It is often surprising delivering management and leadership courses how experienced managers in 2011 still do not realise the vital importance of empowerment and appropriate leadership.
In our courses, depending on the level of delegate, or the needs of the client, we will either use the Blanchard SLII Situational Leadership Model, or more often, the competence model in order to explain how leaders need to adapt their style to the needs of the individual (or team).
After facilitating ideas with a group, the flipchart might look something like; (with competence/development level, and what they need from the leader).
Unconscious Incompetence
(people new to the job / role)
(people new to the job / role)
Information, Direction
Conscious Incompetence
Direction, Reassurance
Conscious Competence
Praise, Trust, Empowerment
Unconscious Competence
(experts and stars)
Challenge and Trust
Now, I would argue that anyone playing major sports for the country would be in the bottom two levels, although they might initially need information and direction about things they do not know about when they join the squad. However, the articles below really highlight the impact of inappropriate leadership and management strategies on the results of teams and individuals.
Sport is high profile, and the results are obvious. In business the results are usually less obvious, however be assured that if you use the right or wrong strategy, you will be responsible for their results, not your staff.
Cricket lovers will know Shivnarine Chanderpaul - rated 10th in all time number of runs in all test careers, 16th in one day internationals, the highest West Indian after the great Brian Lara. Shiv is 37 years old and just three years ago was ranked the best player in the world.
Shiv recently had this to say - reported on Cricinfo.com 5th May 2011
When asked whether he was happy with his form over the past year before he was dropped, Chanderpaul - speaking to local Barbados radio station Line and Length - said he could have done better...
"I think, given the opportunity, I might have got bigger scores. Every time I settled in and started to get runs, messages would come telling what to do and what not to do, how to bat and how not to bat," Chanderpaul said. "I've been doing it for 17 years. When John Dyson was coach he never said anything to me. When Bennett King was coach he said, 'You go and do your job, we don't have to tell you what to do.' I had no problem then.
"Now we have people here, who are telling me how to bat. And when the game is over, I have to answer questions. I have to answer those questions and when I do, and it's not suitable, then I have to agree with whatever answers they want before the meeting is over.
He compared the present regime unfavourably to those of previous coaches John Dyson and Bennett King, under whom Chanderpaul felt this same West Indies squad had far better results.
England rugby also failed to impress some over the last few years, and a recent article reported in the press on the 10th of March this year summed up what happened, and what had to change - and it wasn't the skill level of the players.
(UKPA March 2011)
Defence coach Mike Ford has revealed England are only on the Grand Slam trail because they eradicated a culture of fear and selfishness from the squad.
"After the autumn of 2009 the coaches decided the mindset and environment we created in the camp had to change."
Martin Johnson's management team reviewed England's dismal autumn campaign of 2009 and concluded something dramatic had to change. England had lost to both Australia and New Zealand, matches Ford now concedes they never had any chance of winning.
Johnson and his coaches were demanding England stick a pre-prescribed game-plan. They did not trust the players and so were unwilling to allow them any kind of decision-making control.
This eroded confidence, and created an environment where the players lived in fear of being dropped.
"We (eventually) encouraged the players to go at the opposition and not fear they will be dropped if they drop the ball or have a bad pass. It took players a bit of time to trust that we wouldn't hang players out to dry.
"It has been a two-way thing. The players have probably come here in the past and just looked after themselves thinking 'England are not playing well so what do I need to do to keep in for next week? I am going to be selfish and make sure my performance is all right'.
"But in rugby you need a team not 15 individuals playing well. We have set up five more meetings with player input and empowered the players a lot more whereas before we (as management) were probably 'tell, tell, tell'."
Conclusion
Your staff can be as good at their particular job as the sports stars of the world, and empower them and challenge them, without a culture of fear, otherwise they will have to look out for themselves, team work will erode, performance will suffer and when they get the chance they will jump ship and earn their living in better place.
