Developing Your Leadership Style

1. Integrity – Service – Excellence Developing Your Leadership Style Lt Col Lucia MorePathology & Clinical LaboratoryFlight CommanderEglin AFB, Florida

2. What is a Leader? • Leadership definition • The office or position of a leader • Capacity to lead; one that takes the lead or initiative • Synonyms • Guide, pilot, pacesetter, forerunner, harbinger, conductor, director, boss, chieftain, head, honcho, master, commander, principal, superior, manager

3. What is a Leader? • Leader versus manager • Managers are maintainers; systems/controls • Leaders are innovators/creators; people • Leaders are perpetual learners • How can I do better? • Demand and reward honest feedback • What you don’t know CAN hurt you…

4. Leadership Style • IS NOT: • Dictator • Arbiter of all information and decisions • NOT a position, a process • Actions and style have tremendous influence over the working atmosphere/morale • You may BE the problem! • Must be aware of own style, impact on others…BUT, can’t worry about approval rating or strive for consensus on every issue to avoid unpopularity

5. Personal Style • Our values, attitudes, and character guide our behavior • Ask for feedback to reduce “blind spots” • (what do I forget, who do I forget to consult…) • Identify effect on others/change behavior to correct • Are you seeing improvements or further decline? Ask your NCOs…they know! • Utilize all the resources on the team; different styles bring different talents

6. What is a Leader? • Leaders provide vision • Effective vision provides guidance • Leader models it/lives it = people respond to it • Think big…be willing to stretch • Don’t limit your own potential • “Yeah, but…” • Character and attitude are most important • Skills can be taught

7. What is a Leader? • Leadership is NOT defined by position and is NOT comprised of a special, unique collection of traits • “How many of you see yourselves as leaders?” • Connotes bragging, arrogance • “If we are to promote the exercise of leadership among all the players on the team it is essential to separate the process of leadership from the title of leader.” • (from article by Robert C. Burgee prepared for AU-24, Concepts for Air Force Leadership)

8. Personal Style • Must have foundation of acceptance and support • Genuine communication leads to trust in others’ motives • Respect for others’ intelligence and commitment • Manager must encourage diversity and be partners with team members • Empower independent decision making • Define desired outcome and let them get there

9. Personal Style • No “best” style denotes leadership • Not only for the visionary or charismatic • Frees follower from idea that leadership is reserved for those with titles • Frees managers from idea that they must be smarter quicker, better informed and more decisive than anyone on their team

10. Personal Style • The word “leadership” implies collaboration • You can’t lead if no one follows! • Partnership, teamwork, mentoring, support, shared responsibility • Tap potential of initiative, creativity, and energy from middle and lower echelons

11. Personal Style • Developing your leadership style is a process • Grow into progressively more complex tasks at successively higher levels of organization • Individual combination of knowledge, interactive and thinking skills • Tend to focus and do well in strong areas • Areas of weakness may become a problem later

12. Personal Style A word about time management: Managers who don’t manage their time create even greater time management problems for their subordinates who spend significant time waiting for the boss

13. Personal Style

14. Strategic Leadership • Strategic leaders deal with risky, complex problems • Solutions too uncertain for unilateral decision making • Need team input • Leading organizational change…transformation

15. Strategic Leadership • Solutions depend on shared understanding by those who implement them and invest in them • Leader must understand and empower lower level leaders • Don’t micromanage unless you have to; if you have to… you aren’t making your message clear enough!

16. Strategic Leadership • Most critical task: continued transformation of organization • Balance stabilization with need to change; short term results against future gains • Some are more comfortable than others with changes • Need to understand your own and others’ preferences • (generational leadership, personality styles) • Must know how to make decisions/take action not dominated by your preferences/comfort levels

17. Strategic Leadership • It’s all about the people • Must draw people together around a set of shared values and interests • Show future goals that are worth struggling for • Create confidence that these goals are attainable • Must be morally uplifting; means may be attained in accord with high moral and ethical standards

18. Portrait of a Strategic Leader • A strategic leader must: • Have person-to-person influence skills • Deal persuasively, collegially • Negotiate constructively with near equals (other flight commanders, etc.); they have the power and ability to commit resources to achieve shared objectives • Be proactive: understand the need for change and the balance between stability and creating change

19. Strategic Leadership • Effective leaders operate with top-level teams • No leader can manage, decide, implement alone • Purpose often seen most clearly by the strategic leader…seeing and guiding is an important responsibility! • Effective organizations have a sense of where they are going; effort justified by the purpose

20. Strategic Leadership • Effective leaders add value by undertaking responsibilities for which they are uniquely qualified (talents or position) • Our job = look ahead/smooth the way for organization to transition from today’s work to tomorrow or next decade • Create leadership climate so team sees purpose in lives and fulfillment in work • We exist to support AEF! • Strive for excellence!

21. Strategic Leadership • Teach by work and deed- enable others to achieve potential • Pay attention to outside environment, changes, actions of key players • Any new programs, policies, BRAC, etc. • Represent organization well to external/internal audiences

22. Leadership Skills and Abilities • Leaders require skills and abilities in three areas • Technical knowledge • Interpersonal/communication knowledge/skill • Conceptual skills

23. Technical skills • Lower level: (CGO) • Using, operating, maintaining a system • Solving well-defined problems, performing specific tasks and missions • Upper (strategic) levels: employ systems within systems (FGO) • Solve ill-defined problems • Immediate future and long term • Manager must have enough technical knowledge to know how to use it most efficiently

24. Interpersonal Skills • Persuasion, negotiation, collaboration, effective reasoning, logic more crucial • Need to be able to get consensus among contemporaries who might have competing interests/ideas • Mutual trust/respect

25. Interpersonal Skills • Must foster empowerment, learning, purposeful sharing of information • Inspire trust in others • objectivity, consistency • Personal openness • active listening, responding appropriately • Respect others

26. Interpersonal Skills • You are in a position to see the big picture, understand complex situations, take early action • Gather info from external/internal sources, make sense of it • Interpret for subordinates…need to be on board

27. Interpersonal Skills • Network, scan, interpret, understand what’s going on that may have future relevance to organization • Expected growth in your MTF??? Increased specialty care…what does the lab need to do to support it? • Visualize and predict potential problems • Formulate least-risk solutions • Sometimes requires assembled wisdom of a team

28. Decision Skills • Comprehend and set understandable goals • Develop concrete plans/tasks for allocating resources • Visualize interactive dynamics of large systems • Decisions in one area may affect others • Unanticipated or undesirable indirect effects • (2d, 3d, and 4th order)

29. Decision Skills • Future focus and vision • Need a “sense of time” long enough to envision major system-wide program implementation • Realistic planning • Problem analysis and diagnosis • Provide concept/guidance for entire program • Envision desired future, assess current position • Understand what actions in the present can shape what the future will be • Monitor progress

30. Interpersonal Skills The more senior you are, The more power implicit in position, the more potential to USE power • Opportunity for self-deception is greater • “Executive temptations” – impatience, huge power to harm others, embarrass • Makes others reluctant to get involved, negative impact on competence, decrease development and learning • Need self-awareness, patience, read others

31. Creating Other Leaders • Be a thermostat, not a thermometer • Effect change in order to create a climate • Leader attitude plus positive atmosphere = great accomplishments • Leaders must model the leadership they desire • Can’t demand of others what you don’t of self • Fitness, uniform, courtesy • What leaders do, potential leaders around them do • Good and bad….

32. Creating Other Leaders • Identify the potential in each future leader and cultivate it in light of the needs of the organization • Mentor wins because the rising star beneath them can perform/produce • Org wins – mission fulfilled • Rising leader wins - gets mentoring • Find the 1 thing you believe is an asset (maybe they don’t see it) and give 100% encouragement

33. Creating Other Leaders • Starting point for all achievement = drive, determination, desire • Leader know the desires of those they lead • Look for positiveness, servanthood (play team ball, follow the leader), growth potential (hunger for personal growth), consistency (gets the job done), loyalty (leader/org above personal desires), resiliency (bounce back from problems), integrity, big picture mindset, discipline, gratitude • (does my mentor see these qualities in me?)

34. Creating Other Leaders • Determine the needs of potential leaders • Expose to successful people • Provide secure environment where they can take risks • Provide tools/resources needed • Training and continuing education

35. Leadership • Network: seek out mentors; be a mentor; • Core values: who do you see in the mirror? • Integrity, humility, service • Know what your personal goals are, but don’t pursue them at the expense of others • Believe in yourself; if you don’t, no one else will • Balance: spiritual, physical, mental fitness • You set the example whether you intend to or not!

36. Parting Thought If the whole world followed you, would you be pleased with where you took it?

38. Generational Leadership • Four (4) generations working together • Different values, experiences, styles and attitudes create • Misunderstandings • Frustrations • Diverse work environment The generation gap is increasing communication gap (this information isFrom Generational Leadership, Col Alton Powell, III, USAF, MC, CFS, Chief, Population Health Support Division, Nov 04)

39. Generational Leadership • Traditionalists (Matures/Silent Generation) • Baby Boomers • Generation X • Millennials (Generation Y/Generation Next)

40. Traditionalists • Born 1925 – 1945 • Influences • Great Depression, Roaring Twenties, World War I, World War II, Korean War, G.I. Bill • Characteristics • Patriotic, loyal, “waste not, want not,” faith in institutions • Military influenced top-down approach • Value logic and discipline • Don’t like change • Want to build a legacy Key Word: Loyal

41. Baby Boomers • Born 1946 – 1964 • Influences • Suburbia, TV, Vietnam, Watergate, protests, human rights movement, drugs, and rock ‘n roll • Characteristics • Idealistic, COMPETITIVE, question authority • “Me” Generation • Money, title, recognition • Want to build a stellar career • Key Word: Optimistic

42. Generation X • Born 1965 – 1980 • Influences • Sesame Street, MTV, Game Boy, PC, divorce rate tripled, latch-key children • Characteristics • Eclectic, resourceful, self-reliant, distrustful of institutions, highly adaptive to change and technology • Possibly most misunderstood generation • Need a balance between work and life - Freedom • Flexible and motivated • Want to build a portable career Key Word: Skepticism

43. Millennials • Born 1981 – 2002 • Influences • Expanded technology, natural disasters, violence, gangs, diversity • Characteristics • Globally concerned, realistic, cyber literate, “personal safety” is number one concern • Value diversity / change • Been involved entire life • Want work to be meaningful • Key Word: Realistic

44. Work Characteristics • All have different needs and desires • All are typically loyal for different reasons • All will require different approaches to managing • Balance • Feedback How do we get them to going in the same direction?

45. Work Characteristics • Mature: want to work with people, not email, more likely to write a memo than shout across the room, base decisions on what worked in the past • Boomers: “People who live to work” – willing to sacrifice for success; recognition is important; more optimistic and team oriented • Gen X: value a work/life balance; “work to live”; would rather work with email vs. people; individual oriented • Gen Y: learning opportunities; flexible working arrangements; want a fun environment; need highly collaborative and optimistic atmosphere

46. Motivations • Matures: the personal touch – hand written notes • Still motivated by traditional perks: executive washrooms, company cars, upfront parking • Boomers: treat as equals, public recognition, the personal touch, reward work ethic and long hours • Gen X: Family style work atmosphere, casual/comfortable; give them freedom and great responsibility, work they can feel control over, need more constructive feedback, fun work environment, latest technology • Gen Y: Continuing education, ability to develop work skills, on the job training, multi-tasking opportunities

47. Feedback • Matures • “No news is good news” • Boomers • “Feedback once a year, with lots of documentation” • Generation X • “Sorry to interrupt, but how am I doing” • Millennials • “Feedback whenever I want it at the push of a button”

48. Recognition Systems • Matures • “The satisfaction of a job well done” • Respect • Boomers • “Money, title, recognition, the corner office” • Generation X • “Freedom is the ultimate reward” • Millennials • “Work that has meaning for me”

49. Training • Matures • “I learned the hard way, you can too!” • Boomers • “Train’ em too much and they will leave” • Generation X • “The more they learn, the more they stay” • Millennials • “Continuous learning is a way of life”

50. Career Management • Matures • “Job changing carries a stigma” • Boomers • Job changing puts you behind” • Generation X • Job changing is necessary” • Millennials • Job changing is part of my daily routine”