Leadership for Change

Leadership for Change Marc J. Roberts Professor of Political Economy and Health Policy Harvard School of Public Health Africa Flagship Kigali, June 24, 2010

What Determines Worker Effort? • What employees bring to the job—what is “inside” their heads • Skills and capacities • Attitudes and values • What the job brings to the employees—what is “outside” them • Tasks and responsibilities • Working conditions • Relationships with peers, customers, superiors • Rewards and punishments: monetary and non-monetary • Growth, learning, long run prospects

Determinants of What Workers Bring to the Job • Early background • Family environment—religious and social norms • Education: general and professional • Selective membership • Who joins the organization • Who stays/succeeds • Job experience • Peer pressure/organizational culture • Work experience—patient interaction • Interaction with managers/supervisors

Determinants of What the Job Brings to Workers • Pay and promotion practices • Civil Service rules • MOH practices • Ministry of Finance and budget policies • Job descriptions and the organization of production • Human relationships • Supervisors: expectations, support, criticism, advice, inspiration • Co-workers: peer relationships • Patients • Physical environment • Equipment and supplies

Ways Managers Influence What is Inside Workers • Recruit workers with specific skills and values • Oversee socialization • Provide training • Encourage, motivate and lead—provide a “vision”

How Managers Influence What is Outside Workers • Design production systems • Assign specific tasks and roles • Insure the availability of needed facilities, equipment and supplies • Provide feedback • Supervise, • Instruct, • Critique • Reward and punish

The Limits on Public Sector Managers • To limit corruption many public systems limit managers’ authority • Civil service limits • Restrictive budgeting systems • Central purchasing • Public sector managers have to rely more on “leadership”—on influence, relationships, vision, etc. • Everywhere there is a limit to how much managers can rely on incentives to elicit good work • You cannot monitor all aspects of behavior • Employees can always “game” the system • If organizations are to provide high quality employees have to want to do a good job

What Allows Workers to Feel Valued, Valuable and Motivated? • Responsibility for and control over their own work • Participating processes that produce good results and meet professional standards • Contributing to a socially valuable mission • Recognition from customers/patients • Effective leadership from supervisors • Identification with and loyalty toward peers and the organization • The possibility of future personal and professional growth

Using Influence to Motivate Workers • Re-framing • Challenges can be understood in more than one way (e.g. as “problem” or “opportunity”) • Leaders can help subordinates “see” the situation in a constructive way • Appeal to values • Most individuals have multiple values • Leaders can work to elicit selected values and commitments • Mission and vision statements are one device • Try to work “with” not “against” an organization’s culture

When Have You Worked Especially Hard? Why Was That? What Role Did Your Manager Play?

The Special Leadership Challenges of Bringing About Change • Change can impose real costs on workers • They may have to learn new skills, roles, routines • They may loose status, influence or even their jobs • Change can impose psychological costs on workers • Fear based on uncertainty about what will happen • Anxiety about one’s own ability to adapt • Defensiveness about current/past practices

Workers can Respond to the Prospect of Change the Way Patients Respond to the Prospect of Dying • Denial • Bargaining • Anger • Depression • Acceptance (maybe)

Ways To Help Employees Cope • Explain the need for change • Provide information to minimize uncertainty • Defend employees’ legitimate interests • Reframe change as “birth” rather than “death” • Support, comfort, reassure • Celebrate the past

The Importance of Trust in Leading Change • Employees have to trust the leader that the future will be acceptable • Trust involves belief in someone’s competenceand in their values • Employees need to believe in your technical and managerial competenceso that you will get them through the change successfully • Employees believe they can rely on your values in dealing with them and others so that they will be treated fairly • Trusting relationships need to be built over time • Trust is based on experience—”Loyalty up and Loyalty down” • Trust is much easier to destroy than create

Metaphors for Leadership • Metaphors allow us to extend our knowledge from something we know well to something we know less well • Metaphors are imperfect—they are suggestions not accurate maps • What are some of the metaphors that help you understand a leader’s role?“A Leader is like…”

Varieties of Leadership Tasks Large Change Required Leader Leader Does Knows Not Know Small Change Required

Varieties of Leadership Tasks Large Change Required Leader Leader Does Knows Not Know FOOTBALL MANAGER Small Change Required

Leader as Football Manager • Leader does have substantial authority • The changes needed are small • Leaders and followers share common goals • The problem is well defined • Followers respect the leader’s technical expertise • Motivation is very important to sucess

Varieties of Leadership Tasks Large Change Required Leader Leader Does Knows Not Know FAMILY THERAPIST Small Change Required

Leader As Family Therapist • The goals is not well defined—developed through the process • Leader’s authority comes in part from process skills • All participants have to see the leader as fair minded • Leader’s job is to eventually make themselves unnecessary

Varieties of Leadership Tasks Large Change Required PROPHET Leader Leader Does Knows Not Know Small Change Required

Leader as Prophet • Followers accept the leader’s vision, even if they do not fully understand it • The changes proposed are fundamental and long term and require much faith from the followers • Followers who dissent either leave or are rejected

Varieties of Leadership Tasks Large Change Required POET Leader Leader Does Knows Not Know Small Change Required

Leader as Poet • Poets often express themselves in ways that embrace contradiction and ambiguity—and through metaphor • They have a vision but its meaning has to be understood, interpreted and filled in by readers/followers • Good poets are ruthless self critics—they edit out many of their own first ideas

Choosing a Leadership Role • Good managers know different roles are appropriate for different circumstances or in dealing with different people. • Often a mix of roles is required—especially as a situation evolves. • Most managers are more skilled and comfortable in some roles rather than others — learning to play all roles is an important personal growth task.

Summary • Managers need to understand what produces high levels of worker effort: what is “inside” and “outside” workers • Managers need to use both authority and leadership, to build trusting relationships. • Managers need to understand how to shape their leadership role to the situation they are dealing with

Leadership for Change