If you visit Knowledge@Wharton’s website (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu), by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, you may note the categories of articles listed on the left-hand side of the page. While there is great information in every category and one could spend hours reading and learning, I have always been struck by the category – Leadership and Change – and how it associates change with leadership.

Leadership and Change

Perhaps I could expound more on change and I have already written several articles about leadership and change, but for this post, I just want to share with you a viewpoint of change from Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor in AD 161-180, in his phenomenal work, Meditations:

“Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And cast thou take a bath unless the wood undergoes a change? And canst thou be nourished unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Dost thou not see then that for thy self also to change is just the same, and equally necessary for the universal nature?”

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Effective managers/leaders are consistent, but at the same time they are adaptive to conditions and often drive change. Some of the greatest leaders take the time to reflect and ponder if, where they are going and how they are going there, still line up with where they should be at and where they should be going.

A company that I have worked with changes (reorganizes) the core competencies every two to four years. To some, this change is perceived as just shaking things up and borders on erratic, jerky maneuvers. The problem is not the change itself, but rather the execution and communication of the change – not what was done, but how it was done.

Leaders need to be acutely aware of perception. What people perceive is what people believe regardless of what is actually the case.

This is what I call the ‘Perception Dynamic.’

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At any rate, the story of Sony’s Walkman is a valuable business lesson and I like the way Peter Drucker put it:
“Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.”

Wharton’s Knowledge Today has a good post about this: When the Walkman Roamed.

Change is a constant!

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My only critique of the strategy is that it overstates the impact of American oil consumption on Iran and disregards the consumption of other modern economies in Europe and particularly growth economies in India and China. I do agree that a green revolution in America could make significant strides in opening up freedom and reform in the Middle East and that America is still well positioned to lead this green revolution, but a critical requirement is that European and Asian countries must follow suit with their own green revolutions to produce the effect that Thomas Friedman writes about.

Other than this critique, I want to highlight a great quote that is used in this article. The quote is from Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy specialist at John Hopkins University:
“People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.”

This is a great quote for leaders. Significant emphasis in leadership studies is the influence that leaders must have to drive change in their organization. This change also involves people. While a leader may seek to influence change, the best tool available is influence; coercion produces negative effects in attitude and motivation that hinder the positive effects of the change. Leaders need to practice the art of leadership to motivate people to change themselves.

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Now, this recession – credit crunch, financial crisis, and global meltdown – has cured my addiction. I went on a vacation for two weeks, overseas (I love to travel and visit different countries). And for the first time in my life, within the last decade, I spent the entire time NOT connecting to the Internet and NOT hearing, reading, or watching any news! I loved it and highly recommend it.

There is nothing inherently wrong with staying informed, but sometimes a break is healthy for the mind and the soul.

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Forget about panicking and stop the stupidity of worrying - this is my opinion on what to do about the worst recession since the Great Depression and the pending pandemic of swine flu. Once you recognize a problem, find a solution or better yet TEN solutions, and then focus on the solutions.

A while back I wrote an article about Creative Problem Solving for Leaders and I recommend that you read it. Thinking creatively about solutions is one of the most valuable skill sets to have. Continually exercising your creative mind to innovate produces substance that is above and beyond what most others produce.

But at the end of the day, don’t focus on the problems, find solutions and focus your energy and passion on the solutions.

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“Don’t mistake personality for character.” ~Wilma Askinas

So many times, we are attracted and follow leaders based on their personality. They may be charismatic, smart, engaging, passionate, or just simply likeable, but when it comes to leadership, nothing can replace character. Character is a key requirement, because in order to lead there needs to be trust and confidence in the leader. People who follow need to know without any question or doubt that the leader will not disappoint and let them down.

Too often, we hear about a leader who lacked character and did something that completely destroys the trust and confidence of the people who supported and followed him or her. After this, trust and confidence cannot easily be rebuilt. It takes time even when there is a strong bond such as marriage or family, but even in those circumstance once the trust is lost, it takes a long time and vary incremental steps to rebuild. One could even argue that trust is never restored to the same, full degree.

Character is a key requirement of leadership.

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On Monday, I shared the Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing Model of group development by Bruce Tuckman. This model is important for entrepreneurial and project teams; those teams that tend to form at about the same time rather than on a continual and incremental basis as day-to-day organizations.

The main problem is that too many teams try to avoid or mitigate what Bruce Tuckman identified as the Storming phase. It is in this phase that team relationships are formed and the team learns how to function as a unit. Those teams that mitigate or avoid the Storming phase tend not to be as innovative and tend to have more division than teams that do work through the Storming phase.

The Storming phase is difficult and tends to be uncomfortable in particular for those team members adverse to conflict. Conflict is not inherently bad. Conflict can be useful for developing a team, but conflict resolution is the key.

When conflict arises, the two best ways to resolve the conflict are confrontation and compromise. However, too often leaders try to smooth over the conflict, allow the team to withdraw, force them through without the investment of learning how to work as a team. While this may resolve the conflict is does nothing for developing the team and in the terms of Tuckman’s model, it doesn’t progress the team to the Norming and Performing phases.

So how does a leader lead the team to and through the Storming phase… use deadlines. Deadlines are great for setting objectives, setting goals, and progressing the team. Deadlines compel team members to work together, confront and compromise, to accomplish the goals for the deadline. Deadlines are a catalysts for group development and progressing the team from Forming to Storming and on to the greater achievements.

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Stepping back more than forty years ago to 1965 and we find a valuable model for group development introduced by a psychology researcher in group dynamics, Bruce Tuckman. Tuckman’s model, Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing, highlight the growth stages of a group or team. These evolutionary stages are the key blocks for building a team that performs with exceptional results.

Throughout the duration that the team operates, there may be many reiterations of the stages, but the concept is valuable to understand for day-to-day operations teams. It is CRITICAL for entrepreneurial endeavors and projects teams.

In this post, I am going to give an overview of this model, but in a post on Thursday, April 23rd, I am going to write about a key strategy for success in team development and what every leader should practice.

Forming

Obviously, forming is the beginning. “In the beginning,” there is an initiation of a team. Perhaps a charter is drafted and formal authority is given to a leader. The team may or may not have had clear objectives, but the idea is that in the forming stage the team comes together, gets to know each other, and begins to work together.

Storming

As time progresses, the team may face conflicts. The dynamics of personalities, leadership and management authority, and technical expertise will come to light with problems and issues that need be worked out before the team can progress.

Norming

After problems get worked out, the team becomes stronger. The team enters a period of normalcy. Team members understand each other and know how the team operates – the pecking order, the processes, how to interact and collaborate, etc.

Performing

The more the team works together, the better the team works. Efficiencies are developed. Expertise is improved. Innovation is commonplace.

This is when the success of a team is at the pinnacle. This is when team members break out the Champaign and celebrate what they create and produce. This is what every leader strives to lead the team to realize. This is the stage that every team hopes to achieve, but it is rarer that you may think.

Check back on Thursday, April 23rd, and I will share with you a key strategy in building a performing team.

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