1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as members of parliament, committee leaders, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to because of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

2. Leadership is a process of personal development.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to drive a car, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. You can also improve your knowledge of leadership theories and skills through attending leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences or by reading books on the subject.

Daily interaction with people provides the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As the saying goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character.

One question to might like to ask yourself is “On what Issue(s) am I prepared to make a stand?” Making a stand might be verbalising an issue in writing or through other media avenues, it might mean taking a more direct, hands on approach to campaigning. It’s in finding these issues and making a stand that we first show leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team.

Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

Why is dictatorship successful in Singapore but in very few other countries? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions.

The case is of course different in times of peace and order—different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance. Winston Churchill, for example, was an extremely successful wartime leader, excelling at rallying people to a cause. However, as a peacetime prime minister, he was just as spectacularly unsuccessful, as he found the mundane tasks of day to day leadership in peacetime to be tiresome.

Another case in point is in leading organisations. When the staff are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegation and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

6. Find a Leadership Role Model

Whilst there is no “One Size Fits All” approach to leadership, you can benefit greatly by identifying a leader whose values and style match your own and look at how they approached situations. It may be someone alive today, or a figure from history. If you are involved in a number of different activities, you might want to adopt a different leader for different activities – one for writing, another for public speaking and yet another for coaching 1 to 1. Or you might take just one leader, study them in detail and then, in any given situation, ask yourself what that person might do. his is particularly useful if your chosen leader is a spiritual figure such as Jesus, or Buddha etc. When faced with a difficult situation, pause for a moment and ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” (or whoever you have chosen as your role model).

7. The Title of Leader is Bestowed on Us.

I am always wary when I read somebody’s social networking profile to find that they describe themselves as a “leader”. I believe that it is a title that should be bestowed on you by others, not one you should adopt for yourself!

What do you have to add on the issue of personal leadership? What have I missed out?

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A lot of people confuse leadership with management, thinking that the two are synonymous. Nothing could be further from the truth and in this article we are going to draw clear distinctions between the two before looking at the specifics of servant leadership.

Putting it simply, leadership is about deciding the right things to do whilst management is about doing things in the right way. Management is particularly concerned with the efficient use of resources. Peter Drucker once wrote that most organisations are over-managed and under-led and this can be seen when examining bankruptcies. The courts are full of companies that were highly efficient at doing the wrong things!

This can also be seen in the uptake, or lack of uptake, of Social Media in organisations. Many managers prefer to optimise current work practices rather than embrace change. If those same organisations lack leadership with the vision to see that the game is changing, then they are unlikely to successfully integrate Social Media into their culture. They will be highly efficient players in a game that no longer exists – they may dislike change, but eventually they will come to realise that they will like being increasingly irrelevant even less!

Leadership is about doing the right things and this has two dimensions to it. Choosing the right activities to be involved in and also ‘doing the right thing’, in other words, choosing the morally right thing to do. And this is where servant leadership comes in. The title of ‘Leader’ is not something that someone awards to themselves. It is something that is recognised in the individual by other people. In the increasingly transparent world that is a result of Web 2.0 and 3.0, self-proclaimed leaders without the track record to back it up will have a very short shelf-life.

And other than with senior appointments in organisations (and even then I’d argue that most are managers rather than leaders), leadership will be something one does with people, not to them. In fact I’d go a stage further and suggest that Servant Leadership will often be characterised by what the Leader can do for her/his people. The very name suggests that servant leadership is concerned with issues such as “How can I Serve my Team?”

What are the qualities, skills and behaviours of Servant Leaders? To adapt one of my favourite pieces of writing, I suggest that in practical terms, Servant Leaders:

Are patient
Are kind.
Do not envy,
Do not boast,
Are not proud.
Are not rude,
Are not self-seeking,
Are not easily angered,
Do not keep no of wrongs.
Do not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Will do the morally right thing rather than hide behind what is legal or expedient
Always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere.

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And as we all are leaders in some contexts, whether at home, at work or in our social lives, I think this is a relevant issue for most of us.

Some people see leadership in terms of control; they feel the need to be in control of their resources, their posessions, the people around them; in short, they try to control their lives. The flip side, though still seeing life as a control issue, is those who cast themselves as victims, feeling out of control or having given up their coontrol to others. We often see this in people who have been through a personal tragedy or trauma and who believe that nobody can ever understand their grief and what they have been through. Sadly, at an unconscious level, they have surrendered control to their tragedy and they view their lives through the lens of that experience.

Control-based leadership seems to place emphasis on:

• having to win an arguement;
• on talking far more than listening;
• on judging the value of an idea by who has said it rather than by the merits of the argument;
• on focusing on image rather than on substance;
• self-promotion at the expense of others;
• on external recognition achievements and posessions.

The servant leaders seem to see life as being about stewardship; they view their ownership of posessions as only being temporary and see their lives, as Charlie Robertson wrote elsewhere, in terms of Givers Gain.

It seems to me that servant leadership is:

• patient;
• and compassionate;
• not enious or boastful;
• not proud and arroganct;
• not rude;
• not self-seeking;
• not easily angered;
• not into keeping score of who has ‘wronged’ them;
• focused on the truth;
• always protecting of those who need protection;
• always trusting;
• always full of hope;
• always persevering.

Is servant leadership a model that is relevant today or do you believe it to be outdated and unrealistic by today’s standards?

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Things are changing again – one of the key challenge now is for businesses to stop focusing on the technology and to focus onthe business benefits you can achieve with the technology.

This has to happen if businesses are to put the customer back into customer service. ( For the sake of this article I understand customer care to be a subset of customer service). At a macro level, organisations need to examine every point in their day-to-day operation where interaction takes place with the customer. They need to ask themselves whether their channels of communication and their processes are self-serving or customer focused. Hiding terms and conditions in the small print is unacceptable; transparency is the “new” buzzword.

I say “new” because I remember running customer service workshops in the mid-90s and saying the same thing! The current challenge is to make sure that our enthusiasm for the opportunities offered by social media technology doesn’t get in the way of our ability to deliver high standards of customer service.

At a micro level, staff need to understand that a heart motivated by self-interest views the world in terms of ‘give a little, take a lot’. They will be more focused on their job security, their pay, their next break rather than on the customer.

Senior management need to understand that that unless they treat their staff in the way they want staff to treat customers, high standards of customer service won’t happen! It’s a challenge but the organisations that get this right will be the ones that thrive in the next decade.

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Instead, we focus on what people are doing, on what we are doing. It’s less threatening and more empowering; we can always change, alter or transform our behaviour if we are not getting the results we are looking for.

The challenge is that it’s all too easy to treat people as nouns, because that way we can put people into neatly defined categories and put labels on them. Yet people’s behaviour is way too complex to be labelled in such a simplistic way. what’s more, labels don’t allow for change, for pesonal growth and development.

We need to learn to look at people in terms of their behaviour and the context for that behaviour, rather than trying to build a model of their personality or using psychological typing to put people into boxes.

It’s a challenge, but Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in general, and NLP in particular provide tools for doing this. I’ll post more info on this over time but for now remember – you are not a noun, a thing. You are a verb, a doing, and if you don’t like what you are doing, you can always change it!

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To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature you meet.

To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

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There have been times when someone has told me to ‘cheer up’ and I’ve had to suppress a snarled response – that’s only natural, and at least I’ve managed to suppress the response, most of the time! Here are 5 keys that have helped me and I hope will help you to create and sustain a positive approach so you can achieve the success you deserve.

1. Mix with positive and successful people. People have a powerful effect on our personal energy. A simple smile from a stranger can turn an average day into a great one. Now magnify it 1000 times to demonstrate the power of friends, family and associates. You have a choice; you can surround yourself with positive, successful people, or with negative, complaining people. It makes life much more pleasant, and will help you to be more successful if you surround yourself with people around you who inspire you, believe in you and want you to succeed.

2. Create a mantra or an affirmation. Create a positive statement you can use as a personal mantra. For example, I use “I do what I love and I love what I do and I’m handsomely rewarded for doing it.’”

If you have problems thinking of an appropriate statement, think of a situation you want/need to overcome. If you are always disorganised, try “I am organized and in control.”

Repeat your affirmation several times a day; the key is to say it with conviction. Our thoughts give direction to our intent, but it is our feelings that give power to it.

3. Let go of negative thoughts as soon as you spot them. Negative thoughts and feelings can derail us and prevent us from achieving all that we desire, so we need to keep track of our thoughts. As soon as you realise that you are thinking negatively, find a way to switch them off, or to change them into more positive thoughts. The personal mantra you developed in the previous step, a walk outside in the fresh air, or some exercise may help. You can also try reframing, a personal favourite of mine. Reframing means looking for the silver lining in the cloud that is causing you to think or feel negatively. I’ll be writing more about reframing in a future post.

4. Set goals/intentions, focus and check your behaviour. Modern physics tell us that energy flows where our attention goes. We need to set goals and make sure that nothing we do will undermine our achieving them. In particular, look out for self-sabotaging behaviour. It’s a sure sign that at an unconscious level, we are unhappy with some aspect of the goal we have set ourselves.

5. Be grateful. The great mystic, Meister Eckhart, once wrote “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was “thank you”, that would suffice”.

Gratitude may well be the single most powerful and positive tool for success. It’s simple: I find that when I remember to be grateful for all of the wonderful people in my life, all the great things I have, then when I have to face challenges, they just seem to be much less important and are more easily dealt with. It also helps me to retain a positive outlook on life!

Success is within anybody’s reach and with the right attitude you can accomplish anything you set your sights on. If these five tools help and become part of your success strategies, help you to build a better business and live a happier, more satisfying life, then that will give me something else to be grateful for!

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• human intelligence is made up of different kinds of intelligence
• too much value is placed upon IQ in our schools and workplaces
• social skills are the key to success in life and business.

It examines the following issues

• What is emotional intelligence?
• The origins of the theory
• Five characteristics of EI
• Why is EI important?
• Gender differences
• EI at work
• Feedback
  

What is emotional intelligence?

Exact definitions of emotional intelligence are as various as those writing about the subject. Among the earliest writers about emotional intelligence are John Mayer, a University of New Hampshire psychologist, and Peter Salovey, a psychologist at Yale University. According to them, emotional intelligence “is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Mayer & Salovey, 1993).

The most famous writer on the subject, and the author of the bestselling Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ , is Daniel Goleman. He sees the term as a much broader umbrella, encompassing more general issues such as motivation, empathy and self-awareness.

The origins of the theory

It is common to see human intelligence divided into its multiple strands. For example:

• abstract intelligence
• concrete intelligence
• social intelligence.

Abstract intelligence covers understanding and manipulating verbal and mathematical symbols. For example, this will be strong in linguists and mathematicians. Then there is concrete intelligence, which covers understanding and manipulating objects. For example, this will be strong in mechanics and tailors. Finally there is social intelligence, which covers understanding and relating to people. For example, this will be strong in policemen and counsellors.

The theory of social intelligence was developed over 80 years ago. In 1920, EL Thorndike defined social intelligence as “the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls; to act wisely in human relations”. He later described the two intelligences that make up social intelligence:

• inter personal intelligence
• intra personal intelligence.

Inter personal intelligence is an awareness between people: an understanding of how others feel, their motivations and how to get along with them.

Intra personal intelligence is an awareness of oneself: an understanding of how one feels and why. It also involves an understanding of one’s own personality and an ability to use that understanding in everyday life.

The origins of emotional intelligence lie in this theory of social intelligence.

Five characteristics of EI

Goleman identifies the five main characteristics of EI:

• self-awareness
• mood management
• self-motivation
• empathy
• managing relationships.

These five main characteristics build on each other.

Self-awareness allows you to recognise your emotions as they arise. Mayer talks about three different types of people:

self-aware people, who are aware of their feelings and are able to control their moods

engulfed people, who feel overwhelmed by their emotions and are often unaware of them, and so are unable to do anything to change them

accepting people, who are aware of their feelings, but do not do anything to change them. For example, someone who is predominantly happy will have no reason to change their emotions. On the other hand, someone who is clinically depressed and sees no hope will not feel able to change their emotions.

Let’s take the unhappy example of a loved pet dying. A self-aware person will recognise their grief but will try not to dwell on it. They might say, “I feel really sad, but Tiddles had a good life and she wasn’t in pain.” On the other hand, an engulfed person will feel lost in their grief. They might say, “Tiddles is gone! I am so alone! My world is empty and cold.” An accepting person will be aware of their grief but do nothing to change their mood. They might say, “I feel really sad. This world is a cruel place. What is the point of it all?”

So this self-awareness has several layers: you are aware of your mood, aware of how you feel about that mood, and you are able to control and manage your moods.

Mood management allows you to handle your own feelings so they’re relevant to your current situation and so that you react appropriately. Goleman emphasises that “the goal is balance, not emotional suppression: every feeling has its value and significance.” So rather than ignoring your feelings, emotional intelligence will allow you to be aware of your feelings and manage them so that they are expressed in an appropriate and constructive way.

This control is essential to long-term emotional health and stress tolerance. Intense emotions make us unstable and, although it is unhealthy to repress them, it is also unhealthy to dwell on them and prolong the instability.

Returning to our example, let’s imagine that you are going to a friend’s wedding on the day after Tiddles’ burial ceremony. An emotionally intelligent person might manage their mood by allowing themselves to feel sadness at Tiddles’ burial, but the next day trying to put that grief behind them so they can share their friend’s happiness.

Self-motivation enables you to overcome obstacles to move towards your goal. Those obstacles may include apathy, self-doubt, opposition or failure. A large part of self-motivation is hope and optimism. Emotional intelligence enables you to persist by minimising fear or disappointment and concentrating on your goal.

Imagine that you are considering buying a new cat. Part of you feels guilty that you might replace irreplaceable Tiddles, part of you is afraid of becoming attached to a new cat who will eventually leave you in the same way that Tiddles has. An emotionally intelligent person would put that guilt and that fear behind them and focus on the pleasure that they would gain from having a new pet.

Empathy follows on naturally from self-awareness. If you can recognise your own emotions then you are more likely to be good at recognising and understanding other people’s emotions. It is not only about picking up on other people’s verbal indications, but also about interpreting their tone of voice, physical gestures and body language. For more information about non-verbal communication, take a look at the theory paper on Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP) .

Sympathy is recognising and understanding others’ feelings; empathy takes it one step further and is about feeling others’ feelings. Emotional intelligence requires that you understand, feel and then act accordingly. We might call this social responsibility.

Imagine that you are discussing buying a new cat with your partner. Your partner folds their arms and says angrily, “I don’t want to get another cat! What a stupid idea! I’ll just grow to love it and then it will die just like Tiddles.” Emotional intelligence would let you see that your partner is not angry per se, but is still very upset about Tiddles and afraid of being hurt again.

Managing relationships is the next step on from empathy. Once you have put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you can understand what they want and how they feel. This way you are in the best position to create a good relationship with them. Emotional intelligence allows you to handle relationships, resolve arguments and conduct negotiations successfully.

Going back to our example, once you understand that your partner’s anger is in fact a manifestation of their grief and fear, you can use your emotional intelligence to comfort, reassure and remind your partner of how much pleasure they can get out of having a pet.

Why is EI important?

Emotional intelligence is an ability that affects every area of life: from school, to work, to interpersonal relationships. Academic intelligence may bring success in school lessons, but it is no guarantee in the wider world for happiness, success and prosperity.

That is not to deny the relationship between academic intelligence and prosperity. Lots of people with high IQs have well-paid jobs, and lots of people with low IQs have low-paid jobs, but far more important factors for prosperity include self-motivation, interpersonal skills and self-awareness. There are many people in workplaces around the world who are academically intelligent, competent and conscientious, but who lack the social skills necessary to handle their work relationships with success.

In Emotional Intelligence Goleman cites the example of a straight-A student at a Florida high school, who was intent on going to Harvard medical school. He was so obsessed with his aim that when a physics teacher gave him a mere 80% score on a test, he reacted by stabbing his teacher in a psychotic rage. The student claimed that he was so upset because he felt that his goal was jeopardised that he had planned to commit suicide. This is a classic example of someone who is very intelligent academically, but capable of completely irrational behaviour. If we consider the five key characteristics of EI, then the student in question clearly lacks self-awareness, mood management, self-motivation, empathy and skill at managing relationships. This lack of social intelligence will obviously lead to a waste of the student’s other very great talents.

Goleman says, “emotional aptitude is a meta-ability , determining how well we can use whatever other skills we have, including raw intellect.” So without EI, other skills will never operate at their full effectiveness.

Gender differences

Psychologist Steven Stein says that men and women tend to be stronger in certain areas of emotional intelligence. His organisation carried out emotional intelligence tests on 4,500 men and 3,200 women. The findings showed that women have higher empathy and social responsibility, men have higher stress tolerance and self-confidence.

In his book, Goleman compares the playing patterns of boys and girls to see how emotional intelligence differences between the sexes may develop. He quotes Brody and Hall from Gender and Emotion:

“When girls play together, they do so in small intimate groups with an emphasis on minimising hostility and maximising co-operation, while boys’ games are in larger groups, with an emphasis on competition… If a boy who has gotten hurt gets upset, he is expected to get out of the way and stop crying so the game can go on. If the same happens among a group of girls who are playing, the game stops while everyone gathers round to help the girl who is crying… boys take pride in a lone, tough-minded independence and autonomy, while girls see themselves as part of a web of connectedness.”

So in the course of this, girls develop verbal and non-verbal communication skills and become good at expressing themselves and understanding others, which lead to their heightened empathy and social responsibility. Boys become skilled at “minimising emotions having to do with vulnerability, guilt, fear and hurt”, leading to their high stress tolerance and self-confidence.

So men and women have equal emotional intelligence, but strength in different areas.

EI at work

Academic intelligence often plays an important part in getting a job. For example, many job descriptions require particular academic qualifications. However, once you are working in that job, emotional intelligence is vital for success.

Goleman gives the three key functions of emotional intelligence at work:

• giving constructive and helpful remedial feedback
• creating a culture that values diversity
• networking.

Feedback

Feedback should focus on the incident in question, rather than the character of the person who did it. Always keep it impersonal.

Wrong: Saying, “You are careless and you made a stupid mistake” will only be offensive and put the recipient on the defensive. As Goleman writes, “When emotionally upset, people cannot remember, attend, learn or make decisions clearly.” This also suggests that the problem is part of the recipient’s inherent character and therefore less easy to change.

Right: Saying, “That mistake caused quite a few problems” deflects any suggestion of accusation and makes it clear that your issue is with the action and not the person. That way the recipient can distance him or herself from the action at issue, but at the same time make personal efforts to avoid it happening again.

Harry Levinson, a psychoanalyst turned corporate consultant, gives 4 points of advice about giving feedback:

• be specific

• offer a solution

• be present

• be sensitive.

You should be specific about a particular incident and pinpoint exactly what the problem is. Vague and general criticisms can sound like personal opinion on the part of the person giving feedback and like a personal criticism of the recipient. Being specific about a particular event or action shows that there is a genuine foundation for the feedback and focuses the discussion.

Wrong: “You have poor attention to detail and tend to let mistakes slip through the net.”

Right: “When you sent that letter out yesterday, it had several spelling errors in it.”

Then you should offer a solution by showing how the incident could be avoided or handled better. There is no point asking someone to improve their performance if you can’t give a suggestion of how they can do it. Having first looked at the problem, you need to make the conversation more positive by looking at how the problem could be overcome successfully.

Wrong: “Your spelling is terrible.”

Right: “You should use the spellchecker function on your PC for all letters that you send out.”

When giving your feedback, you should be present . By making sure that you do it in person, rather than in by e-mail, memo or phone call, you lend weight to your feedback and show respect to the recipient. Also, if you are having a face-to-face meeting the recipient is able to respond to the feedback and ask any questions.

Wrong: “Dear Mr Smith…. Come and see me if you have any questions. Best regards….”

Right: “Hello, James. Have you got a minute? I wanted to ask you about something.”

Throughout you should be sensitive to what it must be like to receive feedback. Everyone has past experience of receiving good and bad feedback, so think about your own experiences. Use empathy to think about how best to frame your feedback and anticipate how the recipient might react.

Wrong: “You need to pull your socks up. This really isn’t good enough, is it?”

Right: “Using the spellchecker will sort out that issue. Let me know if you have any problems with it.”

Diversity must be not only accepted, but also valued. There must be emotional intelligence for a group to have social harmony. Empathy allows us to value and have respect for one another. From there we can communicate, manage relationships and work together more productively.

Any group that is segregated by prejudice, suspicion or bias will find that those segregations act as obstacles to high performance. Co-operation and understanding is the meta-ability that enables a group to employ all their other skills most effectively. A meta-ability is a high level ability that enables you to use other abilities.

Networking is about more than just getting on with people. According to Goleman, there are 3 varieties of informal networks in the office:

• communications network, which covers who talks to whom

• expertise network, which covers whose advice or expertise is sought

• trust network, which covers who can be trusted with confidential information.

Good work relationships rely on all three being in place. If one is missing, or lacking, it is likely to impact on a team’s effectiveness.

Summary

The central characteristics of EI, self-awareness, mood management, self-motivation, empathy and managing relationships, are all key to smooth running social networks. Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in the success of both our personal relationships and our work lives. Therefore, advocates of EI argue that the focus in schools and workplaces should incorporate the various skills of emotional intelligence.

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Introduction

I often use a diagnostic questionaire that enables people at all levels in their organization to identify where they believe the culture is now, and what they would like it to be.

Often, senior management and staff agree on the destination, but differ in their perception of the current culture. We can then work with those involved to bridge that gap. Otherwise, staff and management will be embarking on different journeys, which will often lead to conflict.

The questionnaire examines two things: Firstly, on which of five levels is the Organisation operating:

Survival

The organization lurches from one crisis to the next. Motivation is from hope of success and fear of failure. People are prepared to make sacrifices for the organization’s survival, accepting strong control from above. There are few systems, little planning, many short-term, expedient, quick fixes. Learning is by trial and error. Typical survival cultures are found in business startups or new plants.

Defense

The culture is out of balance somewhere, and not working. The demands made of members are not compensated by matching satisfactions. Members feel deprived, lacking in energy and in denial. Trying to prop up the system, leaders coerce people to do more of what is not working. Most people recognize the need for change but people are too busy keeping their heads above water to find time and energy for learning new ways.

Security

The culture is stable with strong control exerted over members. If you conform, you will be rewarded. Norms, rules and standards are known by all and conformed to by most. Those who do not conform find themselves subjected to sanctions. People focus on doing the work and maintaining standards. People are treated as if, act as though, the organization is more important than they are.

Self-Expression

The culture is individualistic, self-reliant and often irreverent. Structures are fluid and open, with few supports for individuals who often feel that it is a case of ‘sink or swim’. Members often compete with each other, only paying lip-service to themes like loyalty, common purpose and mutual support. Autonomy, energy, confusion and conflict are characteristic, as is constant change. Learning and creativity often take place at the expense of productivity.

Alignment

The culture has evolved to one which provides meaning and purpose, and where people genuinely care for each other. Work, contribution and relationships are enjoyed for their own sake, not for rewards. The needs of the individual and the needs of the organization are fully balanced, aligned with one another. People value diversity, operating by high principles and ethical standards because it feels right to do so. They manage the organization for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Cultures

Secondly, it identifies one of four cultures that underpin these levels. These depend upon whether the focus is primarily on:

• Process

• Achievement

• Relationship

• Power

This process enables all of the stakeholders in an organisational change to have a meaningful discussion about the organisation’s current position and people’s differences in their perception of that position, where they want the organisation to be,  and again, to iron out any differences, and to discuss potential problems in the journey to the desired culture. The great thing is, that by promoting open discussion, many of teh potential problems can be anticipated and avoided, or at the very least, planned for!

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