Saturday, March 30, 2013

People Management - Situational Leadership

This workshop was on how to lead a group of people.
 
The framework developed by Hershey & Blanchard covers all aspects of a follower mentality and suggest the respective style of leadership to be followed. Though this concept was taught as part of the OB course during my MBA, but it was better understood in the workshop conducted by Mr.Prem Kumar. For more practical understanding he chose the movie Chak De India, where each of the aspects of the framework were discussed.
For the benefit of my readers below is the framework of Hershey & Blanchard
Hershey Blanchard
 
If you see the followers(sub-ordinates/team members) are of 4 types. It is classified based on 2 factors and hence the 4 combinations.
 
The 2 factors are Ability and Willingness
R1 - Unable & Unwilling(No confidence/Insecure etc)
R2 - Unable but Willing
R3 - Able but Unwilling (May be due to personal problems/ego problems/lack of confidence etc)
R4 - Able & Willing
 
Now Leadership styles are also 4 types which are formed based on 2 factors.
The 2 factors are Task Behaviour/Regulation and Relationship behavior/Nurturing
S1 - High Regulation & Low Nurturing or High Task & Low Relation
This is more like directive type, where there will be only one way communication and the followers will be micromanaged. This applies to R1 type of followers
 
S2 - High Regulation & High Nurturing/High Task and High Relation
This is more like coaching type where the leader has to discuss with the followers and plan the works for them and motivate them by rewarding etc. This applies to R2 type of followers. Though the followers are unable they have the passion/interest to take up the work So by being high task oriented the leader will teach them on how to become capable.
 
S3 - Low Regulation & High Nurturing/Low Task & High Relation
This is more like counselling type, where the leader has to discuss with the followers and motivate them to resolve the problems. This applies to R3 kind of followers who lack only in motivation but not skill. These people dont like to be micromanaged on tasks. They need the socio-emtional support.
 
S4 - Low Regulation & Low Nurturing/Low Task & Low Relation
This is more a delegating type, where the leader just defines the boundary and lets the followers own up their areas and peform. This applies to R4 kind of followers, who are self sufficient in terms of skill and willingness. They dont like at all to be micromanaged. They like to work with freedom.
 
The most important point to be noted here is a leader has to be flexible enough to shift from S1 to S4 depending on the type of followers. Also the same set of followers might shift from R4 to R1 depending on various scenarios so nothing is hard and fast. But having an idea of this framework can aid a leader in understanding what type of style might work well for that situation.

That is why the framework is called situational leadership framework.

The following is a vote of thanks by me to our facilitator Mr.Prem Kumar, who is a very good orator and a sensible trainer who connects very well with his participants. I have attended 3 workshops of his so far and I rate him high on his facilitation.

 

Self Concept

This was discussed during a workshop conducted on Assertive Skills. The concept of self is very important when you communicate with people. I have tried my best in simplifying the concept. The text given to understand was not so simple :) and took sometime to come up with the below flipchart
 
The videos of the presentation follows.
Self Concept

Part - I



Part - II



Part - III


Pursuasion

This was one of the workshops I attended on Leadership & Motivation, in which there was a topic on pursuasion for which I had to present a tiny case study. Below is the flipchart I prepared to explain it and the video of the presentation follows
Pursuasion

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Ego Clashes Explained

Ego clashes happen with differences in perceptions.
The difference in what we think we are and what others think we are.
The bubbles in the image below are perceptions about the specimen.
Perception Ego Clashes
 
Wider the gap between perceptions bubbles, higher are the chances for ego clashes..and if the person is a weak hearted and passive person will definitely end up crying and accepting what others think.
If the person is an agressive person will get into argument/fight with others.
An assertive person will make an attempt to clarify the situation by creating a dialogue.
 
 
Perception Ego Clashes
When there is an overlap in perceptions, there will be little scope for clashes.
 
Now, You may comment on how to deal with such situations.