Building Effective
Leadership Teams
Illinois Alliance of Administrators of
Special Education (IAASE)
September 30, 2004
John Blattner, Ph.D.
What Really is Leadership?
The wicked leader is he who the
people despise. The good leader is
he who the people revere. The great
leader is he who the people say, “We
did it ourselves”.
- Lao Tzu
10 Leadership Characteristics
1.
2.
3.
A high standard of personal ethics
High energy
Ability to work priorities, shares equal importance
with setting priorities
4. Courage
5. Committed and dedicated
6. Unorthodox
7. Great leaders have the goal orientation to make
tough decisions
8. Inspired enthusiasm is like the pilot light on the
oven
9. Level-headed
10. Desire to help others succeed is the mark of a
truly great leader
What to Consider
1.
Fosters a culture of inclusion and sense of
belonging and ownership
2.
Builds trust amongst participants
3.
Models emotional literacy and honesty
4.
Lets go of control and process outcomes
5.
Structures meetings
6.
Fosters a learning culture
7.
Builds the architecture of a new group
8.
Undertakes conflict mediation when necessary
9.
Holds the group’s vision (does not create it)
10. Creates bridges across culture
Individual Leadership
Competencies
16 Differentiating Competencies
Character
Displaying high integrity and honesty
Personal Competence
Technical/Professional expertise
Solving problems/Analyzing issues
Innovation
Practicing self-development
Focus on Results
Drive for results
Establish stretch goals
Initiative
Individual Leadership
Competencies
16 Differentiating Competencies
Interpersonal Skills
Communicating powerfully and prolifically
Inspiring/Motivating others
Building relationships
Developing others
Collaboration and teamwork
Leading Change (Senior People)
Developing strategic perspectives
Championing change
Connecting with the outside world - networking
Leadership Development
Inclusion for New Member
 The team itself should have a clear
understanding of its: History, Values, Vision
and Mission before it can carry on the
mission/goals of the organization.
• History of the team including key
members and events via a time line
• Sharing Expectations:
– What is your biggest concern about being
part of this team?
– How would this team function if everything
progressed just as you hoped?
– What actions do you think must be taken to
ensure positive outcomes?
Leadership Development
Inclusion for New Member
 What are the key driving values of the
team?
 Vision-what image and impact do you
want the team to have on the
organization including internal and
external customers?
 What is the mission of the team?
Leadership Development
Emotional Competence Inventory
Group Report
 Presentation
• Discussion
• Problem Solving and critical thinking
activity
• Action Planning
Emotional Reality of Teams
 When teams face their collective
emotional realities –
 They begin a healthy reexamination of
the shared habits that create and hold
that reality in place
 Teams begin to change only when they
first have fully grasped the reality of
how they function
 It is critical to understand this reality on
an emotional level
Emotional Reality of Teams
 Recognizing discomfort does not, in
itself, enable change
 Team members must discover the
source of the discontent-an emotional
reality chat usually goes beyond such
obvious sources as a “bad boss”
 The root of the problem often lies with
long established and deeply embedded
ground rules
Emotional Reality of Teams
 Those are called Norms, when we talk
about teams and cultures, when we
refer to the larger organization
 When there is an understanding of the
emotional reality, norms of teams and
the culture of an organization, it can be
used to develop the ideal vision for the
group
 The more aligned the reality is with the
ideal, the more the change can be
counted on to persist over the long
term
Power of Norms
 We take norms for granted, but they are
immensely powerful  Norms represent implicit learning at the
team level
 The norms of a group help to determine
whether it functions as a high-performing
team or becomes simply a loose collection
of people working together
 Norms dictate what “feels right” in a given
situation, and therefore govern how people
act
Power of Norms
 Collective emotional intelligence is what
sets top-performing teams apart from
average teams
 Group emotional intelligence determines
a team’s ability to manage its emotions
in a way that cultivates “trust, group
identity, and group efficacy” and so
maximizes cooperation, collaboration,
and effectiveness
 Emotional intelligence results in a
positive-and powerful emotional reality
Group Emotional Intelligence
 A group’s emotional intelligence
requires the same capabilities that an
emotionally intelligent individual
expresses –
Groups have moods and needs,
and they act collectively.
Group Emotional Intelligence
 Self-Aware Team
• A team expresses its self-awareness by
being mindful of shared moods as well as
of emotions of individuals within the
group
 Self-Managed Team
• Holding team members accountable for
managing how they work together
• Positive Norms will stick only if the group
puts them into practice over and over
again
Group Emotional Intelligence
 Self-Aware/Self-Managed Teams
• In self-aware, self-managing teams
members themselves will step up to the
plate to instill and reinforce resonant
norms to hold one another accountable
for sticking to them
• Team self-management is everyone’s
responsibility
• When core values and the team’s overall
mission are clear and when selfmanagement norms are explicit and
practiced over time, team effectiveness
improves dramatically
Group Emotional Intelligence
 The Empathetic Team
• This team has the collective equivalent of
empathy, the basis of all relationship
skills
• Being empathetic at the team level
doesn’t just mean being nice
• It means figuring out what the whole
system really needs and going after it in
a way that makes all those involved more
successful and satisfied with the outcome
Group Emotional Intelligence
 The Empathetic Team (Continued)
• Empathy across organizational
boundaries-team to team-for example is
a powerful driver of organizational
effectiveness and efficiency
• This kind of empathy goes toward
creating a healthy emotional climate
organization-wide, as well as creating a
positive emotional environment in teams
themselves
Leadership Development
Operational Guidelines Review
And Development
 How will we make decisions?
 What is each individuals most effective work
method?
 How will the group assure that everyone gets
a chance to discuss issues and raise
concerns?
 How issues will be resolved/conflict
managed?
 How will the group manage tasks?
 How will the group address change for areas
that are not producing results?
Vision for Leadership
Development
 To have management apply their collective
efforts toward the same goal as a basis for
the continual development of a high
performance team.
 To focus on leadership which is a key factor
in the establishment and maintenance of
high performance teams. A fundamental
requirement is that the leaders have a strong
belief in teams that are results oriented.
 To come together to review internal and
external work relationships and processes of
management.
Vision for Leadership
Development (cont.)
 Internal factors, which contribute to team
performance, are: individual performance,
accountability, trust, problem solving/conflict
resolving ability, getting the job done
efficiently, with the desired results and belief
in the team.
 External factors are identifying critical
outside groups (business partners) and
individuals, relationships with those
outsiders, team performance action plans,
and being seen as winners. (Image)
Motivating Your Team
7 Tips
1. Be great: Being great is contagious
2. Equal but different: Discover why each
team member comes to work
3. Let it go: Pick your battles
4. Blast ‘em: Hold your team
accountable
5. Get connected: Build relationships
6. Everybody wins: Keep competition
healthy
7. Buy donuts: But not too often!
John Blattner, Ph.D.
P-A-S International, Inc.
1000 Maple Ave
Downers Grove, IL 60515
630-968-5454
630-968-1933
www.DrBlatz.com
[email protected]