Don’t Ask Permission: The 4th Leadership Key To Balance Authority & Collaboration

By Stephen Haslam and Robert Pennington, Ph.D., Resource International

This is the fourth in an eight part series on Balancing Authority and Collaboration

The 4th Key: Don’t Ask Permission
The first three keys in this series focused on how the inevitable resistance to authority inhibits collaboration, and that it is important to address employee’s concerns for the tasks they are expected to do, the positive impact to expect, and how any changes will affect the employees themselves. But this should not be a process of asking permission.

Don’t let the process of understanding concerns turn into a series of gripe sessions. When preparing a mission the United States Marines follow the principle, “Decide, and then invite dissent.”* Officers don’t ask the soldiers for permission, but once the mission is defined they do expect heated debate about the best way to execute the mission plan. Every possible challenge should be confronted, all possible risks mitigated. As a result, by the time the troops engage everyone is on board because their concerns were addressed in the planning stages.

The ultimate objective of using these techniques is to establish a work environment in which everyone feels safe to disagree so that communication is more open and work is more productive.

The 8 Keys To Balance Leadership Authority & Collaboration

1. Position Power & Personal Power
2. Expect resistance to authority
3. Address levels of concern
4. Don’t ask permission
5. Communicate “The 4 P’s of Transition”
6. Engage leaders at all levels
7. Demonstrate respect to build trust and commitment
8. Get tools in your tool belt

* Resources

Leadership Development: How to Get the Results You Need by Haslam and Pennington.

Reducing Resistance to Change and Conflict: A Key to Successful Leadership by Haslam and Pennington.

Kotter, John P. (2003).  The Power of Feelings, An Interview with John P. Kotter, Leader to Leader, No. 27, Winter 2003.

Bridges, W., & Mitchell, S. (2000).  Leading Transition: A New Model for Change.  Leader to Leader, No. 16, Spring 2000.

Hall, G. E., Wallace, R. C., & Dossett, W. A. (1973).  A developmental conceptualization of the adoption process within educational institutions (Rep. No. 3006). Austin, Texas: The University of Texas at Austin, The Research and Development Center for Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction No. ED 095 126).

Rob Pennington and Stephen Haslam work with leaders and managers.  Find out more at Resource International, www.resource-i.com.

Address Levels Of Concern: The 3rd Leadership Key To Balance Authority & Collaboration

By Stephen Haslam and Robert Pennington, Ph.D., Resource International

This is the third in an eight part series on Balancing Authority and Collaboration

The 3rd Key: Address Levels Of Concern
The first two keys in this series focused on how a leader’s position (authority) can actually get in the way of gaining trust and positive influence with others (collaboration), and that no matter how experienced or effective you are as a leader, you should expect some resistance to your authority.

Don’t assume that just by telling someone what needs to be done that they will be motivated to do it well. According to John Kotter, professor at Harvard Business School and author of 15 books on leadership, “People change their behavior when they are (internally) motivated to do so, and that happens when you speak to their feelings. You don’t have to spend a million dollars and six months to prepare for a change effort. You do have to make sure that you touch people emotionally.” (Kotter)

The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM)* hypothesizes a predictable hierarchy of concerns that individuals experience when adopting any new innovation: Concerns for Self, Task, and Impact. Most companies only give attention to employees’ Concern for Task, whatever the employee needs to know to do the work. Kotter also wrote, “Employees need to understand that the changes are not oddball ideas being pushed by the bosses. They need to see short-term wins that demonstrate the validity of the change vision (concerns about impact). If the win is not ambiguous, is visible (concerns about task), and is of value to people (concerns about self), then people will say, “yes, I get it” and be more likely to help make change happen.” (Kotter)

The ultimate objective of using these techniques is to establish a work environment in which everyone feels safe to disagree so that communication is more open and work is more productive.

The 8 Keys To Balance Leadership Authority & Collaboration

1. Position Power & Personal Power
2. Expect resistance to authority
3. Address levels of concern
4. Don’t ask permission
5. Communicate “The 4 P’s of Transition”
6. Engage leaders at all levels
7. Demonstrate respect to build trust and commitment
8. Get tools in your tool belt

* Resources

Leadership Development: How to Get the Results You Need by Haslam and Pennington.

Reducing Resistance to Change and Conflict: A Key to Successful Leadership by Haslam and Pennington.

Kotter, John P. (2003).  The Power of Feelings, An Interview with John P. Kotter, Leader to Leader, No. 27, Winter 2003.

Bridges, W., & Mitchell, S. (2000).  Leading Transition: A New Model for Change.  Leader to Leader, No. 16, Spring 2000.

Hall, G. E., Wallace, R. C., & Dossett, W. A. (1973).  A developmental conceptualization of the adoption process within educational institutions (Rep. No. 3006). Austin, Texas: The University of Texas at Austin, The Research and Development Center for Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction No. ED 095 126).

Rob Pennington and Stephen Haslam work with leaders and managers.  Find out more at Resource International, www.resource-i.com.

Expect Resistance To Authority: The 2nd Leadership Key To Balance Authority & Collaboration

By Stephen Haslam and Robert Pennington, Ph.D., Resource International

This is the second in an eight part series on Balancing Authority and Collaboration

The 2nd Key: Expect Resistance To Authority
The 1st Key in this series focused on how a leader’s position (authority) can actually get in the way of gaining trust and positive influence with others (collaboration). But no matter how experienced or effective you are as a leader, you should expect some resistance to your authority.

Executives are responsible for executing strategic and financial goals. Supervisors are responsible for delivering projects and initiatives on time and on budget in support of those strategic and financial goals. To accomplish these things they need to manage the employees to get the work done.
All too often a goal is established or a problem is identified, management pulls together the best and brightest to craft a plan or a solution and the system or process is set in motion. But employees resist, ignore, and find work-arounds, and as a result the objectives are not achieved.

Some leaders think that by merely telling employees what needs to be that they should simply do their jobs and not complain. These leaders perceive resistance as inappropriate; evidence that a person is not “a team player” and not doing their job. It is an unfortunate reality that managers, supervisors, and leaders at any level will have to deal with resistance that employees have to authority. But managers need to focus on reducing the resistance first, before trying to get their point across.

The ultimate objective of using these techniques is to establish a work environment in which everyone feels safe to disagree so that communication is more open and work is more productive.

The 8 Keys To Balance Leadership Authority & Collaboration

1. Position Power & Personal Power
2. Expect resistance to authority
3. Address levels of concern
4. Don’t ask permission
5. Communicate “The 4 P’s of Transition”
6. Engage leaders at all levels
7. Demonstrate respect to build trust and commitment
8. Get tools in your tool belt

* Resources

Leadership Development: How to Get the Results You Need by Haslam and Pennington.

Reducing Resistance to Change and Conflict: A Key to Successful Leadership by Haslam and Pennington.

Kotter, John P. (2003).  The Power of Feelings, An Interview with John P. Kotter, Leader to Leader, No. 27, Winter 2003.

Bridges, W., & Mitchell, S. (2000).  Leading Transition: A New Model for Change.  Leader to Leader, No. 16, Spring 2000.

Hall, G. E., Wallace, R. C., & Dossett, W. A. (1973).  A developmental conceptualization of the adoption process within educational institutions (Rep. No. 3006). Austin, Texas: The University of Texas at Austin, The Research and Development Center for Teacher Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction No. ED 095 126).

Rob Pennington and Stephen Haslam work with leaders and managers.  Find out more at Resource International, www.resource-i.com.

Position and Personal Power: The 1st of 8 Keys to Balancing Leadership Authority & Collaboration

By Stephen Haslam and Robert Pennington, Ph.D., Resource International

This is the first in an eight part series on Balancing Leadership Authority and Collaboration

The 1^st Key: Position Power & Personal Power

“It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there.”  -  Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Every leader is challenged to balance the responsibility for making decisions and the need to collaborate with others to produce desired results. Unfortunately most leaders have unconscious habits that trigger resistance, turning collaboration into competition and sabotage. Before long, employees are competing more with each other than they are working together to beat their company’s competition.

5 Steps That Turn Asking for Help Into A Sign of Strength

In chapter 6 in my autobiographical self-help book, Find the Upside of the Down Times, I describe my experience of being audited by the IRS and my fears about not having enough money.  Anybody else ever had that fear, especially in these challenging economic times? Through that experience I learned a most important lesson, namely that,

Asking for help is an act of strength & confidence, not an act of weakness.

This is not an easy lesson to learn. Asking for help requires facing the need for help. Many of us would rather not, for many reasons, but mainly because even the thought of asking for help can be uncomfortable, much less the actual asking. Asking for help is like openly and publicly admitting a mistake or weakness, a flaw or inadequacy. For anyone who grew up being criticized

Use the Down Times to Find Your Life Purpose

“I am so happy to have Jerry Lopper as a contributor having enjoyed his insightful blog: PurposefulGrowth.com.  I was immediately touched by the following post because I also experienced having to sneak home from elementary school to avoid being beaten up by local bullies.  Jerry’s wisdom on increasing clarity about one’s life purpose makes any challenge a relevant opportunity for growth.  Please leave a comment and check out links to additional posts on this topic at the end.”  – Rob

Use The Down Times To Find Your Life Purpose

By Jerry Lopper

When I was eight or nine years old I was bullied and tormented by a group of old neighborhood kids. Borrowing from Dr. Pennington’s Find the Upside of the Down Times, that decidedly down time in my life was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

3 Steps To Move From The Darkness To The Dawn… Quicker

“It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.” 
Thomas Fuller, English Theologian and Historian (1608-1661)

    In the middle of the darkness it doesn’t look like I’m about to awaken to a greater dawn. But at such times I have discovered that I have a power I didn’t know I had; a power to shed light into my own darkness. Sometimes I find this power this by calling on a “Higher Power” to light my way. Sometimes it is just sitting down and answering the question, “What one step could I take today that will take me one step closer to my goal?” Sometimes I need to do both.

   My first step in the difficult task of bringing light into the darkness is to remember that I still have power to act constructively, even in the dark, down times. When I remember this, my world opens to more opportunities than the darkness allowed me to see. But it amazes me how often I forget. Hopefully you will be quicker at remembering this than I have been!  Here are three helpful reminders…

My Guest Posts On Other Blogs

Here are a few of the guest posts I have been invited to provide for other blogs:

Being Devoted: A Journey of Discovering The Upside In The Down Times on Ruth Hill’s MyDevotionalThoughts.com describes my lessons and discoveries in caring for my wife, Clair, through her illness.  This guest post is lower down the page below a very heartfelt book review by Ruth for which I am very grateful.

How I Feel Is Up To Me! on Gail Lynne Goodwin’s InspireMeToday.com.  In addition, take a look at my replies to comments below this 500 word post on “what I would want my grandchildren to know”. There are lots of insights you might also enjoy.

“A Reason To Be Happy” on The Psychology of Well Being. “You think you’ve had a rough life?….There is a lot we can learn from Dr. Rob Pennington.”

“You Don’t Have To Know How To Believe You Can” on Tia Sparkles’ Your Life Your Way

“Use Your Worry To Create A Goal!” on Steve Nash’s Self Help Collective

“Practice Feeling Good – For No Reason!” on David Leonhardt’s The Happy Guy

“7 Q&A: #1 What was your inspiration behind writing this book?” on Eva Rykr’s blog

“24 Q&A!! #1 Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.” on Inspired Kathy’s I’m A Reader Not A Writer

The Power of Choice

The Power of Choice

This is a short video clip of a segment of a series of character education programs I help develop with Dot Woodfin and Stephen Haslam.  You can get more information about these programs at www.mindoh.org

The Power of Choice=======

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“I got fired. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”-Steve Jobs

Although I begin the 4th chapter in my book with these same words, I learned this evening that Steve Jobs had the same experience a few years after mine. He speaks eloquently about it during his commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.

I hope you are as inspired as I am by the courage he had to live the life of his dreams, “as if today was my last”. Sadly, today was Steve’s last day.

His commitment to his vision has changed the way billions interact with each other and the world. His contagious enthusiasm will be missed.

Please take this link to hear his 14 minute address.
http://t.co/kljkvAcy