Developing Leadership Skills

By
Ronald D. Snee
Tunnell Consulting

Presented at
“From Consultant to Effective Leader”
ASQ Statistics Division
Roanoke, VA
April 26-27, 2002

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 Agenda

• Today’s Realities
• What is Leadership?
• What Do Leaders Do?
• Key Leadership Skills
• Ways to Develop Leadership Skills
• Summary

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 Today’s Realities

• Global Competition is forcing changes in all

aspects of our society
- Business
- Government
- Education
- Health Care
• Customers are demanding more
• We have to change how we work and manage
- All aspects of our organizations
- All processes we use to do our work

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 We Live in a New Era

• Old Paradigm - One Job

- Go to work, do your job and come home
• New Paradigm - We Have Two Jobs
- Do your work
- Improve on how you do your work
• Key Issue
- How to balance the
“Doing” and “Improving” workloads

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Leaders Help Us Make the Needed Changes?

Leaders help a group of people move from

One paradigm to another

"Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do

something you want done because he wants to do it."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Leaders have followers”
Bill Gore, Founder, W. L. Gore and Associates

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 We have Many Kinds of Leaders

• Political
• Military
• Business
• Academic
• Religious
• Sports
• Statistical Leaders
• And many more

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Change Requires Both Leading and Managing

Leading Managing
• Moving Between • Working Within a
Paradigms Paradigm
• Doing Right • Doing Things Right
Things • Holding the Gains
• Creating
Improvements
• Managing
• Leading & Processes
Developing People

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We Need Both Leading and Managing

Lead People
• Direction
• Communication Manage
• Resources Processes
• Coach
• Reinforce
Happy Customers
Feedback
- What’s working?
- Need to do differently?

Healthy processes serving happy customers

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Time Spent on Doing and Improving Work

Leading Managing
Role “Improving” Work “Doing” Work
Executives 90 10
Managers 70 30
Others 30 70

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 So What Do Leaders Do?
• Provide Direction - Where we are headed
• Communicate
- The “Why” & “Benefits” of the direction
• Enable, Coach and Counsel
• Recognize Results and
Reinforce Desired Behavior

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Providing Direction - Showing the Way
• Vision - What Success Looks Like
• Objectives - How we will win
• Goals - How much, by when
• Strategies - What we will focus on
• Initiatives - Specific projects we will undertake

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Strategic Planning Example
• Vision Improvement is part of our culture
• Objective Implement Six Sigma
• Goal $30MM in 3 years
• Strategy Begin in manufacturing, then
Move to New Product Development
Next initiate work in Admin areas
• Initiatives BB Wave 1 in Manufacturing
BB Wave 2 in New Product Dev
BB Wave 3 in Admin processes
BB Wave 4 in Manufacturing

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Kotter’s Eight Stages of Successful Change
• Establish a sense of urgency
 Positive vision of being a premier company
• Create a guiding coalition
 Champions
• Develop a vision and strategy
 Six Sigma at my company
• Communicate the change vision
• Empower employees for broad based action
 Aggressive results oriented training at all levels
• Generate short-term wins
 $50M in six months at Company A
• Consolidate gains and produce more change
 Using annual operating plan and communications program
• Anchor new approaches in the culture
- Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, Green Belts

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Elements of Successful Change
• Vision
• Motivating forces - Burning platform
• Strong, respected leader
• Broad participation
• Communication - Tight networks and patterns
• Training and Education
• Reinforcement

All Elements Must be Present for the

Change to Be Successful Westinghouse Productivity and Quality Center

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 Communicate The Direction
Provide Understanding and Hope
• The direction we are pursuing
• What benefits we expect to get
• Progress - Results achieved to date
• Communication should be clear, concise
and continuous
• Variety of media should be used
- People take in and process information
in different ways

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Enable - Set Up People for Success
• Provide resources - people, time, $$$
• Provide training - build needed skills
• Provide methods to accomplish
assigned tasks
• Remove barriers
• Coach and Counsel

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 Recognize and Reinforce
Catch People Doing Things Right
• Recognize accomplishments and results
- Psychological rewards
- Financial rewards
• Reinforce desired behavior
- Catch people doing things right
• People want and need feedback
- “How am I doing?” , Ed Koch, Mayor, New York
• Feedback needed for improvement
• Key tool - Management reviews

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 Leaders Lead People
• Provide Direction
- Leaders show the way
• Communicate
- Leaders develop understanding and hope
• Enable, Coach, Counsel, Provide Resources
- Leaders set people up for success
• Recognize Results and Reinforce Desired Behavior
- Leaders catch people doing things right

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 Dalton Model for Career Development

Career Stage Role

• Apprentice • Helps, follows direction
• Colleague • Independent contributor
• Mentor • Manager, developer of
people, networker
• Sponsor • Shapes the
organization’s direction
Leadership skills are required to
function as a “Mentor” and “Sponsor”

Dalton and Thompson, 1986

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 George Fisher Plot
High Total Quality “We need employees with
Facilitators both people & technical
skills”

Target
People
Skills

Low Statisticians

Low Technical Skills High

Note: George Fisher, CEO at Motorola & Kodak, has a Ph.D.

In applied mathematics from Brown University
mcs

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 Quotes on Leadership
“The very essence of leadership is you have to have a vision. It s got to be a vision you
articulate forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh,
President Emeritus, Notre Dame University

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

John F. Kennedy
November 22, 1963

“The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack”

“It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from
their followers.”
Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus

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 Quotes on Leadership
“The best coaches know what the end result looks like.--If you don’t
know what the end result is supposed to look like, you can’t get
there.”
Vince Lombardi
“Hey, Wait a Minute”
John Madden p224

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”

John Wooden

“The secret of success is constancy of purpose”

Benjamin Disraeli

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 Quotes on Leadership
“Life is like a dog sled team. If you’re not the lead dog the view never
changes.”
Anonymous

"Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want

done because he wants to do it."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Leaders have followers”
Bill Gore, Founder, W. L. Gore and Associates

“You can manage what you cannot understand, but you cannot lead
it.”
Myron Tribus

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 Change Requires Shifts in
Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes
Knowledge

What? Why?

Habits
Behavior
Mindset
How To? Want To

Adapted from Covey 1989 Skills Attitude and Desire

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 Key Leadership Skills

• Business Acumen
– Understand how business works
• Process and Systems Thinking
• Strategic Planning and Deployment
• Stakeholder Building
• Communication – Clear, concise & continuous
• Reviewing and Coaching
• Structured Improvement Methods (Six Sigma)
• Learn to Deal With Teams & Group Dynamics
• Meeting Design and Facilitation
• Project Planning and Management
• Understanding Human Behavior

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 Core Processes
Product Processes
Design Enterprise
Requirements Translation
Collections and Development
Processes
Definition
Manufacturing Planning
Market
Segment Financial
Delivery
Personnel
Selling
Mgmt. Info. Sys.
INTERFACES

Ordering Legal
Distribution Communications
Market Public Relations
Billing
Place Collection
Service
Business Processes
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 Elements of Strategic Planning

• Mission – What the organization does for its customers

• Vision – What the organization wants to become
• Values – Principles organization will live by
• Objectives – What we have to do to be successful
• Strategy – How we will achieve our objectives
• Goals – Numerical targets that enable the organization to
meet its objectives
• Initiatives – Actions taken to implement strategies
• Deployment – Process of taking the strategies and
objectives to each level of the organization so that the
overall objectives are achieved

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 Modes of Behavior

Acceptance •This will be good for us

•Let’s get started Purposeful
of a
New Idea
•I can make this work
Ego •This will be good for me

•Won’t work
Reactive •Costs too much
•Takes too long

Time
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Reaction to a New Idea – Modes of Behavior
• Phase I – Reactive
- This will never work - The cost is too high
- I don’t have time for this
• Phase II – Ego
- I see some benefit for me - I think that I can make this work
• Phase III – Purposeful
- This can be good for us
- Everyone should get this training
- Let’s get started

Note: Everyone starts in the reactive phase – “Goes Reactive!”

- We all pass through the Ego Phase before
“Becoming Purposeful”
- People move through the phases at different rates
- Some people don’t ever get out of the Reactive phase

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 “Shopping the Plan Around”
Building Stakeholder Support
Individual Stakeholders

….Stakeholders
Plan 1 Input 1 Plan 2 Input 2 Plan 3
Adopt Plan

Plan Development
Continue to get input from stakeholders individually and
revise the plan until you are ready to
share the Plan with the stakeholders as a group.
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 Leaders Recognize Different
Levels of Activity and Job Responsibility.

Where we're
Strategic Executives
headed

Managerial processes
Managerial Managers
to guide us

Where the work

Operational Others
gets done

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 Running Effective Meetings

• Well-Defined meeting purpose, desired outcomes,

agenda and roles
• Meeting Roles
- Leader – Runs the meeting
- Facilitator – Helps the group conduct the meeting
- Scribe – Captures ideas and issues on flip chart to
keep the group focused including
Action List and Parking Lot
- Note Taker – Prepares the meeting minutes
- Timekeeper – Keeps track of the meeting time

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 Meeting Roles

Scribe

Meeting Leader

Facilitator
Time Keeper Note Taker

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 DMAIC
Six Sigma Process Improvement Model

Define the project and its financial

Define impact

Measure the gap, listen to the

Measure process

Analyze data to determine root

Analyze causes

Improve the process – Implement the

Improve solution

Control Control the process, standardize, and

document – Sustain the gains

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DMAIC and the Improvement Tools
Measure Analyze Improve Control
Process Maps
Cause and Effect
Matrix
Measurement
Systems Analysis
Capability
Analysis
Failure Modes and
Effects Analysis
Multi-Vari Studies
Design of
Experiments
Control Plans and
SPC

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 Myths of Leadership

• Leadership is a rare skill

• Leaders are born not made
• Leaders are charismatic
• Leadership exists only at the top of an
organization
• The leader controls, directs, prods, manipulates

Bennis and Nanus 1985

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 Personal Change Is Required

• Insanity
- Doing the Same Things and Expecting
Better Results
• The Only Person Who Enjoys a Change is a Wet
Baby
• “If You Can’t Change Your Mind You Can’t
Change Anything”--George B. Shaw
• Those Who Fail to Respond to Their Changing
World Will Have Less Influence in It

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 Ways to Develop Leadership Skills

• Read books and articles

• Attend courses
• Discuss the subject with colleagues
• Practice, Practice, Practice, ………..

“Becoming a leader is like

learning to play the violin in public”
Anonymous

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 Can I Be Successful?

“Never doubt that a small group of committed

people can change the World. Indeed, it is the
only thing that ever has”
Margaret Mead

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 My Message
• Place an increased focus on enhancing your
leadership skills
• Be on the lookout for examples - good and
bad - of leadership that you can use as a
model
• Best way to learn to lead is to do it
- Be on the lookout for your opportunity!
opportunity

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 References on Leadership
Bennis, W and Nanus, B. (1985) Leaders - The Strategies for
Taking Charge, Harper-Row, NY. Bennis has several other
books on leadership.
Covey, S. R. (1989) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”,
Fireside, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY
Hayword, F. (1997) Churchill on Leadership, Prima Publishing,
Rocklin, CA
Kotter, J. (1997) Leading Change, Harvard Business School
Press, Cambridge, MA. Also see Harvard Business Review,
March-April 1995
Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (1995) The Leadership Challenge,
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Phillips, D. T. (1992) Lincoln on Leadership, Warner Books, New
York, NY

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 References on Leadership Skills
Bens, I (1999) Facilitation at a Glance, GOAL/QPC, Methuen, MA
Brassard, M. (1989) The Memory Jogger Plus, Goal/QPC, Methuen, MA
Dalton, G. W. and Thompson, P. H. (1986) Strategies for Career
Management, Scott Foresman, New York, NY
Dolye, M. and Straus, D. (1982) Making Meetings Work, Jove Books,
New York, NY
GOAL/QPC (1997) Project Management Memory Jogger, GOAL/QPC,
Methuen, MA
Hoerl, R. W. and Snee, R.D. (2002) Statistical Thinking – Improving
Business Performance, Duxbury Press, Pacific Grove, CA
Scholtes, P. R., Joiner, B. L. and Streibel, B. J. (1996) The Team
Handbook, Oriel, Madison, WI
Snee, R. D. (1998) “Non-Statistical Skills that Can Help Statisticians
Become More Effective”, Total Quality Management Journal, Vol. 9.
No. 8, 711-722

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