The Corndel Leadership and Management Diploma: Unit 1. Leading and Managing a Team

The Corndel Leadership and Management Diploma: Unit 1 Leading and Managing a Team

Table of contents Chapter 1: Golden Thread... 05 What is the golden thread? 06 How to implement the golden thread 06 Chapter 2: SMART Objectives... 11 What are SMART objectives? 12 How do I set SMART objectives with my team? 12 Ensuring organisational alignment 15 SMARTER objectives 16 Chapter 3: The GROW model of coaching... 17 What is the GROW model of coaching? 18 Step one: Goals 18 Step two: Reality 19 Step three: Options 20 Step four: Way forward 21 Chapter 4: Vroom s expectancy theory... 25 What is Vroom s expectancy theory? 26 How can Vroom s Expectancy Theory help me to understand how motivated my team is towards achieving their goals? 27 Chapter 5: Trust... 31 How can I build trust in my team? 32 The ABCD model 34 The Decision to Trust model 35 Chapter 6: Empowerment... 37 Why is empowering staff important? 38 Implementing empowering leadership 39 Are the members of your team genuinely empowered? 40 Chapter 7: 360-degree feedback and appraisal... 41 What is 360-degree feedback? 42 How can I use the 360-degree process to evaluate and improve the performance of my team? 43 Using 360-degree feedback for appraisals 44 Chapter 8: The Johari Window... 45 What is the Johari Window? 46 Using the Johari Window to increase openness and trust 50 Chapter 9: Feedback... 51 How do I give high quality feedback to a member of my team about their performance? 52 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 3

Chapter 10: Motivation Maslow... 57 What is Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs? 58 Chapter 11: Motivation McGregor... 63 What is McGregor s theory X and theory Y? 64 How can McGregor s theory X and theory Y help me to avoid conflicts with my team and keep it motivated? 66 Chapter 12: Motivation Herzberg... 67 What is Herzberg s Two Factor Theory of motivation? 68 Hygiene factors 69 Motivators 70 How can Herzberg s theory of hygiene factors and motivators help me to avoid dissatisfaction and increase motivation in my team? 71 Chapter 13: Conflict... 73 Why is managing conflict important? 74 Why does conflict occur? 75 Changing fight-or-flight to tend-and-befriend 76 How can I resolve it in my team? 77 Chapter 14: Performance Management... 79 What is performance management? 80 What does a good performance management process look like? 81 Annual performance reviews 82 Chapter 15: Poor performance... 85 What does underperformance look like? 86 Plateaued performers 87 How can I address poor performance in my team? 89 Chapter 16: Difficult conversations... 91 How should I approach a difficult conversation with a member of my team? 92 Chapter 17: Disciplinary procedures... 97 What does a good disciplinary procedure look like? 98 What is my role in a disciplinary procedure? 101 Chapter 18: Grievance procedures... 105 What makes a good grievance procedure and what are my responsibilities? 106 A typical grievance procedure 108 4 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 Chapter 1 The Golden Thread 5

Chapter 1: Golden Thread What is the golden thread? The golden thread is how an organisation aligns what it does to its goals. It is the magic ingredient that gets everybody working together to achieve its vision, and ensures that its vision, mission and values all fit together. It links the strategic objectives of those at the top of the organisation to the departmental objectives in the middle, and to the individual objectives of the wider workforce at the bottom. Vision Strategic objectives Departmental objectives Individual objectives This is why the golden thread is also known as organisational alignment. Firms that take the time to implement processes that create and reinforce this golden thread will see their performance improve on a sustainable basis. How to implement the golden thread The golden thread can be weaved into an organisation through a number of key processes including business planning, line management and performance management or appraisals. Sometimes, however, these opportunities are missed. This may be because these processes were not meaningfully implemented but instead were carried out as a bureaucratic exercise. Consequently, staff may view these processes negatively. For example, staff may be anxious about their 6 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Chapter 1: Golden Thread performance appraisals, perhaps due to a lack of trust or poor implementation. It may even be the case that employees do not have a clear idea of how their work contributes to the firm s strategic objectives. In this situation, the golden thread is clearly missing and the organisation is not aligned to its objectives. Here, a business case can be made that using resources to embed the golden thread and align the organisation could yield an attractive return on investment. Employees that see how they fit into, and contribute to the firm will feel more valued, leading to higher levels of satisfaction, motivation and productivity, and these can all be measured. Valued employees Increases in motivation Higher productivity Measurable outcome/kpi Senior managers will devise strategic aims and objectives from the organisation s vision and mission, and will set out Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as quantifiable metrics that they can use to measure and assess how well the organisation is achieving these stated goals. These objectives and KPIs are designed to create the golden thread and get everybody working in the same direction. KPIs enable managers to measure what employees are doing, create incentives to act in a desired way, and to measure how effectively they do this. The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 7

Chapter 1: Golden Thread It is important to ensure that the objectives set and the key performance indicators used to measure success are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound), and that there is effective communication across the organisation. If this is achieved then the process of organisational alignment will follow. For example, a vision that sees a business delivering first-class customer service might set the number of recorded customer complaints as its KPI. This may then translate into the strategic objective of reducing the number of complaints to less than 5% which, in turn, may filter down as SMART objectives for some departments to reduce the number of customer complaints by 20%. Individuals may agree SMART performance management objectives to resolve all customer queries within 3 working days, before they turn into complaints. Vision First class customer service KPI Number of recorded customer complaints Strategic objective Reduce the number of complaints to less than 5% Departmental objective Reduce the number of complaints by 20% Individual objective Resolve all customer queries within three working days However, due to more rapidly changing business environments, the frequency with 8 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Chapter 1: Golden Thread which organisations need to change in response is increasing. Consequently, so is the need for organisations to repeatedly realign to new visions and objectives. In this environment, the golden thread needs to be stronger and effective communication up and down the organisation becomes even more important. The organisation s leader can achieve this by asserting a compelling, personal and transformational story that communicates the need for profound change to his leadership team. They then start the process of cascading this new vision down the organisation, with each manager personalising the story for their audience so Transformational Change Effective top-down communication Narrative cascades down organisation Leader s compelling vision and personal story Senior managers personalise story Middle managers personalise story When individuals really embrace this vision then communication also becomes bottom-up Feeds into individual SMART objectives The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 9

Chapter 1: Golden Thread that it is both relevant and inspiring for their team. In this way, all employees will not only understand and accept the proposed change, but will embrace it because of its impact in helping them to achieve their individual objectives and to progress in their careers. In order to become truly effective, the communication needed to achieve this organisational change will adopt a bottom up element, where the employees at the bottom of the organisation take ownership of the vision. This indicates that the thread will have become golden because the individual, team and organisational objectives are aligned. Firms that take the time to implement processes that create and reinforce this golden thread will see their performance improve on a sustainable basis 10 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 Chapter 2 SMART Objectives 11 11

Chapter 2: SMART Objectives What are SMART objectives? SMART objectives make the organisation s mission and vision relevant to the individual employee. The organisation s mission is its main purpose or reason for being and typically won t change much over time. For example: A creative copywriting training company s mission is to deliver a first-class creative writing education. Alongside the mission, sits the vision statement. This is a picture of what the organisation will look like at some point in the future. This may be to become the market-leading provider of creative writing courses by 2025. These statements are there to guide the whole organisation and every employee should be working together to achieve them. But the mission and vision need to be made relevant to the individual, and setting SMART objectives helps to achieve this. How do I set SMART objectives with my team? An objective is a statement, which describes what an individual, team, or organisation is hoping to achieve. For an objective to be SMART, it needs to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. 12 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Chapter 2: SMART Objectives S M A R T Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound Specific When an objective is specific, it clearly describes the desired outcome. It is detailed, focused and unambiguous. When setting objectives with your team you should look to answer the questions of what needs to happen, how this will happen and who will be responsible. Use simple language and avoid jargon. I will increase the number of students enrolling on our creative writing course next year by 500. Measurable This objective becomes measurable when we select a metric to use as the performance indicator. In this example, this could be: I will measure the number of students enrolling on our creative writing course next year. Measurement is extremely important in setting objectives because, as the old adage goes, what gets measured gets done. When deciding which metric to use, it is important to think about the evidence needed to effectively monitor performance. This should include non-ambiguous measures such as: The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 13

Chapter 2: SMART Objectives percentages, frequencies, rates or numbers. Consider if these figures are readily available from a current system that is already in place and be critical of the chosen performance indicators to ensure that they accurately demonstrate improved performance rather than reflective of a general trend. For example, if the number of enrolments onto creative writing courses has increased across the board for competitors as well, this metric may not accurately reflect improved performance of any one organisation. Achievable Objectives need to be achievable because this affects the level of motivation with which they are attempted, and therefore the chance of success. Employees attempting the impossible may simply not bother, seeing the whole process as a waste of time and effort. One of the most effective ways to ensure that objectives are achievable is to consider the resources required. If those resources are already in place, it is likely that the objective is realistic and can be achieved. Key considerations will be: personnel, funding, time and equipment, how responsibilities will be allocated across the team and are there any skills gaps that need to be addressed. For guidance, check whether comparable results have been achieved in similar circumstances. Key questions might include: do I have a sufficientmarketing budget to attract the new students? What proportion of students who request information actually enrol? 14 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Chapter 2: SMART Objectives Have we achieved similar increases in the past? Relevant Relevant objectives must be aligned to the organisation s mission, vision and strategic objectives, and must also be appropriate to the function of the department or job role of the individual, bearing in mind their skills and experience. In this way, the golden thread is created and genuine employee engagement is achieved. Increasing student numbers will move me one step closer to becoming the market leader. Time-bound Adding a deadline makes the objective time-bound and creates the sense of urgency needed to spur people into action. For long projects, it is good practice to set up interim deadlines to achieve certain milestones or key steps. For example, in order to complete enrolment to the creative writing course by September this year, the marketing campaign will need to launch in May. Be careful to consider the resources needed to achieve these deadlines and any competing demands, or deadlines can become meaningless or demotivating. The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 15

Chapter 2: SMART Objectives Ensuring organisational alignment Effective communication requires that, once objectives have been written for individuals and teams, they should be shared with the rest of the organisation. Seeing how their job role fits in to the big picture can increase an individual s motivation and truly align them with the organisation. In addition, it will be clear when changes are relevant to others and so aid communication flow. Effective communication Employee fit motivation Share objectives Organisational alignment Communication of relevant information improved SMARTER objectives Some have made objectives SMARTER, adding evaluated and reviewed or rewarded to the framework. These encourage continuous improvement in SMART actions, but the purpose remains the same. Don t be vague when setting objectives. Use the process as a means of aligning the organisation. 16 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 Chapter 3 GROW Coaching 17

Chapter 3: GROW Coaching What is the GROW model of coaching? The GROW model is one of the most successful and widely used coaching models in the UK. It was introduced in the 1980s as one of the first applications of coaching to the workplace. John Whitmore and Graham Alexander s basic idea was that if learning and enjoyment at work were increased, then individual employees would gain a sense of purpose and take more responsibility in their job roles, which would ultimately lead to greater performance. The GROW model helps to achieve this improved performance by using a simple, four-step process to aid leaders to structure coaching sessions with their staff. G R O W Goals Reality Options Way-round An important feature of the GROW coaching model is that the leader guides and probes their coachee to reach their own conclusions. Step one: Goals Step one is the setting of goals. This should be done to establish what the employee wants to get out of the coaching session, as well as for the short and long term, once they have returned to their daily tasks. These goals should be SMART to ensure that these goals are realised. 18 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Chapter 3: GROW Coaching In the GROW model, the coach acts as a facilitator, to guide the conversation towards specifying a set of specific goals that can be achieved during an agreed time frame. These goals must come from the employee and reflect their own aspirations, brought into focus through further questioning and probing. They must come from the coachee, and not be imposed by the coach. This serves the extremely important function of creating trust in this process and ensures the coachee takes ownership of their goals. Employee ownership Coach as a guide What does the employee want? GOALS Creates trust Short and long-term goals SMART Agreed time-frame Questioning approach Not imposed by coach Coach extracts specific outcome The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1 19

Chapter 3: GROW Coaching Step two: Reality Step two establishes the reality of where the employee currently is with regard to achieving these goals. Here, the focus is on assessing the current situation in terms of the actions the employee has taken so far, and on seeking to clarify the results and effects of these actions. The coachee may need help in critically reflecting on any internal obstacles they have set up that are impeding their progress towards achieving their goals. The majority of the coaching time may well be spent in this phase, raising the employee s self-awareness primarily through open-ended questioning. The coach will use precise language and ask for real-world examples of any assertions made to strip away assumptions and judgements. The coachee will be invited to carry out an unbiased self-assessment. What is their current situation? Reality Actions already taken Identify internal obstacles Strip away assumptions Use real-world examples Raise self-awareness 20 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1