a commonsensical approach tom adams, director of ... · pdf filea commonsensical approach tom...

A Commonsensical Approach

Tom Adams, Director of Facilities Operations

Portland Public Schools, Portland, OR

Innovative Leadership

Portland Public Schools: Largest Pacific Northwest School District

47,000+ Students

83 Maintenance Workers (down from 200+)

300 Custodians (down from 600+)

8,700,000 Square Feet of Buildings

68 Years; Average PPS School Building Age

50 Years: Average American School Building Age


“MOST OF WHAT WE CALL MANAGEMENT CONSISTS OF MAKING IT DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO GET THEIR WORK DONE.”

PETER DRUCKER


Management By

Walking Around


Managing by walking around was popularized by

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in the early 1980s

because they felt that many managers were

becoming isolated from the people who worked for

them.


They realized that face-to-face interaction with an worker is the best way to receive and give feedback.

Why?

Because it is workers, not managers, who create your organization's products and deliver its services.

If you want to know what happens on the ground, ask your workers…


Because people really live to be part of something,

and being in touch opens up more lines of informal

communication and produces a stronger and better

team.

Experience shows a human touch still works best.

Innovative Leadership Approach:

Managing by walking around requires your personal

involvement, good listening skills, and the recognition

that most people in your organization want to contribute

to its success.

You should never force it and it cannot be false or

faked.

It works only if you display sincerity and civility and

are genuinely interested in your workers and their work.


Try to:

Wander about as often as you can, preferably daily. Relax as you make your rounds. Share and invite good

news. Talk with workers about family, hobbies, vacations,

and sports. Watch and listen without judgment. Invite ideas and opinions to improve operations,

customer service, etc. Be responsive to your worker’s problems and concerns.

Innovative Leadership Try to:

Be on the look out for your workers doing something right, and give them public recognition.

Project the image of a coach and mentor, not that of an inspector.

Give people on-the-spot help.

Use the visiting opportunity to share the organization’s values.

Share your dreams and have fun.

Innovative Leadership Benefits: 1. Builds trust and relationships with your workers.

2. Motivates workers by suggesting that management

takes an active interest in people.

3. Encourages workers to achieve individual and

collective goals.

4. Strengthens your ability to drive cultural change for

higher organizational performance.

5. Refreshes your organizational values.


Servant Leadership


10 Characteristics of Being a Servant Leader

1. Listening: Leaders from leadpersons to managers should have

good listening and communication skills as well as the competence to make correct decisions.

This applies particularly to the concept of paying attention to the unspoken. It’s also known as listening for and answering the unasked question.


2. Empathy: A Servant Leader always attempts to understand

and empathize with others. Workers should be thought of not only as employees, but also as people who need respect and appreciation.

As a result, Servant Leadership should be seen as a special type of human work, which ultimately generates a competitive advantage while helping people to become more self-aware and productive.


3. Healing: A Servant Leader tries to help people in resolving their

problems and conflicts in their work relationships, because they want to develop the skills of each individual.

This leads to the formation of a business culture, in which the working environment is characterized by honesty, dynamic work and no fear of failure.


4. Awareness: A Servant Leader needs to gain general awareness and

especially self-awareness. They then have the ability to view situations from a more integrated, holistic and enlightened position.

As a result, they get better at understanding the ethics and values that affect and drive others.


5. Persuasion: A Servant Leader does not take advantage of their

power and their status by coercing compliance; but rather tries to influence, persuade and convince workers in a positive manner of the rightness of compliance.

This special ability distinguishes servant leadership most clearly from traditional, authoritarian models.

Innovative Leadership 6. Conceptualization: A Servant Leader thinks beyond day-to-day realities.

This means they have the ability to see beyond the limits of the operating business to also focus on long term strategic operating goals.

A Servant Leader constructs a personal vision by reflecting on the meaning of life as it pertains to them.

As a result, they are able to derive specific goals and implementation strategies that reflect positively on others.

Innovative Leadership 7. Foresight: Foresight is the ability to foresee the likely outcome of

a situation.

It enables the Servant Leader to learn about the past in order to achieve a better understanding about the present reality.

It also enables one to identify future consequences. This characteristic is closely related to the ability for conceptualization.


8. Stewardship: All Servant Leaders at every level of the organization

have the task to hold their institution in trust for the greater good of society.

Servant Leadership is seen as an obligation to help and serve others where openness and persuasion are more important than control in order to achieve that goal.

Innovative Leadership 9. Commitment to the Growth of People: A Servant Leader is convinced that people have an

intrinsic value well beyond their contributions as workers.

Therefore, they should nurture the personal, professional and spiritual growth of all workers.

For example, they spend money for the personal and professional development of people as well as having a personal interest in ideas from everyone, all while involving workers in the decision making process.


10. Building Community: A Servant Leader works to build a strong community

within their organization and works very hard to help develop a larger community among other groups and institutions.


Situational Leadership


A situational leadership style is not dictated by the leadership skills of the manager.

The idea of situational leadership is closely tied to using the leadership style you need to be successful, given the existing work environment you manage or the specific needs of your business.


The effective situational leader is able to utilize multiple leadership styles as work conditions change.

Implementing situational leadership in an organization then becomes simply a matter of training leaders to recognize the current work setting or employee situation they face and then using the most effective leadership style given that specific challenge.

Innovative Leadership For example, delegating work to an employee that is ill

prepared to accept that responsibility may result in the impression the worker is incompetent.

This can lead to frustration for both the leader and the worker.

Ironically, in some situations it is actually the manager's inability to recognize the most effective leadership style, or refusal to switch styles, that is really the root cause of an ineffective workforce.


Situational Leadership Styles

Situational leadership styles tend to fall into the following four types:

Telling leaders

Selling leaders

Participating leaders

Delegating leaders

Innovative Leadership Telling Leaders

The telling leader defines the roles and tasks for each worker, and then supervises them very closely.

All important decisions are made by the leader and then announced to the followers.

This means communication is mostly one-way.

These leaders don’t often listen or ask, but tell others what to do.

Innovative Leadership Selling Leaders

The selling leader defines the roles and the tasks of each worker, but also seeks ideas and suggestions from workers.

Decisions are made predominantly by the leader, but the communication style used is two-way.

These leaders are good at "selling" their ideas.

Innovative Leadership Participating Leaders

A participating leader passes along the day-to-day decisions, such as dividing up the workload, to the workers.

The participating leader will help to facilitate discussion and takes part in the decision-making process, but ultimate control is with the worker.

Innovative Leadership Delegating Leaders

The delegating leader is involved in the workgroups' decisions and helps to solve problems, but the ultimate decision-making control is with the workers.

In fact, with this situational leadership style, the workers actually make the decision as to when to get the leader involved.


Thank You…

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