The Enthusiastic Beginner - D1

 

D1 - THE ENTHUSIASTIC BEGINNER

We had a look at the Skill Will Matrix in the last article and understood the mapping of employees in their life cycle developmental levels based on their skill & will levels. We also listed the 4 categories of employees based on this.

Let’s understand the first one today – “The Enthusiastic Beginner”

This is an employee who has just begun his career or a new role in an organization.  Since he is new in his career or role, his skill levels are going to be considerably low.

**Please consider 'He, his' to be gender neutral terms for some time in these articles..

However, since it’s a new beginning for him, his motivation levels, energy and enthusiasm are going to be high.

So if you plot him on the matrix... this is where he would be.

This phase will last for a couple of months where he stays self-motivated and tries to learn skills he needs to, in order to do his role.

Now what we are going to talk about in this entire series is the natural progression of an employee if the right kind of leadership interventions or behaviors are not exhibited by the designated leader.

Ideally if you look at the levels at which he is in the two parameters, let us understand what confluence of Leadership he requires.

Since he is low on skill he would require High Task oriented behaviors or Directive behaviors.

Also, his will or motivation levels are already high. So he does not require high relationship oriented behaviors or Supportive behaviors.

A point to note, however, that it would not affect him negatively, if the supportive behaviors are marginally higher. The aspect to be taken into consideration, however, is that too much supportive behavior might lead him to complacency or might end up the leader being taken for granted or taken advantage of!

So the ideal confluence of behaviors for an Enthusiastic Beginner is –

High Directive Low Supportive

This is also known as the “Directing” style of leadership and should be maintained to improve his skill levels to attempt to gradually move him into D4 or Peak Performer without letting him slip into D2 or D3.

We will also focus on all 4 Leadership styles together once we complete detailed discussions on each developmental level in a separate article.

That’s it for now. Will come back soon with the “Disillusioned Learner”. Stay tuned!

Ciao!!

The Skill Will Matrix

 

The Skill Will Matrix

We have spoken about the Developmental Levels of employees in their life cycle & the various leadership Behaviors in the previous two articles.

Let’s understand the Skill-Will Matrix today!

This is simply a tool to categorize employees in their life cycle to enable Leaders to exhibit the right kind of Leadership behaviors with them.  

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 Alert!!

Please be aware that this is not an exact science though. We are, after all, talking about individual human beings, with emotions and feelings and not about machines or robots. So there will never an exact fitment into the mold.

This is just a guideline!

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The 2 parameters for gauging the developmental levels of employees are Skill & Will.

So we graphically represent the two parameters on the two axes to get a confluence of the two to ideally be able to gauge where the employees stands from a “Life Cycle” point of view.

This would then help the leader arrive at the ideal confluence of behaviors to be exhibited. But more about that later.

So if “Skill” is the X-Axis and “Will” is the Y-Axis, this is what we will get –

Any employee would lie in one of the four quadrants, based on their Skill & Will levels, and the leader who is able to gauge this effectively will then have to exhibit the right kind of behaviors for them, to influence them towards their growth.

One important aspect to bear in mind, however, is that every leader has his/her own predominant leadership style which would need to be consciously altered when dealing with employees in various stages of development.

Based on this matrix, we get four categories of employees –

1.       Enthusiastic Beginner

2.       Disillusioned Learner

3.       Reluctant Contributor

4.       Peak Performer

We shall look at each of these individually in the next few articles.

Ciao!

 

Leadership Behaviors

We've talked about Skill & Will; the two parameters affecting the developmental levels of employees in their life cycles. So to be able to impact the team members’ performance and development, these two need to be impacted.

A leader influences team members to improve their skills and will by using his/ her behaviors…

There are 2 different kinds of behaviors that impact the said parameters. And leaders need to exhibit different kinds of behaviors based on the team members' development level according to their skill & will level.

The behaviors are Supportive Behavior & Directive Behavior.

Supportive behavior is Relationship oriented behavior and impacts the Will levels of team members.

Directive Behavior is Task oriented behavior and impacts the Skill of team members.

Supportive or Relationship Oriented behavior involves listening to people, encouraging them and their efforts, involving them in problem solving and decision making etc.; the extent of the last 2 will depend on their individual skills.

Directive or Task oriented behavior involves clearly telling people what to do, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it and then closely supervising and monitoring them and provide course correction if they err anywhere.

To be able to exhibit the right kinds of behaviors with the team members, the leader needs to stay in touch with the team members and understand them. It requires effort to inspect and identify where they are on the Skill/Will scale. (more about this scale in the next article)

Behaviors help after you have identified where team members lie on the scale. Consequently, mapping them right, becomes extremely crucial. Without comparative accuracy you will not be able to use the right behaviors with them and fail as a leader as they might get behaviors contrary to what they require.

One more thing to remember… there always has to be a mix of both behaviors in a leader. You do not need to be at 2 extremes. Not only supportive or directive; however the extent of Supportive & Directive needs to be high or low depending on the skill/ will level of the team member.

One important question to ask ourselves before we move ahead!

How do you map a person on the scale... based on what?

First thing to do is to identify the skills required for a particular role, job, and task... make a list of all competencies required.

Then check where the person lies, in each of them. This can be ascertained by the specific actions he/ she takes and the output or performance generated.

You may find that they lie on various developmental levels on different skills and you will have to use directive behavior only in those situations where that particular skill which he/ she is low on, needs to be used or exhibited.

Will on the other hand is basically the motivation level of a person and can be ascertained by their behaviors, body language, willingness to volunteer, openness to feedback and various other things apparent from their behaviors.

So to gauge skill levels look at actions, and to gauge will levels look at behaviors.

You will have to be prepared in your mind and be aware of the developmental levels of your team members at all times during every interaction with them to be able to exhibit the right kind of behaviors with them.

Signing off for now… Be back soon with the Skill/ Will scale!!

Ciao!

 

Developmental levels in an Employee Life Cycle

To understand Leadership better, it is first important to understand the various developmental levels in an employee's life cycle.

There are 2 parameters to be considered when you talk about an employee developing within an organization... or under a leader, Skill and Will!!

When we talk about Skills we are talking about a combination of Knowledge & Skill together…

Let’s understand the two separately first.

“Knowledge is understanding or awareness of something through information or facts”

or

“Knowledge is information that you have about something”

- These could be some definitions of Knowledge that you can think of…

“Skill is learning the method of accomplishing a particular task and can be learned through practice”

Or

“Skill is when you learn something through practicing and are able to do it mentally & physically”

- These could be some definitions of Skill that you can think of…

If I have to put it in simple words, Knowledge is the "What" of a particular topic or subject and Skill is the "How" of it..

One of the biggest sources of knowledge is the environment we live in and the experiences that we have had in our lives from the day we were born... through awareness and understanding…

Skill is simply knowing how to do something and can be obtained and improved by consistent practice of the actions and behaviour required.

Let’s take an example of Cooking to understand this better.

The knowledge of cooking is the awareness that I have to take edible products and apply various techniques on them to be able to consume them... the awareness of the various techniques... such as chopping, grinding, boiling, frying, braising, roasting, baking, etc.

The skill is actually, practically take a knife in your hand and chop the onions into pieces... the first time you do it, it will not be uniform... but you have acquired the skill at a nascent level...

As you practice you will get better and develop the skill…

For the purpose of this topic we will club Knowledge & Skills together and call them Skill... so just be aware that whenever I mention skill in the next few articles... I mean both of them together…

So is working knowledge and skill enough to accomplish a task? (And I'm not saying accomplishing it well... just accomplishing it)

Not really!

What really completes the troika of accomplishing a task is the “Desire” to do it… Which comes from genuine willingness to do something…

And that is the Will we are talking about.

So for anything to be accomplished effectively you need a confluence of the three... What, How and Desire…

So to understand the developmental levels of an employee in his/ her life cycle, we would need to map these 2 parameters on a graph and understand where exactly the employee lies in the life cycle with respect to these parameters.

More of this later… Stay tuned…

 

Leadership Decoded

Leadership is the ability to influence a group of people into moving towards a common objective in a coherent and cohesive manner

Two important words here.. coherent and cohesive... 

Coherent is connected with clarity.. in the mind of the leader, in the communication that the leader does with the team and in the minds of each team member..

Cohesion is ensuring that similar components of the whole, stay together.. So from a team relevance, it is keeping the team together to move towards a common team goal..

If you go back to school physics, cohesion and adhesion differ slightly.. cohesion is similar components, adhesion is dissimilar components..

Moving on to the second part of the definition of Leadership..

The second part is the enabler... which allows the leader to be able to influence.. The leader influences by using various attributes within him/ her..

Attributes such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge & skills... So strength in all 6 is a requisite..

Belief is something you believe or accept irrespective of whether it is true or false. Beliefs are something that you accept without asking for proof.. like Belief in God, for example..

Principles are universal whereas Values belong to an individual... that which is of worth and importance to every individual is his/her value.

Values are like the regulator of a Fan... They can be moved from a scale of 1 to 5 depending on how much importance you place on a certain thing in your life.. And you behave or act accordingly..

And that's why you can work on and improve your personal value system based on your beliefs and ethics if you find that your regulator has been at a low level in certain situations in your life..

You can consciously work and improve your value system to get them as close to principles as possible..

Ethics is one's own understanding of right or wrong, legally, socially & morally. Though it is not only about the morality of particular courses of action, but it's also about the goodness of individuals and what it means to live a good life.

Character is who you truly are. It is made up of various components. It is a combination of our Values & Value systems, Beliefs, Ethics, Culture, Traditions of the community & society, our upbringing and our set of skills & knowledge.

Knowledge & Skills?

To put it simply... Knowledge is the "What" of a particular topic or subject and Skill is the "How" of it..

One of the biggest sources of knowledge is the environment we live in and the experiences that we have had in our lives from the day we were born... through awareness and understanding..

Skill is simply knowing how to do something..

To be continued...

*Situational Leadership is not just important from the point of view of existing and future leaders, but also for professionals at all levels as it helps you plan and organize your careers and growth based on the development level that you are at and the resources and opportunities you will get in the future!

Knock Knock - Reality Check

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Reality!

To continue from where I left off in my previous blog, “Making a Choice”; a very important aspect about making choices, is understanding your realities!!

I've always maintained that what you need to set for yourself, is not goals or objectives, but “Dreams”. However, before setting your sights on a dream, it is important to do a “Reality Check”; a check to understand whether or not you have all the resources required to achieve that dream.

Now, what are these resources?

For anything to be achieved you would obviously need physical resources. Those are the simplest ones to take stock of. There are other resources which are far more complicated.

The first one is Time and I’ve elaborated my take on Time in my first blog – “TimeMachine - Convert A Day into 36 hours!”

The second resource is your own abilities – physical and more importantly intellectual. I will be writing a lot more about Intellect, the Human Brain and Emotional Intelligence in further blogs.

What I want to focus on right now is on the fourth and most complicated resource available to us – Relationships!

Borrowing from Dr. Covey’s third habit and applying my interpretation and progression on it, I think Relationships form the core of all our decisions.

They are not just the reasons for us to take critical decisions in our life, but also the key factors that enable us to achieve the dreams and aspirations we set out to achieve.

You need a deep introspection of two kinds of relationships –

      1.     The Enabling Relationships

      2.     The Affected Relationships

Some bitter and hard truths but need to be looked at!

     1.     The enabling Relationships

These are the relationships that will aid you in achieving your dreams and aspirations. Choose wisely. There are many questions that you need to ask yourselves.

Which are the relationships that complement you? That inspire you, motivate you… What are the abilities of the people involved? Do they have the same dream? Do they believe in the dream? Do they have the abilities to progress your dream? Or are they hindrances?

The answers to these questions will tell you which relationships are really your assets for the dream at hand, whether you should involve them in it or continue an independent journey with them exclusive of the Dream.

     2.     The Affected Relationships

     This is an even more complicated aspect. There will be relationships that will be affected due to your behaviors and the actions you taking during the pursuit of your Dream. There will be deposits and withdrawals of Trust in your Emotional Bank accounts in various relationships.

     How much a relationship is important to you will make you decide to allow a withdrawal. So the decisions you take about your behaviors and actions depends on the importance and value of the affected relationships in your life.

     So are these really resources. Yes they are; as the status of those relationships and their importance and value in your life is going to immeasurably affect your second resource – your abilities, especially the emotional abilities.

     So think and decide wisely before you make a choice. Your relationships are the pillars of your life. Your Dreams might not be worth it, if they affect your valued relationship!

  

     Dream on… but just check a few realities before you start your journey!!

     Ciao!

Making A Choice!

Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi?

Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal?

The debate will always go on about who is better than the other!

And each of us do have our choices… and a very strong opinion about why our choice is the best one! But when it comes to important or significant things in our own life we stay away from making those choices. We avoid them like a hot potato... we push them to another day and continue living with the monkeys on our backs.

Face them... Monkeys or demons… whatever you want to call them.. And make a choice!!

Those difficult issues in your life which you don't talk or even think about, because they have happened in the past are the ones that shape your tomorrow. You begin to live with them and they become a part of who you are.

I did that too and the only thing I managed to do was make my life miserable. Until the day I decided to make a choice. I decided to take my life in my own hands, face my past and create my own destiny. However, to do this you need to make some tough choices. Choices about your values, choices about the way you will live your life from hereon and the strength to be disciplined enough to stand by these choices.

It will be a tough journey initially. It’ll make you regret your decision; but if you have based your choice on your values, it’ll be worth it in the long run. 

Look within yourself to understand what your values are. Ask yourself if you are living your life according to your true values. If you look into that difficult past and analyze the mistakes you did, you will realize that they happened since you weren’t true to your values.

Then, also analyze your values. Is the intensity of your values taking them close to the universal principles? If not, turn the regulator to high.

Once you are there, embrace these values and live your life as per them. As I said earlier, the initial journey will be difficult as you change yourself, to be in tune with your changed value system. 

Remember, every time you come across a fork on the journey of life, you have a choice. And these choices aren’t just going to impact you; they are also going to impact people in your circles of influence and concern.

I realized this when I experienced a choice being made by someone, which transformed MY life. And that’s when I made a choice – to up the ante, re-evaluate my value system, make tough choices about tough situations and create a Win - Win situation. I stand today with the courage to have dreams and the confidence of fulfilling them, because of THAT CHOICE made by someone else. I am now continuing the chain.

Continue this chain further and experience the difference that you create in the world.


Ciao!