DEFINING LEADERSHIP:

A REVIEW OF PAST, PRESENT, AND

FUTURE IDEAS
Fairholm's Perspectives on Leadership
Aligned with the Literature Review

T
HE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
Leadership is not about personality; its about
behavioran observable set of skills and abilities.
And when we first set out to discover what great
leaders actually do when they are at their personal
best, we collected thousands of stories from
ordinary peoplethe experiences they recalled
when asked to think of a peak leadership
experience. Despite differences in culture, gender,
age, and other variables, these Personal Best
stories revealed similar patterns of behavior. In
fact, we discovered that when leaders are at their
personal best there are five core practices common
to all: they Model the Way, Inspire a Shared
Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to
Act, and last but certainly not least, they
Encourage the Heart.
Three decades later, The Five Practices of
Exemplary Leadership model continues to prove
its effectiveness as a clear, evidence-based path to
achieving the extraordinaryfor individuals,
teams, organizations, and communities. It turns the
abstract concept of leadership into easy-to-grasp
Practices and behaviors that can be taught and
learned by anyone willing to step up and accept
the challenge to lead. As measured and validated
by the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)one

of the most widely used leadership assessment

instruments in the worldongoing studies
consistently confirm that The Five Practices and
our assessment tools are positively related to both
the effectiveness of leaders and the level of
commitment, engagement, and satisfaction of
those that follow.
Model the Way
Leaders establish principles concerning the
way people (constituents, peers, colleagues,
and customers alike) should be treated and the
way goals should be pursued. They create
standards of excellence and then set an
example for others to follow. Because the
prospect of complex change can overwhelm
people and stifle action, they set interim goals
so that people can achieve small wins as they
work toward larger objectives. They unravel
bureaucracy when it impedes action; they put
up signposts when people are unsure of where
to go or how to get there; and they create
opportunities for victory.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Leaders passionately believe that they can
make a difference. They envision the future,
creating an ideal and unique image of what the
organization can become. Through their
magnetism and quiet persuasion, leaders enlist
others in their dreams. They breathe life into
their visions and get people to see exciting
possibilities for the future.
Challenge the Process
Leaders search for opportunities to change the
status quo. They look for innovative ways to
improve the organization. In doing so, they
experiment and take risks. And because
leaders know that risk taking involves
mistakes and failures, they accept the
inevitable disappointments as learning
opportunities.
Enable Others to Act
Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited
teams. They actively involve others. Leaders
understand that mutual respect is what sustains
extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an
atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They
strengthen others, making each person feel
capable and powerful.

Encourage the Heart

Accomplishing extraordinary things in
organizations is hard work. To keep hope and
determination alive, leaders recognize

A PROCESS FOR CHANGING

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Definition of Organizational Culture
Culture is a potential predictor of other
organizational outcomes (e.g., effectiveness) in the
former perspective, whereas in the latter
perspective it is a concept to be explained
independent of any other phenomenon.
Measuring Organizational Culture through
Competing Values
The Competing Values Framework has proven to
be a helpful framework for assessing and profiling
the dominant cultures of organizations because it
helps individuals identify the underlying cultural
dynamics that exist in their organizations.
Culture Types
The clan culture, is typified as a friendly place
to work where people share a lot of
themselves.
adhocracy culture. It is characterized as a
dynamic, entrepreneurial, and creative
workplace.
A market culture in the lower right quadrant is
a results-oriented workplace. Leaders are
hard-driving
producers, directors,
and
competitors.
hierarchy culture, is characterized as a
formalized and structured place to work.
Procedures and well-defined processes govern
what people do.
Profiling Organizational Culture
The manner in which organizational culture is
described and experienced by individuals, in other
words, is congruent with the dimensions of the
competing values framework. The key to assessing
organizational culture, therefore, is to identify
aspects of the organization that reflect its key
values and assumptions and then give individuals
an opportunity to respond to these cues.
A Process for Changing Organizational Culture
1. Clarifying meaning.
2. Identifying stories.
3. Determining strategic initiatives.

contributions that individuals make. In every

winning team, the members need to share in
the rewards of their efforts, so leaders
celebrate accomplishments. They make people
feel like heroes.
4. Identifying small wins.
5. Craft metrics, measures, and milestones.
6. Communication and symbols.
7. Leadership development.
The organization implemented activities such as
the following to help ensure that sufficient bench
strength existed in their leadership ranks to lead
the transformed organizational culture:
1. on-going 360 feedback processes with
sponsorship and coaching
2. formal mentoring by (mainly) senior
executives
3. management development and training
programs
4. assigned reading material outside the
normal work-related material
5. attendance at professional conferences
each year
6. a formalized support group for high
potential leaders
7. developmental and stretch assignments at
work
8. non-work service opportunities aimed at
giving back to the community.

WHAT IS AN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Culture is a unique characteristic of any
organization. While the phenomenon of
organizational culture is difficult to define
succinctly, understanding it can help a manager
predict how his or her organization is likely to
respond to different situations; to assess the
difficulties that the organization might experience
as it confronts a changing future; and to identify
the priority issues for the leadership to address as
they prepare the organization to compete for the
future. Culture is the result of common learning
experiences.
The Antecedents of Culture
Essentially, there was a time in every
organizations history when its members first
encountered a problem or a challenge that they
needed to resolve.
Culture as a Tool of the General Manager
Strong culture is one of the most powerful tools
that a skilled manager can wield. As his or her
organization grows, it soon becomes impossible
for the general manager personally to be involved
in every important decision, such as who to hire or
promote, when to kill an ageing product line, or
whether to bid or not bid on a particular order.
Culture, Capabilities and Disabilities
The general managers dilemma is that while
culture is a powerful tool for consistently pursuing
a particular set of goals, culture can constitute a
disability at times when change is critical to
addressing new competitive or technological
challenges from unexpected directions.
When Understanding an Organizations
Culture Is Particularly Important
Schein discusses four specific instances in which
it is extremely important for a manager to
understand an organizations culture in a rigorous,
detailed way. These include: 1) when he or she
first joins a new organization as a manager; 2)
when one company acquires another; 3) when the
manager is coordinating the efforts of different
functional groups within his or her organization;
and 4) when the manager is confronting the need
to fundamentally change the companys strategic
direction, and by implication, its culture.
What to Look for When Joining a Different
Company

When encountering a new culture, its visible

manifestations have a powerful impact on the
observer. New managers should especially be
careful to observe when such tone or behavior is
actually purposive and patterned.
Evaluating Culture in Mergers and Acquisitions
When one company decides to acquire another, it
typically pays a substantial premium over the
book value. With this premium price, the
acquiring firm is purchasing three classes of
factors that historically have contributed to the
acquired companys historical performance: its
resources, its processes, and its business model,
with the priorities embedded therein. The
resources including people, technology, products,
facilities and equipment, information, cash,
brands, and relationships with customers,
distributors and suppliers are the easiest to observe

and evaluate. But much of what has driven the

acquired organizations historical performance its
capabilities and disabilities historically has
resulted from its processes and decision making
criteria.
The Role of Cultural Differences in Managing
Cross-Functional Processes
Often there are several cultures operating within
the larger organization. There can be managerial
culture, nationality- or geography-based culture,
occupationally-based culture, functional unit
culture and business unit culture.
When Strategic and Cultural Change are
Required
Scheins research has important implications for
managers who confront the challenge of
fundamental strategic and organizational change.