Leadership and
Organizational Development

Leadership and organizational development: background, questions and exercises.

A successful organization will plan leadership and organizational development together, especially in today’s rapidly changing world.

This article provides leaders and managers responsible for OD with:

• Background information to put the discussion in context
• Questions that will help you reflect on your own leadership practice and capability
• An exercise to help you build your skills in leadership and organizational development

What are Leadership and Organizational Development?

Many organizations still do not fully differentiate between leadership and management and this makes it challenging to develop leadership performance.

This is how Warren Bennis, one of the leading gurus in the field of leadership development, describes the difference:

• The leader innovates; the manager administrates
• The leader focuses on people; the manager focuses on systems and structure
• The leader inspires; the manager controls
• The leader is his own person; the manager is a good soldier
• The leader sees the long-term; the manager sees the short-term
• The leader asks "what and why?"; the manager asks "how and when?"
• The leader does the right thing; the manager does things right

Effective organisations consciously create the space for growth and change.

Leadership is the ability to create a vision and encourage others to commit their energy and creativity to that vision.

Much of our traditional approach to leadership development does not help leaders to innovate, inspire, create and share their long term vision.

Why? We’ll take this up soon.

But leadership is only one half of the leadership and organizational development story.

Organizational Development (OD) is defined by Richard Beckhard, as:

… a planned effort, organization-wide, managed from the top, to increase organizational effectiveness and health, through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes', using behavioural science knowledge.

They key here is the phrase, ‘using behavioural science knowledge’. We'll pick that up in a paragraph or two.

If - as you manage a major change in your organization - you would appreciate the security of a comprehensive risk appraisal and risk management strategy, please take a look at this risk management resource.

Leadership and motivation

Leaders’ attitudes to the key issue - the basis for human change and organisational development – are critical.

Many people still think organizations work like machines. Their view is: “Get the design right … and it will produce the results you desire.”

However it is increasingly recognised that what is organized in an organization is human motivation. This is much more complex (and powerful) than a machine, no matter how complicated the machine appears.

After all, human motivation builds machines. Machines don’t build human motivation!

Recall what it’s like when you want something doing. Particularly when you’re in a hurry or the task is a little different from the usual.

Some people will procrastinate, find creative ways of avoiding (if only they would put this level of creativity into their work!) or do the bare minimum.

Managers are likely to seek change in behaviour.

Leaders achieve organisational development by motivating others.

So to maximise performance improvement both leadership and organizational development need to be addressed to ensure that all the relevant influences are taken into account.

Both Leadership and Organizational Development are Important

a. Leadership Development

In order to fully understand what is happening in any situation, Ken Wilber suggests that there are always four factors interacting.

He calls them “Four Quadrants” (as they are drawn from a larger map of human development).

We have re-named his four quadrants in this way in our leadership and organizational development context:

1. The inner leader: is the invisible world of thoughts and feelings
2. The outer leader:: is the visible world of actions and behaviour
3. The inner organization: the invisible world of shared social norms
4. The outer organization: visible systems and infrastructure

Let’s now develop these ideas a little more fully.

The first two quadrants – Individual Inner and Individual Outer relate to the development of the leader.

Individual Inner

In an organization this refers to leaders’ sense of purpose, values, thoughts and emotions, mood, intentions, and the meaning they make out of events.

Our inner world is an important driver of our outer behaviours, often subconsciously. While others may make assumptions about these, they cannot know anything about this internal world unless the leader tells them.

Successful leaders have a strong self-belief. They know they can make a real difference in the situation they are leading. It is difficult to attract followers when you offer an uncertain way forward.

Getting in touch with your inner leader:

How often do you notice the beliefs, thoughts, assumptions, or feelings that you or others experience or express?

How aware are you of your own “self-talk”? What are its characteristics?

Look back on a difficulty you’ve experienced recently. Visualise the place and the people. Listen again to what was said and how it was said.

As you recall these things, try also to recall physical sensations. Re-live that experience as vividly as you can.

Do you notice if unrecognised assumptions or beliefs influenced the outcome of the situation?

Did your inner dialogue change? In what way?

Individual Outer

This is to do with the leader’s behaviour, habits and practices. It focuses on what we do and how we act in the world. It is what others observe of us and how they know us.

Increasingly, leaders are expected to behave with integrity (even though there have been many recent notable exceptions in the business world).

Managers expect their leaders to speak their vision, be inspiring and walk their talk.

Getting in touch with the outer leader:

How do you respond to the need to express the following qualities? Are you ever concerned that you actions may be misinterpreted?

Congruence. Do your actions always “line up” with what you say? Are they congruent with your values and the values you express to colleagues?

Do you ever wear a ‘mask’ ensuring that you do not ‘betray’ what you are feeling? Is that necessary? For sound organizational reasons? For more personal reasons?

In a recent challenging situation, did you notice how people actually behaved, and how others responded to that behaviour?

Have you noticed how other people’s behaviour has influenced the outcome of a situation adversely? What might they have done differently? How could you have responded differently to support a positive outcome next time?

Do you have time and space to reflect on these issues? To make sure you distil the lessons from your experiences?

b. Organizational Development

These next two quadrants relate to development of the organization.

Organizational Inner

This has to do with a group’s social and cultural patterns. It includes how relationships are formed, the norms that govern social interactions, and the way people communicate with each other.

These are all aspects of this ‘organizational inner.’

It’s often called ‘The-way-things-are-done-around-here.’

If you are new to a group or team, you quickly find out how powerful this hidden world is! Transgress its unwritten rules or stumble across invisible barriers and you’ll quickly turn heads.

What if you are new, and hired specifically to introduce change?

Thinking about a recent situation in which you were the leader …

What “people issues” were present in the situation? How did you and others listen, speak, and engage with other people, and how did that influence the outcome of this situation?

Did you discover (or suspect) and ‘unwritten rules? How did you recognise them?

Do you have any awareness of how your assumptions differ from those of the people you locked horns with? Do you need to know? How will you find out?

Organizational Outer

This comprises all the systems, processes and strategies of the business.

It is the observable way the company goes about its business. It includes physical elements like buildings, systems like IT hardware and software and the technical aspects of the work.

The effects on performance can be disastrous if the network goes down or the company finds itself with competitors who have state of the art equipment or machinery.

Again, think about a recent event.

What were the physical surroundings for the situation?

How did the use of infrastructure (machinery, tools and other physical resources) help or hinder the outcome of this situation?

Let’s draw leadership development and organizational development together

In terms of leadership and organizational development, we tend to focus our attention on the individual and organizational outer.

We concentrate on what we can see. We often do that because we believe this is what we can influence, or this is the most urgent.

This can lead to repeated fire-fighting: consistently returning to crisis mode.

Almost invariably real leverage for sustained growth and planned development resides in the inner aspects of individuals and organisations.

Increasingly leadership development approaches see the need to address the inner leader, and organizational development the inner culture of the organization.

Skills Building Exercise in Leadership and Organizational Development

This exercise will develop your ability to focus on how the four quadrants impact every situation.

It will help you see how each influences the outcome. It will help you identify what leadership and organizational development skills your need to hone.

Each evening for two weeks, think back to one or two significant moments or interactions that you either witnessed or participated in during the day.

For each, consider the following questions:

• In which quadrant did I spend most of my time, energy, and attention today?
• What did I do? What were the consequences?
• Which quadrant(s) did I most neglect? What were the consequences of this?
• In which quadrant(s) did I experience breakdowns (e.g. negative emotions like anger or frustration getting in the way).
• Do I notice patterns do I notice as I think about myself and my leadership in light of the four quadrants?

Joining together with other leaders and working together on common issues is one way to stimulate learning about leadership and organizational development.

'jazz LEADERSHIP' is the theme of our forthcoming leadership development workshop. It will be held in Newcastle in April.

This page, on leadership and the jazz metaphor, will help set the scene for you.