Beardens' Blog

Leadership in Troubling Times - Looking For Ways to Win

 Leadership: Most Difficult When it’s Most Needed

Occasionally I encounter clients whose organizations, industries or professions are dealing with especially profound challenges. As leaders within their respective organizations, they are called on to provide leadership at times when it is most needed, and most difficult. In this post I want to use my experiences with one group of clients, school board members (trustees/directors), to reinforce one of the things that effective leaders do, especially during troubling times: Facilitate the search for ways to win.

Troubling Times for Public Schools

While the impact of our most recent economic setbacks have been felt by all segments of American society, public education has been especially hard hit. School district leaders are being asked to provide the leadership necessary to help their districts and all of their constituents do more than just survive these troubling times. They must find ways to continue providing top-quality education in spite of the severe budgetary constraints under which they must now operate.   

Everywhere it seems that districts are eliminating faculty, staff and administrative positions while still being expected to provide quality education for all of their students. In addition to their impact on districts’ ability to provide that type of education, staff reductions and program cuts are also negatively impacting staff morale. Teachers, administrators and other district employees must be wondering about their job security and the future for their programs. It is a recipe for despair, a situation in which many people make classic victim choices such as blaming, wallowing and just quitting (surrendering to despair).

Benefits of Collaborative Processes

Over and over again I remind people in my leadership sessions that the primary role for leaders—the reason organizations create and staff leadership positions—is to influence the choices other people make. While it is always important to provide such influence, it becomes especially important in troubling times, when many people might opt for the types of choices I referred to above.

Effective leaders understand that neither they nor the people who look to them for leadership are limited to only one way to view and respond to the setbacks they encounter. While some individuals (and organizations) respond by “hunkering and hoping”, others look for ways to win, regardless of the hands they’re dealt. Not surprisingly, organizational responses are driven by the behavior of the people in leadership positions.

Facilitating a collaborative approach to finding ways to win, regardless of the hands they’re dealt, is something that will provide at least two key benefits to the leaders who commit to doing so:

1. By soliciting and considering ideas from the people whose efforts will be required to implement them, you’ll get better ideas (ones that have higher practical value), you’ll create better plans (ones that the implementers will more readily embrace and implement) and you’ll make quicker progress
2. By including staff in the search for better ways, you will help them make better mental choices (looking for things that would help mitigate the impact of budget cuts and layoffs instead of mentally “feeding” their anxiety, anger and frustration).

Staff Engagement

Over the past several years there have been numerous studies and white papers bemoaning low levels of staff “engagement”. The findings have referred to levels of engagement ranging from actively engaged (at the high end) to not engaged (at the low). Comparing several sources, it seems that the averages in each of these three levels look like this:

1. Actively engaged       -           18%
2. Engaged         -           -           33%
3. Not engaged  -           -           49%

Here are a couple of observations about these statistics.

First, the quality of work associated with the different levels varies. As you would expect, the more engaged employees provide better quality work than their less-engaged peers. 

Second, these statistics are “across-the-board”. In the wake of cuts that school districts are encountering, we could reasonably expect that the levels of engagement would fall. The corresponding decline in the quality of work would further jeopardize the quality of education provided. And that, my friends, is why it is so important for school board expand staff participation in one crucial collaborative process. 

A Model for Facilitating Collaborative Processes

In my next few posts I will focus on a four-step model I have created for facilitating what I call “The Relentless Search for Better Ways”. While I have used school board members (trustees/directors) to set up this series, I’m sure you can see that my model—and my emphasis on leaders as facilitators of collaborative processes—apply to every industry and organization impacted by difficult economic circumstances (I guess that would pretty much be all of us).

Click on the link below for a preview of the model I’ve created and will use in our next few postings:

The Relentless Search for Better Ways

A Model for Facilitating Collaborative Processes

 

For more information about Jim's speaking services: www.jimbearden.com