Nine Behaviors Of Leadership: A Training Model

Robert E. Brown
President, R.E. Brown Co. and Associates

"Leadership" has become the rallying cry of the nineties in American Business. Organizations need great leaders to help them successfully survive the many difficulties of this challenging decade. Yet, the very notion of leadership has rapidly degenerated into a cliché, a buzz word. In many people's minds, leadership has become identified with an overly simplistic conception of vision and empowerment. Although these concepts do play an important role in the leadership process, they only scratch the surface of what an exceptional leader actually does on a day-to-day basis.

My experience, as president of two corporations and co-founder of yet another, led me to begin researching what leaders really do to make an organization work well. I found that great leaders exhibit nine different kinds of behaviors that enable them to bring out the best in their people. Some of the nine behaviors of leadership listed below involve building participatory teams, some involve using situational management strategies, while others enhance personal resources. Listed separately, the nine behaviors include:

While many people think leaders are unique, even born to that state of excellence, I have found just the opposite. With proper experiential training, it is possible for people to learn these leadership behaviors. In other words, leaders can be developed. And they should be developed at many levels in an organization because leadership development stimulates the best in leaders and their followers and thereby increases their overall productivity

This article briefly describes the essence of our training program, a program that offers clear experiences of the fundamental leadership behaviors.

In experiential training, the focus is on inner development. At the beginning of this leadership training, participants are asked for their own definitions of leadership- so they can see, hear, and explore their ideas about the real leadership qualities. Most participants do not realize there are fundamental behaviors of exceptional leadership. Instead they tend to believe the common myths about leadership- that it is a rare skill exhibited only by those at the top, that leaders are born and always display charisma and that they are strongly authoritative "take-charge" people. The beginning of our training dispels those myths and briefly explains the nine learnable behaviors of leaders.

In order to go beyond a cognitive understanding, participants must begin to experience these behaviors as they might occur at work. They begin to see that leaders have a strong interest in the people working for them, for when the team works well together they all help get an excellent job done.

The first four behaviors focus on building high functioning teams: developing people; being able to influence others, encouraging teamwork, and empowering others.

Developing People

A good leader not only develops his or her people as individuals, but also knows how to get the best out of people when they work on teams. Being able to handle the subtle dynamics of whole groups of people is not equivalent to dealing with the sum of its parts. By breaking participants into small groups and giving them a simple problem to solve, you can teach them about the issue that arise for teams. For example, if they work in small, separate teams on a tower building project, they will see how working together in one team accomplishes a greater product. Or, if they have a specific task that is necessary to get the job done- being navigator or pilot or other crew while landing the space shuttle back on earth- they see the necessity of functioning well together.

Influencing Others

Good leaders have a strong interest in the personal and professional development of their people. They encourage their staff to push beyond their limitations and give their personal best. One of the best ways to get this notion of encouragement and support across to people is to ask participants to remember and then write down how their best boss treated them, and how they feel about it. Then, have them share their answers with the rest of the group. Point out the common denominators in their answers so that their own experiences flesh out a composite picture of what it is like to offer people the support they need.

Finally, ask them this: If their own people were to do a similar exercise, would their names be on their people's lists? If not, why not? Where are they falling short in evoking the best from their people?

Encouraging Teamwork

A good leader not only develops his or her people as individuals, but also knows how to get the best out of people when they work on teams. Being able to handle the subtle dynamics of whole groups of people is not equivalent to dealing with the sum of its parts. By breaking participants into small groups and giving them a simple problem to solve, you can teach them about the issue that arise for teams. For example, if they work in small, separate teams on a tower building project, they will see how working together in one team accomplishes a greater product. Or, if they have a specific task that is necessary to get the job done- being navigator or pilot or other crew while landing the space shuttle back on earth- they see the necessity of functioning well together.

Some groups are results orientated. Some work on process, while others focus more on relationships among the team members. Analyzing these three aspects of teamwork helps participants think about the way they work best individually and in teams.

Empowering Others

Empowerment involves four dynamics: giving people important work to do; offering visibility and public recognition; encourage autonomy; and helping them to establish networking shills. (IVAN) Exercise help participants feel the importance's of each of the four dynamics.

Developing, influencing, encouraging, and empowering are four ways for a leader to get honest support. The best method to accomplish all these characteristics is to be a role model of an intelligent, caring person who truly listens. Equally important is the ability to analyze each business task and the staff who are to perform it. Sometimes a leader can delegate the work without supervision, but more often leaders need to coach, to facilitate or to direct so that the task is accomplished well and the worker learns eventually how to become more independent. Group exercises help participants experience these different levels of situational management.

But leaders also have to lead. They are expected to know problem situations and how to handle them appropriately. Using multiple options thinking and intelligent risk-taking are two ways to move beyond traditional management techniques that focus on single solutions and avoidance of any risk.

Multiple Options Thinking

Exceptional leaders don't stop at the obvious. They know the first answer they get may not always be the best answer, and even the "right" answer may not be appropriate for a particular situation. There should always be at least four options to any given situation and when this way of thinking becomes habitual, new solutions appear.

The skills of exploring multiple options is demonstrated in an easy exercise. Participants take a 3x5 card and write on the card at least five problems they are currently facing with their employees, suck as reprimanding a difficult employee or asking someone to take a paycut. The cards are shuffled and someone takes three or four of them. Ask the person whose problem is selected what he or she believes is the best answer to that specific problem. Then ask the group to brainstorm a number of other answers to the problem. Even if the first answer seems to be the best one or even the only one, insist that they generate at least four more alternatives.

Taking the time to discuss the various answers with them usually offers the seed of an innovative response, and this response is often one of the answers that most people ignore. Or two options may be combined into a third option that would work better. Multiple option thinking should be the first approach of exceptional leaders.

Intelligent Risk Taking

Good leaders know how to analyze risks inherent in a particular course of action. They know when an action is low risk or high risk.. Even more importantly, they know how to gain consensus from their staff about the level of risk for particular actions, so that their people do not treat high-risk activities as low-risk activities or vice versa.

In the training, you can start to deal with this issue by making the participants more aware of the criteria they use for analyzing risks. Put together small groups of people who work with eachother regularly.. Ask them the criteria they normally use when deciding how risky a particular action is. Have them report back to you with a number of specific criteria, such as time factors, cost resources, and acceptability to upper management.

Next, ask each group to look at three or four current actions they're exploring and analyze the level of risk. Ironically, even when they all use the same criteria, almost invariably there will be differences of opinion about the level of risk. Some people will habitually view most actions as high risk, while others will normally do the opposite, regardless of the actual action they're analyzing. It is important for them to discuss the nature of the risk until they come to a consensus about the various actions..

Personal resources are equally important to the development of an exceptional leader. And having a Passion for the Work as well as a strong, clear Vision are most often noted when people are asked to describe the leaders they admire. The leader's ability to inspire and project into the future help others feel worthwhile in their own work and have a sense of purpose For some the vision is specific; for others it is simple and direct. But more important is the combination of words that work with actions so that others trust the vision and feel confident about its possibility. Small group exercises, including videotaping, help develop these concepts experientially.

Stretching One's Personal Creativity

When a leader is able to stretch personal creativity continually, it pulls together all the other behaviors. We sense that exceptional leaders are always learning something new. They are willing to stretch out into other arenas and discover things they didn't know before.

In this training, participants are asked to write down a few work related areas they've wanted to know more about but haven't taken the time to explore.. They then pick one of these areas and devote a certain amount of time each week (ten minutes a day for example) to learning about it. By taking the time to expand their horizons, they will also be demonstrating to their people that the process of discovery matters. Being a role model is this area will encourage their people to do the same.

After reviewing the nine behaviors, the experiential exercises, and participants own definitions, each person should write out a contract in which he or she agrees to work on one or two of the nine behaviors an a daily basis. This is, in effect, an action plan that is as specific as possible.

Monthly follow-ups for at least a year allow them to review basic concepts and help them integrate what they've learned in training with what they actually do on a regular basis.

Leadership is not a mysterious process. It can be clearly defined and its component parts can be taught to your people. Take the time to train your people in the nine behaviors of leadership. Your organization's ability to survive and thrive during the rest of this tumultuous decade may well depend on it.

About the author: Robert E. Brown, President, R.E. Brown Co. and Associates has twenty-five years of business experience. His leadership experience as president of two corporations (American Medical Instruments & Teleclaim), and co-founder of (R.D.C. Corporation, Lung Monitoring Equipment) led him to develop specific leadership training courses focusing on the "Nine Behaviors of Exceptional Leadership." He also developed and uses "FOR" (Frame of Reference) for management and sales success in his training workshops. Please click here to contact Bob Brown.



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