Becoming a 360 Degree Leader

Becoming a 360 Degree Leader

Juarine Stewart, Ph.D. Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Undergraduate Studies Director, Centers of Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Alabama A&M University

The difference between leading and managing (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)

Lead •to guide on a way, especially by going in advance.

Manage •to handle or direct with a degree of skill; to make and keep compliant.

The 360-Degree Leader: Developing your influence from anywhere in the organization  John C. Maxwell (author) 

The reality is that 99% of all leadership occurs not from the top but from the middle of an organization.



You need to learn to lead up, lead across, and lead down.



Leading in all directions will require you to learn three different sets of leadership skills.

• Leaders and potential leaders need to learn both  the skills of leadership (to be the visionary) and  the skills of management (to be the takecharge, get-it-done person).

Demands from the top (Provost, President)

Expectations from vendors (Consultants, suppliers)

Leaders in the Middle

Expectations from followers (Faculty, program participants)

Demands from customers (Students, program participants)

Leadership is influence Integrity Nurturing Faith Listening

• build relationships on trust • cares about people as individuals • believes in people • values what others have to say

Understanding

• sees from their point of view

Enlarging

• helps others become bigger

Navigating

• assists others through difficulties

Connecting

• initiates positive relationships

Empowering

• gives them the power to lead

Lead-up principles 1.

Lead yourself exceptionally well.

2.

Lighten your leader’s load.

3.

Be willing to do what others won’t.

4.

Do more than manage – lead!

5.

Invest in relational chemistry.

6.

Be prepared every time you take your leader’s time.

7.

Know when to push and when to back off.

8.

Become a go-to player.

9.

Be better tomorrow than you are today.

1. Lead your self exceptionally well.

The key to leading yourself well is to learn selfmanagement.

•Manage your emotions.

•Manage your time.

•Manage your priorities.

•Manage your energy.

•Manage your thinking.

•Manage your words.

•Manage your personal life.

2. Lighten your leader’s load.

If you help lift the load, then you help your leader succeed.

• Lifting shows you are a team player.

• Lifting shows gratitude for being on the team.

• Lifting makes you part of something bigger.

• Lifting gets you noticed.

• Lifting increases your value and influence.

How to lift your leader’s load.

1.

Do your own job well first.

2.

When you find a problem, provide a solution.

3.

Tell leaders what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

4.

Go the second mile.

5.

Stand up for your leader whenever you can.

6.

Stand in for your leader whenever you can.

7.

Ask your leader how you can lift the load.

3. Be willing to do what others won’t.  Take the tough jobs.  Pay your dues.  Sometimes work in obscurity.  Put yourself on the line.  Admit faults but never make excuses.

 Do more than expected.  Be the first to step up and help.  Perform tasks that are not your job.  Take responsibility for your responsibilities.  Succeed with difficult people.

Coping with difficult people Robert M. Bramson (Author)

Sherman tanks Snipers Exploders The complete complainer The silent and unresponsive person Super-agreeable and other wonderfully nice people The wet blanket Bulldozers and balloons Indecisive stallers

Patterns of Difficult Behavior  Hostile-Aggressives (Sherman Tanks, Snipers, Exploders): These are people who try to bully and overwhelm by bombarding others, making cutting remarks, or throwing tantrums when things don’t go the way they are certain things should go.  Complainers: These are individuals who gripe incessantly but who never try to do anything about what they complain about, either because they feel powerless to do so or because they refuse to bear the responsibility.  Silents and Unresponsives: These are the people who respond to every question you might have, every plea for help you make, with a yep, a no, or a groan.

Patterns of Difficult Behavior  Super-Aggreables: Often very personable, funny, and outgoing individuals, Super-Agreeables are always very reasonable, sincere, and supportive in your presence but don’t produce what they say they will, or act contrary to the way they have led you to expect.  Negativists (Wet Blankets): When a project is proposed, the Negativists are bound to object with “It won’t work” or “It’s impossible.” All too often they effectively deflate any optimism you might have.  Know-It-Alls (Bulldozers and Balloons): These are those “superior” people who believe, and want you to recognize, that they know everything there is to know about anything worth knowing. They’re condescending, imposing (if they really do know what they’re talking about), or pompous (if they don’t), and they will likely make you feel like an idiot.

Patterns of Difficult Behavior  Indecisives: Those who stall major decisions until the decision is made for them, those who can’t let go of anything until it is perfect – which means never.

The Nature of Coping  Coping means to contend on equal terms.  Individuals behave in a difficult manner because they have learned that doing so keeps others off balance and incapable of effective action.  Difficult people manage to gain control over others.  Effective coping is the sum of those actions that you can take to right the power balance, to minimize the impact of others’ difficult behavior in the immediate situation in which you find yourself.  Coping methods work because they interfere with the “successful” functioning of difficult behavior. When the behavior strategies of the Difficult Person don’t work, when you respond in ways different from those expected, your are able to get about your business and the Difficult Person is provided with an incentive, and an opportunity, to develop other, more constructive behavior.

4. Do more than manage – lead!

Moving beyond management:

Leaders lead the people who manage the processes.

Managers work with processes, leaders work with people.

• Leaders think longer term.

• Leaders see within the larger context.

• Leaders push boundaries.

• Leaders put emphasis on intangibles.

• Leaders learn to rely on intuition.

• Leaders invest power in others.

• Leaders see themselves as agents of change.

5. Invest in relational chemistry.  People won’t go along with you if they can’t get along with you.  The key to developing chemistry with your leaders is to develop relationships with them.  Listen to your leader’s heartbeat.  Know your leader’s priorities.

 Catch your leader’s enthusiasm.  Support your leader’s vision.  Connect with your leader’s interests.  Understand your leader’s personality.  Earn your leader’s trust.  Learn to work with your leader’s weaknesses.  Respect your leader’s family.

6. Be prepared every time you take your leader’s time.  Invest 10X. Spend ten minutes preparing for every minute that you expect to meet.  Don’t make your boss think for you.  Bring something to the table.  When asked to speak, don’t wing it.

 Learn to speak your boss’s language.  Get to the bottom line.  Give a return on your leader’s investment.

7. Know when to push and when to push back

Is it time to push?

• Do I know something my boss doesn’t but needs to?

• Is time running out?

• Are my responsibilities at risk?

• Can I help my boss win?

7. Know when to push and when to push back

Is it time to back off?

• Am I promoting my own personal agenda?

• Have I already made my point?

• Must everyone but me take the risk?

• Does the atmosphere say “no”?

• Is the timing right only for me?

• Does my request exceed our relationship?

8. Become a go-to player

Go-to players produce when:

• The pressure’s on • The resources are few • The momentum is low • The load is heavy • The leader is absent • The time is limited

9. Be better tomorrow than you are today  The key to personal development is being more growth oriented than goal oriented.  The better you are, the more people listen.  The better you are, the greater your value today.  The better you are, the greater your potential for tomorrow.

 How to be better tomorrow:  Learn your craft today.  Talk your craft today.

 Practice your craft today.

Leading across ď‚´To lead peers, you have to work at giving your colleagues reasons to respect and follow you.

ď‚´How do you do that? By helping them win.

Lead-across principles 1.

Understand, practice, and complete the leadership loop.

2.

Put completing fellow leaders ahead of competing with them.

3.

Be a friend.

4.

Avoid office politics.

5.

Expand your circle of acquaintances.

6.

Let the best idea win.

7.

Don’t pretend you’re perfect.

1. Understand, practice, and complete the leadership loop Caring – • Take an interest in people.

Succeeding –

Learning –

• Win with people.

• Get to know people.

Leading –

Appreciating –

• Influence people.

• Respect people.

Verbalizing –

Contributing –

• Affirm people.

• Add value to people.

2. Put completing fellow leaders ahead of competing with them. ď‚´ In healthy working environments, there is both teamwork and competition.

The issue is to know which is appropriate. ď‚´ When it comes to your teammates, you want to compete in such a way that instead of competing with them, you are completing them. ď‚´ How to balance competing and completing: 1.

Acknowledge your natural desire to compete.

2.

Embrace healthy competition.

3.

Put competition in its proper place.

4.

Know where to draw the line.

3. Be a friend How to be friend: • Listen!

• Find common ground not related to work.

• Be available beyond business hours.

• Have a sense of humor.

• Tell the truth when others don’t.

4. Avoid office politics  Avoid gossip.  Stay away from petty arguments.

 Stand up for what’s right, not just for what’s popular.  Look at all sides of the issue.  Don’t protect your turf.

 Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

5. Expand your circle of acquaintances

What will it do

• Help you improve.

• Expose you to new ideas.

• Prompt you to see things from a different point of view, which will help you generate new ideas of your own.

• Help you learn new working methods and pick up additional skills.

• Help you become more innovative.

• Expand your network, putting you in contact with more people and giving you potential access to their networks.

5. Expand your circle of acquaintances

Expand beyond YOUR

•inner circle.

•expertise.

•strengths •personal prejudices.

•routine.

6. Let the best idea win  Listen to all ideas.  Never settle for just one idea.

 Look in unusual places for ideas.  Don’t let personality overshadow purpose.  Protect creative people and their ideas.

 Don’t take rejection personally.

7. Don’t pretend you’re perfect  Admit your faults.  Ask for advice.  Worry less about what others think.  Be open to learning from others.  Put away pride and pretense.

Lead-down principles 1. Walk slowly through the halls.

2. See everyone as a “10.�

3. Develop each team member as a person.

4. Place people in their strength zones.

5. Model the behavior you desire.

6. Transfer the vision.

7. Reward for results.

1. Walk slowly through the halls  Relationship building is always the foundation of effective leadership.  Good leaders are intentionally connected to the people they lead.  One of the best ways to stay connected to your people and keep track of how they’re doing is to approach the task informally as you move among the people.

 Connect with people and give them an opportunity to make contact with you.

1. Walk slowly through the halls

Suggestions:

• 1. Slow down.

• 2. Express that you care.

• 3. Create a healthy balance of personal and professional interest.

• 4. Pay attention when people start avoiding you.

• 5. Tend to the people, and they will tend to the business.

2. See everyone as a “10” 1.

See them as who they can become.

2.

Let them “borrow” your belief in them.

3.

Catch them doing something right.

4.

Believe the best – give others the benefit of the doubt.

5.

Realize that “10” has many definitions.

6.

Give them the “10” treatment.

3. Develop each team member as a person When you develop others, they become better, they do the job better, and both you and the organization benefit. Everybody wins.

How to develop your people:

• 1. See development as a long-term process.

• 2. Discover each person’s dreams and desires.

• 3. Lead everyone differently.

• 4. Use organizational goals for individual development.

• 5. Help them know themselves.

• 6. Be ready to have a hard conversation.

• 7. Celebrate the right wins.

• 8. Prepare them for leadership.

3. Develop each team member as a person Leadership development means taking them through a process that gets them ready to step in and lead.

Recommended process:

• I do it.

• I do it and you watch.

• You do it and I watch.

• You do it.

• You do it and someone else watches.

4. Place people in their strength zones  The number one reason people don’t like their jobs is that they are not working in the area of their strengths.  Steps for placing people in their strength zones: 1.

Discover their true strengths.

2.

Give them the right job.

3.

Identify the skills they’ll need and provide world-class training.

5. Model the behavior you desire Leaders set the tone and pace for all the people working for them.

Therefore, you need to be what you want to see.

• Your behavior determines the culture.

• Your attitude determines the atmosphere.

• Your values determine the decisions.

• Your investment determines the return.

• Your character determines the trust.

• Your work ethic determines the productivity.

• Your growth determines the potential.

6. Transfer the vision ď‚´ As a leader in the middle of the organization, you will be transferring what is primarily the vision of others.

ď‚´ Therefore, you need to interpret the vision in a way that fires up the people and sets them off in the right direction via: 1. Clarity 2. Connection of past, present and future.

3. Purpose 4. Goals 5. A challenge 6. Stories 7. Passion

7. Reward for results Be careful what you reward, because whatever gets rewarded gets done.

Principles for rewarding results:

• Give praise publicly and privately.

• Give more than just praise.

• Don’t reward everyone the same.

• Give perks beyond pay.

• Promote when possible.

• Remember that you get what you pay for.

ACTIVITY  How good a 360-Degree leader are you currently?  Assess your current skills at leading up, leading across, and leading down.  Where are you strongest?  Where is there growth potential?