My Leadership Journey at ILM

Assessing Own Leadership Capability and Performance

Introduction

In this reflective piece, I am going to assess my own organisational leadership and capabilities performance at my previous workplace. The review will be based on the structure of the PFM Solutions (a privately owned company) where I will demonstrate and reflect on my understanding of the leadership styles in this company.

I will also review the impact of my own leadership skills and discuss the assumption of effective leadership styles to give motivation to the staff to meet the values and goals of the organisation.

PFM Solutions is a consultancy company based in the United Arab Emirates. It has around 100 employees in around five countries and carries out consultancy in the construction and infrastructure sectors.

This company has clearly drawn up its values and goals and has successfully communicated its strategic goals across its entire management team.

Organisation structure

The company is run by an executive manager or director, who is also the founder. The director has two deputies who are in charge of the technical and financial management of the organisation.

Heads of the technical and financial sectors run their teams completely independently and have a huge responsibility of looking after diverse teams of individuals in a few countries.

The technical team is made up of the construction design team, construction analysis team, operation & maintenance team, renovation and rehabilitation team and research team. Each of the mentioned groups has a team manager, engineers, architects and researchers.

I used to have the role of an operation and maintenance team manager in this organisation.

It was my responsibility to manage a team of eight engineers and researchers to design and implement operation and maintenance billing norms and guidelines for school buildings.

Understanding leadership styles within my organisation

A leader is someone who has a vision and inspires a group of people towards achieving that vision.

Meanwhile, leadership is the process of giving motivation to a group of people to work towards reaching any specific goal.

There are different leadership styles and each one of them has a diverse impact on the organisation. It is the leader’s responsibility to adhere to the most effective and influential leadership style for successful completion of his unique task.

PFM Solutions exhibits different leadership styles at different management levels.

The leadership styles observed are mostly focused on the nature of the work and task specifications.

I have observed that two out of six of the Daniel Golems emotional leadership styles — the visionary and coaching styles, have been practiced at two management levels, with the former being observed at the top management level while the latter is implemented at the middle management level.

The PFM Solution’s secret to success stems from its adoption of the perfect leadership style at the middle management level. The company is more focused on developing the coaching skills for advanced and better leadership of its projects.

When the top management encounters any problem, the company uses the visionary leadership style.

Considering the recent developments and particularly the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic shows, we are presumably living in a VUCA world.

This model emphasises that a leader is required to minimise disruptions and normalise the situation by calming the Volatility, responding quickly during complex and ambiguous circumstances and sustaining accountability during Uncertainties, identifying facts and trends and simplifying the complexities and tidying up the ambiguous conditions.

It also illustrates that leaders have to build confidence among their teams and inspire their society and business that they will have a better future.

Whereas, when the middle management faces any problems, the coaching style benefits the team to overcome the issue and gives feedback and avoids criticising.

To effectively obtain the organisational goals, the leader is required to listen to the team, ask open questions, properly use time and use emotional intelligence to tackle the issue.

Meanwhile, the first thing a leader should do after he builds his team, is to consider keeping the team’s moral high and improve their problem solving skills and focus on their continual growth.

According to John Wooden, “We must be challenged to improve. And adversity is the challenge.”

It has always been a challenge to keep a balance among teams that work to resolve problems that arise during project implementation.

However, Bruce Tuckman’s four stage model in 1965 for team development that undertakes forming, storming, norming and performing stages is so significant in the formation of teams.

• In the forming stage, there is a high dependency on the leader as he/she is largely expected to give direction and guidance.
• In the storming stage there are a lot of uncertainties and it is hard to make decisions.

Team members compete against each other and try to position themselves in their favourite posts and take the lead of the relevant team.

• Throughout the norming stage, a strong bond of unity and commitment is built among team members and teams discuss processes for working styles.

They reach agreements and consensuses, mainly on the nature of communication, responding to each other and specifying the duties and responsibilities.

• And finally, when getting to the performing stage, the team is focused on achieving goals, sharing a unique vision, looking after each other and working independently.

The team is aware of the strategy and understands what it is doing and why they are doing it.

A team that is formed following practicing all the above stages is capable of working independently and does not need any interference from the leader during performing.

It is a leader’s responsibilities to follow up with his team and adopt the leadership style that best fits the team in a particular situation.

There might be some instances where the Tuckman’s team building model works very well for a freshly started endeavour, but changes might need to be made after the team matures and masters their obligations.

A leader realises that challenges make better and productive people, thus adopts leadership styles according to the context.

Be able to review the effectiveness of your own leadership capability and performance in meeting organisational values and goals.

PFM Solutions was hit by a flood of projects two years ago, therefore the company felt the need for restructuring. Almost all of the teams went through the Bruce Tuckman’s forming stage.

It was good practice and an opportunity to position the team members considering their abilities and recognise the potential in order to avoid wasting too much time in the storming stage. This helped the teams smoothly arrive at the norming stage.

As a team leader, it was my duty to create an inspiring working environment, set clear goals, define procedures and delegate tasks and responsibilities to my team members. And most importantly, choose the leadership style that applies to this specific situation.

At this point, I realised that the most effective leadership style for the middle management level is the directive and non-directive coaching style that would help each member achieve the organisational goals.

The pull and push model led to a positive outcome.

The non-directive approach involved listening to understand, paraphrasing, summarising and asking questions to raise awareness. Where applicable, I would give feedback, make suggestions, offer guidance, give advice and instruction to help the team members.

This not only resulted in the team’s success but also helped improve the team members’ skills and become more effective in their roles.

Considering the fact that I had a team of not more than ten people, and when I found out that any of them feels stressed or is pressured due to facing new challenges or difficulties.

I would use my skills to figure out which leadership style I should use to build confidence and help resolve the issue without interfering.

I used my coaching and supporting leadership styles to listen to the problem and give comprehensive feedback without criticising.

My focus was always on keeping people’s prospects open to make the best use of their productivity and performance and help them absorb rather than telling them what to do.

And I agree with the saying that:

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”

(John Whitmore, 2004, p. 8)

The company’s strategy and the policies drawn up for completion of every task outlined that continuous collective effort is required during the design or implementation of projects.

It is essential to provide honest feedback and support during each step of the project. The progress in each step of the project is shared with the team during regular meetings and any immediate risks or changes are promptly reported to the top management.

It is necessary to have clear communication with the client and other team members during all stages of the project.

The coaching leadership style is my preferred approach when the team is in the norming stage.

I have learned that by working along with the team, believing in their abilities for task accomplishments, complimenting their performances and regularly giving them feedback, helps the team perform well.

My leadership style changes when I am certain that the team has reached the performing stage. That’s when I observe the delegation style of leadership.

The team is in the performing stage when the project is being executed according to the client’s expectations. The team members collaborate in delivering the project, establish good relations and are open to giving or receiving feedback on their progress.

At PFM Solutions, the team members are from diverse communities, yet they are willing to give feedback and show a positive attitude while under pressure or facing problems.

I give my team a growth mind-set and agree with Ginni Rometty, IBM, saying that:

“I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.”

At this stage, the team’s confidence has considerably stepped up, which results in the overall efficiency of the team.

The team members also admire the delegation style and perceive it as a motivation. Because during the performing stage, it gives them the feeling that they are trustworthy and are capable of delivering tasks individually.

I must also clarify that I have also faced some challenges while adopting the coaching style. Because team members will find moving from the norming stage to the preforming stage challenging.

For instance, at times when some team members have already moved to the performing stage few others might still struggle to keep up on the performing stage.

This indicates that there is a remarkable gap and difference among team members and it will definitely have a negative impact on the team’s productivity and keep the team far from the organisation goals.

Be able to adopt an effective leadership style to motivate staff to achieve organisational values and goals.

One of the best ways to make sure all team members completely understand the company’s values and goals is to hold regular meetings and discuss the company objectives.

It paves the grounds for everyone to realise the context of the decisions that are being made and what they are expected to perform. Furthermore, it gives everybody the feeling of ownership and having a bigger picture of the company’s future.

Meanwhile, it helps the team members differentiate between their personal values and goals and that of the organisations and avoids any confusion.

It is a challenge for the leader to keep the team members sufficiently motivated and influence them to have a positive work attitude and perform better.

My takeaway from Nancy Kline’s thinking environment has often helped me overcome such circumstances.

I largely reinforce my power of listening, giving adequate attention, encouragement, appreciation and feelings to my team members. It has helped me give my team members the confidence to focus on their own thoughts and change to a star performer.

Motivation is the state of mind that drives human beings to perform to their greatest potential, while maintaining good spirits and a positive attitude.

There are various motivational theories.

However, it is a leader’s responsibility to ensure that every team member in the organization is driven and motivated.

According to Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchical of Needs,

“people do not work for security or money but work to contribute and use their skills”.

Abraham Maslow

“postulated that a person will be motivated when all his needs are fulfilled.”

The need for personal development and learning, the need for recognition, the need for affiliation and friendship, protection from threats and dangers and access to basic needs are the five levels that form Maslow’s pyramid.

People are unlikely to be able to work towards the upper levels unless the primary levels are fulfilled.

There are also some motivational factors, including self-development, reaching targets, good communication, a decent work environment and technical training that play a vital role in moving team members to the performing stage. In the meantime, team members might fall back to the norming stage if any of the above mentioned stages are not done.

In some cases, I use motivational factors to keep the team members motivated following completion of projects.

I use the KOLB’s learning cycle to inspire the team members to analyse the experience they have, review that experience, conclude from that experience and plan the next steps accordingly.

I also encourage the team members to remain open towards questions and think creativity. I wholeheartedly believe in and support Marilee Goldberg’s saying that

“a question not asked is a door not opened.”

I have improved and sharpened my leadership skills during the New Scots Leadership programme.

I learned about the importance of remaining passionate towards my goals, commitment, looking for opportunities and listening. I am exaggeratedly good at opening conversations with random people. Taking advantage of this quality, I started a small talk with one of the group members as we finished an action learning session.

The action learning was about one person, a problem holder — who can take 10 to 15 minutes to share his issue with the team and receive feelings, different perspectives and assumption questions without worrying about responding to them.

The problem holder presumably suffered from communication anxiety. Though he had a major issue, he was unable to explain his problem and finished in three minutes.

This incited me to listen to his problem after we finished the exercise. We discussed the importance of communication and how a leader should explain and clarify the problem he faces.

Although it was a private talk during a tea break, weeks later he was giving a presentation and, at the end thanked me for giving him the courage and motivation to speak out and share his problem in detail.

He seemed to have obtained confidence and overcame his anxiety to a large extent. I strongly believe that leadership is concerned with mission, purpose, change, excitement and inspiration.

Conclusion

In this assessment, I have demonstrated how different leadership styles work, and how they are observed across organisations.

Similarly, I have shown how teams are built and how to keep the teams motivated during the complex and ever changing world. Team members come from diverse backgrounds and different levels of maturity and might behave differently.

It is a leader’s duty to maintain a balance between the team members and keep the team members on the performing stage. Team members must always be reminded and convinced of the company’s values and goals, which is why perfect communication at different levels is important.

Meanwhile, it is a leader’s responsibility to give clear directions, keep his followers focused, avoid the confusions created by volatility and listen and observe before making any decision.

Leaders need to have the ability to respond quickly and effectively, identify problems and make knowledgeable decisions.

Leaders need to communicate, share their knowledge and take an approach according to the specific context or problem in order to minimise ambiguity.

My overall understanding of the VUCA model, and its proper usage in this uncertain world, is that exhibiting a suitable leadership style in different situations is vital for a team’s performance and success as well as for maintaining collaboration between team members to meet the company values and goals.

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