LEADER FOLLOWER RELATIONSHIP
It’s a double posting week at the Educated Leadership Blog! Thanks for following along.
The leader follower relationship should be the focus of any manager wanting to get the most out of her or his team. It is through this connection that the magic of accomplishment of growth occurs. Obolensky’s (2016) writing has focused our learning on leading in times of chaos. We have looked at the ways complexity and chaos can lead to an opportunity for growth and that allowing our followers to get more involved in the process of finding the structure in chaos benefits all involved.
In Chapter ten, Obolensky discusses four strategies for leading teams depending on the focus of the leader on the followers and/or the goals of the organization. He created a graph that allows us to plot the leadership style that would be applicable based on the focus of the two variables. Please see Figure 10.11 (Obolensky, 2016, p. 179).
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| Figure 10.11 |
As a quick review, in case you haven’t been able to read Mr. Obolensky’s book, let’s start in the lower left quadrant, called section four (DEVOLVE). Here the people and goal focus are both “low”. Not a good place to be and Obolensky (2016) noted this area indicates the organization is in trouble and devolving.
Moving to the upper left, section three (INVOLVE), we have high people focus and low goal focus. Here the leader needs to get the people involved. The leader may hold back to get the followers to contribute and make inputs and solutions.
Section two (SELL) is where the high people and goal focus resides, in the upper right. The leader gets the followers to “buy-in” to the solution so they have ownership and maintain motivation. Mountains need to be climbed and the people want to do it!
The remaining section, number one (TELL), indicates that the leader may need to be prescriptive to get the goals of the company attained by the followers.
At the beginning of chapter 10, Obolensky provided a quiz to provide insight as to our own preferred style, considering our current leadership setting. The result of my quiz indicated that I lean toward the use of section three (INVOLVE) leadership. I do not find this surprising. I am privileged to lead a group of highly trained and skilled professionals who are tasked with jobs in which I am not an expert in accomplishing. I lean on their expertise to get our goals accomplished. I told this team when I first was put in position as their leader that I knew I was not the smartest person in the room, but I knew our group was one of the smartest I had ever seen and we could accomplish great things together!
I was not 100% in section three with my answers. Also, not surprizing. Section three is a place for leadership when time is not an issue. I feel comfortable moving into the other areas, depending on the situation.
The significance of the quiz, for me, is the validation I found in the result. I am far into the Leadership Program and hoped the ability to morph into the leader needed for a situation was taking hold. The quiz appears to indicate I can and do make the shifts. As far as further applying the information Obolensky provided in this chapter, I will use the terminology to help communicate the technique of being a flexible leader to those I lead, coach, and mentor. Oboloensky’s (2016) book will reside on my bookshelf at work to be used as an overall reference, not just chapter 10.
To tie these learning points to another real-life situation, I would point you to Stayer’s (1990) article in the Harvard Business Review. The metamorphosis undertaken by Mr. Stayer as he helped grow his company and lead the employees into areas of performance they never dreamed they would accomplish is a great example of moving through the sections as needed.
Keep learning. Keep communicating. Trust yourself. Test yourself.
See you next week!
Obolensky, N. (2016). Complex Adaptive Leadership (2nd ed.). London and New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Stayer, R. (1990). How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead. Harvard Business Review, 68(6), 66-83.
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