Let’s Go to the Movies
For those of you who saw Horrible Bosses, Kevin Spacey’s character, Harken, was unquestionably a “coercive pacesetter.” I tried to embed a video that would encapsulate Harken’s true coercive nature, but this is the most legal (and least explicit) version I could find.
I chose to write about the six leadership styles this week because a.) we were asked to journal about it for my coaching class and b.) I will have to identify the styles embedded in mini-cases on my final exam. I didn’t need much more extrinsic motivation than that. Requirements aside, this stuff is interesting, and I encourage you to think of leaders you know who embody one or more of these styles – especially those emulated by your boss.
Coercive/Directive Style
Tagline: Just do it the way I tell you or “My way or the highway”
Primary Objective: Immediate Compliance
Example: Military Officers
More detail: A coercive leader will often tell people what to do without asking for their input or listening to their reactions – and then he or she will expect immediate compliance. This style is most effective when team members are performing straightforward tasks, in crisis situations, and when team members exhibit poor performance (when other options have failed). Conversely, the coercive style is least effective with complex tasks, over the long-term (resulting in a lack of necessary development and coaching), and with team members who are talented and expected to innovate.
Pacesetting Style
Tagline: If you can’t do it right, I’ll do it myself
Primary Objective: Accomplishing tasks to a high standard
Example: Harken in Horrible Bosses – gave himself the coveted promotion because he felt he could do his job and the job his team members were pining after better than any of them. In fact, he knocked down the wall between the two offices, to create one giant office for himself!
More detail: In a best-case scenario, this style should be a “quick fix”, assuming the team already has a shared vision and members have demonstrated the necessary capabilities to get tasks accomplished. Sadly, this is rarely the case. I circled the Hay Group workbook page on the pacesetting style twice around the text stating that a pacesetting leader “is apprehensive about delegating” and “delegates demanding tasks only to outstanding performers in the team.” I’m sure a number of us can relate – raise your hand if you have been overtasked because you were the most efficient member of your team?” A pacesetting leader also prefers to complete tasks individually and typically expects others to know his or her rationale for the behavior and strategy he or she is modeling. Unfortunately, these followers often haven’t a clue!
Affiliative Style
Tagline: People first, task second
Primary Objective: Creating harmony
Example: Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines’ first CEO (and probably every CEO thereafter)
More detail: My classmates would probably call this the “Kumbaya style”, but quite frankly, most teams need a lot more of it – and certainly when a new leader inherits a team from a predecessor who was well liked. This style works well when employees are performing up to standard and tasks are straightforward – also during periods of personal difficulty or when trying to help conflicting groups of individuals work together harmoniously.
Democratic or Participative Style
Tagline: Let’s decide together
Primary Objective: Building commitment and consensus
Example: Community organizers
More detail: A democratic leader is a careful listener who is all about involving the team in decisions that affect their work. This style works particularly well when team members’ work must be a result of a group effort and when the manager is seeking additional input (because he or she doesn’t have the answer him/herself). It does not work well during crises or when team members need close supervision.
Authoritative Style
Tagline: Let me tell you where we’re going as a team
Primary Objective: Providing long-term direction and vision
Example: FDR, Dr. MLK, Jr., and Steve Jobs (although he embodies some of the other less pleasant styles too)
More detail: I underlined the words, “provides clarity” several times, so we should start there. I also double asterisked “solicits team members’ perspectives on the vision and the best way to get there, without surrendering authority”. Another hallmark of this style is that the leader primarily persuades team members by explaining the meaning behind the vision and sets standards according to that vision. In summation, this style is critical when the team needs direction, guidance especially in times of change.
Coaching Style
Tagline: What did you learn? What would you do differently? What can we improve upon?
Primary Objective: Long-term development of team members
Example: My NY Boss (PJ) – you’ll just have to take my word for it
More detail: I’ve written enough about coaching already, so I’ll use a personal example to elaborate on this style…PJ was the best boss I ever had – she was an outstanding coach. She helped each of us identify our own strengths and weaknesses, focused on our long-term career goals, and never gave us the answers, i.e. knowing that the answers lay within us. She encouraged me to take calculated risks, to be innovative and to find my own solutions to work problems. She provided me (and my team members) with on-going, honest feedback about our performance. I doubt that she ever attended formal coaching training, but she embodies the coaching style better than anyone I’ve ever worked for (or with). She is still my favorite coach!
Breaking News: I am starting a Job Club for transitioning job seekers in the DFW area. If you or someone you know needs some extrinsic motivation with regard to finding a new job, view the details here: Sweats to Suits Job Club details!
Sources:
Hay Group - Managerial Style Workbook - www.haygroup.com
Leadership Run Amok - The Destructive Potential of Overachievers - Harvard Business Review, June 2006
Coming in for a Landing
I just returned from a weekend in Ohio to meet my 10-week old niece. She is very cute and surprisingly portable and well behaved (which I attribute to my super-chill sister-in-law). While I went into the weekend worried about making time to study for my coaching final later this week, I actually ended up with several opportunities to “flex my coaching muscles”. My brother is in the process of grooming himself to be promoted into a managerial role at his organization in the next six to eight months. My best friend is transitioning into an interim role (but hopefully permanent eventually) where she will go from supervising herself to supervising a team of forty. My mom is retiring in a week after 30 some-odd years of teaching elementary school students, so I led her in a coaching exercise to help her focus her free time on something other than the Dr. Oz show. Needless to say, it was an eventful weekend!
My coaching professor, Dr. Robert Barner, and Michael Watkins, the author of The First 90 Days, describe transitional coaching as helping one’s client to “land well” in his or her new position, ideally within the first 90 days, or sooner. I will leave you with a few short tips I shared with my family and friends this weekend about transitioning into new roles so I can hit the books!
MOST COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY TRANSITIONAL MANAGERS
ACTING Before Learning
Have you ever had a boss who came in ready to shake things up before he or she learned the lay of the land? I’m sure we all have. Taking the time to learn the environment and culture of a new organization or department within one’s current organization is critical to making the right decisions and making what Watkin’s refers to as “small wins”. You don’t have to turn the Titanic in your first week of work to prove your worth. More often than not, your colleagues will respect you for inquiring about “how things are done around here” before trying to implement changes. They are likely to be much more supportive of your small wins along your path toward making more sweeping ch relationshipanges.
Not Building RELATIONSHIPS
My coaching professor used the analogy of a bank account to elaborate on this potential pitfall. He regaled a story about making “deposits into the trust accounts” all of the administrative assistants at one of his former employers shortly after his start date by bringing flowers to each of them and engaging in casual conversation upon each personal floral delivery. As such, when he needed help with administrative tasks several weeks later, they were all too eager to assist him. Not only does making time to build relationships with your colleagues yield benefits when you need to produce a deliverable, but it can be especially useful when information is circulating around the office. Wouldn’t you want to increase your likelihood of “being in the know?”
Not Clarifying Management’s EXPECTATIONS
Even if your organization spells out your job duties and responsibilities on a legal document you sign in your own blood (sorry, that was kind of gross), there is still room for gray area as far as what your boss expects from you. Watkins recommends five conversations (which can be combined) to engage in with your new boss.
- Situational Diagnosis – to understand how your new boss views the situation
- Expectations – where you seek to understand and negotiate expectations
- Style – determine how you two will communicate
- Resources – what do you need to be successful?
- Personal Development – How you will overcome gaps in your current and future skill set
Not letting go of OLD job
I was sharing some of these tips with my husband while we were hiding from tornadoes in our stairwell this week when he astutely quoted executive coach and author, Marshall Goldsmith by stating, “ What Got You Here Won't Get You There”. It can be helpful to split a piece of paper to note the key differences between your previous organization versus your current one, e.g. how success is measured, how the team is structured, and/or how decisions are made. You will save yourself time and frustration later on by noting these differences and saying adios to the old regime.
Trashing the PAST
I once collaborated with a new manager on a project whose frequent and obvious looks of disapproval made her inherited team members feel as though everything she touched would turn to stone. Okay, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the point here is that denigrating the past will not win friends and influence people (at least not in a positive way). According to Watkins, it is far better to quietly observe, ask pointed questions, and assess behavior and results instead of “openly criticizing the people who led the organization before you arrived.”
To Be or Not to Be [Prepared], That is the Question
This clichéd title came to me during one of my executive coaching classes when my professor presented a list of possible questions to ask a client when determining whether or not to take on a new developmental assignment at work. I had originally intended to focus my weekly entries on what we learned in each week’s lecture to reduce my study time for the final. This course began six weeks ago, so you can tell how much progress I made on that front. Procrastination and finals aside, I hope you find this coaching-themed entry useful and I thank you for humoring me by following along with this study guide in process.
In his book, Accelerating Your Development as a Leader, my coaching professor, Dr. Robert Barner, suggests that one should follow the “Crucible Model” when evaluating the demand features associated with a new position. Demand features “are job characteristics that:
Present you with the biggest adaptive challenges…work situations that are difficult to master and that typically require you to build totally new skills;
- Have been important in determining the success or failure of people who have held this position;
- Are aspects of the job that are likely to receive the greatest amount of attention from your [organization’s leadership] team;
- Are features to which your managers are most likely to attend when evaluating your performance.”
Barner suggests thinking about your career target like a crucible, i.e. in terms of different materials (job elements) being fused together. These elements fall under the categories of behaviors, job context, and expectations which “fuse together to form those job demand features that are catalytic to professional growth.”
Leadership Behaviors
One strategy you can employ to research a future development opportunity is to identify exemplars, or individuals who have performed successfully in the career target role to understand the critical leadership behaviors required by the role. If you are fortunate enough to connect with one of these individuals, consider discreetly engaging in an informational interview. You can take things one step further by befriending his or her HR person in order to get your hands on a job description so that you can identify the gaps between the career target and your current position. I suggested this to one of my friends who works for an environmental consulting firm and he laughed because no one has job descriptions at his firm. Yikes!
One other brief point I’ll mention here is that it is important to consider the implications of where the role sits in terms of your organizational hierarchy, i.e. if you are moving from an individual contributor role to a functional manager role or from a functional manager role to a middle management position. Each of these moves presents its own series of challenges and it is critical that you seek out information to understand the demands at each level.
Work Context
This is definitely the area I wish I had further explored when evaluating whether or not to transfer to Dallas from New York. I would caution anyone undergoing a potential career transition to seriously consider the cultural differences between his or her existing team and the team of individuals he or she would encounter with the new career target. Organizational culture can vary greatly from one department or geographic area to another just as much as from one company to another. When considering a move, Dr. Barner recommends “unpacking” cultural terms and expressions like being a “team player”. For instance, one organization may consider a team player to be a quiet individual contributor to the team whereas another organization may consider a team player to be someone who actively fosters collaboration amongst the members of the team. Values and norms can be interpreted differently across an organization as well. My surprisingly interesting Organizational Behavior textbook stated that there is often a difference between the values and organization espouses (i.e. promotes) vs. those values that are enacted (i.e. visible and woven into the fabric of the organization). You get to the root of these nuances by having in-depth conversations with key organizational stakeholders who can unpack these terms for you and clue you in to which cultural values and norms are enacted employee behaviors.
Performance Expectations
When making a move from one role to another, it is important to consider how success is measured. Some possible differences in performance expectations may involve achieving your goals/completing projects versus putting in a lot of face time OR having a customer/client service orientation versus meeting profit objectives. Providing some of these comparative examples in an informational interview setting can help you to understand whether the organizational unit of your target has tougher or looser standards than your current one. Further, developing an understanding of key departmental priorities will allow you to mitigate the emergence of possible blind spots you might encounter if you choose to accept a new role.
At this point, you may be asking yourself “so, what do I make of all this” if you are as action-oriented as I am? Here’s a list of criteria you can consider (courtesy of Accelerating Your Development as a Leader) when evaluating developmental assignments to get you closer to your short or long range career target(s). I recommend keeping this list handy!
The assignment will:
- Foster new skill development
- Involve a high, but realistic degree of stretch
- Extend your organizational knowledge
- Require you to perform without a safety net, i.e. involves risk
- Provide a realistic job preview of a work setting or job challenge that is closely related to one of your long-term career targets
- Expand the sources of feedback beyond what is typically available, i.e. [you] will have the opportunity to see how others in the organization view your performance
- Includes effective mentoring, i.e. the opportunity to learn from a strong performer in your organization
Career Blunder: Totally unprepared
It is so much easier to tell others what to do than to heed my own advice. My parents recognized this quality early on in my life and acknowledged it by purchasing me a “Little Miss Bossy” t-shirt. Old habits are hard to break. Case in point: I constantly advise students to “do their homework” before interviews and networking interactions. Not only was I not prepared (again, just like the last time I met with a professor), but this prof. was overly prepared and quoted my most recent blog entry, stating that she wished she had stopped for a manicure prior to our lunch meeting. Wow, how about a good dose of self-imposed guilt for being unprepared by not reading up on her recent research. I felt even worse when she quoted my blog, stating her disappointment that she hadn’t heeded my advice regarding personal grooming by getting a manicure! I tried to reassure her that I am often guilty of letting personal grooming go to the wayside, but I still felt lousy. I couldn’t even redeem myself by switching the subject to something about her! Moral of the story: Do your homework on whoever you are meeting. Hopefully next time the career blunder won’t be one of my own!
I Feel Pretty
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Songs from West Side Story always conjure up happy images for me since I walked down the aisle to “Maria”. Sentimentality aside, ladies – we don’t have it easy as it relates to our appearance and the workplace. Waxing, plucking, shaving, threading, tanning (not this girl), makeup, hosiery (or not, keep reading), spanx, camisoles, manis, pedis …the list goes on. Do you ever feel like you need a whole crew of people to work on you?
A wise woman stated at my Graduate Women in Business event last week, “You want to look attractive, but not hot.” I’m sure you’re asking yourself “what on earth does that mean, Joy???” I was also perplexed. Fortunately, our speakers and image consulting team from Buy Request were able to shed some light on looking “pretty” and not sexy at work.
Enjoy these tips and feel free to comment and add your own!
Grooming
- If you don’t have time to manicure your nails (or get them done), just get a “man”icure, i.e. have your nails buffed and filed – or buy the tools to do it on your own.
- More on nails: NO black or dark purple nail polish. Stick to clear or neutral shades or again, just buff them.
- Don’t shave your eyebrows – wax, thread or pluck them instead! Enlist a professional if possible or the first two might get ugly, literally.
Attire
- You can’t go wrong with a nice black pencil skirt (courtesy of Nordstrom).
- Get upscale resale finds at the right price at Clothes Circuit or Clotheshorse Anonymous if you’re in Dallas. I also like Revente (for those of us on a tighter budget).
- Apparently you are still supposed to wear hosiery when interviewing as a sign of respect. Try these Donna Karan nude fishnets on for size if you can’t fathom squeezing your legs into a regular pair.
- Men can’t get past your cleavage (if it is showing), so cover it up if you want them to hear what you and not your chest is saying.
- On casual/jeans Friday, stick with completely dark denim, preferably trouser style, without “cat whiskers” i.e. frayed edges. You also can’t go wrong if you pair jeans with a pressed white shirt.
- According to Klompus, “You can wear any price point, as long as it is tailored to you. Turn your into custom with the aid of a good tailor” like Park Cities Custom Tailors or John's Tailors (my favorite – tell Jane I sent you).
Accessories, etc.
- Men’s cologne tends to smell better at the end of the day on women. Who knew? Be judicious in your fragrance selection – ideally you should skip it, especially in Dallas a.k.a. allergen city.
- If you get the impression that people are treating you like a supermodel at work and not the brainiac you really are think about purchasing a pair of glasses.
- Keep your shoes polished and clean. BuyRequest recommends: Deno's and The Cobbler
- While on the subject of shoes…invest in some nice black pumps and repair them often. You won’t go wrong!
- When interviewing, less is more. A previous editor of Vogue used to say, “before you leave [for the day], take one piece off”. This is probably more applicable to Dallas women since we sometimes over accessorize!
- Bring a logo-free briefcase or hand bag to any interviews. Carrying Gucci says, “I don’t really need this job.”
Select wardrobe and accessory tips provided by: Nancy Klompus and Kristin Skilling, Buy Request Wardrobe Stylists and Personal Shoppers.
Happy Birthday Sweats to Suits! 
I’m so glad that the return of Sweats to Suits after a month-long study-induced hiatus coincides with my 52nd blog entry. Please join me in wishing Sweats to Suits a Happy 1st Birthday!
Career Blunder – Fight Club:
Our “model” for the evening was a Big Tomato in Private Wealth Management with a sense of humor and vocal filter fit for Queens rather than Dallas. What a breath of fresh air – and her stories were just as good as my recruiting horror stories! One in particular that stuck with me was a candidate who earned the name of “Fight Club” for going into a full-time interview with a black eye (from something sports-related). He was referred to the firm of the Big Tomato by a client and came highly regarded after engaging in a successful internship with said client. Instead of asking to reschedule the interview until after his eye healed, he waltzed right into the office with no explanation other than his shiner. Moral of the Story: If you are injured in any way (mentally or physically), come up with a GOOD story and ask to reschedule your interview. In case you were wondering, Fight Club did not get the job.
[Don't] Blame it on the rain
First, let me apologize for the delay on this blog entry. I had my notes ready to go since my flight home from New Orleans last week, but I went into freak out mode regarding my upcoming Finance midterm (which was yesterday). You may be feeling the same way about your job search as I did about my blog, i.e. you know you need to work on it, but other things seem to be more pressing (studying for finals, planning your trip overseas after graduation, or savoring every last moment with your friends on campus before you go your separate ways.
Perhaps you feel held back on starting your job search because you just don’t know where to begin. Several of my classmates and two friends approached me this week requesting career direction and guidance. Whether you’re about to graduate or embarking on a “quarter life crisis” like some of my friends and classmates, it’s time to stop procrastinating (i.e. blaming your lack of progress on the rain, or whatever is holding you back at the moment) and focusing on planting some seeds to sprout into opportunities.
It is a common practice for me to absorb all I can from every experience, thus I took advantage of my sister-in-law’s creativity en route to the New Orleans airport last week after my career coaching training. I asked Julie, “How can I make the comparison between the four steps in the career coaching process (that I learned at my training) and the advent of spring. “Gardening!” she replied with gusto. To which I replied, “Wow, I know even less about gardening than I do about sports, [an analogy I used in a previous blog entry in spite of my non-existent skill and limited knowledge], so I will need your help”. Fortunately Julie and Eric’s suggestions made for a productive ride to the airport!
Assessment – Know the landscape and your tools
If we were in my marketing class, my energetic professor would ask “what are your key resources and capabilities?” Perhaps conducting a SWOT analysis on yourself is a little extreme, but assessing (or taking inventory – to confirm that I retained something from Accounting) what you have in your own professional toolkit (i.e. your motivated skills, values, and general career interests) will provide you with a level of self (or horticultural) awareness to determine where to go next.
Exploration – What kind of garden?
Before you start digging up your yard or community garden, randomly applying for jobs, and blasting your resume to everyone you know and all over the Internet, you should think about your options you have for your garden (i.e. veggies, fruits, and/or flowers) and what to plant. Conducting industry and employer research on-line and through informational interviewing is an easy way to understand what kind of organization/garden and what kind of positions (seedlings), are best suited to your personality, strengths, and passions. From a gardening context for me, this would mean thinking about what plant can I keep alive? Trust me, there aren’t many! With the exception of our childhood pets (hermit crabs and beta fish excluded), I have killed every living organism I came in contact with.
Focus on a Goal – Answer the “What and Why?”
Once you have assessed yourself and come up with a few realistic career directions, it’s time to focus on the best and attainable option for you. To take things back to the gardening analogy…if you live in Alabama and have to plant in red clay, you may be limited as to what you can grow in your garden. Side note: I only know about the red clay because we used to track it all over the carpeting in the cheap hotel rooms my father used to book in Huntsville, AL halfway through the semi-annual road trips to visit our grandparents in south Florida. Be realistic about your ultimate career goal as it relates to what you learned in the assessment and exploration phases.
Strategy and Implementation
After identifying a realistic career goal, it’s time to develop a strategy and start planting! This is the final stage where you map out a detailed action plan with specific deadlines. You may want to think about these steps as “stretch goals” that will help you achieve your main objective. First think about how you will get to the main goal and what steps you need to take along the way. When should each of those steps occur? If you are anything like me, without setting deadlines for yourself, you won’t achieve your objectives. This is also the time to think about who can help you obtain more information in order to arrive at each stretch goal. To revert back to gardening…this is the point at which I would call my mother-in-law, whose yard looks like it was transported from an exotic tropical botanical garden far from Texas, to offer me advice on how to make my community garden fit my needs. If you are an activator (one of my top five strengths), you have a tendency to just jump into things without doing your homework (i.e. skipping the previous three steps). Working through the first three before taking action is absolutely critical as it relates to your own employability and vocational happiness.
“Dr. Unemployed” Career Blunder – Our instructor shared the story about one of his career coaching clients who was a receptionist (without a college degree) with a lifelong dream of becoming an art history professor. In most cases, we were instructed to let our clients arrive at their own answers based on asking a series of targeted questions, however when encountering in a scenario like the aforementioned, we were advised that sometimes it is okay to step in to offer a good dose of reality. After a series of questions related to the timing of obtaining each degree and the availability of post-doctoral openings, Dr. Unemployed started to evaluate some other options. Moral of the Story: Having dreams is important, but do consider seeking advice (professional, if possible) before pursuing them.