Annual Maureen Dixon Lecture Re-thinking Leadership: Time for a New Perspective? Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe MBA PhD C.Psychol. Professor of Leadership Studies University of Leeds

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Annual Maureen Dixon Lecture Re-thinking
Leadership Time for a New Perspective? Beverly
Alimo-Metcalfe MBA PhD C.Psychol.Professor of
Leadership StudiesUniversity of
LeedsLeadership Research Development Ltd
Health Service Executive / Office for Health
Management Dublin, June 1st 2005
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People dont resist change!
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Creating a culture with high readiness for
change
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Leadership culture the inextricable link
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Notions of leadership are constantly changing
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Leadership Research

• The old paradigm models
• The new paradigm models

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The New Paradigm Models of Leadership

• Visionary
• Charismatic
• Transformational

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But management (transactional leadership)is
essential!
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Leadership And Performance Outcomes

• Transformational Leadership has a significantly
  greater impact than Transactional Leadership on
• staff
• teams
• organisations

Source Bass, B.M. (1998) Transformational
Leadership Military, Industrial Educational
Impact. LondonLawrence Erlbaum
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Leadership Organisational Performance (1)

• One study, investigated the impact of top 250
  executives at a major financial services company
  found
• 34 per cent of business unit performance results
  was due directly to transformational leadership.
• Other benefits included
• - more innovative products produced
• - more innovations introduced in
  organizations
• - more patents for work produced
• - higher company financial performance.

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Leadership Organisational Performance (2)

• European study found that the transformational
  leadership of 120 Branch Bank Managers, predicted
  long-term branch market share customer
  satisfaction
• (Geyer Steyrer, 1998)
• Canadian study of Department Heads in large
  financial institutions, found that
  transformational leadership predicted
  consolidated departmental performance one year
  later
• (Howell Avolio, 1993)

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Leadership Mental Health

• Association between transformational leadership
  of team leader, and Customer satisfaction,
  Quality of Life ratings of adults with serious
  persistent mental health problems

Corrigan, P.W. (2000) Mental health team
leadership consumers satisfaction quality of
life, Psychiatric Services, 51, 6, 781-785.
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Why UK research?

• Received wisdom based on US studies
• Focus typically on distant leaders
• New paradigm models often based on leaders
  perspectives
• Limited samples used
• Heroic models under attack

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The problem with charisma

• The dark side
• The link with effectiveness

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Leadership time for a new direction?

• Jim Collins
• Kanter
• Mintzberg

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What does this post-heroic model look like?
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A New Inclusive Model of Transformational
Leadership
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UK Transformational model

• Showing genuine concern
• Enabling
• Being accessible
• Encouraging questioning curiosity
• Integrity
• Networking
• Building Shared Visions
• Self-development
• Cultures of learning developing others
  leadership

Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, J. The
Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ).
Leeds LRDL
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Comparison between distant and nearby models
of Leadership

• Distant Charismatic - Inspirational
• leader as role model
• Nearby Genuine concern for others
• leader as servant and partner
• Nearby themes of openness, humility, humanity
• Nearby theme of connecting and inclusiveness
  

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Servant leadership

• As we near the end of the twentieth century,
  we are beginning to see that traditional
  autocratic and hierarchical modes of leadership
  are slowly yielding to a newer model one that
  attempts to simultaneously enhance the personal
  growth of workers and improve the quality and
  caring of our many institutions through a
  combination of teamwork and community, personal
  involvement in decision making, and ethical and
  caring behavior. This emerging approach to
  leadership and service is called
  servant-leadership."
•  Taken from the Introduction to Reflections on
  Leadership published by John Wiley in 1995.

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Leader as Servant

• Characteristics
• Listening
• Empathy
• Healing
• Awareness
• Persuasion
• Conceptualisation
• Foresight
• Stewardship

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Danger of obsession with targets!
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Its not that competencies arent important, but
that leadership is about

• performing the competencies of ones job, in a
  Transformational way!

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But does it work?
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Staff of Excellent authorities are more likely
to

• Have an input into work planning
• Have an opportunity to show their initiative
• Believe their manager listens to their ideas
• Have a say in management decisions
• Have the opportunity to let the authority know
  how they feel about things that affect them and
  their work
• Feel their authority keeps them well-informed
• Believe that the reasons for change are well
  communicated, that change is well managed

Source The Impact of Motivation on
Organisational Success (2004) LondonIDeA
LRDL
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Leadership readiness for change
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Predictors of Readiness for Change (1)

• Best predictors are
• Individuals in active positions
• Social supportive workplace
• High self-efficacy

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Predictors of Readiness for Change (2)

• Implications of research findings
• Create a discrepancy
• Promote active jobs
• 3 Encourage an active approach to job
  p/solving,
• 4 Enhance self-efficacy
• 5 Encourage supportive working relationships

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Innovation in the public sector

• Leaders can create a supportive climate for
  bottom-up innovation by
• - consulting staff
• - instituting formal awards and informal
  recognition for innovators
• - promoting innovators
• - protecting innovators from control-orientated
  central agencies
• - publicly championing bottom-up innovations
  that have proven successful have popular appeal

Borins, S. (2002). Leadership innovation in the
public sector. Leadership Organisation
Development Journal, 23, 8, 467-476.
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How are we doing?
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TLQ Public Private sector norms
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Does it matter?
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The Impact of Poor Leadership
Impact/ Scale Job-related Stress Motivation Achievement Motivation Job Satisfaction
Genuine Concern ? ? ? ?
Encouraging Questioning ? ? ?
Acting with Integrity ? ? ? ?
Inspiring Others ? ? ?
Focusing Team Effort ? ?
Supporting a Developmental Culture ? ? ? ?
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Embedding leadership in the organisations culture
Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2004).
Leadership in public sector organizations. In
John Storey (ed.). Leadership in Organisations
Current Issues Key Trends. London Routledge
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Leadership Organisational Culture

• 2 sides of same coin
• The single most important responsibility of a
  leader is to create the appropriate culture
• The Chief Executive, senior managers are key

Source Schein, E. (1998). Organizational Culture
Leadership. San Francisco Jossey-Bass
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A Potential Problem

• Managers think theyre
• good at it!

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Dont assume your perceptions of the
organisations culture are shared!
LRDL
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Cultural diagnosis
Source The Ethical Leadership Culture Change
Inventory. Leeds LRDL
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Organisations that are most effective

• Have cultures that are
• Human(e)
• Have clear vision
• Engage staff in developing local visions
• Ensure individuals are clear about objectives
  jointly agreed and own their jobs
• Involve staff in decisions which affect them
• Take staff development very seriously - provide
  regular constructive feedback

LRDL
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Q Why do most leadership development initiatives
fail?

• Answer
• 1
• 2
• 3

Alimo-Metcalfe, B., Ford, J., Harding, N.
Lawler, J. (2000). Leadership Development in
British Companies at the Beginning of the 21st
Century. London Careers Research Forum
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Embedding a Culture of Transformational Change

• Start at the top!
• Examine the organisational culture
• Scrutinise Recruitment
• Reflect on Succession Planning policies
• Use 360 appropriately resource development
• Be passionate about appraisal/PDR
• Encourage constructive criticism new
  perspectives
• Spend time on the shop floor!
• Liberate leadership!

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How can you tell a leader?

• not in terms of the leadership they exercise.
• But in terms of the leadership they evoke in
  others

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And finally

• Cynicism concerning people in powerseems to be
  at comparatively high levels..
• The emerging era of terrorist threats may
  rekindle interest in leadership, targeted toward
  the promotion of inclusion, unity, and
  allegiance, and less toward the emphasis of
  division and separateness

Vecchio, R.P. (2002). Leadership and gender
advantage. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 643-684.
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Where do I start?

• Remember Pygmalion!!

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How can you tell the effectiveness of a leader?
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Additional References

• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2005).
  Leadership Time for a new direction?.
  Leadership, 1, 51-71
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2002).
  Leadership. In P.Warr (ed.). Psychology at
  Work. Penguin.
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Nyfield, G. (2002).
  Leadership organisational effectiveness. In
  I. Robertson et al., The Role of Individual
  Performance in Organisational Effectiveness.
  London Wiley
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, R.J. (2002).
  The great and the good, People Management ,
  January 10th, 32-34.
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, R.J. (2002).
  Leadership Half the battle, The Health Service
  Journal, March 7th, 26-27.
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, R.J. (2000).
  Heaven can wait, The Health Service Journal,
  October 12th, 26-29.
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. (1998). 360 degree feedback
  leadership development. International Journal of
  Selection Assessment, 6, 1, 35-44.
• Alimo-Metcalfe, B. Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2001).
  The development of a new Transformational
  Leadership Questionnaire. Journal of
  Occupational Organizational Psychology, 74,
  1-27.

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Further information

• b.m.alimo-metcalfe_at_leeds.ac.uk
• Leadership Research Development Ltd
• Stewart House
• St Andrews Court
• Leeds
• LS3 1JY
• 0845 6017708/ 0113 243 0008
• www.lrdl.co.uk