the corndel leadership and management diploma: …...the corndel leadership and management diploma:...

The Corndel Leadership and Management Diploma:

Unit 1

Leading and Managing a Team

© 2017 Corndel Limited. All rights reserved.

2 The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Table of contents

Chapter 1: Golden Thread .................................................................. 05What is the golden thread? 06How to implement the golden thread 06

Chapter 2: SMART Objectives ........................................................... 11What are SMART objectives? 12How do I set SMART objectives with my team? 12Ensuring organisational alignment 15SMARTER objectives 16

Chapter 3: The GROW model of coaching ......................................... 17What is the GROW model of coaching? 18Step one: Goals 18Step two: Reality 19Step three: Options 20Step four: Way forward 21

Chapter 4: Vroom’s expectancy theory.............................................. 25What is Vroom’s expectancy theory? 26How can Vroom’s Expectancy Theory help me to understand how motivated my team is towards achieving their goals? 27

Chapter 5: Trust ................................................................................. 31How can I build trust in my team? 32The ABCD model 34The Decision to Trust model 35

Chapter 6: Empowerment .................................................................. 37Why is empowering staff important? 38Implementing empowering leadership 39 Are the members of your team genuinely empowered? 40

Chapter 7: 360-degree feedback and appraisal ................................ 41What is 360-degree feedback? 42How can I use the 360-degree process to evaluate and improve the performance of my team? 43Using 360-degree feedback for appraisals 44

Chapter 8: The Johari Window .......................................................... 45What is the Johari Window? 46Using the Johari Window to increase openness and trust 50

Chapter 9: Feedback .......................................................................... 51How do I give high quality feedback to a member of my team about their performance? 52

3The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

Chapter 10: Motivation – Maslow ..................................................... 57What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? 58

Chapter 11: Motivation – McGregor .................................................. 63What is McGregor’s theory X and theory Y? 64How can McGregor’s theory X and theory Y help me to avoid conflicts with my team and keep it motivated? 66

Chapter 12: Motivation – Herzberg ................................................... 67What is Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory of motivation? 68Hygiene factors 69Motivators 70How can Herzberg’s theory of hygiene factors and motivators help me to avoid dissatisfaction and increase motivation in my team? 71

Chapter 13: Conflict ........................................................................... 73Why is managing conflict important? 74Why does conflict occur? 75Changing fight-or-flight to tend-and-befriend 76How can I resolve it in my team? 77

Chapter 14: Performance Management ............................................ 79What is performance management? 80What does a good performance management process look like? 81Annual performance reviews 82

Chapter 15: Poor performance .......................................................... 85What does underperformance look like? 86Plateaued performers 87How can I address poor performance in my team? 89

Chapter 16: Difficult conversations ................................................... 91How should I approach a difficult conversation with a member of my team? 92

Chapter 17: Disciplinary procedures ................................................. 97What does a good disciplinary procedure look like? 98What is my role in a disciplinary procedure? 101

Chapter 18: Grievance procedures .................................................... 105What makes a good grievance procedure and what are my responsibilities? 106A typical grievance procedure 108


Chapter 1The Golden Thread

The Corndel Leadership And Management Diploma: Unit 1

5


What is the golden thread?The golden thread is how an organisation aligns what it does to its goals. It is the magic ingredient that gets everybody working together to achieve its vision, and ensures that its vision, mission and values all fit together. It links the strategic objectives of those at the top of the organisation to the departmental objectives in the middle, and to the individual objectives of the wider workforce at the bottom.

This is why the golden thread is also known as organisational alignment. Firms that take the time to implement processes that create and reinforce this golden thread will see their performance improve on a sustainable basis.

How to implement the golden threadThe golden thread can be weaved into an organisation through a number of key processes including business planning, line management and performance management or appraisals. Sometimes, however, these opportunities are missed. This may be because these processes were not meaningfully implemented but instead were carried out as a bureaucratic exercise. Consequently, staff may view these processes negatively. For example, staff may be anxious about their

Individual objectives

Departmental objectives

Strategic objectives

Vision

Chapter 1: Golden Thread


performance appraisals, perhaps due to a lack of trust or poor implementation. It may even be the case that employees do not have a clear idea of how their work contributes to the firm’s strategic objectives. In this situation, the golden thread is clearly missing and the organisation is not aligned to its objectives. Here, a business case can be made that using resources to embed the golden thread and align the organisation could yield an attractive return on investment. Employees that see how they fit into, and contribute to the firm will feel more valued, leading to higher levels of satisfaction, motivation and productivity, and these can all be measured.

Senior managers will devise strategic aims and objectives from the organisation’s vision and mission, and will set out Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as quantifiable metrics that they can use to measure and assess how well the organisation is achieving these stated goals. These objectives and KPIs are designed to create the golden thread and get everybody working in the same direction. KPIs enable managers to measure what employees are doing, create incentives to act in a desired way, and to measure how effectively they do this.

Measurable outcome/KPI

Higher productivity

Increases in motivation

Valued employees



It is important to ensure that the objectives set and the key performance indicators used to measure success are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound), and that there is effective communication across the organisation. If this is achieved then the process of organisational alignment will follow. For example, a vision that sees a business delivering first-class customer service might set the number of recorded customer complaints as its KPI. This may then translate into the strategic objective of reducing the number of complaints to less than 5% which, in turn, may filter down as SMART objectives for some departments to reduce the number of customer complaints by 20%. Individuals may agree SMART performance management objectives to resolve all customer queries within 3 working days, before they turn into complaints.

However, due to more rapidly changing business environments, the frequency with

VisionFirst class customerservice

Number of recorded customercomplaints

Reduce the number of complaints to less than 5%

Reduce the number of complaintsby 20%

Resolve all customer queries within three working days

KPI

Strategic objective

Departmental objective

Individual objective



which organisations need to change in response is increasing. Consequently, so is the need for organisations to repeatedly realign to new visions and objectives. In this environment, the golden thread needs to be stronger and effective communication up and down the organisation becomes even more important.

The organisation’s leader can achieve this by asserting a compelling, personal and transformational story that communicates the need for profound change to his leadership team. They then start the process of cascading this new vision down the organisation, with each manager personalising the story for their audience so

Feeds into individualSMART objectives

Middle managerspersonalise story

Effective top-downcommunication

Narr

ativ

e ca

scad

es d

own

orga

nisa

tion

When individualsreally embrace this vision thencommunicationalso becomesbottom-up

Transformational Change

Senior managerspersonalise story

Leader’scompelling visionand personal story



that it is both relevant and inspiring for their team. In this way, all employees will not only understand and accept the proposed change, but will embrace it because of its impact in helping them to achieve their individual objectives and to progress in their careers.

In order to become truly effective, the communication needed to achieve this organisational change will adopt a bottom up element, where the employees at the bottom of the organisation take ownership of the vision. This indicates that the thread will have become golden because the individual, team and organisational objectives are aligned.

“Firms that take the time to implement processes that

create and reinforce this golden thread will see their

performance improve on a sustainable basis”


11

SMART Objectives

Chapter 2


11


Chapter 2: SMART Objectives

What are SMART objectives? SMART objectives make the organisation’s mission and vision relevant to the individual employee.

The organisation’s mission is its main purpose or reason for being and typically won’t change much over time.

For example:

A creative copywriting training company’s mission is to deliver a first-class creative writing education.

Alongside the mission, sits the vision statement. This is a picture of what the organisation will look like at some point in the future.

This may be to become the market-leading provider of creative writing courses by 2025.

These statements are there to guide the whole organisation and every employee should be working together to achieve them. But the mission and vision need to be made relevant to the individual, and setting SMART objectives helps to achieve this.

How do I set SMART objectives with my team?An objective is a statement, which describes what an individual, team, or organisation is hoping to achieve. For an objective to be SMART, it needs to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.



Specific

SMeasurable

MAchievable

ARelevant

RTime-bound

TSpecific When an objective is specific, it clearly describes the desired outcome. It is detailed, focused and unambiguous. When setting objectives with your team you should look to answer the questions of what needs to happen, how this will happen and who will be responsible. Use simple language and avoid jargon.

“I will increase the number of students enrolling on our creative writing course next year by 500.”

Measurable This objective becomes measurable when we select a metric to use as the performance indicator.

In this example, this could be: “I will measure the number of students enrolling on our creative writing course next year.”

Measurement is extremely important in setting objectives because, as the old adage goes, what gets measured gets done. When deciding which metric to use, it is important to think about the evidence needed to effectively monitor performance. This should include non-ambiguous measures such as:



percentages, frequencies, rates or numbers. Consider if these figures are readily available from a current system that is already in place and be critical of the chosen performance indicators to ensure that they accurately demonstrate improved performance rather than reflective of a general trend.

For example, if the number of enrolments onto creative writing courses has increased across the board for competitors

as well, this metric may not accurately reflect improved performance of any one organisation.

AchievableObjectives need to be achievable because this affects the level of motivation with which they are attempted, and therefore the chance of success. Employees attempting the impossible may simply not bother, seeing the whole process as a waste of time and effort.

One of the most effective ways to ensure that objectives are achievable is to consider the resources required. If those resources are already in place, it is likely that the objective is realistic and can be achieved. Key considerations will be: personnel, funding, time and equipment, how responsibilities will be allocated across the team and are there any skills gaps that need to be addressed.

For guidance, check whether comparable results have been achieved in similar circumstances.

Key questions might include: “do I have a sufficientmarketing budget to attract the new students? What proportion of students who request information actually enrol?



Have we achieved similar increases in the past?”

RelevantRelevant objectives must be aligned to the organisation’s mission, vision and strategic objectives, and must also be appropriate to the function of the department or job role of the individual, bearing in mind their skills and experience. In this way, the golden thread is created and genuine employee engagement is achieved.

Increasing student numbers will move me one step closer to becoming the market leader.

Time-boundAdding a deadline makes the objective time-bound and creates the sense of urgency needed to spur people into action. For long projects, it is good practice to set up interim deadlines to achieve certain milestones or key steps.

For example, in order to complete enrolment to the creative writing course by September this year, the marketing

campaign will need to launch in May.

Be careful to consider the resources needed to achieve these deadlines and any competing demands, or deadlines can become meaningless or demotivating.


Ensuring organisational alignmentEffective communication requires that, once objectives have been written for individuals and teams, they should be shared with the rest of the organisation. Seeing how their job role fits in to the big picture can increase an individual’s motivation and truly align them with the organisation. In addition, it will be clear when changes are relevant to others and so aid communication flow.

SMARTER objectivesSome have made objectives SMARTER, adding evaluated and reviewed or rewarded to the framework. These encourage continuous improvement in SMART actions, but the purpose remains the same. Don’t be vague when setting objectives. Use the process as a means of aligning the organisation.


Effectivecommunication

Employee fitmotivation

Shareobjectives

Organisationalalignment

Communication of relevantinformation improved


GROW Coaching

Chapter 3

17


Chapter 3: GROW Coaching

What is the GROW model of coaching?The GROW model is one of the most successful and widely used coaching models in the UK. It was introduced in the 1980s as one of the first applications of coaching to the workplace. John Whitmore and Graham Alexander’s basic idea was that if learning and enjoyment at work were increased, then individual employees would gain a sense of purpose and take more responsibility in their job roles, which would ultimately lead to greater performance.

The GROW model helps to achieve this improved performance by using a simple, four-step process to aid leaders to structure coaching sessions with their staff.

An important feature of the GROW coaching model is that the leader guides and probes their coachee to reach their own conclusions.

Step one: GoalsStep one is the setting of goals. This should be done to establish what the employee wants to get out of the coaching session, as well as for the short and long term, once they have returned to their daily tasks. These goals should be SMART to ensure that these goals are realised.

Goals Reality Options Way-round

G R O W



In the GROW model, the coach acts as a facilitator, to guide the conversation towards specifying a set of specific goals that can be achieved during an agreed time frame. These goals must come from the employee and reflect their own aspirations, brought into focus through further questioning and probing. They must come from the coachee, and not be imposed by the coach. This serves the extremely important function of creating trust in this process and ensures the coachee takes ownership of their goals.

GOALSWhat does

the employeewant?

Short and long-term

goalsQuestioningapproach

Createstrust

Not imposedby coach

Employeeownership

SMART Agreedtime-frame

Coach asa guide

Coachextracts specific outcome



Step two: RealityStep two establishes the reality of where the employee currently is with regard to achieving these goals. Here, the focus is on assessing the current situation in terms of the actions the employee has taken so far, and on seeking to clarify the results and effects of these actions.

The coachee may need help in critically reflecting on any internal obstacles they have set up that are impeding their progress towards achieving their goals. The majority of the coaching time may well be spent in this phase, raising the employee’s self-awareness primarily through open-ended questioning. The coach will use precise language and ask for real-world examples of any assertions made to strip away assumptions and judgements. The coachee will be invited to carry out an unbiased self-assessment.

RealityWhat is

their currentsituation?

Actions alreadytaken

Use real-worldexamples

Identify internal

obstacles

Strip awayassumptions

Raiseself-awareness

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