Archive for August, 2008

Formal and Informal Power

Published August 16, 2008 Leadership 3 Comments
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Jerome Bettis

Jerome Bettis

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which have been overcome while trying to succeed.”  –Booker T. Washington 

Let’s expand a bit on power and talk about formal and informal power.

Formal Leaders are the easiest to understand and recognize.  These are individuals who have been given title and authority to influence others to achieve established organizational goals and objectives.  They are generally measured and incentivized by their ability to motivate the team to accomplish these goals.  In this manner, success of the formal leader is linked directly to performance of the team.  If the team does well, the leader is considered a success.

Informal leaders are a bit more complex.  An informal leader is an individual, without formal title or authority, who is perceived by the group as an individual worthy of being followed.  This may be because of subject matter expertise, longevity with the company or in the industry, or prior successes recognized by the organization and/or team.  Informal leaders are critical to the success of the team and may wield more power and influence than the formal leader. 

Here are some of the key differences between the two:

1) Informal leaders are not accountable to the same group goals and metrics assigned to the formal leader. 

2) An informal leader’s influence can extend to areas outside of the organizational goals

3) Informal leaders demonstrate leadership traits that are recognized by the team.  They motivate, mentor and even inspire the team.  Formal leaders may or may not have these characteristics.

4) An informal leader has garnered the trust and respect of the team.  For the Formal Leader, this is something that often has to be earned.

Every organization and group has informal and formal leaders.  For example, sports teams have managers and Head Coaches, however, how often do you read about them being replaced because they simply could not relate to the players or motivate them?  A new coach comes in, recognizes who the informal leaders are and partners with them to point the team in the right direction.

Informal leaders can do things that the formal leader cannot.  Using the sporting analogy again, frequently you read in the media, especially during the playoffs, of informal leaders holding team meetings to inspire and motivate.

I’m a Steeler fan…so I’ll use them as an example.  Prior to the AFC Championship Game a few years back, Jerome Bettis stood up and gave an emotional speech to his team that culimated with the words “Just get me to Detroit” (where the Super Bowl was being held).  The Steelers later went on to beat the Broncos 34-17 and advance to Super Bowl (where they beat the Seahawks 21-10).  Bettis was the informal leader of the team.  His words motivated in a way that Head Coach Bill Cowher’s could never do.

This same dynamic holds true in the corporate world as well.  A team where the formal and informal leaders are working toward the same goal are incredibly effective.  Formal leaders who are able both through words and actions demonstrate that they are concerned about the organization, care about the welfare of the team members, and support developmental opportunities for the team, stand a far greater chance of achieving the goals for which they are being held accountable,

So…if you are a formal leader ask yourself, who is your Jerome Bettis and how can you partner with him/her to get your team to the Super Bowl?

Power Distance

Published August 12, 2008 Power Leave a Comment
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“The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.” –Albert Einstein

Let’s talk about power.

Each of us has power.  We have it in our jobs, our communities, our families, and even in our social networks.  The reality, though, is that some individuals have a large amount of power as a result of their position in an organization or a group.  The extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally is called Power Distance. 

In some cultures, such as Austria, Canada, and New Zealand, Power Distance is small, meaning that the cultural expectation is that issues are resolved and policies are implemented in a more consultative collaborative manner.  Significantly less attention is paid to hierarchical positions or titles in societies with small power distances.

Conversely, some societies are very autocratic and have a large power distance.  Simply, this means that those individuals in subordinate roles have accepted the fact that others above them in position or stature have a great deal of power over their lives.  They typically neither expect or demand that their opinions be heard prior to the making of a decision.

Organizations and Corporations can be classified using the same criteria.  For example, the Military is a good example of an organization with a large power distance.  A General has significant control over the actions of a Private, and the Private recognizes it.  On the other side of the spectrum, a church group might have a smaller power distance with senior members of the church often looking to the overall membership and the approval of key influential individuals outside of the leadership group to accomplish certain initiatives. 

Power distance is another part of the organizational culture and one that is not often considered.  Individuals who go into a small power distance culture and assume an autocratic, directive style will quickly find themselves struggling to keep above water.  They will be viewed as uncooperative and difficult by a relationship-centric group.  Similarly, a manager who fails to recognize a large power distance culture, may be perceived as weak and lacking the leadership to be successful. 

Gerard Hofstede writes about these types of issues in several of his books Culture’s Consequences and Cultures and Organizations. 

Consider your own organization.  Is is a small or large power distance culture?  What approaches might be successful?  What might be counter-productive?

Next time we’ll talk about informal and formal power.  In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Uncertainty Also Comes From Change

Published August 1, 2008 change Leave a Comment

 

 

In his book On Becoming a Leader, Warren Bennis cites Kurt Lewin on change (Bennis, 2003).  Lewin is actually considered by many as the father of social psychology and one of the initial voices in what is now commonly referred to as Organizational Development (OD) (Greathouse, 1997).  The quote cited by Bennis reads, “If you want to truly understand something, try to change it” (p. 133).  This quote is particularly poignant when one considers what exactly Lewin is saying. 

 

Change often makes people uncomfortable.  It requires individuals to adjust to a new environment, a new process, a new paradigm, or even a new leader.  The new change may even necessitate an individual or group to behave in a different manner than was previously the case.  What is critical to understand is that in order to effectively manage change, a leader must understand what the current state is and what the desired outcomes are.  More importantly, a leader must understand the degree to which the proposed changes will impact an operation or group.  For example, a change in a computer system may be a logical decision.  The current system may be antiquated or even unsupported by the manufacturer.  From a pure business standpoint, the change to a new and different system makes absolute sense.  What oftentimes is forgotten is the degree to which individuals and groups will be impacted by the change.  A new system will require additional training for the employees.  In addition, to make the change there will need to be a detailed analysis of all the capabilities of the current system and the degree to which a new system will impact those functions and processes.  Will the end user or customer be impacted by the change?  How does the employee currently interact with the system?  What downtime will a system change cause for the customer?  These are just a few examples of the questions that needs to be fully considered and understood prior to the change.  What started as a simple logical business decision could impact individual’s careers, the number of employees necessary to complete a specific process, and even the consumer’s perception of the organization. 

 

Consider a smaller example as well.  A computer system is a large change, however even something as common as a change of a team or department leader must be considered thoroughly.  For example, the loyalty of the team to the current leader, the perception of the new leader, the loss of the knowledge and experience of the leader, and the processes implemented by the leader all must be understood.  A high performing team that loses a key leader, even under positive circumstances suffers a significant and sometimes irreversible loss. 

 

Regardless of what is being changed, once a change takes effect, it often acts in a domino effect impacting many areas.  To fully mitigate the risk associated with change, it is incumbent upon leaders to fully understand the current state of what is actually being changed.  Even with the most detailed of analysis, unintended outcomes will surface that further expand the scope of the change.  This is the reality that Lewin was communicating in his simple yet profound statement.

 

 

References

 

Bennis, W. (2003).  On becoming a leader. New York: Basic Books

 

Greathouse, J (1997).  Kurt lewin. Retrieved July 31, 2008 from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/lewin.htm

 

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Interesting Quote

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. --Theodore Roosevelt