Leadership and the Characteristics of High Potential General Managers

Leadership and the Characteristics of

High Potential General Managers

These notes were taken at Rice University in a Management program on May 2011, that was conducted by Dr. BRENT SMITH, PHD

Executive derailment: Understanding the common causes of failure.

Leadership Mistake: Many leaders look for compliance (impose, give orders or tasks) instead of commitment. There are occasions where you cannot look for compliance: example if you are looking for innovations. It’s easy to fall in the authority trap.

Leadership: It’s the ability to get people commitment!. It’s everybody’s business

Knowing what people are expecting helps to get commitment.

Leading: Partially leaders are born, but leadership can occur by circumstances (Some people learned quickly and early). Not anyone can become an effective leader.

If you do not believe that leadership is trainable, why to lose time training future leaders in your organizations? PEOPLE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT LEADERSHIP IS TRAINABLE, MANY TIMES DO NOT PROPERLY TRAIN OR PREPARE FUTURE LEADERS! There are personal attributes (that you are born) that are very useful to become a leader. The rest is what you learn.

Charisma: Less than 5 percent of leaders are charismatic. Charisma does not predict effectiveness. It’s a social skill. Can NOT be trained!

Experience is important to be CREDIBLE!. With experience you learn what to do, and what to avoid!

Effective leaders share a common set of characteristics. To be effective depends on the role of the leader, level, the location, cultural… Knowing that, YES there is a set of skills that are common. Ineffective leaders share a common set of characteristics.

Leadership is about relationships. It’s about understanding ourselves (Understand our skills and weaknesses). Its about getting people commitment.

Self aware: 360 Assessment. Compare what you perceive of yourself with what people thinks of yourself.

In today’s business environment, people do not make a career in a company. Globalizations: Downsizing. Outsourcing. Restructuring…

Now the contract is not Job Security. Its about Growth & Development access.

Personality Characteristics of Ineffective bosses:

“This lists is always the same”

·      Micro-management (Nano-managers) – Gravitating to the leader comfort zone. People read this as lack of confidence.

·      No follow - up

·      Lack of communication

·      Too hands off

·      Anger / Hostility

·      Pass Blame

·      Take credit for other success

·      Impatient

·      Intolerant

·      Poor listener

·      Lack of confidence (Self esteem)

·      Constantly changing things (Inconsistency)

Usually is not about how good the person understands the job! That why people got the promotion into the leadership position.

PREPARE WHEN OUTSIDE FACTORS MAKE YOU NOT PERFORM: What will people say about you!?

Refer to descriptions (i.e. Business Week) of CEO when the company is performing, and when is not performing… Other people usually see bad things (negative things, weaknesses) when people/companies do not perform and positive things (talents) when people/companies perform.

EVALUATING RESULTS IS A CRITICAL THING!! But also other characteristics of the people you are promoting, to avoid promoting wrong behaviors. Now companies are getting more sophisticated and avoiding this mistake.

You need to do as an organization: CONSISTENTLY GET RESULTS + HOW YOU ARE GETTING THE RESULTS (360º evaluation).

Derail: No growth, or they take responsibilities, or they fire…

Reasons for executive derailment:

·      Performance problems

·      Insensitive, Intimidating (Nr 2 reason of derailment)

·      Cold, Arrogant

·      Betrayal of trust (They say yes to everything)

·      Over-managing

·      Poor staffing decisions (Reproducing themselves when hiring & or not hiring people that are better than me, hiring people that are week)

·      Unable to adapt (Nr 1 reason of derailment). High Conscientiousness

·      Excessive ambitious (instead of showing with your work the value)

·      Unable to be strategic

·      Overly dependent on a sponsor (advocate)

360 Assessment: The best thing is to start with the Boss, and then go down, to gain people’s comfort.

Usually is done for people with potential. It’s costly. Usually involves a coach…

PERSONALITY AND LEADERSHIP

Understanding Personality and Psychology. Helps interact with others…

Opportunity to understand other people.

Understand Leaders Styles.  Identify the source of interpersonal conflicts.

Personality: a personality course in 5 minutes!

PERSONALITY = PREFERENCE FOR BEHAVIOR!

Cross your hands and then crossed the other way… Of course feels uncomfortable, but eventually you get comfortable.

Personality is stable over the years, behaviors CAN CHANGE!

Neuroticism is how different persons handle stress. All normal people have different levels of neuroticism. NOT AN EXCUSE FOR BAD BEHAVIOR!!

NEO Test (What  you need to know about someone to understand how to describe him)

1.     Neuroticism (Emotional reactions)

2.     Extraversion (Interpersonal Patterns)

3.     Openness to change

4.     Agreeableness

5.     Conscientiousness (Work ethics)

In the initial study they found 18.000 dictionary words to describe  the human characteristics.  These 18.000 words are all in these 5 categories of people.

EXTRAVERSION:  Feels comfortable around people. Outgoing, and energetic. Assertiveness, dominance. Risk taking. Positives.

STRENGTHS:

·      Action Oriented

·      Good networking

·      Communicative

·      Seen as leader like

·      Transparent in the good way (Explain the thinking or logic process)

WEAKNESSES:

·      Action before reflection

·      Thinking aloud can confuse others

·      May appear mentally muddled

Database: 70.000 managers

·      Working adults: 47% Introverts / 53% Extroverts

·      Senior Managers:  50% Introverts / 50% Extraverts

·      Junior Managers: 25% Intro / 75% Extraverts

Remember: Conducts are behavior you can learn!!!

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS (WORK ETHIC) – PLANER!

  

Like structure. Sense of duty. Prudent. Organized. Prefers predictability. Methodical, Plan full.

On the other end: Flexibility, unmethodical, disorganized.

For high conscientious people, a deadline is a deadline! Low conscientious people easily agree to deadlines, but they might not consider it a real deadline!

When working a new project with two opposites (Examples):

·      General Manager boss  High Conscientious , Manager Low Conscientious: The Manager will perceive the boss as a “Nano-Manager” DO NOT IMPOSE TOO MUCH STRUCTURE TO LOW CONSCIENTIOUS PEOPLE, as they will see you as micromanaging. CLEARLY ESTABLISH DEADLINES!

·      General Manager boss Low Conscientious and Manager High conscientious: The Manager could see the boss as he is not giving enough information, starts asking many questions. The boss will see the manager as he is not capable!

Weaknesess

·      Push to closure before enough information is available

·      Oversimplify complex situations

·      Micromanagers

Data: High Conscientious (Very similar to Extroverts)

·      Working adults: 47% Low Conc. / 53% High Conscientious

·      Senior Managers:  50% Low Conc. / 50% High Conscientious

·      Junior Managers: 25% Low Conc. / 75% High Conscientious

Note: if you give a deadline to a Low Conscientious person, you should make him accountable, because if not, he will never respect deadlines.

AGREEABLENESS: Harmony (Is the central element of EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE)

·      Trusting

·      Considerate

·      Generous

·      Prefers cooperation to competition

When you are low

·      Skeptical

·      Prefers competition

Strengths:

·      Strong relationship builders

·      Empathetic

·      Values personal time and attention

·      Effective coach (Its difficult to deliver critical feedback or hold people accountable?)

Low scores:

Analytical and rational

Value clarity and accuracy

Make tough decisions

Weaknesses

·      Cant make difficult decisions

·      Can be seen as inconsistent

Data: High Agreeable

·      Working adults: 50% Low Agreeable. / 50% High Agreeable

·      Males: 60%  Low Agreeable / 40% High Agreeable

·      Female: 40%  Low Agreeable / 60% High Agreeable

Senior Managers:  85% Low Agreeable. / 15% High Agreeable Junior Managers: 85% Low Agreeable. / 15% High Agreeable

Is the most frequent among managers.

Carlie Florina (low Agreable) was conducting a firm that has a culture of High Agreeable!

Openness to change

High Score: With little information they see all options. (Strategy Consulting). Promoting change. Downside: Not grounded in to reality.

·      Creative

·      Like abstract

·      Intellectually curious

Low score: (Engineers) Needs a lot of information to make a decision.

·      Traditional in approach

·      Practical and pragmatic

·      Prefers technical problems

·      Conservative

Neuroticism (emotional Reactions)

Predisposition to experiencing negative feelings and emotions.

Usually people low end of Neuritism need coaching but they do NOT think they can do anything wrong!

·      Anxious

·      Pessimistic

·      Moody and irritable

·      Sensitive to stress

·      Self Conscious

It helps you understand stress response.

If you are angry and you try to hide it, at one point you EXPLODE! If you are high in neuroticism, you can explode sooner… If the life is stressful, it will explode sooner.

HOW TO HANDLE STRESS!!!

à STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES!

People do not know what reaction to expect from the Stressed Person (If the person is high in neuroticism)

Personality DOES NOT CHANGE. What you can do is work to change some issues. THIS WILL DRAIN MORE ENERGY FROM YOU, but you can develop the skills.

360 Degree  Feedback

What is evaluate:

1.     Meets business objectives and responds appropriately to failure

2.     Ability to build a team

3.     Willingness to be flexible

4.     Takes a General Management approach

5.     Builds strong interpersonal relationships

NEO Assessment Evaluates:

1.     Neuroticism (Emotional reactions)

2.     Extraversion (Interpersonal Patterns)

3.     Openness to change

4.     Agreeableness

5.     Conscientiousness (Work ethics)

NEO is NOT mood dependent. They have given them to “bipolar” people having up swings and down swings with very similar results!

As a manager you have to ask first: What have I done to create this results? Have I created bad expectations? Am I affecting motivation and engagement?

Managers trend to create 2 groups:

·      IN Group: The favorites! Be like the boss. SIMILARITIES: Studies, Where they come from… (managers say its based from performance). It can be created in 15 minutes. People in the out group feel bad about the in group.

·      OUT Group. They hate the In Group. What happens is that they start to lower their effort and with time become worst employees…

The “In group” gets more information, promotions, access to high profile project. You get faster introductions from the social networks. You get the benefit of the doubt.

TRY TO WORK ON SIMILARITIES TO GET IN THE IN GROUP!

DO NOT EVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF EXPECTATIONS!

The best and easiest way to motivate people is to set HIGH EXPECTATIONS on them. The problem is that we usually set low expectation.

USE THIS FOR YOURSELF WHEN WORKING AT YOUR OWN EXPECTATIONS.