Transcript Level Three Leadership 3rd Edition

PowerPoint Lecture Notes
James G. Clawson
MGT 510
Thomas N. Davidson,
J. D.
Introduction
 Leadership studies in the past century have yielded
numerous models for leadership.
 Today’s environment has made leaders more crucial
than ever, but has also rendered existing leadership
models obsolete.
Leading Strategic Change
 Leadership is meaningless without direction and a
means of achieving that direction. In this sense
leadership is really about “leading strategic change.” A
leader must answer two questions:
 “Leadership for what?” In what direction should the
organization go?
 “How can we get there?” How can change be effected?
Clawson’s Diamond Model of
Leadership
Organizational Design
(North-South line)
Leader
Influence
Others
Strategic Thinking
(Shared Vision EastWest line)
Employee
Bonding
Task
Managing Change
Organization
Key Elements of Leadership
 In the Diamond General Model of Leadership, four
interconnected elements constitute leadership:
 Leader. Each leader has unique skills and attributes.
 Task. The set of tasks facing the organization, as perceived by
Leader and Others. Strategic Thinking.
 Others. The followers, with skills and attributes of their own.
 Organization.
 Organizational structure and systems and culture, etc., which
can help or hinder the accomplishment of tasks.
A Diamond In The Rough
 Two larger concerns can be added to the Diamond
model:
 Environment: The Context. Market realities, political
forces, and so on have their effect on leadership.
 Results: Outcomes of Leadership. These include
effectiveness, efficiency, growth, learning, and morale.
Relationships Are The Key
 Relationships between the four elements of the
Diamond model are the key to successful
leadership.
 Leader and Task: determines, describes or represents
the leader’s vision.
 Leader and Others: determines degree of influence
leader has over followers.
 Others and Organization: determines depth of
employees’ attachment and commitment to the
organization.
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Organization and Task: determines whether
organization is well-suited to meet its challenges.
Others and Task: determines followers’ view of what
must be done.
Leader and Organization: determines whether the
leader’s style and skills make a good match with the
organization.
How The Diamond Model Relates To Other Models
Of Leadership
 The Diamond model is flexible enough to incorporate
many features of popular leadership models, but in a
way which is straightforward and practical for
practicing managers.
Leadership Potentialities (Wheatley)
 Each leadership situation encompasses numerous
“potentialities,” or possible analytical perspectives.
 The leader’s vision, and skill in communicating it to
followers, will determine which potentiality members of
the organization see.
 This, in turn, will determine organizational action and
outcome.
Leading Ethically
 The relationship between leader and followers
raises significant ethical questions:
 Is it one person’s right to influence others?
 Who decides what kinds of influence are acceptable?
 How do followers view the leader’s efforts to influence
them?
 Do we have the right measures for assessing leadership
outcomes?
 Who decides what those measures are?
 To what extent should we attempt to influence our
environment, or let our environment influence us?
The Diamond Model and What CEOs Do
 One study of 160 CEOs arrived at five basic leadership
dimensions which equate strongly with the relationships in
the diamond model.
 Strategy (emphasis on setting strategic direction): analogous to
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Leader and Task.
Box (emphasis on organizational control systems): analogous to
Others and Organization.
Human resources (emphasis on human relationships throughout
the organization): analogous to Leader and Others.
Change (emphasis on managing change): analogous to
Organization and Task.
Expertise (emphasis on creating a competitive advantage through
particular expertise): analogous to Leader and Organization.
Basic Definitions

Some working definitions of leadership and related
concepts:
“Power” is the ability to get others to do what you
want them to do.
“Leadership,” as distinct from power, consists of three
components:
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The ability to influence others
The willingness to do so
The ability to influence in such a way that others respond
willingly.
Target Levels of Leadership
 Leading strategic change can occur at three levels:
Organizational
 Work group
 Individual.

VABEs
 values,
 assumptions,
 beliefs, and
 expectations
Three Levels of Leadership
 Human activity can be thought of as occurring at three
levels:
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Level One activity: observable behavior
Level Two activity: conscious thoughts, not outwardly
observable
Level Three activity: Values, assumptions, beliefs and
expectations (VABEs), not outwardly observable and only
partly conscious to the subject
 Conclusions based on another person’s Level Two or
Three behavior can never be precise, because the activity
is not directly observable.
 But effective leadership must take into account Levels
Two and Three.
Body, Head and Heart
 Level One activity, directly observable, can be likened
to the body.
 Most managerial systems since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution have focused on Level One: on
influencing observable behavior alone
 In the Information Age this approach has become
obsolete
 Level Two activity, one’s conscious thoughts, can be
likened to the mind.
 Level Three activity, VABEs, can be likened to the
heart.
 Highly culture- and family-specific
 An effort required to become fully aware of one’s own
VABEs
 All three levels of activity influence one another.
Connecting Level Three Approach to Scholarly
Views
 The three-level view of human activity corresponds to
Schein’s three levels of cultural manifestations: artifacts,
espoused values and underlying assumptions.
Learning Level Three Leadership
 Many people in leadership positions employ Level One
leadership: the “carrot-and-stick” approach
 But different people value different rewards, a fact that
undermines this approach and calls for an inquiry into
unobservable, internal processes
 Also, the constant threat of punishment for
noncompliance does not inspire quality performance.
 Moreover, our definition of leadership holds that the
willingness of followers to follow is essential. Level One
leadership leaves willingness questionable.
The Strong History of Level One Leadership
 Level One leadership was very effective for many years:
economies were expanding, labor was plentiful, and
stable markets made it possible to view labor as a
commodity.
 But today rapid change and fierce competition have
made Level One leadership insufficient
 New management principles (TQM, etc.) will fail if
other aspects of the organization-reward systems,
training, operating cultures-are not targeted at Levels
Two and Three.
The Focus of Level Three Leadership
 Whereas Level One leadership aims for movement,
Level Three leadership seeks engagement.
 Level Three leadership proposes that offering workers
rewards beyond a monthly paycheck-rewards which tap
into their VABEs-will inspire greater performance and
lead to enhanced customer satisfaction
 Level Three leadership, especially at the outset, calls for
greater effort on the leader’s part than Level One
 But Level One will not keep an organization competitive
in today’s environment
The Dark Side Potential of Level Three Leadership
and Engagement
 The commitment and enthusiasm which Level Three
leadership inspires can lead to an undesired outcome
at the individual level: overwork and burnout.
Organizational Implications
 Level One, Two and Three leadership can also be
examined from an organizational perspective.
 Level One: the application of the latest managerial fad
or technique with the straightforward goal of
influencing behavior
 Level Two: Intentional organizational design (structure
and systems), the result of conscious thought
 Level Three: Organizational culture and operating
values, subtly understood and not easy for all employees
to articulate
Applying Level Three Leadership at Both The
Individual And Organizational Levels
 Level Three leadership depends on the alignment of the
central features of all three leadership levels
 When there are variations across levels-between what
people or organizations do, think, and feel-leadership
becomes ineffective