Some of the discussion about Organizational Culture treats Organizations like a Goldfish bowl.
First – Like fish in a goldfish bowl, our own leadership culture is usually more clearly seen from outside than from in. Fine, the same could be said about most human behaviors. The problem is that the only culture that matters is what is “felt”, so well meaning observations from outside often do no good. If outside support works it is usually with those who need it least. Like giving health tips to people with unhealthy lifestyles….
Second – There’s a risk of over-simplifying. The simplicity of a single fish in a bowl doesn’t reflect real life complexity. Human organizations are far too complex to be predicted by simple models. Even where leaders are smart enough to understand the complexity, those who need it most, once again probably don’t care too much for the topic.
So how should leaders think about Felt Leadership when it’s hard to accept outside advice and too complex to understand easily?
At BalancedKaizen our approach is simple. Ensure Balance.
Firstly we use a simple organizational model developed by Charles Handy, which can be self-evaluated by asking yourself a few questions.
If you’re interested here is a good reference explaining it. https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/models-of-organisational-culture-handy
Secondly we don’t assume any of these Organization types are uniform or universal, but exist in various proportions in every leader, and are utilized in different times and circumstances.
Good Leaders get this “Balance” right, and are different to other leaders because the mix is different.
At it’s most simplistic, Handy’s 4 types come from asking just 2 questions, about the Outcome you’re seeking, and the Decisions being made. Note the answers will differ throughout a given day, or as circumstances change:
Question 1. Outcome: Is this an Individual outcome, or Collective?
Does the issue at hand need a large group to solve, or manage, or can it be done by an individual without recourse to the group? A Lawyer giving a client advice can be an Individual outcome, an army going on maneuvers is a Collective activity.
Question 2. Decision. Is this a Centralized decision, or Delegated?
Are decisions controlled by defined people or are they taken by people spread within the team. A teacher in a school makes many decisions without asking the Principal for permission, so is delegated. Within the class, however, the same teacher can be a Centralized decision maker. Context matters
The answers to these 2 questions create 4 combinations that can be applied to almost any situation to define what kind of activity it is:
In coming posts we will discuss each these types in turn, and how good leaders adopt to each, using the advantages and avoiding the pitfalls.
Anyone who works in a real organization knows that they are never homogenous or uniform, and “felt leadership” varies a lot between teams and groups of teams depending on their history, team members and individual leaders. We hope to show over coming posts how this “feeling” depends on which of the 4 situations you’re in, and how they are handled.
Think about examples of the 4 different Outcome and Decision combinations in your own team, and that of your boss. If the same situation is handled in different ways by different parts of an organization it can lead to confusion or frustration.
More to come…