Strategic Business LeadershipExecutive Education Seminar

THE ENGAGING LEADER – PART ONE.

Tim Reynolds, MLHRExecutive Director, Walter Center for Strategic Leadership

“It’s Like A Brastemp!”

Personal Introduction • Academic – Ohio University &

Ohio State

• Work Experience – Twenty-Five Years in Human Resources, Talent and Leadership Development

• Companies Worked For - Whirlpool, Abbott Labs, Marathon Oil & Johns-Mansville Corporation.

• Passionate About – Developing Individual and Leadership Potential.

The Engaging Leader Objectives:

1. To understand the impact leadership can have on employee engagement.

2. To consider concepts and tools leaders can apply.

3. To practice building engagement through alignment, conversation and teaming.

The Work Of Leaders 5

Start Up Questions

• Are You Currently Leading Others?– Direct Reports– Through Influence

• What Challenges Are You Facing As A Leader?

What Is Employee Engagement?

7

• Not employee happiness.

• Not employee satisfaction.

• The emotional commitment:– To Your Work– To Your Company– To Give Your

Discretionary Effort

Does Employee Engagement Matter?

• Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study — 32,000 employees across 30 countries — makes the most powerful, bottom line case to date!

• In 50 global companies, Towers Watson found:

o Low Engagement = Avg. Margin < 10%

o High Engagement = Avg. Margin > 14%

8

What Factors Impact Engagement?

1. Being Part of a Winning Organization.

2. Working for Admired Leaders.3. Having Positive Working

Relationships.4. Doing Meaningful Work.5. Gaining Recognition and

Appreciation.6. Living a Balanced Life.

9Source: The Banff Centre

What People Say Are The Characteristics of The Most Admired Leaders:

• Honest

• Forward Looking

• Competent

• Inspiring

What Changes Are Impacting Our Ability to Engage Employees?

11

• Economic • Organizational • Global • Generational • Technological

Organizations have become flat, fast and adaptive to deal with change.

What Does That Mean For Leaders?

• According to Dr. Boris Groysberg, leaders must engage employees through “Organizational Conversation.”

• Leaders can create mental or emotional proximity.

12

Dr. Boris Groysberg, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University

Proximity

• The state, quality, sense, or fact of being near or next; closeness.

• Physical proximity is becoming a challenge for leaders and employees

• Mental or emotional proximity appear to be the leadership opportunity

Emotional Proximity Is FirstBuilt Through Trust

• As a leader, how do you build trust?

• As a leader, how do you know people trust you?

The Engaging Leader Afternoon Sessions

• The Electric Maze Team Engagement Simulation.

• The Engaging Leader Toolbox– High Performance

Teaming– Conversation– Alignment

The Electric Maze

• Developed by Dr. Richard Kimball, Action Learning Associates, Inc.

• Designed for experiential team learning in a complex simulation

• Used for both group and individual development

• Designed around the 3 Ts: Training, Teambuilding and Testing

Simulation Structure

• Overview 10 Min• Strategy Session 7 Min• Activity 12 Min• Strategy Session 5 Min• Activity 12 Min• Debrief 15 Min

Rules• Strategy Sessions (2) and Team Crossing Sessions (2)

• One Person at a Time on the Maze

• Full Team Rotation – all members must take a turn crossing the Maze

• One Square at a time – No Jumping

• Must Enter from the Front – No entry from the sides

• No Touching the Maze when someone is on it

• No use of paper, coins, etc. to highlight the trail

• No Talking once the scenario begins. • Missteps Cost 1 dollar. You have $100 per team.

• All Members Must cross the Maze successfully – if not, the whole team goes back

• Written Material only in the Strategy Session

Debrief QuestionsLarge Group:What Interesting things did you notice during the Maze?

At your tables:What specific lessons will you take back and apply to your team. How will you do that?

Engaging Leadership Lessons• Clear Vision and strategies are critical for

“Alignment”• Good leaders know when to be good followers• Taking a step backwards is painful but often

necessary• Trust = Speed • Team learning is having a “collective

intelligence” that enables organizational learning

• Keep it simple• Learning occurs when we take risks and learn

from our failures and successes• Fear of blame can waste time when facing

uncertainty• Fun and celebration creates learning and

engagement

Teams that engage in healthy conflict…

• Have lively interesting meetings• Put critical topics on the table for discussion • Tackle issues “head on”• Solve real problems quickly• Minimize politics

The Engaging Leader:Building High Performing Teams

Tammy Reynolds, MSILR

A little about me…

• Grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• Have two awesome sons and a husband Tim (who you met earlier)

• Have a big lovable dog• Worked in industry for 20+

years, most recently with Whirlpool Corporation

• Joined Ohio University August 2012

• Love the outdoors – skiing, biking, hiking, kayaking

Sources used for this presentation

The Good, the Bad, and the UglyDiscuss at your table:

•Think about your best team experience – sports, school, social organization, work place?•What made it great?

•Now think of the worst team•Why was it so bad?

What Is a Team?

• Groups whose members work on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills.

Inattention to Results

Avoidance of Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

Invulnerability

Lack of Trust

• What are some examples of lack of trust on teams that you have experienced?

Building Teams that Trust

Steven Covey - Trust

Emotional Bank AccountSteven Covey

Group ExerciseAt your tables, discuss deposits and

withdrawals that you might make into the emotional bank account of someone you love

Next, discuss deposits and withdrawals that you might make with fellow teammates at work

Emotional Bank AccountSteven Covey

Teams that trust…

• Admit weaknesses• Ask for help• Accept questions and input regarding their

areas of responsibility• Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills

and experiences• Offer and accept apologies

Inattention to Results

Avoidance of Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

Artificial Harmony

The Five Dysfunctions of a Teamby Patrick Lencioni

Groupthink

When a group exerts extensive pressure on an individual to align his or her opinion with that of others.

You Tube

Fear of Conflict

Traditional view of conflict - the view that all conflict is bad and must be avoided.

Functional Conflict

• Conflicts that support a group’s goals and improve its performance.

Dysfunctional Conflict

Dysfunctional conflicts - conflicts that prevent a group from achieving its goals(typically interpersonal)

Relationship Between Level of Conflict and Level of Performance

Programmed Conflict

Devil’s advocacy process of assigning

someone to play the role of critic to voice possible objections to a proposal and thereby generate critical thinking and reality testing

Dialectic method process of having two

people or groups play opposing roles in a debate in order to better understand a proposal

Teams that engage in healthy conflict…

• Have lively interesting meetings• Put critical topics on the table for discussion • Tackle issues “head on”• Solve real problems quickly• Minimize politics

Inattention to Results

Avoidance of Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

Ambiguity

The Five Dysfunctions of a Teamby Patrick Lencioni

Lack of Team Commitment

What does lack of commitment look like:•“Fuzzy” goals, no clear direction•Revisit discussions and decisions over and over again•Encourages second guessing

Social loafing - the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.

A team that commits…

Creates clarity around prioritiesMoves forward without hesitationAligns the team members around common

objectives

Inattention to Results

Avoidance of Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

Low Standards

The Five Dysfunctions of a Teamby Patrick Lencioni

Avoidance of Accountability

• Encourages mediocrity• Misses deadlines and key deliverables

Teams that hold each other accountable

• Ensure poor performers feel pressure to improve

• Identify potential problems quickly by questioning one another’s approaches

Inattention to Results

Avoidance of Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

Status & Ego

The Five Dysfunctions of a Teamby Patrick Lencioni

Inattention to Results

“The ultimate dysfunction of a team is the tendency of member to care about something other than the collective goals of the group.” (Lencioni, 2002)

•Rarely defeats competitors•Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals

Teams that focus on results…

• Win!• Retain achievement oriented employees• Minimizes individualistic behavior • Learn to subjugate individual egos and agenda

for the good of the team

Inattention to Results

Avoidance of Accountability

Lack of Commitment

Fear of Conflict

Absence of Trust

Status & Ego

Low Standards

Ambiguity

Artificial Harmony

Invulnerability

The Five Dysfunctions of a Teamby Patrick Lencioni

How healthy is your team?

• Referring to Lencioni’s model, determine how healthy your team is

• What does your team do well?

• What can it improve upon?

• What one thing will you commit to changing on your team?

THE ENGAGING LEADER – In Closing

Tim Reynolds, MLHRExecutive Director, Walter Center for Strategic

Leadership

The Engaging Leader Objectives:

1. To understand the impact leadership can have on employee engagement.

2. To consider concepts and tools leaders can apply.

3. To practice building engagement through alignment, conversation and teaming.

What Factors Impact Engagement?

1. Being Part of a Winning Organization.

2. Working for Admired Leaders.3. Having Positive Working

Relationships.4. Doing Meaningful Work.5. Gaining Recognition and

Appreciation.6. Living a Balanced Life.

57Source: The Banff Centre

What Changes Are Impacting Our Ability to Engage Employees?

58

• Economic • Organizational • Global • Generational • Technological

Organizations have become flat, fast and adaptive to deal with change.

What Does That Mean For Leaders?

• Leaders can create emotional proximity.

• Engagement is fostered through conversation that displays honesty, inspiration, a perspective of the future and knowledge in the present.

59

Dr. Boris Groysberg, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University

Intimacy: Engaging Individuals

• Being Authentic

• Creating Trust

• Listening Well

• Getting Personal

Building Engagement Through Trust

Buddy – Buddy

High RelationshipLow Results

Standing For Greatness

High RelationshipHigh Results

Off The Hook

Low RelationshipLow Results

Driver

Low RelationshipHigh Results

Source: Gap International

Interactivity: Engaging Through New Opportunities

• Promoting Dialogue• Using Social

Technology

How Do You Message People?

Inclusion: Engaging Others In The Content

Expand Employees’ Roles and Perspectives:

• Thought Leadership

• Storytelling

• Experiential Learning

Seven Engaging Conversations

1. Conversation for being related – relevance to another.2. Conversation for possibility – standing for a future of

possibility. 3. Conversation for opportunity – tactical language for

achieving a possibility.4. Conversation for action – specific who, what, when. 5. Conversation for breakdown – dealing with resistance. 6. Conversation for acknowledgement – genuine expression of

appreciation. 7. Conversation for completeness –being whole.

Shaping Engaging Conversations1. What is the conversation and for whom?2. Create the Context (Possible questions to consider):

1. What is the context you want to create from this conversation?2. What is your Stand for yourself? For them?3. What is the experience or result you want to cause?4. Are you thinking from “Something is Possible”?

3. What is Their World? What is Your World? In other words, think through the concerns, issues, challenges and worries of your audiences. How will you bridge their world with your conversation?

4. What is the intention you have for the conversation?5. What are the specific outcomes you are committed to producing?6. How do you wish to close your conversation?

Intentionality: Engaging The Organization

• Crafting the Agenda

• Taking a Stand for Possibility

• Building Alignment

• Is your organization’s strategy being implemented?

• What One Action will you commit to doing to engage others in delivering the strategy of your organization?

As Leaders, We Need To Practice! Thanks For Engaging With Us.