the private sector on Leadership is said to make ‘implicit assumptions about the silence of followers’, which is not a fault commonly associated with the modern VCS where reconciling opinions is more frequently an issue! To behave appropriately as an ambassador for your VCO, it is vital to keep all these considerations at the front of your mind, and to act with integrity, strong principles and an ego that is under control.

‘A new look at dispersed leadership’ by Tim Ray, Stewart Clegg and Ray Gordon in ‘Leadership in Organisations’, edited by John Storey, published by Routledge, London, 2004. p323 ISBN: 0-415-31033-4

Further Reading

See other RAISE Toolkits on Accountability and Representation at the website below or contact RAISE at the address on page 2. www.raise-networks.org.uk

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Section Seven – Summary Communication Skills for Leaders • The ability to communicate well is one of the most important skills for Leaders, in particular ‘inter-organisational representation’, which is universally acknowledged as vital by leadership writers. • Leaders have to work hard to get their messages through to a wide range of audiences, with all kinds of values, beliefs and preconceptions, and have to do so in a number of different contexts. It is likely that you will be better at some kinds of communication than others; don’t dismiss your communication skills just because you find standing on platforms challenging. There are lots of situations in which your communication skills will be needed and can be demonstrated. • Be clear about who you need to communicate with, and your reasons for wanting to communicate. Think carefully about presentation: you don’t need to be dull to be worthy. Take responsibility for the effectiveness of your communications; don’t blame others for not understanding you because that doesn’t get you anywhere. • Leaders with good social skills can find common ground and build rapport with a wide range of people. As preparation for a negotiation with – or an attempt to influence – others, why not think through what you know about them in terms of values, beliefs and attitudes about how the world works. Tailor your communication so you hit the right notes with them. • Think about people’s operating styles when you are considering what to say to them and how you say it. In this way, you can get on the same wavelength as others. • Behave with integrity and remember your principles. You will engender more trust and respect if you are careful about being properly accountable and representative in your communications with others.

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SECTION EIGHT Learning from Experience In this Section, we look at how readers can set about learning and profiting from their good and bad experiences, and in the process can enhance their own performance and that of their staff.

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Learning from Experience Myths about leaders inhibit the development of skills and experience for both the experienced executive and the newcomer or aspirant to the role: •

One myth is that leaders never admit to any weakness. They are perceived as being different from everyone else, with qualities and characteristics that stem from their personality or upbringing. These make them more able than the rest of us to step up and take on the leadership job successfully.

•

Another myth is that leaders never admit to any ignorance. The assumption is that they are by definition the biggest experts on the premises in any given subject. People therefore expect them to know what to do and to take control of all situations in a commanding fashion.

Neither theory stands up to examination, but both still influence our culture. Books and articles are written in particular about private sector leaders. It is only when there is a corporate scandal that commentators start to query whether the highly paid leaders involved were really omniscient after all, or whether they should have had slightly less faith in their own abilities. In reality, leaders – along with everyone else – need to learn. One key issue is how they can learn from their experiences, and another - just as vital - is how they can help others to do so too.

Good Thought

Leaders as learners Not all the literature about Leadership assumes that leaders have learned all they need to know. John Adair, one of the most influential writers and trainers, says: ‘Leadership is learned by experience; it’s a practical art. You cannot avoid mistakes. Let your colleagues and subordinates teach you.’

‘Not Bosses, But Leaders’ by John Adair with Peter Reed published by Kogan Page, London, third edition 2003, p183.

Further Reading

ISBN: 0-7494-3899-1

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How does learning take place? The most well-known theory about how adults’ learn is Alan Mumford and Peter Honey’s ‘Learning Styles Theory’, which says that: • Some people like to dive in and experiment for themselves • Some people like to collect information and observe before acting • Some people want to get to the bottom of the theories behind something before they have a go • Some people want to put each step into practice as they go along. However, Honey and Mumford stress that in order to learn something, an individual has to go through all four of these steps, in some order or other. Learning happens only with practice and reflection. Quoted in ‘Training your Staff’ by Jacquie Bambrough published by The Industrial Society, London, 1993 ISBN: 0-85290-882-2 Another theory suggests that there are four levels of learning: • Unconscious incompetence: This is a stage of blissful ignorance, when we neither know something, nor know that we don’t know. For example, as young children, we could neither drive, nor knew that there was such a thing as driving. • Conscious incompetence: As we start to learn, we are concentrating hard, yet we can’t seem to get it right. For example, in a driving lesson, we keep on stalling, despite carefully focusing on how we are releasing the clutch. • Conscious competence: Finally, we think we have got the hang of something, but we get it right only when we focus on getting it right. In a driving lesson, we remember the ropes only when we repeatedly mutter, ‘Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre’ to ourselves. • Unconscious competence: Eventually, our learning has bedded down so well in our brains that we can do something without thinking about it. In a car, for example, we can drive and sing along to the radio at the same time. Quoted in ‘Compassion’ by Fabian Dattner, in ‘The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership’, edited by Carolyn Barker and Robyn Coy, published by McGraw Hill Australia, New South Wales, 2003. ISBN: 007471258-6

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Section Eight

How does Learning take place? Previous page

How to stop people learning: 3 pages on

How do you learn? There are a whole variety of ways in which you can learn, some formal and some more informal: •

By participating in broad-based academic courses

•

By going on directly relevant specialist training courses

•

By taking up courses that provide transferable lessons, for example outward-bound type exercises

•

By attending short seminars, workshops and briefings

•

By undertaking self-directed reading and study

•

By working with a mentor or coach

•

By offering to be a coach or mentor for someone else

•

By exchanging experiences with your peers or fellow specialists

•

By observing and drawing lessons from people you admire

•

By setting out to enrich your job with more demanding tasks

•

By teaching someone else to do your job, or writing a manual on how to do it

•

By consciously recording your experiences and reflecting on what you have learned from them and what you should do differently next time.

Activity

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What are you doing to ensure you keep on learning? How many of the above activities have you undertaken over the last 12 months? Even if money is tight, you could do up to 8 of the things listed above at no financial cost. The investment at least of time will keep on enhancing your skills.

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Are you in the mood for learning? Are you giving yourself the chance to learn from your experiences? Both the everyday occurrences, and the more occasional major events? Learning Logs Some trainers suggest that you keep a notebook in which you can record your own personal learning points at the end of a project or whenever something significant happens to you, particularly the times when you think you got things wrong. This is one way to ensure that you reflect on your experiences at work and prompt yourself to do things better next time. Making the time for learning

Activities

Do you fall into the common trap of letting everyday duties crowd out all opportunities to learn and develop? Do you have a stack of unread professional journals on your desk? Do you keep meaning to attend those professional seminars without ever quite getting there? Have you been meaning to update your qualifications for years? Only you can make the time to think, learn, reflect, practice and incorporate new skills into your working life. Have you thought about your legacy? One way of focusing attention on the most important skills and behaviours is to think: ‘What will my legacy to this organisation be? What will people remember me for? What would I like written on my epitaph?’ By asking these questions, you can bring longer-term considerations into focus. How positive are you towards yourself and others? Earlier in this Toolkit, it was suggested that people deduce what are the important things by noticing what their leaders focus on and reward. Are you in the habit of praising and encouraging achievement and success? Do you give other people – and very importantly, yourself – positive reinforcement? Encourage everyone, including yourself, to learn by being appreciative of success and thus increase morale.

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Guru not necessary Fons Trompenaars, international business culture expert, relates how Boris Becker’s triumph at Wimbledon in the mid 1980s led to a surge in the number of young Germans who wanted to learn how to play tennis, to the extent that there were not enough tennis coaches to go round.

Good Concepts

Skiing coaches were quickly trained up and sent into tennis clubs to conduct lessons. After a while, it transpired that the skiing coaches’ pupils were outstripping those taught by the far more experienced tennis coaches. Trompenaars’ conclusion was that the pupils learned faster when they had to think for themselves much harder about how to succeed. Trompenaars also reports the famous study by Meredith Belbin, in which a less talented team of colleagues, given a series of challenges to deal with, outperformed a team that was perceived to be of higher calibre. His point was that levels of co-operation within a team have more influence on outcomes than do levels of intelligence among team members. Both stories illustrate that learning can happen anywhere when the learners are motivated to perform better. You don’t necessarily need to get experts in to tell you how to improve if you have the will and application to succeed. ‘Did the Pedestrian Die?’ by Fons Trompenaars published by Capstone Publishing, Oxford, 2003 p112 & 185. ISBN: 1-84112-436-2

In ‘Everyone’s A Coach’, Ken Blanchard and Don Shula say there are five steps to ensure that people learn from what they do: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Good Ideas

Tell people what you want them to do Show them what good performance looks like Let them do it Observe their performance Praise their progress or redirect their efforts. From ‘Writers on Leadership’ by John van Maurik published by Penguin Books, London, 2001, p26 ISBN: 0-14-029305-1

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How to stop people learning There are probably quite a few ways in which one can stop people from learning, but for our purposes, the obvious ones are: • Not giving people any feedback on their performance • Never leaving enough time to reflect on lessons learned • Making people too scared to experiment or use their own initiative. When people are over-stressed, one of the first things to go is the ability to stand back and think calmly about the situation. Obviously, this curtails people’s propensity to learn and improve performance. Margaret Thorsborne, an Australian expert on restorative justice, discusses the concept of a ‘toxic workplace’ in which the following types of behaviour can be observed: • Criticism and abuse • Bullying and harassment • Lack of explanation and engagement • Little or no clarity of expectation • Poor management processes • Poor management of performance reviews • People being let down • Gossip and backstabbing. Thorsborne says that these behaviours lead to fear, distress and shame among the workforce, which are generally defended against in one of four ways: • People attack and blame others, or put them down • People withdraw emotionally and go into their shells • People put up a façade, and pretend there’s nothing wrong • People blame themselves and become despairing and depressed. The only kind of learning people can do in this kind of environment is about how to escape notice or censure.

‘Integrity’ by Margaret Thorsborne in ‘The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership’, edited by Carolyn Barker and Robyn Coy published by McGraw Hill Australia, New South Wales, 2003.

Further Reading

ISBN: 007471258-6

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Section Eight

How to stop people learning: previous page

The importance of caring for ‘followers’: next page but one

How to overcome workplace stress Dattner’s survey of thousands of Australian employees ranked the factors thought to undermine an organisation’s effectiveness: • 76% of respondents said a lack of – or poor – leadership • 66% said a lack of visionary objectives • 45% said a lack of aligned purpose and values • 41% said a mismatch between leaders’ behaviours and the stated values of the organisation. Dattner, an Australian social entrepreneur, went on to comment: ‘Change is fermenting in every corner of the modern world…This demands a new and flexible kind of leadership; alert to people’s needs [and] compassionately responsible for others.’ Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe and John Alban-Metcalfe, in their recent study of British statutory agencies, say that three kinds of activity by leaders can provide a powerful antidote to stress: • Setting clear priorities and objectives for both organisation and individual • Giving people greater levels of autonomy and control over how they do their jobs • Affirming people promptly and unaffectedly – saying thank you, giving feedback, acknowledging effort and handling problems. There are powerful clues in both studies about what leaders can do to enhance the positive working experiences of employees.

‘Compassion’ by Fabian Dattner in ‘The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership’ edited by Carolyn Barker and Robyn Coy published by McGraw Hill Australia, New South Wales, 2003 ISBN: 007471258-6

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Further Reading

‘Leadership in Public Sector Organisations’ by B Alimo-Metcalfe and J AlbanMetcalfe in ‘Leadership in Organisations: Current Issues and Key Trends’, edited by John Storey, published by Routledge, London, 2004, pp173-202 ISBN: 0-415-31033-4 www.raise-networks.org.uk

‘The beatings will continue until morale improves’ The bosses of a not-for-profit environmental consultancy in The Home Counties were almost in despair that none of their projects came in on time and to budget. They progressively clamped down on their employees, getting people to fill in detailed timesheets and making each individual into a ‘costcentre’ with his/her own budgets and billing codes. Even so, employees were still missing their targets.

Case Study: A time to learn

Eventually, in exasperation, several people were sent on project management training courses. This did not have the desired effect either. Instead, the employees had access to the accumulated experience of other project managers, which said that deviations of anything up to 50% on experimental projects should be expected, and even on familiar types of project, there could be a 15% variance. Had the bosses of the agency invested in training earlier or even asked their staff to extrapolate from their experiences, they could have discovered and learned from these norms far sooner.

The importance of feedback

Good Ideas

US consultant, Ken Blanchard, says that if there are no consequences, people can’t learn and their performance won’t improve. He suggests that there can be three kinds of consequences, each with different implications, but he counsels managers to be positive and consistent in their approach because predictability is also important for motivation. Negative consequences: people will try to avoid repeating their faults if the result is a reprimand or a demotion. Positive consequences: praise for good performance is motivational and will lead people to try to replicate that behaviour. Redirection: if a person is quickly stopped and refocused on the right way to do something, the learning will be powerful. ‘Putting the One-Minute Manager to Work’ by Ken Blanchard quoted in ‘Writers on Leadership’ by John van Maurik published by Penguin Books, London, 2001 ISBN: 0-14-029305-1

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Looking for ‘positive intentions’ to generate change

Key Concept

‘All behaviour has a positive intention. It always serves a purpose. People always act in the belief that their behaviour will achieve something for them.’ ‘Try to separate in your mind unhelpful or unproductive behaviour from what motivates it.’ ‘If you act as if there is a positive intention, and seek to understand what [someone] wants to achieve, you will be better able to influence them.’ ‘Alpha Leadership’ by Anne Deering, Robert Dilts and Julian Russell published by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2002 pp109 – 110. ISBN: 0-470-84483-3

The importance of caring for your ‘followers’ An interesting perspective on leadership comes from a few authors who have suggested that we can understand the concept better by understanding ‘followership’. After all, people cannot be leaders unless they have followers. Does your VCO care about its people?: • Do you know what do the people in your organisation want from their leaders? • What can the leaders of your VCO do to improve both the performance and the working lives of staff and volunteers? • What can you learn now from the people in your organisation? What could you gain from learning alongside them? One of the most recent theories is about ‘SuperLeaders’ who ‘strive to develop followers who are effective self-leaders ........ by helping, encouraging and supporting followers in the development of personal responsibility, individual initiative, self-confidence, self-goalsetting, self-problem solving, opportunity thinking, self-leadership and psychological ownership of their work tasks and duties.’ ‘The New SuperLeadership’ by CC Manz and HP Sims published by Berrett-Koehler San Francisco, 2001, pp23-24.

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Section Eight – Summary Learning from Experience • Old-fashioned attitudes say that Leaders should be know-it-alls, but Leaders need to be learners, people who appreciate that they will learn through trial and error, and by being humble enough to listen to advice from others. • There are all kinds of ways to learn about your subject, many of which are cheap or free, but the really important thing is to give yourself the time to observe yourself - or others - in action, reflect on the meaning of what you see, draw lessons from your thinking and apply your learning in order to ensure the new skills are practised and perfected. • You don’t necessarily need experts to tell you what to do; you can learn from your own experiences. Just be sure to go through the ‘learning cycle’ – or get others to – to ensure the learning ‘sticks’, remembering that feedback is critical for successful learning. • In stressful or ‘toxic’ workplaces, people will be too scared or demotivated to learn. Defensiveness or backbiting can be signs that people are ruled by fear or stress. People will perform better in an environment governed by clear values and vision, clear purpose and objectives, higher levels of autonomy and generous affirmation. • An important part of leaders’ learning is to understand and appreciate what ‘followers’ want and need, and to be able to see things from the point of view of the people who work for the organisation. Some modern theories about good leadership suggest leaders should learn from and alongside their staff, and that they should set out to foster ‘self-leadership’ throughout their teams. • It can be helpful to think in terms of the legacy you will leave your organisation, but you must also think in the shorter term about how to invest in your learning – in particular, how you will give yourself - and others - the time and space to learn.

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Glossary and Jargon Buster We have tried to write these Toolkits in plain English, but inevitably in any specialist field, technical language can creep in, and might need further explanation....... Access Accountability Acronym Active Community Unit ACU AGM Appraisal Audit Awayday Beneficiaries BME Board Capacity Building Champion Charity Chief Executive Officer CEO Community Groups Compact Constitution Cross-sector Demographics Discrimination

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The methods by which people with a range of needs (eg people with disabilities, children, a first language other than English) find out about and use services and information Providing effective ways of explaining how power is or has been used Using the initials of something instead of its full title: VFM instead of Value for Money, LA instead of Local Authority Part of the Home Office; exists to promote the development of the Voluntary/Community Sector Active Community Unit Annual General Meeting, open to all members and allowing them to hear about the VCO, to ask questions and to vote A periodic review of the performance of a person A systematic review or assessment of a system Where a team undertake some form of development day away from their normal workplace The people who are helped by an organisation or programme. Black and minority ethnic The committee ultimately responsible for the VCO Anything that helps an organisation to perform better, generally training and support to strengthen the organisation Someone who takes on particular responsibility: thus ‘Community champion’, ‘Board Equalities champion’ Organisation set up for exclusively charitable purposes which carries out activities to achieve these purposes The most senior paid staff member in an organisation; might be titled director, manager etc. Chief Executive Officer Part of the Voluntary/Community Sector; although similar to voluntary organisations, they may not have paid staff nor written rules A framework agreement between statutory organisations and the Voluntary/Community Sector in their area See ‘ Governing document’ A project, group or initiative that contains organisations from at least 2 of the Public, Private and Voluntary Sectors The study or record of a particular population in terms of gender, age, ethnicity etc Treating people less favourably than others solely because of their race, ethnicity, disability, gender, age, faith etc.

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Diversity

Empowerment

Equalities

Evaluation Frontline VCOs GOSE Governance Governing document Grassroots VCO Health Check Honorary Impact Incorporation Induction Induction loop Informal Representation Infrastructure Leadership

The concept that organisations and systems benefit from the richness that comes from the differences amongst people. Society benefits from the diversity of the Voluntary/Community Sector Within an organisation, giving volunteers or staff a licence to act without frequent recourse to a higher authority. As regards a beneficiary, enabling them to take more control over their life or more influence in the organisation that is helping them Used as a short hand term to refer to all work addressing issues of discrimination and disadvantage, particularly as it relates to race equality, disability, gender, sexuality, faith and age Assessing and putting a value on what’s been done already; measuring impact VCOs engaged in direct work with the public or their cause, used to distinguish them from infrastructure VCOs which work primarily with organisations Government Office of the South East: sometimes called ‘The voice of Whitehall in the Region and of the Region in Whitehall.’ A way of setting and keeping an organisation on the right course Any document setting out a VCO’s purposes and, usually, how it is to be run. It may be e.g. a trust deed, constitution, or memorandum and articles of association An alternative term for frontline VCOs A check list that fairly rapidly identifies where an organisation needs to pay further attention to certain issues In the Voluntary/Community Sector, just implies a volunteer eg Honorary Secretary All changes brought about by a VCO (intended and unintended, negative and positive, long and short-term) The status of being a Limited Company The introduction of a person new to a role to the people, systems and circumstances they will need to be familiar with to carry out that role effectively A coil of wire, temporarily or permanently installed in a room, which allows those using hearing aids to hear without the distraction of background noise Has been used to describe the state of affairs where a representative is asked to represent a person, group or sector, but the representee has had no real hand in the selection of this representative Usually used just to mean VCOs which exist to support other VCOs – e.g. Councils for Voluntary Service The ability to motivate and guide the people connected to a voluntary/community organisation to meet its goals

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Local Strategic Partnership LSP Mandate Marginalisation Members

Membership organisations Mentor Micromanagement Mission Monitoring NCVO Palantypist Private Sector Probity Public Sector

Quorate Quorum Region, as in "South East Region"

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An alliance of local statutory organisations, VCOs and business interests formed to give a strategic direction to improvement for the local community Local Strategic Partnership The authority given by a representee permitting a representative to take certain actions on their behalf The process by which certain groups of people are, through a process of social exclusion, pushed to a position on the margins of society Used by VCOs to mean their clients/users, and by infrastructure bodies to mean their member organisations. But, often used in statutory organisations to mean the elected members of the Council VCOs who are composed of individual members, who normally elect the Board A supporter and coach helping someone carry out their role Where a person in a senior position over-controls and overscrutinises the work of another The aims and reasons for which a VCO was set up; often summarised in a brief mission statement Collecting information to determine progress of e.g. a project The National Council for Voluntary Organisations A speed typist who types an almost simultaneous transcript of what is being said at events and meetings, the text being displayed on a public screen See ‘Sector’. Profit-making is core to organisations in this Sector, profit being distributed to owners, or shareholders Acting in a way which cannot lead to any possibility of an accusation of a conflict of interest See ‘Sector’. Organisations in the Public Sector, such as GOSE, have to exist by law, and their rules and responsibilities are determined by law (or statute). Also ‘statutory organisations’ Used to describe a meeting attended by at least the minimum number of people required to make a decision (see ‘Quorum’) The minimum number of people needed to make valid decisions at a meeting; can be a fixed number or a percentage of those entitled to attend and vote The South East of England, comprising: • Kent (including Medway) • Surrey and East and West Sussex (including Brighton and Hove) • Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (including Southampton and Portsmouth) • Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire (including Milton Keynes, West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, Bracknell Forest and Slough)

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Representation

The process where one person or group of people is acting, speaking or being present on behalf of another person or group Representee The person or group of people who are represented by a representative Sector Any organisation can be defined as belonging to one of three sectors: ‘Public’, ‘Private’ or ‘Voluntary/Community’. ‘The Sector’ often means ‘voluntary/community organisations’. Shadowing Sitting in with a person going about their daily work, to understand the role Social A high priority concern of the European Union and the British inclusion/exclusion Government : relates to the fact that people can be prevented from accessing normal community life because of disability, prejudice, unemployment. Etc Specs Short for specification, as in the characteristics need by a person in a particular role Stakeholders Anyone that has an interest or involvement in an organisation. The Stakeholders of a VCO could be its staff, Board, volunteers, service users, relatives of service users, funders Statutory Organisations which the law declares must exist – local organisations authorities, police authorities, and others Statutory sector All the statutory organisations considered as a whole Succession Where a person is about to take over the role another has performed. Succession Planning means helping the incoming person link with the outgoing one, so they can learn the ropes Toolkit An accessible set of implements, instructions and ideas for busy voluntary/community sector workers to dip into Transparent A system that is open, honest, has clear procedures and does not make decisions in secret, is ‘transparent’ Trustees People responsible for controlling and governing a VCO. Sometimes called committee members, governors, directors, or by some other title VCOs Voluntary and community organisations Voluntary and The wide range of voluntary and community organisations, community sector considered as a whole. All VCOs meet three criteria: • They’re free to decide their rules, their purpose and whether they exist at all • They must be controlled by volunteers (so their directors / trustees / management board are not paid) • They must not exist to make a financial profit (so any surplus they do make is incidental and re-invested in the organisation) Voluntary organisation

Part of the voluntary and community sector, voluntary organisations are similar to community organisations but do have paid staff and written rules

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This Toolkit has been produced by RAISE in partnership with Caroline Clark, published in February 2006. This series of LARGE toolkits have been edited by Justin Bateman. RAISE is a registered charity number 1080583 and a Company Limited by Guarantee, registered in England number 3932854.