Leading Forward : Successful Public Leadership Amidst Complexity, Chaos and Change (with Professional Content) [1 ed.] 9781118453766, 9781118380574

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Leading Forward

Leading Forward SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC LEADERSHIP AMIDST C O M P L E X I T Y, C H A O S , AND CHANGE

Tim A. Flanagan John S. Lybarger

Cover design by Michael Cook Cover image © David Díez Barrio/Getty Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Brand One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94104-4594—www.josseybass.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-6468600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-7486011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read. Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress. 978-1-118-38057-4 (cloth); 978-1-118-45374-2 (ebk); 978-1-118-45376-6 (ebk) Printed in the United States of America first edition HB Printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

C O N T E N T S

Prologue

vii

ONE

Introduction

TWO

Agile Learning Capability

THREE FOUR FIVE

Adept with Ambiguity Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Ambitious Drive to Execute

1 11 39 73 107

S I X Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

143

Epilogue and Acknowledgments Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors Appendix B: Suggested Reading References About the Authors Index

197 199 219 227 229 231

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P R O L O G U E

I

t is critically important to us, as authors, that we present our findings and our suggestions in easily understandable ways. Many leadership development models are so complex that leaders aren’t able to digest their guidance. To combat this trend, in this book we’ve provided dozens of real examples from agency leaders, a sprinkling of personal stories, analogies from movies and books, and illustrations of exemplary leadership from historic figures. We hope you find the reading not only educational, but engaging and thought provoking as well. Our intent is to provide a thorough yet easy-to-grasp explanation of our model. Then, after reading the first five chapters, we provide you with a comprehensive tool kit that enables you to quickly assess your strengths and development opportunities and begin to build a plan for improvement. This prologue is designed with the following old adage for speakers in mind: First, tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; then, tell them what you told them. Over the next ten pages or so, we offer you a thorough, yet concise overview of the entire book. The main body of the book, Chapters One through Five, provides the “telling.” Here we’ll describe our premise in depth. Finally, in Chapter Six and beyond, we won’t exactly “tell you what we told you,” but instead offer you options for developing your future as a public service leader. We’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of public agency leaders over many years. We hope the inspiration we’ve felt is adequately reflected in the pages that follow. In Chapter One, Introduction, we review the foundation and basis of our work. We begin by presenting four themes that are impacting leadership development in federal agencies: (1) federal employees are experiencing assessment

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fatigue; (2) leadership competency models are often composed of so many competencies that it’s not practical or feasible to expect a leader to remember them; (3) shorter assessments are becoming more widely used and accepted; and (4) Generation Flux (GenFlux)—pioneers of the new and chaotic frontier of business. Additionally, we have uncovered five independent factors that influenced the creation of our Four Leadership Meta-Competencies model and our Public Service Leadership Assessment to measure them. Using stories from our interviews, we illustrate the key concepts embedded in each of these five factors. The first factor includes the four themes just listed as impacting leadership development. Second are the findings from conducting interviews with thirty executives from twelve federal agencies and the intelligence community. Third, we present the collective perceptions we gathered with the Public Service Leadership Survey from 233 federal workers representing twenty-four agencies and the intelligence community. Fourth, we highlight three research sources: (1) The Best Places to Work in Federal Government 2011 Rankings completed by the Partnership for Public Service and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (Partnership for Public Service, 2011), (2) Gallup’s extensive research on leadership and employee engagement (Gallup, 2012), and (3) the Senior Executive Service Core Qualifications (ECQs) and Leadership Competency Model developed by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fifth, we share our reflections on our observations gleaned from our combined twenty-five years’ experience providing executive coaching, organization development consulting, and leadership development to the federal workforce. We have summarized these four themes and five independent variables in detail in the Appendix for those who are interested in our research and conclusions. We begin Chapter Two, Agile Learning Capability, by breaking down the three words in our first meta-competency. Agility is the ability to be nimble and quick thinking, learning is the ability to acquire new knowledge or skills, and capability is the ability to be affected by a specific action or thought. Putting it all together, agile learning capability is the quality of being fleet and nimble of thought, learning quickly through experience, and continuously expanding capacity for current and future mission demands. The most successful leaders of tomorrow will be able to adjust in the moment as conditions change, evolve, and swirl. They’ll be keen learners, acquiring

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Prologue

knowledge and skills as they adjust, for use in similar situations in the future. They will be lightning-quick to ascertain the essence of issues and challenges without rushing to judgment, yet rapidly reaching potential conclusions for consideration. Future successful agency leaders will display a knack for embracing even the most trying of circumstances as learning opportunities. Finally, they’ll be inspirational models for others to become continuous learners. They’ll encourage those around them to seek opportunities to develop new skills and contribute to an organizational climate that supports the constant acquisition of knowledge and capability. Each of the four Leadership Meta-Competencies has three components, which in turn each have three subcomponents (see Table P.1). As we discuss each competency, its three components, and their three subcomponents, we continue to use stories from our interviews and personal examples from our own life experiences to provide practical examples.

Table P.1 Four Leadership Meta-Competencies Model Leadership MetaCompetencies

Agile Learning Capability

Adept with Ambiguity

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Ambitious Drive to Execute

Component #1

Passionately learning

Adapting and flexing in the midst of chaos

Skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete information

Practicing responsible risk-taking

Subcomponents

Acquiring a passion for learning

Adaptability and flexibility

Juggling competing demands

Driving to action

Continually learning

Getting comfortable with ambiguity

Juggling incomplete or inaccurate information

Willing to risk responsibility

Focusing the passion— learning forward

Making meaning out of chaos

Letting go when you have no control

Embracing the mission

Prologue

ix

Leadership MetaCompetencies

Agile Learning Capability

Adept with Ambiguity

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Ambitious Drive to Execute

Component #2

Agilely acquiring new skills

Bouncing back after challenging demands and setbacks

Thinking beyond the immediate horizon

Influencing and empowering others

Subcomponents

Taking advantage of opportunities

Bouncing back from setbacks

Mitigating tactical thinking

Leading by example

Seeking fresh perspectives

Persisting and “stick-toitiveness”

Focusing forward thinking

Fostering relationships

Processing large quantities of information

Facing uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm

Linking current realities to future objectives

Enabling others to act

Component #3

Creating a learning climate

Inspiring a Demonstratvision of the ing calm future confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity

Encouraging others to engage in responsible risk-taking

Subcomponents

Inspiring others

Managing stress and pressure

Painting a compelling picture of the agency’s future

Encouraging innovative thinking

Energizing the environment

Focusing on the facts

Compelling forward momentum

Rewarding efforts, not punishing mistakes

Recalibrating skills

Building selfconfidence

Clarifying purposedriven strategies

Demanding rationale and learning

The first component of agile learning capability is passionately learning. Its three subcomponents are (1) acquiring a passion for learning, (2) continually learning, and (3) focusing the passion—learning forward. Successful leaders

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Prologue

have the ability to acquire skills and knowledge in formal ways such as taking classes, obtaining advanced degrees, and reading books. They also learn through reflection on and analyses of their experiences on and off the job. They seek mentors, they ask questions, and they question answers. They are masters of continuous learning. They possess a desire to discover and an endless sense of curiosity. They also focus their passion so it’s not undisciplined. They learn forward rather than simply staying current. They seek a balanced approach for embracing opportunities. The second component of agile learning capability is agilely acquiring new skills. Its three subcomponents are (1) taking advantage of opportunities, (2) seeking fresh perspectives, and (3) processing large quantities of information. Successful leaders take advantage of opportunities as they are presented and create opportunities out of their experiences. They seize the moment. They jump at the chance. As they monitor their environment for opportunities, they are especially adept at identifying those that have the greatest likelihood of bringing fresh perspectives. Novel, innovative concepts and ideas are the lifeblood of the forward-thinking leader. Accomplishing this successfully requires them to sift through large quantities of information as they analyze, evaluate, and make decisions about the data. All of this occurs at an appropriate pace so opportunities are addressed efficiently but with enough restraint to ensure high-quality decisions. Creating a learning climate is the third component of agile learning capability. Its three subcomponents are (1) inspiring others, (2) energizing the environment, and (3) recalibrating skills. Leaders find ways to inspire others to become continuous, enthusiastic learners. They encourage, support, and coach those around them. They motivate, guide, and challenge. They know that inspiration is more a product of relationships than a result of speeches or tactics. It’s clear to forward-focused leaders that the right climate is key to inspiring others. They energize the environment. They promote activities, processes, and systems that support learning options. Workers in an energized environment won’t have to look far for learning opportunities. In Chapter Three, Adept with Ambiguity, we describe and discuss our second leadership meta-competency. Adept leaders are those who display an affinity for gaining skill and proficiency. They may be described as clever in their approach or wise in their application of knowledge, or both. They may also be recognized as subject matter experts. Ambiguity is uncertainty or vagueness, often arising out of too much or too little information. Leaders adept with ambiguity apply Prologue

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their expertise and make meaning during uncertain circumstances and unclear situations encountered while working. The future holds much uncertainty for all of us. Information and data are available in ever-increasing volumes arriving with blinding speed. Our senses, if we allow it, are constantly bombarded with a variety of stimulants— some useful, some worthless. We have to filter it all. Just as we need to gather information to make sense of confounding circumstances where we don’t know enough, we sometimes need to limit or organize data that overwhelms our ability to focus. Leaders have always had to confront new and uncertain challenges. They always will. Ambiguity would most certainly prevail if we didn’t make an effort to harness it. Again, we break down this second leadership meta-competency into three components, each supported by three subcomponents. The first component of being adept with ambiguity is adapting and flexing in the midst of chaos. It is supported by (1) adaptability and flexibility, (2) getting comfortable with ambiguity, and (3) making meaning out of chaos. When addressing unclear situations, leaders must demonstrate great adaptability and flexibility. In the midst of uncertainty, the lack of direction or information must never be incapacitating. Leaders find comfort in knowing there is always a way forward. Finally, when chaos abounds, leaders are competent at making meaning out of the chaos. Slowing the flow of information, focusing on what’s possible, and filtering data carefully enable leaders to bend but not break. Bouncing back after challenging demands and setbacks is the second component of being adept with ambiguity. Its three subcomponents are (1) bouncing back from setbacks, (2) persisting and “stick-to-itiveness,” and (3) facing uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm. The ability to bounce back quickly after setbacks and failures is a hallmark of great leadership. Persistence and resolve in the face of challenge is another component of this trait. Skilled, successful leaders are focused on getting things done despite the barriers and obstacles presented. An attitude of stick-to-itiveness drives leaders to persevere. Facing uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm helps leaders fuel their optimism and resiliency. Our third component of being adept with ambiguity as a leadership metacompetency is demonstrating calm confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity. We delineate its three subcomponents as (1) managing stress and pressure, (2) focusing on the facts, and (3) building self-confidence. Finding ways to manage stress and tension is critical for leaders at every level. Taking steps to calm

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oneself in the midst of chaos enables the settling of an emotional hijack and the engagement of rationale thought. Deep breathing, centering, and slowing are all techniques one can embrace and teach to others. Staying focused on what one knows and what one can control brings stability and a sense of calm to most situations. Developing self-confidence through practice, training, and exposure to a variety of circumstances is key for every leader. In today’s workplace, ambiguity is probably more common than certainty. As the information age continues, it’s likely to only grow more common. Agency leaders of the future must be ready to address the unknown, the uncertain, and the unclear. They must prepare for paradigm-busting innovation and brace for the continuing tidal wave of information flooding over and over them into the future. We introduce Chapter Four, Adroit at Thinking Strategically, by describing one of our early observations about public leaders. We believe the vast majority of those in public service are highly committed, dedicated public servants. They work, diligently and without wavering, to do the very best they can, despite declining resources and competing priorities. As human beings, we have finite physical, mental, and emotional energies. When we default to tactical execution based on a drive for quick solutions, we can waste precious resources. We believe that developing competence in being adroit at thinking strategically will not only offset these negative outcomes but result in more accurate, focused actions with desirable results. Next, we break down the key words in our third leadership meta-competency, adroit at thinking strategically. First, adroit means cleverly skillful, resourceful, or ingenious; or deft, apt, or adept. Adroitness is a skillful performance; ability without difficulty; or having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations. Second, we define strategic using Julia Sloan’s description from Learning to Think Strategically (2006). She explains that strategic is both specific and broad in its context, and it is dynamic and generative, not static and finite. Leaders who are competently adroit at thinking strategically skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information over which they have no control. They think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities, and they inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future. Adroit at thinking strategically contains three components, each of which comprises three subcomponents. The first component is skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete information. Its three subcomponents are Prologue

xiii

(1) juggling competing demands, (2) juggling incomplete or inaccurate information, and (3) letting go when you have no control. Effective leaders skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information over which they have seemingly little control or influence. These competing demands may be in the form of internal competition among peers or departments for things like limited resources (people, money, and space) or external demands from partner agencies, both domestic and international. They may also take the form of laws, regulations, policies, or guidance that impact mission priorities. Sometimes the available information is incomplete or inaccurate and there is nothing within your span of control that can help to make it more complete or improve its accuracy. Thinking beyond the immediate horizon is the second component of adroit at thinking strategically. Its three subcomponents are (1) mitigating tactical thinking, (2) focusing forward thinking, and (3) linking current realities to future objectives. Leaders can so easily become caught up in the moment, focused on tactical actions and immediate demands. It’s imperative to balance the here and now with the ultimate goal and the mission. Successful leaders learn to attend to both. The third component of adroit at thinking strategically is inspiring a vision of the future, broken down into three subcomponents: (1) painting a compelling picture of the agency’s future, (2) compelling forward momentum, and (3) clarifying purpose-driven strategies. Effective leaders create compelling, inspiring, and meaningful visions of the future—the future state of an agency, its mission, or a change effort. Inspiring visions are contagious—and effective leaders want their followers to “catch” them! As leaders learn to become more adroit at thinking strategically, they improve their abilities to clearly articulate both the current state (as is) of affairs and the ideal future state (vision of the future). They apply their strategic thinking to the visioning process to formulate strategic plans that include goals and objectives that guide their followers in executing the mission. Chapter Five chronicles our fourth meta-competency, ambitious drive to execute. The first of the three main components is practicing responsible risktaking. It is divided into three subcomponents: (1) driving to action, (2) willing to risk responsibly, and (3) embracing the mission. Successful public service leaders have a drive to action. They have a sense of urgency and a need to get things done. When answers or solutions are needed, they are willing to risk

xiv

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responsibly, which positions them to discover new innovative ways to embrace and execute the mission. Influencing and empowering others is the second component of an ambitious drive to execute. Its three subcomponents are (1) leading by example, (2) fostering relationships, and (3) enabling others to act. Public service employees want their leaders to set the example and walk their talk. When employees perceive their leaders as credible, dependable, and reliable, they are much more apt to want to follow them. Successful leaders know that leadership is a relationship. Employees don’t care how much their leaders know until they know how much those leaders care about people. When leaders lead by example and have relationships with their employees, they are in the ideal position to enable others to act. Leaders who know their people put themselves in the best place of opportunity to align the right people in the right roles to foster an ambitious drive to execute the agency’s mission. The third component of an ambitious drive to execute is encouraging others to engage in responsible risk-taking. Its three subcomponents are (1) encouraging innovative thinking, (2) rewarding efforts, not punishing mistakes, and (3) demanding rationale and learning. Successful leaders encourage innovative thinking that adds new possibilities and solutions to the agency’s mission challenges. When mistakes are reframed as learning opportunities and effective effort is rewarded, employees stretch and grow into a broader comfort zone of responsible risk-taking. When a clear rationale is expected and opportunities for learning are seized following innovative attempts, everyone becomes an active participant in continual learning. When this happens, they are simultaneously engaged in an ambitious drive to execute the agency’s mission. In Chapter Six, Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan, we discuss how and why we developed our assessment tool. We provide instructions on how to complete, score, and interpret the assessment, as well as a comprehensive guide to help you create your personal leadership development plan. We offer six categories from which to choose for strengthening your leadership competence: (1) find a role model or mentor, (2) consider a developmental assignment detail, (3) work with an executive coach, (4) take a class, (5) take an assessment, and (6) read a book. These are listed and explained in detail. Following the list of development activities, you will find a list of leadership competencies, complete with easy-to-understand definitions. Where possible or known to us, we have listed relevant assessments you may wish to consider. Prologue

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(We also caution you to be judicious in completing more assessments—as noted earlier, many agency leaders already suffer from an overuse of assessments.) In addition, we provide a list of recommended readings for each competency. At the end of the chapter you will find a leadership development plan worksheet that you can use to record your personal leadership development plan and choose an accountability partner. We wish to thank the many active and retired employees who so graciously shared their stories with us. Their experiences and examples provide the backbone for our work. We also wish to thank everyone who reviewed our drafts, provided feedback, and made suggestions along the way. Feedback is truly a gift. The guidance and assistance we received from our editors and their staffs kept us focused and encouraged. The support from our wives and children has truly made our work, and this book, possible. We hope that our efforts to capture the essence of effective public service leadership provides you with many ideas for enhancing your future. It’s a complex world, full of chaos and change. Leaders who can successfully address the challenges of today’s workplace while preparing for the eventualities of tomorrow are destined to become the foundation of leadership in public service for generations to come. Embrace the journey. Lead forward! Tim Flanagan and John Lybarger February 2014

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Prologue

Introduction

chapter ONE

The primary element that drives worker satisfaction in the federal space is effective leadership and in particular, senior leadership. —Partnership for Public Service

D

uring our years of working with federal agencies and their employees, we never intended to write a book. The idea came to us only after we had the opportunity to work extensively with hundreds of mid-level managers during a series of leadership development programs beginning in 2009. The number of compelling stories we heard inspired us to investigate the complexity of agency leadership. What we discovered led us to a simple, profound conclusion. Leadership is suffering in public service arenas because the traditional models of leadership have not kept pace with the ever-changing scope of challenges faced by those in leadership positions. Yet there continue to be individuals who transcend the changing environment to become pillars of exemplary public service leadership in their organizations. We’d like to begin by sharing the story of one such leader. His story illustrates the very essence of our Four Leadership Meta-Competencies: 1.

Agile learning capability

2.

Adept with ambiguity

3.

Adroit at thinking strategically

4.

Ambitious drive to execute

We met Hal several years ago. He was the program manager for an agency’s mid-level leadership training. John was the contract program manager hired to

1

lead a design and facilitation team that would pilot a new program for his agency’s mid-level managers. Tim and John were both working as contract instructors and executive coaches for Hal’s agency at the time. Hal was fairly new to the agency and had experienced a recent failure. The existing mid-level leadership development program had not met his senior leadership’s expectations. In fact, they rather abruptly cancelled the contract with the vendor. Then they tasked Hal with finding a viable and more suitable alternative. They also “suggested” that this was a clear priority for the agency and gave him less than ninety days to implement a new program. Hal was on the spot. He was anxious, fearful, and even mistrustful. Recent events had caused him to doubt his abilities. He didn’t know if he had what it took to find a new contractor, let alone lead and influence them to provide a successful program design. He was, though, anxious to recover from this setback and committed to better results in the future. We observed Hal demonstrating each of our four Leadership MetaCompetencies during our work together as we designed, redesigned, and piloted the new program. Hal had a passion for learning and was continually analyzing new concepts and techniques for leadership development and organizational culture change. One particular component of the program needed to focus on change management. Hal drove us to examine the research and dozens of models before settling on a final approach. Persistently he drove us to seek fresh perspectives, take advantage of opportunities, and process large quantities of information. All the while he kept us focused on his mission requirements. Hal’s enthusiasm and unquenchable thirst for knowledge (and its practical application) challenged and inspired our team to excel and perform at our best. As we worked on a needs assessment and put together an initial pilot program design, Hal was adaptable and flexible. He realized that he needed to get more comfortable with the ambiguity in his agency’s culture around leadership, training, and management. To avoid a second failure, he had to search for ways to make meaning out of the chaos all around him. Together, we identified several core leadership competencies that needed to be integrated into the mid-level leadership program. Then we looked at how we could create threads through the agency’s entire leadership development training platform. We looked across the spectrum—from frontline leaders to mid-level leaders and up through senior leaders. Hal’s compelling vision of the agency’s future included creating managers who were also leaders—people whom others would willingly want to follow—

2

Leading Forward

with passion, commitment, purpose, and a drive for mission excellence. He realized that with the current realities of pending budget cuts, retirements, and new recruits, it was imperative that leadership competencies be given the same priority as technical competence and expertise. This realization provided clarity amidst the frequently competing leadership visions provided by senior executives. Our team was encouraged by Hal to think innovatively and creatively while simultaneously keeping our learning objectives and course design tied to a clear rationale or mission objective. He used his influencing and political savvy skills to align key stakeholders across the agency. By fostering key relationships and empowering others to share ownership in the program, he built a strong support foundation of internal champions. The new pilot program was gaining momentum as the launch date approached. The pilot program received rave reviews. In comparison to the rejected approach, the new design was a virtual home run, but not without opportunities for improvement. Hal listened carefully and critically to the feedback and pushed our team to stretch further. After the first year, Hal received a promotion to a GS-15, and the senior leadership gave him recognition for leading the development of best-in-class leadership training in the Department of Defense. Through this experience, Hal demonstrated a real knack for learning quickly (agile learning capability). He displayed uncanny skill at clarifying key priorities despite the often unclear or unknown needs suggested by his sponsors (adept with ambiguity). His ability to identify leadership development competencies as critical elements of organizational success focused the path forward (adroit with strategic thinking). Finally, Hal’s uncompromising passion to find a solution inspired the entire team to make it happen (ambitious drive to execute). Through it all, Hal demonstrated an ability to recover from setbacks, persist through challenges, filter amazing amounts of data, and ultimately accomplish a mission.

OUR GOAL: DEVELOP A LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCIES MODEL AND SHORT ASSESSMENT Our goal was to develop a Leadership Meta-Competencies model with a short self-assessment that would measure the critical leadership behaviors required for successful public service leadership. We’re confident that our four Leadership Meta-Competencies and the Public Service Leadership Assessment achieve this Introduction

3

goal. Together these components provide public service leaders a way to quickly assess their leadership competence and then develop a customized and tailored development plan to close any identified gaps. There are numerous leadership models in the literature. We know there are also hundreds of leadership development activities available, including assessment centers, business simulations, experiential activities, self- and multi-rater assessments, workbooks, field guides, workshops, training courses, degree programs, executive coaching, and organizational assessments. Although all are potentially valuable, accessing this enormous pool of options could take days, weeks, or months. We wanted to create a way for individual public service leaders to quickly determine their strengths and development opportunities. Once these were identified, leaders could create an individualized leadership development plan tailored to their personal needs. We utilize many of the available assessment tools mentioned here (and in Chapter Six) in our work. The best of these have been statistically validated often over years of use. Our Public Service Leadership Assessment and our four Leadership Meta-Competencies have not yet been so thoroughly researched or analyzed. We are, however, claiming with great confidence that perception is reality for most workers. We have captured perceptions of the federal workforce through our own survey, which aligns with the validated survey results of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Partnership for Public Service. We believe that public service leaders can improve their leadership effectiveness by changing their behavior in ways that match what their constituents need. Our Public Service Leadership Assessment and the Four Leadership MetaCompetencies model work together to illuminate the pathway forward, guiding public leaders toward successful leadership.

FOUR LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCIES Our four Leadership Meta-Competencies are not linear. They are interlaced inextricably with one another. Woven together, they create a complex tapestry of leadership behaviors. Each Leadership Meta-Competency is defined in this section and broken out into its three main components. Similarly, these three main components are not individual concepts. They do not operate independently from one another; rather, they complement, support, and intertwine with one another to form the meta-competency.

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Leading Forward

I (John) frequently use a tennis metaphor in my leadership development courses to illustrate this concept of teaching nonlinear information in an artificially linear format. Imagine that you have signed up for tennis lessons with the pro at your local tennis club. You are new to the sport, and your first lesson is your introduction. You have watched tennis players, so you have some impressions about how the game is played, but you have no skill yourself. The pro spends some time instructing you on the various strokes you can use to play tennis—forehand, backhand, overhead, volley, lobs, and serves. You may perform some practice drills, repeating a stroke multiple times. Once you have learned how to use the various strokes, you are able to combine them to play a set or game of tennis. The art of tennis is developing your strategy thinking—knowing which stroke to use at the right time to defeat your opponent. You learn the strokes in an artificially linear format, practicing your technique over and over. You play the game in a systemic, nonlinear format, combining strokes in an infinite number of ways to strategically win against the opposing player. When we teach leadership competencies, we face the same dilemma. They must be broken down into repeatable steps and practiced to develop skill. By integrating and internalizing several leadership competencies, you can achieve leadership mastery. In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell presents the idea that it takes about ten thousand hours of deliberate practice to really master a subject area or skill. The deliberate practice must be focused on striving to constantly get better. This translates to about ten years of effort to achieve mastery. In their book Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour (1993) describe a four-stage learning model: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence. When you first begin learning a new skill, you start at the unconscious incompetence stage—you don’t know what you don’t know! As you begin learning, you move into stage two: conscious incompetence, in which you know you don’t know how to do it! As you engage in deliberate practice, you start to notice progress, and you move into stage three: conscious competence. For example, when you learned to drive an automobile, at this third stage, you could stay in your lane, stop at the right spot at an intersection, Introduction

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parallel park your car, and execute turns onto multilane roads while remaining in your proper lane as long as you concentrated on the task at hand. After several years of driving, you have probably moved into the fourth stage, unconscious competence. At this stage, you don’t have to think about most driving tasks. Of course this probably isn’t true for you (or for us ☺), but some drivers can get into the car on a Saturday morning to head out to the mall and then find themselves halfway to their workplace before they realize they have been driving on “autopilot,” following their normal weekday ritual of commuting to work! Or they are driving along, daydreaming, and then consciously realize they aren’t sure where they are on the expressway until they approach the next sign! These are examples of using “muscle memory” or entering into a trance in which one performs a ritualized task without having to consciously think about it. Achieving leadership mastery incorporates both these ideas, engaging in deliberate practice for several years (probably about 10,000 hours) and reaching the fourth learning stage, unconscious competence with each new leadership skill. Successful public service leaders have achieved both these levels in our four Leadership Meta-Competencies (see Table 1.1).

Table 1.1. Four Leadership Meta-Competencies and Their Components

6

Agile Learning Capability

Adeptness with Ambiguity

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

1. Passionately learning

1. Adapting and flexing in the midst of chaos

1. Practicing 1. Skillfully juggling responsible competing demands risk-taking and incomplete information

2. Agilely acquiring new skills

2. Bouncing back after challenging demands and setbacks

2. Thinking beyond the immediate horizon

2. Influencing and empowering others

3. Creating a learning climate

3. Demonstrating 3. Inspiring a vision of the future calm and confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity

3. Encouraging others to engage in responsible risk-taking

Leading Forward

Ambitious Drive to Execute

DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN LEADERS AND MANAGERS As a result of our work with federal employees and agencies, we have discovered that there is a blurred boundary between the concepts of leader and manager. Many federal employees see these terms as interchangeable. We believe this is one factor contributing to ineffective leadership. We define a leader as someone who has willing followers who perceive the leader as being credible, competent, and trustworthy. Leaders motivate and inspire others to join with them in the pursuit of a clear, compelling vision of the future. Leadership is relational—it’s about knowing and believing in your people and creating a space in which they can know and believe in you. Anyone can be a leader. Leadership is not dependent on a position, title, formal authority, education, age, gender, language, political affiliation, or religious beliefs. Leadership requires a relationship with others who want to willingly follow. We define a manager as someone with a title, position, and formal authority. Managers manage projects, resources (money, property, equipment), and people. They manage people by applying laws, regulations, policies, procedures, and guidance to a set of circumstances and then holding them accountable for specific performance objectives. Managers have formal and positional authority over employees assigned to them. They can use consequences to reinforce desirable performance (bonuses, awards, formal recognition, promotions) and to eliminate or reduce undesirable performance (disciplinary actions such as verbal warnings, write-ups, suspensions, and termination of employment). Managers can only demand compliance with performance standards outlined in a direct report’s position description or in agency policy. They cannot make employees do their best or go above and beyond their expected performance standards. Anyone can be a leader. Being a leader does not require a position, title, or any form of authority. Supervisors or managers can be leaders. Not all supervisors and managers are leaders. The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term “decisive moment” to describe his beliefs about photography. We have decisive moments in our lives when we stand at a crossroads, faced with a decision. How we act affects our future. Sometimes these choices have long-lasting consequences. When we take time to reflect on our personal values, vision, passion, and talents

Introduction

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before taking action, we help ensure that our choices will be authentic and in alignment with who we are and how we show up in this world. In 1979 I (John) spent a summer living in a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. I was doing community service work with youth. This trip was a decisive moment for me, early in my young adult years. South Africa was under apartheid, and poverty, crime, civil unrest, and economic uncertainties were prevalent. In America, I had studied my own country’s history—slavery, segregation, racial discrimination, and eventually the civil rights movement. Living in South Africa, a country that resembled in many ways what America must have been like in her early history, gave me insights I might never have learned back home. Until the end of apartheid, townships were urban living areas set aside for non-whites (black Africans [native peoples indigenous to South Africa], Indians, and coloureds—anyone of a racially mixed background). I was the only white person living in this coloured township. I learned quickly that people would treat me differently simply because of the color of my skin. Being somewhat shy and introverted, I found it challenging to speak up quickly whenever I encountered coloured people in the neighborhood. Often they would initially be hostile and confrontational—wanting to know what a white person was doing in their neighborhood. When I spoke, though, I became the funny-sounding American who aroused curiosity and sparked conversation. Whenever I left the township and traveled into the cities, like Johannesburg and Pretoria, I struggled with the white/nonwhite segregation. My traveling companions were coloured people, and we were legally restricted from sitting in the same train compartments, riding on the same buses, or eating in the same section of restaurants. As a result of this life experience, I began my career in leadership development and organizational culture change facilitating courses on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Working to help organizations overcome stereotypes and remove the barriers that inhibited those without privilege from fully engaging in and contributing to an organization’s mission was personally rewarding and fulfilling for me. We use references and quotes from the 2009 movie Invictus to illustrate successful leadership in several of our leadership courses. The story is about President Mandela’s vision for one team, one nation in South Africa in 1994 following his election to the presidency, the fall of apartheid, and the beginning of

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a new democracy. Part of his strategy is to inspire the Springboks rugby team to win the World Cup. The third annual games are being hosted in South Africa in 1995. In one scene, President Mandela has invited Francois Pienaar, captain of the Springboks, to his office for tea. He says, “Tell me, Francois, what is your philosophy on leadership? How do you inspire your team to do their best?” Francois replies, “By example; I’ve always thought to lead by example, sir.” Mandela says, “Well, that is right, that is exactly right. But how to get them to be better than they think they can be—that is very difficult, I find. Inspiration perhaps. How do we inspire ourselves to greatness when nothing less will do? How do we inspire everyone around us? I sometimes think it is through the work of others. . . . We need inspiration, Francois, because in order to build our nation we must all exceed our own expectations.” Leaders motivate and inspire their followers to go the extra mile. They create a desire in their constituents to do their very best, believing in themselves and in the possibility that they can exceed their own expectations. We believe that leadership in public service is suffering. It’s been declining for the past six years in our federal workforce. This decline in effective leadership is causing federal workers to become less committed and more dissatisfied and disengaged from their work. There is a growing need for effective leadership. As budgets decline and mission-critical demands expand, employee engagement becomes more critical. In the absence of effective leadership, our nation’s security and our way of life are at risk. Critical mission elements will be jeopardized. Recruitment and retention of talented workers will be impaired. But we can help counteract this dangerous decline by improving effective public service leadership.

Introduction

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Agile Learning Capability

chapter TWO

How do I turn win-lose situations into win-learn situations? —DeWitt Jones

T

he ever-changing workplace has become the norm. The “domino effect” metaphor is no longer sufficient to explain how one change causes another, which then causes another, and so on. All too often it’s impossible to identify which change occurred first. The “ripple effect” has become a more useful metaphor to convey how a single change impacts everything in its immediate environment. Cause and effect is still a universal truth. But it seems that even the ripple effect is too one-dimensional to adequately capture the speed, complexity, and impact of change on the challenge of leading people and organizations in today’s world. Once upon a time, leaders of agencies and organizations were home grown. A person could be hired and spend an entire working career in the same company. Organizational leaders would climb the ladder, gaining experience along the way by working in different departments, addressing specific challenges by leading project teams, and taking brief roles outside their discipline. That organizational contract has changed dramatically. The once-revered thirty-five- or forty-year veteran is a dying breed. Leaders are expected to gain experience through a diversity of employment opportunities. Not that long ago, a mid-career leader who had more than two or three places of employment over a twenty-year career could be categorized as a “job-hopper,” demonstrating a lack of stability and raising questions about the leader’s loyalty. Today, that same mid-career leader may appear unprepared for a new role due to a lack of diverse experiences, an inability to learn new skills, and a fear of embracing new challenges.

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AGILE LEARNING CAPABILITY: THE FIRST LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCY The first of our four Leadership Meta-Competencies is agile learning capability. It has three interrelated components, each broken down into three subcomponents. A brief outline follows.

WEB

L E A D E R S H I P M E TA - C O M P E T E N C Y # 1 : A G I L E L E A R N I N G C A PA B I L I T Y Continuously learning and seeking opportunities to develop new skills that contribute to successfully achieving the agency’s mission. 1. Passionately learning a. Acquiring a passion for learning b. Continually learning c. Focusing the passion—learning forward 2. Agilely acquiring new skills a. Taking advantage of opportunities b. Seeking fresh perspectives c. Processing large quantities of information 3. Creating a learning climate a. Inspiring others b. Energizing the environment c. Recalibrating skills Note: This meta-competency outline is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

Today’s leader and tomorrow’s executive must demonstrate agile learning capability. Let’s break that down. Agility, as it relates to cognition, is the ability to be nimble and quick thinking. One with cognitive agility processes large amounts of information with speed and without undue stress. Learning refers to the acquisition of new knowledge or skills by modifying behavior and thinking through practice, training, and experience. Typically, learning is associated with a systematic study of a field or discipline. Capability is the ability to undergo or be affected by a specific action or treatment. It’s the quality of having a certain capacity for

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thought or action. Putting it all together, agile learning capability is the quality of being fleet and nimble of thought, learning quickly through experience, and continuously expanding capacity for current and future mission demands. Successful leaders must be able to adjust on the fly while acquiring knowledge and skills that can be accessed in similar situations in the future. They must be cognitively nimble and quick to ascertain the essence of a challenge, and they must rapidly reach potential conclusions. They have a passion for turning even the most trying of circumstances into learning opportunities. Finally, they must enjoy learning, inspire others to be continual learners, seek opportunities to develop new skills, and contribute to an organizational climate that supports the constant acquisition of knowledge and skills. Agile learning capability, as we define it, has three main components. We’ll discuss each component in depth in the following sections. As stated in Chapter One, although we break out these components as individual concepts, they do not operate independently from one another. On the contrary, they complement, support, and essentially intertwine with one another to form the meta-competency.

PASSIONATELY LEARNING Josh was twenty-six years old when he accepted his first assignment in a foreign country. To say he accepted the assignment is a bit of a misstatement, as he had actively pursued opportunities for international experience during his entire, although brief, tenure with the agency. He loved the excitement of exploring new cultures and the challenge of contributing even while he was learning a different language. After his assignment in Italy, he was promoted to branch chief. Less than two years later he jumped at the chance to move to Japan becoming a deputy division chief. He returned to the United States to lead a division of his own at the ripe old age of thirty-four. When we talked to Josh about his success and rapid rise in the ranks, he modestly explained that he had the good fortune of having a breadth of experience available to him. We pressed him for more details and suggested that he must have had something to do with making those opportunities possible. He explained: I have always loved a challenge. Not just the challenge of doing something different or responding to a dare. I wanted to actually have to learn new things in order to reach an end or accomplish a Agile Learning Capability

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goal. When I went to Italy, I knew about a dozen words of Italian. I convinced my superiors that I wanted to learn the language, learn the culture, and learn to get along on my own. I remember being scared to death and exhilarated at the same time as I walked down the jetway to board my flight to Italy. But I loved the idea of this being an adventure where I could expand my skills while contributing to something greater. Josh exemplifies the pure passion for learning that’s required to lead today and into the future. He relished the chance to learn new things, felt exhilarated by the unknown, and loved a challenge. Passion for learning alone is far from sufficient. As we’ll see throughout the book, each skill set interconnects with others, resulting in a powerful synergistic leadership approach. In Josh’s case, his passion for learning enabled him to gain experience and explore a variety of cultures. Good for him, but not necessarily good for the organization. It was only when Josh leveraged the connection between expanding his skills and contributing to the organization that his passion for learning contributed to his being a successful leader. Today Josh is regarded as a leader who supports personal development in all its forms: training, special assignments, mentoring, education, cross-training, reading, and coaching to name a few. He thrives on providing opportunities for others to expand their knowledge and experience. “You can’t mandate desire,” he told us. “But when someone has the desire to grow and learn, it’s a shame not to do all you can to provide them every opportunity.” Acquiring a Passion for Learning How does one acquire the kind of passion for learning demonstrated by Josh? For some it may come as part of their “factory equipment.” In other words, some are simply more prone or predisposed to adventure-seeking or risk-taking opportunities. Those who are more risk-averse will probably have to come to grips with their personal wiring and choose to overcome it. But being reluctant to take risks is not by any means an insurmountable barrier to acquiring a passion for learning. In fact, it may be a blessing in disguise. In late 2012, my wife, Mac, and I (Tim) made a two-week trip to Great Britain. It had been years since we visited a country where vehicles drive on the left side of the road. We planned to rent a car at the Manchester airport and drive to our bed and breakfast in the small town of Harrogate, about a two-hour trip. Our

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chosen navigation tools were a map and some travel advice from our innkeeper. Some would call us adventurous. Others would call us reckless. A few would describe us as just plain asking for trouble. Personally, I like to think of myself as someone who enjoys new things, but not necessarily a risk-taker. In fact, when it comes to driving I try to make decisions that err on the side of caution. With Mac navigating, we slowly made our way out of the airport. We took several main highways, on the advice of our innkeeper, and made it rather easily to the exit where we’d finally have no choice but to drive on narrow two-lane roads. Even though it was a typically cloudy day, I remember being thankful that I was wearing sunglasses, as the glare from my brilliant white knuckles reflected in my eyes. With each new traffic circle the terror transformed: to awkwardness, then to deliberateness, and finally to caution. (I wish I could say there was a final transition to comfort, but we just weren’t there long enough for that to happen. Maybe next time!) The point being that my fear turned rather quickly to caution. My reluctance to take chances while driving didn’t change. In fact, it served us well, as I drove under the speed limit, took my time at traffic circles and intersections, and generally thought through most every decision. After a week of not driving at all, we ventured out to explore on the weekend. We loaded cameras, jackets, and snacks into our vehicle parked on the street in front of our inn. Mac remembers clearly how I sat behind the wheel of our car for several minutes, not saying a word. She asked, “Are you all right?” I replied, “I’m meditating before we start.” I needed a few minutes to think through the driving rules and mentally rehearse. After a successful tour of castles and mills in the Yorkshire, I found that my confidence was growing. I even suggested driving on the country roads back to Manchester for our return flight. Wisely, we reconsidered, as our flight was scheduled at noon on a Monday and we had no experience with rush hour traffic. As I reflect on my driving experience in the UK, I can honestly understand Josh’s description of being scared to death and exhilarated at the same time. I’m glad for having had the experience. It’s likely that, had we extended our stay, my confidence would have grown. I’m actually looking forward to our next trip and driving (learning) more! The point is, even the most cautious people can develop a passion for learning through small steps and gentle exposures to new experiences. Some trial and error may be necessary. The key is taking that first small step. The simplest advice we can give for acquiring a passion for learning is to simply go for it. Try new things. If you’re really concerned or afraid, start with Agile Learning Capability

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simple things, so if you make mistakes you can do no harm. Visit a museum for the first time. Take a walk in a park you’ve never visited. Try a new cuisine at a restaurant not on your favorites list. When you’re done, reflect on what you experienced and what you learned. Was there value in the experience? What will you tell others about it? What did you enjoy most about the experience? Talk to others about what you did. Take note of their reactions and responses. We think that very soon, if not immediately, you’ll find the experience of experiencing something new will fill you with pleasure. You’ll want to do it again. You’ll look for more opportunities. And you’ll find that the simple act of experiencing new things will evolve into curiosity and a desire to learn more. That’s how a passion for learning develops. You’ll want to have that feeling again and again. Continually Learning The term “continuous learning” has been a common theme in organization and leadership development since the advent of the total quality movement spearheaded by Phil Crosby and the explosion of Japanese manufacturing and technology. It’s not a fad. It’s a requirement for leading effectively today and a necessity for meeting the challenges of the future. The options available to leaders and aspiring leaders for continually learning are virtually endless. Many are associated with one’s current job responsibilities. Others are available through training and development classes offered by the organization. Still others reside in college and university degree and nondegree programs. Classroom and online courses abound. The instant access to news, information, and data through electronic and virtual means is mind-numbing. Public libraries are still open (and amazingly underutilized) in every city. Social clubs, civic organizations, and volunteer opportunities exist everywhere. There really are few excuses for not engaging in opportunities to keep continually learning. The importance of continually learning cannot be overstated. So much is changing all the time. It’s been said that more inventions or new technologies have been introduced in the past one hundred years than in all of previous recorded history. If you think of just the past twenty-five years, it’s amazing how far we’ve come. Just watch the movie Die Hard (1988), starring Bruce Willis, or Lethal Weapon (1987), starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. These favorites are already classics. Check out the size of those portable phones and the battery bags that accompany them. Watch closely and you’ll see phone booths on every

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Leading Forward

corner. Are those big square boxes really televisions? Was that a cassette tape being popped into the dashboard of that limo? The good news is that most of the leaders with whom we work have accepted that the pace of change is only going to continue to accelerate. Most leaders embrace the concept that technology is a critical tool. It’s almost impossible to exist, let alone lead, without using technology today. We all have to keep up with the ever-expanding world of virtual communication. The key for successful leaders is not just in the understanding and keeping up. It’s in the desire to stay at the forefront, to be prepared for the next innovation, and the eagerness to explore what’s just beyond our current view. I’ve (Tim) had the good fortune of being a visiting faculty member in an eighteen-week mini-MBA program at the Crummer Business School at Rollins College for the past few years. I’m thrilled to see successful managers and directors, physicians, attorneys, and IT professionals from both public agencies and private companies attending this program. They are there to quench their thirst for learning, to stay current on business trends, and to interact with people from outside their field of expertise, in hopes of gaining some new insight. A large majority of the students are already at the top of their games. They choose to attend because they are committed to continually learning. Most continuous learning doesn’t take place in classrooms. That’s a sobering thought for a couple of guys who rely heavily on designing and delivering educational and training sessions. But it is a fact. Continuous learners constantly expose themselves to new concepts and ideas. They deepen their already significant understanding of topics. They listen thoughtfully to people from different backgrounds or who have diverse perspectives. They are curious; they try new things. They are inquisitive: they investigate what they don’t understand. They are wonderers; they love to consider, “what if?” So what can one do to sustain a practice of continually learning? Are there steps one can take? Is there a book to read? Is there a how-to guide? We’re not sure about a how-to guide, but since you’re already reading a book, allow us to provide a short list of ideas. In fact, why not add a check mark for each of the ideas you can imagine doing? ⬜

Participate in a webinar on a topic of interest to you.

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Prepare and deliver a webinar to others.

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Volunteer at a local shelter, a humane society, a school. Agile Learning Capability

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⬜

Read a journal article on a topic not in your field of expertise.

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Attend a city council or a neighborhood association meeting.

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Join a civic organization.

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Join a professional organization and attend its conferences.

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Do crossword puzzles, especially the difficult ones.

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Start or join a book club.

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Add a level of expertise to one of your hobbies (for example, in karate, move from brown to a black belt).

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Get serious about an old hobby you’ve neglected.

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Spend time with an expert and pick his or her brain.

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Keep a journal of “new things I learned today.”

Successful leaders practice continually learning because of their love for learning. They look beyond their own particular field of expertise and approach the world with a sense of wonder, seeking to discover hidden gems and nuggets of wisdom. Focusing the Passion—Learning Forward The practice of continually learning can add value to one’s life and one’s organization in a multitude of ways. But living one’s entire life as if the world is merely a playground is rarely realistic. Yet it remains essential for tomorrow’s leaders to genuinely love learning and to demonstrate this desire in their organizations. They must be models that inspire those around them; they must create a climate of continually learning for others. So the challenge for leaders becomes how to focus their passion for continually learning in a way that benefits both the learner and the organization. Chloe was, by all standards, a model of effective leadership. During her career she rose to GS-15 status and managed at the office level for years. Then, for significant family and personal reasons she chose not to seek senior level (SES) status, although everyone agreed she was clearly “senior material.” When we spoke to her about what she considered significant in becoming so successful, she shared the story of her journey. We’ve summarized it here. Recruited to her agency right out of college, Chloe accepted her analyst position, full of optimism and wide-eyed adventure. She threw herself into her work,

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embracing the mission, knowing that whatever challenges arose she would be a difference-maker. To expand her knowledge, she signed up for classes and seminars. Her superiors took notice quickly, and to her surprise, they acknowledged her as a leader in the making. Chloe had no aspirations to be a leader. She liked the idea of doing her job to the best of her ability and receiving acknowledgment when deserved. But she had never really considered herself leadership material. When the opportunity arose for her to become a team lead, Chloe talked with her superiors about the role and why she was being asked to lead the team. They explained that she had demonstrated a keen problem-solving ability, her coworkers admired her work, and she was well liked and respected throughout the organization. Her supervisor said that the promotion to team lead was an opportunity she should embrace because it was a natural fit. Chloe agreed to take on the role, but with some personal reservations that she kept mostly to herself. At a very young age, Chloe had become the primary caregiver for a sibling with special needs. This responsibility made it extremely important for Chloe to manage her work priorities skillfully so she would have time to devote to her family obligations. Once she accepted the role, Chloe was eager to learn all she could about leading a team. She asked her boss for advice, went to the bookstore and purchased several books on teams, and contacted one of her previous college professors for guidance. To stay balanced, she decided to forgo several seminars focused on her field, and she attended a seminar on leading teams. As the year progressed, she reached out to several other team leads, invited them to lunch, and spoke with them about their experiences. Applying what she heard and read, she focused on learning all she could about her team members. Meeting individually with team members once monthly, she made time for as much informal interaction as possible and conducted weekly team meetings. Her tenure as a team leader not only was successful but led her to believe that leading others was tremendously satisfying. As the years progressed, Chloe was promoted into increasingly more significant leadership roles. She became a student of leadership, reading as much as she could about historically successful leaders and leadership theory. She took advantage of leadership training classes offered through her agency. She dreamed of attending a world-recognized two-week leadership seminar off-site, but decided to focus instead on options that would not involve travel or significant time away from her sibling. Webinars and online classes worked well for her. She volunteered to be part of newly established mentoring program Agile Learning Capability

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in the organization. She became a mentor for early career leaders and established a mentee relationship with a senior leader. Not long ago, a division chief approached her about starting a book club. Not only did Chloe approve, but she became an active member. Chloe’s story is unique due in part to her family obligations. We also find it to be an excellent and unique example of bringing focus to one’s passion for learning. In this case, Chloe’s family situation provided a clear incentive for her to balance her work activities and responsibilities. Successful leaders must find their own balance points during their careers. Chloe achieved her balance by focusing her learning efforts on what was most critical for achieving her personal mission as well as the organization’s mission. It evolved from gaining more technical expertise to gaining more leadership expertise. Therefore Chloe chose to seek fewer opportunities for expanding her technical skills and instead spent more effort on polishing her leadership capabilities. How you balance your passion with your reality is ultimately up to you. Reflecting on Chloe’s journey, we found ourselves contemplating how to best summarize the need for focusing one’s passion for learning. It boils down to a few key points: 1.

One’s passion for learning is often established early in life. It can also be developed as opportunities arise.

2.

Undisciplined passion for learning can become detrimental when it takes the focus away from one’s mission or guiding principles.

3.

Focused passion homes in on the learning required to successfully grow in one’s role and expand in one’s capabilities.

4.

Focused passion does not eliminate the pursuit of outside interests. Rather, it provides guidance for setting and maintaining priorities.

5.

It’s critical to look to the future as the focal point of learning. The focus is less on staying current and more on learning forward.

Learning forward is our way of reminding leaders to focus their passion for learning on what’s to come. Be selective in your quest for knowledge. Consider what will be useful not just now, but well into the future. Seek to learn what’s just around the corner as well as what’s over the distant horizon. Focus your passion. Learn forward.

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Leading Forward

AGILELY ACQUIRING (AND APPLYING) NEW SKILLS One of the newly coined attributes of effective leaders introduced in the last decade is “leadership agility.” The ability of leaders to respond to an everchanging spectrum of challenges has become a requirement for success. In many agencies, the terms “reorganization” or “restructuring” were once reserved for events occurring only once or twice in a person’s career. Today, for all too many of us, reorgs have seemingly become annual or routine rituals. Additionally, a new wave of interagency collaboration has emerged, especially since the attacks of September 11, 2001, requiring the evolution of systems, priorities, and missions. The aging of the workforce has resulted in droves of experienced leaders retiring, new leaders being appointed, and younger workers assuming more and more significant roles. These trends, coupled with the sheer speed of information sharing and a world full of crises, makes the art of leadership a task requiring nimbleness of thought, fresh perspectives, and the ability to process large amounts of information rapidly. In his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2012 movie Flight, actor Denzel Washington portrays a pilot struggling with an array of personal demons. Yet before we are aware of the depth of his issues he pulls off one of the most memorable scenes in movie-making history. As his passenger-filled plane plummets to what seems to be its inevitable demise, Washington assesses the rapidly deteriorating situation. He quickly begins a roll maneuver that few if any pilots would attempt, relying on skills deeply embedded in his experience. Even as he continues processing an overwhelming amount of data, he calmly gives orders to his crew on completing the roll. Amazingly, and in true Hollywood style, the crash landing saves scores of lives, and Washington’s character is hailed as a national hero. In this example, the pilot had opportunity thrust upon him. He could have thrown up his hands in terror. Instead, he embraced the moment instantaneously. His extraordinary decision to roll the airplane required a perspective so fresh, so out of the ordinary, that it was nearly impossible to duplicate even in simulations. His ability to take in and process a mind-boggling amount of information while maintaining an unruffled demeanor was nothing short of miraculous. These attributes, although displayed here in a fictional movie, provide a solid base for our discussion of how to agilely acquire and apply new skills. Seldom in our leadership careers will any of us be confronted with a crisis of this magnitude, yet most of us can benefit by exploring our abilities for quick

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thinking, accessing novel approaches, and increasing our aptitude for processing large amounts of information with minimal stress. This example most certainly caused many of you to remember the real-life heroics of an airline pilot, in an incident dubbed “the Miracle on the Hudson.” US Airways Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed his airliner full of passengers, without power, on the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. When bird strikes in both engines crippled the aircraft, Sullenberger reacted in the moment, applying his training and knowledge of flying gliders to avert an almost certain disaster. One’s agility in acquiring and applying new skills is an essential complement to a passion for continually learning. It’s critical that tomorrow’s leaders fully embrace the joy of learning new things. It’s just as critical that they seize opportunities without delay, be able to flex and adapt in order to maximize the impact of novel perspectives, and stay grounded as they process waves of information in their work. Taking Advantage of Opportunities As we saw earlier, both Josh and Chloe clearly demonstrated an ability to capitalize on the opportunities they sought or were offered. Josh leveraged his absolute love of exploring into additional assignments that ultimately led to an amazingly fast rise up the leadership ranks. He has since leveraged his own love of learning to provide similar opportunities for others. Chloe clearly took advantage of her early career opportunity as a team leader to focus her learning on becoming the most astute leader possible, resulting in a successful leadership career. One essential element for success is the speed with which leaders embrace the opportunities they are afforded. I first heard the expression “You snooze, you lose!” from my old grad school roommate, Dave “Beek” Kalsbeek. It rings as true today as it did back then. The nature of many, if not most opportunities is how fleeting they can be—one moment they’re right in front of you, the next they’ve disappeared. The longer one waits to consider the pros and cons of an opportunity, the greater the chances that the opportunity will no longer remain. Yet at the same time, thoughtful analysis and careful consideration are essential decision-making skills for every leader. How, then, does one balance the need for quickness in embracing the opportunity with adequate restraint to manage the risk of “ready, fire, aim” decisions? The answer lies in the word “ready.”

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When I (Tim) was a senior psychology and history major at Muskingum College (now Muskingum University) in New Concord, Ohio, the college was a pioneer of the 4–1–4 academic year calendar. This system provided for a fourmonth fall semester, followed by a one-month, highly focused term in January, followed by another four-month semester in the spring. During both traditional semesters, students would take a full load of courses. The January term was reserved for students to explore a single topic in depth with a significant handson experience. Some courses were conducted on campus, with plenty of labs, fieldwork, and visits from experts. A few courses were scheduled at off-site locations; students would either commute there or live in residence. The most coveted were those courses that included an international travel element: a chance to study abroad. During the fall semester, a select group of psychology students were contacted about a rare opportunity to study with Dr. Jean Piaget, the worldrenowned child psychologist and founder of the International Center for Epistemology Studies. The course was to be conducted during January term, 1977, at the center in Geneva, Switzerland. I was among the lucky few included. For a young adult just a few months from graduation, this sounded fantastic. This not only would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for someone in my field, it would be my first international trip and a great résumé-builder to boot! Students were given less than a week to register for the trip. I was also one of six seniors who had been selected by the dean of students to serve as a director for one of the residence halls on campus. Each year those chosen for this role were paid members of the Student Affairs staff, gaining invaluable leadership experience while earning the trust and respect of college officials and students alike. It was really quite an honor. One of the stipulations of accepting the role of residence hall director was agreeing to be on campus during the January term. I was stuck in that proverbial space between a rock and a hard place. Muskingum was a small liberal arts institution; at the time, enrollment was approximately 1,100 students. It was not unusual in colleges of this size for deans of the college to also serve as faculty members. As fate would have it, the dean of students was a psychology professor. In fact, he was one of the professors who made the announcement regarding the January term experience with Piaget. I quickly scheduled a meeting him and the director of residence life to discuss my dilemma. Agile Learning Capability

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The discussion revolved around my commitment to the program, the requirement that hall directors be on campus during January, and the college’s willingness to be flexible with this requirement. Among the many items we discussed was the fact that no previous hall director had ever been granted permission to be away from his or her duties for a January term. Several had asked, but permission had been denied each time. Making an exception for me would be precedent setting and would arguably create the need for new stipulations about the hall director role. Essentially, they left the decision to me. At the time, for this twenty-one-year-old, the decision seemed impossible to make. On one hand, I had made a commitment to the hall director position, knowing full well that I’d spend January on campus. Did I want to be the first hall director to break that commitment, even with the support of my superiors? On the other, a chance to travel overseas to study with Piaget would probably never arise again. Was I willing to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime? I decided to stay on campus that January. I thought I’d be doing a disservice to the role, setting a precedent, and fracturing the commitment I’d made to the program. I told myself that perhaps I’d have a chance to travel to Geneva in a future graduate program. Truth be told, I was also a little intimidated at the notion of flying to a foreign country and getting in over my head. I also took a little comfort in the knowledge that by passing up such a great opportunity, I would become an example for the integrity of the role for all future hall directors. As the years have passed, I have always harbored some regret about that decision. I made what seemed like a well-informed decision that was supported by my bosses. They even commended me for my loyalty to the program. My peers varied in their reactions. Some couldn’t believe I would pass up an opportunity like this. Others knew it was a very difficult decision and suggested that I was obviously very committed to my role. Some years later I had a chance meeting with Dr. David Skeen, one of my old psychology professors at the time. Ironically, he had gone on to become the next dean of students after I graduated. He remembered the decision I made to forgo the Piaget trip. He said he always wondered if I had regretted it. Now he knows. Seems like the end of the story, right? I wish it was. However, just one year after I graduated, as fate would have it, a situation arose that underscored this great learning experience of my youth. One of the hall directors had an opportunity for an international study experience in January 1978. He took it. The

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hall director program survived. International opportunities at Muskingum continued to expand. And in 1980, Piaget passed away. I never did go to Geneva. So was I right or wrong in my decision? I’m not sure there is a right or wrong in this situation. It does provide an interesting opportunity to debate the importance of seizing the moment and taking advantage of opportunities. In this case, I passed on one opportunity to continue another. Although I had days to make the decision, it still seemed almost unfair that I didn’t have more time to decide. In the final analysis I did not seize nor take advantage of this rare opportunity. I’m certain that, considering my youth, my decision was closely related to my state of readiness (or lack of readiness) for taking advantage of this kind of opportunity. Or as my old pal Beek said when I shared my story, “You snooze, you lose!” Taking advantage of unique learning situations requires the agility to shift when the opportunity presents. At the time, I didn’t have a plan for my future. I had little awareness of career decisions. I had no real set of priorities. I was a good student, relying on the fact that I had been pretty successful so far in life and there was no need to worry about what might come next. Without a plan, without a clear personal mission, without specific goals, I really wasn’t ready to make such an important decision. As leaders are provided opportunities in their careers, those with a welldefined sense of purpose, personal and professional goals, and a clear mission are more ready to embrace or reject those opportunities wisely. They are positioned to act quickly on advantageous circumstances related to their learning and experience. Nimbleness of thought and the ability to discern the pros and cons enable them to grasp the best opportunities. The speedy decision does not indicate any failure to give necessary consideration; it simply demonstrates how prepared they are to take advantage of the opportunities when they appear. Seeking Fresh Perspectives The longer an organization of any kind has been in existence, the more predictable and set in its ways it becomes. Organizations that survive for long periods of time must find ways to adapt to their changing environments. Innovation and diversity of thought have become invaluable assets. Leaders who can create, discover, or enable others to provide fresh perspectives bring tremendous value to their organizations, not just today, but for the future. Agile Learning Capability

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Taking advantage of opportunities is uniquely useful when those opportunities bring a new perspective to the workforce. Dewitt Jones (whose epigraph graces the opening of this chapter) is a world-class photographer. He speaks eloquently about accessing one’s creativity in work, recreation, and life in his training video Everyday Creativity (Star Thrower Distribution, 1999). He enumerates a number of key concepts for creativity and bringing fresh perspectives to our work: Put yourself in the place of most potential by training your technique. Creativity is a matter of perspective. Reframe problems as opportunities. Don’t let patterns become your prisons. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. There’s more than one right answer. You’ve got to really care. Jones suggests that finding creativity is not a matter of luck. He emphasizes the need to polish one’s skills, take care of one’s tools, and be clear about one’s objectives. Leaders who have clarity of purpose and are constantly striving to be their best are more inclined to be in the best positions to seize opportunities when they arise. Fresh perspectives don’t just appear by chance. When Jones talks of perspective, he often uses his photography as an example. He never shoots a subject from a single position or angle. He’s always changing his view and his angle of observation to find the best shot. He also switches lenses frequently to ensure that he’s seeing his subject from a variety of perspectives. By shifting lenses he is able to shift his view and see the same subject with a fresh look. There’s always more than one right answer. Continuing the photography metaphor, when searching for a fresh perspective he says it’s critical to reframe problems into opportunities. Just because one angle or one solution doesn’t solve a problem, there is no excuse for becoming frustrated. A problem is simply an opportunity to succeed. It’s a mindset. It’s a passion for seeking a better answer. Breaking patterns is much easier said than done. We’re all creatures of habit at some level. We embrace structure and routine. But when we let our routines become limiting, all of our work suffers. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves

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to not be afraid to make mistakes. When our routines become barriers, we cannot succeed. Perhaps most important, Jones suggests that creativity comes from within each of us. We must really care about our mission, our values, the people around us, and living life to the fullest. Only when we really care about something are we able to discover those fresh perspectives that can contribute so significantly to our families and our work. As trainers and consultants John and I do a significant amount of work in the area of conflict resolution. We teach that the single most powerful behavior one can use in conflict situations is perspective taking. We encourage our clients and students to approach conflict situations with a sense of wonder and curiosity (Runde & Flanagan, 2013). It’s incredibly common that two or more people see the same situation quite differently. They can get locked into their views very easily. Effective leaders are able to bring fresh, new perspectives to those around them, and they encourage others to engage their own curiosity and wonder when confronting issues. When this happens, especially during moments of opportunity, everyone wins. The organization, not just those immediately involved, takes advantage of the fresh perspectives, the novel approaches, and the innovative solutions. The organization is refreshed, its life is extended, and the mission is supported. In those moments of opportunity when leaders realize that there’s something new, original, or fresh just around the bend, they must jump at the chance to pursue that opportunity to its fullest potential. Processing Large Quantities of Information Leaders are constantly bombarded with information. Some of it fills critical needs to know. Some of it is useful. Some of it is superfluous or unnecessary. Emails and text messages arrive around the clock. Employees raise issues, provide data, and share insights. Smartphones, desk phones, e-readers, notebooks, laptops, and an endless array of devices keep us continuously connected. Meetings, conference calls, teleconferences, briefings, and presentations fill up our calendars. Twenty-four-hour news outlets vie for our attention. Bosses, peers, customers, and partners need our attention now! Family, personal, and community activities provide an equal volume of information and data. Leaders who are truly passionate about continually learning not only find ways to process it all, but also constantly search for new opportunities. Agile Learning Capability

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“Big data” is a term being bandied about in an attempt to capture this concept of processing large quantities of information. Some have characterized “big data” by the three Vs: The volume of data exceeding traditional processing methodologies, the variety of data sources, and the types and velocity of data input and output. Some add a fourth V—value—which focuses on how meaningful the data is for business outcomes. Because data is growing exponentially, it is continuously becoming more and more difficult to manage—to store, process, and access it in useful and meaningful ways. It also contains nonobvious information that can be discovered and correlated to improve business outcomes. Mike Gualtieri, at blogs.forrester .com, has also defined big data pragmatically as SPA: store, process, and access. He poses three questions: Can you capture and store the data? Can you cleanse, enrich, and analyze the data? Can you retrieve, search, integrate, and visualize the data? Cloud-based, distributed storage systems go hand-in-glove with big data. This includes distributed storage systems like Amazon’s S3, distributed processing frameworks like Apache Hadoop and its related products, and massive parallel processing databases like Oracle’s Exadata and HP’s Vertica. The parallel between managing big data and successful leadership centers on strategy. When one is trying to conceptualize big data, the focus should really be on how much useful insight can be gleaned from the data rather than its size or largesse. It is easy—and tempting—to be distracted by the size or volume and miss the opportunity for making it meaningful. This applies to massive amounts of data and the increasing frequency of change in mission priorities. The common denominator here is people. People process data outputs, and people execute mission. Successful leaders stay grounded when processing large quantities of information by focusing their attention on what is meaningful for mission outcomes and what will connect their people to mission execution. The ability to process this volume of information is in itself challenging. In the context of agile learning capability, the challenge is no less daunting. Decision-making theory suggests three main components to the process: analysis, judging, and deciding. In analysis, one must gather and organize all the information. Fortunately, the human brain is magnificent at this. It takes all the sensory information available through sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste and immediately begins categorizing it according to learned patterns and structures. All of our experience has

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in effect wired our brain to sort the incoming information into comprehensible bits that either fit with established patterns or are identified as new or outside current structures and categories. Just as all this happens, we are on the cusp of awareness. It is here that our brain makes microdecisions about where things belong in relation to one another. All of this happens outside of our conscious thought. Neurobiologists measure the time this takes in units smaller than microseconds. Finally, we begin to consciously analyze what we’ve taken in. We sort and categorize and organize. Doing so accurately is critical so that the next phase works successfully. Now we begin to make judgments about the data and information we’ve analyzed. This is the heart of decision making. We use already-established criteria or create new sets of criteria against which to consider the relative value of the information. In the simplest form we consider the pros and cons. For more complex consideration we establish categories of greater or lesser priority or weight. We may decide to gather additional data if not satisfied with the current volume. Then, after considering all categories, weights, and values, we determine potential outcomes and place them in order of those most likely to address the situation most effectively. We often land on one outcome so quickly that we fail to see that other options are available. Completing our judgment leads to the final phase of the process. Decisiveness is the ability to make definite, quick, firm decisions. Those with very high decisiveness can be seen as too quick, rash, even reckless. Those with very low decisiveness can be viewed as slow to respond, afraid, or procrastinating. Regardless of one’s propensity for being decisive, deficiencies in either analysis or judgment are more likely to result in poor decisions. As we consider the value of processing large amounts of information in the context of one’s ability to acquire and apply new skills, it’s important to understand the value of doing so calmly. The staggering volume of information available to leaders can be stress inducing on its own. The concept of information overload is not new to anyone. Plus, it’s virtually impossible to turn off the flow of data. How then does one manage the sheer volume of information without becoming overwhelmed and stressed out? Successful leaders have learned to be comfortable with processing enough information rather than all the information. Some leaders practice the 80-20 rule, which posits that once you have considered 80 percent of the available data, it’s time to make a decision. This is not to be confused with the 80-percent rule, Agile Learning Capability

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which suggests that when a decision will achieve 80 percent of the desired result, you make it. We’re not suggesting a specific rule, nor do we believe any one rule will suffice. We do, however, look to the future and see no indication that there will ever be less information to consider. We suggest that one’s ability to be comfortable with enough information becomes even more crucial. Agile learners are in a constant state of readiness to acquire knowledge and skills. They know their personal strengths and weaknesses, and they are aware of the agency’s strengths and weaknesses in light of its mission. Time has been invested in considering future direction and options. So when opportunities are presented in the enormous wave of data rolling at them, they have the ability to see, grasp, and take advantage of those that can enhance their knowledge and skills. The well-equipped leader of tomorrow will have the agility to acquire and apply new skills. By being nimble and quick to take advantage of opportunities they discover or that are presented to them, they will focus on those opportunities that bring fresh perspectives. They will develop an ability to process large amounts of information quickly and calmly in order to embrace the highestvalue opportunities. They will rely on their training and experience as they apply skills that address the challenges presented and opportunities raised.

CREATING A LEARNING CLIMATE An essential—some would say the most essential—responsibility of a leader is creating a worker-friendly climate that fosters trust, safety, growth, and appreciation. Employees’ satisfaction and productivity are closely tied to the environment in which they work. Leaders who establish and maintain a positive workplace environment greatly improve the chances that their employees will be self-motivated, high performing, and generally happy with their work. The notion of the learning organization was popularized by Peter Senge, one of the most brilliant organizational strategists of our time. We would be remiss to not at least briefly review his suggestions as they relate to creating a learning climate. The publication of his seminal work, The Fifth Discipline (Senge, 1990) marked a milestone moment for organizations, agencies, and businesses around the world. In it Senge introduced his vision of learning organizations: “organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where

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collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together” (p. 3). Leaders who wish to continually expand their organization’s capacity to create its own future must foster a climate that encourages all members to continually learn. Senge acknowledges that both organizations and individuals share certain qualities. Both have a desire to survive; therefore both practice “survival learning” methods. In more complex ways, both respond to their environments by embracing “adaptive learning” methods. But this, according to Senge, is not enough. In a learning organization, survival learning and adaptive learning must be accompanied by “generative learning.” Generative learning is the capacity for creating something new. The five disciplines outlined by Senge are Personal mastery Mental models Building a shared vision Team learning Systems thinking We highly recommend reading his book. In fact, it would be a great first step in working on your personal learning capability. We won’t review his entire model. We will focus briefly on the discipline of personal mastery as it applies to creating the right climate for learning. A climate that fosters the practice of continually learning enables people to practice the discipline of personal mastery. Personal mastery means continually clarifying and deepening one’s personal vision. It involves sharpening and focusing one’s energies, and it includes a commitment to seeing and understanding things objectively. It means searching for opportunities to add new knowledge and skills. “Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs” (Senge, 1990, p. 139). The challenge for agency leaders is to create a climate in which personal mastery is possible. We share Senge’s assertion that leaders are responsible for building organizations in which people continually expand their capabilities. They make it possible for others to acquire knowledge and skills for their own good as well as the good of the agency. They encourage learning for learning’s sake. Agile Learning Capability

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Inspiring Others Effective leaders create a learning climate by inspiring others to engage in the practice of continually learning. The key is discovering what is interesting, inspirational, and motivating to others. Inspiring others then becomes a matter of connecting the inspirational to what’s possible. In relation to continual learning, it means helping others find their inspiration, establishing a climate that supports discovery, and making it possible for others to explore and expand their capabilities. Maggie was a mid-level manager, with several supervisors who led small teams reporting to her. Historically these teams had functioned in silos with little collaboration. Her mission priorities shifted, and collaboration became an essential factor for her division’s ongoing success. Without collaboration on strategies and tasks, it was going to prove nearly impossible to avoid unnecessary delays, duplication of efforts, and the provision of disjointed solutions to the mission-oriented problems they were tackling. Space was needed to facilitate collaboration, so Maggie located an unused storage room and converted it into a collaboration room. She knew her supervisor was planning to refurnish his office because he didn’t care for the brightly colored sofa and chairs that he had inherited from his predecessor. So she negotiated with him to remove his old pieces and place them in her collaboration room. Next, she stocked the room with relevant reading materials, motivational posters, and a small table with chairs. To keep it focused on dialogue and teamwork, she made certain that a computer was not included in the room. Her teams quickly took advantage of the new space and began collaborating effectively on a variety of mission problem solutions. When Maggie retired a few years later, she was presented with a plaque that memorialized her collaboration room, and it was later placed above the doorway to that space. Energizing the Environment Effective leaders can consider how they might create a climate that makes the practice of continually learning something more than intrinsically valuable. When continuous learning becomes a part of a team’s or work unit’s culture, it has a transformative impact. Imagine a workplace where workers enjoy learning so much that they celebrate with one another. Contemplate a department or an office scheduling specific time during meetings in which coworkers can make presentations on new skills, techniques, or knowledge. Consider the impact of

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an entire organization sponsoring an annual conference solely to promote new ideas that have been developed and to recognize cutting-edge processes that have been adopted by their own workforce. Leaders who are serious about the development of agile learning capability will take steps to make sure these types of events happen. They’ll commit to creating a culture that embraces examples like these—not just as a “We checked a box” event, but also as vibrant, evolving expectations in a learning organization. Sounds a little like somebody is wearing rose-colored glasses, doesn’t it? Maybe the authors have taken a step off the deep end? Let us provide a real-life example. A few years ago, several folks at an agency’s regional center hatched an idea. They thought it might be interesting to spotlight the work of a few outstanding projects from their workforce in a showcase event. The focus was on operations and analytics. Sharing best practices seemed a fine way to help usher in this new era of increased collaboration. During the inaugural event, the organizers sought presentation proposals from across the organization. Nearly fifteen proposals were received. From that list, about half were invited to present. The half-day event was deemed a success, and the excited organizers immediately decided that this event was officially the First Annual Leadership Showcase. The next year it became an all-day event, expanded to include enablers and support functions, and it gained the support of site training personnel and the command staff. It was a huge feather in the original organizers’ caps. Unexpectedly, this was also becoming much more time-consuming than the simple one-time event they had initiated just two years ago. To make matters even more challenging, the originator of the event was transferred to one of the agency’s other regional sites, and a senior leadership change at the helm was under way. The future of the showcase event seemed in jeopardy. In the summer of 2010, a group of twelve select staff members from the regional center who worked in the human resources arena (training, HR planning, employee relations, and so on) joined with two other similar groups of twelve from other regional centers to participate in a six-day residential leadership development program in Virginia. This course was designed to continue building on the spirit of collaboration and sharing within the agency. Upon completion of the class, each of the three groups from the regional centers committed to apply what they had learned by taking on specific leadership projects. Agile Learning Capability

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Each group from the three regional centers is to be commended for their initiatives and success. One focused on specific design initiatives for training as they moved into a new facility. A second group focused on sharing what they learned in the class with other leaders at their home site. The third group (the original supporters of the Leadership Showcase) focused on how they could provide opportunities to practice continually learning at their home site through educational events, including the expansion of the Leadership Showcase. Upon returning to their regional centers, the third group committed to meet and embarked on planning how to collaboratively assist with the next Leadership Showcase. The timing was perfect, because the showcase needed new leadership and an injection of energy. Joint meetings occurred, new marketing efforts were discussed and developed, and subcommittees were formed. In 2010, the Leadership Showcase received so many proposals that the all-day conference required two tracks to enable staging of all of the presentations. By 2011, the Leadership Showcase created such an avalanche of proposals that it warranted two full days. The workforce (aka the conference attendees) demanded to be able to attend more than one presentation. This required multiple tracks so presentations could be delivered several times. Due to operations and mission priorities, the 2012 conference was rescheduled for the spring of 2013. At the time of this writing, plans are in full swing to host the largest event ever. To say the regional center’s Annual Leadership Showcase has been a rousing success is indeed an understatement. During the last two years, the regional center’s Leadership Showcase has gained attention and interest from the entire agency. Invitations were extended to agency representatives outside the region. The Leadership Showcase appears poised to continue evolving, sharing knowledge, and celebrating the joys of continually learning. Congratulations to all involved. The leaders who originated the Leadership Showcase concept and the members who have guided the evolution of the showcase provide a sterling example of what it means to foster the practice of continually learning in an organization. They have truly energized their work environment. Begun as a way to share good ideas, the Leadership Showcase has grown into an annual event treasured by the organization. Presenters are celebrated. Attendees are enriched. Everyone enjoys the atmosphere of sharing and learning. The entire site has benefited by the exchange of knowledge and ideas. There are examples of presenters and attendees being introduced for the first time during the showcase. They have

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discovered ways to collaborate on projects creating synergy in ways that may not otherwise have been possible. When continuous learning is recognized, acknowledged, and rewarded, employees come to believe that such opportunities are an expected part of the workplace. Workers who know they will be supported in their efforts to learn new techniques, develop skills, and explore ways to enhance their expertise are far more likely to seek such options. When leaders can find ways to make these efforts enjoyable, they become self-sustaining. Who doesn’t want to participate in activities that are intrinsically valuable, enjoyable, and supported by leadership? Here are ten questions for you to consider for energizing your organization’s environment in support of continuous learning. We offer these to you as a place to begin your planning, evaluate what already exists, or generate new ideas to consider.

TEN QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 1. What events or processes that specifically support continuous learning are offered in your organization?

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2. To what degree are employees encouraged to seek learning opportunities in conjunction with their work? 3. How frequently do your team members and/or peers share work-related items they recently learned or researched? 4. What do you or your organization do to celebrate the learning achievements of others? 5. When was the last time you or someone you know in your agency attended an internal conference or showcase focused on sharing skills, knowledge, or research? 6. What would your coworkers say if you asked them, “Do you enjoy learning?” 7. Where does continuous learning rank among your work unit’s or your organization’s stated priorities? 8. How do you encourage your team members to explore learning opportunities? 9. Who is responsible for organizational learning? 10. What can you personally do to enhance the support for expanding continuous learning options in your organization? Note: This list is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

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Recalibrating Skills An easily overlooked component of the practice of continually learning is the value of encouraging employees to recalibrate their skills and knowledge on a regular basis. In a learning organization, everyone is committed to recharging and renewing. Not only is this critical to keep pace with changes in work processes, technology, and client demands, but it’s also a necessary ingredient for staying ready to discover the next new process, technique, or product idea that could change the way your organization does business. In many fields, workers must demonstrate certain levels of skill or proficiency to maintain their jobs. These may be reevaluated on a particular schedule. Certain licensing and certifications are necessary for many technical and professional roles. In many cases, licenses and certifications must be renewed on some periodic basis. In roles such as these, recalibration is a built-in element that requires planning and follow-through. We believe that another kind of recalibrating is happening in learning organizations. It’s not the kind that is associated with prescribed renewals, licensing, or certifications; rather, it lives in the desire of organizational members to make sure they are operating at their best each and every day. People demonstrate it when they take time to engage a coworker in a discussion about ways to improve their performance. It’s evident in email exchanges among coworkers addressing challenging deadlines on a project. We see it in hallway conversations about the process that team members used in solving a problem. It appears over lunch when one peer asks another about their approach to a challenging situation with a client. Informal interactions like these, where people contrast and compare their methods for dealing with work-related issues, represent the very essence of recalibration. Tomorrow’s successful leaders will foster regular, informal discussions that cause workers to constantly consider their skill and knowledge levels for doing their jobs. A workforce that is comfortable collaborating and comparing methods, approaches, and techniques is a workforce that is constantly learning. Increased opportunities for recalibration and learning arise when leaders intentionally create and maintain an environment of genuine cooperation rather than one of divisive competition. Chapter Summary Agile learning capability is the combination of three distinct yet complementary qualities: the quality of being cognitively fleet and nimble, the ability to learn

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rapidly through experience, and a continuously expanding capacity for current and future mission demands. Agile Learning Capability 1.

Passionately learning a. Acquiring a passion for learning b. Continually learning c. Focusing the passion—learning forward

2.

Agilely acquiring new skills a. Taking advantage of opportunities b. Seeking fresh perspectives c. Processing large quantities of information

3.

Creating a learning climate a. Inspiring others b. Energizing the environment c. Recalibrating skills

Agile Learners . . .

• Possess a passion for learning • Are curious and excited about discovering new things • Learn forward, with a disciplined approach to continuous learning • Are quick to respond and nimble of thought • Seize opportunities, especially for fresh perspectives • Can effectively handle large amounts of information in their quest for learning • Create a learning climate for others • Inspire others to become continuous learners • Energize the work environment • Serve as beacons of personal mastery

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Adept with Ambiguity

chapter THREE

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. —René Descartes

I fear explanations explanatory of things explained. —Abraham Lincoln

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ow often do you have to solve problems without having enough information? When was the last time you were expected to deliver a decision based on insufficient data? On the other hand, can you recall situations when there was so much information or data that your senses were overwhelmed? Have you ever been presented with a directive that simply made no sense? Are there times when your entire world is embroiled in chaos and everyone is looking to you for clarity? Welcome to the club. When we were interviewing agency leaders, we asked a lot of questions regarding their visions of challenges facing future government and public agency leaders. As they shared their predictions and prognostications, one area received almost unanimous support. They were consistent in their beliefs that future leaders would face far more uncertainty and unpredictability than leaders face today. They also expect that information will be even more readily available than it is today. That sounds like a good thing, right? Maybe not. Information will come at leaders, whether they want it or not, with ever-increasing speed and in overwhelming volume. Such an information avalanche can paralyze decision making and thwart leadership initiatives. The relentless accumulation of information alone

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will impair one’s ability to analyze and sort. In other words, today’s leaders predict that in the not-so-distant future the sheer amount of information will cause uncertainty and ambiguity. Almost paradoxically, today’s leaders also foresee that leaders who may already be challenged by massive amounts of data will also be challenged by the unknown. They expect that continuing advances in technology will create opportunities and challenges that are simply unimaginable in today’s world. As leaders confront unimaginable problems or approach unpredicted opportunities, they will face a different kind of ambiguity. Rather than the proliferation of information providing more opportunities for clarity and understanding, they’ll experience the challenge of addressing situations they’ve never seen before and could not anticipate. They will have to make meaning in situations with which they have no experience and a lack of history on which to draw. They’ll feel as if they have too little information or experience to proceed. Leaders today who expect to continue leading in the future will need to be adept with ambiguity. So will those who are just entering the workforce with aspirations of leading later in their careers. Adept leaders are those who display an affinity for gaining skill and proficiency. They may be described as clever in their approach and/or wise in their application of knowledge. They will be recognized as experts in their abilities.

ADEPT WITH AMBIGUITY: THE SECOND LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCY Our second Leadership Meta-Competency is adept with ambiguity. Its three components are each broken down into three subcomponents.

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L E A D E R S H I P M E TA - C O M P E T E N C Y # 2 : ADEPT WITH AMBIGUITY Demonstrating an ability to excel in the face of uncertainty, chaos, and/or overwhelming challenges. 1. Adapting and flexing in the midst of chaos a. Adaptability and flexibility b. Getting comfortable with ambiguity c. Making meaning out of chaos

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2. Bouncing back after challenging demands and setbacks a. Bouncing back from setbacks b. Persisting and “stick-to-itiveness” c. Facing uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm 3. Demonstrating calm confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity a. Managing stress and pressure b. Focusing on the facts c. Building self-confidence Note: This meta-competency outline is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

In the case of this meta-competency, leaders’ expertise and skills are applied to ambiguous situations in their working environment. Ambiguity can be defined in a number of ways. As we see from the predictions presented earlier, ambiguity can be a lack of clarity caused by either way too little understanding or way too much information. Ambiguity is closely associated with uncertainty or vagueness. No matter how the uncertainty is created, it will be incumbent on leaders to address it, bringing clarity to their many constituents. Successful leaders will display great adaptability and flexibility as they address the chaotic, the unknown, and the uncertain. They will demonstrate a level of comfort with a lack of clarity caused by too much data or too little definition. Making meaning out of chaos and creating meaning in a void are equally important. Resilience and tenacity are hallmarks of these leaders. They bounce back quickly from failures, persist through challenges, and possess a spirited enthusiasm for addressing the trials presented by vague or unclear circumstances. Finally, they are beacons of calm in the storm of chaos, exuding a sense of composure and confidence while assisting others by navigating a sea of uncertainty. As with the first meta-competency, we’ll address adept with ambiguity in three distinct but complementary segments. Each segment philosophically stands on its own yet is incomplete in the absence of integration with the other two.

ADAPTING AND FLEXING IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS In the 1995 movie Crimson Tide, the captain of a nuclear submarine and his first officer confront the unthinkable possibility of launching their missiles with very Adept with Ambiguity

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different perspectives. The USS Alabama has been ordered to sea because intelligence indicates instability in the Soviet Union. A group of rebels has seized control of a nuclear missile site and appear to be preparing to strike somewhere. While the Alabama patrols off the Russian coast, they suddenly find themselves under attack. During the attack, an emergency launch message is received. Following protocol, the captain and crew prepare to carry out those orders. During the brief attack, their communications system is damaged. When a second emergency message is received, the damaged system causes the message to stop before it’s complete. Could it be an order to stand down? Captain Ramsey, played by Gene Hackman, is an old-school officer. He has seen it all. Chain of command is revered and should be unquestioned. He swiftly cuts through the uncertainty associated with the second emergency message. In his mind, an incomplete message is no message at all. The only option available is to launch the nuclear warheads at Russia per the original order. Commander Hunter, the first officer, played by Denzel Washington, sees the situation as completely ambiguous and uncertain. A well-educated, brilliant student of military and political history, he is the antithesis of the captain. The only certainty in his mind is that a nuclear strike without certainty of the order or knowledge of the current circumstances carries the risk of leading to an all-out nuclear holocaust. The only viable option for Hunter is to delay the launch until they can find a way to confirm the content of the second message. We have a single ambiguous, pressure-cooker situation with two leaders each certain that their interpretation is correct. Each is comfortable with his view and prepared to take action. But which view and which decision is correct? Does one act on incomplete information or does one delay action because of it? What would you do? How would you respond? As it turns out, Hunter relieves Ramsey of his duty and essentially leads a mutiny in order to delay action. Ramsey, while confined to his quarters, rallies those loyal to him and retakes command. In one of the most dramatic sequences ever put on film, Hunter is able to buy time while the communication tech attempts to repair the system. As time counts down, the system is restored and the complete second message was retrieved. It rescinds the previous launch order—and the world is saved. Both Hunter and Ramsey are reprimanded for their actions. In uncertain circumstances where information is unclear or incomplete, leaders cannot stop leading. In the case of the USS Alabama, there was no manual to

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consult for the situation they faced. Both leaders made sense of the initial situation differently. An even more unstable state of affairs came about as a result. Problem A (to launch or not to launch) gave way to Problem B (change of command and mutiny). Debate over who was right continues among movie buffs and students of military leadership even today. Thankfully, this was a fictional story created to entertain. Nevertheless, it provides an excellent example of the great challenges of uncertainty and ambiguity. Leaders can expect to confront similar situations—though perhaps not always as gripping as the one depicted in the movie—as the future relentlessly rushes into the present. Adaptability and Flexibility A leader’s ability to adapt to circumstances and willingness to be open to options have long been hallmarks of excellence. Ken Blanchard, when explaining his landmark vision of situational leadership, stated that flexibility is the most crucial element of a leader’s effectiveness (Blanchard, Zigarmi, & Zigarmi, 1985). Conditions in the workplace are ever-changing. Leaders must be willing and able to modify their approaches, without compromising their values, to keep pace with the speed of change. Football fans are familiar with the term “bend but don’t break” as it applies to defense. Many National Football League and top-ranked college teams employ a defensive strategy designed to limit the opposing team to short gains while striving to prevent big plays. In other words, they’ll allow their foe to make small bits of progress but prevent any single play from gaining significant forward progress. This strategy causes the offense to tire and increases the likelihood of a mistake or a turnover. As the defense bends, giving up small chunks of yardage, the offense must run more plays in an effort to advance the ball. More plays provide more opportunities for the defense to exploit mistakes. All the while, the defense doesn’t break. It is relentless in denying scoring plays or long gains. This “bend but don’t break” mentality, when applied to leadership, evokes leaders who blend a somewhat conservative approach to new situations with a liberal twist for enthusiastically embracing emerging trends. Let’s examine how this works. Ed was known for many things. For one, he fancied himself the unofficial “Walmart greeter” of the agency. He was always among the first to welcome a new employee into the organization, whether or not that person was in his department. He was also recognized as one of the agency historians, and he loved to talk. Ed had over thirty years of experience, starting as an hourly worker Adept with Ambiguity

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and advancing through the leadership ranks to his current senior-level position. His booming voice and amicable personality were well known throughout the organization. He was always willing to lend a hand or an ear to those in need. Ed also had a reputation for providing simple, folksy, easy-mannered advice and tips. Many leaders tried to emulate his career. But Ed wanted no part of being set on a pedestal. He told everyone that his career was simply a journey of “going with the flow” while “sticking to a few key principles.” Ed’s principles included two items that served him especially well through the many changes he encountered in his thirty-plus years. The first, he explained, is patience. “Every time you see something you’ve never seen before, give it a little while to make sense,” he told us. The worst thing one can do in a new situation, said Ed, is to rush to judgment. He wondered how anyone in the face of some new encounter could decide immediately whether it was good or bad, useful or folly, important or frivolous. Ed’s second principle germane to adaptability and flexibility was, as he put it, “common sense.” We would call it wisdom. In addition to giving new things a chance, he always sought to be slightly protective of the status quo, avoiding “unnecessary disruptions to the comfort of things that are working.” When things take unexpected turns, he thought it best to wonder about the new while considering the pros and cons of it. Jumping on the new bandwagon too soon, he explained, was just as risky as waiting so long that the bandwagon has passed you by. Over lunch, we asked Ed to give us an example of how he applied these principles. Predictably, we were presented with a story requiring more coffee refills than we really needed! Here’s the abbreviated version. Several years ago the agency, not unlike many other organizations, was tasked with going paperless. When Ed first heard about the initiative, he admitted to personally violating his first principle. He practiced no patience whatsoever for such a foolish and impractical idea. He, along with the rest of the civilized working world, knew of the concept, but to think it could actually be accomplished seemed too far-fetched for consideration. Documentation, record-keeping, and paper trails were at the very foundation of his agency’s mission. The mere suggestion of a paperless agency seemed preposterous. In retrospect, Ed didn’t immediately recognize that he was jumping to a conclusion without giving any consideration to the idea. He had fallen into the trap of reacting to an unanticipated piece of information with simple rejection. The

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easiest course was to protect the status quo. The adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” echoed in his mind. During the staff meeting, as his boss announced the concept of a paperless workplace, Ed’s mind was spinning. His head nearly exploded when the boss looked squarely at Ed and asked him to lead the agency task force in charge of determining how best to proceed! In that moment Ed felt overwhelmed and consumed by doubt. He was also severely put on the spot. His boss’s words seemed to hang in the stale air of the conference room: “Ed, as you’ve done so many times before, will you help us tame this new challenge by leading the agency task force on becoming a paperless workplace?” He remembers glancing around the table, looking into the eyes of his peers, who were also struggling to comprehend the enormousness of the task. The silence grew deafening. His boss gave him the slightest of nods and just a glimmer of a smile. Ed said yes. He recalls an audible, shared sigh from around the table. The principles of patience with the new and a commonsense approach came rushing back into his consciousness. Although he admits wondering just what in the world he had gotten himself into, he also took comfort in knowing that his agency had always adapted to new initiatives and its people were proud of their flexibility in embracing change. Still, Ed was concerned. He was uncertain about how this new directive would impact the organization. Yet he was willing to suspend judgment, explore the notion, and seek options that would give the agency its best chance of successfully dealing with another unexpected situation. Over the course of the next six months, Ed’s task force recommended a slate of guidelines that steered the agency into the paperless world. With each new wrinkle in the paperless decree, Ed encouraged his team to allow their analyses to drive their decisions. He preached patience with each new barrier and consideration with each new obstacle. As their work proceeded, unexpected possibilities were discovered. Electronic paperwork could actually increase the speed of investigations. Use of “the cloud” could make the challenge of securing physical space for file storage virtually disappear. The ease of retrieving information needed for inspections and review might save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. A paperless environment might actually make common sense. After several years, the suggestion of a paperless workplace became reality. Under Ed’s guidance, processes for initiating paperless work procedures were established without disrupting important data collection the old way. Less critical processes were managed first. For instance, paper work orders for equipment Adept with Ambiguity

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repair were replaced with an online system. The most complex procedures and processes were addressed later. For example, it took much longer to agree on a method for collecting and reviewing information related to personnel issues such as promotions. Over time, current methods were adapted to fit the new paradigm. Workers flexed to embrace new workflows. The once-panned concept of a paperless workplace had evolved into agency-wide acceptance. Flexibility and adaptability prevailed. Ed helped the organization bend without breaking by encouraging patience with the new and offering wisdom to guide the change. Best of all, Ed was left with another story to tell. Most every leader we’ve encountered espouses a desire to be flexible in their approach to new situations. They understand the need for adaptability in the workforce and in work processes. They get that the world is constantly changing and they as leaders must adapt and change within it. What the leaders of tomorrow do is apply patience and wisdom to the constant ebb and flow of information. A willingness to flex or adapt isn’t enough. They must engage in it moment by moment, minute by minute, and day by day to fully embrace and overcome the ambiguities that are sure to describe the environment of public agencies in the future. Getting Comfortable with Ambiguity Earlier, we briefly identified two “flavors” of ambiguity. One is caused by information overload—we’ll discuss that later. The other is characterized by a severe lack of data or, at the very least, a perception that there is little information available. This type of ambiguity often appears during times of change. For example, the creation of new services for the agency to implement brings with it a major learning curve for the workforce. Everyone involved must start from scratch to determine how best to communicate the new services to customers, manage the delivery of the services, and keep track of the impact of the services. Or consider the introduction of new regulations, whether legislated by local boards or by congressional action. Typically, new regulations mean new work processes, creation of new documentation procedures, and often a foray into the world of determining what’s allowed, what’s restricted, and sometimes even what’s legal? When information is at its lowest level of availability, leaders must be at their highest level of availability. They need to provide guidance, instill confidence, point to the destination, and communicate with clarity. A workforce charged with being efficient and productive without data or information is akin to a tall

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sailing ship in a fog bank with no wind. It will continue to float, but will make no headway toward its destination. Getting comfortable with ambiguity is no small task. In fact, we are wired to be uncomfortable with it. Fear of the unknown is one of those built-in features of the human brain. Fight, flight, and freeze responses served our ancient ancestors well when confronted by situations where there were no clear answers. Fight to the death, run for your life, or hide were often their only options. In today’s world, vestiges of those responses are still hard-wired features of our emotions and our ability to reason. When faced with the unknown, most of us experience at least some discomfort. It may be that queasy feeling in the pit of our stomach. Sometimes it appears as a tightening of the muscles in our neck or shoulders. Maybe it’s a slight tingling in our limbs, an increase in heart rate, or drying of our mouth, making it hard to swallow. Whatever the signs, our brain is telling our body to prepare for potentially life-saving action. It is anything but comfortable. Yet leaders are always looked to for providing exactly that—comfort in the face of the unknown. So what’s a leader to do? Imagine what must have been going through the minds of some of the first astronauts. Sitting atop a rocket filled with tons of explosive fuel about to be catapulted into outer space, just how comfortable could they have been? Oh sure, they had the benefit of some of the most advanced training available. They had hours of experience in simulators and were even exposed to weightlessness aboard highflying aircraft sent into brief nosedives to create a few seconds of a weightless environment. Most of them were former military pilots, some of whom tested experimental aircraft. A nation committed to space travel prepared them as best it could. Yet, to a man, they all experienced some level of discomfort. Perhaps more than any others in modern times, the Mercury astronauts truly faced the unknown. Even with the best science and the most advanced technology in the world, there was an alarming lack of knowledge and information about the effects of space travel on human beings. What were these brave men feeling as they contemplated their flights? In the acclaimed book We Seven (Carpenter et al., 1962), written by the Mercury astronauts themselves, we find clues to how they responded to the unprecedented challenges of space flight. Alan Shepard was selected to be the first American in space. He acknowledged the great honor of being selected as well as his burning desire, shared by each of his colleagues, to be the first. Yet he also described his trepidation. Adept with Ambiguity

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“Once in a while the thought of making an unsuccessful flight would get to me too much and I could feel it in my stomach. I was not going around shaking, but there were some butterflies” (p. 231). On the day of his flight, as Shepard sat all alone locked into his tiny capsule on top of the mighty Redstone rocket, he remembers the combination of discomfort and exhilaration. He also provides some insight on how he kept his anxiety at bay. “The butterflies were pretty strong now . . . I had anticipated the nervousness I felt, and I had made plans to counteract it by plunging into my pilot preparations. There were plenty of things to do to keep me busy, and the tension slacked off immediately” (p. 243). The morning of the launch, Shepard was latched into his capsule at 6:10 a.m. After several delays in the launch countdown, everyone was wondering if the mission would be scrubbed. Shepard spent over three and a half hours alone as he waited. He busied himself with frequent communication with NASA Mission Control. He used his periscope to observe his surroundings at the Cape Canaveral launch pad. He rehearsed the sequence of events in his mind and contemplated his role for when the countdown would continue. Finally, at 9:34 a.m., May 5, 1961, America launched its first astronaut into space. Shepard remembers his fellow astronaut Deke Slayton providing the final countdown. Just after zero, Slayton said, “Liftoff.” Then he added, “You’re on your way, José.” It was a tension breaker and very much appreciated. Shepard also remembers thinking that he braced himself a bit more than necessary at liftoff. “Nobody knew, of course, how much shock and vibration I would really feel when I took off. There was no one around who had tried it and could tell me . . . I was probably a little too tense. But I was really exhilarated and pleasantly surprised when I answered, ‘Liftoff and the clock is started’” (p. 245). It’s pretty safe to assume that none of us will ever have quite the same experience of the unknown as Alan Shepard did that day. Despite the wealth of scientific research, little was truly known about what Shepard could expect on this first manned space flight. The lack of information could have overwhelmed him. The ambiguity, the sheer weight of the unknown, could have resulted in anxiety so severe that a flight-or-freeze response would have disabled Shepard’s ability to pilot his capsule to a successful splashdown. What can we learn from Shepard’s experience? How can we apply it in situations where a lack of data and information creates dissonance for leaders?

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First, let’s consider the impact of Shepard’s training and previous experience. In the past, he had faced many situations in which data and information were severely lacking. As a test pilot, the very essence of his job was to investigate firsthand how a new aircraft would perform. He had been the first to experience risky situations many times before. He had not only survived but also learned to thrive on the excitement while balancing the risk. In addition, in preparation for his space flight, he spent hours upon hours in flight simulators. Based on the best information available, NASA scientists created an environment they thought would be similar to the conditions Shepard would face during the actual flight. Shepard reported that his experience as a test pilot and his exposure to the flight simulations were both essential in helping him prepare for the unknown and keep his emotions under control. Next, there’s the comfort Shepard experienced through his relationships with others and the constant stream of communication with Mission Control. The relationships he established with his fellow astronauts manifested in many tension-relieving moments leading up to his launch. John Glenn left a note on the control panel of his capsule that read “No handball playing in this area.” On the van ride to the launch pad, Gus Grissom reenacted a comedy routine about a fictional astronaut about to be launched into space. The punch line was that among the qualities a good astronaut must have was “four good legs.” Why? Because they had really wanted to send a dog but thought that would be too cruel. The laughter was a great comfort to Shepard and his colleagues. Furthermore, the constant communication with the experts at Mission Control gave Shepard a sense of calm and resolve. Even though he was staring into the void of unknown obstacles and possibilities, he was glad to know that so many others were supporting his efforts. Finally, there were the steps Shepard himself took to allay his concerns and focus on the great task at hand. At one point just after the hatch was closed, he said to himself, “OK Buster, you volunteered for this thing. Now it’s up to you to do it” (Carpenter et al., p. 243). At another point, just before the launch, he remembers warning himself, “You’re building up too fast. Slow down. Relax” (p. 247). And when he felt his heart beating a little too fast, he would look out through the periscope at the people in the launch area or the waves along the beach to calm himself down. Alan Shepard’s experience provides three important lessons to leaders facing the ambiguity of too little information. First, choose to see situations in Adept with Ambiguity

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which little information is available as your personal training ground for similar challenges in the future. Attend classes or seminars on decision making, innovation, conflict, and problem solving. Volunteer for new assignments or for serving on projects outside your comfort zone. Get used to facing ambiguous situations. Or as Mike describes it later in this book, “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Second, establish and nurture your relationships with others. Build a network of people you can rely on to support you when facing challenges absent of useful information or data. Having reliable friends, family members, and associates around when you are tense, afraid, or unsure is a remarkably comforting thing. A friendly joke here and there to relieve the tension can be reassuring. Perhaps most important, maintaining open, honest communication with others during these periods can provide great strength for overcoming the butterflies or tendencies to freeze or run away. It’s much easier to have the courage to commit when you know others are supporting you. Finally, your own self-talk can be of immense comfort. Your ability to cool down and slow down greatly enhances your competence for making decisions. Taking a deep breath, counting to ten, visualizing a calming place, centering, and simply anticipating the likelihood of anxiety are all proven methods for selfmanagement of emotions. However uneasy, awkward, or tense one may feel when facing ambiguity caused by a dearth of information, there are ways to help mitigate these feelings. Leaders who are able to calm themselves in this most uncomfortable of circumstances are positioned to provide what their followers most need. They demonstrate courage and confidence as they face the unknown, and they provide direction for meeting the challenge. When nothing seems clear, they communicate to fill the void and make meaning out of the uncertainties. Alan Shepard and his fellow Mercury astronauts met the unknown and launched the country into an exciting era of discovery and innovation. Agency leaders of tomorrow are on the precipice of a similar challenge and must become comfortable with the lack of information available as their organizations zoom into the future. Making Meaning Out of Chaos At the other extreme of ambiguity is the kind that comes with the availability of too much information. Sometimes the crush of data is so massive that one

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is unable to even begin sorting through it. Now the questions become: What’s important? What’s relevant? What’s necessary to consider? Lack of information is not the problem. Finding a way to handle all the information available is just as difficult to address, if not more so. An overwhelming amount of data often creates the same sensation as a complete lack of information. The lack of clarity, the vagueness, the uncertainty of how to approach the mountain of information creates an ambiguity of its own. We call it chaos. When confronted by chaos, some of the very same hard-wired responses discussed earlier are apt to surface. Fight, flight, and freeze are all part of the human psyche that enables us to prepare for the worst and survive. We can’t help having these feelings. It’s part of being human. But we can take steps to become more comfortable with the sheer amount of data to which we are exposed daily and the tremendous speed with which it is delivered. The first mention we can find of the term “information overload” is in a book titled The Managing of Organizations by Bertram Gross (1964). Alvin Toffler is usually credited with popularizing the term in his best-selling work Future Shock (1970). Nearly fifty years have passed since these first mentions of the enormous mountain of information available. Those years have seen an inexorable expansion in the discovery of untold amounts of new information, the speed at which information is processed and delivered, and the ease of accessibility to it. Terms like “disambiguation” and “data asphyxiation” have emerged to further describe the epidemic of information. We believe it’s not going to diminish anytime soon. What can a leader do to make sense of this tsunami of information? How can a leader approach the seeming chaos of data inundation? Are there ways of making meaning of the cacophony of opinions, sound bites, data points, white papers, perspectives, and google-icious (yes, we made that up!) reports coming at us 24x7? We have a few suggestions. Let’s start by comparing information overload to the way we eat. In a blog article published by William Van Winkle (n.d.) a few years ago, he suggested that the healthiest meals are those for which one selects from a variety of food groups and in reasonable portions. Likewise, with information, he says we’re best served when we consume manageable portions, selecting the data we wish to digest and choosing to “eat” periodically throughout the day. The trouble is, we are pretty lousy at setting limits or establishing any discipline at all for how we consume information. In fact, many of us metaphorically end up choking on the data or becoming morbidly obese on it because we never stop consuming. Adept with Ambiguity

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During a typical week at the turn of the twenty-first century, it was estimated that the average manager read about one million words a week (Shenk, 1998). Now, almost fifteen years later, imagine what that number might be. This doesn’t take into account the amount of verbal communication that manager is digesting, or the information received from television, radio, and virtual sources. Staggering, overwhelming, unmanageable, ridiculous, and impossible are a few words that come to mind. You don’t need us to convince you of the problem. You are experiencing it every day. As we spoke to agency leaders, we asked them if they thought the information age was still growing. Not one person saw it ending. Not one saw it plateauing. They all projected it to continue for the foreseeable future. Next, we asked for their advice on addressing the kind of information overload that can cause paralysis among leaders and decision makers. Here’s a summary of their suggestions: 1. Monitor your telephone time and usage to gain maximum efficiency. So much of the information we consider overwhelming now comes to us virtually— through email, text messages, websites, and the like. So much so that it’s easy to lose sight of how we manage our verbal communications via telephone. For critical communications, we were surprised and pleased that so many effective leaders recommended using the phone over other options. The phone enables two-way communication that’s invaluable when complete clarity is required. It is often a much quicker way to communicate than virtual messages that require typing. The information can be presented, clarified, and agreed on in short interactive exchanges. This eliminates providing unnecessary information in emails (which just contributes more to the overload we all are trying to manage). 2. When using the telephone, don’t leave long voice mails. Voice mail is a great tool. But it can be overused and become another drain on your time and everyone’s ability to manage information. When leaving voice mail messages, be succinct. Sometimes it’s better to simply ask for a call back about a specific topic, avoiding lots of detail. Otherwise, a long voice mail isn’t much different from a long email message. The longer the message, the more one contributes to the volume of information that the unavailable recipient must handle later. 3. Use email wisely (and set specific times to respond to and send it). In today’s virtual world, this may seem like an impossible task. Indeed, we spoke with many leaders who told us that their entire managing process was predicated on email.

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Their employees were often scattered in several geographic locations, their customers were just as dispersed, and their bosses were often in locations remote from their own. They felt prisoner to email as their primary source of information and communication. For those who are in this situation, we understand. But we still encourage you to prioritize your time spent on email as efficiently as you can. For everyone else, make sure to treat email for what it is: a wonderful messaging system for communication that usually doesn’t require an immediate response. It’s an improvement on the process used just a few decades ago when one was out of the office. A message was left on one of those pink or blue slips and placed in your physical mailbox or on your desk. You returned the call when you returned to your desk. We find the practice of marking emails urgent with red exclamation points or bold, full caps subject lines to be vastly overused. A message that urgent should be delivered in real time in person or in a phone call (again, except in those situations where time zones may interfere). 4. Instruct your employees on the most efficient use of email and texting. Don’t simply get better at using email yourself. The more you can encourage others to be effective users of this tool, the better you can manage the amount of information coming from them and going to them. In the case of texting, it can often be beneficial for critical “in the moment” communication. Like email and voice mail, it can also create another bucket of information that needs attending. Efficiency is the key. 5. Find an expert who can help you set up effective web browsing tools. When you use the Internet as a research tool, take advantage of filters and search methods that enable you to focus quickly on what you need. IT specialists in your agency can become one of your most valuable assets. They can also help you set up systems and filters for managing incoming information. 6. Be cautious about the number and type of newsgroups and online notification services you use. Be clear about why you are signing up for these services. The more you stay focused on your mission and goals, the more likely you are to select services that will help locate and filter information rather than funnel data to you that you don’t require. 7. Consider using your printer. For information that is particularly valuable or necessary, print it when you find it. Sometimes it’s easier to locate a piece of paper than to find a link or website. And you may be surprised at how a piece of paper signifies a key priority much more than another electronic page on your screen. Adept with Ambiguity

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8. Be cognizant of the dangers of doing too much work at home. Many of us embrace the flexibility and many other advantages of working virtually or from home. We do it, too! But there are limits to how much one needs to be tuned in and connected to work. Leaders do need to be accessible, but not all the time. If you are constantly connected and available around the clock, you leave yourself no room for rest and recovery. Turn off your smart phone, unplug your laptop, put down your device. For that matter, turn off the television, too. Take some time away from the constant barrage of information you’re exposed to every day at work. Breathe. Relax. You’ll be better prepared to reengage later. 9. Limit and focus your reading of journals and publications. These can be a great source of data, but don’t overdo it. Select journals and periodicals that fit your specific needs for gathering information about trends in your field or keeping you abreast of developments that affect your decisions. Consider delegating some reading to staff members who can provide short briefings or summaries. 10. Develop interests outside of work. Spend time with family and friends, supporting their interests. Not only will you benefit from the balance, but you’ll also have an incentive for turning off the flow of work-related information while you focus on enjoyable interests for recreational purposes. Once you can establish limits, routines, and habits for managing the volume of data available, you’ll be in a better position to make sense of the information at hand. When the volume alone creates chaos, there is very little hope of making any sense of the data. When the volume alone is manageable, analysis, organization, and decision making become possible. One final metaphor may be helpful. It’s one we’ve heard from many agency leaders in the past few years. When asked to describe how a new project or task is progressing, the response is often, “I feel like I am drinking from a fire hose.” Too much of a good thing is just too much. Making meaning out of chaos is dependent on controlling the flow of information. If you’re not managing it, it’s managing you.

BOUNCING BACK AFTER CHALLENGING DEMANDS AND SETBACKS With ambiguity and uncertainty come stress, challenges, and failures. Whether there is too much information swirling to focus on or too little data to consider, chances are that you will occasionally make decisions that turn out to be wrong.

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It happens to every leader. There is no one who has attained 100-percent accuracy in their leadership career. The key is what you do, how you respond, and what you learn when you fail or experience hardships. Resilience is often defined by phrases such as bouncing back, quick recovery, and springing back to life. The emphasis is on both the ability to recover and the speed at which one does so. The most resilient of people need only very short periods of recovery to be back at full capacity. Some leaders seem to possess this ability as a personal characteristic passed on through their family lineage. Somehow it comes naturally. Others develop the ability over time and through the trials of experience. Like a boxer who gets knocked down early in a bout but comes back to win, they accept their mistakes, learn from them, and ultimately prevail. We’ll focus less on those with natural abilities and more on learning from experience. Tenacity has a slightly different connotation than resilience. We think of tenacious leaders as those who are persistent, with great resolve. They demonstrate a steadfast determination to get the job done despite obstacles and barriers. Some may be described as stubborn or dogged in their efforts to complete projects and achieve goals. An image that comes to mind is that of a tug-of-war contest between equally matched teams. Both sides are hanging on for dear life, neither side giving an inch, with a crowd of people cheering them on. Finally, in addition to pure tenacity and resilience, a third element is present in leaders who respond to hardships and challenges presented by ambiguity in the workplace. This one is enthusiasm, pure and simple. Leaders who display genuine and spirited enthusiasm in the face of difficulties offer those around them a reason to engage. These leaders are described as hardy, buoyant, even feisty. They don’t back down when confronted by uncertainty, and they are irrepressible in their spirit to succeed. Constituents find it difficult, if not impossible, to resist following them. Think of the character William Wallace played by Mel Gibson in the movie Braveheart. Wallace was a thirteenth-century Scottish warrior leading his charges in a war for independence from England. In one memorable scene, Wallace and his men faced an overwhelmingly larger English army across a field. As they prepared for battle, Wallace rallied his troops by “shooting the moon” at their enemies. Now that’s feisty and irrepressible! Bouncing Back from Setbacks Leadership is more often a journey than a polished, scripted plan. Nearly all of the literature on leadership development points to developmental opportunities Adept with Ambiguity

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that stem from learning through experience. At the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina, study after study has shown that leaders learn most from three distinct experiential conditions: (1) learning from failures and hardships, (2) learning during challenging assignments, and (3) learning from others. Two of the greatest opportunities for leadership development are associated with resilience in the face of difficult circumstances. Amber found herself on the fast track to leadership success. Not yet thirty years old, she had been promoted half a dozen times and was leading the entire IT organization in her agency. She had been recruited out of college specifically to help with the upgrade to a new class of servers for the agency. To no one’s surprise, she excelled. Her contributions were noted all the way to the top of the agency. She was the embodiment of a rising star. As the growth of electronic communication and data storage reached dizzying proportions, Amber was asked to focus on protecting the agency’s databases from those who would attempt to hack into them and steal information. Not one who waited for direction, she had already implemented state-of-the-art systems, including spyware and virus protection from trusted vendors. She confidently described the precautions and assured leadership that all was safe and secure. Then came the reports that several government and public agency systems had been violated. Amber’s agency was one of the victims. As often happens in situations like this, someone was going to take the blame. In this case it was Amber. Even as she shared her story with us, she was still understandably shaken and even a little resentful of her demotion and eventual departure from the agency. She accepted responsibility for the problems that occurred on her watch. Understanding that steps had to be taken, she acknowledged that life isn’t always fair. In retrospect, she wished she had been given the opportunity to make things right. It didn’t work out that way. Instead, Amber found a position in another public agency. She was determined to learn from her setback. Deciding not to dwell on the past, she chose to get back on her feet without delay. In just three short years she had reached the same level of responsibility in her new organization. She felt vindicated, but more important, she felt proud of the way she responded to the shattering blow of a demotion. At the time, she had never experienced a real failure in her career. Challenges were abundant. Some were extremely trying, and a few goals were never fully accomplished. But never had she experienced a true personal failure of this magnitude.

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She recalls the first hours after learning of the intrusion as “kind of surreal.” It didn’t seem possible. She felt deflated and unbelieving. Her instinct was to investigate, find the problem, and fix it. Nothing else mattered. But with the swift decisions that included her demotion, the opportunity to address the issue disappeared. She saw only two alternatives. The first was to wallow and whine for a while, then try to convince her superiors that she was not entirely to blame and aim to earn a second chance. The second was to pick herself up, acknowledge that the circumstances dictated that her future was elsewhere, and quickly restart her career. Amber credits a trusted mentor with helping her choose the second alternative. Looking back, Amber believes that leaving was the right decision. Even though she had many good memories of her time with the agency, she was convinced that bouncing back quickly would be possible only in a new setting. It was in the agency’s best interest and her best interest for her to depart so both could recover. Some may see Amber’s decision to leave as somewhat cowardly. We see it as an example of resiliency and great courage. Not every setback will be as damaging as Amber’s. When they occur, and they will, it’s crucial to step into the moment, evaluate the situation, and decide to recover. The specific steps one takes in recovery are dictated by the circumstances. The speed with which one initiates those steps demonstrates one’s resiliency. Today and in the future, situations will arise that defy understanding. Some will result in excruciating failure. The leaders who choose to bounce back quickly, recover from the hardships, learn from them, and move on with a renewed sense of focus are the ones who will successfully guide their organizations through the most chaotic and ambiguous of challenges. Persisting and “Stick-to-itiveness” As a graduate student at the Ohio State University, I (Tim) had been awarded an assistantship that included working with the Student Affairs staff for two years. One of my assignments was working in University College, the entry point for all freshmen. Among my responsibilities was advising the freshman honor society. Students were selected to this organization based solely on academic achievement. The purpose of the honor society was to encourage these very bright, high-performing students to take on local charitable causes to help expand their views and perspectives. It was a noble purpose—and getting them to commit to it was a real challenge. Adept with Ambiguity

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The students involved were brilliant. They took pride in their studies and were focused on academic success. Even though they understood the honor society’s mission when they were tapped and accepted entry, community service projects were simply not high on their priority lists. I had a list of deserving groups, projects, and activities the honor society members could consider. During meetings, the students would review the list, discuss a few options, and decide how much time they had to devote to projects. The reasons and excuses were always the same. Research papers, midterm exams, labs, extra-credit assignments, and class projects were more important. Try as I might, no projects were launched in the first eight weeks of the semester. I felt like a complete and total failure. I was ready to give up. Betty Jo “BJ” Hudson was the student affairs dean at University College and my boss. She was known as one of the most high-energy, enthusiastic administrators at OSU. Whenever you spotted her beloved “LRV” (little red Volvo) parked outside a building you were entering, you were sure to experience her energy and spirit inside. When I met with BJ about my failure to secure any commitment from the honor society for community service projects, she introduced me to one of her secrets to success. She called it “stick-to-itiveness.” She explained that when things are easy, they are seldom rewarding. When things are difficult, they challenge the soul and make for a huge upside when you resolve them. They may take more time to address and may require more effort and ingenuity. But to give up ensures only one thing: you’ll never experience the sheer joy of significant accomplishment. “Stick to it,” she advised. “It will be worth it, I promise.” It was hard to say no to BJ. So I stuck with it for the entire semester, bringing in representatives from some of the groups on the list to speak about their needs and their hopes. Animal shelters were represented. Day care center directors came. Parks and playgrounds needed volunteers. Local communities wanted help with local cleanup projects. Nothing clicked, until a local middle school teacher came seeking help for a tutoring project in the sciences. To my great surprise, the honor society students embraced the idea. Helping others succeed academically hit a nerve. The project began and continued for the entire year. Boy, did it feel great! BJ was right. A little “stick-to-itiveness” was the key for experiencing a sense of accomplishment. Persistence paid off. A small project success felt like a million bucks for this grad student. I like to think that the honor society students

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felt even greater pride and joy for assisting the youngsters in middle school. I hope that the lesson of giving back still sticks with them today. From a small personal example of sticking to it, let’s review a major historical example of the same characteristic. We often use this example in leadership seminars and classes we teach. In our PowerPoint presentation we slowly reveal a list of hardships and failures experienced by a particular person we all recognize as a truly great leader. They include: Failed in first business Defeated in run for state legislature Failed in second business Had nervous breakdown Defeated for Speaker of the House Defeated for Congress Defeated for U.S. Senate Defeated for vice president Elected president Many of you recognize this list and have correctly identified Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States. He is highly regarded as one of the most outstanding leaders in history. Yet his record of personal hardships and failures is astounding. Tenacity, persistence, and determination are hallmarks of his life and his success. Imagine the impact on our country’s history had Lincoln chosen not to persevere. One never knows what may be just around the corner. To paraphrase Lincoln, in the course of human events one can never be certain of the future. Even in the daily challenges of sorting through problems, deciphering mountains of information, and analyzing a plethora of perspectives that never seem to slow, leaders must persevere. In the words of actor Tim Allen, captain of a star cruiser in the action-comedy movie Galaxy Quest, “Never give up, never surrender!” A leader’s determination can provide a model for others, inspiring and empowering them to follow and follow through. Resolve takes courage, wisdom, and forethought. Reckless abandon, on the other hand, demonstrates carelessness and weakness of spirit. Some may say it’s a fine line, but it often separates successful leaders from average pretenders. Adept with Ambiguity

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Facing Uncertainty with Spirited Enthusiasm Yikes! Is that really the title of this section? Who faces uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm? Most people have a very opposite reaction to uncertainty. The unknown often provokes a sense of uneasiness. Lack of clarity about expectations can cause the mind to wander. Maybe we’re victims of one too many Stephen King novels or scary, lost-in-the-woods monster movies. Reactions to ambiguous settings can range from mildly unsettling to outright fear. So who in their right mind greets uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm? Based on what we’ve learned, we believe the successful leaders of tomorrow will do exactly that. We, perhaps like you, were a little surprised at some of the stories we heard from agency leaders on this topic. In fact, the topic actually developed through the examples and recollections of the people with whom we spoke. As we explored the need for tenacity and resilience with leaders, it became clear that there was something extra in their approach. Not unlike the famous narration at the beginning of the classic Star Trek series and movies—“to boldly go where no one has gone before”—successful leaders often address ambiguous challenges with a sense of irrepressible energy. It’s as if they’re thinking, “So what if we don’t have enough information? We’re going to do our best to discover what we need on the journey!” To be honest, not every story we heard demonstrated an instantaneous embrace of the unknown. Kara described a situation in which she was so overwhelmed initially that she was ready to tell her boss the task was simply not possible to complete in the time frame given. She wanted to be realistic about the chances of completion and honest with her boss. Yet at the same time, she wanted to avoid any sense of dismay or pessimism with her team. If she was ready to “cash it in,” how could she possibly keep her team motivated? The project involved creating a plan for moving a large portion of her agency’s workforce into an open architecture environment. The facilities department was managing the physical space reconfiguration from offices and cubicles into an open-space architecture. Kara’s team was to determine the space needs for several departments, design a layout that would accommodate the departments, and prepare the people in these departments for the transition. No small task. The facilities had to be in place by a hard date. Therefore Kara’s deadline for design was needed well in advance of the hard final deadline. She had two months, several hundred resistant workers, and a facilities director who was chomping at the bit to get started.

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To make a long story short, after objecting to the short deadline with her leaders, she quickly decided that the only option was to pull it off. Rather than simply praying for a miracle and telling her team to give it a try, she unequivocally challenged her team to make it happen. She acknowledged the incredible obstacles in their way and was empathetic to their concerns. At the same time she decided to be unrelentingly upbeat about what they could do. Her feisty “can do” attitude began to have an impact on her troops. In his bid for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama’s chief campaign slogan was “Yes we can!” Kara’s stump speech and change vision carried a similar inspiring message: “Yes we will!” She printed a tear-off countdown calendar of sixty days and posted it in the conference room that had been converted into her team’s central workspace. Each morning a different member of the team ceremoniously ripped off another sheet, revealing the next number in the countdown to completion. With every sheet torn, the team exclaimed, “Yes we will!” Team members met furiously with the affected departments. They tweaked and retweaked the numbers of workspaces necessary for the transformation. They worked hand-in-hand with designers to optimize the space available and create as much comfort and utility as possible. Artist’s renderings were developed and shared with the departments and with facilities. As the countdown calendar reached single digits, the pace increased. Kara continued to rally her team. She encouraged them to stop focusing on what can’t be done, but rather on “what we can do.” On the final day, with only the number “one” remaining on the calendar, the team huddled in the conference room. They shared completed checklists and reviewed the final sketches of the layout. It was time for an honest accounting of what they had accomplished. Kara was proud to say that 90 percent of their goals had been met. Though there were several lingering issues yet to be resolved, the core issues had been addressed. The affected departments had signed off on the design. Facilities had more than enough direction to begin the physical demolition and reconstruction necessary for the transition. Kara and her team had performed a near miracle. The agency leadership took notice, and her team was presented with a framed countdown calendar that was later posted in the new cafeteria for the entire agency to see. Kara was very clear with us that without the constant positive vibe about the task, she was sure that the team could not have succeeded. We credit Kara with establishing that vibe, buoying the spirits of her team, and providing Adept with Ambiguity

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constant enthusiasm and energy throughout the process. Even more, we believe that what started as a tactic became genuine and heartfelt over time. Kara’s choice to engage enthusiastically was contagious. Even in her moment of choice, Kara admits to having some pessimistic thoughts. What she learned over the two-month project is worth repeating. “I always heard people talking about the glass being half full or half empty. I sort of discounted that for most of my career. It’s great to be optimistic. But optimism when there’s really no chance of success always seemed almost dishonest to me. What I learned during the open architecture project was that a leader should never, ever underestimate the spirit of their teams. I am amazed to this day that we pulled this project off. People respond to encouragement. They respond to challenges. They want to do a good job. As a leader, if I suggest that a challenge can’t be met or a job can’t be done, I’m getting in the way. It’s my job to enable that spirit to shine.” We couldn’t agree more, Kara. Tenacity and resilience are part of the essential leadership armor for engaging the great unknown that the future will bring. In a future full of ambiguity, leaders who can bounce back from adversity are more likely to find success. Leaders who are pugnacious and persistent give themselves and their teams more chances to prevail and grow. The added trait of spirited enthusiasm provides the grease on the wheel. Leaders who can empower the great spirit of their workforce, even in the face of hardships or potential failure, are the leaders who will guide agencies to greater heights in the future.

DEMONSTRATING CALM CONFIDENCE AMIDST CHAOS AND AMBIGUITY When we spoke with Greg, a retired senior from the Department of Defense, he was happy to share a number of leadership stories with us. As we discussed how leaders respond to ambiguity in the workplace, he could not have been less ambiguous in his thinking. Greg told us, “Staying calm in the midst of chaos and crazy circumstances is the single most important of the three components [of this meta-competency]. Workers look to you for stability when things are unstable. They look to you for confidence when things are shaky. If you aren’t calm, no one is going to be calm. It’s your job to help them do their jobs.” Greg continued on this theme, telling us that having a clear understanding of the mission and purpose of the organization is key to leading during times

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of uncertainty. He described this as a “willingness to see through the fog.” The mission provides guidance for proceeding when things aren’t clear. Purpose provides confidence in taking action. Therefore, Greg says, especially when things are ambiguous and gray, “I’m going to go ahead and do something. We spend so much time on mission and purpose to be ready for times like these. My bosses expect me to lead. They want me to be confident and calm and decisive. Waiting for the fog to completely clear isn’t an option when we’re in the business of protecting lives and our way of life.” As we consider the importance of projecting a calm, confident demeanor, we must also be clear in determining how one develops the ability to be calm and confident. We discussed earlier the notion of how some people seem to acquire certain leadership characteristics, traits, and skills naturally, without effort. Some of us are by our nature and personality more reserved than outspoken, more introverted than extraverted. Personality style traits such as these can easily give the impression of calmness or confidence. In reality, what’s really happening inside each person may be quite different from what seems apparent on the outside. So, rather than focus on what may or may not come naturally, we will focus on two elements that can be learned and managed. The first is how one handles stress and pressure. The second is how one develops self-confidence. Managing Stress and Pressure History provides many examples of leaders who established their legacies during times of intense pressure. They rose to challenges far exceeding what most of us will ever face. How they handled the incredible stressors of their particular leadership trials provides us with models to follow and lessons to learn. And they did it in the spotlight, in full view of the world, as public figures under scrutiny at all times. Consider the pressure felt by Abraham Lincoln as he struggled with the moral issues of the day related to slavery, the debate over states’ rights, and a civil war that threatened the very existence of our country. Winston Churchill helped England survive a brutal siege in World War II. As he stood up to the fear and anxiety brought on by incessant bombings of England’s cities, he bore an unimaginable burden for and with his countrymen. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for his refusal to endorse violence in response to injustice, while demonstrating remarkable strength of character during the fight for equality and civil rights. Each of these leaders demonstrated an ability to manage stress and pressure to which we all aspire. Adept with Ambiguity

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The ability to demonstrate calm and confidence in the midst of chaos and ambiguity has served leaders well throughout history. We believe it will be, if anything, even more necessary in the future. As the information age continues to gain momentum, chaos and ambiguity seem certain to flourish as well. We suggest several methods for cooling down and slowing down to manage the everyday stressors leaders will encounter.

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TIPS FOR COOLING DOWN 1. Breathing Deeply This is one of the most common suggestions around for calming oneself in stressful situations. We recommend it for two reasons. First, it’s easy to do. Second, it works! In many of our seminars and workshops we spend a few minutes teaching participants how to breathe and center effectively. Because this isn’t a seminar, we won’t go into all the details or ask you to stop reading and try it out. Well, on second thought, if the spirit moves you, go ahead and try it. Here are the essential steps for centering and breathing: 1. If possible, stop what you are doing. Place the world on “pause” so you can attend to yourself and your emotions for just a few moments. 2. Stand up if you are sitting and if it’s convenient. Standing will give you a better chance to find your “center,” and feel balanced. And the simple physical act of standing relieves a little pressure. 3. Place your hand approximately over your navel. Your center is the point at which half your body mass is above your hand and half below. If you were going to become a perfectly balanced human pinwheel, this is where you would place the pin so you’d spin without vibrating. 4. Take a long, deep breath. Inhale through your nose. Breathe in from your diaphragm. Fill your lungs to capacity while, with your hand still in place, feeling your abdomen rise. Hold that breath. Notice your fullness. 5. Exhale in a smooth controlled “whoosh” through your mouth. Repeat. After the first breath we’re sure you’ll feel more calm and relaxed. The whole process can be completed in just a few seconds. In a pinch, perhaps if you’re in a very public spot and it doesn’t seem appropriate to follow each step completely, just take a deep breath. That alone will bring some relief, your stress will diminish, you’ll feel a greater sense of calm, and you’ll be in a better state of mind to address the situation contributing to your stress.

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2. Take a Break .

Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? It is. Even a quick pause during a stressful event dramatically reduces the pressure one feels. Everyone has heard the advice: First, count to ten. The reason it works is connected to the way our bodies are built. Remember the earlier discussion of what happens to our bodies during the fight, flight, or freeze response? The adrenaline and other substances released by our bodies put us on high alert. Our breathing increases, our heart rate and blood pressure skyrocket, muscles tense, our stomach feels knotted, and our limbs may tingle. The good news is that the impact of adrenaline wears off pretty quickly. By taking a time-out we give our bodies a chance to recover so we are better able to choose how we wish to respond. There are many ways to take a break. You can simply announce to those around you, “Let’s take a quick break.” You can excuse yourself for a bathroom break. You can slip away for a glass of water. You can ask, “Can I take just a second to think about this?” Any delay, any pause in the action, will provide some time for the adrenaline rush to subside. You’ll be in more control, you’ll feel less stressed, and you’ll be better positioned to demonstrate a calm, confident demeanor to those around you.

3. Prevent Stress by Making a List An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? Here’s a suggestion that is not meant to be used in the heat of the moment. Rather, it’s something you do before you’re in a stressful situation. The Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP) is an assessment tool provided by the Center for Conflict Dynamics. One element of the tool is the analysis of one’s personal “hot buttons” or triggers. In other words, it explores the most common sources that can trigger strong emotional responses that can lead to conflict. They include nine categories of bothersome perceptions of people: unreliable, overly analytical, unappreciative, aloof, micromanaging, self-centered, abrasive, untrustworthy, hostile. We recommend that you make your own list of triggers. The list should include types of situations, events, or people that cause you stress. Because it’s your personal list, you can be as specific as you like. Some items may resemble the hot buttons just listed. Some may be quite different. There are no wrong answers. As you write, see if you can fill an entire page. It’s cathartic to simply make the list! Once you complete your list, do a little analysis. Are there similarities among any of the items? Do specific people make your list? Why? Are specific events or times of year on the list? Are there places that are triggers? Organize your list into categories that make sense for you. Contemplate why

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these are stress-producing areas for you. As you consider your list, begin to choose alternative responses to the triggers (rather than responding with stress and anxiety). What can you do when these triggers present themselves? This exercise will help you create more control over the stressors in advance of actually experiencing them. You’ll have a plan for addressing stress when it arises. The ability to predict stressful events and the perception of having some control over them are the two most useful ways to manage stress. By making and analyzing your list, you are implementing both methods. Note: This information is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

As a leader, you can learn to manage stress more effectively, and you can teach others to do the same. And why wouldn’t you? Everyone experiences pressure and stress in the workplace. All the research suggests that stress and pressure will never be eliminated. Certainly you want to project an image of calm and confidence to those around you. You can also help control the amount of stress and pressure in your workplace, or in any environment, by teaching others how to manage their hot buttons and stress. If the people in your environment are more stress resilient, the environment itself becomes less stressful. It’s a win-win proposition. As you find ways to predict and manage your own stress, share your findings with others. When you do, you make life easier for them and yourself. Focusing on the Facts Whenever we describe this method, we can’t help but make a reference to Sergeant Joe Friday. In each episode of the classic television series, Dragnet, Sergeant Friday would inevitably interview a witness to a crime. In a detached, calm, rational voice he’d always say, “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.” It was his own quirky way of calming people who had witnessed a stressful or disturbing event. In a similar fashion, you may find it beneficial in times of personal stress to slow things down by asking yourself, “What are the facts here?” Clarifying what is happening and what has happened causes you to slow your mental processing, thus managing the sorting of incoming data. In addition, it helps separate facts from emotions. Stress is an emotional response. If you can focus on facts, even temporarily, your emotions get a break. Plus, the simple exercise of asking yourself the question buys you a little time to collect your thoughts.

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In 1970, during the heyday of manned exploration of the moon, the Apollo 13 mission was under way when the main oxygen tank on the service module exploded. The explosion impacted the second and only remaining tank, causing it to leak. The three astronauts aboard faced a life-threatening disaster. Experts at Mission Control decided to have them loop around the moon, catapulting the vessel back toward Earth. With oxygen virtually depleted in the service module, the astronauts used the attached lunar landing module as a “life raft.” Mission commander Jim Lovell and fellow astronauts Fred Haise and Jack Swigert were confronted with a situation no one had ever before experienced. There was no manual for reference, no expert for consultation. Engineers and technicians at Mission Control sifted through all the data looking for alternatives and ideas. The information at hand told them what was wrong, but did little to suggest what to do. In order to survive, the astronauts would have to create sense out of the unknown. The rest of the story is almost mythical in its drama. Refusing to fail, the crew and engineers used materials and components on board to craft survival resources for the three-day trip back home. By considering only what they knew about their circumstances and what resources they had available, they were able to control their emotions, staying calm enough to focus on the task at hand. But it wasn’t easy. Each astronaut fought the stress and tension in different ways and with varying results. Suspicions about the extent of the damage and who was responsible for the accident crept into each one’s mind at various points. Lovell was cited in every account for his calm, confident approach and level-headed handling of the emergency. Swigert was able to decipher cryptic instructions on how to restart the service module when it was time for reentry into the atmosphere. Haise was praised for his willingness to fight off a severe fever and manage power consumption on the lunar module. Ultimately, with the whole world watching, Apollo 13 survived reentry and splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean. All three astronauts, and the entire team at Mission Control, demonstrated great resolve throughout the ordeal. They all credited their success to an undying focus on what they could control versus what they couldn’t. As they dealt with the lack of both information and experience for addressing the situation, they agreed to stay focused on what they did know. The resilience and tenacity of the crew was unsurpassed as they fought for survival. Their ability to manage the debilitating tension accompanying the disaster became the stuff of Adept with Ambiguity

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legend. Focusing on the facts and the task at hand helped them stay calm in the moment, averting an almost certain disaster. We’ll refer to this riveting example again in Chapter Four. Focusing on the facts alone is certainly not enough to maintain complete calm and foster total confidence in the midst of chaos. It is, however, a decision that one can make that enables some control over one’s destiny. It provides an opportunity for focus, for direction, for control, or at the very least the perception of such. It is this perception of control that allows a decrease in the tension and stress of the moment. When chaos is swirling around you, do what you can to focus on the facts, pay attention to what you know and what resources you have, and make decisions about what you can control. It helps. Building Self-Confidence A few years ago, I (Tim) had an opportunity to work with leaders running nuclear power plants in several locations around the country. In order to design a comprehensive plan for leadership and team development training, I was invited to observe a full-scale simulation exercise at a plant in Michigan. The simulation represented, in full detail, the response to an accident involving the release of contamination into the environment. I was amazed on several levels. First, the sheer scale of the simulation was incredible. It was all-inclusive. The workforce, local authorities, surrounding communities, and even the news media were included. Plant workers were dispatched to locations throughout the surrounding area to take simulated readings and monitor the spread of contamination. Local law enforcement participated by setting up simulated roadblocks and managing traffic patterns. Schools and hospitals reviewed action plans for responding to an actual event. Little was left to the imagination. Next, preparation for an accident was taken very seriously. The U.S. nuclear industry clearly understands the dangers associated with an accident. The plant running the simulation has a full-scale control center on site for training purposes only. It’s an exact replica of the actual control center, complete with all the flashing lights, dials, computers, panels, and digital monitors one would expect. As the simulation proceeded, workers made real-time decisions in the control room that either helped or hindered the accident. Their decisions drove the simulated situation to improve or deteriorate. Practice and simulations such as this one enable leaders and the workforce to be ready for the worst and have experience to draw on for staying calm and confident should the worst actually occur.

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Finally, I was struck by the poise of virtually everyone I observed. Dozens of leaders and technicians at an off-site command post were constantly updated on events and actions at the plant. Technical managers and engineers were checking systems and analyzing data in the control room simulator. Community officials communicated regularly with plant leaders as the simulation unfolded. At no time did I witness anyone succumbing to the pressures of the moment. I observed crisp, clear communications. I saw self-assured leaders carrying out decisions and orders. I noticed momentary flurries of activity as new information became available, but never experienced a moment where chaos began to rule. It was an intense, educational, and humbling experience. I took away a greater sense of confidence in the industry as well as a sobering dose of reality at the commitment and dedication of the leaders and workers. Self-confidence grows with experience and exposure. For many of us, certain leadership situations will always evoke some sense of anxiety or stress. Much of my (Tim’s) practice involves speaking to groups of all sizes. There was a time when public speaking was the last thing I ever wanted to do. It’s a common fear. After years of practice, I now feel my fear is very much under control. Most people describe me as seeming extremely comfortable in front of large groups. The truth is, I cannot remember a time before a presentation when I did not have at least a small flutter of butterflies in my gut. It is no longer debilitating. My confidence is generally high in public speaking situations. But that flutter is a good reminder of the value of practice, rehearsal, and experience for developing self-confidence. That’s the value in conducting expensive, time-consuming simulations like the one at the nuclear plant to develop organization confidence. For me, selfconfidence for making presentations is the result of years of practice in public speaking opportunities. For agency leaders, poise and self-confidence in the face of ambiguity are critical characteristics to develop. Every experience contributes to one’s leadership potential. Exposure to new situations enlightens the mind and expands one’s horizons. It’s also unrealistic to expect that every eventuality can be simulated or that leaders can rehearse for every challenge they will face. Embracing opportunities as they arise is practical. Seeking out innovative projects on which to serve is another pragmatic option. It is sensible to stay abreast of developments that could impact ones field of expertise. Imagine how the “miracle on the Hudson” might have turned out differently had not Sully, earlier in his career, pursued the Adept with Ambiguity

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opportunity to fly gliders. For agency leaders of tomorrow it is both reasonable and necessary to engage in activities that develop a sense of genuine self-confidence, poise in uncertain circumstances, and the ability to be calm and assertive when the workforce needs it the most.

Chapter Summary Adept with ambiguity comprises three major themes or qualities. First is one’s general comfort with ambiguous situations and uncertain conditions. Next are the characteristics of resiliency and tenacity. Finally, presenting oneself as calm and confident in the midst of chaos is critical for leading into the future. Adept with Ambiguity 1.

Adapting and flexing in the midst of chaos a. Adaptability and flexibility b. Getting comfortable with ambiguity c. Making meaning out of chaos

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Bouncing back after challenging demands and setbacks a. Bouncing back from setbacks b. Persisting and “stick-to-itiveness” c. Facing uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm

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Demonstrating calm and confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity a. Managing stress and pressure b. Focusing on the facts c. Building self-confidence

Leaders Who Are Adept with Ambiguity . . .

• Adapt to new situations and circumstances easily • Demonstrate flexibility, being willing to consider options when presented with new perspectives • Are comfortable with being uncomfortable • Can make meaning out of chaos

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• Are resilient, recovering quickly from failures • Are tenacious and persistent, steadfast and determined • Bring a spirit of enthusiasm and irrepressibility to challenging situations • Focus on the facts and what they can control • Are confident in their ability to confront uncertainty and stress • Gain poise by exposing themselves to new experiences

Adept with Ambiguity

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chapter FOUR

A good strategic thinking dialogue is informed, risky, and critical. —Julia Sloan

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e believe the vast majority of those in public service are highly committed, dedicated public servants. They work, diligently and without wavering, to do the very best they can, despite declining resources and competing priorities. Given this belief, we have asked ourselves, “Then why do so many public service employees struggle? Why do they get burned out, or retire in place, or become disengaged?” Our reflection on these questions has led us to a few insights. Unfortunately, many public service leaders suffer from the “ready, fire, aim” syndrome when executing mission requirements. They “salute smartly” and say “Got it” whenever a senior executive gives them a tasking. Promptly they rally their troops to begin executing the plan to achieve mission results. Then, partway into the plan, they discover previously unseen obstacles or they learn new information that forces them to regroup and rework the plan. The results are multiple false starts and wasted effort. Over the long term, employees suffer from fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout. As human beings, we have finite physical, mental, and emotional energies. When we default to tactical execution based on a drive for quick solutions, we waste precious resources. We believe that developing competence in being adroit at thinking strategically will offset these negative outcomes.

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In one of the leadership courses we teach, we cover the topic of storytelling—the stories we tell ourselves that govern how we make meaning out of our life experiences. This concept is based on Jim Loehr’s book The Power of Story (2007). He says, “the most compelling story about story-telling [is] how we tell stories about ourselves to ourselves.” He further expands on this concept: Indeed, the idea of “one’s own story” is so powerful, so native, that I hardly consider it a metaphor, as if it’s some new lens through which to look at life. Your life is your story. Your story is your life . . . If you are human, then you tell yourself stories . . . telling ourselves stories helps us navigate our way through life because they provide structure and direction .  .  . stories impose meaning on the chaos; they organize and give context to our sensory experiences .  .  . facts are meaningless until you create a story around them . . . since our destiny follows our stories, it’s imperative that we do everything in our power to get our stories right .  .  . for most of us that means some serious editing [p. 4]. We have observed that many of our public service leaders tell themselves a story that sounds something like this: “There aren’t enough hours in the workday to get my job done. My email inbox is at maximum capacity. I have too many meetings. Everything is a #1 priority. If I am not doing something every minute, I’m not being productive. I don’t have time to think, I just have to take action. I get so angry at the ridiculous amount of time wasted when people want to sit around and talk endlessly about things instead of just doing them. My boss just doesn’t get it; he’s too far removed from the real work to understand anymore what’s its like around here.” When we change our stories, we change our lives—we change our experiences, and we change the consequences of our behaviors. Because we often believe that the stories we tell ourselves are the “truth,” it’s very challenging and difficult to change them! The first step is exploring our assumptions and beliefs about our experiences. The second step is changing our assumptions and beliefs to be more authentic and in alignment with our values. When we change our stories, we change our lives—we change how others perceive us—and we become more effective leaders. Several years ago I (John) was working with an agency director and his senior leadership team at an offsite. We had assessed the team’s leadership

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competencies to identify their collective strengths and development areas and then optimize their collective leadership skills. The senior executives had each completed three 360-degree assessments: The OPM Leadership 360, the BarOn EQ-360, and the Leadership Practices Inventory. The agency had been sponsoring leadership training for their supervisors for several years. The agency’s aggregate OPM Leadership 360 data (over one thousand participants) showed strategic thinking, vision, and conflict management to be among the lowest-rated competencies among all rater averages, at 4.0. This also held true for the aggregate ratings of the senior leadership team (nineteen members). Their all-rater average scores for strategic thinking and vision were both 4.3. Conflict management was the lowest, at 4.1. During one team activity at our offsite, we listed the senior leadership team’s top four characteristics that they most admire in leaders. In the group discussion that followed, the director paused and commented, “I don’t see strategic thinking or vision on our list. That certainly is telling of our group!” This insight led us into a discussion about the importance of senior executives modeling desired behaviors for the workforce. They saw that because they didn’t consciously value strategic thinking or vision in leaders, it was not developed as a leadership competency among their team or among their employees. The story they were telling themselves was that they didn’t have time to be strategic; they had too many tactical objectives that had to be carried out immediately. The consequence of their story was lack of strategy and vision. As a result of this newly gained insight, concerted efforts were made to develop a higher level of competence at all organizational levels around strategic thinking and vision. One of the first steps was to incorporate dialogue skills into the senior leadership team meetings. In Learning to Think Strategically, Julia Sloan (2006) says, “A critical dialogue includes reflecting from time-to-time on our own decisions and actions. During strategy dialogues, executives routinely ask themselves, ‘What are my solutions and evaluations right now?’ and ‘Why?’  ” (p. 113). The senior leadership team saw the value of learning to surface multiple points of view, to question their own and one another’s assumptions, and to nonjudgmentally explore pathways to shared understanding and shared meaning in their strategy sessions. They changed their story to “We want to be more strategic and visionary in our mission execution. If we take the time to dialogue before we plan, we can improve the quality of our decision making and the quality of our planning.” Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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Oliver’s story is another example of the power of dialogue in improving the quality of our ability to become adroit at thinking strategically. He is a senior executive who manages a global network of highly skilled specialists. They provide critical information to strategic partners globally. The agency director makes frequent visits to Oliver’s division. He enjoys interacting with the specialists and tinkering with the latest technologies. During these visits, the director will often speak to several of Oliver’s peers. In the course of these conversations he gives direction and requests information. On occasion, after the director left one person and moved on to another, that executive would begin tasking his or her direct reports to take action or gather data to respond to the director’s request. Oliver and his peers quickly learned that the direction and requests given by the director could shift as he moved on from one conversation to another. Often this resulted in many people working on tasks with insufficient information and foresight. The wasted effort and resources were costly. Understanding personality styles and behavioral preferences, Oliver knew that his boss was highly intuitive, creative, dominant, and extroverted. He was the type of leader who “thinks out loud” and formulates his ideas and opinions by talking them through with others. He also knew that the director was both a “big picture” person and a detail-oriented person, a rare combination—so he could move fluidly between the two realms in any conversation. These traits made the director very effective, and they also contributed to the unintended consequence of his being misunderstood. Oliver and his peers each understood that as the boss made his way through the division—stopping to see someone, asking questions, making observations, and giving direction—his intentions became clearer and more refined. To manage these walkabouts, Oliver created a strategy to work within his peer network to collaborate and consolidate information gleaned from the boss’s visits. They all agreed that whenever the boss dropped in and met with several of them one-on-one during the course of his visit, they would hold off on tasking their employees until they could all meet and compare notes in a dialogue meeting. As a result of these dialogue sessions, they learned that they could piece together the director’s “train of thought” and reasonably conclude what he was asking of the division. After reaching a shared understanding of the director’s intentions, they could provide clear direction to their respective teams to gather information or respond to a new tasking. This strategy has resulted in saving many precious hours and resources.

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If you are like most leaders, you are looking for practical ways to build your competence around becoming adroit at thinking strategically. We’re going to explore this meta-competency in depth now to help you discover practical ways that you can strengthen your own strategic thinking abilities.

ADROIT AT THINKING STRATEGICALLY: THE THIRD LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCY Our third Leadership Meta-Competency is adroit at thinking strategically. Its three components are each further broken down into three subcomponents.

L E A D E R S H I P M E TA - C O M P E T E N C Y # 3 : A D R O I T AT T H I N K I N G S T R AT E G I C A L LY

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1. Skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete information. a. Juggling competing demands b. Juggling incomplete or inaccurate information c. Letting go when you have no control 2. Thinking beyond the immediate horizon a. Mitigating tactical thinking b. Focusing forward thinking c. Linking current realities to future objectives 3. Inspiring a vision of the future a. Painting a picture of the agency’s future b. Compelling forward momentum c. Clarifying purpose-driven strategies Note: This meta-competency outline is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

We’ll discuss each of the three components and their subcomponents in detail. Out of necessity, we have presented them in a linear format. Please be mindful, though, that they are interdependent concepts that together form the whole. Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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Let’s break this down further. First, adroit means cleverly skillful, resourceful, or ingenious, or deft, apt, or adept. Adroitness is defined as a skillful performance; ability without difficulty; or having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations. Second, let’s break down strategy. In Learning to Think Strategically, Sloan (2006) has presented two themes that emerge from the strategy literature over the centuries. First, strategy is both a specific and a broad context; second, it is dynamic and generative, not static and finite. In recent times the focus has shifted from strategy as planning to strategy as thinking. When strategy as thinking is embraced, a process is required that encourages routine challenging, testing, and imagining. It must also include critical inquiry, dialogue, and debate. Leaders who are competently adroit at thinking strategically skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information. They think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities, and they inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future. We have noticed that many agencies send their employees to training on strategic planning and project management. Often they become certified in the use of various planning tools. The problem seems to be a lack of training in thinking strategically. A strategic plan is only as good as the strategy thinking that goes into the plan’s development. We believe that this confusion about strategic thinking and strategic planning is an underlying factor contributing to the prevalence of low competence in strategic thinking among the public sector workforce. By working on strengthening your ability to think strategically, you can improve the quality of your strategic planning. Strategic thinking is an essential prerequisite to strategic planning! Another factor that comes into play is that many employees fail to see the connections between a strategic plan; the agency’s mission, vision, and values; and employee performance standards. When workers understand that the strategic plan is a roadmap for bringing the agency’s vision into reality, resulting in mission execution, they are more likely to buy into the strategic plan and follow it. Furthermore, when each directorate, office, division, branch, or business unit creates a mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan that connects with the mission, vision, and plans at the hierarchical levels above and below them, a cascading effect occurs. Of course, writing these isn’t enough; they have to be communicated! We will expand on these factors later in the chapter when we explore painting a picture of the agency’s future.

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When individual performance standards are tied to the strategic plan’s goals and objectives, employees see the connection between what they come to work to do each day and the agency’s mission. The axioms “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” “What gets measured gets done,” and “What gets rewarded gets repeated” are all at play. Successful public leaders help their employees make the connections between their daily routines and mission execution. They help them understand how what they do contributes to mission. Gallup research over the years has shown that employee engagement is highest when twelve elements of great managing, called the Gallup Q12, are present. Two of these elements are: (1) employees know what is expected of them at work, and (2) employees believe that what their agency does makes their job important. Connecting essential job duties to measurable performance standards and then tying them to mission elements helps employees understand with more clarity how what they do at work impacts the agency’s mission. When employees know what to do and when they believe that what they do is important for the agency’s success, they are much more likely to be fully engaged and highly productive.

SKILLFULLY JUGGLING COMPETING DEMANDS AND INCOMPLETE OR INACCURATE INFORMATION Effective leaders skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information. These competing demands may be in the form of internal competition among peers or departments for things like limited resources (people, money, and space) or external demands from partner agencies, both domestic and international. They may also take the form of law, regulation, policy, or guidance that affects mission priorities. Sometimes the available information is incomplete or inaccurate, and there is nothing within your span of control that can help with making it more complete or improving its accuracy. Franklin told us that one of his decisive moments as a new senior executive occurred when his mentor told him: “If you want to survive and thrive in the senior executive service, you have to learn to accept 60 percent—that means letting go of striving for the 99.9 percent solution.” Franklin recalled, “I was stopped dead in my tracks. I wasn’t sure I could live with that—I’d spent my Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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career striving for the 99.9 percent solution and getting it right. In fact, I had been rewarded and promoted rapidly throughout my career because of my technical competence and credibility. How could I leave that drive for perfection behind?” He asked his mentor, “How did you learn to let go? How did you learn to accept less? It seems frightening to me, and it also seems like it borders on incompetence to make such a move!” His mentor explained his perspective: Franklin, you know we are experiencing change with more complexity, frequency, intensity, and ambiguity today than ever before, and we also know it’s going to get even more chaotic, ambiguous, uncertain, and frequent in the months and years to come. We have to change the way we think about how we think and what we do to remain relevant and resilient in these turbulent times. We no longer have the luxury of looking at all the available data; there is too much coming at us too quickly. To stay on top of our missions, we have to learn to lead and manage in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. We have to learn to see the consequences of our decisions as win/ learn opportunities instead of win/lose events. As long as we pause, reflect, recalibrate, and then reengage we will be able to learn from our experiences and improve our skills. We need to learn to be more flexible and more resilient in these highly competitive and demanding times. Let’s turn now to the first subcomponent of skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information—juggling competing demands. Juggling Competing Demands Almost daily, leaders are bombarded with competing demands. The challenge is to juggle them without dropping one. Often these demands are time-sensitive and critical. Leaders can’t afford to favor one or overlook another. Olivia told us her story about juggling competing demands. She is a senior executive who leads a global technology division in a large government agency. Her staff work around the world. A few years ago, she led a change effort designed to decentralize technology services from one major location into strategically placed centers across the United States. The plans had been made,

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budgets were approved, buildings were constructed, equipment was ordered, and staff realignments were planned in preparation for the move into three new centers. The agency director had been working for several months with other agency directors to explore ways to reduce IT costs across the federal government. Studies had shown that these expenses could be reduced significantly with the implementation of IT efficiencies such as cloud computing, moving to a thin client architecture, and implementing wireless technologies. Olivia was called to a meeting with the director. He told her that he wanted her to do two things. First, he wanted her to step up the move-in date by six months; second, he wanted her to implement an IT efficiencies plan concurrent with the move into the three new facilities. After returning to her office, Olivia called several of her peers at the agency and shared the director’s plan. They all said it couldn’t be done. They told her it would be too costly and would significantly negatively impact critical mission functions. In addition, she was concerned about the added stress this would create for her workforce. With this data in mind, Olivia went back to her office to write up her business case for postponing the information technology efficiencies plan. The next day, armed with her data, she walked into the director’s office for her meeting. He greeted her and said, “Olivia, I want you to know that I believe in you.” At that moment, Olivia lost all her forward momentum. She said to herself, “Darn! How do I tell the director I can’t implement his plan after he’s just told me that he believes in me?” Needless to say, Olivia committed to the challenging directive and skillfully juggled all the competing demands that were at play within this change effort. After months of reworking the budgets, redesigning the physical space in the three buildings, returning IT equipment that had already been ordered, and creating and inspiring a shared vision for this change effort with her directorate, she celebrated a successful move into the new sites with the required integrated IT efficiencies. They were only about one month late with the move. Missioncritical services were not significantly disrupted. Her teams rallied around the vision of making this seemingly impossible effort possible, and they successfully met the director’s expectations. Olivia was very skillful at juggling competing demands throughout this largescale change effort. First she had to manage her own competing demands: on Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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the one hand she wanted to postpone the IT efficiencies implementation, and on the other she wanted to exceed her boss’s expectations. Second, she wanted to deliver for her boss and she also wanted to take care of her people. Third, she had to manage expectations with large workforce teams at three geographically dispersed locations, each of which had already made significant resource investments that would have to be reworked or realigned. Let’s look at the second subcomponent of skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information—juggling incomplete or inaccurate information. Juggling Incomplete or Inaccurate Information In the 1995 movie Apollo 13, NASA flight director Gene Krantz (played by Ed Harris) listens as John, one of the engineers, tells him that they don’t have enough power to bring the spacecraft home. Krantz tells his team, “We’re going to have to figure it out. I want people in our simulators working reentry scenarios. I want you guys to find every engineer who designed every switch, every circuit, every transistor, and every light bulb that’s up there. Then I want you to talk to the guy in the assembly line who actually built the thing. Find out how to squeeze every amp out of both these [expletive] machines .  .  . We never lost an American in space, we sure as hell aren’t going to on my watch. Failure is not an option.” Krantz realized that he had to juggle incomplete and inaccurate information. The data they were working from earlier did not accurately represent the power available to the spacecraft. With this new information, he realized that the team’s information was also incomplete, so he gave specific directions on how to gather all the critical information available to fully analyze the power supply shortage. Now we want to return you to the movie Invictus to explore another example of an effective leader who was juggling incomplete or inaccurate information. The National Sports Council of South Africa had just unanimously voted on a motion, “That as a prominent symbol of the Apartheid era, the colors, emblem, and the name of the Springboks be eliminated immediately.” President Mandela received a phone call from a supporter in attendance at the meeting and summoned his driver and security team to take him to the meeting. When he arrived, he spoke to the group and said, “Brothers, sisters, comrades, I am here because I believe you have made a decision with insufficient information and foresight. I am aware of your earlier vote. I am aware that it was unanimous. Nonetheless I believe we should restore the Springboks, restore their name, their

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emblem, and their colors immediately. Let me tell you why . . . You elected me your leader, let me lead you now.” President Mandela skillfully led his followers through a strategy session. He could have made derogatory or chastising remarks to the group. Instead, he demonstrated respect, tact, and diplomacy. He went right to the heart of the matter at hand. He explained that his perception was that they had made a decision with insufficient information and foresight; then he told them why. By leading the group through a strategic analysis of their earlier decision’s potential impact on their country, he helped them become more adroit at thinking strategically. Assuming noble intent, and confident that they would follow his reasoned approach, he implored them, “You elected me your leader, let me lead you now” in this defining moment. The National Sports Council had the authority to make its own decisions. President Mandela had no control over their decision making. He believed that they had made their decision with incomplete information, and he perceived their agenda as a competing demand with his own vision for South Africa. President Mandela envisioned a South Africa that could come together as one country. He described it this way: “Let us use sport for the purpose of nationbuilding and promoting all the ideas which we think will lead to peace and stability in our country” (Carlin, 2008, p. 163). Mandela believed that Edward Griffiths’s (CEO of South Africa’s Rugby Federation) slogan, “One Team, One Country,” could be used to unite the whole country behind the Springboks and in turn unite the segregated country as a whole. Let’s now turn our attention back to dialogue, a critical skill that effective leaders use when juggling incomplete or inaccurate information. Bob’s story is another compelling example of how a senior leadership team can implement dialogue and avoid tactical mistakes that could be costly, wasting valuable resources by acting on inaccurate information. At Bob’s annual eye examination, his optometrist had prescribed bifocal glasses, and Bob was struggling with this new change. During his weekly staff meeting, he was given an executive briefing document to review on a large project he had directed his team to research. Sitting at the head of the conference table, with his leadership team all in attendance, Bob began reading the brief. He was turning his head, left-to-right, right-to-left, left-to-right, and right-to-left as he read through the document. Jack spoke up: “The boss doesn’t like it.” Bob looked up from the brief, smiled, set down the paper, and removed his new glasses. Then Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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he explained, “No, actually this is excellent. I am very pleased. You see, I just got these new bifocal glasses a couple of days ago and I am having trouble retraining myself to read with them. It seems easier to move my head back and forth instead of my eyes. I can see how you misinterpreted my body language while I was reading your brief.” Bob made another appointment with his optometrist and got two more pairs of glasses, one for distance and another for reading! If Bob had not made the investment with his leadership team to teach them dialogue skills and incorporate dialogue into their weekly meetings, his team could have taken action based on inaccurate information. Dialogue helps teams learn together. It facilitates the exchange of diverse opinions and differing points of view. When teams engage in dialogue, they increase the amount of information or data that gets considered, and in turn, the quality of their decision making is improved. Exploring hidden assumptions helps leaders uncover important perceptions and beliefs that can inhibit or enhance the success of a change effort. Letting Go When You Have No Control I (John) spent my early career working as an addictions therapist. The first step in learning to manage any addiction is learning to admit powerlessness and to let go of the things you cannot control. I included a poem titled “Letting Go” by an unknown author in my first book, Coaching Tips for Job Seekers (2003). I have written my own version of this poem, with an application to letting go when you have no control. Letting Go Letting go is not enabling, it’s allowing learning from natural consequences. Letting go is admitting powerlessness and accepting that the outcome is not in my hands. Letting go is refraining from trying to change or blame others and accepting that I can only change myself. Letting go is not being protective and allowing others to face reality. Letting go is moving away from denial into acceptance; it’s fearing less and forgiving more.

In Peter Block’s book The Empowered Manager (1987), he says that the most popular entity in any organization is “they,” and that when managers point to

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“they,” they give up their power. Empowerment comes from taking responsibility for your own actions, not from shifting blame to others. We often use this short story to illustrate how popular “they” are in government organizations. When we teach classes to emerging leaders, we are frequently told, “You’re singing to the choir, we get it; it’s our supervisors who need to be in your class.” Then we offer the class to supervisors, and they say, “We get it; it’s the mid-level managers that need to take this course.” We move on to a class of mid-level managers, and they tell us, “It’s not us; you need to train our senior leaders!” When we train the senior leaders, they say, “It’s not us; it’s the current administration that doesn’t get it.” We believe that if we could train a course with the current administration (at any point in time) they might tell us, “It’s not us; it’s Congress!” If we went to Congress, they would cry, “It’s not us, we get it; take your message to our followers.” And finally, if we could take our classes to the citizens, they would probably tell us, “It’s not us; we didn’t vote!” Effective leaders learn to let go of pressing issues and demands on their time and resources when they have no control. They discipline themselves to assume self-responsibility for their words and deeds, maximizing empowerment and their impact on the organization. Matt’s story illustrates how leaders can learn to master our third Leadership Meta-Competency, adroit at thinking strategically. Matt was stationed halfway around the world in a foreign land. He was in his early thirties, and his young family back in the States was constantly on his mind. He struggled with the separation yet was fully committed to his mission. Not unlike other young managers, he vowed to learn as much as he could, add value to every aspect of his role, and find ways to lead with respect and deep regard for every individual on his team. Trained and experienced as a technical specialist, Matt had moved quickly through the early ranks. His new promotion made him a mid-level manager at a critical listening station. He knew how to do much of the technical work at the station and thoroughly enjoyed the nature of the work. He considered himself to be a good coach and focused on ways to make the jobs of those around him easier and more productive. He was sharp enough to know that his role as a leader was to enable the real experts to do their jobs. Nevertheless, he was so intrigued by the work and loved the job so much that he just couldn’t resist doing some of the work himself. He told himself that by doing the work he could actually offer his team a bit of relief from stress as he shouldered some small part of their Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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workload. A noble approach to be sure, but one that he discovered had multiple pitfalls. The station included a nondescript shed that housed an array of microwave dishes and antennae. Like a kid in a candy store, Matt would often crawl up into the shed, stare at the devices, and think about the wealth of data being captured. It was amazing to know that the information being gathered here might include key bits of data that would contribute to the safety of his countrymen .  .  . and his family. He was so proud of his team members. They were experts at analyzing the data and worked tirelessly for ten, twelve, fourteen hours each day to maximize the volume of their efforts. He thought to himself, “Why not conduct a little data gathering myself? Maybe I could reduce the burden on my team.” So he began the practice of entering the shed, adjusting the dishes to receive clear signals, and recording the data streams. He was careful not to interfere with the work of his team members, choosing times when fewer of them were on the job. Excitedly, he would analyze the recorded data he had captured, decode it as best he could, and prepare it for translation. Unfortunately, Matt was not fluent in the native language. He began taking his results to the language experts on his team for translation. Of course, they were already overworked and could seldom get to his data in a timely manner. In fact, they were often perturbed that the boss would bring additional data to them in the first place. How could he not know that they could barely keep up with the pace and volume of their daily routines? They were right. Matt was empathetic to their workload, so he stopped bothering them with his data. But he was still frustrated that the available data was not being used. Managing his frustration, he did what any high-initiative, wellmeaning young manager would do. He decided to learn the native language. Over the course of several years, with no formal training, he accomplished his task. He progressively tested at higher levels of proficiency until he reached the highest level of fluency measured. He could now translate on his own. One day he sat in his small office area wearing headphones, listening to some information he had recently gathered. One of the overworked language analysts walked by, stopped, tilted his head and asked, “What are you doing?” Matt returned his gaze and said simply, “Your job.” Matt tells this story with an emphasis on his leadership mistake. His personal learning discovery through this experience is that in his intent to help, he didn’t

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consider the bigger picture. He ignored the strategic view and embraced the tactical issues. Instead of fully understanding the resource and workflow issues, he focused his attention on personally learning new skills so he could do other people’s jobs. His personal conclusion is, “You can’t be a leader of one.” We agree that his critical error was ignoring the big picture and failing to truly practice the art of thinking strategically. He focused his efforts masterfully on developing his technical competency with language skills. But by narrowing his focus to a tactical objective, he unintentionally limited his broader strategic capabilities. We have observed that this is a common mistake among public service leaders. There is a wide comfort zone around technical skill and abilities and a narrow comfort zone for strategic thinking and vision. Matt’s purpose in sharing his story was to highlight his failure to lead strategically. By staying focused on tactical issues such as gathering and analyzing data, in an effort to reduce team members’ workloads, he made an almost imperceptible dent in the volume. In fact, in some cases his efforts were seen as interference or even micromanaging. Had he stepped back and considered the big-picture issues such as resource management or workflow analysis, his actions might have had a more far-reaching effect. They certainly would have been more valued by his team members in terms of his leadership vision and would not have been perceived as their boss doing their jobs. Matt has gone on to a sterling career as an active and highly regarded senior executive in the Department of Defense. He mentors others in his organization to skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information. When he is coaching his teams, he pushes them to think beyond the immediate horizon and focus their forward thinking on the bigger picture. By helping his direct reports to link current realities with the organization’s future mission objectives, he is able to build their competence as strategic thinkers and strategic planners. Here are some practical things you can try to strengthen your own competency in skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information. Place a checkmark next to the items you think you might be willing to try! ⬜

Create a list of your top priorities, then have your direct reports each create a list of their top priorities. Share these lists and look for competing demands. Dialogue about how you can create alignment. Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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⬜

When your mission priorities change or you are tasked with shifting priorities, create a list of the new priorities, compare it to your previous list of priorities, and look for competing demands. After you have identified these, look for ways to juggle them. Alternatively, you might look for needed but missing or inaccurate information. Create an action plan for getting this information and then dialogue with your superiors about what you have discovered.

⬜

When you find yourself in circumstances in which you have to move forward despite inaccurate or incomplete information, dialogue with your stakeholders to identify and surface hidden assumptions and shared understandings about the mission priorities and needs. When you have reached a shared understanding of the problem at hand, cocreate a strategy for execution that takes everyone’s concerns into account.

⬜

Review your list of top priorities again. This time ask yourself the following questions about each item on your list: Is this priority crystal clear? Do I have a deadline for completing it? Am I equipped with the resources I need to address this priority? Who is my customer? Who is my sponsor? The answers to these questions will help you make decisions about juggling your priorities.

The second component of our third Leadership Meta-Competency, adroit at thinking strategically, is thinking beyond the immediate horizon.

THINKING BEYOND THE IMMEDIATE HORIZON As we said earlier, short-term thinking is usually tactical; learning to set our sights beyond the immediate horizon helps us transition from tactical thinking to thinking strategically. We conduct experiential training exercises in most of our leadership courses for mid-level and senior executive leaders. Most of these activities involve a challenge or problem that needs to be solved in a short time frame. Often the optimal solution requires collaboration, teamwork, flexibility, and strategy. In nearly every exercise, participants listen to the instructions and immediately move into a problem-solving mode. Rarely do they stop and take time for dialogue or reflection. Some of these activities have time set aside for planning or reengineering. When participants are directed to engage in a planning

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or reengineering discussion, they usually get actively engaged and come up with innovative and creative strategies for problem solving. When we debrief the activities, we talk about the exponential return they receive on their time investment dedicated to dialogue, planning, and strategy. They “get it” and agree that it makes prudent sense to take time out to think, reflect, discuss, and plan. But when they are faced with another opportunity, usually later in the course, they return to their usual routine of “ready, fire, aim.” Unlearning habits that are no longer useful and learning new ones is a painful and slow process. We talked earlier about Gladwell’s ten thousand hours of dedicated effort to achieve mastery. This certainly rings true for learning mastery of this competency, thinking beyond the immediate horizon. Mitigating Tactical Thinking To illustrate this component of thinking beyond the immediate horizon by mitigating tactical thinking, we go back to another Invictus scene. Mandela is in the car, leaving the National Sports Council meeting, in a conversation with his aide, Brenda. Brenda says, “I’m sorry, Madiba, but we’ve got problems everywhere we look: housing, food, jobs, crime, our currency. You can’t keep interrupting affairs of state to placate a minority.” Mandela replies, “But I must; that minority still controls the police, the army, and the economy. If we lose them, we cannot address the other issues.” Brenda says, “So this rugby, it is just a political calculation.” Mandela says, “Well, it’s a human calculation. If we take away what they cherish—the Springboks, their national anthem—we just reinforce the cycle of fear between us. I will do what I must to stop that cycle, or it will destroy us.” Brenda is focused on the tactical issues at hand—housing, food, jobs, crime, and the country’s currency. She believes that his preoccupation with rugby is an attempt to placate a minority group—the Afrikaners. Mandela helps her understand that there is a bigger picture to consider. As he points out, the Afrikaners control the police, the army, and the economy. His strategic plan is to reconcile with them and join with them as fellow partners in democracy. He knows that the country cannot unite without the support of the white minority. He believes that he can use rugby and the Springboks to accomplish this strategic goal. Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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Focusing Forward Thinking Revisiting Invictus, we see President Mandela skillfully practicing this action of focusing forward thinking in another segment of his speech to the National Sports Council. He tells the assembly, “On Robben Island in Pollsmoor Prison, all of my jailers were Afrikaners. For twenty-seven years I studied them; I learned their language, read their books, their poetry. I had to know my enemy before I could prevail against them. And we did prevail, did we not, all of us here? We prevailed. Our enemy is no longer the Afrikaner. They are our fellow south Africans, our partners in democracy. And they treasure Springbok rugby. If we take that away, we lose them; we prove that we are what they feared we would be. We have to be better than that. We have to surprise them with compassion, with restraint and generosity. I know all of the things they denied us, but this is no time to celebrate petty revenge. This is the time to build our nation, using every single brick available to us, even if that brick comes wrapped in green and gold.” Now we will take a look at the third subcomponent of thinking beyond the immediate horizon—linking current realities to future objectives. This skill helps leaders face complex problems and make connections between what is happening now (current realities) and what is possible by creating objectives that are linked to strategic thinking and planning for the future. Linking Current Realities to Future Objectives In another scene from the movie Apollo 13, the crew is faced with a complex problem. Back on Earth, the team comes to Krantz in the command center and tell him that they have a situation brewing—a CO2 filter problem on the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). “The scrubbers on the command module (CM) are square, and the failing ones on the LEM are round. This isn’t a contingency we remotely looked at.” Krantz says, “Well, I suggest you gentlemen invent a way to put a square peg in a round hole, rapidly.” The team gathers samples of every piece of material available on the craft, and they dump it onto a table. The team leader tells them, “The people upstairs handed us this one, and we gotta come through. We gotta find a way to make this”—holding up a square filter in his right hand—“fit into the hole for this”— holding up a round filter in his left hand—“using nothing but that”—pointing to the materials on the table.

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The team comes through with a viable solution, illustrating that when you apply creativity, innovation, and full engagement, a high-performing team can effectively engage in linking current realities to future objectives by discovering hidden options or seemingly impossible solutions to complex, challenging problems. The third component of our third Leadership Meta-Competency, adroit at thinking strategically, is inspiring a vision of the future.

INSPIRING A VISION OF THE FUTURE In the World English Dictionary we find that the word “inspire” comes from the Latin inspirare, which means to breathe upon; the archaic meaning is “to breathe life into.” If we think of inspiring a vision of the future as breathing life into it so that it comes alive with meaningful purpose and direction, we can envision others sharing this inspiration with us. Effective leaders create compelling, inspiring, and meaningful visions of the future—the future state of an agency, its mission, or a change effort. Inspiring visions are contagious, and effective leaders want their followers to “catch” them! As leaders learn to become more adroit at thinking strategically, they improve their abilities to clearly articulate both the current state (as is) of affairs and the ideal future state (vision of the future). They apply their strategic thinking to the visioning process to formulate strategic plans that include goals and objectives that guide their followers in executing the mission.

Painting a Picture of the Agency’s Future Painting a picture of the agency’s future helps leaders crystalize their own thinking and capture the essence of the desired end point. We think in pictures, not words; we visualize possibilities and then create a narrative to explain it. The stories we tell ourselves are the narratives that describe our visualizations of future possible events or outcomes. In one of our courses on leading change, our design team adapted characteristics of a change effort vision and steps for effectively communicating a change effort vision from the works of Bennis and Nanus, Block, and Kouzes and Posner. We have included them here.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHANGE EFFORT VISION Change effort visions: 1. Put into words the desired future we wish to create for our unit or organization. They describe our dream—the preferred or ideal state in a spirit of optimism—and clarify the vision. 2. Are very personal and passionate. They integrate our deepest values into the workplace. They speak from our heart and express our commitment to find meaning in what we are doing to contribute to the organization. When our change effort vision is an expression of our personal values, we stay aligned with the organization on a very personal level. 3. Are inspiring and motivating. They rarely include numbers (numbers are a by-product of spirited performance). Inspiring change effort visions are compelling, capture our imagination, and engage our spirit. They create enthusiasm, commitment, pride, and the willingness to work hard. 4. Are empowering. Change effort visions call for us to be our best. When individuals, work units, or an organization have a clear sense of a desired future, meaning, and purpose—and when this image is widely shared— individuals can find their roles and see themselves as part of a worthwhile endeavor. Effective change effort visions guide people’s behavior, thus making it possible to distribute decision making widely. 5. Require taking risks. Choosing an unknown, unpredictable path requires an act of faith and courage. 6. Must be stable but constantly challenged. In effective change effort visions, the key ideas seldom change, but minor adjustments can add up to substantial adaptation over time. Change effort visions must act as the compass in a wild and stormy sea, and, like a compass, they lose their value if they are not adjusted to take account of their surroundings. 7. Are everybody’s job. Change effort visions create a shared meaning. Upper-level change effort vision statements are input for lower-level change effort vision statements. They reinforce the belief and invite contributions that signify that all of us are engaged in the process of creating our organization. 8. Are beacons. To turn the change effort vision into a beacon, leaders at all levels must model behavior that is consistent with the change effort vision. If your change effort vision sounds like motherhood and apple pie and is somewhat embarrassing, you are on the right track.

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Effectively Communicating Your Change Effort Vision In communicating your change effort vision, you begin to refine, grow, and add to the vision. 1. Create and use every possible opportunity to talk about your change effort vision statement. Leadership is about keeping others focused on the future direction. This means we have to get comfortable talking about it. Think about your change effort vision as you would an elevator speech. You should be able to talk about your change effort vision in a way that says everything that needs to be said in less than five minutes at the most. Repeat your change effort vision at every appropriate opportunity. 2. Express your change effort vision with emotional charge. Use color and excitement in your language. Use metaphors, analogies, and images. It doesn’t matter what you choose, but it has to be something that hooks people. 3. Provide a specific picture of the future. The better you can see what the future would look like, the easier it is to communicate your change effort vision. Continue integrating and adapting your picture using themes and images that resonate with others. Fantasize being in a time capsule, visiting your unit three years from now and hovering above like a helicopter.

Compelling Forward Momentum Here is a story that illustrates several key steps for painting a picture of an agency’s future. Marlene led the cyber division in an agency within the Department of Defense. She began by saying, If you have a large container and you want to get both rocks and sand inside it, you want to put the rocks in before the sand. I tell my people that we have to decide our end point first, then identify the big rocks. And doing it once isn’t enough; we have to revisit our plan. I know that I am required to lead with flexibility, adaptability, and resilience—these are essential competencies for any leader directing change in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. I explain that this helps us keep on track, and it gives us the opportunity to recalibrate often. Marlene went on to tell us that she used several tools that helped her keep her employees fully engaged in a change effort—compelling forward Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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momentum. She said, “I tell my people often that deciding to change isn’t an indictment of what we were doing before! I try to help them understand how owning the change and embracing it will help them do their jobs better—with increased enthusiasm, support, accuracy, and results. I want them to see that we aren’t changing everything; some things will remain the same and some new things will help us complete the mission with increased results.” She told us about some of the clarifying questions she uses to facilitate dialogue: When I am leading a dialogue session with my teams, I often ask these questions to help them see what needs changing and what can remain the same. I ask them, “What do we need to keep on doing? What will we be doing differently? What do we need to stop doing? What are we doing that we need to do more often?” Then in my individual coaching and mentoring meetings with my people, I ask four questions that I learned early in my career as a military officer: “What’s working well for you as you do your job? What’s not working well for you? What are you getting from me that you don’t need? What do you need from me that you aren’t getting?” We asked Marlene what she would describe as one of the most important lessons she has learned as a leader. She said she thought that the most important lesson for her was to Know who you are and own it. I know who I am, and I have to figure out how to work with others. This is especially difficult for me when someone says something really hurtful. I have learned to stop and think before I respond. I know that the first thing I tend to do is internalize the comment. I believe it must be true or they wouldn’t have said it, so I “own it.” Then, I take some time to reflect and work through it. I usually find that there are parts of it that are true for me and other parts that aren’t, so I am able to take ownership of my part—what I may have said or done that caused this person to feel this way about me. Then I am able to let go of the things that I believe aren’t my responsibility. When I get to this place, I am able to move forward. Then I can have a conversation with that person. I am able to share with them what I am thinking and feeling, and I am

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able to ask them questions to clarify their assumptions and beliefs about our relationship. I have learned that as a leader I value support, reliability, and objectivity. I make these high priorities in my work and in the work of others. My growing edge is learning to move quicker toward action, offer more encouragement to others, and to drive for results earlier. A couple of years earlier, Marlene had taken an executive assessment course that I (John) taught to senior executives. I was pleased to hear her use some of the language from the course to describe her self-awareness and leadership development. One of the assessments she took was the Everything DiSC Workplace® Profile. She had scored as a CS (Conscientious, Steadiness) style. This meant that she valued Support, Reliability, and Objectivity in the workplace. Based on the model, her opposite style, a Di (Dominance, Influence), would value Drive, Action, and Encouragement. Marlene had described these traits as her values and growth areas. Another step in compelling forward momentum is cascading your vision. In government agencies, the director and the executive leadership team set the agency’s vision. We have had the privilege of facilitating visioning sessions with several senior leadership teams. These are often highly collaborative and creative meetings in which everyone engages and contributes to the process and hours are spent searching for just the right words and phrases. The team goes back to the workforce with inspiration, clarity, and a meaningful sense of purpose and direction. They share the vision on the agency website, put up posters, announce it in the agency-wide e-newsletter, and add it to the strategic plan. Surprisingly—and contrary to the senior leadership’s expectations—at this point, the vision seems to flutter, sputter, and stall. The workforce doesn’t “buy in,” and it becomes just another thing to put on the shelf. The leadership team is left with troubling questions like “What happened? Why weren’t they as inspired and motivated as we were? Where did we miss the mark?” We have learned that the answers often lie in the lack of a cascading strategy. When a cascading strategy is effectively executed, the workforce is inspired to bring that vision to fruition. We think Julianne’s story helps illustrate this practice. Julianne had attended our leadership development course for mid-level managers. During that class, participants were given the assignment to write Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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their personal leadership vision statements. Later in the week they shared these publicly in small groups. Julianne wrote her leadership vision with a focus on her division. Julianne also participated in a follow-on course. In this class, participants reviewed their leadership development plans that were created in the first course and they shared their successes and challenges with one another. Then they gave one another support, encouragement, and advice on how to continue to move forward with their development goals and activities. Julianne told the class that one of her leadership development goals was to go back and share her leadership vision with her team. She said, I went back to work and reviewed the vision statements for my division’s directorate and my division’s branches. This 360-degree view, looking at my leadership’s vision and the vision of those reporting to me, helped me decide to make revisions to my own leadership vision. After I completed my reviews and revisions, I shared my leadership vision with my team and then with my leadership at the directorate level and with my direct reports at the branch levels. The response was overwhelmingly positive! My senior leadership asked me if they could incorporate some of my ideas into their vision statement, and my direct reports did the same. As a result, we had a continuous thread of shared vision, inspiration, shared ownership, and buy-in for our respective visions. And we were able to see the connections up and down the chain of our directorate to how what we did each day at work connected to the agency’s mission. Clarifying Purpose-Driven Strategies Clarifying purpose-driven strategies helps bring clarity to your followers about how you plan to execute your leadership vision. It ties meaning and purpose to action. As human beings, we want to find meaning and purpose in our work. When we embrace change, it’s because we believe it will be meaningful, purposeful, and productive. We’ve already talked about how to shift thinking from a tactical approach to a strategic one; now we’re going to explore how to create strategies to ensure that your plan will take you in the direction of your vision. In our next chapter, we will explore how to execute your strategic plan with an ambitious drive to execute.

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Katie shared with us the story of how she valiantly attempted to practice clarifying purpose-driven strategies with her new senior leadership team shortly after assuming a major command in the Pacific. She had over twenty years of service in the United States Navy and was an O-6 (Captain) at the beginning of her tour. We asked Katie to tell us about her perceptions of effective leaders who have provided her with clear strategies. She told us, Every person I know who has assumed a major command has entered the job with a near-blinding desire to be successful. Not for oneself, but for the command and the people within it. They want to lead their followers to be the best in the business, whether it’s the “best damn ship in the Navy,” or the best shore station, or the best intelligence production element. Even with the desire and intent to be the very best, things don’t often turn out that way. Commands— especially the wardroom (officers), the mess (chiefs), and the white-hats (E-6 and below)—don’t always coalesce into smoothly functioning teams, hitting on all cylinders. I often wondered why some commands functioned so well while others struggled to find their rhythm. We asked Katie to what she attributed these differences in high functioning teams, and she told us her story. I assumed my first major command (executive leadership role) leading three thousand people spread over two campuses sitting on over 125 acres with a 300-million-dollar operating budget. I thought I was well prepared, having led at the O-5 level with numerous challenging staff and leadership positions throughout my career. Leading with a pretty strong team in an area where I was very confident and experienced, I never imagined that it would be the struggle it proved to be early in my tour. Routine actions seemed to take near-heroic efforts to achieve, and we were failing to make the progress I expected toward our goals and objectives. This doesn’t mean that great things weren’t happening, but it sure did seem like it took too much energy to get the easy stuff done right, and it appeared that our larger goals were never going to be achieved. Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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After about six months on the job, I was working on a Sunday afternoon, supporting a U.S. Pacific Command Tier One exercise. Things were pretty quiet, and I actually had some time to take stock of where we were and what I thought needed to get done in the next sixty days. I sat down and drew up a list of the significant activities I wanted my directors to focus on and get done without any further delays. When I finished, I had a list of sixty-eight distinct activities that I believed should be the command’s focus. I drafted an email cataloging the actions, assigning them by directorate, and putting reasonable completion dates for each item. After hitting Send, I headed home to dinner with my family and some relaxation time before starting another busy week. Arriving at home, I was riding on cloud nine. I believed that I had just completed one of my most productive days and my email was a work of brilliance. There could be no confusion by my directors about my expectations. They had been consistently telling me that they wanted me to set priorities and be clear about my expectations, and now they had them—written down—an action plan and milestones that would have made the most organized task master sing my praises. Sailing into work the next day, it seemed like we were off to a fast start. There was a lot to do, the mission was hopping, and there were a ton of visitors calendared. I was excited for the week ahead, and I was absolutely sure my directors would be excited and energized by the clear direction and guidance I had provided them. They were certainly excited, but unbeknownst to me, not excited in the way I had anticipated! They were thinking and saying to one another, “Is she &%*!# crazy?” “Doesn’t she trust us to do our jobs?” They had swarmed to the vice commander, demanding that he “get her under control.” They were agitated, unhappy, and doubtful that they could survive my command. Again, I was happy as a clam, believing I had provided them the leadership they needed and wanted. Late that night, I headed home still thinking things were finally on the right course. They were, but things weren’t unfolding the way I had anticipated, and the road was about to get pretty rocky. On Tuesday afternoon, the vice commander finally approached me. I absolutely loved working with him, we really had a great

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collaborative relationship; even though we didn’t agree on everything, we mutually respected and trusted one another. He hated confrontation and would avoid it whenever possible, and he had spent the past twenty-four hours building up for this one. He had been mentally preparing to let me know that my “brilliant email” was anything but brilliant. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite ready to hear his message. Valiantly, he tried to help me understand that my email missive was being perceived by the directors as micromanaging and filled with unreasonable requests that lacked clarity and added more to their plates. They were already buried under a myriad of actions, and with my added directives, they saw no relief in sight. In my oh-so-direct way, I explained, in not the softest or most polite tone of voice, that if everyone would just get their *&$#! together, work harder, and be a little more organized they should be able to get everything done that I had directed. Additionally, I explained that my task completion dates were negotiable; they just needed to discuss revised due dates with me. The conversation became even more heated, and he threw up his hands in despair, saying, “You just don’t get it; they’re doing everything they can, but you just keep putting more stuff on their plates. They feel like they’re spinning their wheels and not accomplishing anything meaningful.” I got even more upset and told him that they just needed to step up and produce. We didn’t storm out on one another, but we did frostily wrap it up for the evening before we headed back to our homes. To say the least, I was pissed. After painstakingly taking time to clearly spell out what had to be done, I just couldn’t fathom how my directors could not be pleased with my clear, direct guidance. The need for any guesswork on their part was clearly removed, and now they just had to “get it done”! After getting home, I sat down with my family and told them about my day. My husband just chuckled and said, “I can see why they might be a little pissed at you.” He didn’t offer much more, and my daughter told me that she still loved me. I could see a touch of disappointment in both their eyes, and I could hear it in their voices. I felt they were trying to encourage me, but their responses were somewhat disconcerting. Why didn’t they, my own family, see how Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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well I was doing? Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night as I ruminated over what had happened and wallowed in my frustration that my team didn’t appreciate my efforts or “get it.” Something in the pit of my stomach kept gnawing at me. I knew deep down inside that I just might be mistaken. What Katie described was the impact that tactical thinking and planning can have on a high-performing team. She wasn’t clarifying purpose-driven strategies that would link strategic thinking to a strategic vision; rather, she was clarifying tactical tasks that were so detailed her directors felt micromanaged, mistrusted, and disempowered—the very opposite outcome she was seeking to achieve with her senior leadership team! Katie continued, I am not the greatest listener, and I don’t always hear the message that is intended, but my vice commander and the directors were all very patient and experienced. They knew my heart was in the right place, I was passionate about our mission and our people, and I truly loved our work. Had they not believed this about me, I doubt they would have risked trying to “influence up” and contributed to getting back on course with our vision with the right heading and speed. Most importantly, they didn’t back down and they didn’t relent. During our Wednesday afternoon meeting, the directors reluctantly expressed their frustrations with my leadership and management style. They were respectful, loyal, and passionate about succeeding as a team, and at the same time they were worried about how I would respond to their frustrations. I am a very excitable person, and I love to debate (argue?) everything. Some may even say that I can be a little “spirited” about certain topics. Like everyone, I have hot buttons, and they were probably afraid that this would be one of mine. Despite their fears, they risked speaking up and trusted that we could get through this challenging conflict. They each clearly expressed what they needed and wanted from me as their senior leader. It was simple, really, and I had learned these things along the way, but somehow I had lost sight of them or I just wasn’t willing to apply them at this higher level of leadership responsibility.

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First, they wanted me to prioritize the three to five big muscle moves necessary to keep us on track to achieve our [strategic] goals. They wanted clear priorities that defined focus and resources (people, space, and money). I was able to give them three priorities: (1) finish the new building and take occupancy while creating savings in power, space, and cooling; (2) implement IT efficiencies (bringing in a new virtualized IT environment with reduced IT manpower); and (3) launch a rapid development program delivering cutting-edge cyber capabilities. This is a great example of successful leadership, in which Katie took time with her senior leadership team to engage in a dialogue. Together, they surfaced hidden assumptions, explored differing perspectives, assumed noble intent, actively listened to one another, and cocreated shared meaning and shared understanding. As a result, they cocreated a third story—one in which neither Katie nor the directors were right or wrong. They found a way to clarify purpose-driven strategies—bringing meaning and purpose to their actions. Katie continued her story, describing in more detail how they collaborated on clarifying purpose-driven strategies: Secondly, they wanted me to get out of their way so they could develop their own plans to achieve our strategic goals. This meant that the priorities we set had to be enduring. Third, they needed me to remove barriers that they were bound to encounter along the way, such as policy, relationships, building or repairing partnerships, etc. They made it clear that they would make every effort to resolve issues at their level, but if they had to bring one to me, they needed me to step up and remove it, even if that meant dealing directly with headquarters. Fourth, they needed me to commit to securing all the resources required to achieve our strategic goals. We asked Katie to elaborate on how she applies strategic thinking to strategic planning: I pretty much follow a seven-step model. First, I lead the team to define the program and establish a vision or picture of the desired end state. Second, I have them clarify shared values using dialogue and brainstorming. Third, we continue in dialogue to define the Adroit at Thinking Strategically

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current environment using tools like an environmental scan. Fourth, we again use dialogue to clarify the facts relevant to our current situation. This requires some intense dialogue as we seek to understand our mental models, hidden assumptions, and how we each may be interpreting the facts differently. This process leads us to a shared understanding of where we are and where we want to be in the future. Fifth, we reach agreement on established goals, objectives, and strategies. Sixth, we define our success measures, and then seventh, we establish governance procedures. We worked through these steps together as a team to create our strategic plan after I was able to move back from being so tactical and to begin to look at three to five big muscle moves I described earlier. Spending time in reflection and self-assessment, Katie summarized her leadership lesson, Now it sounds simple, and it truly was—they wanted and needed me to function as a senior executive leader, not as a senior executive manager—and they definitely didn’t need my brilliant micromanagement, no matter how much I aspired to that task! They needed me to set direction (vision), have faith and confidence in their competence (trust), remove impediments that might prevent our success (support and enable), and provide the resources required to get the job done (manage). They were consummate team players, never frivolously asked for resources, always sought to resolve issues at their own levels, and only elevated intractable problems to me that exceed their spheres of control and influence. As I reflected on my personal challenge with this struggle moving from being tactical to strategic, I realized that I didn’t yet have authentic relationships with my directors. I knew that leadership is about relationships more than anything else, and because I hadn’t yet fully developed these key relationships, it was hard for me to have confidence and trust in their abilities. As I got to know my people through this process, our relationships strengthened, we built mutual trust in one another and gained mutual confidence in one another.

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Today I am still amazed at the simplicity, and it seemed anything but simple in the throes of it all! My directors wanted to succeed as a team, and they knew how important that success was for our nation, our agency, and our people. They were frustrated with me, and they were unwilling to walk away without fighting for what they knew was possible and right. Basically, they “fired” me as their “senior executive manager” and then helped me reshape on the fly. Although I still stumbled from time to time over my exuberance and impatience, they never quit “mentoring and influencing up.” Together, we achieved some truly amazing things. The directors delivered on a 350-million-dollar new building ahead of schedule, completed an IT installation in one-half the allotted timeframe with a completely redesigned architecture, participated in and demonstrated groundbreaking cyber defense capabilities, conducted some of the most exquisite intelligence collection analysis and reporting on the nation’s tier one intelligence priorities, and they did it while turning over nearly one-third of their personnel annually. So although I was fired as their “senior executive manager,” I was able to regroup and redefine my role as a “senior executive leader” while never losing sight of my responsibilities, authorities, and accountability for our mission and our people. I learned to do what great leaders do well: (1) set priorities, (2) get out of the way and let my people do their jobs (faith, confidence, trust, and support), (3) remove barriers to success, and (4) secure the resources necessary to achieve mission results. My directors delivered in the way all good leaders can when they are empowered to get the job done. They developed strategies and implementation plans, used priorities to make decisions, and provided guidance within their respective directorates. They wisely applied resources and used the chain of command to remove barriers and secure needed resources. We had many tough days, and we didn’t achieve all our goals, but we did accomplish our highest priorities.

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Katie’s commitment to set direction, hold herself and her team accountable, remove barriers, and provide encouragement and support kept them focused on painting a picture of the agency’s future that provided a compelling forward momentum as they continued clarifying purpose-driven strategies— all three working together to help them in the process of inspiring a vision of the future.

Chapter Summary We describe leaders who are adroit at thinking strategically as being able to competently and skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information. They think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities, and they inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future. Adroit at Thinking Strategically 1.

Skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete information a. Juggling competing demands b. Juggling incomplete or inaccurate information c. Letting go when you have no control

2.

Thinking beyond the immediate horizon a. Mitigating tactical thinking b. Focusing forward thinking c. Linking current realities to future objectives

3.

Inspiring a vision of the future a. Painting a compelling picture of the agency’s future b. Compelling forward momentum c. Clarifying purpose-driven strategies

Leaders Who Are Adroit at Thinking Strategically . . .

• Adroitly think strategically about mission priorities and strategies • Skillfully juggle competing demands

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• Adeptly juggle incomplete or inaccurate information • Let go when they have no control • Mitigate tactical thinking and short-term solutions • Focus forward thinking • Link current realities to future objectives • Paint a compelling picture of the agency’s future • Compel forward momentum in individuals and the organization • Clarify purpose-driven strategies for individuals and the organization

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Ambitious Drive to Execute

chapter FIVE

In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Execute every act of thy life as if it were thy last. —Marcus Aurelius

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e often turn to history for lessons of leadership greatness. So far in this book we’ve referred to several revered historical figures and numerous incidents of historic significance to illustrate the themes we propose. As we considered examples that would showcase an ambitious drive to execute, we did not have to look far into the past. On May 2, 2011, the operation to locate, apprehend, and/or eliminate Osama bin Laden culminated in the raid on his Pakistani compound. One key figure in this mission embodies many of the characteristics associated with this meta-competency. The mission has since been dramatized in the 2012 historical drama film, Zero Dark Thirty. Since then, much of the general public’s knowledge about this operation is derived from the film. Due to the highly sensitive nature of this type of counterterrorist operation, the exact details may never be known. What does appear factual both in the film and in statements by government officials, including the president, is that one woman played an integral part in driving the mission to its success. Portrayed in the film by actress Jessica Chastain, the character of Maya provides a compelling illustration of what it means to be driven to execute the mission.

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Maya is recruited right out of college to join the CIA. She demonstrates an unrelenting commitment to her assignment, gathering and analyzing information on al-Queda leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Her commitment attracts the attention of her superiors. She is assigned to work with a senior operative in gathering more intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. Maya and the senior agent follow lead after lead in a tireless effort to find people connected to the terrorist leader. Eventually the senior agent is reassigned and Maya assumes the role of leading this effort. Determined to find bin Laden, she stays on task even if it means piecing together small, seemingly unrelated elements, one tiny connection at a time. Over the course of the next five years, she carefully studies reports, travels into war-torn lands, and puts herself in harm’s way to execute her mission. She survives an attack on her hotel in Islamabad, agonizes over changes in political leadership and subsequent agency priorities, and suffers the loss of colleagues. At times her world seems to crumble all around her. Yet she remains steadfastly devoted to the completion of her mission. Her drive and work ethic pay off when a series of links are made that lead them to a residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Maya’s singular commitment, supported by a team of expert analysts, convince our government’s top leaders that although there is no absolute, direct evidence, the chances are better than fifty-fifty that bin Laden is living in the compound. After months of surveillance, a plan is devised to raid the compound. By now, we all know the story of two top-secret stealth helicopters carrying out the mission. One crashed while the other made a successful landing. A Navy SEAL team killed bin Laden, recovered his body, and returned to their U.S. base. The U.S. war on terror had reached a milestone many thought unachievable. It had been reached thanks to the relentless commitment of one officer, Maya, and her undying drive to execute her mission. When we think of leadership drive, we think of effort and energy well beyond what is normal. Drivers are characterized by gutsy determination and relentless vitality. Think of Gabrielle Giffords, the courageous Arizona congresswoman horribly wounded by an assassin’s bullet in a shooting spree that killed and wounded many other people at Giffords’s “Congress on Your Corner” gathering. Persevering through surgeries, recovery, and therapy, Ms. Giffords has returned to the public eye and inspirationally encouraged a nation to consider mental health care and responsibility with guns.

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We also think of ambition to succeed and motivation to excel. Athletes are often held in high regard for their sheer will to prevail. In this context, the line between accolades deserved for champions and derision saved for cheaters can become blurred, if not crossed. Lance Armstrong, once celebrated for his seven Tour de France wins as the world’s most accomplished cyclist, is now attempting to rebuild his image after finally admitting to the use of banned substances that enhanced his performance. We may applaud his drive, but we cannot sanction his judgment or tactics. His legacy is forever tarnished. Such drive is the reason we are careful to promote responsible risk-taking among leaders. Execution is the act of completing or finishing the job. Leaders are responsible for rallying those around them to carry out plans, implement actions, and accomplish goals. Performance counts. Results matter. Leaders embrace the mission and set examples for others to follow. The relationships they build last through difficulties and challenges. They support others in acting courageously while demanding accountability. Successful leaders get the job done without making excuses.

AMBITIOUS DRIVE TO EXECUTE Our fourth and final Leadership Meta-Competency is an ambitious drive to execute. Like the preceding three, its three components are further broken down into three subcomponents.

L E A D E R S H I P M E TA - C O M P E T E N C Y # 4 : AMBITIOUS DRIVE TO EXECUTE

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1. Practicing responsible risk-taking a. Driving to action b. Willing to risk responsibility c. Embracing the mission 2. Influencing and empowering others a. Leading by example b. Fostering relationships c. Enabling others to act

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3. Encouraging others to engage in responsible risk-taking a. Encouraging innovative thinking b. Rewarding efforts, not punishing mistakes c. Demanding rationale and learning Note: This meta-competency outline is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

By now you are accustomed to our process. We’ll discuss ambitious drive to execute in three independent segments. Each represents a distinct competency area, yet they are all interrelated. Each segment alone is significant. The true power of each part, though, is enhanced when in synergy with the other two.

PRACTICING RESPONSIBLE RISK-TAKING More than one agency leader shared stories with us about risks they had taken during their careers. Some framed it in decision-making terms, such as following their intuition even when the data suggested other alternatives. One described it simply as having the courage to “go with your gut.” Others explained that risk-taking was really about common sense. The best leaders they had seen used common sense liberally when deciding how to proceed during challenging situations. A few others generally agreed with the notions of intuition, gut feelings, and common sense, but were quick to point out that such senses were really based on experience. In their minds, responsible risk-taking is based on one’s ability to draw on past experiences and apply that knowledge to present circumstances. Finally, one very successful leader emphatically encouraged us to explain that the key to responsible risk-taking is to “assume that your decision is the best it can be in the moment.” A leader should never make excuses. And, sounding a bit like a Nike commercial, he suggested, “Just do it.” Driving to Action In her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee brilliantly describes the events in a small Alabama town suffering through the pain of the Great Depression. When a black man, Tom Robinson, is accused of raping a white woman, the predominantly white, racist community is immediately convinced of Mr. Robinson’s guilt. So certain are they that it seems no

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lawyer in town will take the case of defending him. Atticus Finch, one of the most distinguished citizens of the town, sees the situation differently and, at the risk of losing his reputation and friendships, takes Tom’s case. Atticus is driven to act on a moral basis. Everyone deserves a fair trial. He is also driven to act as a father. Committed to living a life of integrity, he wanted to act as a model for his children. What is right is more important than what is popular. Knowing full well the risks, Atticus doesn’t flinch as he begins his investigation into the allegations. As he expected, friends question his intelligence and his loyalty. Townspeople avoid him. Even his young children are subjected to ridicule and abuse by their schoolmates and friends. Nevertheless, Atticus stays focused on his task. He discovers clear evidence that Tom did not commit the crime. Additionally, he uncovers a web of lies perpetrated by the accuser and her father. Although the prevailing opinion of the white community appears undented, surely the weight of the evidence will prevail in a court of law. The night before the trial is to begin, Atticus hears rumors of a plot to storm the jail, take Tom out, and lynch him. Atticus decides to spend the night on the jailhouse steps. Late that evening, a mob arrives. Standing firm, confronting the unruly mob, Atticus firmly never wavers. He tells them to go home. He addresses specific members of the mob, including friends and previous clients. His children, worried about their father and understanding the gravity of the situation, join him on the steps. They stand together. Scout, Atticus’s daughter, speaks innocently to one of the organizers of the mob. Ashamed and concerned, the man tells the mob to disperse. Reluctantly, they do. Atticus hugs his children and sends them home. He remains on the steps for the rest of the night, ensuring Tom’s safety and standing for justice as Tom whispers his gratitude through the jailhouse window. Atticus’s drive to act, to do the right thing, to behave in accordance with his values, his oath as a lawyer, and his duties as a father illustrate the essence of this competency. The most effective leaders not only understand the goals of their agency but also act on them, behaving in accordance with the mission and values of the organization. They ensure that their own values are in synch with those of the organization. Their decisions are based in knowledge, and their actions are aligned with the mission. Effective leaders are motivated to act on those issues that impact the agency’s strategic goals and to ensure the agency’s success. Ambitious Drive to Execute

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In general, action is valued over inaction. As one leader explained to us, “Effective leaders take action because doing something is better than doing nothing.” But we take exception to that notion. There are times when the most courageous, responsible thing a leader can do is to wait. An intelligent pause provides time for reflection. Informed respites provide time for gathering a little more information. The wisdom is in grasping the whole picture and knowing when to pause and when to proceed. We’re reminded of a story told by an old friend who once lifeguarded at our small town’s municipal swimming pool. We can’t vouch for the complete accuracy of the story, but we certainly embrace the lesson. Two rival high schools were constantly involved in banter and disagreement about who had the better football team, track team, debate team—you name it. Most of the time, even though the dialogue reached a fever pitch, scores were settled civilly on athletic fields or in auditoriums. The winners celebrated and the losers vowed revenge. One year, the opposing basketball teams each won one game of the two-game season series. Each won their game by exactly five points. The debate raged over whose team was better. The captains of the two teams proposed that they gather their teammates that spring for a pickup game on the outdoor court at the municipal recreation center. The teams arrived on the appointed evening at midnight. They had to climb the fence, as the gate was locked. There was plenty of light from the security lampposts that had been installed earlier in the year. But to their great dismay, the court had been resurfaced earlier that day and was roped off. The court was unsuitable for the game. One of the captains suggested that they settle the debate in a different kind of competition. “If you’re not chicken, we’ll kick your butts in the swimming pool! First team where every player swims a complete length in a relay race wins.” Without batting an eye, the captain of the other team accepted. They climbed back over the fence and raced to the swimming pool, where players began climbing that fence in the dark. The captain who laid down the challenge was the first over the fence. Exuding teenage bravado, he quickly stripped off his shirt and shoes. “Suckers!” he yelled, as he dove headfirst—into the not-yet-filled swimming pool. He was seriously injured but survived the ordeal. We hope he and the members of both teams learned a lesson. And we hope that his story helps even the most driven leaders see the folly of diving headfirst into a situation defined only by assumptions.

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Being driven to act is an admirable quality. Leaders seldom achieve greatness through a fear of action. Most organizations prefer to employ people who take initiative and are willing to give things a try. We believe one’s drive to act is primarily an acquired trait. Leaders learn through experience that making decisions, taking action, attempting to succeed, and following through are rewarded when their reasoning for acting is sound. They also learn that unwillingness to engage, fear of failure, excessive anxiety, and insecurity look very much like a lack of confidence and/or commitment. We suggest that agency leaders, in order to succeed, must be more driven to action than inaction. Leaders who are timid or unsure will not be valued, nor will they be able to influence others to follow their lead or achieve agency goals. Leaders who are willing to engage will drive their organizations to success. They will be models for others, aligning their values with the organization’s mission. They will consistently choose to lead through both their words and their deeds. Willing to Risk Responsibility Just as the ill-fated teenage captain of the basketball team demonstrated a lack of responsibility in his effort to lead his team to victory, agency leaders must be clear about the risks they will take in the pursuit of skillfully executing the mission. As they weigh the pros and cons, they must demonstrate courage when taking risks as well as bravery in restraint when deciding against risky actions or decisions. This element of balance is critical for leading others to successful completion of their tasks, goals, and missions. The 2013 Super Bowl played by the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers was completed just a week prior to the deadline for our manuscript. As an avid sports fan, I (Tim) followed the playoffs, read all the stories, and watched the pregame buildup with some interest. Finally, the game was played on February 3. Nearing the end of the first half, the Ravens were driving for another score in an already lopsided game—21 to 6 in their favor. The drive stalled within short field goal range. The Ravens’ coach, John Harbaugh, decided to run a fake field goal attempt. Instead of kicking the field goal for an almost certain three points, the ball was snapped directly to the kicker who attempted to run for a first down. This would have given the Ravens a chance to score a touchdown later in the drive. Unfortunately for the Ravens, the San Francisco defenders were ready for the fake and stopped the play short of the first down. The 49ers took possession of the ball. Ambitious Drive to Execute

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When asked after the game about the risk he had taken, Coach Harbaugh scoffed at the characterization of the fake field goal as a risk. He calmly explained that his team had demonstrated an ability to defend against the highpowered San Francisco offense. He was confident that his defense would not allow San Francisco to move the ball if the fake field goal failed. Therefore, the 49ers would be forced to punt the ball, and the Ravens would regain possession again in prime field position with plenty of time to score before the end of the half. On the other hand, had the fake been successful, the Ravens would have been in a position to score a touchdown, further extending their lead. In his mind, the risk was not a risk at all. He believed that both possible outcomes had an upside for his team. By his calculation, there was nothing irresponsible about attempting a fake field goal. In fact, given the circumstances, he surmised that he would have been a less responsible leader had he not tried the fake. His team was in control. The strategic position on the field greatly reduced the downside involved if the attempt failed, and a successful fake would further demoralize his opponent. Genuinely, honestly, he felt more confident taking the alleged risk rather than playing it safe. So how do leaders learn to become responsible risk takers? What may appear to be risky to the casual observer or an employee in the organization may not be considered a risk at all by the leader taking it. Exposure to a variety of situations over one’s career certainly helps one prepare. Studying leadership strategy and tactics and learning from others’ successes and failures seems like a good idea. Carefully considering one’s options plays a significant part in all decision making. Personal experience and learning in action seemed to be the most prevalent methods suggested by those leaders with whom we spoke. Wendy was the acting director of her organization when she was confronted with a series of decisions that could lead to either a further workforce reduction or a stabilization of employment there. When she was appointed to the position, budgets were already being slashed in response to the financial meltdown of 2008. Anxiety was running high that agencies across the board would have to lay off workers. Belt-tightening measures were in full force. Programs were being slashed. Raises were a thing of the past. It was not a great time to be in charge, because the only news that seemed likely to come from leadership was more bad news. Wendy admitted to being anxious about her role. She described the situation she inherited as “just south of dire, but not quite disastrous.” It was difficult to

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stay focused on the mission (ironically, providing services to unemployed citizens) when the budget issues were a constant priority. Despite her understandable anxiety, Wendy decided to take a high-road approach to her role. In her many years with the agency, she had experienced firsthand the misfortunes of workers who had lost jobs through no fault of their own. She knew how easy it was to become a victim of one’s circumstances, spiraling into a sense of no control and hopelessness. She also saw the resolve and resilience of many others who courageously navigated through their challenges, found new employment, and renewed their lives. Wendy had vowed to never let the victim mentality creep into her thought process or her actions. If she ever found herself in a similar predicament, she was committed to taking steps to improve her situation. So when the decree came from leadership to make plans to reduce the workforce by 5 percent by the end of the year, Wendy was ready, but not to reduce the workforce. She was ready to instead propose an innovative set of program enhancements that would require some workers to transfer to other departments but would enable them to keep their jobs. The risk for Wendy was pushing back on the leadership decision to reduce the workforce. The decree offered no room for negotiation. In fact, it suggested that this was the only option available. Wendy, especially considering that she was only acting director, knew she was vulnerable. Bucking the decision required courage. Even more important, it required clear articulation of her plan, careful analysis of the process, and responsible consideration of the potential outcomes of the new programs. In an era when providing additional budget dollars for staffing new programs was virtually impossible, Wendy asked her staff to propose enhancements to current programs that could make a difference in how they offered and delivered their services. If she could show the payoff from these enhancements, workers could be transferred to support the enhancements, and jobs could be saved. Wendy convinced her leadership to consider this proposal, and she accepted full responsibility for delaying action on the layoff plan. She even acknowledged that in her acting role such a proposal was probably foolish at best. In fact, she asked senior leadership for latitude primarily because she was so inexperienced in her role. Eventually, leadership allowed Wendy to proceed with the program enhancements on a trial basis. During one of the final meetings to gain approval, a senior leader asked Wendy what had possessed her to take such a career risk. Wendy replied with her story of how losing a job could go one of two ways. You become Ambitious Drive to Execute

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either a victim or a survivor. She learned from the plight of others that becoming a victim was a lousy decision. The risk in pushing for an alternative to people losing jobs seemed the only responsible thing to do. It may have been somewhat of a career risk for her, but it was not a personal or a values risk at all. It was simply the right thing to do—indeed, the most responsible thing that she could do—and she would be ready to do it again. Our interviews and analysis lead us to believe that there must be some logic, some rationale, in learning how to risk responsibly. We offer the following as tips and considerations for leaders when weighing risks and opportunities.

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CONSIDERING RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES 1. When weighing only two options, make a list of pros and cons. 2. When weighing multiple options, make a list of criteria against which to evaluate the options. 3. List the certainties (in your best judgment) of action versus inaction. 4. Consider who is at risk. Is the risk to you, to others, to the agency, to customers? 5. Consider what is at risk. Is it reputations, feelings, programs, budget, quality? 6. Lean on your past experience. Have you been in any similar situations? Have you observed others? What happened? 7. Talk with mentors or other trusted colleagues about your plan. 8. Consider not just the immediate impact of your options, but also what may occur two or three steps after that. Note: This meta-competency outline is also available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

Embracing the Mission Perhaps the single most important factor leaders must consider is determining what actions are required to skillfully execute the mission. Every action includes some level of risk, and each decision to be inactive carries risk as well. When leaders keep the mission fully in mind, they can discern the wisdom of each action they take. This may sound simple and obvious, but we believe it is easier said than done.

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When we spoke to leaders and asked them to describe their daily routines, we discovered that few had routines that were “regular,” and most spent their time reacting and responding. Certainly leaders have schedules. They all attempt to have well-organized work plans. Most, however, describe their jobs as anything but routine. In fact, we dedicated the whole of Chapter Three to leaders dealing with chaos and ambiguity! In roles that require rapid adjustments and quick decisions, it can be very challenging to keep the end goal in mind. Leaders are influenced by current conditions and loads of data every moment of every day. It requires great discipline to stay focused on the mission—the ultimate goal—at all times. Those who can maintain such focus find great comfort in taking action. Consider the decisions made by some of history’s greatest leaders. Imagine the risks involved. Clearly, leaders must have the personal courage to take responsible risks. But what is it that enables these leaders to proceed with confidence that their actions will be judged favorably? What causes them to believe that a particular level of risk is acceptable? Where do they find the delicate pivot point that leads to one course of action over another? Let’s examine several historic decisions to find the answers. D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, is considered by many to be the major turning point of World War II in Europe. The ultimate mission of Operation Overlord (the code name for the invasion of Europe) was to bring the war to the western border of Germany, thus stopping the Nazis’ seemingly inevitable march to the North and West that could result in an almost total occupation of Europe. The invasion of Normandy, code named Operation Neptune, focused solely on the first phase of the campaign, namely the assault on the coast and gaining a foothold. D-Day was the first day of that assault. Future U.S. president General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander of the allied forces participating in Operation Overlord. Facing daunting odds, Eisenhower presided over a coalition of allied forces, ultimately making the decision to move forward with the invasion. In the days and hours leading to the assault on Normandy, Eisenhower and his advisors agonized over the decision. The invasion force would have to cross one hundred miles of open sea in the unpredictable waters of the English Channel to reach the coast of France. Over one hundred thousand allied troops would participate. The weather was deteriorating daily as the date approached. Once on shore, the troops would face the armies of General Ambitious Drive to Execute

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Rommel. Intelligence predicted fierce resistance. There was every reason for grave concern. Ultimately, Eisenhower gave the order to proceed with the invasion. On June 6, 1944, Operation Neptune began. The battle resulted in huge losses of life on both sides, but the allies succeeded in securing the beachheads and moved slowly inland. By the end of June, allied troops had turned the tide of the war. Eisenhower made the decision to invade despite obvious obstacles. German troops appeared to be well prepared and fortified near the landing points. The weather was atrocious and could devastate the crossing of the English Channel. An invasion of this size had never before been attempted. But in the end, Eisenhower remained focused on the overall mission of Operation Overlord. D-Day and Operation Neptune were steps on the path to the ultimate goal. They were necessary parts of the plan. Without this focus, he could have justifiably determined that the weather alone was reason enough to postpone the invasion. General Eisenhower’s embracing of the entire plan was a key factor in the responsible risk-taking involved in the invasion. Without his commitment to the mission, his decisions along the way could have easily been quite different. Nelson Mandela is hailed as a hero around the world for his leadership in apartheid-scarred South Africa. In the most difficult of times, he helped heal the wounds of unimaginable cruelty among the people of his country. His decisions and tactics were often criticized and questioned in the moment. Yet, in the end, they are considered legendary and brilliant. The movie Invictus to which we have referred earlier, dramatizes one such series of decisions. Mandela made it one of his personal priorities to support South Africa’s national rugby team, the Springboks, during his presidency. His support seemed to fly in the face of the wishes of his constituents. The Springboks symbolized the past and the oppression of the white majority over black South Africans during Apartheid. The team was hated by the vast majority of the poor and disenfranchised who were Mandela’s chief supporters. So his support of the team was puzzling at best. Mandela’s vision, his ultimate goal for the country, was one of healing and renewal. He understood that for his vision to be realized he must not simply rally his supporters; he must also engage the entire country. He knew that the Afrikaners were a vast segment of the population that adored the rugby team. That same segment was also still largely in control of the economy, the police, and transportation. He understood that he could not achieve his vision, his mission,

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without that segment’s support. So instead of alienating them, he gained their favor by openly supporting the Springboks. Had he focused on only the immediate consequences, he could not have led the country out of the apartheid era. Finally, consider the commitment to mission of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His passion for equality, civil rights, and peace was always in focus in every act, every speech, and every march. Yet often the results of his actions were criticism, arrest, and incarceration. He took great personal risks to spread his vision. For many in our prejudiced society he symbolized all that was wrong. Eventually, by steadfastly embracing the mission, he lost his life to an assassin’s bullet. The personal risks he took are now looked upon with a sense of reverence and pride. The peaceful demonstrations he organized, the sit-ins he planned, the marches he led, and the speeches he delivered have become historic examples of vision, leadership, and compassion. Had King focused on the immediate certainties of arrest and criticism, he could never have inspired a nation to reconsider. Instead, he embraced the fundamental mission, firmly committed to a world of peace and equality. Today, we are all familiar with that mission, immortalized in his speech on the national mall in Washington, DC: “I have a dream . . .” The way you embrace your personal mission and your agency’s mission has everything to do with your ability to take calculated, responsible risks in your leadership role. Daily decisions, as well as critical, strategic judgments, contain elements of risk requiring your full consideration. Your confidence at these leadership junctures will soar as you become fully committed to and constantly cognizant of the mission. You will come to rely on this as your anchor for responsible risk-taking and the basis for your courage to act. Taking the time now to completely understand your agency’s mission will pay off in every future decision you make. Investing now in polishing your leadership vision to link with the agency’s mission will guide you to consistent performance. Embracing your role in the mission will enable you to empower yourself and others as you help lead your agency into the future.

INFLUENCING AND EMPOWERING OTHERS To be an effective leader today and tomorrow, one must influence and empower those around them to carry out the organization’s mission and achieve its goals. We have always believed that a key element for successfully leading others is creating a climate in which others can be at their best. Leaders enable others by Ambitious Drive to Execute

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establishing meaningful relationships with them and leveraging their passions. They lead less through their words and more by their actions. During our research we encountered many examples of how leaders engaged those around them to achieve amazing results. We’ll share a few of those, as well as examples from history, movies, and our own experiences, in the sections that follow. As we observed agency leaders in action, talked with them about their philosophies, and listened to their constituents, we attempted to identify those critical elements that could become lessons for others. We teased out three simple yet powerful similarities. First, agency leaders agreed that leading by example was as important now as it has ever been. Second, building and maintaining meaningful relationships creates bonds and develops the trust necessary for those inevitable challenges to be faced. Finally, leaders who enable and empower others to take action are the leaders who will succeed now and into the future. Leading by Example Almost all the leadership literature suggests that leading by example is an essential element for success. We couldn’t agree more. We also believe that there are some minor twists to this age-old advice that help keep it relevant in today’s environment and position it for the future. For instance, leading by example assumes that the leader is making good choices. If not, leaders can become models for failure rather than for success. So the adage might be better stated as “leading by good example.” It doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as elegantly, but is certainly more accurate. Here are a few more tweaks and suggestions we believe enhance the recommendation to lead by example: • Lead by good example. • Lead by example and reflect on your outcomes. • Plan for success so you can lead by example. • Lead by example and follow with humbleness. • Wisdom is a prerequisite for leading by example. • In the absence of trust, one can lead only by fear. • Lead by example when your followers are wary. • Manage by level; lead by example. • Keep mission in mind to lead by example.

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When you lead by example, you show others exactly what you stand for. By taking a stand on a difficult issue, you risk criticism—and you foster respect. Leading change efforts and confronting hardships can result in personal loss or payoff with gains in confidence and admiration. When you reveal your intentions and your passion, you risk mockery, yet you gain trust. Leaders have the power to influence and empower their followers when they have their constituents’ respect, admiration, and trust. Leading by example provides the opportunity. Fostering Relationships Entire careers have been spent in the pursuit of teaching others how to build and maintain relationships, both personal and professional. Human beings are social animals. It’s part of our makeup to desire living and working with others. We are deeply predisposed to prefer the company of other people versus a life of total independence and separation. It’s natural and comforting when, after even short periods of being away from our family or social units, we are reconnected with our “pack.” If it’s truly part of our nature, it should be easy to build and maintain relationships that last for a lifetime, right? Well . . . Just because we are genetically wired to prefer groups over isolation doesn’t necessarily mean that relationship building is easy, simple, or effortless. True, there are some relationships that seem to occur naturally and are so comfortable that none of the members of the relationship characterize their connection as requiring effort. In those rare situations, celebrate and revel! Be thankful for the gift. But don’t expect every relationship to be the same. Human beings are also emotional animals. We are differentiated from most of the rest of the animal kingdom in part because of our emotions. Our emotions are so much a part of us that even in the metaphorical logic center of our bodies—the brain—emotion always trumps logic. Our most meaningful relationships are based largely on the emotional bonds we establish with our loved ones, coworkers, clients, and friends. There are obviously many interactions based solely on mutual benefit outside of emotional connections—for instance, when a moment of courtesy is shown to another driver on the highway or when you hold a door open for a fellow shopper. But when it comes to those relationships we consider close or significant, it’s the emotional link that’s most important. It’s difficult to identify and isolate the fundamental elements of relationship building. We won’t attempt to replicate either the volumes of scholarly research Ambitious Drive to Execute

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on the topic nor the sociological and psychological underpinnings of human relations. We will do our best to highlight five interrelated components that agency leaders articulated as we analyzed their best practices. The five components are: • A safe work climate • Trust • Open, honest, frequent communication • Providing assistance • Mutual respect, acknowledgment, and gain A Safe Work Climate Many leaders with whom we spoke described the importance of the work climate for fostering solid relationships. Several suggested that creating a safe, productive environment was the single most important responsibility of a leader. Many organizational development experts would agree. Amy Edmondson, a leading researcher in the fields of emotional intelligence and organizational trust, describes the concept of psychological safety as focused on the willingness of group members to take risks in the group. When group or team members feel safe, they are more likely to be productive contributing members (Edmondson, 2004). Relationships will grow in such a climate. Individuals will be more likely to share concerns, seek assistance, push boundaries, and challenge limits. When people feel less inhibited, there is a greater chance that they will engage in the actions necessary to execute plans laid out by the leader. Leaders contribute to a safe climate by behaving in accordance with each of the remaining elements described next. Trust is fostered by open, honest communication. Relationships are valued when offers of assistance are made. Mutual respect grows when people are acknowledged for their contributions. When situations arise that cause a safety risk for any of the organization’s members, the leader must act swiftly to address the situation. Safety is not negotiable. When it’s at risk, so are all the relationships in the group or the organization. Trust When trust is high, people believe they can depend on one another. They are confident that others will respond to them in ways that safeguard their interests and treat them with respect. Trust is therefore fundamental for establishing a safe work climate. To trust others, people have to believe in the trustworthiness of

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others. Some research suggests that trustworthiness contains three elements. First is ability—a person’s skill and competence to follow through on what they say they will do. Second is benevolence, which means imbuing those you lead with the belief that you genuinely care about them. Third is integrity—adherence to principles that are aligned with mutually agreeable beliefs (Mayer & Gavin, 2005). Dennis and Michelle Reina are well known for their work with organizations in establishing and maintaining high-trust work environments. They suggest that trust is built on three pillars. Competence trust is the trust of capability: we trust others based on their skills, abilities, and knowledge. Contractual trust is trust of character: we trust people based on our experience that they do what they say and keep their commitments. Communication trust, the most powerful of the three pillars, is trust of disclosure: we trust those who are willing to share information, admit mistakes, tell the truth, and maintain confidentiality (Reina & Reina, 2006). When it comes to building trust, we suggest that the single most effective action a leader can take is to show vulnerability. It sounds scary, doesn’t it? Here’s how it works. When you allow yourself to be vulnerable to someone else, it tells the other person that you trust him or her enough to show it. This takes courage. It’s not easy. When you are vulnerable, you are by definition more susceptible to danger or harm, and make no mistake, it can backfire. That’s why it takes courage. Patrick Lencioni places trust at the very foundation of his team development model in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002). Agency leaders should hold trust in high regard as they establish and foster working relationships. Without trust, leaders cannot successfully influence or empower others. The use of position power should be a rare occurrence because at best it only results in compliance. The more one uses position power, the more one erodes the trust necessary to maintain working relationships. Open, Honest, Frequent Communication Do you remember the old children’s game, Telephone? We may be showing our age here. We first encountered it in kindergarten or first grade. We would arrange our chairs in a circle. The teacher would whisper a short phrase in the ear of the first child. That child would whisper the phrase in the ear of the next. The whispering would continue all the way around the circle until the phrase returned to the first whisperer. Inevitably, the original phrase was lost along the way and a new one appeared at the end. What started as, say, “Birds don’t fly at night, they sleep,” morphed Ambitious Drive to Execute

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into “Burns make you cry and weep.” Even the simplest communication doesn’t always arrive with the accuracy intended by the original speaker. We believe leaders understand the importance of communication, but we think they may not fully grasp how rarely the message is communicated accurately. George Bernard Shaw said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” In the fostering of relationships, the frequency and accuracy of communication are critical. One agency leader shared with us the best piece of advice she ever received: “Never ever believe that you can overcommunicate with your people.” Perspective taking and listening for understanding are two foundational communication skills known for their utility in resolving conflicts. Perspective taking entails seeing a situation from your conflict partner’s point of view and demonstrating to them that you understand. It includes being able to summarize the content and substance of the other party’s view as well as displaying empathy for them. Listening for understanding means listening to another with the sole intent of comprehending what is being communicated. This is much more focused than listening in order to reply—that is, listening with the intent to respond. The purest form of listening for understanding occurs with a sense of wonder and curiosity (Runde & Flanagan, 2010). Finally, communication that is characterized by openness and honesty will do more to build and protect relationships than almost anything else. This means telling others the truth. Sometimes that isn’t easy. When the truth is confidential and others are asking questions that can’t be answered, a leader always has the option of saying “I am not at liberty to say anything about that right now.” When emotions are running high, it’s never a good idea to deny or hide those emotions. If someone asks how you’re doing after a difficult situation, don’t say “Fine” just because it’s polite. Be truthful. Say, “I’m a little concerned,” or “I’ve been better, but I’ll be okay.” Those asking the question will appreciate your honesty and your willingness to be a little vulnerable. They will also be more likely to trust you in future difficult situations. Providing Assistance A key ingredient in fostering any relationship is the willingness to help. In this case, remember that help is a verb as well as a noun. Don’t merely make hollow offers such as “Let me know what I can do,” and then, when approached, have a million excuses for why you can’t help. If you offer assistance to someone, be prepared to follow through.

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When leaders provide assistance to others, the impact goes well beyond the specifics of what they did. The person who was assisted appreciates the help, but more important, remembers the act of kindness well into the future. Offers of help can be limited to the workplace. In some agencies and for some individuals this is probably preferred. We don’t mean to imply that leaders should be immersed in others’ lives outside of the workplace. That can and will happen, but it’s not a “requirement” of effective leadership. Offers of help do need to be genuine and not taken lightly. An offer is a bond. Help is a verb. It means action is warranted. The payoff is in the deposit into the helpee’s emotional bank account. Mutual Respect, Acknowledgment, and Gain Relationships imply a twoway street. They are mutually inclusive and fair. When a relationship is said to be out of balance, it means that one party is receiving much greater benefit from the relationship than the other. Over time, relationships have a natural ebb and flow. There will be situations in which one party is benefitting more than the other, but these times shouldn’t last long. Likewise, if these short periods of imbalance are consistently tilted to the benefit of a single member, the relationship is again out of balance and not working for mutual gain. One way in which leaders can ensure a consistent balance in relationships is to acknowledge others’ contributions when they occur. Immediate acknowledgment helps others understand that they’ve been noticed and demonstrates genuine appreciation. One leader shared a story about a long-time office manager who never gave compliments to employees. It was only during annual reviews that employees heard about what they had done well (and not so well). The misguided manager felt that the only fair way to provide feedback was to gather it over time and deliver it all at once. She felt that compliments to one worker during the year could be overheard and misconstrued as unfair by other workers who were not receiving compliments. The result was a workforce of people who never knew where they stood, a dispirited workplace climate, lack of trust throughout, little communication, no one helping anyone else, and a general lack of energy and respect. Mutual respect is fostered by genuine, honest displays of acknowledgment and appreciation. Relationships run on mutual respect and a sense of fair play. We all like to be appreciated, especially when we feel it is well deserved. When leaders acknowledge the good efforts of others, everyone Ambitious Drive to Execute

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wins. Respect is fostered, fairness is demonstrated, and mutual regard is guaranteed. It’s imperative that leaders foster good working relationships. Almost every time we listened to agency leaders describe their most frustrating moments or incidents, there seemed to be relationship issues at the core of the problem. Whenever leaders explained how they turned around a frustrating or difficult situation, they almost always included how they relied on relationships to help them succeed. Our advice is to foster relationships at every turn. They are your insurance policies on the road to leadership success. Enabling Others to Act In their seminal work The Leadership Challenge (1987), Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner outlined five leadership practices that are the hallmarks of leaders who make the greatest contributions. They define the fourth practice, Enable Others to Act, as follows: “Leaders foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships. They strengthen others by enhancing self-determination and developing competence.” The concepts in The Leadership Challenge have become timeless anchors in the field of leadership development. Our research underscores the continuing validity of Kouzes and Posner’s work. We believe that enabling others to act is and will continue to be a pivotal skill set for agency leaders in the years to come. Just three years prior to the original publishing of The Leadership Challenge, a classic underdog movie made its debut. Ralph Macchio starred as Daniel LaRusso and Pat Morita as his mentor, Mr. Miyagi, in The Karate Kid. Throughout this heart-warming film we see the very essence of how a leader enables a protégé to act. The plot revolves around LaRusso, who has recently relocated, suffering at the hands of a few bullies at his new school. One evening Mr. Miyagi witnesses LaRusso being beaten by the thugs. He rescues Daniel and begins to tutor him on the ancient art of karate. Eventually Daniel is entered in a local karate tournament, where he faces his chief tormentor in the championship. Some of the most memorable scenes were those in which Mr. Miyagi presented training exercises disguised as routine chores around his home. Early in his education, Daniel is instructed to paint the fence, wax the car, sand the floors, and other seemingly menial tasks around Mr. Miyagi’s house and gardens. Daniel complies but grows increasingly frustrated, as he sees no connection

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between karate and his household chores. Finally he confronts Mr. Miyagi with his concerns. When instructing Daniel to paint the fence, Mr. Miyagi pointed out how he should always brush up, then down, with his movements always focused on the bending of his wrists. When waxing the cars, Mr. Miyagi demonstrated that the only acceptable technique was to apply the wax in counterclockwise circles and remove it with a clockwise motion. You may remember Mr. Miyagi imploring, “Wax on, wax off.” Finally, for sanding the floor, large, circular, sweeping arm movements were critical to accomplishing the task. Little did Daniel know that each task and each specific technique he was carrying out was preparing him for putting his future desires into action, mastering the discipline of karate. In a flurry of kicks and punches delivered by Mr. Miyagi, all of which Daniel successfully blocked, the connection among the chores and karate suddenly became clear. Daniel realized that Mr. Miyagi had brilliantly enabled him to defend himself against attacks. And he wanted to learn more. At the end of the scene, as Daniel mulled over what has just happened, Mr. Miyagi extended a leadership invitation with a slight bow: “Come back tomorrow.” As compelling as its story is, The Karate Kid provides both lessons to be followed as well as a few cautions for enabling others to act. First, let’s consider the lessons. Mr. Miyagi demonstrated great effectiveness as he empowered Daniel to defend himself. He provided a blend of teaching, motivation, and wisdom to Daniel, culminating in both Daniel’s passion for the art and a relationship bond for the ages. Effective leaders build relationships with others and help them develop competence. Relationship building isn’t just for the sake of the relationship; it is also necessary for the development of trust. Sometimes, especially when confronting challenges or operating under duress, leaders must draw on that trust as they influence others to act. Another great lesson from the movie is the fostering of self-confidence that Mr. Miyagi provided for Daniel. Empowerment in the absence of confidence is a recipe for failure. Throughout the training, Daniel’s confidence grows almost imperceptibly. Mr. Miyagi is careful not to expose Daniel to more than he can handle. During his first formal karate competition, Daniel appears nervous and unsure. Mr. Miyagi is in Daniel’s corner, offering words of encouragement and a calm, affirmative presence, exuding strength and his confidence in Daniel’s abilities. Daniel responds with a winning performance. Effective leaders don’t empower by simply assigning others the work. Merely offering Ambitious Drive to Execute

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training or distributing information, then turning employees loose, doesn’t cut it either. Rather, they build relationships based on trust, offer advice freely, identify and deliver necessary resources, and provide continuous support and encouragement. Some of the coaching and mentoring in the movie were a bit more dramatic than necessary and wouldn’t have a favorable impact in a work setting. As much as we understand Hollywood’s need for drama and entertainment, we want to be clear about which elements model the skills we suggest and which don’t. For instance, in a leadership relationship, we’d suggest that keeping the purpose of training tasks hidden from others is not in anyone’s best interest. For dramatic effect in the movie, “Wax on, wax off ” was brilliant. For successful agency leadership, we recommend sharing the rationale for training and skill development with those you intend to empower. Second, as endearing as Mr. Miyagi was in his limited verbal communication, we recommend much more open, clear communication with all your constituents. As we pointed out earlier, it’s very difficult to overcommunicate. You are much more likely to successfully influence and empower others with robust communication than with restrained sharing. When leaders are truly effective in empowering and influencing others, followers become more engaged in their work and passionate about their contributions. We believe in the goodness of people. We believe that most people come to work wanting to do a good job. There are precious few who wake up in the morning thinking, “I wonder how I can interfere with or sabotage the efforts of others at work today?” But without the right levels of challenge and support, even the most interesting of jobs can begin to be uninspiring. One way to ensure that your workforce develops and maintains a desire for success and a passion for their work is by enabling them to act. Providing opportunities to expand and develop and learn is a formula for supporting the agency’s mission now and for years to come. Listening to leaders describe their experiences with both providing empowerment and being empowered by others, we began to develop a sense of the elements embedded in this complex skill. Though we don’t claim that it’s exhaustive, here are several components we believe to be critical for enabling others to act. These are not listed in any significant order or sequence. Each one alone is not sufficient. A blend of several seems to be necessary.

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Trust—Leaders can’t legislate or demand trust. Trust is developed over time. Small acts of kindness, keeping one’s word, acting with integrity—all of these contribute. We are reminded of a saying: “Trust is earned a penny at a time, but spent by the dollar.” Relationship—It is difficult to imagine enabling or empowering others on the basis of anything other than a solid relationship. Leaders must engage others in ways that foster collaboration. A relationship guarantees that there is a valued emotional component that is leveraged when encouraging others to act. Collaboration—Working together, literally co-labor, is at the root of collaboration. As often as possible, effective leaders find ways to cooperate rather than direct, assist rather than hinder, join rather than dictate. Engaging others in a spirit of cooperation is much more likely to succeed than engaging others through the wielding of position power. Skill enhancement—When encouraging others to act, an element of ability or competence is needed. Leaders are terribly remiss when they send unskilled or incapable people into situations for which they are unprepared. Enabling others includes coaching, teaching, or providing opportunities to learn what is required so the learner can be successful. Self-confidence—As leaders engage and empower others, a by-product of the task is improved self-confidence. One prerequisite is that the leader demonstrate confidence in the person’s ability to perform the task or succeed in the situation for which the person has been enabled. Clarity—Leaders should be very clear when explaining the situation and describing the parameters of any task. This is especially true when enabling others to act beyond the routine parameters of their normal responsibilities. The “enablee” should end up with few remaining questions about the purpose and importance of the challenge before them. Support—Once an enabling opportunity is provided, leaders move to a role of encouragement, sponsorship, and reinforcement. They should demonstrate their confidence, provide guidance when needed, and generally sustain the efforts of those they have enabled.

Nothing in a leader’s career is more meaningful than seeing those they have led succeed and achieve on their own. Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state, once said, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” The way to do so is not by managing or directing, but by enabling others to act so that they can learn to lead and inspire their people in the future.

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ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO ENGAGE IN RESPONSIBLE RISK-TAKING Earlier in this chapter we addressed the imperative that leaders take responsible risks themselves. Here, we expand this necessity to include the encouragement of others to engage in responsible risk-taking, the expansion of one’s knowledge, and the furthering of one’s experience in pursuing agency goals. We’ll focus on encouraging others to bring innovative approaches to their work and discuss the wisdom of rewarding efforts even when goals are incomplete or missed. And we will extoll the virtues of insisting that innovation alone is not the goal; rather, when new approaches are undertaken they need to be based on solid reasoning. Regardless of the outcome, there is always something gained through experience. Early in his agency career, Gabriel was encouraged to apply for a position that seemed somewhat outside of his comfort zone and experience base. His mentor suggested that the role could be a great step in his development. His boss thought that Gabriel was ready for increased responsibility. Gabriel applied and in relatively short order was offered the job. As Gabriel told us his story, he paused and smiled at this point. “If I had been older and more experienced, I probably would not have taken this job. The fact is that I knew virtually nothing about how to do it. And we probably wouldn’t be talking right now!” The job entailed leading and managing three major functions. The major, overall task involved overseeing an array of global communication systems. Gabriel understood the basics of the technology and the importance of the system, but was in the dark about the day-to-day management of such an extensive system. Second, he would be in charge of a large group of engineers who were responsible for maintaining the system. Gabriel had some engineering background but was not current with recent advances. Finally, he inherited an industrial shop manned by a variety of craftsmen who could design and manufacture almost anything necessary to keep the global communication system functioning. Gabriel admittedly had difficulty wielding a hammer to hang a picture in his house. The challenge was daunting. As he started his new duties, Gabriel was honest with his boss about his trepidation and lack of experience. His boss assured him that he had every confidence in him. He advised him to use his best judgment when confronting unfamiliar circumstance and encouraged Gabriel to be unafraid to try new things. One major reason he had been hired was to bring a new perspective to

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the job, and that wouldn’t be possible if he constantly attempted to do things the “old way.” One of the first items of business for Gabriel was to discern what his group needed to do to keep their customers and partners happy. Gabriel chose to visit two of the largest customers. He posed one simple question to both: “What do you want from us that we’re not doing now that would make a significant difference in what you do?” The response from both was very technical, but in layman’s terms came down to this: They needed products made of plastic rather than products made of metal. Gabriel brought the news back to his engineers and craftsmen. In essence, they told him that he was crazy to think that anything like this was possible. First, they had no materials, resources, or equipment to produce such products. Second, there was no budget for the kind of capital outlay required to procure such material or equipment. And third, they had little to no experience working with materials other than metals. Gabriel listened to their concerns and assured them that he would never ask them to perform miracles. It would be his job to provide the resources they needed to be successful. He asked them to stretch their thinking and not let the resource issue be a barrier. He gave them three months to brainstorm, plan, and create a list of the resources they would need to meet their customers’ needs. Three months later the list was complete. New equipment and materials would amount to over a one million dollar expense. Gabriel said, “Okay, I’ll get right on it.” The engineers and craftsmen were dumbfounded. Gabriel was sure they thought he was crazy. Gabriel took the discussion of resources back to his customer and partners, rather than pursuing the normal chain of budget requests. It was clear to him that the normal budget process could not work. His customers, on the other hand, were able to justify and provide the money without lots of red tape and with little resistance. They considered it an investment rather than an expense. Within weeks, new equipment was purchased. Raw materials were ordered and arrived. The engineers and craftsmen began experimenting with the new “toys” and learning how to produce the products required by their customers. Experiments were not always successful. In fact, there were some spectacular failures along the way. In one instance, miscalculations with some plastic molding equipment led to a massive pool of melted plastic flooding the office floor. Ambitious Drive to Execute

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Gabriel wanted to ensure that his team would not be deterred in their quest for answers as they ventured into unfamiliar territory. He knew the pride they took in resolving the most complex technical problems with accurate, intelligent solutions. It was imperative that they not be afraid to make mistakes as they experimented with new processes, identified what worked and what didn’t, and practiced continually learning. Therefore he and his team established the “wall of shame” on which they would display tokens of their most memorable mistakes. Nominations were made on a continuous basis, and “awards ceremonies” were conducted at every staff meeting. The laughter and good will developed a deep sense of ownership and pride in their efforts. The camaraderie was contagious. Gabriel’s experience underscores the key elements for encouraging the workforce to engage in responsible risk-taking. First, the engineers and craftsmen were urged to innovate. They were challenged to think in new ways, using different resources, and applying novel techniques. Next, Gabriel made sure that mistakes were not to be punished. In fact, mistakes made through intelligent efforts were acknowledged and rewarded on the “wall of shame.” Finally, Gabriel was insistent that the learning curve be accelerated and embraced. Experimentation was encouraged, but it had to be thoughtful, rational experimentation so that even in failure, learning occurred. As we explore the nature of supporting responsible risk-taking throughout the workforce, we’ll examine these key elements in more depth. Encouraging Innovative Thinking The notion of responsible risk-taking for public agency leaders represents a bit of a departure from the historically conservative climate in many agencies. It’s understandable that agency leaders wish to ensure excellent stewardship of taxpayer dollars. After all, public agencies exist to serve the people. Fostering trust among the citizens that one’s agency is truly looking after the population’s best interests is always a priority. No one wants to perceive that agency workers are a bunch of loose cannons chasing illogical ideas and random concepts. That’s why it’s so important for agency leaders to encourage innovative thinking while framing the process for well-envisioned strategic goals. Dr. Michael Kirton has spent a lifetime examining creativity in the workplace. He postulates that all problem solving requires two kinds of thinking: adaptive and innovative. Although everyone has the capacity for both kinds of thinking, he postulates that we each have a personal style that reflects a preference for one

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or the other. His challenge to us is to ask not “How creative are you?” but rather “How are you creative?” Adaptors tend to approach problem solving in a rather controlled, step-bystep fashion. They prefer breaking problems into their component parts, considering the details, and working the problem from within accepted norms and rules. When generating alternatives about how to solve the problem, they usually have one or two fairly well-thought-out suggestions. Innovators prefer to tackle problems with an expansive approach. They often see small problems as reasons to start over and reinvent the process. They generally have little patience with details and little regard for historically accepted rules and guidelines for handling the problem. They are likely to generate scores of ideas about possible solutions with many of them having little hope of actually being effective. In short, adaptive thinkers focus on improving current processes to generate better outcomes. They believe that the purpose of management is to do things better. Innovative thinkers focus on creating new processes to generate different outcomes. They believe that the purpose of management is to do different things. We’ve used Kirton’s assessment tool in a variety of agencies in our leadership development courses. It has been extremely rare in any one class for us to have more innovators than adaptors. In most cases the number of adaptors has far outweighed the number of innovators. We present this data point only to underscore the challenges that agency leaders face in encouraging innovative thinking in their organizations. It’s important to understand that neither adaptive nor innovative thinking is preferred to, or better, or more advantageous than the other. In fact, as circumstances change and the nature of the problem evolves, each style has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. So even as we suggest that agency leaders encourage innovative thinking, we also suggest that problems and challenges will only become more complex and novel. Leaders and their workforce will need to develop the capacity to move quickly, think originally, and imagine more. Adaptive thinkers will be needed for continuous improvement. Innovative thinkers will be needed to embrace ambiguity and information overload. Based on our experience, however, most public agencies simply have far greater numbers of adaptive thinkers than innovative thinkers. The challenge for leaders is not to change people’s style. In fact, Kirton states rather unequivocally that style really doesn’t change much over a lifetime (Kirton, 2003). What can change is one’s comfort with using tactics and Ambitious Drive to Execute

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approaches outside their personal comfort zone. So, in this case the challenge is to encourage everyone to become a little more accepting of methods slightly different from their personal preferences. One way to encourage more innovative thinking is through exercises and simulations in meetings or training classes. We often use quick energizing experiences to foster innovative thinking. Here’s one you can try with your team.

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THE HANGER CASE Bring two ordinary wire coat hangers and two ordinary standard-size pillowcases to your meeting. Place them in the center of the table or display them so that everyone can clearly see what they are. Divide the team into two equally sized groups and send them to two private spaces where they can discuss a problem without the other group hearing them. Have each group take one hanger and one pillowcase to their breakout space. Name the groups Group 1 and Group 2 (or something more creative, if you wish!). Instructions for Group 1: Take the next five minutes to discuss the most effective uses for each of these items. Make one list for the coat hanger and one list for the pillowcase. Be prepared to share your list with the other group five minutes from now. Instructions for Group 2: Take the next five minutes to discuss the most creative uses for each of these items. Make one list for the coat hanger and one list for the pillowcase. Be prepared to share your list with the other group five minutes from now. Bring both groups back to the main meeting room and ask each to present their lists. Do not yet reveal the slight difference in your instructions. Always begin with Group 1 (effective list). Group 2’s lists will invariably be much longer than Group 1’s lists. Ask your team members to comment on the nature of and differences in the lists provided. Ask them why they think the lists were so different. Finally reveal the two words (effective versus creative) that were different in your initial instructions. Ask for comments and insights. Conclude with a brief discussion of the nature of the problems your group faces each day. Highlight the mindset of the team. Is it to be effective or creative? Discuss the pros and cons of each mindset. If appropriate, make it clear that you’d like to encourage more innovative, creative thought while not losing the value of effective thought. Note: This exercise is available in PDF format at www.josseybass.com/go/leadingforwardassessment.

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The point of the exercise is for leaders to do all they can to encourage appropriate levels of innovation and creativity in their workforce. The future holds an incredible opportunity for confronting the unknown. Tried-and-true methods and approaches will always be valued and valuable. And it is imperative that leaders do all they can now to prepare themselves and the workforce to face unknown, complex, ambiguous, seemingly insurmountable challenges. Innovative thought and inventive processes may hold the key to meeting these challenges productively. Rewarding Efforts, Not Punishing Mistakes Innovation doesn’t just happen. There are complexities and costs. David Carr, in his interview with Fareed Zakaria in the Hemispheres inflight magazine (2013), wrote, “Zakaria discovered that true innovation isn’t merely the product of a great idea, but a ripple that tends to spread out in unforeseen ways . . . Open systems tend to be much more innovative.” Carr challenged Zakaria: “You’ve said that innovation really doesn’t come from always winning, but from a series of fairly efficient failures.” Zakaria replied, “Not enough businesses think strategically in that sense. Failure is a good thing as long as it’s efficient and you learn from it . . . but people who fail are also sources of innovation, because they learn a lot from failure” (pp. 73, 130). I (Tim) was fortunate to have played a variety of sports in high school and at the college and semi-professional level as a younger man. I’ve followed sports avidly all my life. If you’re not a sports fan, please don’t stop reading now! I promise not to bore you with an example that only a sports nerd could understand. I am, however, going to use a sports-related example that’s easy to understand and very applicable in your leadership journey. Baseball has long been considered “America’s favorite pastime.” Almost everyone understands the basic elements of baseball. A pitcher throws the ball. The batter attempts to hit the ball and run the bases. Fielders attempt to catch the batted ball and make a play that results in the batter being called out. The most difficult aspect of this sport is for the batter to hit the ball thrown by the pitcher. Consider the sheer physics and math of the sport at the professional, major league level. The batter holds a rounded wooden bat usually a little over three feet long and just under three inches across at its widest point. He stands sixty feet, six inches away from a pitcher standing atop a slightly raised pitcher’s mound. The pitcher, again at the major league level, hurls the small, round ball toward the batter at nearly one hundred miles per hour. Just for good measure, Ambitious Drive to Execute

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pitchers are also able to spin the ball in such a way that it curves, dips, or sails rather than approaching the batter in a straight line. It takes less than half a second for the ball to reach the batter. Due to the speed, the batter has to begin his swing almost at the same time the pitcher releases the ball and adjust the plane of his swing as the ball travels toward him. It’s mind-boggling, actually. The best hitters in baseball have about a 30-percent average success rate for hitting the pitched ball and reaching first base safely. In baseball parlance, a batting average of .300 or higher is worthy of All Star status. Hitting a baseball is a very difficult task. When a batter strikes out (three swings with no contact), he forfeits his turn at bat and returns to the bench. Striking out provides no value to his team. It is, in essence, a failure to perform. Upon returning to the bench, he often has a discussion with a coach or manager about his failure to hit the ball. Here’s where it gets really interesting as a leadership lesson! Read the following dialogue between a coach and the failed batter (we’ll call him Tim). The language is a little technical for non–baseball fans, but you’ll get the idea. Coach: Tim: Coach: Tim: Coach: Tim: Coach: Tim: Coach: Tim: Coach:

Tim: Coach:

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Hey Tim, keep your head up. You’ll get him next time. Yeah, whatever. That’s my second strikeout today. Don’t worry. You looked a lot better that time. What are you talking about? I struck out and left two runners on base! Well, that’s true. And you swung at much better pitches this time. I liked your selection this time much more than your last at bat. OK, well, that’s good, I guess. You also kept your hands back this time. There were no hitches in your swing. Yeah, I was really focusing on keeping my hands high and relaxed. Right, I noticed that. Great job! Keep it up and you’ll start making contact. I hope so. I can’t keep letting the team down. You’re not letting anyone down. You keep your mechanics solid and your head in the game, and you’ll be raking line drives all over the field before you know it. Well, I’m still sorry for striking out. Thanks, coach. Don’t apologize. You keep swinging like that every time. The results will come.

Leading Forward

So what happened here? The batter, demoralized and frustrated at failing to get a hit, came back to the dugout disgusted with his performance. The coach, fully aware of Tim’s failure, essentially encouraged Tim to do the same thing again next time. The coach focused on Tim’s actions, not his results. He pointed out specifically what Tim did well and urged him to duplicate that effort next time. He took the time to support Tim and encourage him to focus on those things he did well. Even in failure, he acknowledged Tim’s efforts. And he offered no criticism of or punishment for the failure. In fact, the coach actually declared his confidence in Tim. The leadership lesson is that it is more effective to focus on efforts than on results. Leaders must reinforce the right skills and encourage repetition of those skills. Punishing workers for lack of results when they’ve executed properly is, in the long run, incredibly counterproductive. We aren’t saying that results are unimportant. Consistent lack of results and productivity will derail any leadership career. Effective leaders will coach and encourage on the processes used, the application of skills, and the effort of their workforce. They are comfortable in the knowledge that the right processes, skilled workers, and passionate effort will lead to favorable results. Continued failed results occur when leaders focus on delivering punishment and criticism. Demanding Rationale and Learning In much the same way in which responsible personal risk-taking is warranted in leaders who are embracing the mission, leaders who demand rationales for risks and demand learning from those risks also safeguard against undisciplined risktaking. The obvious problem with encouraging risk-taking is that the risks taken may lead to unexpected or calamitous results. Leaders and organizations cannot survive over the long haul if the workforce consistently fails to achieve positive outcomes or spends excessive time chasing unfounded ideas. By insisting that others have strong rationales for taking responsible risks in the first place, leaders instill confidence in the reasoning for the risk. By expecting that others will review the processes of risks taken, leaders provide the basis for learning from the experience, whether or not the risk resulted in favorable outcomes. The mantra of agency leaders encouraging responsible risk-taking should include phrases such as: “innovation with restraint,” “experimentation with foresight,” and “learning from experience.” Historic leaders we cited earlier—such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr.—all Ambitious Drive to Execute

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exhibited measures of restraint, foresight, and learning in their leadership risks by wrapping their actions in the mantle of the mission. Nothing about their efforts was unplanned or unanalyzed. Each suffered setbacks along the way. And each learned from those failures. History, the final judge, has determined that each of these men encouraged and supported certain risks that ultimately paid off in enormous success. Agency leaders can learn from these historic examples as well as the exploits and experiences of their peers. Kenneth was a participant in one of our leadership and change classes several years ago. He provided a classic memorable classroom moment with a story he shared. We use the book Switch by Dan and Chip Heath (2010) as the text for this course. In it, they describe the three main elements to which leaders must attend to foster successful change. These are cleverly labeled as follows: Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, and Shape the Path. It’s not necessary to get into all the details of the model, only to be familiar with the terminology. Kenneth was retelling a story of change in his office, focusing on the notion of “Shaping the Path” (metaphorically clearing the way for change to occur). His agency was instituting a new process and more paperwork for conducting annual reviews. Virtually no one was happy with another change in this already time-consuming and often reviled system. The hope was that the new changes would streamline the process, making it easier to navigate and restoring the value associated with conducting annual reviews. As he worked side-byside with a member of the human resources team to introduce the change to his office staff, he was very much aware that his main role was to clear the path or run interference for the changes. He knew that his workforce was not likely to embrace the change without a very solid rationale. So he enlisted the assistance of several of his division chiefs. He asked each of them to review the proposed changes and prepare statements about why they supported these changes. He planned to have the division chiefs deliver their statements at an “all hands” meeting when the new process was formally introduced. He requested that their statement include specific reasons why the changes were valuable, “even if you have to get a little outside the box.” These were fateful words indeed. On the day of the meeting, HR provided an overview of the new review process. Kenneth spoke about the value of a review process and his belief that the new process was a step in the right direction. Then the first chief delivered a solid endorsement of the proposed changes. The next chief made his way to the

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podium with a notebook in his hand. In a booming voice, he started his briefing by saying that he had researched the proposed changes thoroughly and come up with the top ten reasons the changes should be embraced. “Number ten,” he shouted. “All annual reviews up to now have been worthless wastes of time!” Silence echoed in the auditorium. “Number nine. In a perfect world annual reviews would be optional.” A few murmurs began. “Number eight.” Now Kenneth was on his way to the podium to interrupt the chief before it was too late. “If there’s a surprise in your annual review, it must be wrong.” Kenneth stopped the chief, apologized, and announced that he had miscommunicated about the timing of the list and they would come back to it later. He quickly asked the HR representative to continue with a review of the specific changes in paperwork. After the meeting, Kenneth angrily asked the “top ten” chief to step into his office. In the ensuing discussion, Kenneth learned that his instructions for preparing supportive rationale had been misconstrued. The offending chief reminded Kenneth of his phrase, “even if you have to get a little outside of the box.” What Kenneth intended as a means to consider rationale for a change had obviously been interpreted as an invitation to be creative and entertaining. The chief apologized. Kenneth did too. A lesson had been learned. We share this story as evidence that blindly following any model may not produce the results one intends. Demanding rationale in the context of taking responsible risks or, in this case, introducing a new process, can be easily misunderstood. The spirit of this advice is in the practice of foresight and thoughtfulness. When encouraging others to take responsible risks, you want them to consider the need for the risk as well as the potential advantages and disadvantages of the risk. So when reviewing the impact of a risk that has been taken, be sure that it’s clear that the rationale for its implementation is deemed solid. Leaders promote responsible risk-taking when they insist that others learn from their mistakes, failed attempts, and experiments. Likewise, responsible risk-taking is supported when leaders consistently suggest thorough reviews to find lessons learned when those risks result in favorable outcomes. In other words, it’s always wise for agency leaders to reinforce and reward the practice of project and action reviews to enhance learning from every experience. Science fiction aficionados will appreciate the next example. In the classic television and movie series Star Trek, Captain James T. Kirk is the series’ original hero. References to the show abound in our social fabric, even with those who Ambitious Drive to Execute

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have never seen a single episode or film. So, with apologies to those of you who may not have heard of Kirk, Spock, or Starfleet Command, let’s revisit one of the most famous storylines for educational purposes. Before becoming captain of the Starship Enterprise, Kirk attends Starfleet Academy as part of his officer’s training. While there, Kirk participates in a simulation depicting the stranding of a Starfleet vessel, the Kobayashi Maru, in the neutral zone, an area of space separating the territories of the Federation from their dreaded enemy, the Klingons. Entry into the neutral zone is strictly enforced, as violations could potentially lead to war. The simulation was created to test the mettle of the cadets in extremely stressful conditions. In fact, the computer-controlled Kobayashi Maru simulation is designed as a no-win situation. It’s impossible for the participant to make decisions that will enable successful rescue of the crew of the stranded ship or to avoid a devastating battle. Young Kirk decides that a no-win situation is not an acceptable condition. He takes and fails the simulation a second time. Finally, he arranges to participate a third time. To the amazement of all, he prevails in the simulation that is unwinnable. During the debriefing session for his impossible success, Kirk reveals that he has reprogrammed the computer so that different results could occur during the simulation. The lessons of learning to deal with no-win situations were replaced with the lesson of dogged determination and innovative thinking that led to a new outcome. We advocate that leaders encourage, if not demand, that others take the time to learn from all of their creative attempts and innovative actions. In the context of preparing others for an uncertain future, responsible risk-taking must be an integral part of the process. The emphasis on responsibility can be achieved only by insisting on articulating thoughtful rationales before and conducting a thorough review after. When agency leaders encourage the workforce to be so disciplined in the risks that must be taken, they provide the best chance for those actions to pay off. Chapter Summary Ambitious drive to execute includes the desire for action, the drive to succeed, the passion that ignites similar desire and drive in others, and the courage to take calculated risks. We have developed three main themes for describing ambitious drive to execute. First, agency leaders consider taking responsible risks for

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pursuing agency goals. Next, leaders influence and empower the workforce to fully engage and bring passion to their efforts to achieve the agency’s mission. Finally, leaders encourage, support, foster, and reward others for taking responsible risks that contribute to the accomplishment of agency objectives. Ambitious Drive to Execute 1.

Practicing responsible risk-taking a. Driving to action b. Willing to risk responsibility c. Embracing the mission

2.

Influencing and empowering others a. Leading by example b. Fostering relationships c. Enabling others to act

3.

Encouraging others to engage in responsible risk-taking a. Encouraging innovative thinking b. Rewarding efforts, not punishing mistakes c. Demanding rationale and learning

Leaders Who Have an Ambitious Drive to Execute . . .

• Drive toward action • Willingly take responsible risks • Embrace the agency’s mission • Lead by example • Foster effective relationships • Enable others to fully engage and contribute to mission • Encourage others to practice innovative thinking • Reward efforts and refrain from punishing mistakes • Demand a rationale and look for learning opportunities

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Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

chapter SIX

W

e developed the Public Service Leadership Assessment based on our model, The Four Leadership Meta-Competencies. This self-assessment is designed to give public service leaders an opportunity to measure their own perceptions of their mastery over behaviors that are essential to extraordinary public service leadership. We have presented an overview of how we developed our model and how these Four Leadership Meta-Competencies have been observed by others in successful leaders in earlier chapters. In this chapter, we provide instructions on how to complete the Public Service Leadership Assessment and interpret your results. Then we provide guidelines for creating a personal Leadership Development Plan.

THE PUBLIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT The Public Service Leadership Assessment consists of twelve questions that measure the frequency with which you see yourself engaging in leadership behaviors that have been identified by public service employees as examples of extraordinary public service. To take the assessment online and receive your automated results, scan the QR code on your mobile device or go to www.josseybass.com/ go/leadingforwardassessment.

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Directions For each leadership behavior in the table, please rate yourself on the frequency with which you have demonstrated that behavior in your role as a public service leader. Indicate your rating for each statement by placing its corresponding number in the appropriate cell. Be sure to rate yourself for all the behaviors.

1 = Almost Never, 2 = Infrequently, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Frequently, 5 = Almost Always Leadership Behaviors 1. I am a continuous learner, seeking opportunities to develop new skills that contribute to successfully achieving the agency’s mission. 2. I take advantage of opportunities to bring a fresh perspective to the workforce that effectively contributes to achieving the agency’s mission. 3. I inspire the workforce to be continual learners, looking for opportunities to develop new skills relevant to the agency’s mission. 4. In the midst of ambiguity and chaos, I courageously adapt and flex to successfully get things done. 5. I bounce back quickly after challenging demands and setbacks.

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1

2

3

4

5

1 = Almost Never, 2 = Infrequently, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Frequently, 5 = Almost Always Leadership Behaviors

1

2

3

4

5

6. I demonstrate calm and confidence in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. 7. I skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information over which I have no control. 8. I think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities. 9. I inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future. 10. I take responsible risks to achieve the agency’s strategic goals. 11. I effectively influence and empower the workforce, resulting in full engagement and a passion for contributing to the agency’s mission. 12. I encourage, support, and reward the workforce for taking responsible risks that contribute to the agency’s success.

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Scoring Your Public Service Leadership Assessment After you have completed your Public Service Leadership Assessment, you can calculate your scores using the worksheet and instructions that follow. The Public Service Leadership Assessment measures your public service leadership mastery along with your mastery of four core leadership meta-competencies that can guide leaders in their careers now and into the future. As discussed at length in the preceding chapters, the four leadership meta-competencies are (1) agile learning capability, (2) adept with ambiguity, (3) adroit at thinking strategically, and (4) ambitious drive to execute. You can calculate your Public Service Leadership Mastery score by totaling your four meta-competency scores and dividing that number by 4. Directions Each leadership meta-competency is measured by three questions. These questions measure leadership behavior clusters. Enter your scores from the assessment below, matching question numbers from the assessment with the numbered spaces beneath each leadership meta-competency. #1 Agile Learning Capability 1. _____ 2. _____ 3. _____ Total: _____ Divide your total by 3 and enter the result here. Agile learning capability score: _____ #2 Adept with Ambiguity 4. _____ 5. _____ 6. _____ Total: _____ Divide your total by 3 and enter the result here. Adept with ambiguity score: _____

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#3 Adroit at Thinking Strategically 7. _____ 8. _____ 9. _____ Total: _____ Divide your total by 3 and enter the result here. Adroit at thinking strategically score: _____ #4 Ambitious Drive to Execute 10. _____ 11. _____ 12. _____ Total: _____ Divide your total by 3 and enter the result here. Ambitious drive to execute score: _____ Total your four meta-competencies scores and divide this number by 4, then enter the result here. Public Service Leadership Mastery Score: _____

INTERPRETING YOUR PUBLIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT SCORES We have developed our interpretation guidelines from the results we obtained by administering our Public Service Leadership Survey to 233 federal employees. The following table shows how they ranked the four leadership meta-competencies: 1. Agile learning capability

4.36

2. Adept with ambiguity

4.36

3. Adroit at thinking strategically

4.39

4. Ambitious drive to execute

4.31

Overall average of four meta-competencies

4.36

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Interpreting Your Public Service Leadership Mastery Score In this section you will be guided through steps to interpret your Public Service Leadership Mastery score. Your level of effectiveness at public service leadership is determined by your score. Go to the score range section that is inclusive of your score to learn your current level of effectiveness at public service leadership. Score Range of 4.67 to 5.00: Extraordinary Public Service Leadership If your Public Service Leadership Mastery score is 4.67 or above, you are already demonstrating the behaviors that federal employees have observed in extraordinary public service leaders they have known during their careers—someone they admired and willingly followed. Score Range of 3.67 to 4.33: Effective Public Service Leadership If your Public Service Leadership Mastery score is 3.67 to 4.33, you are very effective as a public service leader, and with a little more development you could become an extraordinary public service leader. By exploring your adaptive leadership metacompetency scores, you can identify where you may need to focus your attention to take your public service leadership from the effective to the extraordinary public service leadership range. Score Range of 2.33 to 3.33: Partially Effective Public Service Leadership If your Public Service Leadership Mastery score is 2.33 to 3.33, you have room for development and growth to maximize your public service leadership effectiveness. By exploring your adaptive leadership meta-competency scores, you can identify where you may need to focus your attention to take your public service leadership from the partially effective to the effective public service leadership range. Score Range of 1.00 to 2.00: Struggling with Public Service Leadership If your Public Service Leadership Mastery score is 1.00 to 2.00, you are probably already aware of some of the challenges you face in acquiring mastery of your public leadership behaviors. These behaviors can be learned with focused effort and practice. Take some time to explore each of the four adaptive leadership meta-competency scores and look for two things. First, where is your greatest strength among the four? Second, in which meta-competency do you have the greatest room for growth?

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DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE FOUR ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCIES Now that you know a little more about your overall public service leadership effectiveness, you can dig deeper into the four Adaptive Leadership MetaCompetencies. This will help you determine where your personal strengths and personal development opportunities lie within public service leadership. Agile Learning Capability Score Range of 4.67 to 5.00: Extraordinary at agile learning capability If your agile learning capability score is 4.67 or above, you are already demonstrating the behaviors that federal employees have observed in extraordinary public service leaders. Score Range of 3.67 to 4.33: Effective at agile learning capability Score Range of 2.33 to 3.33: Partially effective at agile learning capability Score Range of 1.00 to 2.00: Struggling with agile learning capability Adept with Ambiguity Score Range of 4.67 to 5.00: Extraordinary at adept with ambiguity If your adept with ambiguity score is 4.67 or above, you are already demonstrating the behaviors that federal employees have observed in extraordinary public service leaders. 3.67 to 4.33: Effective at adept with ambiguity 2.33 to 3.33: Partially effective at adept with ambiguity 1.00 to 2.00: Struggling with adept with ambiguity Adroit at Thinking Strategically Score Range of 4.67 to 5.00: Extraordinary at adroit at thinking strategically If your adroit at thinking strategically score is 4.67 or above, you are already demonstrating the behaviors that federal employees have observed in extraordinary public service leaders. 3.67 to 4.33: Effective at adroit at thinking strategically 2.33 to 3.33: Partially effective at adroit at thinking strategically 1.00 to 2.00: Struggling with adroit at thinking strategically Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Ambitious Drive to Execute Score Range of 4.67 to 5.00: Extraordinary at ambitious drive to execute If your ambitious drive to execute score is 4.67 or above, you are already demonstrating the behaviors that federal employees have observed in extraordinary public service leaders. 3.67 to 4.33: Effective at ambitious drive to execute 2.33 to 3.33: Partially effective at ambitious drive to execute 1.00 to 2.00: Struggling with ambitious drive to execute

CREATING YOUR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN After you have scored your Public Service Leadership Assessment and analyzed your results, you can create your Leadership Development Plan. If you know which leadership meta-competency you want to strengthen, go directly to that section and review the recommended leadership competencies and strategies for development. If you are unsure where to begin, we suggest that you start with the first leadership meta-competency, agile learning capability, because in many ways this one is foundational to the other three leadership meta-competencies. We realize that when you first get to these pages, with lots of lists and checklists, it may seem a bit overwhelming. We have grouped specific leadership competencies with their related meta-competencies to make it more user friendly. You don’t have to read the sections or complete the checklists for any of the leadership meta-competencies in which you are pleased with your self-score. We have listed our four Leadership Meta-Competencies and their three respective behavior clusters in Table 6.1. For each behavior cluster, we have presented several specific leadership competencies for you to consider for your Leadership Development Plan. Review each section and place a checkmark next to the competencies you want to explore. Then go to the next section, Leadership Competencies and Actions for Development, and read more about your selected leadership competencies. After you have identified the leadership competencies that you want to work on, complete the Leadership Development Plan Worksheet.

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Table 6.1 Four Leadership Meta-Competencies and Clusters Leadership MetaCompetencies

Agile Learning Capability

Adept with Ambiguity

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Ambitious Drive to Execute

Components

Passionately learning

Adapting and flexing in the midst of chaos

Skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete information

Practicing responsible risktaking

Subcomponents

Acquiring a passion for learning

Adaptability and flexibility

Juggling competing demands

Driving to action

Continually learning

Getting comfortable with ambiguity

Juggling incomplete or inaccurate information

Willing to risk responsibility

Focusing the Making meaning out passion— of chaos learning forward

Letting go when you have no control

Embracing the mission

Continuous Learning

Adaptability

Decisiveness and Decision Making

Courageousness

Initiative

Creativity and Dialogue Innovation Skills

Decisiveness and Decision Making

Interpersonal Skills

Entrepreneurship

Juggling Competing Demands

Influencing

Political Savvy

Flexibility

Leading Change

Leading Change

Systems Thinking

Leading Change

Problem Solving

Risk-Taking

Competencies

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Leadership MetaCompetencies

Agile Learning Capability

Adept with Ambiguity

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Ambitious Drive to Execute

Components

Agilely acquiring new skills

Bouncing back after challenging demands and setbacks

Thinking beyond the immediate horizon

Influencing and empowering others

Subcomponents

Taking advantage of opportunities

Bouncing back from setbacks

Mitigating tactical thinking

Leading by example

Seeking fresh perspectives

Persisting and “stick-toitiveness”

Focusing forward thinking

Fostering relationships

Processing large quantities of information

Facing uncertainty with spirited enthusiasm

Linking current realities to future objectives

Enabling others to act

Creativity and Innovation

Leading Change

Forward Thinking

Accountability

External Awareness

Resiliency

Conflict Building Management Trust

Influencing

Stress Tolerance

Critical Thinking

Collaboration and Partnering

Leading Change

Work/Life Balance

Strategic Thinking

Coaching and Developing Others

Strategic Planning

Empowering Others

Systems Thinking

Influencing

Competencies

Dialogue Skills

Time Political Management Savvy Project Management Making Meetings Work

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Agile Learning Capability

Adept with Ambiguity

Components

Creating a learning climate

Demonstrat- Inspiring a vision of ing calm the future and confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity

Subcomponents

Inspiring others

Managing stress and pressure

Painting a compelling picture of the agency’s future

Encouraging innovative thinking

Energizing the environment

Focusing on the facts

Compelling forward momentum

Rewarding efforts, not punishing mistakes

Recalibrating skills

Building self- Clarifying confidence purposedriven strategies

Competencies

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Ambitious Drive to Execute

Leadership MetaCompetencies

Encouraging others to engage in responsible risk-taking

Demanding rationale and learning

Coaching and Coping with Ambiguity Developing and Chaos Others

Forward Thinking

Emotional Intelligence

Influencing

Courageousness

Influencing

Empowering Others

Creativity and Innovation

Emotional Intelligence

Inspiring Shared Vision

Engaging Others

Leading Change

Influencing

Purpose Driven

Rewarding and Encouraging Others

Team Building

Team Building

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Leadership Meta-Competency #1: Agile Learning Capability Behavior Cluster #1: I am a continuous learner, seeking opportunities to develop new skills that contribute to successfully achieving the agency’s mission. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Continual Learning

⬜

Political Savvy

⬜

Initiative

⬜

Systems Thinking

⬜

Interpersonal Skills

Behavior Cluster #2: I take advantage of opportunities to bring a fresh perspective to the workforce that effectively contributes to achieving the agency’s mission. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Creativity and Innovation

⬜

Leading Change

⬜

External Awareness

⬜

Dialogue Skills

⬜

Influencing

Behavior Cluster #3: I inspire the workforce to be continual learners, looking for opportunities to develop new skills relevant to the agency’s mission. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Coaching and Developing Others

⬜

Influencing

⬜

Creativity and Innovation

⬜

Team Building

Leadership Meta-Competency #2: Adept with Ambiguity Behavior Cluster #1: In the midst of ambiguity and chaos, I courageously adapt and flex to successfully get things done.

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Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Adaptability

⬜

Flexibility

⬜

Creativity and Innovation

⬜

Leading Change

⬜

Entrepreneurship

Behavior Cluster #2: I bounce back quickly after challenging demands and setbacks. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Leading Change

⬜

Stress Tolerance

⬜

Resiliency

⬜

Work/Life Balance

Behavior Cluster #3: I demonstrate calm and confidence in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Coping with Ambiguity and Chaos

⬜

Courageousness

⬜

Emotional Intelligence

⬜

Leading Change

Leadership Meta-Competency #3: Adroit at Thinking Strategically Behavior Cluster #1: I skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information over which I have no control. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Decisiveness and Decision Making

⬜

Leading Change

⬜

Dialogue Skills

⬜

Problem Solving

⬜

Juggling Competing Demands

Behavior Cluster #2: I think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities.

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Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Forward Thinking

⬜

Systems Thinking

⬜

Conflict Management

⬜

Time Management

⬜

Critical Thinking

⬜

Project Management

⬜

Strategic Thinking

⬜

Making Meetings Work

⬜

Strategic Planning

Behavior Cluster #3: I inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Forward Thinking

⬜

Leading Change

⬜

Influencing

⬜

Purpose Driven

⬜

Inspiring Shared Vision

⬜

Team Building

Leadership Meta-Competency #4: Ambitious Drive to Execute Behavior Cluster #1: I take responsible risks to achieve the agency’s strategic goals. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Courageousness

⬜

Leading Change

⬜

Decisiveness and Decision Making

⬜

Risk-Taking

⬜

Influencing

Behavior Cluster #2: I effectively influence and empower the workforce, resulting in full engagement and a passion for contributing to the agency’s mission. Leadership Competencies:

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⬜

Accountability

⬜

Empowering Others

⬜

Building Trust

⬜

Influencing

⬜

Collaboration and Partnering

⬜

Political Savvy

⬜

Coaching and Developing Others

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Behavior Cluster #3: I encourage, support, and reward the workforce for taking responsible risks that contribute to the agency’s success. Leadership Competencies: ⬜

Emotional Intelligence

⬜

Influencing

⬜

Empowering Others

⬜

⬜

Engaging Others

Rewarding and Encouraging Others

ACTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES In this section we have listed all of the leadership competencies from the previous section in alphabetical order. We recommend that you consider selecting your leadership development plan actions from seven different areas: • Find a role model or mentor.

• Take a class.

• Consider a developmental assignment detail.

• Take an assessment. • Read a book.

• Work with an executive coach. For each competency we have provided a definition and a recommended book list; where possible, we have referenced assessments that we think would be useful. Actions for Developing Your Leadership Competency Review these seven different development areas and choose a combination of activities that would work well for you as you begin to create your leadership development plan. As you put your plan into action, revisit these other optional activities and consider expanding your plan. Find a Role Model or Mentor Think about people you work with or for who excel in the leadership competency you want to master. Pay attention when you are around them and notice what they say and do that makes them effective. How do they handle circumstances differently than you do? What can you adopt from their style and internalize as your own? Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Consider asking one of them to be your mentor. If you do make this request, be sure to explain what you need from the person as a mentor. Most people are flattered to be asked—and a little nervous about what might be expected of them if they accept. Spend some time talking about mutual expectations. We will share with you some guidelines that we have developed for mentoring that we have used in some of our candidate development programs. Maximizing the Mentoring Experience Mentoring is a learning partnership between a more senior, experienced employee (mentor) and a less experienced employee (mentee) in which the mentee receives advice, counseling, and coaching. It is an opportunity for the mentor to develop an individual both personally and professionally, and for the mentee to learn from a more senior person. Mentoring is not

• A guaranteed promotion • A one-time event • A replacement for supervisory feedback or coaching • A program for marginal performers Benefits to Mentors

• Personal satisfaction from fostering another’s professional development • Gratification from passing on a legacy to the next generation • Developing new professional contacts • Exposure to new ideas, technologies, perspectives • Improvement of coaching skills • Enhanced reputation • Sense of accomplishment • Personal growth • Increased knowledge and experiences • Broadened perspective • Job enrichment

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Benefits to Mentees

• Acquisition of new technical, interpersonal, or management skills • Professional development • Career direction and development • Increased confidence • Key information on organizational culture and inner workings • Relationship with role model and sounding board • Development of professional contacts • Exposure to new ideas, technologies, and perspectives • Greater connectedness with agency • Organizational support • Greater understanding of role and mission execution • Internal agency champion Benefits to Agency

• Development of employee talent and skills • Motivated employees • Effective communication of the agency’s history, culture, mission, and goals • Creation of workplace environment conducive to greater productivity • Improved management coaching skills • Increased interaction among staff across functions and levels to: ○

Cross-fertilize work efforts

○

Generate new ideas and skills

• Increased organizational communication and understanding • Bridging of the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications What Does a Mentor Do?

• A mentor is a role model who helps facilitate and foster the development of a mentee through teaching, coaching, and championing.

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• A mentor teaches technical skills as well as information about the agency and its culture and politics. • A mentor coaches through comments, support, encouragement, and even criticism about the mentee’s skills, talents, behavior, and career. • A mentor counsels with advice on how to confront difficult situations at work, ways to advance, and approaches to improving professional skills. • A mentor champions the mentee by showcasing the mentee’s talents through introductions to senior staff, creation of opportunities to carry out new assignments, and positioning of mentee to work on high visibility projects and “be seen.” Characteristics of Good Mentors

• Values the agency and its mission and work • Genuinely cares about others and treats everyone respectfully • Demonstrates tolerance and inclusion and embraces personal differences • Exhibits confidence and a sense of security with self • Facilitates comfortable environments for dialogue • Enjoys seeing mentee develop • Shows sensitivity to mentee’s needs • Trusts others • Has credibility Characteristics of Good Mentees

• Is eager to learn • Is open to new ideas • Is willing to engage in responsible risk-taking • Has a positive attitude • Is open to receiving feedback about skills, talents, abilities, and behaviors • Can integrate feedback and take action • Demonstrates independent initiative • Is resourceful • Demonstrates creativity and innovation

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Characteristics of Successful Mentoring Relationships

• Both mentor and mentee are open to change, willing to explore possibilities, and willing to help and learn from one another. • Both make a commitment to advancing the mentee’s professional development. • Share a healthy relationship in which both individuals gain personal and professional satisfaction. • Both are capable of confronting and constructively resolving conflicts. • The mentee recognizes the mentor’s effect on their professional development. • The relationship evolves and changes with time as the needs and goals of the mentor and mentee change, and it may end when that suits the needs of both.

Tips for Mentees

• Ask for help on a specific project, work on a committee or task force together, ask for specific information. • Take initiative. Ask for specific advice or feedback. Let others know your interests and skills as well as what you are currently working on. • Produce high-quality work. • Show great ambition and enthusiasm. • Put in extra time and volunteer for additional assignments. • Show trustworthiness and loyalty to your mentor. • Discuss alternative strategies or perspectives for a project or idea with your mentor. • Think ahead of time what questions you would like to ask your mentor. • Follow up. • Meet regularly. • Keep your mentor apprised on your progress.

Core Mentoring Skills

• Active listening

• Trust building

• Goal identification and goal setting

• Encouragement

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• Assessment of current realities • Relationship management

• Ability to dedicate time and effort to the relationship

Mentor-Specific Skills

• Inspiration

• Advocating

• Positive and constructive feedback

• Championing

• Risk management

• Challenging

• Opening of doors

• Assessing

• Coaching

• Supporting

• Counseling

• Organizational savvy

• Instructing

• Credibility

• Developing

• Ability to develop others

Mentee-Specific Skills

• Selecting a mentor

• Responsible risk-taking

• Continuous learning

• Flexibility

• Independent initiative

• Receptivity

• Follow-through

• Honesty about development needs

• Openness to feedback Consider a Joint Duty Assignment or a Developmental Assignment Detail Many of our clients in federal agencies have the opportunity to sign up for joint duty assignments (JDAs) or developmental assignment details. If you are not aware of these opportunities within your agency, talk to your direct supervisor. If he or she is unable to help, contact your human resources representative. Any GS-14/15 in federal service or an equivalent position outside government may compete for placement into a Candidate Development Program that includes a required four-month developmental assignment outside the candidate’s position of record. See the website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data -oversight/senior-executive-service/candidate-development-programs/ or this link for the Federal Executive Candidate Development Program: http://www.opm

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.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/candidate-development -programs/#url=Federal-Candidate-Development-Program-Fed-CDP If you work in the intelligence community, visit the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Chief Human Capital Office website on IC JDAs at: http:// www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/ic-joint-duty Work with an Executive Coach Executive coaching has become more popular in the public sector in recent years. Many of our client agencies have budgeted funds for senior employees (GS-14/15) and members of the senior executive service. First, check with your supervisor for information on your agency’s policy and available budget for executive coaching. Many agencies that support executive coaching also have a list of approved executive coaches. These are usually coaches with a demonstrated track record of successfully working with other agency employees, so we recommend you inquire about this possible resource too. If executive coaching is not available through your employer, you may still want to consider working with a coach on your own. Some coaches will contract with you for an hourly fee; others may want to contract with you for a flat fee covering a specific period of time. Coaching can be performed face-to-face, telephonically, or via Skype, internet-based communications platforms, or video teleconferencing. You should be able to discuss fees and procedures with a prospective coach prior to retaining his or her services. When you start the selection process for hiring an executive coach, consider asking prospective coaches these questions:

• What type of training, certifications, or education do they have that has prepared them to work as an executive coach? • Do they have experience coaching government employees? • Will they provide you with references? • How do they prefer to work with clients? • What is their coaching philosophy? • How is payment made for services? • What is their policy on charging for “no show” appointments or cancellations less than twenty-four hours before the scheduled session? • Are they willing to provide a fifteen-minute complimentary session to see if the two of you would be a good fit? Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Take a Class After you have identified one or more competencies that you want to develop further, go to the Leadership Competencies section and review the competency definition. Then contact your training manager or training officer to learn what courses may be available to you at work. If you don’t have a training manager or training officer, contact your human resources representative for assistance. The person in your agency responsible for training should have a current online catalogue of available training courses. You can also go directly to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s website and view their current catalogue of course offerings for federal employees. Their website is http:// www.leadership.opm.gov; for senior executive service members, you may want to visit http://www.leadership.opm.gov/fei/index.aspx Take an Assessment We have referenced assessments that we use in our coaching, training, and consulting work. Some cover broader areas than the competency they are referencing. We’ve listed it if we think it adds value to that specific leadership competency. Some assessments may be purchased and taken directly online. Others require you to purchase them from a qualified administrator. In these instances, you may be asked to participate in a brief coaching session to go over your results and interpret them properly. There are three major types of assessments for you to consider. First is a self-assessment—one that you complete to evaluate yourself. Second is a 360-degree assessment, in which you take a self-assessment and then invite others to rate you too. Typically, you are asked to invite raters from these groups: supervisor(s), subordinates, peers, and others. Some assessments add additional categories of raters for your consideration. Third is an organizational assessment. This is similar to a 360-degree assessment except the focus is on the organization (as a whole, or a specific directorate, division, office, branch, unit, and so on). The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has an assessment and evaluation division and they can partner with federal agencies for a variety of individual and 360-degree assessments and organizational surveys. Learn more at: http:// www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/assessment-evaluation/ We have listed all our recommended assessments with a description of what they measure and where you can find them under “Recommended Assessments” following the section on Leadership Competencies.

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Read a Book We have listed our favorites in Appendix B: Suggested Reading. We have tried to be specific to the topic; however, some great books cover the topic in broader detail. As you look at the titles, if you find one interesting, go to www.amazon.com and use the “Look Inside” feature (available on most, but not all books) to view a sample of the book’s pages. Read the foreword, table of contents, and first few pages to see if it is what you are looking for to help you with that competency.

Leadership Competencies Accountability Accountability is twofold as a leadership competency. First, leaders must hold themselves accountable for what they say and do; this means taking ownership instead of blaming people, places, and things. Extraordinary leaders say it like this: “It’s my responsibility,” “I’ll own that,” “That’s my fault,” “I made a mistake,” “I’ll handle that myself,” or “Got it, no worries.” Secondly, they hold others accountable. Extraordinary leaders say it like this: “When can I expect to have that from you?” “When will you honor your commitment to me?” “What timeframe do you need to complete this task?” “What are your plans to achieve this objective?” “How will you complete the project?” The U.S. Office of Personnel Management defines it in their leadership competency model as: “Holds self and others accountable for measurable, high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results. Determines objectives, sets priorities, and delegates work. Accepts responsibility for mistakes. Complies with established control systems and rules.” Take an Assessment: OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Arbinger Properties, Inc. (2010). Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Charan, C. B. (2002) Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. New York: Crown Business. Conners, R., Smith, T., & Hickman, C. (2010). The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability. New York: Penguin. Dive, B. (2008). The Accountable Leader: Developing Effective Leadership Through Managerial Accountability. Bodmin, Cornwall: MPG Books Ltd. Galindo, L. (2009). The 85% Solution: How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Grimshaw, J., & Baron, G. (2010). Leadership Without Excuses: How to Create Accountability and High Performance (Instead of Just Talking About It). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2003). Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Adaptability Adaptability is being able to assess current and potential future changes and calibrate your attitudes, assumptions, beliefs and actions to respond effectively and efficiently. The Society for Human Resources June 2008 survey rated adaptability at the top of the list of important skills in a changing workforce: www.shrm.org/research /surveyfindings/articles/documents/critical%20skills%20needs%20and%20 resources%20for%20the%20changing%20workforce%20survey%20report.pdf

Take an Assessment: Conflict Dynamics Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Calarco, A., & Gurvis, J. (2007). Adaptability: Responding Effectively to Change. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership. McKeown, M. (2012). Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Limited. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Building Trust Interaction Associates in Boston has been researching building trust in the workplace for several years. Andy Atkins, chief innovation officer at Innovation Associates, says in his article “How Leaders Build Trust” (2012) that leaders build trust by taking three steps. First, involve people in decisions that directly affect them; second, be transparent and consistent in your actions; and third, pay attention to relationships.

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Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Leadership Practices Inventory Read a Book: Covey, S.M.R. (2006). The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster. Feltman, C. (2009). The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work. Bend, OR: Thin Book Publishing. Horsager, D. (2009). The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster. Peragine, J. N. (2007). 365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed to Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork Among Employees. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group. Reina, D., & Reina, M. (2006). Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Simons, T. (2008). The Integrity Dividend. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Coaching and Developing Others Coaching is a conversational process used to improve someone’s performance by asking powerful questions and empowering the person to assume self-responsibility and take action that leads to deliberate practice and skill development. OPM defines developing others as “Develops the ability of others to perform and contribute to the organization by providing ongoing feedback and by providing opportunities to learn through formal and informal methods.”

Take an Assessment: Coaching Behaviors Inventory Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Adams, M. G. (2004). Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Bianco-Mathis, V., Roman, C., & Nabors, L. (2002). Leading from the Inside Out: A Coaching Model. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

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Bianco-Mathis, V., Roman, C., & Nabors, L. (2008). Organizational Coaching: Building Relationships and Programs That Drive Results. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press. Brutus, S., & Manoogian, S. (1997). The Art of Feedback. Leadership in Action, 17(3), 8–10. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership. Buckingham, M. (2007). Go Put Your Strengths to Work. 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance. New York: Free Press Buckingham, M., & Clifton, D. O. (2001). Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: Free Press Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (1999). First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. New York: Simon & Schuster Buron, R. J., & McDonald-Mann, D. (1999). Giving Feedback to Subordinates. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership. Hughes, M., & Terrell, J. (2012). Emotional Intelligence in Action: Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders, Managers and Teams. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2008). Building Conflict-Competent Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Wetzel, S. R. (2007). Feedback That Works: How to Build and Deliver Your Message. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Collaboration & Partnering Collaboration is working with others to create something together or produce something together, and partnering is associating with someone or joining with them to complete some activity. OPM defines partnering as “Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals.”

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Peragine, J. N. (2007). 365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed to Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork Among Employees. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Conflict Management OPM defines this as “Encourages creative tension and differences of opinions. Anticipates and takes steps to prevent counter-productive

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confrontations. Manages and resolves conflicts and disagreements in a constructive manner.” Take an Assessment: Conflict Dynamics Profile OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch. How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Random House. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2002). Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2005). Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. New York: McGraw-Hill. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2008). Building Conflict-Competent Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2010). Developing Your Conflict Competence: A Hands-On Guide for Leaders, Managers, Facilitators and Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2013). Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Wiley.

Continual Learning (self-actualization) OPM defines continual learning as “Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues self-development.”

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Emotional Intelligence Appraisal EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Adams, M. G. (2004). Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Arbinger Properties, Inc. (2010). Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Wiley, Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press. McKee, A., Boyatzis, R., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a Resonant Leader. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Quinn, R. E. (1996). Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (Revised). New York: Doubleday. Sloane, J. (2006). Learning to Think Strategically. Oxford: Elsevier. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Coping with Ambiguity and Chaos This competency involves the effective practice of self-management/self-regulation, effective relationship management, and carrying out our activities at work when we find ourselves in the midst of ambiguity and chaos. Ambiguity means lack of clarity and definition, and chaos means a state of utter confusion, disorder, or lack of organization.

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Coping and Stress Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Everything DiSC 363for Leaders Read a Book: Brown, S. L., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (1998). Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. McGrath, R. G., & MacMillan, I. (2000). The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunities in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College. Quinn, R. E. (2004). Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide for Leading Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sanders, I. T. (2010). Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos, Complexity, and Change. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster. Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. New York: Random House.

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Courageousness Courageousness means possessing courage. Courage is the quality that enables someone to face difficulties, dangerous circumstances, or pain without fear; bravery.

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Read a Book: Lee, G., & Diane, E. L. (2006). Courage: The Backbone of Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Staub, R. E. (2002). The 7 Acts of Courage: Bold Leadership for a Wholehearted Life. Oak Ridge, NC: Staub Leadership Consultants. Staub, R. E. (2007). The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of Courageous Leaders. Oak Ridge, NC: Staub Leadership Consultants. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Creativity and Innovation OPM defines this as “Develops new insights into situations; questions conventional approaches; encourages new ideas and innovations; designs and implements new or cutting edge programs/processes.”

Take an Assessment: Kirton Adaption-Innovation Assessment Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Cyzewski, E. (2012). Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Govindarajan, V., & Trimble, C. (2010). The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Gupta, P. (2011). The Innovation Solution: Making Innovation More Pervasive, Predictable, and Profitable. Accelper Consuting/CreateSpace, an Amazon.com Company. Heath, R. (2009). Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Managing Mistakes, and Thinking Big. Pompton Plains, NJ: The Career Press. Linkner, J. (2011). Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. Zakaria, F. (2012). The Post-American World: Release 2.0. New York: Norton.

Critical Thinking Critical thinking is disciplined thinking that is clear, openminded, rational, and informed by data, facts, or evidence. It is a cognitive process that involves actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach a conclusion.

Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Moore, B. N., & Parker, R. (2011). Critical Thinking (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2002). Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Decisiveness and Decision Making OPM defines this as “Makes well-informed, effective, and timely decisions, even when data are limited or solutions produce unpleasant consequences; perceives the impact and implications of decisions.”

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Decision Style Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2013). Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. New York: Random House/Crown Business. Lehrer, J. (2010). The Decisive Moment: How the Brain Makes Up Its Mind. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate Ltd. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Dialogue Skills In the Facilitator’s Guide, “Dialogue: Now You’re Talking!” by Quality Media Resources, dialogue skills are summarized as six rules: (1) be open and suspend judgment, (2) keep dialogue and decision making separate,

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(3) speak for yourself, (4) listen with empathy, (5) look for common ground, and (6) search for and disclose hidden assumptions. Take an Assessment: Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Read a Book: Gerard, G., & Ellinor, L. (2001). Dialogue at Work: Skills for Leveraging Collective Understanding. Westford, MA: Pegasus Communications. Issacs, W. (1999). Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together. New York: Doubleday. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Emotional Intelligence Bradberry and Greaves (2009, p. 17), define emotional intelligence as “your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.”

Take an Assessment: Emotional Intelligence Appraisal EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) Emotional Intelligence Appraisal Team Emotional and Social Intelligence Survey (TESI) Read a Book: Bar-On, R., & Parker, J. (1999). The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. San Diego: TalentSmart. Cherniss, C., & Goleman, D. (2001). The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). Primal Leadership. Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Hughes, M. (2008). A Coach’s Guide to Emotional Intelligence: Strategies for Developing Successful Leaders. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Hughes, M., & Terrell, J. (2012). Emotional Intelligence in Action: Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders, Managers, and Teams. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Hughes, M., Thompson, H. L., & Terrell, J. (2009). Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence: Best Practices, Case Studies, and Strategies. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Stein, S., & Book, H. (2011). The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Empowering Others Empowering others is giving someone the power, authority, or responsibility to carry out something. It is enabling or permitting someone to take an action.

Take an Assessment: Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) Read a Book: Block, P. (1987). The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Eblin, S. (2011). The Next Level: What Insiders Know about Executive Success (2nd ed.). Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Feltman, C. (2009). The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work. Bend, OR: Thin Book Publishing. Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press. O’Leary, R., & Bingham, L. (2009). The Collaborative Public Manager: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Engaging Others Engaging others is the process of occupying the attention or efforts of an individual or team, securing an individual’s or group’s aid.

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Read a Book: Block, P. (1987). The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press. McKee, A., Boyatzis, R., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a Resonant Leader. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. O’Leary, R., & Bingham, L. (2009). The Collaborative Public Manager: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Peragine, J. N. (2007). 365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed to Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork Among Employees. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Entrepreneurship OPM defines this as “Positions the organization for future success by identifying new opportunities; builds the organization by developing or improving products or services. Takes calculated risks to accomplish organizational objectives.”

Take an Assessment: OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Nothhaft, H., & Kline, D. (2011). Great Again: Revitalizing America’s Entrepreneurial Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Schley, B. (2013). The Unstoppables: Tapping Entrepreneurial Power. San Francisco: Wiley. Thornberry, N. (2006). Lead Like an Entrepreneur. New York: McGraw-Hill.

External Awareness OPM defines this as “Understands and keeps up-todate on local, national, and international policies and trends that affect the organization and shape stakeholders’ views; is aware of the organization’s impact on the external environment.”

Take an Assessment: Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) OPM Leadership 360

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Flexibility OPM defines this as “Deals effectively with pressure; remains optimistic and persistent, even under adversity. Recovers quickly from setbacks.”

Take an Assessment: Coping & Stress Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Bahrami, H., & Evans, S. (2010). Super-Flexibility for Knowledge Enterprises: A Toolkit for Dynamic Adaptation (2nd ed.). Heidleberg, Germany: Springer. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Forward Thinking Forward thinking is the mental practice of planning for the future, forward-looking, forecasting, hypothesizing about potential or possible future events or occurrences.

Take an Assessment: Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) Read a Book: Burgess, T., Pugh, K., & Sevigny, L. (2007). The Personal Vision Workbook. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning. Collins, J., & Porras, J. (1997). Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. New York: HarperBusiness. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Wiley. Pottruck, D. S., & Pearce, T. (2000). Clicks and Mortar: Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Influencing/Negotiating OPM defines influencing/negotiating as “Persuades others; builds consensus through give and take; gains cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals.”

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Take an Assessment: Influence Style Indicator OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Cohen, A., & Bradford, D. (2005). Influence Without Authority. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Cross, R., & Thomas, R. (2009). Driving Results Through Social Networks: How Top Organizations Leverage Networks for Performance and Growth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., & McMillan, R. (2008). Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. New York: McGraw-Hill. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Initiative Initiative is the readiness and ability to initiate or start an action.

Take an Assessment: Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Everything DiSC Workplace Profile Read a Book: Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Inspiring Shared Vision OPM defines this as “Takes a long-term view and builds a shared vision with others; acts as a catalyst for organizational change. Influences others to translate vision into action.”

Take an Assessment: Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Burgess, T., Pugh, K., & Sevigny, L. (2007). The Personal Vision Workbook. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Wiley. Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Interpersonal Skills OPM defines this as “Treats others with courtesy, sensitivity, and respect. Considers and responds appropriately to the needs and feelings of different people in different situations.” We believe that this competency also includes oral and written communication skills. OPM defines these as follows: Oral Communication: “Makes clear and convincing oral presentations. Listens effectively; clarifies information as needed.” Written Communication: “Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the intended audience.”

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Emotional Intelligence Appraisal EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Everything DiSC Workplace Profile Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Political Skill Inventory Read a Book: Block, P. (1987). The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chapman, G. (1992). The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People. Chicago: Northfield Publishing. Cherniss, C., & Goleman, D. (2001). The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Goldsmith, M., & Reiter, M. (2007). What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. New York: Hyperion. Horsager, D. (2009). The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster.

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Hughes, M., & Terrell, J. (2012). Emotional Intelligence in Action: Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders, Managers, and Teams. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Hughes, M., Thompson, H. L., & Terrell, J. (2009). Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence: Best Practices, Case Studies, and Strategies. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Wiley. Lencioni, P. (2005). Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. McKee, A., Boyatzis, R., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a Resonant Leader. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2005). Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. New York: McGraw-Hill. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2008). Building Conflict-Competent Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Juggling Competing Demands Juggling competing demands is the ability to keep several objects in continuous motion; balance them precariously; or manage or alternate requirements, tasks, responsibilities, or activities so that each can be adequately handled.

Take an Assessment: Conflict Dynamics Profile Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Read a Book: McGrath, R. G., & MacMillan, I. (2000). The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunities in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College. McKeown, M. (2012). Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Limited. Oshry, B. (2007). Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2008). Building Conflict-Competent Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2010). Developing Your Conflict Competence: A Hands-On Guide for Leaders, Managers, Facilitators, and Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2013). Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Wiley. Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Leading Change According to OPM, “This core qualification involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.”

Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Change Style Indicator Leadership Practices Inventory OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Bennis, W., & Nanus, B. (1997). Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins. Bridges, W. (1991). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Carlin, J. (2009). Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. New York: Penguin Books. Conner, D. R. (2006). Managing at the Speed of Change: How Resilient Managers Succeed and Prosper Where Others Fail (2nd ed.). New York: Random House. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Random House. Musselwhite, C. (2004). Dangerous Opportunity: Making Change Work. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation. Quinn, R. E. (1996). Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Quinn, R. E. (2004). Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide for Leading Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., & Roth, G. (1999). The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. New York: Doubleday. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Making Meetings Work Making meetings work is the practice of holding meetings that optimize effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, and performance by creating an agenda, managing time, creating accountability and follow-up processes, and determining that the right people are in attendance.

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Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Lencioni, P. (2005). Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pittampalli, A. (2011). Read This Before Our Next Meeting: The Modern Meeting Standard for Successful Organizations. Irvington, NY: The Domino Project/Do You Zoom, Inc.

Political Savvy OPM defines this as “Identifies the internal and external politics that impact the work of the organization. Perceives organizational and political reality and acts accordingly.”

Take an Assessment: OPM Leadership 360 Political Savvy Assessment Political Skill Inventory Read a Book: Block, P. (1987). The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Brandon, R., & Seldman, M. (2004). Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success. New York: Free Press. Ferris, G., et al. (2005). Political Skill at Work: Impact on Work Effectiveness. Mountain View: Davies-Black. Reardon, K. (2001). The Secret Handshake: Mastering the Politics of the Business Inner Circle. New York: Currency/Doubleday. Reardon, K. (2005). It’s All Politics: Winning at Work Where Hard Work and Talent Aren’t Enough. New York: Currency/Doubleday.

Problem Solving OPM defines this as “Identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; generates and evaluates alternative solutions; makes recommendations.”

Take an Assessment: Coping & Stress Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Kirton Adaption-Innovation Assessment OPM Leadership 360 Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Read a Book: Fainberg, G. Z., & Tearle, R. (2009). How to Solve Just About Any Problem: Timeless Practices for Solving Problems Better. Cape Town, South Africa: CEXINO.

Project Management Project management is the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling the production and delivery of a system, product, or service.

Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (10th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Portney, S. E. (2010). Project Management for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Purpose Driven Purpose driven refers to the practice of connecting purpose to execution. It is identifying the actions that create personal meaning and purpose and connecting these to the agency’s mission.

Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Mourkogiannis, N. (2006). Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave MacMillan. Reiman, J. (2013). The Story of Purpose: The Path to Creating a Brighter Brand, a Greater Company, and a Lasting Legacy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Resiliency OPM defines this as “Deals effectively with pressure; remains optimistic and persistent, even under adversity. Recovers quickly from setbacks.”

Take an Assessment: Coping & Stress Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) OPM Leadership 360 Stress Resiliency Profile

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Read a Book: Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press. Siebert, A. (2005). The Resiliency Advantage: Master Change, Thrive under Pressure, and Bounce Back from Setbacks. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Rewarding and Encouraging Others Rewarding and encouraging others is the practice of privately or publicly recognizing and acknowledging others’ contributions to the mission. It is the act of inspiring and promoting others to continue to engage in desirable activities that contribute to mission.

Take an Assessment: Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) Leadership Practices Inventory Read a Book: Chapman, G. (1992). The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People. Chicago: Northfield Publishing. Kouzes, J., and Pozner, B. (2003). Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Risk-Taking Risk-taking is taking a chance, engaging in a venture, exposing oneself to potential hazard, danger, loss, or risk while seeking to improve a business process, procedure, strategy, or activity.

Take an Assessment: Change Style Indicator Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Kirton Adaption-Innovation Assessment Read a Book: Heath, R. (2009). Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Managing Mistakes, and Thinking Big. Pompton Plains, NJ: The Career Press.

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Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Strategic Planning Strategic planning is the process of looking at an agency’s current state, determining where it would like to be at some future point, and then creating goals, objectives, and activities to execute the plan for achieving the ideal future state.

Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Bryson, J. (2011). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Olsen, E. (2006). Strategic Planning for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Strategic Thinking OPM defines this as “Formulates objectives and priorities, and implements plans consistent with the long-term interests of the organization in a global environment. Capitalizes on opportunities and manages risks.”

Take an Assessment: OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Birnbaum, B. (2004). Strategic Thinking: A Four Piece Puzzle. Costa Mesa, CA: Douglas Mountain Publishing. Brown, S. L., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (1998). Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Dixit, A., & Nalebuff, B. (2008). The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life. New York: Norton. Harvard Business School Press. (2010). Thinking Strategically: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Horwath, R. (2009). Deep Dive: The Proven Method for Building Strategy, Focusing Your Resources, and Taking Smart Action. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group. McGrath, R. G., & MacMillan, I. (2000). The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunities in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College.

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Sanders, I. T. (2010). Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos, Complexity, and Change. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster. Sloane, J. (2006). Learning to Think Strategically. Oxford: Elsevier.

Stress Tolerance Stress tolerance is the act or capacity of enduring stress. Stress tolerance is closely tied to stress management and coping strategies that help someone manage stress in their personal and work lives.

Take an Assessment: Coping & Stress Profile EQi 2.0 Leadership Report Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) Stress Resiliency Profile Read a Book: Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal . New York: Free Press.

Systems Thinking Systems thinking is a way to problem solve or think about a problem. It brings into consideration how actions are interrelated and interconnected, each one affecting the other. Senge (2006) defines it as a discipline that arises out of achieving mastery over four disciplines: personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning.

Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Gharajedaghi, J. (2006). Systems Thinking Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture. San Diego: Elsevier. Oshry, B. (2007). Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Revised. New York: Doubleday. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., & Smith, B. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.

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Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., & Roth, G. (1999). The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. New York: Doubleday. Senge, P., Scharmer, C. O., Jaworski, J., & Flowers, B. S. (2005). Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society. New York: Doubleday.

Team Building OPM defines this as “Inspires and fosters team commitment, spirit, pride, and trust. Facilitates cooperation and motivates team members to accomplish group goals.”

Take an Assessment: Campbell-Hallum Team Development Survey Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) OPM Leadership 360 Read a Book: Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lencioni, P. (2005). Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Peragine, J. N. (2007). 365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed to Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork Among Employees. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group.

Time Management Time management is the action of analyzing how one spends hours at work to accomplish work tasks and developing task priorities that will maximize personal efficiency in the workplace.

Take an Assessment: None known to us. Read a Book: Lencioni, P. (2005). Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Paul, M. (2003). It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys. New York: Penguin Putnam.

Work/Life Balance Achieving work/life balance means finding ways or methods to split or divide one’s time and energy between work and the other aspects of life. It is an ongoing effort focused on balancing and creating time for family,

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friends, community, spirituality, personal growth, self-care, and other individual needs alongside the routine requirements of one’s job in the workplace. Take an Assessment: Benchmarks Coping & Stress Profile Read a Book: Kelly, M. (2011). Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction. New York: Hudson Street Press/Penguin Group. Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press. McKee, A., Boyatzis, R., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a Resonant Leader. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Leadership Competencies

Accountability

Entrepreneurship

Adaptability

External Awareness

Building Trust

Flexibility

Coaching and Developing Others

Forward Thinking

Collaboration and Partnering

Influencing

Conflict Management

Initiative

Continual Learning

Inspiring Shared Vision

Coping with Ambiguity and Chaos

Interpersonal Skills

Courageousness

Juggling Competing Demands

Creativity and Innovation

Leading Change

Critical Thinking

Making Meetings Work

Decisiveness and Decision Making

Political Savvy

Dialogue Skills

Problem-Solving

Emotional Intelligence

Project Management

Empowering Others

Purpose Driven

Engaging Others

Resiliency

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Rewarding and Encouraging Others

Systems Thinking

Risk-Taking

Team Building

Strategic Planning

Time Management

Strategic Thinking

Work/Life Balance

Stress Tolerance

RECOMMENDED ASSESSMENTS Benchmarks 360 (Center for Creative Leadership) Sixteen skills: resourcefulness, doing whatever it takes, being a quick study, decisiveness, leading employees, confronting problem employees, participative management, change management, building and mending relationships, compassion and sensitivity, straightforwardness and composure, balance between personal life and work, self-awareness, putting people at ease, differences matter, career management. Coaching Behaviors Inventory Measures three coaching behavior areas (www.davidnoer.com): Assessing: data gathering, gap analysis, goal-setting, measurement/feedback Challenging: confronting, focusing/shaping, reframing, empowering/ energizing Supporting: attending, inquiring, reflecting, affirming Conflict Dynamics Profile (Center for Conflict Dynamics) Seven constructive responses: perspective taking, creating solutions, expressing emotions, reaching out, reflective thinking, delay responding, and adapting Eight destructive responses: winning, displaying anger, demeaning others, retaliating, avoiding, yielding, hiding emotions, and self-criticizing Coping and Stress Profile (Inscape Publishing) Measures your stress level for personal stress and work stress. Measures four personal and four work coping resources: problem-solving, communication, closeness, and flexibility

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Decision Style Profile (Discovery Learning) Measures five decision-making styles and five situational factors impacting decision quality, acceptance, and implementation. Five styles: directing, fact finding, investigating, collaborating, and teaming Five factors: problem clarity, information, commitment, goal agreement, and time Emotional Intelligence Appraisal (Talent Smart) Measures four skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders (Inscape Publishing) Eight Approaches and Twenty-four Practices to Effective Leadership: 1.

Pioneering (promoting bold action, stretching the boundaries, finding opportunities)

2.

Energizing (showing enthusiasm, building professional networks, rallying people to achieve goals)

3.

Affirming (being approachable, acknowledging contributions, creating a positive environment)

4.

Inclusive (staying open to input, showing diplomacy, facilitating dialogue)

5.

Humble (being fair-minded, showing modesty, maintaining composure)

6.

Deliberate (providing a sense of stability, promoting disciplined analysis, communicating with clarity)

7.

Resolute (improving methods, speaking up about problems, setting high expectations)

8.

Commanding (focusing on results, taking charge, showing confidence)

Everything DiSC Work of Leaders (Inscape Publishing) Measures how you approach the most fundamental work of leaders: Creating a Vision: Exploration, Boldness, Testing Assumptions Alignment: Clarity, Dialogue, Inspiration Execution: Momentum, Structure, Feedback Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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Everything DiSC Workplace Profile (Inscape Publishing) Measures your preferred DiSC behavioral style and identifies your three priorities that shape your workplace experience. DiSC Styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness 8 Priorities: Action, Enthusiasm, Collaboration, Support, Stability, Accuracy, Challenge, and Results Measures your motivators and stressors, how your style reacts to the other styles. Offers strategies for increasing your effectiveness with the other styles, and building more effective relationships. EQi 2.0 Model of Emotional Intelligence Leadership Report (Multi-health Systems) Four Leadership Dimensions: authenticity, coaching, insight, and innovation Five dimensions and fifteen subscales of EQ: 1.

Self-perception (self-regard, self-actualization, emotional self-awareness)

2.

Self-expression (emotional expression, assertiveness, independence)

3.

Interpersonal (interpersonal relationships, empathy, social responsibility)

4.

Decision making (problem solving, reality testing, impulse control)

5.

Stress management (flexibility, stress tolerance, optimism)

Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) (Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Jossey-Bass) Twelve dimensions: visioning, empowering, energizing, designing and aligning, rewarding and feedback, team building, outside orientation, global mindset, tenacity, emotional intelligence, life balance, resilience to stress Influence Style Indicator (Discovery Learning) Measures five influence preferences: asserting, inspiring, bridging, negotiating and rationalizing. Kirton Adaption-Innovation (KAI) Measures one’s approach to problem-solving as either adaptive (step-by-step) or innovative (expansive).

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Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer) Measures five leadership practices and thirty leadership behaviors, six per practice. 1.

Model the Way I set a personal example of what I expect of others. I spend time and energy making certain that the people I work with adhere to the principles and standards we have agreed on. I follow through on the promises and commitments that I make. I ask for feedback on how my actions affect other people’s performance. I build consensus around a common set of values for running our organization. I am clear about my philosophy of leadership.

2.

Inspire a Shared Vision I talk about future trends that will influence how our work gets done. I describe a compelling image of what our future could be like. I appeal to others to share an exciting dream of the future. I show others how their long-term interests can be realized by enlisting in a common vision. I paint the “big picture” of what we aspire to accomplish. I speak with genuine conviction about the higher meaning and purpose of our work.

3.

Challenge the Process I seek out challenging opportunities that test my own skills and abilities. I challenge people to try out new and innovative ways to do their work. I search outside the formal boundaries of my organization for innovative ways to improve what we do. I ask “What can we learn?” when things don’t go as expected. Public Service Leadership Assessment and Personal Development Plan

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I make certain that we set achievable goals, make concrete plans, and establish measurable milestones for the projects and programs that we work on. I experiment and take risks, even when there is a chance of failure. 4.

Enable Others to Act I develop cooperative relationships among the people I work with. I actively listen to diverse points of view. I treat others with dignity and respect. I support the decisions that people make on their own. I give people a great deal of freedom and choice in deciding how to do their work. I ensure that people grow in their jobs by learning new skills and developing themselves.

5.

Encourage the Heart I praise people for a job well done. I make it a point to let people know about my confidence in their abilities. I make sure that people are creatively rewarded for their contributions to the success of our projects. I publicly recognize people who exemplify commitment to shared values. I find ways to celebrate accomplishments. I give the members of the team lots of appreciation and support for their contributions.

OPM Leadership 360 Measures the Fundamental Competencies and the 5 ECQs (Executive Core Qualifications) (http://www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/assessment-evaluation/) Fundamental Competencies

Public Service Motivation Integrity/Honesty

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Interpersonal Skills Oral Communication Written Communication Continual Learning Executive Core Qualifications

ECQ Leading Change: creativity and innovation, external awareness, flexibility, resilience, entrepreneurship, problem solving, technical credibility ECQ Business Acumen: financial management, human capital management, technology management ECQ Building Coalitions: partnering, political savvy, influencing/negotiating, strategic thinking, vision ECQ Leading People: conflict management, leveraging diversity, developing others, team building ECQ Results Driven: accountability, customer service, decisiveness Political Skill Inventory Measures four dimensions of political skill: social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity (Ferris, Davidson, & Perrewe, 2005). Political Savvy Assessment (Brandon Partners) Measures the following strategies: Character Strategies: personal integrity, performance integrity Awareness Strategies: knows the corporate buzz, studies politics, savvy attitudes Proactive Strategies: manages perceptions, essential networking, balanced selfpromotion, enhances power image, savvy communication, ethical lobbying Protective Strategies: detects deception, handles sabotage Please see Appendix B, Suggested Reading, for additional resources and more information on developing your leadership skills.

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN Name: ________________________________________________________________ Date: ________________________________________________________________ Competency I want to develop: ________________________________________________________________ Development activities I plan to incorporate into my leadership development plan: ⬜

Find a role model or mentor.

⬜

Obtain a developmental assignment detail.

⬜

Find an executive coach.

⬜

Take a class.

⬜

Take an assessment.

⬜

Read a book.

⬜

Find an accountability partner. Next, describe how you will carry out each leadership development activity.

Find a Role Model or Mentor I will identify two or three people to observe as role models by [enter date here] ________________________________________________________________ People to observe: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN (continued) I will ask someone to be a mentor by [enter date here] ________________________________________________________________ Obtain a Developmental Assignment Detail I will seek to obtain a developmental assignment detail in the following agency by [enter date here] ________________________________________________________________ Find an Executive Coach I will ask someone to be my executive coach by [enter date here] ________________________________________________________________ Take a Class I will enroll in the following classes on these dates: Class

Date

____________________________________

_____________________________________

____________________________________

_____________________________________

____________________________________

_____________________________________

Take an Assessment I plan to take the following assessments on the dates indicated: Assessment

Date

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN (continued) Read a Book I plan to read the following books by the dates indicated: Book

Date

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

Find an Accountability Partner I will ask the following person to be my accountability partner for my leadership development plan: ________________________________________________________________

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E P I L O G U E

A N D

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

W

e have so many people to thank for their support, encouragement, and contributions to this book. We begin with those closest to us—our wives and children. Mac and Margie were patient, loving book widows for the past two years. Not only have they demonstrated great tolerance for our attachment to laptops and cellphones, but they also have provided an untold wealth of feedback and advice in the preparation of our manuscript. Their love helped us persevere. Our children—Kyle, Lindsay, Matt, Ashley, and Ryan—have offered inspiration, suggestions, and support; and in some cases, a most welcomed beer or glass of wine! Many participants in our leadership, conflict resolution, team building, and change management classes have shared their experiences with us and taught us about leading in the public sector. They constantly energize our thinking and stimulate our work. The book could not have been completed without the many specific examples and stories shared by both current and retired agency leaders. Some of these leaders work in the Department of Defense and cannot be identified. We thought it only fair, therefore, to keep the identities of all of our sources anonymous. Although we cannot specifically mention their names, we are forever indebted to these amazing leaders. We will thank you in person with sincere appreciation and gratitude for all you’ve done, not just for this volume, but for your country. Any leadership journey is long and challenging, rewarding and empowering, amazing and sobering. Those who are, like you, in public service roles have a unique mission. You answer not only to your organizational bosses, but to the

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entire country. Your mission and goals transcend the “company.” They impact a nation. We hope that our efforts in researching and documenting the factors that result in great agency leadership are useful for leaders today and tomorrow. We hope the stories and examples we shared inspire and move you. We hope our suggestions and concepts provide guidance and instill confidence. It is our sincerest desire that you find this book useful and worthy of sharing with your colleagues and friends. Finally, after years of working closely with those in leadership roles in agencies across the country and in assignments around the world, we’d like to thank you for your service and dedication. Without you doing your jobs, people like us would not have the many opportunities for success and happiness offered in this great land. Thank you. We wish you the best of luck in your personal journey to lead forward. Although this brings us to the end of the book, it is for you, just the beginning. Tim and John

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Epilogue and Acknowledgments

A P P E N D I X A : F O U R TH E M E S A N D F I V E I N D E P E N D E N T

FA C T O R S

W

e have summarized the four themes and five independent factors that influenced our development of the Four Leadership MetaCompetencies model and our Public Service Leadership Assessment here in an appendix for those readers who are interested in the details and findings of our research.

FOUR THEMES WE BELIEVE ARE IMPACTING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT During the course of our consulting, coaching, and training we have discovered four emerging themes that seem to be impacting leadership development. First, federal employees are experiencing assessment fatigue. Many are being asked to complete numerous 360-degree assessments for their supervisors, peers, and subordinates along with being asked to complete their own self-assessments. Many of these instruments are from sixty to over one hundred questions long, and they require thirty to forty-five minutes to complete. Second, leadership competency models often encompass so many competencies that it’s not practical or feasible to expect a leader to remember them or decipher how to approach a development plan while swimming in twenty-plus pages of data. For example, the OPM Leadership 360 Assessment has five meta-competencies and twenty-eight competencies measured by 113 questions. The Center for Creative Leadership’s Executive Dimensions 360 assessment has sixteen competencies measured by ninety-two questions, The Leadership Practices Inventory 360 assessment has sixty questions measuring

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five leadership practices (meta-competencies) and thirty leadership behaviors (competencies), and Inscape Publishing’s Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders assessment has two parts: part one consists of questions measuring the leader’s DiSC style, and part two contains another set of questions measuring eight approaches (meta-competencies) and twenty-four practices (competencies)— over one hundred questions in all. The third theme is shorter assessments; this is best illustrated by the work of Bradberry and Greaves at TalentSmart (www.TalentSmart.com). They have developed the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, which measures overall emotional intelligence and four emotional intelligence skills with only twenty-eight questions. This is the most widely administered assessment of emotional intelligence in the world, used in more than half of Fortune 500 companies and all three branches of the federal government. The normative sample size exceeds half a million. The assessment takes only about ten minutes to complete. Reliabilities are very strong, yielding coefficient alphas ranging from 0.79 to 0.92 (TalentSmart Product Fact Sheet, 2011). The fourth theme, the emergence of Generation Flux, is nicely described in an online article by Robert Safian in Fast Company (Safian, 2012). He highlights several factors impacting businesses that we have also observed affecting the public sector. We offer a few pertinent passages: There is one certainty .  .  . The next decade or two will be defined more by fluidity than by any new, settled paradigm. . . . [T]he most valuable insight is that we are, in a critical sense, in a time of chaos. To thrive in this climate requires a whole new approach.  .  . . some people will thrive. They are the members of Generation Flux .  .  . What defines GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates—and even enjoys—recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions.  .  . . Few traditional career tactics train us for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills. Dev Patnaik, cofounder and CEO of the strategy firm Jump Associates, told Safian, “In an increasingly turbulent and interconnected world, ambiguity is rising to unprecedented levels.  .  . . There’s a difference between the kind of problems that . . . governments are able to solve and the ones

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that they need to solve. Most big organizations are good at solving clear but complicated problems. They’re absolutely horrible at solving ambiguous problems—when you don’t know what you don’t know.” Safian observes: If ambiguity is high and adaptability is required, then you simply can’t afford to be sentimental about the past. Future-focus is a signature trait of Generation Flux.  .  . . Trying to replicate what worked yesterday only leaves you vulnerable.  .  . . Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before. It’s also about as useful as an appendix right now. . . . when the past has been blown away by new technology, by the ubiquitous and alwayson global hypernetwork, beloved past practices may well be useless. Baratunde Thurston, digital director for The Onion, told Safian, “It’s irresponsible not to use the tools of the day.  .  . . If you master those things and stop, you’re just going to get killed by the next thing. Flexibility of skills leads to flexibility of options. To see what you can’t see coming, you’ve got to embrace larger principles.” Safian writes, “The entire world of business is now in a constant state of agile development. New releases are constant; tweaks, upgrades, and course corrections take place on the fly. There is no status quo; there is only a process of change.” Among his conclusions: “The key is to be clear about your business mission. In a world of flux, this becomes more important than ever.” Finally, two other authors bring insight into this new era. First, Charles Darwin wrote 150 years ago, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Second is a quote frequently attributed to Alvin Toffler (it is referenced on his website), “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” These themes all point to the need for a leadership model that embraces agility, ambiguity, continuous learning, a drive to get things done, and strategic thinking. These are the major facets of our Four Leadership Meta-Competencies model.

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OUR GOAL: DEVELOP A LEADERSHIP META-COMPETENCIES MODEL AND SHORT ASSESSMENT Our goal was to develop a leadership meta-competencies model with a short self-assessment that would measure the critical leadership behaviors required for successful public service leadership. We believe that our Four Leadership MetaCompetencies model and the Public Service Leadership Assessment achieve this goal. Our objective was to give public service leaders a way to quickly assess their leadership competence and then develop a customized and tailored development plan to close any identified gaps. There are numerous leadership models in the literature. We know there are also hundreds of leadership development activities available, including assessment centers, business simulations, experiential activities, self- and multi-rater assessments, workbooks, field guides, workshops, training courses, degree programs, executive coaching, and organizational assessments. We wanted to create a way for individual public service leaders to quickly identify their strengths and development opportunities so that they could create an individualized leadership development plan tailored to their personal needs without requiring an investment of several hours to take and interpret an assessment battery or attend an assessment course that often spans several days. We are not claiming that our Public Service Leadership Assessment or our four Leadership Meta-Competencies are statistically valid and reliable. We have not conducted that type of research or data analysis. We are, however, making the claim that perception is reality for most workers, and we have captured perceptions of the federal workforce through our own survey that aligns with the validated survey results of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Partnership for Public Service. We believe that public service leaders can improve their effective leadership by changing their behavior in ways that match what their constituents are looking for in their leadership practices. Our Public Service Leadership Assessment and Four Leadership Meta-Competencies model work together to illuminate the pathway forward, guiding public leaders toward extraordinary leadership. Five Independent Factors Influencing Our Model and Assessment Our leadership meta-competencies model and assessment are based on five independent factors. The first is the variety of themes we have just outlined. Second are our findings from conducting interviews with thirty executives

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from twelve federal agencies and the intelligence community. Third, we further refined them by incorporating the collective perceptions of 233 federal workers representing twenty-four agencies and the intelligence community measured by our Public Service Leadership Survey. Fourth, we reviewed three major sources of research on public service leadership. Fifth, we incorporated reflections on our own observations gleaned from our combined twenty-five years’ experience providing executive coaching, organization development consulting, and leadership development training to the federal workforce. Throughout this book we include stories from our interviews to illustrate best practices and examples of successful public service leadership. In this appendix, we first present highlights of the three sources of research on public service leadership that we have reviewed; these have heavily influenced our thinking in developing our own public service leadership assessment and model. Then we present the results of our Public Service Leadership Survey. Three Research Sources That Influenced Our Thinking The first work we reviewed was the annual survey of federal employees conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—The Best Places to Work in Federal Government 2011 Rankings (Partnership for Public Service, 2011). Gallup’s extensive research on leadership was the second source. Our third source was OPM’s development of the Senior Executive Service Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) and Leadership Competency Model that is used for assessing prospective senior executive service candidates for elevation into the ranks of senior executive service. The Best Places to Work in Federal Government 2011 Rankings, conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, was based on data collected by the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted by OPM from April 4 through May 31, 2011. More than 266,000 employees participated. The survey also incorporated survey data from eight additional agencies and the intelligence community. Survey results showed that the primary driver shaping how employees view their workplace in the federal space is effective leadership—particularly senior leadership. As defined in the survey, effective leadership is composed of four elements: empowerment, fairness, leaders, and supervisors. The survey results showed that employee job satisfaction and commitment are directly tied to their Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors

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perceptions of effective leadership. Government-wide, employees rated their satisfaction with their jobs, organizations, and supervisors at 64 out of 100. The Best Places to Work in Federal Government Rankings in 2011 analyses also showed that the federal government outperforms the private sector in only one area, scoring two points higher on satisfaction with the opportunity to improve skills. On the issue of recognition for doing a good job and satisfaction with involvement in decision making, the government lost significant ground. In 2010, there was only a three-point gap on each of these questions; as of 2011 there was a six-point gap. In addition, there continues to be a large divide on satisfaction with communication from management, with federal employees being substantially less satisfied by 14 points. The Best Places to Work in Federal Government 2011 Rankings also documented that while many factors are involved in influencing how employees view their workplace, the 2011 rankings showed for the sixth consecutive year that the primary driver in the federal space is effective leadership—with specific emphasis on senior leadership. In 2011, leadership continued to receive low scores from employees, with a government-wide score of 54.9 out of 100. Federal employees want their supervisors to work as leaders—empowering them to do their best work; treating them fairly and equitably; leading by example with genuineness, authenticity, honesty, and integrity; and providing honest feedback for professional development and performance improvement. These survey results are supported further by Gallup’s extensive, in-depth behavioral economic research on employee engagement involving more than seventeen million employees conducted over more than thirty years. Gallup reports that in world-class organizations, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 9.57 to 1 and in average organizations, the ratio is 1.83 to 1. Gallup says “actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U.S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone” (Gallup, 2012). The U.S. Office of Personnel Management deploys the OPM Leadership 360 Survey frequently to federal employees as part of training courses or as part of an organizational assessment. Over the past five years, 21,621 participants have taken the survey. The 2012 database contains over 220,000 ratings. This assessment measures twenty-two competencies clustered into five Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) or meta-competencies. These ECQs have been identified

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as essential behavioral competencies for federal service executives. An additional six fundamental competencies—public service motivation, integrity/honesty, interpersonal skills, oral communication, written communication, and continual learning—are also measured, for a total of twenty-eight. Three Lowest-Rated Competencies Government-Wide In 360-degree assessment results in the government-wide database, of the twenty-eight competencies, the following three are consistently scored lowest in the “average of all raters” category: • Conflict management (Leading People ECQ)—Encourages creative tension and differences of opinions. Anticipates and takes steps to prevent counterproductive confrontations. Manages and resolves conflicts and disagreements in a constructive manner. • Strategic thinking (Leading Change ECQ)—Formulates objectives and priorities, and implements plans consistent with the long-term interests of the organization in a global environment. Capitalizes on opportunities and manages risks. • Vision (Leading Change ECQ)—Takes a long-term view and builds a shared vision with others; acts as a catalyst for organizational change. Influences others to translate vision into action.

Four Leadership Meta-Competencies and Their Interrelationships with the Five ECQs and Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership Our four Leadership Meta-Competencies are interrelated with the fundamental competencies and the five ECQs defined by OPM for senior executives in federal service and the Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership defined in the Best Places to Work in Federal Government 2011 Rankings (see Table A.1). The four Leadership Meta-Competencies—agile learning capability, adept with ambiguity, adroit at thinking strategically, and ambitious drive to execute— can each be mapped to the Four Dimensions of Effective Public Leadership: empowerment, fairness, leaders, and supervisors, and the fundamental competencies and the five ECQs: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, and Building Coalitions. First, we will define the fundamental competencies and the five ECQs, then the Four Dimensions of Effective Public Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors

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Table A.1 Four Leadership Meta-Competencies, Fundamental Competencies, Five ECQs, and Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership Four Leadership MetaCompetencies Agile Learning Capability

Fundamental Competencies and Five Executive Core Qualifications

Four Dimensions of Effective Public Leadership

Fundamental Competency: Continual Learning

Supervisors

Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven Adept with Ambiguity

Leading Change

Leaders

Adroit at Thinking Strategically

Leading Change, Results Driven, Building Coalitions

Empowerment, Leaders

Ambitious Drive to Execute

Fundamental Competency: Interpersonal Skills

Empowerment, Fairness

Leading Change, Leading People, Building Coalitions

Leadership and finally our four Leadership Meta-Competencies. Then we will describe how the four Leadership Meta-Competencies incorporate the leadership behaviors described in the Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership and the Five ECQs. Fundamental Competencies and the Five Executive Core Qualifications The fundamental competencies are the attributes that serve as the foundation for each of the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). The five ECQs define the twenty-two competencies needed to build a federal corporate culture that drives for results, serves customers well, and builds successful teams and coalitions within and outside the organization. The ECQs are required for entry into

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the Senior Executive Service and are used by many departments and agencies in selection, performance management, and leadership development for management and executive positions. Executives with a “corporate” view of government share values that are grounded in the fundamental government ideals of the constitution: they embrace the dynamics of American democracy, an approach to governance that provides a continuing vehicle for change within the federal government (OPM, 2012). Now we will define the fundamental competencies, the five ECQs, and the competencies that make them up. We have taken these definitions from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management publication, Guide to Senior Executive Service Qualifications (2012). Fundamental Competencies There are six competencies in the fundamental competencies category: public service motivation, integrity/honesty, interpersonal skills, oral communication, written communication, and continual learning.

Public Service Motivation “Shows a commitment to serve the public. Ensures that actions meet public needs; aligns organizational objectives and practices with public interests.” Integrity/Honesty “Behaves in an honest, fair, and ethical manner. Shows consistency in words and actions. Models high standards of ethics.” Interpersonal Skills “Treats others with courtesy, sensitivity, and respect. Considers and responds appropriately to the needs and feelings of different people in different situations.” Oral Communication “Makes clear and convincing oral presentations. Listens effectively; clarifies information as needed.” Written Communication “Writes in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner for the intended audience.” Continual Learning “Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues self-development.” Five Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) ECQ 1: Leading Change “Leading Change involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors

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goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment. This ECQ is comprised of six competencies: Creativity and Innovation, External Awareness, Flexibility, Resilience, Strategic Thinking, and Vision.” ECQ 2: Leading People “Leading People involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks. This ECQ is comprised of four competencies: Conflict Management, Leveraging Diversity, Developing Others, and Team Building.” ECQ 3: Results Driven “Results Driven involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts. This ECQ is comprised of six competencies: Accountability, Customer Service, Decisiveness, Entrepreneurship, Problem Solving, and Technical Credibility.” ECQ 4: Business Acumen “Business Acumen involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically. This ECQ is comprised of three competencies: Financial Management, Human Capital Management, and Technology Management.” ECQ 5: Building Coalitions “Building Coalitions involves the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals. This ECQ is comprised of three competencies: Partnering, Political Savvy, and Influencing/Negotiating.” Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership The Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership are taken from the 2011 Best Places to Work Rankings referenced earlier in this chapter. Empowerment “Empowerment is the extent to which employees feel empowered with respect to work processes and how satisfied they are with their involvement in decisions that affect their work.”

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Fairness “The extent to which employees believe arbitrary action and personal favoritism is tolerated, and if employees feel comfortable reporting illegal activity without fear of reprisal.” Leaders “The level of respect employees have for senior leaders, their satisfaction with the amount of information provided by management and perceptions about leader’s honesty, integrity, and ability to motivate employees.” Supervisors “Employees’ opinions about their immediate supervisor’s job performance, how well supervisors give employees the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills, and the extent to which employees feel supervisors support employee development and provide worthwhile feedback about job performance.” First, let’s explore how the meta-competency agile learning capability is related to the fundamental competencies and the Five ECQs. Leaders who demonstrate mastery of this meta-competency have developed competence in three leadership behavior clusters. First, they are continuous learners, seeking opportunities to develop new skills that contribute to successfully achieving the agency’s mission. Second, they take advantage of opportunities to bring a fresh perspective to the workforce that effectively contributes to achieving the agency’s mission. Third, they inspire the workforce to be continual learners, looking for opportunities to develop new skills relevant to the agency’s mission. First, agile learning capability relates to the fundamental competency continual learning—assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues self-development. And it also maps to three of the ECQs. Second, it relates to the ECQ Leading Change and two of its competencies: • Creativity and innovation—Develops new insights into situations, questions conventional approaches, encourages new ideas and innovations; designs and implements new or cutting edge programs/processes. • Flexibility—Is open to change and new information; rapidly adapts to new information, changing conditions, or unexpected obstacles. Third, it relates to the ECQ Leading People and its competency developing others—Develops the ability of others to perform and contribute to the organization by providing ongoing feedback and by providing opportunities to learn through formal and informal methods. Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors

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Fourth, it relates to the ECQ Results Driven and its competency entrepreneurship— Positions the organization for future success by identifying new opportunities; builds the organization by developing or improving products or services. The four Leadership Meta-Competencies relate to the Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership: empowerment, fairness, leaders, and supervisors. Agile learning capability relates to the fourth of the Dimensions of Effective Leadership: supervisors, defined as “Employees’ opinions about their immediate supervisor’s job performance, how well supervisors give employees the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills, and the extent to which employees feel supervisors support employee development and provide worthwhile feedback about job performance.” Leaders who demonstrate mastery of adept with ambiguity have developed competence in three leadership behavior clusters. First, in the midst of ambiguity and chaos, they courageously adapt and flex to successfully get things done. Second, they bounce back quickly after challenging demands and setbacks. Third, they demonstrate calm and confidence in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. Adept with ambiguity relates to the ECQ Leading Change and its competencies: • Flexibility—Is open to change and new information; rapidly adapts to new information, changing conditions, or unexpected obstacles. • Resilience—Deals effectively with pressure; remains optimistic and persistent, even under adversity. Recovers quickly from setbacks. Adept with ambiguity relates to the third Dimension of Effective Leadership: leaders, defined as “The level of respect employees have for senior leaders, their satisfaction with the amount of information provided by management (italics added) and perceptions about the leader’s honesty, integrity, and ability to motivate employees.” Leaders who demonstrate mastery of adroit at thinking strategically have developed competence in three leadership behavior clusters. First, they skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information over which they have no control. Second, they think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities. Third, they inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future. Adroit at thinking strategically relates to three ECQs: Leading Change, Results Driven, and Building Coalitions.

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Adroit at thinking strategically relates to the ECQ Leading Change and its competencies: • Strategic thinking—Formulates objectives and priorities, and implements plans consistent with the long-term interests of the organization in a global environment. Capitalizes on opportunities and manages risks. • Vision—Takes a long-term view and builds a shared vision with others; acts as a catalyst for organizational change. Influences others to translate vision into action. Second, it relates to the ECQ Results Driven and its competencies: • Accountability—Holds self and others accountable for measurable high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results. Determines objectives, sets priorities, and delegates work. Accepts responsibility for mistakes. Complies with established control systems and rules. • Decisiveness—Makes well-informed, effective, and timely decisions, even when data are limited or solutions produce unpleasant consequences; perceives the impact and implications of decisions. • Problem solving—Identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; generates and evaluates alternative solutions; makes recommendations. Third, adroit at thinking strategically relates to the ECQ Building Coalitions and its competency partnering—Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals. Adroit at thinking strategically relates to the first Dimension of Effective Leadership, empowerment: “Empowerment is the extent to which employees feel empowered with respect to work processes and how satisfied they are with their involvement in decisions that affect their work” (italics added). It also maps to the third dimension, leaders: “The level of respect employees have for senior leaders, their satisfaction with the amount of information provided by management and perceptions about the leader’s honesty, integrity, and ability to motivate employees” (italics added). Leaders who demonstrate mastery of ambitious drive to execute have developed competence in three leadership behavior clusters. First, they take responsible Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors

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risks to achieve the agency’s strategic goals. Second, they effectively influence and empower the workforce, resulting in full engagement and a passion for contributing to the agency’s mission. Third, they encourage, support, and reward the workforce for taking responsible risks that contribute to the agency’s success. Ambitious drive to execute relates to the fundamental competency: interpersonal skills—treats others with courtesy, sensitivity, and respect. Considers and responds appropriately to the needs and feelings of different people in different situations. It also relates to three of the ECQs. The first ECQ is Leading Change and its competency creativity and innovation—develops new insights into situations, questions conventional approaches, encourages new ideas and innovations; designs and implements new or cutting edge programs/processes. Second, it relates to the ECQ Leading People and its competency team building—inspires and fosters team commitment, spirit, pride, and trust. Facilitates cooperation and motivates team members to accomplish group goals. Third, it relates to the ECQ Building Coalitions and its competency influencing/negotiating—persuades others; builds consensus through give and take; gains cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals. Ambitious drive to execute relates to the first Dimension of Effective Leadership: empowerment. “Empowerment is the extent to which employees feel empowered with respect to work processes and how satisfied they are with their involvement in decisions that affect their work. It also relates to the third dimension, leaders: “The level of respect employees have for senior leaders, their satisfaction with the amount of information provided by management and perceptions about the leader’s honesty, integrity, and ability to motivate employees” (italics added). Public Service Leadership Survey Our Public Service Leadership survey gave us responses from 233 employees in 24 different federal agencies and the intelligence community. The agencies represented are Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Labor, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Customs and Border Protection, Defense Contract Management Agency, Department of Agriculture,

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Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Farm Credit Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Food and Drug Administration, General Services Administration, Internal Revenue Service, National Institute of Health, National Park Service, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Personnel Management, Social Security Administration, and Veterans Affairs. We designed our survey to measure leadership behavior clusters that comprise our four Leadership Meta-Competencies: agile learning capability, adept with ambiguity, adroit at thinking strategically, and ambitious drive to execute. Our twelve-question survey asked three questions measuring leadership behavior clusters for each of the four meta-competencies. We asked our respondents to rank their answers using a five-point scale: 1 = Almost Never, 2 = Infrequently, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Frequently, and 5 = Almost Always. Public Service Leadership Survey Highlights Our respondents’ answers to the statements on the twelve public service leadership behavior clusters ranged from 4.27 to 4.47, with a mean response of 4.36. The four meta-competencies were ranked by our respondents as: adroit at thinking strategically (4.39), a tie between agile learning capability and adept with ambiguity (both 4.36), and ambitious drive to execute (4.31). We have reproduced the survey items in the following section and indicated the ratings and average rating responses for each of the twelve leadership behavior clusters. We gave our survey participants the following direction:

Please take a moment to think about extraordinary public service leaders you have known during your career—someone you admired and willingly followed. They were highly credible—honest, competent, and inspirational. You knew where they were leading the agency, and you wanted to go there with them. For each question below, please rate these extraordinary public service leaders on the frequency with which you have observed them demonstrate these leadership behaviors.

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Public Service Leadership Survey Results 1. They are continuous learners, seeking opportunities to develop new skills that contribute to successfully achieving the agency’s mission.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

0.4% (1)

0.4% (1)

9.9% (23)

39.9% (93)

2.

Average Rating

Responses

49.4% (115)

4.37

233

They take advantage of opportunities to bring a fresh perspective to the workforce that effectively contributes to achieving the agency’s mission.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

0% (0)

1.3% (3)

8.2% (19)

43.3% (101)

47.2% (110)

4.36

233

3.

They inspire the workforce to be continual learners, looking for opportunities to develop new skills relevant to the agency’s mission.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

0% (0)

0.4% (1)

10.3% (24)

42.5% (99)

4.

214

Almost Always

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

46.8% (109)

4.36

233

They take responsible risks to achieve the agency’s strategic goals.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

0% (0)

0.4% (1)

12% (28)

43.3% (101)

44.2% (103)

4.31

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5.

They effectively influence and empower the workforce, resulting in full engagement and a passion for contributing to the agency’s mission.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

0% (0)

0.4% (1)

11.2% (26)

40.8% (95)

6.

Average Rating

Responses

47.6% (111)

4.36

233

They encourage, support and reward the workforce for taking responsible risks that contribute to the agency’s success.

Almost Never

Infrequently

0.4% (1)

1.3% (3) 12% (28)

7.

Almost Always

Sometimes

Frequently

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

43.8% (102)

42.5% (99)

4.27

233

In the midst of ambiguity and chaos, they courageously adapt and flex to successfully get things done.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

0% (0)

0% (0)

12.9% (30)

45.9% (107)

41.2% (96)

4.28

233

8.

They bounce back quickly after challenging demands and setbacks.

Almost Never

Infrequently

0% (0)

0.4% (1) 10.7% (25)

9.

Sometimes

Frequently

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

43.3% (101)

45.5% (106)

4.34

233

They demonstrate calm and confidence in the midst of chaos and ambiguity.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

0% (0)

1.7% (4)

5.6% (13)

36.9% (86)

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

55.8% (130)

4.47

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215

10.

They skillfully juggle competing demands and incomplete or inaccurate information over which they have no control.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

0% (0)

0% (0)

11.6% (27)

44.2% (103)

44.2% (103)

4.33

233

11.

They think beyond the immediate horizon, linking future objectives to current realities.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Almost Sometimes Frequently Always

Average Rating

Responses

0% (0)

0.4% (1)

7.3% (17)

4.46

233

12.

37.8% (88) 54.5% (127)

They inspire a clear, compelling vision of the agency’s future.

Almost Never

Infrequently

Sometimes

Frequently

0% (0)

0.9% (2)

9% (21)

39.9% (93)

Almost Always

Average Rating

Responses

50.2% (117)

4.39

233

Public Service Leadership Survey Results Summary Our four Leadership Meta-Competencies were measured by asking for responses to three statements representing leadership behavior clusters for each of the four meta-competencies. The first three questions measured agile learning capability. Ambitious drive to execute was measured by questions four through six. (After conducting our survey, we decided that “execution” should logically be the final competency addressed as it seems appropriate in a linear way. We had not thought of that when we were still in our “research” phase.) Adept with ambiguity was measured by questions seven through nine. Adroit at thinking strategically was measured by questions ten through twelve.

Agile Learning Capability This meta-competency was rated 4.36—second among the four by our respondents. These results are supported by the research we have presented and the interviews we conducted.

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Ambitious Drive to Execute Our respondents rated this meta-competency lowest of the four, at 4.31. The third leadership behavior cluster in ambitious drive to execute—“They encourage, support and reward the workforce for taking responsible risks that contribute to the agency’s success”—was rated 4.27, lowest of the twelve public service leadership behavior clusters. This finding is supported by Jim Kouzes and Barry Pozner’s research reported in Encouraging the Heart (2003) and The Leadership Challenge (2007), in which they learned that leaders who take the Leadership Practices Inventory 360-degree Assessment consistently get rated lowest on providing personal recognition and encouragement to their constituents for making contributions to an organization’s mission. Adept with Ambiguity This meta-competency was rated 4.36 by our respondents— third among the four. This is supported by the findings reported in the Fast Company article we cited earlier, “This Is Generation Flux: Meet the Pioneers of the New (and Chaotic) Frontier of Business” (Safian, 2012). Adroit at Thinking Strategically This meta-competency was rated at 4.39 by our respondents—highest among the four. We believe there are two reasons: 1.

The meta-competency is composed of two of three competencies—vision and strategic thinking—that are lowest-scored government-wide on the OPM Leadership 360, when ranking scores based on all rater averages. When asking observers to think of great agency leaders, we believe they would likely and logically think of leaders who excel in this category.

2.

Effective Leadership is one of the lowest-rated workplace categories among the Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership, with a score of 49.3 out of 100 in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government 2011 Rankings. Federal employees want their senior leaders to be less tactical and more strategic. They want them to inspire a clear, compelling future vision and to motivate and empower the workforce to be fully engaged and focused on mission execution. This is reflected in the 2011 Best Places to Work survey results in the “Supervisor” dimension, in which federal workers have shown that they want more Effective Leadership Behaviors from their supervisors.

We made one final observation: among public sector employees there appears to be a blurred boundary between the concepts of “leader” and “manager.” This Appendix A: Four Themes and Five Independent Factors

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confusion is also reflected in the OPM Leadership Survey in four competencies that can be found in the ECQ Business Acumen, which is composed of three management competencies that are not leadership competencies—financial management, human capital management, and technology management—and in the ECQ Leading Change, in the competency technical credibility. This blurring is also found in the Four Dimensions of Effective Leadership in the second dimension, Fairness, which is also a management competency, not a leadership competency.

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A P P E N D I X B : S U G G E S T E D R E A D I N G

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Lee, G., & Diane, E. L. (2006). Courage: The Backbone of Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lee, H. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Lehrer, J. (2010). The Decisive Moment: How the Brain Makes Up Its Mind. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate Ltd. Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lencioni, P. (2005). Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lencioni, P. (2005). Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Linkner, J. (2011). Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Loehr, J. (2007). The Power of Story: Change Your Story, Change Your Destiny in Business and in Life. New York: Free Press. Loehr, J. (2012). The Only Way to Win: How Building Character Drives Higher Achievement and Greater Fulfillment in Business and Life. New York: Hyperion. Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press. Mayer, R., & Gavin, M. (2005). “Trust in Management and Performance: Who Minds the Shop While the Employees Watch the Boss?” Academy of Management Journal, 48(5), 874–888. McGrath, R. G., & MacMillan, I. (2000). The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunities in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College. McKee, A., Boyatzis, R., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a Resonant Leader. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. McKeown, M. (2012). Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Limited. Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. Morrell, M., & Capparell, S. (2002). Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. New York: Penguin Books. Mourkogiannis, N. (2006). Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave MacMillan. Musselwhite, C. (2004). Dangerous Opportunity: Making Change Work. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation. Nothhaft, H., & Kline, D. (2011). Great Again: Revitalizing America’s Entrepreneurial Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. O’Leary, R., & Bingham, L. (2009). The Collaborative Public Manager: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

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Olsen, E. (2006). Strategic Planning for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Oshry, B. (2007). Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., & McMillan, R. (2008). Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. New York: McGraw-Hill. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2002). Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill. Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2005). Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. New York: McGraw-Hill. Paul, M. (2003). It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys. New York: Penguin Putnam. Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2002). Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Peragine, J. N. (2007). 365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed to Build Trust and Encourage Teamwork among Employees. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group. Pittampalli, A. (2011). Read This Before Our Next Meeting: The Modern Meeting Standard for Successful Organizations. Irvington, NY: The Domino Project/Do You Zoom. Porter, L. W., et al. (2003). Organizational Influence Process (2nd ed.). New York: Sharpe. Portney, S. E. (2010). Project Management for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Pottruck, D. S., & Pearce, T. (2000). Clicks and Mortar: Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Quinn, R. E. (1996). Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Quinn, R. E. (2004). Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide for Leading Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Reardon, K. (2001). The Secret Handshake: Mastering the Politics of the Business Inner Circle. New York: Currency/Doubleday. Reardon, K. (2005). It’s All Politics: Winning at Work Where Hard Work and Talent Aren’t Enough. New York: Currency/New York. Reiman, J. (2013). The Story of Purpose: The Path to Creating a Brighter Brand, a Greater Company, and a Lasting Legacy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2008). Building Conflict Competent Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2010). Developing Your Conflict Competence: A Hands-On Guide for Leaders, Managers, Facilitators, and Teams. San Francisco: Wiley. Runde, C., & Flanagan, T. (2013). Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Wiley. Ryan, C. (1955). The Longest Day. New York: Simon & Schuster. Schley, B. (2013). The Unstoppables: Tapping Entrepreneurial Power. San Francisco: Wiley.

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Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, (Revised). New York: Doubleday. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., & Smith, B. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., & Roth, G. (1999). The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. New York: Doubleday. Senge, P., Scharmer, C. O., Jaworski, J., & Flowers, B. S. (2005). Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society. New York: Doubleday. Shenk, David. (1998). Data Smog. New York: HarperOne. Siebert, A. (2005). The Resiliency Advantage: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back from Setbacks. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Simons, T. (2008). The Integrity Dividend. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sloane, J. (2006). Learning to Think Strategically. Oxford: Elsevier. Staub, R. E. (2002). The 7 Acts of Courage: Bold Leadership for a Wholehearted Life. Oak Ridge, NC: Staub Leadership Consultants. Staub, R. E. (2007). The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of Courageous Leaders. Oak Ridge, NC: Staub Leadership Consultants. Stein, S., & Book, H. (2011). The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sugarman, J., Scullard, M., & Wilhelm, E. (2011). The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder. New York: Random House. Thornberry, N. (2006). Lead Like an Entrepreneur. New York: McGraw-Hill. Toffler, A. (1970). Future Shock. New York: Random House. Wetzel, S. R. (2007). Feedback That Works: How to Build and Deliver Your Message. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership. Zakaria, F. (2012). The Post American World: Release 2.0. New York: Norton.

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R E F E R E N C E S

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References

A B O U T

T H E

A U T H O R S

Tim A. Flanagan operates Custom Leadership Solutions with his wife, Virginia “Mac” Flanagan. He is a visiting program director for leadership, change, and conflict classes sponsored by the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In this role he designs and delivers classes and workshops for a variety of government agencies. Tim also teaches for the Management and Executive Education program at the Crummer Business School, Rollins College, and is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Conflict Dynamics. He earned his B.A. at Muskingum College and his M.A. at the Ohio State University. Tim worked in higher education for eight years before entering the executive and organizational development field in 1985. His experience includes senior and mid-level leadership roles with the Leadership Development Institute (a network affiliate of the Center for Creative Leadership), the Harris Corporation, Development Dimensions International, and the American Automobile Association. He is a frequent presenter at professional conferences and has consulted with hundreds of leading public and private sector organizations. Tim is the coauthor of Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader (Jossey-Bass, 2007, 2013), Building Conflict Competent Teams (Jossey-Bass, 2008), and Developing Your Conflict Competence (Jossey-Bass, 2010). He is also coauthor of the acclaimed training program Becoming Conflict Competent. Tim and his wife, Mac, reside in St. Petersburg, Florida, with their faithful companion Roovy, the amazing black Lab.

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John S. Lybarger serves his public sector clients as an organizational development consultant, program manager, curriculum designer, facilitator, and executive coach through Lybarger & Associates, Inc., founded in 1993. Throughout his career, John has designed and facilitated numerous courses that have built stronger leaders, created sustainable culture change, and empowered teams. His most recent experience has included contract work with the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Western Management Development Center (WMDC), where he has codesigned, managed, and facilitated numerous leadership courses. He has served as a visiting program manager leading multi-million-dollar custom organizational development projects for several government agencies, including Department of the Treasury (U.S. Mint and Internal Revenue Service), Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, and Defense Contract Management Agency. Additionally, he has codesigned and facilitated custom courses for the U.S. Army, Social Security Administration, Food Safety and Inspection Services, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, and the Pacific Leadership Academy. John has earned a Ph.D. and an MBA from California Coast University, an M.S. in counseling from California State University at Fullerton, and a B.S. in Christian education from Biola University. He is a certified executive coach, certified master trainer, and certified facilitator in numerous courses and experiential activities. John lives in Erie, Colorado.

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I N D E X

A Ability: definition of, 12; to learn rapidly through experience, 36–37 Accountability competency development, 165–166 Accountability partners, 196 Acknowledging: baseball example on rewarding efforts and not punishing mistakes, 135–137; developing competency in encouraging others, rewarding, and, 183; others’ contributions, 125 Adaptability: development of competency, 166; as element of adept with ambiguity competency, 40, 43–46; Kirton’s postulate on creativity and adaptive thinking, 132–134 Adaptive thinking: comparing innovative and, 133; The Hanger Case exercise on, 134–135 Adept with ambiguity competency: adaptability and flexibility component of, 40, 43–46; bouncing back after demands and setbacks, 41, 54–62; components of the, 6t, 40–41; demonstrating confidence amidst chaos and ambiguity, 41, 62–70; Ed’s story on, 43–46; Hal’s story on positive outcome of, 2–3; inadequate information and need for, 39–40; as one of the Leadership MetaCompetencies, 1; Public Service Leadership Assessment scoring and interpretation on, 146, 147, 149. See also Four Leadership MetaCompetencies model Adroit at thinking strategically competency: components of the, 6t; description and examples of, 73–77; inspiring a vision of the future, 77, 91–104; Oliver’s story on, 76; as one of the Leadership Meta-Competencies, 1; power of dialogue for improving, 75–76; Public Service Leadership Assessment scoring and interpretation on, 147, 149; skillfully juggling competing

demands and incomplete information, 77, 79–88; thinking beyond the immediate horizon, 77, 88–91; why it is important, 77–79. See also Four Leadership Meta-Competencies model; Strategies Agile learners, 37 Agile learning capability competency: agilely acquiring new skills component of, 6t, 12, 21–30; agility, learning, and capability elements of, 12–13, 36–37; creating a learning climate component of, 6t, 12, 30–35; as one of the Leadership MetaCompetencies, 1; passionately learning component of, 6t, 12, 13–20; Public Service Leadership Assessment scoring and interpretation on, 146, 147, 149; questions to consider for building, 35. See also Change; Four Leadership MetaCompetencies model Agilely acquiring new skills: agile learning capability competency component of, 6t; description of, 12, 21–22; processing large quantities of information for, 27–30; seeking fresh perspectives for, 25–27; taking advantage of opportunities for, 22–25 Allen, Tim, 59 al-Queda, 108 Amazon’s S3, 28 Ambiguity: adaptability and flexibility responses to, 43–46; creating meaning in a void or, 41; demonstrating confidence amidst, 41, 62–70; developing competency in coping with chaos and, 170; getting comfortable with, 40, 46–50; information overload leading to, 46; lack of information leading to, 46–47; making meaning out of chaos and, 41; responding with enthusiasm to, 55, 60–62 Ambitious drive to execute competency: components of the, 6t; encouraging others to engage

231

in responsible risk-taking for, 110, 130–140; Gabrielle Giffords’s story on, 108; influencing and empowering others for, 109, 119–129; Lance Armstrong as example of irresponsible, 109; as one of the Leadership Meta-Competencies, 1; practicing responsible risk-taking for, 109; Public Service Leadership Assessment scoring and interpretation on, 147, 150; Zero Dark Thirty (film) depiction of example of, 107–109. See also Four Leadership Meta-Competencies model Apache Hadoop, 28 Apollo 13 (film), 82, 90–91 Apollo 13 mission (1970), 67–68 Apartheid (South Africa), 8 Armstrong, Lance, 109 Assessments: Benchmarks 360 (Center for Creative Leadership), 188; Coaching Behaviors Inventory, 188; Conflict Dynamics Profile (Center for Conflict Dynamics), 65, 188; Coping and Stress Profile (Inscape Publishing), 188; Decision Style Profile (Discovery Learning), 189; Emotional Intelligence Appraisal (TalentSmart), 189; EQi 2.0 Model of Emotional Intelligence Leadership Report (Multi-health Systems), 190; Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders (Inscape Publishing), 189; Everything DiSC 363 Workplace Profile (Inscape Publishing), 190; Everything DiSC work of Leaders (Inscape Publishing), 189; Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) [Manfred F. R. Ket de Vries, Jossey-Bass], 190; for individual and specific leadership competencies, 165–187; Influence Style Indicator (Discovery Learning), 190; Kirton AdaptionInnovation (KAI), 190; Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) [Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer], 75, 191–192; OPM Leadership 360, 75, 192–193; Political Savvy Assessment (Brandon Partners), 193; Political Skill Inventory, 193; Public Service Leadership Assessment, 3–4, 143–148; recommended for specific leadership competency, 165–187; U.S. Office of Personnel Management website on recommended, 164 Atkins, Andy, 166

B Baltimore Ravens, 113–114 BarOn EQ-360, 75 Baseball leadership example, 135–136 Benchmarks 360 (Center for Creative Leadership), 188 “Bend but don’t break” concept, 43 Bennis, W., 91

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“Big data”: 80-20 rule on, 29; SPA: store, process, and access definition of, 28; three Vs (volume, variety, velocity) of, 28. See also Information bin Laden, Osama, 107, 108 Blanchard, Ken, 43 Block, P., 91 Block, Peter, 84–85 blogs.forrester.com, 28 Book resources: on accountability competency, 165–166; on adaptability competency, 166; on building trust, 167; on coaching and developing other, 167–168; on collaboration and partnering, 168; on conflict management, 168–169; on continual learning (self-actualization), 169–170; on coping with ambiguity and chaos, 170; on courageousness, 171; on creativity and innovation, 171–172; on critical thinking, 172; on decisiveness and decision making, 172; development benefits of reading, 165; on dialogue skills, 173; on emotional intelligence, 173–174; on empowering others, 174; on engaging others, 174–175; on entrepreneurship, 175; on flexibility, 176; on forward thinking, 176; on influencing/negotiation, 177; on initiative, 177; on inspiring shared vision, 177–178; on interpersonal skills, 178– 179; on juggling competing demands, 179; on leading change, 180; on making meetings work, 181; on political savvy, 181; on problem solving, 182; on project management, 182; on purpose driven, 182; on resiliency, 183; on rewarding and encouraging others, 183; on risk-taking, 183–184; on strategic planning and thinking, 184–185; on stress tolerance, 185; on systems thinking, 185–186; on team building, 186; on time management, 186; on work/life balance, 187. See also Leadership Development Plan Bouncing back: as adept with ambiguity skill, 41, 54–55; Amber’s story on, 56–57; persisting and “stick-to-itiveness” aspect of, 41, 57–59; from setbacks, 41, 55–57 Bradberry, T., 173 Braveheart (film), 55 Breathing exercise, 64 Building a shared vision discipline, 31, 185 Building trust. See Trust

C Candidate Development Program, 162–163 Capability, definition of, 12–13 Carpenter, M. S., 47, 49 Carr, David, 135 Cartier-Bresson, H., 7 Center for Conflict Dynamics, 65

Center for Creative Leadership, 56 Change: development of competency in leading, 180; how changing our stories results in our, 74; new “ripple effect” metaphor for, 11; old “domino effect” metaphor for, 11; “Shaping the Path” metaphor on, 138–139. See also Agile learning capacity competency Change effort visions: characteristics of a, 92; effectively communicating your, 93 Chaos: adapting and flexing in the midst of, 40, 41–54; demonstrating confidence amidst, 41, 62–70; developing competency in coping with ambiguity and, 170; making meaning out of, 41, 50–54 Chastain, Jessica, 107 Churchill, Winston, 63 Clarifying purpose-driven strategies: inspiring a vision of the future by, 77, 96; Katie’s story on learning value of, 97–104 Clarity: empowerment by providing, 129; of purpose-driven strategies, 77, 96–104 Coaching: developing leadership competency in, 167–168; enabling others to act through, 126–129; for GS-14/15 employees, 163; The Karate Kid (film) example of, 126–128. See also Mentoring Coaching Behaviors Inventory, 188 Coaching Tips for Job Seekers (Lybarger), 84 Collaboration and partnering: developing leadership competency in, 168; fostering through trust, 126, 129; team development for, 122–129 “Common sense,” 44 Communication: email, 52–53; fostering relationships with open, honest, and frequent, 123–124; having trust in the, 123; interpersonal skills including oral and written, 178; perspective taking and listening skills for, 124; telephone, 52; texting, 53; of your change effort vision, 93. See also Dialogue Communication trust, 123 Compelling forward momentum: inspiring a vision of the future by, 77; Julianne’s story on, 95–96; Marlene’s story on, 93–95 Competence trust, 123 Competing demands: development of competency in, 179; learning to juggle, 77; Olivia’s story on juggling, 80–82 Confidence. See Demonstrating confidence Conflict Dynamics Profile (Center for Conflict Dynamics), 65, 188 Conflict management competency, 168–169 “Congress on Your Corner” shooting, 108 Continually learning: as component of passionately learning, 12; developing competency in,

169–170; short list of ideas for, 17–18; sustaining a practice of, 16–18 Contractual trust, 123 Cooling down tips: breathing deeply, 64; prevent stress by making a list, 65–66; take a break, 65 Coping and Stress Profile (Inscape Publishing), 188 Courageousness competency, 171 Creating learning climate: agile learning capability competency component of, 6t; description of, 12, 30–31; energizing the environment for, 12, 32–35; inspiring others for, 12, 32; recalibrating skills, 12, 36 Creativity: development competency in, 171–172; The Hanger Case exercise on, 134–135; Kirton’s postulate on innovative thinking for, 132–134 Crimson Tide (film), 41–43 Critical thinking competency, 172 Crosby, P., 16

D “Data asphyxiation,” 51 D-Day invasion (World War II), 117–118 Decision making: “decisive moment” in, 7–8; developing competency in decisiveness and, 172; how to use information for, 27–30; intelligent pause for reflection during process of, 112; by South Africa’s National Sports Council, 82–83, 89, 90; theory on analysis, judging, and deciding components of, 28; To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) on ethical and responsible, 110–111 Decision Style Profile (Discovery Learning), 189 Decisions: based on knowledge and aligned with the mission, 111; critical dialogue includes reflecting on our own, 75; 80-percent rule on, 29–30; Invictus (film) on Nelson Mandela’s series of, 8–9, 82–83, 89, 90, 118–119 “Decisive moment” concept, 7–8 Demanding rationale and learning: encouraging others’ responsible risk-taking by, 110, 137–140; “Shaping the Path” metaphor on, 138–139; Star Trek’s story on the Kobayashi Maru simulation example of, 139–140 Demonstrating confidence: amidst chaos and ambiguity, 41, 62–70; building self-confidence for, 68–70; focusing on the facts, 66–68; Greg’s story on, 62–63; managing stress and pressure by, 63–64, 66; tips for cooling down, 64–66 Department of Defense, 3, 62, 87, 93 Descartes, René, 39 Dialogue: becoming adroit at thinking strategically through, 76; clarifying questions used to facilitate, 94; developing competency in skills for, 172–173; juggling incomplete or inaccurate

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information using, 83–84; learning to think strategically by changing our internal, 75–76. See also Communication “Dialogue: Now You’re Talking!” (Quality Media Resources), 172–173 Die Hard (film), 16 “Domino effect” metaphor, 11 Dragnet (TV show), 66 Drinking from a fire hose metaphor, 54 Driving to action: practicing responsible risktaking by, 109; swimming pool accident story on need for caution when, 112–113; To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) on, 110–111

E 80-20 rule on information, 29 80-percent rule on decisions, 29–30 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 117–118, 137 Email: color coding to prioritize, 53; using it wisely, 52–53 Embracing the mission: Eisenhower’s D-Day invasion example of, 117–118; how it allows you to take risks, 119; how to go about, 116–117; Martin Luther King Jr.’s passion for, 119; Nelson Mandela’s actions for, 118–119; practicing responsible risk-taking by, 109 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 107 Emotional intelligence competency, 173–174 Emotional Intelligence Appraisal (TalentSmart), 189 Emotions: fostering relationships strategies that appeal to the, 122–129; understanding that relationships are based on, 121 The Empowered Manager (Block), 84–85 Empowerment: developing competency in, 174; enabling others to act as, 126–128; The Karate Kid (film) example of, 127–128; leadership skills for, 128–129. See also Influencing and empowering others Enabling others to act: empowerment by, 126–129; The Karate Kid (film) example of, 126–128 Encouraging and rewarding others competency, 183 Encouraging innovative thinking: ambitious drive to execute competency by, 110; Kirton’s postulate on creativity and, 132–134 Encouraging responsible risk-taking: ambitious drive to execute competency by, 110; by demanding rationale and learning, 110, 137–140; by encouraging innovative thinking, 110, 132–135; Gabriel’s story on, 130–132; The Hanger Case exercise on, 134–135; by rewarding efforts and not punishing mistakes, 110, 135–137 Energizing the environment, 12, 32–35

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Engaging others competency, 174–175 Enthusiasm: Kara’s story on, 60–62; responding to uncertainty with, 55, 60–62 Entrepreneurship competency development, 175 EQi 2.0 Model of Emotional Intelligence Leadership Report (Multi-health Systems), 190 Everyday Creativity (video), 26 Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders (Inscape Publishing), 189 Everything DiSC 363 Workplace Profile (Inscape Publishing), 190 Everything DiSC Work of Leaders (Inscape Publishing), 189 Everything DiSC Workplace Profile (Inscape Publishing), 95 Experiential conditions, 56 External awareness competency, 175

F Federal Executive Candidate Development Program, 162–163 The Fifth Discipline (Senge), 30–31 Fight, flight, and freeze responses, 47, 48, 51 Finch, Atticus (To Kill a Mockingbird character), 111 First Annual Leadership Showcase, 33, 34–35 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni), 123 Flanagan, T., 27, 124 Flexibility: developing competency in, 40, 43–46; as element of adept with ambiguity competency, 88 Flight (film), 21 Focusing forward thinking, 77, 90 Forward thinking competency, 176 Fostering relationships: enabling others to act for, 126–129; influencing and empowering others by, 121–129; mutual respect, acknowledgment, and gain for, 125–126; open, honest, and frequent communication for, 123–124; providing a safe work climate for, 122; providing assistance for, 124–125; through trust, 122–123 Four Leadership Meta-Competencies model: example of positive outcomes of the, 2–3; introduction to adept with ambiguity component of, 1, 6t; introduction to adroit at thinking strategically component of, 1, 3, 6t; introduction to agile learning capability component of, 1, 6t; introduction to ambitious drive to execute component to, 1, 6t; Public Service Leadership Assessment based on the, 3–4, 143–149; understanding the interwoven nature of the, 4–6. See also Leadership; specific component Fresh perspectives, 12, 25–27 Friday, Sergeant Joe (Dragnet character), 66 Future Shock (Toffler), 51

G Galaxy Quest (film), 59 Gallup Q12 on great managing, 79 Gaultieri, Mike, 28 Gavin, M., 123 Generative learning, 31 Gibson, Mel, 16, 55 Giffords, Gabrielle, 108 Gladwell, Malcolm, 5 Glenn, John, 49 Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) [Manfred F. R. Ket de Vries, Jossey-Bass], 190 Glover, Danny, 16 Greaves, J., 173 Griffiths, Edward, 83 Grissom, Gus, 49 Gross, Bertram, 51 GS-14/15 employees: description of, 162–163; executive coaching for, 163

H Hackman, Gene, 42 Haise, Fred, 67 The Hanger Case exercise, 134–135 Harbaugh, Coach, 114 Harris, Ed, 82 Heath, Chip, 138 Heath, Dan, 138 Hemispheres (magazine), 135 Honest communication, 123–124 “How Leaders Build Trust” (Atkins), 166 HP’s Vertica, 28 Hudson, Betty Jo “BJ,” 58

I “I have a dream...” speech (King), 119 Incomplete or inaccurate information, 77, 82–84 Influence Style Indicator (Discovery Learning), 190 Influencing and empowering others: ambitious drive to execute competency by, 109; developing competency in, 176–177; fostering relationships for, 121–129; as important leadership trait, 119–120; leading by example for, 120–121. See also Empowerment Influencing/negotiating competency, 176–177 Information: Apollo 13 mission (1970) example of focusing on the facts, 67–68; being adept with ambiguity in case of inadequate, 39–40, 46–47; 80-20 rule on, 29; juggling incomplete or inaccurate, 77, 83–84; strategic processing large quantities of, 12, 27–30. See also “Big data”

Information overload: ambiguity due to, 41, 46; making meaning out of chaos, 41, 50–54; origins of the term, 51; suggestions for managing, 52–54 Informed respites, 112 Innovation competency development, 171–172 Innovative thinking: comparing adaptive and, 133; The Hanger Case exercise on, 134–135; Kirton’s postulate on creativity and, 110, 132–134 Inspire (inspirare or to breathe upon), 91 Inspiring a vision of the future: for adroit at thinking strategically competency, 77; clarifying purpose-driven strategies, 77, 96–104; compelling forward momentum, 77, 93–96; description of, 91; painting a picture of the agency’s future, 77, 91–93 Inspiring others, 12, 32 Inspiring shared vision competency, 177–178 Intelligent pause, 112 Interaction Association in Boston, 166 International Center for Epistemology Studies, 23 Internet research, 53 Interpersonal skills competency, 178–179 Initiative competency development, 177 Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming (O’Connor and Seymour), 5 Invictus (film), 8–9, 82–83, 89, 90, 118–119

J “Job-hoppers,” 11 Joint duty assignments (JDAs), 162–163 Jones, DeWitt, 11, 26 Journal reading, 54 Juggling competing demands: development of competency in, 179; leadership skill of, 77; Olivia’s story on, 80–82; practical suggestions for strengthening your competency in, 87–88 Juggling incomplete or inaccurate information: Apollo 13 film on successful, 82; Bob’s story on using dialogue for, 83–84; Invictus film on successful, 82–83; leadership skill of, 77; practical suggestions for strengthening your competency in, 87–88

K Kalsbeek, Dave “Beek,” 22, 25 The Karate Kid (film), 126–128 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 63, 119, 137 Kirk, Captain James T. (Star Trek character), 139–140 Kirton, Michael, 132–134 Kirton Adaption-Innovation (KAI), 190 Kissinger, Henry, 129

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Kobayashi Maru simulation (Star Trek TV show), 140 Kouzes, Jim, 91, 126 Krantz, Gene, 82, 90

L Leaders: ability to adapt to new situations, 40, 43–46; allowing their vulnerability to show, 123; differentiating between managers and, 7–9; listing hardships and failures of great, 59; strategically applying information, 12, 27–30; who respond to ambiguity with enthusiasm, 55, 60–62 Leadership: growing need for effective, 9; as a journal, 55–56; Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of, 126; opportunities for learning from experience, 55–56; situational, 43–46; skills for empowerment, 128–129. See also Four Leadership MetaCompetencies model The Leadership Challenge (Kouzes and Posner), 126 Leadership competencies development: accountability, 165–166; adaptability, 166; building trust, 166–167; coaching and developing others, 167–168; collaboration and partnering, 168; conflict management, 168–169; continual learning (self-actualization), 169–170; coping with ambiguity and chaos, 170; courageousness, 171; creativity and innovation, 171–172; critical thinking, 172; decisiveness and decision making, 172; dialogue skills, 172–173; emotional intelligence, 173–174; empowering others, 174; engaging others, 174–175; entrepreneurship, 175; external awareness, 175; flexibility, 176; forward thinking, 176; influencing/negotiating, 176–177; initiative, 177; inspiring shared vision, 177–178; interpersonal skills, 178–179; juggling competing demands, 179; leading change, 180; making meetings work, 180–181; political savvy, 281; problem solving, 181–182; purpose driven, 182; resiliency, 182–183; rewarding and encouraging others, 183; risk-taking, 183–184; strategic planning, 184; strategic thinking, 184–185; stress tolerance, 185; summary of leadership competencies, 187; systems thinking, 185–186; team building, 186; time management, 186; work/life balance, 186–187 Leadership Development Plan: additional recommended assessments to use for your, 188–193; find a model or mentor, 157–162, 194–195; form to use for your, 194–196; using Four Leadership Meta-Competencies and Clusters to create your, 150–157; joint duty assignments (JDAs) or developmental assignment details, 162–163;

236

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take a class, 164; take an assessment, 164; work with an executive coach, 163. See also Book resources; Public Service Leadership Assessment Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) [Jossey-Bass/ Pfeiffer], 75, 191–192 Leadership Showcase, 33, 34–35 Learners: agile, 37; continuous learning by, 12, 16–18, 169–170 Learning: acquiring a passion for, 12, 14–16; continually, 12, 16–18, 169–170; definition of, 12; demanding rationale and learning, 110, 137– 140; experiential conditions that bring about, 56; passionately, 6t, 12, 13–20 Learning climate: agile learning capability competency component of creating, 6t; description of process of creating, 12, 30–31; energizing the environment to create, 12, 32–35; inspiring others for creating, 12, 32; recalibrating skills in, 12, 36 Learning forward: Chloe’s story on, 18–20; focusing on the passion for learning by, 12, 18; key points for, 20 Learning generative, 31 Learning to Think Strategically (Sloan), 75 Lee, Harper, 110 Leisure activities, 54 Lencioni, Patrick, 123 Lethal Weapon (film), 16 Letting go: Matt’s story on knowing when to engage in, 85–87; when you have no control, 84–85 “Letting Go” (Lybarger), 84 Lincoln, Abraham, 39, 59, 63 Linking current realities to future objectives, 77, 90–91 Listening skills, 124 Loehr, Jim, 74 Lovell, Jim, 67 LRV (little red Volvo), 58 Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), 90

M Macchio, Ralph, 126–127 Making meetings work competency, 180–181 Managers: developing project management competency, 182; differentiating between leaders and, 7–9; Gallup Q12 on twelve elements of great managing by, 79 The Managing of Organizations (Gross), 51 Mandela, Nelson: demanding rationale and learning, 137; on his stay at the Pollsmoor Prison (Robben Island), 90; vision of South Africa promoted by, 8–9, 82–83, 89, 90, 118–119 Marcus Aurelius, 107

Mayer, R., 123 Meeting leadership competency, 180–181 Mental models discipline, 31, 185 Mentees: benefits to, 159; characteristics of good, 160; core skills required of, 162; find a mentor or role model, 157–158; tips for, 161 Mentoring: benefits to agency, 159; characteristics of good relationships, 161; core skills required for, 161–162; enabling others to act through, 126–129; The Karate Kid (film) example of, 126– 128; Leadership Development Plan on, 157–162, 194–195; what it is not, 158. See also Coaching Mentors: benefits of mentoring to, 158; characteristics of good, 160; core skills required of, 162; find a role model or, 157–158; what they do, 159–160 Mercury astronauts, 47–50 Mid-career leaders preparation, 11 “The Miracle on the Hudson,” 22 Mission: decisions based on knowledge and aligned with the, 111; practicing responsible risk-taking by embracing the, 116–119. See also Vision Mission Control (Apollo 13 mission), 67–68 Mitigating tactical thinking, 77, 89 Morita, Pat, 126–127 Muskingum College, 23, 25 Mutual respect, 125–126

N Nanus, B., 91 NASA Cape Canaveral, 48 National Sports Council of South Africa, 82–83, 89, 90 Newsgroup notifications, 53 Nike’s “Just do it” commercial, 110

O O’Connor, J., 5 Office of the Director of National Intelligence Chief Human Capital Office website, 163 Ohio State University, 57 Online notification services, 53 Open communication, 124 Operation Neptune (D-Day invasion), 117–118 Operation Overlord (World War II), 117, 118 OPM Leadership 360, 75, 192–193 Opportunities: for learning through experience, 55–56; success tied to speed of embracing, 22; for taking advantage of learning new skills, 12, 22–25 Oracel’s Exadata, 28 Oral communication competency, 178 Outliers: The Story of Success (Gladwell), 5

P Painting a picture of the agency’s future: characteristics of a change effort vision, 92–93; inspiring a vision of the future by, 77, 91 Partnering. See Collaboration and partnering Partnership for Public Service, 1 Passionately learning: acquiring a passion for learning aspect of, 12, 14–16; continually learning aspect of, 12, 16–18; focusing the passion–learning forward aspect of, 12, 18–20; Josh’s story on, 13–14; overview of, 6t Personal mastery discipline, 31, 185 Perspective taking skill, 124 Photography metaphor for perspective, 26 Piaget, Jean, 23, 24 Pienaar, F., 9 Political Savvy Assessment (Brandon Partners), 193 Political savvy competency, 181 Political Skill Inventory, 193 Pollsmoor Prison (Robben Island, South Africa), 90 Posner, Barry, 91, 126 The Power of Story (Loehr), 74 Practicing responsible risk-taking: ambitious drive to execute competency by, 109; considering risks and opportunities for, 116; driving to action for, 109, 110–113; embracing the mission for, 109, 116–119; value and benefits of, 110; willing to risk responsibility, 109, 113–116 Printing information, 53 Problem solving competency, 181–182 Project management competency, 182 Providing assistance, 124–125 Public Service Leadership Assessment: directions and twelve questions of the, 144–145; the Four Leadership Meta-Competencies Model basis of the, 3–4, 143; general description of the, 143; interpreting your scores, 147–148; scoring your, 146–147. See also Leadership Development Plan Publication research, 54 Purpose driven competency, 182

Q Quality Media Resources, 172–173

R Rationale and learning: encouraging others’ responsible risk-taking by demanding, 110, 137–140; “Shaping the Path” metaphor on, 138–139; Star Trek’s story on the Kobayashi Maru simulation example of demanding, 139–140 Recalibrating skills, 36 Reina, D., 123

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237

Reina, M., 123 Relationship building: by enabling others to act, 126–129; by influencing and empowering others, 121–129; leadership skills for, 129; by mutual respect, acknowledgment, and, 125–126; with open, honest, and frequent communication, 123–124; by providing a safe work climate, 122; by providing assistance, 124–125; through trust, 122–123 Resilience: bouncing back from ambiguity with, 55; definition of, 55 Resiliency competency, 182–183 Respect, 125–126 Rewarding: by acknowledging others’ contributions, 125; baseball example on rewarding efforts and not punishing mistakes, 135–137; developing competency in encouraging others and, 183 “Ripple effect” metaphor, 11 Risk-taking: considering risks and opportunities when, 116; developing leadership competency in, 183–184; encouraging others to engage in responsible, 110, 130–140; practicing responsible, 109, 110–119; willing to risk responsibility, 113–116 Rommel, General, 117–118 Runde, C., 27, 124

S Safe work climate, 122 San Francisco 49ers, 113–114 Seeking fresh perspectives, 12, 25–27 Self-actualization. See Continually learning Self-assessment. See Assessments Self-confidence, 129 Self-confidence building, 68–69 Senge, P., 30–31, 185 September 11, 2001, 21 Setbacks: Amber’s story on bouncing back from, 56–57; bouncing back from, 41, 55–57; persisting and “stick-to-itiveness” when faced by, 57–59; resilience and tenacity responses to, 55 Seymour, J., 5 “Shaping the Path” metaphor of change, 138–139 Shared vision discipline, 31 Shaw, George Bernard, 124 Shenk, D., 52 Shepard, Alan, 47–50 Situational leadership, 43–46 Skeen, David, 24 Skill enhancement, 129 Skillfully juggling competency: effective leadership as requiring, 79–80; for juggling competing demands, 77, 80–82; for juggling incomplete

238

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or inaccurate information, 77, 82–84; letting go when you have no control, 77, 84–87; some practical suggestions to strengthen your, 87–88 Slayton, Deke, 48 Sloan, Julia, 73, 75 Society for Human Resources survey (June, 2008), 166 South Africa: history of apartheid in, 8; Invictus (film) on, 8–9, 82–83, 89, 90, 118–119; Mandala on his stay at the Pollsmoor Prison (Robben Island) of, 90; Mandela’s demand for rationale and learning, 137; Mandela’s vision for, 9–10, 82–83, 89, 90, 118–119 South Africa’s Rugby Federation, 83 Springboks rugby team (South Africa), 9, 90 Star Thrower Distribution, 26 Star Trek (TV show): the Kobayashi Maru simulation of the, 139–140; “to boldly go where no one has gone before” beginning of, 60 “Stick-to-itiveness,” 57–59 Stories/storytelling: the power of the stories we tell ourselves, 74; we change our lives by changing our, 74 Strategic planning competency, 184 Strategic thinking competency, 184–185 Strategies: clarifying purpose-driven, 77, 96–104; for strategically applying information, 12, 27–30; thinking strategically to plan and apply, 75–77, 79–91. See also Adroit at thinking strategically competency Stress: fight, flight, and freeze responses to, 47, 48, 51; tips for cooling down, 64–66 Stress management: breathing deeply, 64; focusing on the facts, 66–68; making a list, 65–66; taking a break, 65 Stress tolerance competency, 185 Sullenberger, Chesley B. “Sully,” 22 Support and encouragement, 129 Swigert, Jack, 67 Switch (Heath and Heath), 138 Systems thinking discipline, 31, 185–186

T Taking a break, 65 Team building competency, 186 Team development: enabling others to act component of, 126–129; mutual respect, acknowledgment, and gain component of, 125–126; open, honest, frequent communication component of, 123–124; providing assistance component of, 124–125; providing safe work climate component of, 122; trust as the foundation component of, 122–123

Team learning discipline, 31, 185 Telephone time efficiency, 52 Tenacity: bouncing back from ambiguity with, 55; definition of, 55; “stick-to-itiveness” form of, 57–59 Texting efficiency, 53 Thinking beyond the immediate horizon: for being adroit at thinking strategically, 77; focusing forward thinking for, 77, 90; importance of competency in, 88–89; linking current realities to future objectives for, 77, 90–91; mitigating tactical thinking for, 77, 89 Thinking strategically: inspiring a vision of the future by, 77, 91–104; Oliver’s story on, 76; power of dialogue for improving ability for, 75–76; skillfully juggling competing demands and incomplete information by, 77, 79–88; thinking beyond the immediate horizon for, 77, 88–91 Time management competency, 186 Time outs, 65 To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee), 110–111 Toffler, Alvin, 51 Training courses, 164 Trust: competence, contractual, communication pillars of, 123; developing competence for building, 166–167; fostering relationships through, 122–123; how showing vulnerability builds, 123; leader fostering of collaboration by building, 126, 129

U UK driving experience story, 14–15 Uncertainty: getting comfortable with, 40, 46–50; responding with enthusiasm to, 55, 60–62 U.S. Department of Defense, 3, 62, 87, 93 U.S. nuclear industry, 68–69 U.S. Office of Personnel Management website, 164 U.S. Pacific Command Tier One exercise story, 98–100

U.S. war on terror, 107–108 USS Alabama, 42–43

V Van Winkle, William, 51 Vision: building a shared vision discipline, 31, 185; characteristics of a change effort, 92–93; competency in inspiring shared, 177–178; inspiring a vision of the future, 77, 91–104; of President Mandela for South Africa’s future, 9–10, 82–83, 89, 90. See also Mission Voice mails, 52 Vulnerability, 123

W Wallace, William, 55 Washington, Denzel, 21, 42 We Seven (Carpenter et al.), 47–50 Web browsing tools, 53 Willing to risk responsibility: considering risks and opportunities, 116; practicing responsible risktaking by being, 109; Super Bowl (2013) story on, 113–114; Wendy’s story on, 114–116 Willis, Bruce, 16 Wisdom, 44 Working at home, 54 Work-life balance: development of competency in, 186–187; importance of achieving, 54 Workplace: building trust in the, 122–123; Kirton’s postulate on creativity in the, 132–134; providing a safe environment, 122 World War II D-Day invasion, 117–118 Written communication competency, 178

Z Zakaria, Fareed, 135 Zero Dark Thirty (film), 107–108 Zigarmi, D., 43 Zigarmi, P., 43

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239