"C" Leadership

A New Way to Beat the Competition and Manage Organization Stakeholders

James D. Spina, Lori J. Spina

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781801170550
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Behaviour
• Index: Business

Success is envisioned as beating the competition to generate a financially strong and profitable organization while building stakeholder satisfaction.

"C" Leadership style is a new management theory derived from the research and science leading to the unification of conflicting traditional leadership models. Presenting a unique approach to address the needs of all stakeholders as they contribute to the success of the organization, "C" Leadership unifies task-centered styles with people-centered styles for managing talent.

Authors Jim and Lori Spina bring a track record of success and achievement in the fields of Education, Consulting and Business. Their "C" Leadership: A New Way to Beat the Competition and Manage Organization Stakeholders introduces this revolutionary and unique leadership style management system, offering a strategy geared to beat the competition by addressing the needs of all stakeholders who contribute to the success of the organization.

1

REVIEW OF CONFLICTING LEADERSHIP STYLE MODELS

If you have taken courses or attended seminars on leadership, you will most likely have encountered several types of leadership models. Some brief descriptions of three popular theoretical models follow:

• A Trait Leadership Style Theory – Lists the behaviors of successful leaders. A typical list might have more than 200 leadership traits to choose from such as “Uses good communication skills” or “Gives clear directions to solve a problem” or shall we simply choose the tallest person in the room to lead our team?
• A Varying Situation Leadership Style Theory – Recommends that a leader should change leadership style to match the needs of various situations, that is, use a task focused style for some situations or focus on needs of people in other situations.
• A Universal Leadership Style Theory– Suggests that one leadership style will fit all situations, that is, mix task and people styles to address the challenge at hand.

These, and other well-known theoretical models, may present conflicting directions for their use as well as commonalities. For example: Is there one best leadership style for all situations or should the manager change styles to match the needs of different situations? Is it true that a manager cannot change the innate style he or she uses and so we should try to match the situation with a manager’s immutable style? As late comedian George Carlin used to say concerning various religions, “Some religions don’t allow men to wear a hat at a service. Others require men to wear a hat. Somebody has it wrong!” Well, you get the picture. Each model has pros and cons about its effectiveness.

One of the most common general weaknesses is the lack of direction in applying the tenents of the model to real work activities. Another is that they are mainly theories that lack scientific methods to judge their value over time. A key problem with the approaches is that theories might not take variations in human behavior into consideration when applying the concepts to the workplace. Our work addresses each of these major problems. Leadership today does not fall only to the number crunchers. It is becoming more art than science.

We start with three examples of the variable of human behavior:

(1) An hourly worker in a manufacturing plant is entitled to a “twelve to one” lunch period each day. Almost all workers follow this pattern of behavior. However, instead of having lunch at that time one fellow often chooses to eat his lunch on company time starting at 11.30 a.m. and uses the allotted lunch hour to roam about the premises to chat with friends or sit outside and enjoy the warm days in New England. It’s a union shop and he is 52 years old. Supervisors know about this policy violation but look the other way. Many of his colleagues are annoyed by his behavior and talk behind the backs of the supervisors whom they see as incompetent, weak and unfair. HR spends most of its time tracking vacation days and schedules.

(2) At the beginning of the day, a faculty member of a middle school leans into the halfway open door of the principal’s office with a message indicting a fellow faculty member for breaking a policy, that is, “Do you want to know who left early yesterday?” This is the second time this week that she has done so. The principal is new to the school and faces a declining learning environment where teachers close their classroom doors to avoid contact with anyone else. The superintendent of schools is pressing for higher test scores and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has canceled evening meeting for fear of neighborhood violence. The number of teachers taking “mental health” sick days is growing out of hand. Parents are in an uproar over the quality of substitute teachers who take the places of absentee staff.

(3) A worker in a high-tech industry is responsible for seeing that computer boards are moved efficiently and safely from production to shipping. The boards are loaded on a pie cart and transported across the factory floor to shipping. As this trip takes place, a board or two slip from the cart and lands on the cement floor. The worker quickly glances around and when no one is looking simply puts the damaged boards on the cart. The plant has a 13% scrap and return rate on boards each month. The plant manager is under heavy pressure to solve this problem and customers are turning elsewhere for the product.

If you were the boss in any of these scenarios, which of the popular leadership models would you choose to deal with these environments? How about a return to the past and use a “cash and fear” approach in these times of continual change and aggressive litigation? Do you see difficulties from using this approach arising down the line? Examine the examples more closely. How many stakeholders can you name that are affected by the negative human behaviors in the scenarios? Did you find examples of, or implications for, employees, suppliers, shareholders, the community served, the customers served and the organization itself?

One of the truths of the various leadership theories is their tendencies to focus on two areas: (1) developing the ability of a manager to meet the individual needs of the worker and (2) meeting the needs of the organization. This approach is commonly referred to as “high on people” and “high on task.” Depending upon the model chosen to attack this goal, it will often be a challenge to find the one best mix of styles to meet the needs of people or create new ways to reach organizational goals. In our sharply different view, we believe that managers can learn to go beyond developing the ability and skills to meld the two traditional conflicting styles of “task” and “people” into one package. We are confident that they can embrace the concept of addressing the needs of all stakeholders and use the new emerging behaviors to effectively meet this goal. The chapters that follow will take you down a path to achieving this desired outcome.

2

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SCIENCE FOR “C” LEADERSHIP

People see only what they are prepared to see. (Emerson)

Most managers have had the opportunity to study classic physics somewhere during their educational experiences. Some of us were introduced to what is often called “barnyard physics.” Instruction in this approach did not include heavy mathematical calculations. Instead, it described everyday events such as gravity in action and things in motion.

It is simple to understand that if we drop a fork in the kitchen it will fall to the floor. It is not a great leap to explain that a tennis ball will roll down a slanted driveway and continue to do so until something stops it. Also, you know that if you bounce that ball off a wall it will bounce right back at you. We have learned that it is necessary to wear a seat belt while driving because if the car hits something hard it is likely you will get hurt. Safety demonstrations use a device called a “convincer” to prove that the force you will be hit with will be significant. The doubter sits in a chair that slides “downhill” for about 3 feet to a sudden stop. Doubt disappears quickly.

Most readers will recognize these Newtonian Forces as gravity, inertia, action/reaction and force = mass (×) velocity. Classic physics is built around these forces and concept. Complex mathematical equations can be derived from them and used to solve problems of all kinds.

These forces accurately and consistently predict their effect on large objects like table forks, tennis balls and cars. Outcomes are predetermined by Newton’s Laws. Directions, speed and positions can be accurately calculated.

The strange world of quantum mechanics is a completely different story. This branch of physics deals with exceedingly small things like atoms and the particles that make them up. There are unfamiliar and intimidating terms such as “bucky balls,” quarks and bosons that describe invisible things moving in unpredictable ways. This is the “spooky stuff” of the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics.

In classic physics, the history of events is unchanging and can be logically tracked and explained. You probably have a morning routine that you follow upon getting out of bed. It probably does not vary very much, if at all. Most likely you take the same walk to the bathroom and on to the kitchen. You might drink a cup of coffee and get ready to move out the door to your car.

In quantum mechanics this is impossible to diagram since very, very small things are believed to be able to move from one place to another taking an infinite number of paths. In classic physics an object never changes its form. Your car will always look and behave as expected. It will not decide to change its shape and shine through the air like a beam of light. On the other hand, an object in the quantum world may just do that very thing. At this point you may be scratching your head and wondering what we are leading to and what does it have to do with management and leadership models? You will not be alone. Here’s a little more information that will help to make the leadership connection with quantum mechanics clearer.

In the 1920s, physicist Werner Heisenberg, among other things, began experiments with light. He discovered that a unit of light, called a photon, could behave both as a wave and a particle at the same time. This phenomenon, known as duality, occurred when the experimenter observed the photon in motion. He also found that if he determined the photon’s location, he was unable to measure its actual speed. If he calculated its speed, he could not determine its precise location. He concluded that the act of observation to measure the photon’s speed instantly changed its location and vice-versa. The act of observation determined reality according to Heisenberg. The Uncertainty Principle was born, and Heisenberg’s work was accepted as correct.

In 1988, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking indicated that the Uncertainty Principle is an inescapable fact of life affecting everyone, while Heisenberg’s biographer, William Cassidy, wrote that the Uncertainty Principle is an insight so profound that it has become a metaphor for understanding all human behavior. Our leadership theory incorporates the Uncertainty Principle into leadership behaviors by stating that a manager’s observation of an undesirable workplace problem situation will determine its reality, that is, a task-focused manager will see the situation as one that needs to be resolved by meeting the needs of the task over meeting the needs of the people doing the work. Conversely, a manager who strives to meet the needs of the people doing the work will prioritize those needs over the needs of the organization to complete the task. This means that both managers will produce win/lose outcomes.

The manager who tries to employ a mixture of meeting the needs of both the people and task will risk the compromise or lose/lose outcomes if the mixture is inaccurate. In our experience, the chance of being able to accurately create a mixture of behaviors that equally meets people and task needs is low. For managers to succeed they will need to learn hold two conflicting ideas in his/her mind at the same time, that is, the situation is both task and people focused as a compound and not a simple mixture.

One of the easiest ways to grasp the concept of the Uncertainty Principle is to visualize a major league baseball game being played before a full house. The pitcher does about 75% of the work in each game. He will need to throw the ball about 60 feet to the catcher more than 90 times during a game. Once the ball is thrown, and is on its way, no one knows if it is a “ball” or a “strike” but everyone in the park has an opinion. The batter needs to decide whether to swing at the ball as it approaches home plate, and an umpire will make the “ball” or “strike” call. This makes the outcome uncertain until the umpire decides what the call is by his observation. In other words, the pitch is both a “ball” and a “strike” at the same time until observed.

In the science laboratory, the now famous “Two Slit” experiment with a beam of light produces a similar result. Electrons of light are observed as behaving as both particles and waves as they pass through the two slits in a wall and projected on a screen.

It looks something like this when electrons are projected on a screen as shown below:

The beam of light initially passes through the two slits in the wall as particles would be expected to do but the interference of light waves as particles pass through the slits produces a wave action causing dark and light bars to appear on the screen. The act of observation creates a dual reality of an electron being a particle and wave at the same time. Check out the videos “What’s Beyond the double Slit Experiment” and/or the first five/six minutes of “Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser Explained” on YouTube for a graphic look at the famous “Two Slit” experiment.

3

A DEEPER DIVE INTO “C” LEADERSHIP THEORY

People will observe a situation and look for evidence of what they expect to see. (Emerson)

In quantum mechanics, electrons have been shown to act simultaneously as particles and waves. They behave as particles when the observer expects them to do so and as waves when the observer expects waves. They seem to “know” how to behave to match expectations.

Science explains this by concluding that the act of observation itself determines the way in which they will react and be perceived. As we mentioned in Chapter 2, quantum mechanics presents us with the “spooky stuff!” of the uncertainty principle.

As we explored the possible similarities between the leadership models, and the basics of quantum mechanics we realized that peoples leadership styles and task organization structures might act in the same way. When the observer who has a “my way or the highway...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction: What is “C” Leadership?
• 1. Review of Conflicting Leadership Style Models
• 2. A Closer Look at the Science for “C” Leadership
• 3. A Deeper Dive into “C” Leadership Theory
• 4. Leadership Skills and Abilities Assessment of Incumbent Managers
• 5. “C” Leadership Education and Development Activities for Managers
• 6. Introduction of “C” Leadership to External Stakeholders
• 7. Evaluation Techniques for Measuring “C” Leadership Success
• 8. Future “C” Leadership Challenges
• 9. Final Thoughts
• Appendix 1. Activities and Plans for “C” Leadership Education
• Appendix 2. Original Thought Experiment Paper for “C Leadership” “Towards a New Theory of Leadership”
• Appendix 3. Scenario Solutions
• Bibliography
• Index