Week 5 Videos listing:
• Team Leadership transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Team Leadership. In this program,we'll be looking at ways to develop eff
ective teamleadership. We're fortunate to have a diverse array of
guestsin this program. Carol Tait and Hugh Graham are humanresource consultants for Watson
Wyatt Worldwide. Also inthe program are leadership and team building consultants,Sharon Park
er and Paula Washington. We'll meet Olympicgold medalist and World Cup champion, Michelle
Akers.Another guest is no stranger to team leadership, GeorgeTakei. We'll also hear from team b
uilding expert, DennisGoin and former NFL quarterback, Tom Flick. Finally, wehave legendary
football coach, Don James.
We'll examine a number of situations in which teamleadership breaks down. Our guests will anal
yze thosesituations and discuss how the team members could bemore effective.
One of the reasons why this national team is
so successful isthat we have so many different players who are strong indifferent things. And yet,
we're encouraged to be creativewithin our own personality and with our own giftedness onand o
ff the field.
I think the smartest companies are the ones who are saying,let's hear from all the voices at the tab
le, from all levels ofvoices at the table. And then develop some new strategiesto make our compa
ny be reflective of that kind of combineddiverse team of individuals.
The Star Trek team was made up of people who broughtunique qualities, each in their own differ
ent way, whether itwas ethnic, cultural, function, temperament, personality.We were all different.
But we subscribed to a commonmission, and a common goal, and mutual self respect.
When I think of a team, the first thing I think about before I
think about the composition of the team is whether or notyou have a good understanding of what
the team's goal ormission is.
I don't get it. Now you're telling us that we're merely addingadditional features to what we alread
y have? Just whatdoes this company want to be when it grows up?
This isn't the first time we've changed midstream, youknow.
Remember last month? We were assured funding for thatnew prototype design. When we were h
alfway through thatproject, the funding was pulled. What a fiasco that was.
That doesn't have anything to do with this.
I'm not so sure. There's a pattern developing here, and itisn't good.
If we can't deliver what our customers want, someone elsewell.
The decision has already been made. So you're going tohave to learn to live with it, like it or not.
Now I want somesolutions on my desk by next Wednesday. Any questions?Good.
Does anybody know why this team was formed in the firstplace?
We don't even have a say in any of the decisions made byupper management.
So much for the new product and service expansion.
No one has even bothered defining our roles andresponsibilities for this team.
We don't have any direction because the company doesn't.At least they're consistently inconsiste
nt.
Ain't that the truth.
In the situation that we're covering here with Jackie, she'swhat I call stove piping. She's giving ha
rsh orders and she'sshoving it down straight through the stove pipe. And sheexpects results on he
r
desk by Wednesday. And the difficultthing is, you don't have a buy in from all the community, th
eteam members.
What's going to need to happen is the team leader is goingto have to say, let's sit around the table
again. Let's talk andcome up with what we all feel is the common vision. Theneach of our roles
can help support that vision and addstrategies, whether it's a marketing strategy,
a salesstrategy, the engineering analytical strategy. But thatcommon vision, that's going to be the
first thing this team isgoing to have to grapple with.
They need to really step back and perhaps bring in anoutside facilitator, perhaps have the leaders
hip whodesignated that this team should be put together work withthem to help them work throu
gh all the issues of whythey're on this team and what it means to the organization.
The end result is to create the environment. But what youreally have to do are set really shortterm goals andobjectives to get there. And make sure that those arestacked up so that once you ac
hieve those short-term goalsthat you do achieve the long-term goal.
One of the key ingredients, the things that most peoplethink of when there is adversity, is point t
he finger. And wewant our players to point the thumb.
So often, leaders want people to change. They want peopleto change when really, the person that
needs to change isactually the leader.
Highperforming teams need to be empowered to do theirjobs. It may be the most important thing, bec
ause it allowsfocus to take place.
Since we formed this team, I've been receiving just
as manycustomer complaints as before. In fact, this month markedan all time high. We're headin
g in the wrong direction. Iwant answers, people and I want them now. Jessica?
Don't look at me. I don't have any experience with customerrelations.
Surely someone has got to have some information aboutthese issues.
OK. Last month, I suggested some new training ideas toCheryl in customer service. She gave me
a lot of double talkabout how approval was needed for the course or how thisteam didn't have th
e authority to mandate training. If thisimprovement to customer service is so important, it has not
been communicated to them.
That's no surprise. Cheryl has always been really-What's the use? They say they want this stuff, but
it's just lipservice. Not one of our ideas is going to be implementedanyway.
We're not miracle workers. Without upper management'scommitment, we're not going to get ver
y far.
Yeah. And I discussed some new marketing and PR ideaswith Ken. And it never went anywhere
Ken and the whole market department have been prettyoverworked lately. I would've thought tha
t this groupwould've come up with some suggestions by now. But allyou're giving me is
a bunch of excuses and no results.
Matt isn't stepping up to the plate. He just really hasn'tassumed the team leader role.
It also appears that he hasn't really gone outside the teamto the other parts of the organization to
get support.
When you're constantly valuing each member of the team,it's hard for individual members to tear
each other down,because we're too busy finding the strengths to build eachother up. That definit
ely is Matt's job. Find those processesthat allow everybody to have input and create value.
Self interest will jeopardize a team's performance when youhaven't shown people how the team's
performance willhelp their self interest.
I think it's very easy in a team to start to stereotype theother team members. The big danger to thi
s is that it allowsyou to discount what you're hearing from that other person.And when you start t
o discount the messages that you'rehearing or discount the individual, you're not going to beopen
to some really good ideas.
When people look for other people to measure up to theircriteria for what's right in the world, pe
ople never measureup. And it's very damaging to a team.
If there is no respect and there is no belief or trust in the
other person's commitment or abilities, the effectiveness ofthe team is diminished.
So how have your meetings on the new e-commerce andweb strategies been going?
Not very well, I'm afraid.
What's the problem?
Where do I start? The sales staff and I are concerned that thenew system will not track our comm
issions correctly. Andwe won't get proper credit for online sales.
What an ego maniac. All he's concerned about is money.
There could be more system crashes with new software.We're almost at maximum capacity. Any
thing-How can he even do his job? He can barely speak English.
Straw who breaks camel's back.
Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves? Personally, Ithink we should put more promotional
efforts into theproducts that we already have.
I've told you before, I can't sell the stuff. Maybe if you'd havechecked with us before developme
nt, I'd have more timelyproducts and services that I actually could sell.
Don't give me that. You were in on all
the design meetingsand I don't remember any of these objections being raisedthen. If I
were you, I'd focus on the high turnover in yourdepartment, not point the finger at us.
All right. All right. Enough. We're going round and round incircles with this.
Aren't we missing the big picture here? This new system willenable us to be more competitive. A
ll you seem to beconcerned with is sales commissions and technical specs.
Look, the bottom line is, we're missing deadlines onimplementing this new system. And I'm a litt
le more thanconcerned.
Self interest is going to sink this team.
The challenge here with this team is they haven't, numberone, allowed people to meet their own
needs and discovertheir own value system and how it's being met. And thennumber two, how tha
t goes together with a higher valuesystem where we can all win more.
They don't have a respect factor amongst each other.They've got a lot of stereotypes built up. An
d so when theycome together to work as a team, it's hard to do thatbecause they're working throu
gh these walls that they'vebuilt around themselves.
Helping people understand that they need to start to beopen to other ideas is very important- setting that up frontinstead of after the fact when you find out that you aren'tlistening to each ot
her.
The group leader in this situation must bring
the peopletogether. And I have always felt that a good session- and ittakes just a little bit of time, it doesn't take a lot of time--but sit those four
or five people down and let me hear youtalk. Tell me your story.
Christine can achieve effective buy in by the other teammembers by working with them individu
ally to show themwhat's in the project for them, what they're going to get outof this, how
it's going
to enhance their career, how it's goingto help them develop within their own career paths, withint
heir own departments. And how they're going to getrecognition.
This is an opportunity if you set up some mentoringpartnerships perhaps between the marketing
departmentand the engineering department where those twoindividuals have to mentor each othe
r.
With any acquisition or merger, one of the key issues youhave to deal with are the different cultu
res.
There is not one way of doing things. And we need eachother to effectively use the gifts to acco
mplish somethinggreat.
Regardless of who you are and how diverse you are, whatyour background your training is, you'v
e got something tooffer. And I've got to be willing to listen.
Can you hear us OK on your end?
Coming through loud and clear.
Great. As I indicated in my memo, since the merger wasfinalized, we need to develop a strategy f
or consolidatingthe company systems and come up with some new businessdevelopment strategi
es. I got your email, Neil. Thank you. Ireviewed your suggestions and I've got to admit that I'm a
little worried about some of them.
What's the problem?
Well the information seems to be too focused on technicalspecs. And there wasn't enough inform
ation on thestrategic implementation or the financial projections.
How so? I knew it-- What a bunch of bean counters.
Well one of my biggest concerns is that we're going tocannibalize our bread and butter business
with the newonline business development projects being proposed.
Whatever, Mr. Technophobia. Welcome to the newMillennium. Man, what a dinosaur.
You've got that right.
We've got to offer new products and services or we won'tgrow.
That might be true, but I'm still unclear what the impact willbe on our mainline business. And
I don't know
if we canafford to initiate that many projects, especially in the timeframe that you've specified.
First to market is the name of the game.
Yeah, but if we get spread too thin, then our cash flow willsuffer and
we won't be able to give our customers the levelof service they expect.
There's a price to be paid for constant innovation.
Aren't we cocky?
You're asking us to spend a lot of money based on littlemore than gut instinct.
Hey, I know this market.
That may be, but the fact is that very few of your existingprojects have yet to turn a profit.
Yeah, but the ones that have hit have hit big. Besides, ourcompany must not be doing too bad, or
you guys wouldn'thave bought us.
Well we didn't buy you to go bankrupt, Neil, that's for sure. I tell you what. Let's table it
for now and plan on touchingbase next week. How does Tuesday next week about threeo'clock
sound?
Sounds good to us.
Good. We'll talk to you then. Goodbye.
We're never going to get anywhere with these guys.
I know. I hear you.
They just don't know how things are done, do they?
They'll learn.
These two teams, or two companies, clearly don't have thetrust level that needs to be there for the
m to be successful.In order to bridge that gap, one of the two sides, one of thetwo teams, one of t
he two companies, is going to have tostep forward and say, I'm willing to listen.
Both can benefit by coming together and working as a unit.
If they could talk about risk taking and not talk about theissue of what they need to put forward o
r how they're goingto work as
a team, if they could step away, say do a littlemini retreat or a facilitated session, and begin toun
derstand about who they are as risk takers, that wouldhelp them see each other differently.
Clearly Tony and Amy have a more conservative financialapproach to doing things. And Neil an
d Beth have more ofan open, fluid idealsoriented approach to things. And aswith any acquisition or merger, you've got to balance thoseob
jectives. You've got to come up with ways to help peoplefeel comfortable.
What they need to recognize is that each of them cancontribute to an overall new strategy that e
mbraces, I think,the strengths of each department and each style.
Some of the key ingredients to encourage a successfuldiverse group of people is one, to celebrate
thosedifferences but to actively search for people who are wireddifferently, who
have different talents.
To promote mutual acceptance of each other requires therecognition that we mutually have a uni
que contribution tomake.
We felt like the five key ingredients to being a good teamplayer were, number one, give 100%, n
umber two, showcourage, number three, master your position and your job,and number four, care
about the team above all else. Andnumber five was loyalty, love, and respect for the teammemb
ers that you have.
When you're trying to change an organization and trying tobring in new thoughts, new ideas, ne
w ways of doing things,it's tremendously frustrating to run up against that. Butthat's not the way
we do things here. Barrier.
Jack told me that you came to him and suggested somenew marketing strategies.
Yeah. I discussed some ideas with him. Why?
You should have come to one of us first. He was pretty upsetand I had to spend most of
the morning putting out thatfire.
I can't imagine him getting upset over an idea that couldreally help this company grow into new
areas.
The point is that if we would have been informed, we couldhave
come up with a joint strategy and presented it to himdifferently.
Right. So my suggestions could have been buried like all theother times? Nothing is getting done
. Now isn't the realreason for this team's existence so that
we can increasesales and expand into new markets?
The potential costs of your suggestions are too high.
Oh, that's just a convenient excuse. The real reason doesn'thave anything to do with cost. It's
just basically a lack ofsupport for my ideas.
You haven't been with
this company very long. You'llunderstand things better once you've been here a while.
Why was I even selected for this team if no one's going tofollow my suggestions?
All we're saying is to come to one of us next time with yourideas before going outside the team.
And we wouldn't want to rock the boat, now would we?
It's just that these things take time.
We're already over three weeks late on submitting ourreport. Time is a luxury we don't have.
In order to have an effective team environment, Peter andChad have to recognize how they're vie
wing things, theparticular prism that they're looking through, how theyprocess new ideas, how th
ey're processing information.
And Connie needs to realize that these guys are terriblythreatened by her presence, by her ideas,
by her outreach.
Some of the most important things effective team leadersand team members can do are actively l
isten to others.Many of the team members in the scenarios presented didnot stop and listen to eac
h other. Recognize that each teammember is a leader and listen to them as a leader.Consistently c
atch people in the act of doing things rightinstead of things wrong. Remember, what you focus o
nexpands. And if you're constantly focusing on what's notworking, as many people in the scenari
os did, what you getis more things not working.
Focus on creating solutions and on what you and otherteam members are committed to. Authenti
callyacknowledge other team members for their contributions.Instead of pointing the finger at ot
hers, do as Don Jamessuggested. Point the thumb back at yourself. In other words,look to yoursel
f first before blaming others. Takeresponsibility for what's not working and ask yourself, whatact
ion steps can I take to solve this problem?
Do what you say you're going to do when you say you'll doit. Honor and respect the commitment
s you make toyourself and others. Develop an environment of mutualrespect and trust. Effective t
eam leadership is ultimatelyabout respecting and adapting to the differences of others.It's about g
iving all members of a team an opportunity tocontribute and fostering an environment that works
foreveryone with no one left out.
•
Value of Differences: Diversity and Democracy transcript:
A changing world. Fear of the future. Who are we now ouridentities are no longer obvious? LUX
gives a citizenshipcourse to become world citizens, with eight internationalthinkers.
People stream from one continent to another, andeveryone's visible on computer screens everyw
here. Theworld's changing faster than ever.
Is it true that others threaten my values? Should I be afraidof advancing Islam? What's going on i
n the world? Should Ihide behind my front door, or am I a world citizen?
Our history has always been the sum total of the choicesmade and
the actions taken by each individual man and
woman. Like Carleton Barrett. Private Barrett was onlysupposed to serve as
a guide for the 1st Infantry Division.But he instead became one of its heroes.
After wading ashore in neck deep water, he returned to thewater again and again and again to sav
e his wounded and
drowning comrades. And under the heaviest possibleenemy fire, he carried them to safety. He ca
rried them in hisown arms. This is the story of the Allied victory.
Our destiny
is not written for us, but by us. Barack Obamabelieves what we do does make a difference. In un
certaintimes, he embodies hope for the future.
But is hope strong enough to conquer fear and uncertainty?The fear we have for tomorrow's worl
d? Our children'sworld?
Well, I've been here so many times. And I keep coming back
to here with the same emotion. And in
a way, all thesepeople die so that my father would be liberated fromAuschwitz. Because this hap
pened, I was simply born.
For me, to study the world corresponds to sense of mission,because of my personal history. I tho
ught well, maybe bystudying international relations, by teaching it, I can, at themargin, make a lit
tle difference. So this is a deep sense ofidealism, to leave to your children a slightly better world.
I would not have been interested in geopolitics if my life hadnot been so dominated by geopolitic
al event. And I wouldnot have looked at geopolitics through the lenses ofemotions if emotions ha
d not so much dominated mypersonal family life.
Dominique Moisi isn't analyzing the world according to thecustomary model of power, oil, and i
deology. Instead, hefocuses on the various emotions and sensitivities to unravelthe world and to
understand others.
The 20th century was really the century of ideologies. [? Terrible ?] [? suicide
?] of Europe between 1914 and 1945.The American century as a result of that.
The 21st century, in which we are now in, is not aboutideologies. It's about identity. For the first
time in history,the very rich know exactly how the very poor are doing. Andwhat is really new is
that the very poor know exactly toohow the very rich
live. This is the communicationinformation revolution.
Because we live in such a transparent, interdependentworld, we tend to emphasize our difference
s. We tend tosearch for our identities. Who am I?
We want to say to the world, "I
am me. I am unique. Lookthe way I'm dressed. You think I'm like you. But I'm not like you. I
am me."
And
that search for identity brings an absolute emphasis onthe concept of emotions. I cannot grasp the
world if I do notintegrate my own emotions. Why am I doing that? Why am Ithinking that?
And if I integrate my emotions, it
is in order to be able totranscend them. And by transcending them, it means that Iunderstand the
emotions of the others.
I know I have emotions. I have to understand that othershave different emotions. And by doing s
o, maybe we arecreating a world that is slightly more tolerant than the onewe have.
The starting point for my book was of course my criticism ofthe Clash of Civilizations by Profess
or Samuel Huntingtonfrom Harvard. What Huntington was saying was looking foran enemy. For
an America, orphan of the Cold War. And hewas, in my mind, confusing culture and political cu
lture.And in fact, predicting things that really did not materialize.
Huntington's clashing civilizations theory came close tohome for many people, as it justifies the f
ight for our ownculture. Then a fear of others becomes very real, especiallyafter 9/11. In 2002, Pr
esident Bush spoke of the "Axis of Evil".Critics like Moisi feel that such statements actually crea
tedifferences.
As a European traveling to Asia, or traveling to the MiddleEast, I could sense very strongly the d
ifferences. It was
sostriking for me to see the presence of Asians at Harvard.They were in my eyes, like the equival
ent of the Roman inthe first century before Christ in Athens. Their confidence,their absolute con
viction that they were about to overtakeus.
And that gave me the idea well, maybe I should try toanalyze my feelings, my impressions. To d
o a mapping ofthe world and to color the world according to its variousemotions, looking at what
I would call the dominating color.I found that the dominating color of Asia was hope, that thedo
minating color of the Muslim Arab world was humiliation,and that
the dominating color of the Western world wasfear.
And of course, there are variations. The fear of Europe is notexactly the fear of America. Each of
these three cultures ofhope, of humiliation, of fear, translate also a certain relationwith time.
In the culture of hope, you have the feeling that tomorrow isgoing to be better than today, since t
oday is already betterthan yesterday. In the culture of humiliation, you have notomorrow. You ha
ve an idealized past, which is in such deepcontrast with your dark present. And the culture of fea
r, you
know that tomorrow will be worse than today, and thattoday is already worse than yesterday.
I was born in
London. My father came to England as arefugee as a child from Poland. My mother was born her
e.
And I went to two Christian schools, which is unusual for aChief Rabbi, and gave me a little earl
y grounding in thecomplexities of identity and belonging. And that meantwhen I became Chief R
abbi, I was able to work
withChristian leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head ofthe Catholic Church, and people
way beyond the Judeo-Christian heritage with a sense of friendship and no fear atall.
Do by these Presents advance, create, and prefer our trustyand wellbeloved Sir Jonathan Henry Sacks, knight.
For most of history, most people have lived surrounded bypeople very much like themselves, wit
h the same history,the same values, the same language. And globalization hasthrust us into this s
udden condition of diversity. So that youwalk down the main street of almost any major Europea
ncity, you will meet more ethnic diversity then ananthropologist would've done in a lifetime in th
e 18thcentury.
So therefore, globalization forces us to the question, can welive with difference? Can we bring c
ommunities together?
Let
us say I live in a road which contains Jews, Christians,Muslims, and some Sikhs. Can we bring t
hem together?
And so obviously, the tension is this. We pray separately. Soas people of faith, we're divided.
As citizens, can we come together? So that as people of thisplace, at this time, we are united? Th
at is the challenge tothe nation state in the 21st century.
Others are no longer far away. They live around the corner.They've become our neighbors. But h
aven't people alwaysleft their own countries to settle elsewhere?
It was easier before there was democracy. That's theparadox. If you're all living under some semi
-autocracy, likethe K and K, the AustroHungarian empire and so on, youcan have all these different groups and so on and theirhaving th
at culture doesn't threaten the unity of thecountry. Because the country isn't based on that. The
country's based on, we're all under the Hapsburgs, or theOttoman Empire.
So people can get on together locally, and nothing's ridingon who's a majority or who's a minorit
y and so on. And ifmore people from this group come in there, well so what?
When you have democracy, the whole system reposes on avery strong sense of common identity,
without which youcan't run a democracy. You have to
have a strong sense ofwe're together on this. And we understand each other. Andthen that begins
to find its most obvious basis. And its mostobvious basis is very often language, history, commo
nreligion.
And then a lot of other people moving in, wow! That's adanger, because we're in
a democracy. So these people,what are we going to do with
them? They're underminingour legitimacy. And so we've created a world in which wecan be mad
e tremendously uncomfortable by too manyothers around us.
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has a keen eye for thevalue of differences. He wrote a repo
rt on how to deal withcultural diversity in a liberal democracy.
Globalization means lots of things. It means very rapidcommunication. It also means a lot
of internationalmigrations. But it's not just that. It's also changed therelationship between migrant
s and the societies that theymigrate into.
Because now as against earlier, there's a much more intenserelationship with the country of origi
n. And you find thatpeople are very often going back for short visits, or they'rebringing their rela
tions over, or they belong to diasporicorganizations that keep the link with the home society, etce
tera, et cetera.
And it really is a kind of interpenetration of these societies.The migrants are not just there, and th
en forget their past.You're not locked into the particular political society you'reliving
in anymore. It's perfectly legitimate to live on differentlevels in more than one society at a time.
This means a very big mental shift in the minds of majoritiesthat have been traditionally living a
nd holding togetherWestern democratic societies. You don't need to think ofthat as a kind
of compromise with what you understood
ofcitizenship, even though they're living in this, if you like,diasporic set of relations.
So what we need to do is to everybody to understand thatwe can live together on a basis that wou
ldn't have beenacceptable in the 19th century, early 20th century. That itwas quite different from
what we then accepted. But youcan have a viable democracy today, provided youunderstand this
change, and are willing to allow it space togrow. And ask simply in return that people have a stro
ngsense of identification.
Recent events have made us fear that the future won't bemuch better. To protect ourselves, we de
manded thatimmigrants become true Dutch citizens as a way ofpreserving our national identity.
As a result, we're chasingan old dream. It will never be like it once was.
Thinking about others is a recurring theme in Antjie Krog'slife and work. After the fall of the apa
rtheid regime, as ajournalist she reported on the Truth and ReconciliationCommission.
Today I sense something like an archaeological layers offear in the Western world. In particular,
in Europe. The fearto be invaded by the poorest coming from the south. Youhave the fear to be b
lown up by the most fanatics, comingmostly from the world of Islam. And you have the fear ofbe
ing left behind by the more dynamic Asians.
And then you have the fear that you are not in control ofyour destiny because you have anonymo
us bureaucrats inBrussels deciding for you. So in a
way, that fear is againstthe sense that you are no longer in control of your destiny.Someone else,
coming from outside, or being inside, makesa decision for you.
The murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van
Gogh shook thenation. Ian Buruma wrote a book about Van
Gogh's murder.His sharp observations of our national character caused acontroversy.
Pim Fortuyn embodied these feelings of unease. In
a dailynewspaper, he called Islam a backward culture, which gothim into trouble. Behind closed
doors, he spoke his mind.
The populists in Europe are doing exactly the opposite ofwhat I'm doing. They are selecting nega
tive emotions. Andby selecting them, promoting them, they are creating abarrier against the other
.
They are, in
fact, surfing on fear. Dismissing hope. Usinghumiliation. And all of that to create, not a culture o
f hope,but a culture of hatred.
And that is based on an absolute lack of confidence inthemselves. And a lot of distrust, therefore,
of the other. Adistrust that can be turned so easily into hatred. So it's justthe opposite.
But what I'm saying is that emotions are not condemned tobe like the pagan masses at the time of
Nazi Germany. Youhave had those huge gathering of hatred. The triumph ofbarbarism. But emo
tions can be used in a positive,humanistic way to reinforce confidence and to built hope.
What is disturbing is the lack of confidence. This is whatpopulist leaders are exploiting. You are
threatened by theother. If politicians are there not to raise hatred, but to raiseyour level of confide
nce in yourself, in the future, and inyour future with the other, people are ready to listen.
Populist leaders are evoking the worst out of people.Responsible democratic leaders are suppose
d to do exactlythe reverse. To plead for the best in each of us.
In a good society, we make space for a variety of opinionsand a variety of faiths. And a good soc
iety is confidentenough in itself not to be easily terrified, not to beintimidated, not to fear.
But the 21st century is going to be a century of fear. Why?Because human beings can get used to
anything. They canget used to poverty, they can get used to disease, they canget used to war. Th
e one thing they never get used to ischange.
Next time we'll continue our citizenship course. And thetheme will be dealing with differences.
•
TEDTalks: Sheryl Sandberg—Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders
So for any of us in this room today, let's start out byadmitting we're lucky. We don't live in the w
orld ourmothers lived in, our grandmothers lived in, where careerchoices for women were so limi
ted. And if you're in thisroom today, most of us grew up in a world where we havebasic civil righ
ts. And amazingly, we still live in a worldwhere some women don't have them.
But all that aside, we still have a problem, and it's a realproblem. And the problem is this- women are not making itto the top of any profession anywhere in the world. Thenumbers tell th
e story quite clearly- 190 heads of state, 9are women. Of all the people in parliament in the world,13% are women. I
n the corporate sector, women at the top,Clevel jobs, board seats, tops out at 15%, 16%. Thenumbers have not moved since 2002, and they'
re going inthe wrong direction. Even in the nonprofit world, a world wesometimes think of as bei
ng led by more women, women atthe top-- 20%.
We also have another problem, which is that women faceharder choices between professional su
ccess and personalfulfillment. A recent study in the US showed that of marriedsenior managers,
2/3 of the married men had children. Andonly 1/3 of the married women had children.
A couple of years ago, I was in New York and I was pitching a deal. And I was in one
of those fancy New York privateequity offices you can picture. And I'm in the meeting, it'sabout
a three hour meeting. And two hours in, there needsto be that bio break and everyone stands up.
And thepartner running the meeting starts looking reallyembarrassed. And I realize, he doesn't kn
ow where thewomen's room is in his office.
So I start looking around for moving boxes figuring they justmoved in, but I don't see any. And s
o I said, so did you justmove into this office? And he said, no, we've been here about a
year. And I said, are you telling me that I am theonly woman to have pitched a
deal in this office in the year?And he looked at me and he said, yeah- or maybe you'rethe only one who had to go to the bathroom.
So the question is, how are
we going to fix this? How do wechange these numbers at the top? How do we make thisdifferent
? I want to start out by saying I talk about this,about keeping women in the workforce, because I
reallythink that's the answer. In the high income part of ourworkforce, and the people who end u
p at the top Fortune500 CEO jobs or the equivalent in other industries, theproblem that I'm convi
nced is that women are droppingout.
Now, people talk about this a lot. And they talk about thingslike flextime, and mentoring, and pr
ograms companiesshould have to train women. I want to talk about none of
that today, even though that's all really important.
Today I want to focus on what we can do as individuals.What are the messages we need to tell o
urselves? What arethe messages we tell the women that work with and for us?What are the mess
ages we tell our daughters?
Now, at the outset, I want to be very clear that this speechcomes with no judgments. I don't have
the right answer- Idon't even have it for myself. I left San Francisco where I liveon Monday, and I was getting on
the plane for thisconference. And my daughter who's three, when I droppedher off at
preschool did that whole hugging the leg, cryingmommy don't get on the plane thing.
This is hard. I feel guilty sometimes. I know no
women,whether they're at home or whether they're in
theworkforce that don't feel that sometimes.
So I'm not saying that staying in the workforce is the rightthing for everyone. My talk today is ab
out what themessages are if you do want to stay in the workforce. And Ithink there are three- one, sit at the table. Two, make yourpartner a real partner. And three-- look at that- don't leavebefore you leave.
Number one, sit at the table. Just a couple weeks ago atFacebook
, we hosted a very senior government official. And
he came in to meet with senior execs from around SiliconValley and everyone sat at the table.
And then he had these two women who were traveling withhim who were pretty senior in
his department. And I said tothem, sit at the table. Come on, sit at the table. And they saton
the side of the room.
When I was in college, my senior year I took a course calledEuropean Intellectual History. Don't
you love that kind ofthing from college? Wish I could do that now. And I took itwith my roomm
ate Carrie, who was
then a brilliant literarystudent and went on to be a brilliant literary scholar. Andmy brother, smart
guy, but a water polo playing pre-medwho was a sophomore.
The three of us take this class together. And then Carriereads all the books in the original freakin
g Latin, goes to
allthe lectures. I read all the books in English and go to most ofthe lectures. My brother's kind of
busy. He reads one bookof 12, and goes to a couple
of lectures, marches himself upto our room a couple days before the exam to get himself tutored.
The three of us go to the exam together, and we sit down.And we sit there for three hours in
our little blue notebooks-- yes, I'm that old. And we walked out, and we looked at each
other, and we say how'd you do?
And Carrie says, boy, I feel like I didn't really draw
out themain point on the Hegelian dielectric. And I say, God, I reallywish I
had really connected John Locke's theory of propertyof the philosophers that follow. And my bro
ther says, I gotthe top grade in the class. You got the top grade in the
class?You don't know anything.
The problem with these stories is they actually show whatthe data shows. Women systematically
underestimate theirown abilities. If you test men and women, and you
ask themquestions on totally objective criteria like GPAs, men get itwrong slightly high, and wo
men get it wrong slightly low.
Women do not negotiate for themselves in the workforce. Astudy in the last two years of people
entering the workforceout of college showed that 57% of boys entering, or men Iguess, are negot
iating their first salary, and only 7% ofwomen. And most importantly, men attribute their success
to themselves, and women attribute it to other externalfactors.
If you
ask men why they did a good job, they'll say, I'mawesome, obviously. Why are you even asking?
If you askwomen why they did a good job, what they'll say issomeone helped them. They got lu
cky. They worked reallyhard.
Why does this matter? Boy, it matters a lot. Because no onegets to the corner office by sitting on
the side, not
at thetable. And no one gets the promotion if they don't thinkthey deserve their success, or they d
on't even understandtheir own success.
I wish the answer were easy. I wish I could just go tell all theyoung women I work for, all these f
abulous
women, believein yourself. Negotiate for yourself. Own your own success. Iwish I could tell that
to my daughter.
But it's not that simple. Because what
the data shows aboveall else is one thing, which is that success and likeability arepositively corre
lated for men and negatively correlated forwomen. And everyone's nodding, because we all kno
w thisto be true.
There's a really good study that shows this really well.There's a famous Harvard Business School
study on awoman named Heidi Roizen, and she's a operator in acompany in Silicon Valley. And
she uses her contacts tobecome a very successful venture capitalist.
In 2002, not so long ago, a professor who was then atColumbia University took that case
and made it HowardRoizen. And he gave that case out, both of them, to
twogroups of students. He changed exactly one word, Heidi toHoward, but that one word made a
really big difference.
He then surveyed the students. And the good news was thestudents, both men and women, thoug
ht Heidi and Howardwere equally competent, and that's good. That bad newswas that everyone li
ked Howard. He's a great guy. You wantto work with him. You
want to spend the day fishing withhim.
But Heidi- not so sure. She's a little out for herself. She's alittle political. You're not sure you'd want to wor
k for her.This is the complication.
We have to tell our daughters and our colleagues, we haveto tell ourselves to believe we got the
A, to reach for thepromotion, to sit
at the table. And we have to do it in aworld where for them there are sacrifices they will make fo
r that, even though for their brothers there will not. Thesaddest thing about all
of this is that it's really hard toremember this.
And I'm about to tell a story which is truly embarrassing forme, but I think important. I gave
this talk at Facebook not solong ago, to about 100 employees. And a couple hours later,there was
a young woman who worked there sitting outsidemy little desk and she wanted to talk to me. An
d I said, OK.And she sat down and we talked.
And she said, I learned something today. I learned that Ineed to keep my hand up. I said, what
do you mean? Shesaid, well, you're giving this talk and then you said you weregoing to take two
more questions. And I had
my hand upwith lots of other people, and then you took two morequestions. And I put my hand d
own, and I noticed all thewomen put their hand down, and then you took morequestions- only from the men.
And I thought to myself, wow. If it's me who cares about thisobviously giving this talk, during th
is talk I can't even noticethat the men's hands are still raised and the women's handsare still raise
d, how good are we as managers of ourcompanies and our organizations at seeing that the men ar
ereaching for opportunities more than women? We've got toget women to sit at the table.
Message number two-- make your partner a
real partner.I've become convinced that we've made more progress inthe workforce than we have
in the home-- the data showsthis very clearly. If a woman and a man work fulltime andhave a child, the woman does twice the amount ofhousework the man does. And the wo
man does three timesthe amount of child care the man does. So she's got threejobs or two jobs,
and he's got one. Who do you think dropsout when someone needs to be home more?
The causes of this are really complicated, and I don't havetime to go into them. And
I don't think Sunday footballwatching and general laziness is the cause. I think the cause
is more complicated. I think that as
a society we put morepressure on our boys to succeed than we do on our girl.
I know men that stay home and work in the home tosupport wives with careers, and it's hard. Wh
en I go to themommy and me stuff and I see the father there, I notice thatthe other mommies don'
t play with him. And that's aproblem, because we have to make it as an important a job,because it
's the hardest job in the world, to work inside thehome for people of both genders if we're going
to even things out and let women stay in the workforce.
Studies show that households of equal earning
and equalresponsibility also have half the divorce rate. And if
thatwasn't good enough motivation for everyone out there,they also have more-- how shall I
say this on this stage?They know each other more in the biblical sense as well.
Message number three, don't leave before you leave. I thinkthere's a really deep irony to the fact t
hat actions womenare taking-- and I see this all the time, with the objective ofstaying in
the workforce, actually lead to their eventuallyleaving. Here's what happens.
We're all busy. Everyone's busy. A
woman's busy, and shestarts thinking about having a child. And from the momentshe starts thinki
ng about having a child, she starts thinkingabout making room for that child. How am I going to
fit this into everything else I'm doing?
And literally from that moment, she doesn't raise her handanymore. She doesn't look for
a promotion. She doesn'ttake on the
new project. She don't say me, I want to do that.She starts leaning back.
The problem is that, let's say she got pregnant that day.That day- nine months of pregnancy, three months ofmaternity leave, six months to catch her breath. Fast
forward two years. More often, and as I've seen it, womenstart thinking about this way earlier- when they getengaged, when they get married, when they start thinkingabout trying to have a
child which can take a long time.
One woman came to see me about this. And I looked at her-- she looked a
little young. And I said, so, are you
and yourhusband thinking about having a baby? And she said, oh no,I'm not married. She didn't e
ven have a boyfriend. I said,you're thinking about this just way too early.
But the point is that what happens once you start quietlyleaning back? Everyone whose been thro
ugh this- and I'mhere to tell you, once you had a child at home, your jobbetter be really good to go back,
because it's hard to leavethat kid at home. Your job needs
to be challenging. It needsto be rewarding. You need to
feel like you're making adifference. And if
two years ago you didn't take a promotionand some guy next to
you did, if three years ago youstopped looking for new opportunities, you're going to bebored be
cause you should have kept your foot on the gaspedal.
Don't leave before you leave. Stay in. Keep your foot on thegas pedal until the very day you need
to leave to take abreak for a child, and then make your decisions. Don't makedecisions too far in
advance, particularly ones you're noteven conscious you're making.
My generation really, sadly, is not going to change thenumbers at the top. They're just not movin
g. We are notgoing to get to where 50% of the population- in mygeneration, there will not be 50% of people at the top of anyindustry. But I'm hopeful that
future generations can.
I think a world that was run where half of our countries andhalf of our companies were run by w
omen would be a betterworld. And it's not just because people would know wherethe women's ba
throoms are, even though that would bevery helpful. I think it would be a better world.
I have two children. I have five-year-old son and a two-yearold daughter. I want my son to have a choice to contributefully in the workforce or at home. And
I want my daughter tohave the choice to not just succeed, but to be liked for heraccomplishment
s.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
•
Leadership
A ALEXANDER STREET PRESENTS
00:05Going Beyond Startup:
Advanced Management and Marketing Practices
00:10Episode 3:
Leadership
Humility in Leadership
Leading by Example
Leading Through Empathy
00:15Leading Through Strong Communication
00:20Focusing on the Big Picture
Kirk Aubry
Managing Partner, The CEO Project
(A project that interviews 100 CEOs a year)
KIRK AUBRY It's the leadership uh… of the CEO, the CEO leadership approach. How does the
CEO engage with the business? How does the CEO uh… deploy resource into the business? We
would like to change the title of CEO to Chief Constraint Killer. As we believe that in any
business as you grow, constraints come up. And so the… And CEO is in the best place to be able
to find out what the constraints are in the business and to be able to take action to remove them.
00:50Humility in Leadership
Todd Davis
Co-founder & CEO, LifeLock
Have a clear vision, but still seek the feedback of others.
Leading by Example
TODD DAVIS The first biggest quality of a great leader is a little bit of humbleness. Not
believing, you have all the right answers. Surrounding yourself in a fact, I learned this uh…
from Michael Dell when I worked for Dell Computers. He had absolute clarity on what the
vision and mission of Dell Computer was. He took again to find a new way going to rock that
was we're building an each computer, you know, personalized to someone. I was crazy to talk
like that. But he knew exactly what he want to do and… and he was willing though to surround
himself with experts from the industry, others. Now, he would not let them fundamentally
change his vision, his model. But he said, "But come and help me, make sure that I perfect this
model, which, of course, a lot him, did not only be a farmer, you know, Inc. 500 winner, but now
grow to, you know, $50 billion your company. And I think that's, you know, some of the
essences, some of the elements of cultivating and I look into those mentors, looking
continuously about who are the best of the best. What qualities do they have I may not share.
And don't let my own insecurities, in those moments and there will be those moments. We do lie
awake or it's your sweating before the big meeting where you're one and I've got a decision, I
gonna make right or left, and its all on me. People will account on me. That's when you get how
the courage and (inaudible), you know, that's what defines the leaders from… from those that
aren't successful.
02:15Tim Westergren
Founder, Pandora
Be the first one to sacrifice and the last one to stop.
TIM WESTERGREN It's inspiring people. It's uh… giving them confidence uh… in you and
your idea, believing in you, believing in the sort of vision that you have. Uh… It's… it's
certainly leading by example. It's being the first one to sacrifice, the last one to stop. Uh… You
absolutely have to do that, that's… that's a given.
02:30Keith Kantor
CEO, Service Foods, Inc.
Get educated on the business that your employees engage in.
KEITH KANTOR Experience is the most important thing for any uh… business owner,
entrepreneur, or CEO. Since, I already made a decision to go in a specific direction with the
business, more towards the health aspect, because of the health care crisis in the… the United
States. Then it was an easy decision to make to go back to school for those specific reasons,
because it's a lot harder to uh… have a staff of dieticians, nurses, etc. If you are not, you know,
fairly well versed in… in those areas. So it sort like in… in the marines, you know, I guess you
could have some offices that just tell people to do things, but if you don't lead by example or at
least know how to do it and have done it before them, uh… you don't have the respect of your
men or in this case, you know, your employees or workers or partners.
03:30Catherine Hughes
CEO, Radio One
Be firm, but fair.
Show a genuine interest in the people you are leading.
Leading Through Empathy
CATHERINE HUGHES I have a maternalistic style of management and that's been very
effective for me, because while I have been firm, I have been fair. And uh… I think even in my
firmness that my employees, and my clients, and my listeners, and… and viewers understand
that I really am sincerely concerned about their wellbeing and I… Once you are thrust into a
position of leadership, you have to really be interested in those that you are leading. I think
that… that when, you know, this… this old saying umm… "Don't do as I do, do as I say." I don't
think that works. I think that "You have to do as I do and do as I say," because and I think that
"Do as I do" is the most important part of that's statement. Because why would somebody want
to follow any leader, who is just talking the talk and not willing to make the sacrifice, and it is a
sacrifice. But I think that women are particularly uh… suited for leadership, because
motherhood is a leadership position.
04:50Robert L. Johnson
Co-Founder, Black Entertainment Television
Truly understanding your employees' feelings is key to effective leadership.
Leading Through Strong Communication
ROBERT L. JOHNSON You gotta give people a feeling that they are part of something that's
bigger than themselves. They've gotta always feel that I'm growing professionally,
personally, uh… and uh… being excited everyday that I come to work, because its… its… its…
it adds to the value of my… my position in… in life, my excitement about being who I am. I'm…
I'm fulfilling all of my goals and dreams. I'm using all of my talent and… and everything to… to
sort of to achieve what I want to become. And so you almost got… it's almost you got a create or
sort of an… an inspiration in… in people and make them want to be a part of which you are
about. Instantaneously, project yourself and to the person's psyche of who you are leading. If you
can oh… Just instantly when somebody walks in a room and they're looking for a leadership
from you, you can transform yourself into that person, and say what is this person what from
me? What do they need to make their life better, day-to-day goals something that they feel
comfortable about. And once you can keep put yourself in that position, that empathy that… that
of sympathy and ability to understand what the other person is, then you shall might talking to
yourself, and it becomes really easy to say, you know, somebody walk in your room and they say
"I wanna do this." And you put yourself in there and you say "Can this person do it, do they have
the confidence to do it. What are they looking from me to do it? They're looking to be
reinforcing confidence. They're looking in me to give them some sort of insight.
06:25Jill Blashack Strahan
CEO, Tastefully Simple
Survey your employees to see if you're communicating your vision effectively.
Communicating face to face is much stronger than email.
Focusing on the Big Picture
JILL BLASHACK STRAHAN As leaders many people aren't strong communicators. And when
I say that I mean, not necessarily a charismatic, you know, off the wall and motivate your team
and blah-blah, and we have great fun in all team meetings and there's a great culture in Tastefully
Simple, a lot of energy and that's… that's one grade facet of… of Tastefully Simple. And the
piece that is the strongest so on that I know has build trust in our… in our team at Tastefully
Simple, is that they uh… know our vision. And we do a survey each year, a satisfaction survey.
And we ask the question "How clear are you on a scale of one to six?" Six being excellent, on the
vision and the goals of Tastefully Simple and it will rank 99% of the team out of 360 team
members. And the reason I believe that is, is because we are very, very intentional about
that uh… we have… And we communicate. And a team that doesn't know where you're
going, what are they gonna follow. There… there was a quote in the John Maxwell book, whom
I love and adore, John and he says in the book umm… "There goes my team, I must follow them
to see where they lead me?" You know, so if you are not out there telling where you're going,
then you have to communicate. And… and I heard something also years ago that was umm… in
the absence of a story, people makeup their own. And it's typically much worse than what you
would share with them, and what the truth is. So we are very cautious about making sure, we're
always communicating and I find even in our leadership team, there is a constant reminder, have
me communicate this, have you told, not an email. I mean, I want them live face to face, have
you talked about this, if possible. If not, then I believe send a voice mail at least, so they can hear
your voice with it. Uh… And then lastly, there maybe an email. But communicating is so key
and… and sharing that vision.
08:25Jim Williamson
Founder & CEO, New West Technologies
Lead by focusing on the big picture fro the company
JIM WILLIAMSON I… I would have to say that's what I'm trying to do in leading this
company, is really establishing the big picture, looking out two to five years in the future, to
identify where we want to be and then developing the strategic alliances with companies and
developing business system that will allow us to get to that spot. Okay. So I, you know, I'm sort
of the big picture planner and… and the long range business developer. And at the same time, I
also help the accounting people; at the same time, if a desk needs to be moved, I move a desk. If
something needs to copied for a client, I'll do that, but it's the long range focus and that's… that's
what I bring to this party.
09:10Episode 3:
Leadership
09:15Be humble as a leader.
Lead in a manner that is firm, but fair.
Show a genuine interest in the people you are leading.
09:20Understanding your employees' feelings is key to effective leadership.
09:25Conduct employee communication surveys.
Face to face communication is stronger than email.
09:30Lead by focusing on the big picture for the company.
•
Leadership in Workplace Culture and Morale
Yeah, I would say we've got great morale here. Can't
exactlypinpoint why. But we get the work done.
And the team's great. We have fun at the same time. And weall really enjoy coming to work.
Leadership, workplace culture, and morale, three essentialbuilding blocks in any strong workplac
e. But how do thesebuilding blocks work together? And how can we harnessthem to best effect?
Join us as we discuss these issues withthree workplace leaders. We'll be using their ideas, theirin
sights, and their impressions to map out strategies forbuilding morale in the workplace.
Welcome. Our focus today is on how leaders develop andmaintain morale in the workplace. This
is related to theprevailing workplace culture. It seems that a positiveworking environment is dire
ctly related to good morale. Butyou're the experts. Nikki Raul, managing director RaulCosmetics
, what do you think?
Working environment impacts directly on morale,absolutely. At Raul we've worked hard to creat
e a workplacethat matches the image we want to present to the world,fun, vibrant, adaptable and
creative. If we didn't allow ourpeople to do these things each day then we'd be lying toourselves,
our customers, and most of all, our employees.
Thanks Nikki. But what about other, perhaps more seriousworkplaces? George Nile, CEO of Fire
and Incident ResponseEducation Service.
That's FIRES for short Jes.
Yes. Now George, you're in a very serious business. Is it stillpossible to create a culture that can
build and maintainmorale?
Jes, our business at FIRES is very serious. We train peoplehow to respond to emergency situatio
ns. This makesmorale very important.
Our staff know how important their work is. We build aculture of inclusion. Staff communicate o
penly.
When presenting ideas there is no hierarchy. Everybody'streated as equal. What they say is impo
rtant. That makesthem important.
Well, George, that sounds like a highly positive workplaceculture. Now, I'm very interested to se
e how positive ornegative morale affects the workplace in general. MargaretBracks, senior partne
r for Johnson and Bracks Accountants.Care to comment?
Yes. So I can comment on that Jes. I took some time out ofthe company to help some family me
mbers. And when Ireturned, I noticed that morale was very low. Nobody wassaying good mornin
g. People were always looking bored.
I said to my partner, what's going on? And he said, he'dbeen so busy with me not there he just ha
dn't had time toengage with the staff. I said to him, we have to dosomething fast. You know, this
is terrible. So we gotsomeone from outside to come in and talk to everyone inthe group and indiv
idually to find out what they wanted.And we changed things.
That's great information Margaret. We'll talk more aboutthat later.
So to summarize, workplace culture is directly related tomorale and vice versa. Secondly, everyo
ne within theorganization contributes to the workplace culture. Andtherefore, morale is affected
by everyone. Finally, leaderscan have a positive or negative effect on both the workplaceculture
and morale.
As a leader in this organization I believe in the businessculture, which is one of continual improv
ement andrecognition. The staff believe in this culture too, which iswhy we have such great mora
le and low turnover.
I'd like to shift the focus now to the role of leaders indeveloping the workplace culture and buildi
ng andmaintaining morale. So how does a leader do this?
Well, they need to-It's about walking your talk, living it every day, everyminute. You can't be all good morale just b
y handing outcopies of the mission statement and telling people what todo. It comes through acti
ons and treating them well.
Yes, but it's also important that they share the overall visionof the company. It's hard to build mo
rale if people don'tunderstand the values or want to go in the direction thecompany's headed.
That's right Nikki. And many signals that affect morale arenon verbal. So leaders need to ask staf
f what they want aswell. As we found out the hard way.
Yes, but developing morale is about more than just givingpeople what they want, isn't it?
Well, you need to-Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, it's not about a pay rise or someextra perks. They are nice ways to reward
staff. But moralehas to do with people's inner drives, things like a needfeature challenge, variety
, understanding what--
You've hit the nail on the head. We have found, when we askstaff what they wanted, is wasn't m
ore money or longerbreaks, but simple things like recognition when theycomplete work ahead of
time or solve a big problem for aclient.
I think it's really important to set it all up properly at thebeginning. That's what starts a business o
ff in the righttrack.
Now, that's really interesting Nikki. Can you can you give usan example?
Sure. When I was sitting up the company I wanted people tofeel happy to provide creative input.
Not just feel like theywere doing things according to a job description.
You know, it's hard to say the creative. Because that goesagainst all the rules. Being creative is s
pontaneous. And youdon't know when someone's going to have a creative idea.
So you need to create a culture that appreciates it being OKto run out to the park when you feel y
ou have that creativeidea coming so you can capture it. And this feeds morale.People don't walk
around saying, oh, where's Sue gone? Orher brain's gone for a wander and she's out looking for it
.People feel safe to do that sort of thing at Raul because it'sour culture.
Yeah, but at FIRE we can't go running off into the parkwhenever we feel like it. Our workplace c
ulture is different.We have to show our clients that we take our role seriously.Morale is strong be
cause everybody knows that after a weekof training we put on drinks and snacks come five o'clo
ck ona Friday.
Oh wow.
So what you both seem to be saying is that even thoughworkplace cultures are different, as long
as the staff'sfundamental needs are met and their personal values arealigned with the organizatio
nal culture, then morale will begood.
Yes. For leaders, making sure staff values are aligned withcompany culture is critical. But so is
modeling the kinds ofqualities and behaviors you expect from your staff.
Mhm.
Leaders can make a positive difference to morale inintangible ways such as treating staff well an
d giving themwhat they need to do their jobs well, including providingthem with appropriate res
ources and training, modeling thebehaviors they want from others, being aware nonverbalmessag
es, inviting input and encouraging them to share theorganization's vision, being attuned to what d
rawsindividual workers, and recognizing that everyonecontributes.
Hello, Janine speaking. There at 12:30.
Hey.
There you go champ.
Hey. Jonah. He's a good manager. He's very supportive anda good mentor. He's taught me a lot.
And he's made me feellike I'm an important part of the group. Which is good, reallygood.
Now that we have an idea of how leaders influence bothworkplace culture and morale, what tang
ible ways do wesee this in action?
Well, as a result of our conversations with staff, we made anumber of changes at Johnson and Br
acks. One of thesewas to develop a professional development plan that wastailored for each staff
member.
Oh, OK. Because we're looking at introducing a professionaldevelopment program. How did you
do it?
Well, we asked each person to identify their training needs.And then the management team sat d
own and worked outhow best to address those needs. We did a range of thingsincluding inhouse training. Some people went off to dospecialized workshops. And a few did longer courses
in one-on-one coaching, which we provided some of the fundingtowards.
And how did you gauge the impact this had on moraleMargaret?
Oh, we got the external consultant to do a satisfactionsurvey before and after the consultations. A
nd there was amarked improvement. But we were also able to see signseach day. People were tal
king to each other more, helpingeach other. The atmosphere was completely different. Therewas
a real buzz, you know?
I can imagine. It sounds really exciting.
At Raul we did it differently. We have a flat structure. Soeveryone is a leader in a way. Each pers
on has their area ofspecialization. And they take turns in sharing theirknowledge and skills by me
ntoring someone new,demonstrating a particular technique, running a seminar ormaking announc
ements in our staff newsletter aboutsuccesses and new ventures.
George?
At so FIRE we have formal systems, a set of clear achievableand measurable goals that our staff
members all worktowards. Once they achieve a particular milestone they'rerewarded. It might be
things like theatre tickets, dinner at alocal restaurant, that kind of thing. But we also havemanage
ment structure. We offer our staff the opportunity totake on highlevel responsibilities, like when a supervisor'son leave, that kind of thing.
Yeah, but whether there are management layers on not,leaders in organizations are essentially fa
cilitators, helpingother people to do their job better. It takes ongoingcommunication, kind of mor
e than just meeting targets andtaking on a higher level of responsibility.
I agree. Leaders can exist at all levels. It's importanteveryone talks to each other, learns from eac
h other.
Yeah, which we do. Communication is a huge part of ourstrategy. As is presenting yourself as so
meone who'sconsistent and reliable.
People also need to know who to go to for particular things.Like is there an HR person? And if n
ot, well, who do you goto if something's wrong with your pay? In an organizationlike ours it's ea
sy because we're small, when we have a listof people and generally just one person who specializ
es ineach area.
At FIRE we have whole departments that look after differentthings. We have full inductions and
ongoing communicationif there are any changes people aren't left wondering at all.
And on that note, I don't think that we need to wonder anylonger about how leaders influence bot
her workplaceculture and morale. Thank you.
Leaders can apply a range of practical strategies to developand maintain morale. These include u
sing a range ofmethods to invite twoway communication, checking inwith staff and keeping them informed about changes, andmakin
g sure they know where to get help when problemsarise. Leaders also assist staff to develop new
knowledgeskills and encourage them to increase their levels ofresponsibility, provide both tangib
le and intangiblerewards, and present a consistent image of themself and ofthe company.
Leadership Blog Template
LDR/300 Version 7
University of Phoenix Material
Leadership Blog Template
Headline [The title or overall description of the blog]
Opening [A statement that describes the recent changes
to the company and the reason for these
changes]
Message #1 [A description of the need to adapt and lead
within a changing business environment]
Message #2 [A description of the Team Leadership Model
and how it applies to this business transition]
Message #3 [A description of how this diverse, international
business structure will improve overall business
performance]
Message #4 [A statement that focuses on one or two positive
aspects of change that will help to motivate your
employees]
Wrap- [A statement that summarizes your overall
Up/Conclusion message]
Resources for [Additional resources for your employees to
Readers reflect upon]
Blogging Tips
1. Spend quality time in the planning & research
phase of your blog. Your facts must be
accurate.
2. Carefully consider your readers so that your
message is understood and useful.
3. Create an engaging opening to your blog; you
want them to read everything so be careful not
to be boring!
4. Add an image, photo, chart, or graph to
convey an important point in your blog.
5. Keep your paragraphs short, using clear,
concise sentences to convey the essence of
your topic to your readers.
*Visit several of your favorite websites to see how
blogs are written.
*Use may use this template as a guide.
Copyright © 2017 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
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Leadership Blog Template
LDR/300 Version 7
Citations (APA) [References for any citations or additional
resources]
Copyright © 2017 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
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