Essay for group disscution

ELA 350

Class Notes – Kouzes Chapters 2 - 7

The Student Leadership Challenge

Chapter 2: Model the Way

I. The Practice of modeling the way

a. Definition – earning the right and respect to lead through direct individual involvement and action.

b. Leaders walk the walk.

c. Leaders have strong beliefs about matters of principle. If a leader wants to gain commitment and achieve their goals, they must model the behavior they expect in others. Their words and deeds must consistent.

d. Kouzes and Posner’s first law of leadership: If you don’t believe the messenger, you won’t believe the message.

i. You can’t believe in the messenger if you don’t know what the messenger believes.

ii. You can’t be the messenger until you are clear about what you believe.

iii. Commitment 1 - Leaders find and use their voice. A leader must be clear about their guiding principles and their values. Then leaders must communicate with constituents.

iv. Commitment 2 – Leaders develop consensus on and personally affirm shared values. They demonstrate shared values and beliefs in their leadership.

e. Why are clear values important for modeling the way?

i. Means values are the guides for decisions. They empower and motivate yourself and others, influence our moral judgments, our responses to others, and our commitments to personal and organizational goals. Means values affect commitment to the organization. The higher the clarity of personal and organizational values, the higher the commitment to the organization.

ii. Specific means values clarification tools – The art of finding your voice. Which would you rather follow?

1. Create your own script. Choose the values that are important to you as a leader

2. Write a tribute - What would others say you stand for

3. Write your credo - Express your most important values.

4. What are your values for this class?

5. What values do we share?

6. How should I rationalize these values?

iii. Commitment Two – Affirming shared means values

1. Leaders address three central themes in their values

a. High performance standards

b. A caring attitude towards people

c. A sense of uniqueness and pride

2. Research indicates that when action is aligned with values, constituents:

a. Possess strong feelings of personal effectiveness

b. Promote high levels of loyalty

c. Facilitate consensus on goals

d. encourage ethical behavior

e. Create positive norms to hard work

f. Reduce stress and tension

g. Foster pride in organization

h. Facilitate understanding of job expectations

i. Foster teamwork and morale

iv. Create alignment around key values. 1. Everyone writes down key values for organization. 2. Share findings and indicate if there is agreement 3. Decide what is vital and rationalize it 4. Move on

ii. Speak about shared values with enthusiasm and confidence

a. Constituents are attracted to leaders who are dynamic and energetic

b. Keep constituents focused by constantly affirming publicly what “we” stand for

c. Speak confidently about the things you believe in

iii. Teach and reinforce through symbols and artifacts

a. Use symbols and ceremonies to indicate shared values and to reinforce them

b. Tell stories

i. Use stories to illustrate shared values

ii. Make them personal and short

iii. Conclude by stating the intended message

iv. Put “Good news” stories on meeting agenda

c. Hold yourself accountable

d. If it is worth doing, it is worth measuring

e. Maintain credibility by getting feedback

f. Do a personal audit score

II. Chapter 4: Inspiring a Shared Vision

a. What is vision?

i. Definition – vision is an ideal and unique image of the future reflecting the common good. It is the “end” value, the desired end state of your organizational activity

ii. A vision gives life and work a sense of meaning and purpose by offering an exciting vision. Example: imagine what would happen to schools if they could be seen as an opportunity, not an entitlement

b. Leaders are forward looking people who are concerned not just about today’s problems, but tomorrow’s opportunities – at work, at home and in the community. They develop an ideal and unique image of the future for the common good.

c. Why is a vision important?

i. Most important role of a shared vision is to give focus to human energy – yours and your constituents.

ii. A vision demonstrates the leader’s concern for creating long term value.

iii. Personally, a leader needs to know where the organization is going before they can determine how to get there.

iv. Organizationally, a leader must clarify their own vision before they can expect to enlist otherse.

1. Leaders must be intrinsically motivated by vision before they can ask others to adopt it.

2. Leaders must present a clear vision to create and inspire constituent motivation to do extraordinary things

d. How to envision the future

i. There is no formula. It is more of an art than a science.

ii. Determine something that you want to do. Make a list; ask yourself why you want to do this; eliminate the unsupported activities. Who has had to create a vision? Share what you did. What did you do to develop clarity for yourself?

iii. Imagine the possibilities and find a common purpose

1. Reflect on your past for perspective and a more realistic time frame.

iv. Attend to the present. Immerse yourself – learn everything you can and follow you inspiration and your passion.

v. Envision your future and be open to changes and reworking your short-term goals to obtain your long-term plans.

e. Find a common purpose

f. Definition – Finding a common purpose is the process of gaining commitment to a shared vision or “end” value so that appropriate work of the organization will be done.

g. Your ability as a leader depends in part on how effective you are in detecting the ties that can bind an organization together in a shared vision.

h. Research indicates that a clearly communicated vision results in increased constituent satisfaction, motivation, commitment, loyalty, clarity, pride and productivity.

i. Despite its motivating power, inspiring a shared vision is the least used of the 5 leadership practices. Most leaders just don’t seem to get around to it.

j. Leadership is an iterative process. Leaders are constantly repeating, reinventing, and reinforcing. Enlisting others is not a once and done thing.

III. Why is it important to listen deeply?

a. A leader must understand what motivates each constituent and why they want to be a part of the organization in order to know how to enlist them in shared vision. This allows the leader to weave common values together into a powerful shared vision.

i. Recognize that leadership is reciprocal. As the classroom leader I need to know what it is about the topic of leadership that captures your imagination.

ii. Most people want intrinsic growth more than extrinsic rewards. They want interesting work and good leaders more than money.

iii. Recognize common values. Most people want opportunities that provide:

1. A chance to be tested and make a vision their own.

2. A chance to be part of a social experiment.

3. A chance to do something well.

4. A chance to do something good.

5. A chance to change things

iv. People commit to causes not to plans

1. Develop your communication skills by reflecting on what you are passionate about and expressing that. Then transfer skills to the shared vision of your organization

2. Use powerful language

3. Practice positive communication – wrap the shared vision in an exciting package.

4. Develop charisma. Be animated warm and friendly

a. Use repetition in inventive ways (use different media)

b. Speak from the heart. Believe in what you are saying. Speak with energy.

c. Be ethical. Express your values

IV. Enlist others

a. Definition – Gaining commitment from others to the organizational vision, the “end” values

i. Leaders communicate and build support for the organizational vision by being inspiring.

ii. Leaders work to improve their ability to appeal to common ideals

iii. Animate the vision

b. How to appeal to common ideals

i. Ideals reveal our higher-order preferences

ii. Connect to what is meaningful to others

iii. Liberate the visions that are already there by helping people see that they are doing something bigger than themselves, something noble

iv. Take pride in being unique. Uniqueness fosters pride and commitment

v. Record your vision

vi. Breathe life into your vision

vii. Expand your communication and expressiveness skills

viii. Align your dreams with the people’s dreams

1. Paint a compelling and inviting picture of the future

2. Use your personal expressiveness and enthusiasm to develop support

3. Use symbolic language

4. Spark peoples’ imagination

5. make images of the future

V. Chapter 6 - Challenging the Process

a. Definition - taking the initiative by communicating and supporting good ideas and encouraging change.

b. The work of the leader is change

c. Leaders make new things happen and seek innovative ideas, search for opportunities, experiment and take risks.

d. Leaders look for ways for individuals to change, to grow, to improve so they can get extraordinary things done.

i. Two essential activities in searching for opportunities: seize the initiative and look outward for fresh ideas

1. To seize the initiative, treat every job as an adventure and initiate change, encourage initiative in others – find ways for people to stretch themselves

2. Create meaningful challenges for others when assigning work – use significant, but attainable goals

ii. Balance the paradox of routine (routine work drives out innovation, but routine work is necessary for innovation to be sustained)

iii. Question the status quo

iv. Let ideas flow freely from the outside in - The more uncertain the environment, the more you must cross the organizational boundaries for fresh ideas.

1. Research indicates that high performing work groups bring in more outside ideas.

e. Experimenting and taking risks

i. Definition - This leadership commitment deals with the process of encouraging others to venture beyond the limitations they normally place on themselves.

f. The two essential processes in experimentation

g. Generate small wins, learn from experience

i. Dream big, but start small. Break down a complex change process into small, do-able steps that build on each other, take advantage of changing conditions, build follower confidence and commitment, and result in achieving a seemingly unachievable objective.

ii. Progress step by step

iii. Leaders and followers should develop and agree on small incremental steps. Leaders give people choices. Followers sense a “guided autonomy” – giving workers a sense of space while remaining focused on shared vision, steering followers back to the vision when they stray too far.

iv. Incremental steps are done quickly. Leader mobilizes the group for fast action.

h. Try a lot of little things; call them models, pilot studies, experiments to reduce problems to basics.

i. changes are made quickly and urgently. Small wins produce results. Make actual progress and produce a consistent pattern of winning that attracts constituents, creates momentum and shows people the desired paths

i. Learning from experience

i. Leaders use mistakes as an opportunity to grow and approach new experiences with a willingness to learn.

ii. Leaders create a climate for learning by building tolerance for error and a framework for forgiveness of well-intentioned failure. Leaders are active learners. They respond to feedback by taking action, doing by trail and error, experimenting, thinking, and gaining knowledge from others, training, and reading

j. Leaders view change as a challenge

i. Few people will follow a leader who avoids stress and will not take action

ii. Research indicates that some stress increases psychological hardiness. People with psychological hardiness can handle more risk and uncertainty. They have a strong sense of control, strong commitment, and have a need for challenges

VI. Chapter 8 - Enabling Others to Act

a. Definition - making it possible for constituents to do good work through trust, teamwork, and development.

i. Two commitments: Foster collaboration and strengthen others

b. Fostering collaboration is a means of encouraging collaborative actions that lead to the achievement of a shared vision.

i. Generalities: Leadership is not a solo act. It is a team effort. In a world that is doing more with less, competitive strategies lose to strategies that promote collaboration.

1. Collaboration improves performance

2. More leadership is required in collaborative situations that create a climate of trust and foster collaboration.

a. Trust is the central issue in human relationships inside and outside organizations.

i. Trusting others pays off

ii. Be the first to trust

iii. Be open to influence

3. Share - consulting with others and getting them to share information, constituents will feel involved in the decision- making

4. The value of knowledge increases when it is shared

ii. Facilitate relationships

1. Develop cooperative goals

2. Encourage ownership of tasks encourage responsibility for meeting schedules and ensure that team membership is understood

iii. Support norms of reciprocity

1. develop understanding of mutual dependency

2. demonstrate willingness to be cooperative and unwillingness to be taken advantage of

3. encourage relationship stability and predictability

4. Acknowledge joint accomplishments

iv. Structure projects to promote joint effort and require ongoing interaction

c. The paradox of power – leaders become more powerful when they give their power away

i. Power is not a zero sum game - the more people believe they can influence and control an organization, the greater the overall organizational effectiveness and satisfaction.

ii. When a leader shares power, they show deep respect for followers. Followers reciprocate with trust and respect.

1. People make their best efforts when their work is critical to overall success

2. Leaders liberate people to use the power they already have. They respect, listen, support, encourage, coach, mentor and believe in followers.

3. Leaders enable people to transcend their own interests.

d. Provide choice to build follower commitment.

e. Followers will make extra efforts when they have latitude (leeway to meet need) and discretion (authority to decide)

f. Methods

i. Distribute resources and responsibility.

ii. Make decisions at the lowest level possible

iii. Design jobs to offer latitude

g. Flatten the organization – less hierarchy

h. fewer job classifications, more cross training

i. Reward adaptation, foster accountability and compel action

i. Establish group work rules; peer management of slackers

ii. Prod, push and encourage people to take action

j. Provide training and development.

i. Companies that spend money on training and development have a higher return on investment than companies that do not

ii. Use peer training and development

iii. Encourage story telling

VII. Chapter 10 - Encouraging the Heart

a. Definition - Encouraging constituents to carry through in order to realize the shared vision.

i. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence

ii. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community

b. Recognize contributions

c. Definition – shaping an environment in which everyone’s contributions are noticed and appreciated. Build the fire of commitment within

i. People are willing to work hard but need encouragement and recognition

ii. Expect the best – believe in the abilities of your constituents and you will get high performance1Pygmalion effect – if follower believes it, it is more likely to happen.

iii. High expectations lead to high performance. When expectations are high and support is high, people will develop the self-confidence and courage necessary to achieve

iv. Use positive images to generate positive possibilities and use positive examples to get positive results.

v. Generate “flow” experiences - those times when you feel pure enjoyment and effortlessness in your work

vi. Use standards to stay on track and avoid distractions

1. Standards help followers understand why an activity is important and how it fits in with the overall goals

2. Use regular feedback to increase engagement

a. Productivity increases only when people have a challenging goal and receive feedback

vii. Don’t “set people up to fail” – if follower is having performance problem, leader becomes more directive, which destroys trust.

viii. Don’t micromanage – people keep information to themselves and are dishonest in order to have some area to control

1. If people perceive that positive activities will be praised, they will do more of them.

2. People in a supportive environment are more likely to teach and coach each other and to handle individual problems.

d. Celebrate the Values and Victories

i. Definition – Group activities intended to proclaim and renew a sense of community and to remind participants of the vision that is shared in the organization

1. Create a spirit of community and be personally involved

a. Public celebrations increase participants sense of self-worth and increase performance, just like individual recognition

i. Celebrations renew sense of community and remind us of shared principles

ii. Celebrations also maintain social support needed in times of stress and help to reaffirm long term goals and shared vision.

2. People are more likely to be active in initiatives led by those with whom they fell a personal attachment

3. Personally live the values you are celebrating

4. Let others see you living the values

ii. Social support increases work attendance, information exchange and the definition of your organization (what it stands for)

iii. Reminder – credibility is the foundation of leadership