Improving Personal and Organisational Performance in Social Work

Jane Holroyd, Author

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780857259950, 9781446256749
• eBook ISBN: 9780857259967
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Within health and social care settings, high levels of sustained performance from individuals, teams, organisations and multi-agency collaborations are required.

This book offers a service-oriented leadership approach for Social Work managers and looks to enhance personal effectiveness and ultimately organisational performance through human behaviour, thought and communication. It is designed to support the development of aspiring and front line managers in social work and care through the introduction of key concepts such as understanding the Self, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, self-leadership and communication.

Part 1

Understanding
thoughts and
behaviours

Section 1

Starting with self

Braye (2002: 300) believes that ‘leadership starts with self’. In this section, the concept of ‘self-leadership’ as something radical but simple, and something everybody is capable of, is proposed as a new paradigm of working from the ‘inside out’: of thinking and, therefore, behaving differently. The section focuses on the fundamental importance of communication (in its many different formats) and the way we interact with, and understand, each other. To become the very best we can be - professionally more effective and responsible as well as resilient role models and leaders - requires a look at ‘self’.

Focusing on creating greater clarity in the moment impacts upon well-being and, therefore, productivity and creativity. This section examines popular approaches to leadership to explain why ‘self-leadership’ is the paradigm of choice for effective management, particularly with the current working backdrop and context.

The context

The complexity, ambiguity and pace of change in the health and social care public services are particular realities. The leadership environment therefore features some of the following daily challenges:

• emphasis on key performance indicators and a myriad of other targets;
• restructuring and cuts in public expenditure;
• increased management spans of control;
• functioning across boundaries with no line management accountability;
• dealing with multiple stakeholders;
• taxpayer scrutiny with political underpinnings;
• problems with recruiting and retaining the right staff;
• bureaucracy, with the resultant time pressures;
• information technology systems which do not interface with other systems;
• the extremes of human experience and behaviour;
• a high level of uncertainty about the right intervention, with risks in both not intervening and intervening;
• a shift in focus requiring more personalised solutions;
• ensuring that there is enough high-quality, evidence-informed support, with experience and expertise staying at the very interface of practice to supervise and develop the next generation of expert social workers;
• high-profile tragedies and cases, leading to micro-management and loss of both autonomy and, importantly, the artistry of professional judgement.

The above complexities require a leader who creates a questioning environment, listens and encourages others to listen and feel listened to, and promotes the right culture of developing and learning within the organisation. It requires a leader who asks the right questions, gathers all the information, uses questions to build teams, assesses the risks, manages conflict and handles difficult conversations, is organisationally aware, and looks to create independence in others. Principally, a leader is one who asks awkward questions and then listens, to co-create and shape strategy from the bottom, enabling effective and sustained change.

This type of leadership is not about a leader by title, who may be charismatic. It is not about systems, for we are all individually part of many systems. It is about every single individual and the individual’s relationship with ‘self’.

Why self-leadership?

A historical analysis demonstrates the shift in focus from the importance of characteristics and behaviours (invariably the ‘great man’ and ‘trait’ approaches) to the role of followers (transactional) and the context (contingency and situational) of leadership, to other examples, such as transformational leadership, which are outlined in Table 1.1.

Transactional approaches became synonymous with management, and transformational approaches synonymous with leadership, with Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe (2005: 32) suggesting that transformational leadership is about ‘enabling others to lead themselves’. Within the NHS, transformational leadership became the buzzword and represented the correct way to talk about and lead change.

The distinction between management and leadership has led to the concept that managers are people who ‘do things right’ (the what) and that leaders are people who ‘do the right thing’ (the how and why) (Bennis and Nanus, 1985: 221). However, in terms of reality, it is often one and the same person who fulfils both remits; the distinction not only creates an artificial permutation but also implies one role is better than the other.

Table 1.1 Leadership traits, theories and approaches

Great man theory	Leaders are exceptional and are born.
Trait theory	The emphasis is on a list of qualities leaders should have.
Behaviourist theories	The focus is on what leaders do - behaviours are categorised as ‘styles of leadership’.
Situational leadership	Leadership is specific to the situation.
Contingency theory	This is a refinement of the situational approach, and involves identifying the situational variables which best predict the most effective leadership style.
Transactional leadership	The emphasis is on the leader and the follower, with rewards or recognition in return for commitment.
Transformational leadership	The central concept is change and the role of leadership in envisioning and transforming organisational performance.

Source: Bolden et al. (2003)

Table 1.2 Goleman’s six leadership styles

1.	Coercive	Characterised by ‘Do what I say.’
2.	Authoritarian	An approach which creates a vision and describes the overall goal(s).
3.	Affiliative	A style for building teams or increasing morale, with the suggestion that people come first.
4.	Democratic	Consensus developed through involving others, which can lead to endless meetings.
5.	Pacesetting	High performance standards set by the leader.
6.	Coaching	Focused on the development of others.

Transactional and transformational, however, remain a two-dimensional hypothesis, like autocratic versus democratic, and Avolio, Walumbwa and Weber (2009: 430) report that the evidence base for ‘transformational leadership’ trails ‘behind all other areas of leadership research’.

Goleman (2000: 1) identified six styles of leadership in his study of executives, which are outlined in Table 1.2. While Goleman (2000: 1) would suggest using all six leadership styles to ‘optimise business performance’, the concept of diminishing complex interactions by switching between components of separate, and very distinct, styles could be perceived as inconsistent and confusing.

In Bolden et al.’s (2003) review of leadership theory and competency frameworks, the importance of the ability of the individual as a leader to listen is virtually missed by all the leadership frameworks examined. Interestingly, the concept of ‘following’ relating to a leader is not mentioned by any. Instead, there is an overwhelming and unmanageable list of attributes required of leaders in some of the models reviewed; one in particular unashamedly identified 83 characteristics from an original list of 1,013.

Leadership is not a function of personality, or traits that are exclusively inherited, or a style that can always be switched on in just the right way in a given situation or context. Grappling with the myriad of traits and behaviours, trying to understand leadership theory from a training course, or defining ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ leadership behaviours (as though an individual only need copy these to become a ‘great leader’) makes no authentic, real or sustained sense.

An overreliance on competencies and standards distracts from the underpinning emphasis within this text: the importance of the process of developing and adapting to become something more ‘real’. Leadership in this context, however, is about more than simply being a leader by title and position.

Position and post holder

Leadership has been perceived in the past to be the ‘gift’ and remit of the post and title holder. Many still think of leadership in terms of positional power. The expectations on such individuals are almost superhuman, with some of these described by Bolden et al.:

He/she is seen to act as an energiser, catalyst and visionary equipped with a set of tools (communication, problem solving, people management, decision making etc.) that can be applied across a diverse range of situations and contexts … excellent information processing, project management, customer service and delivery skills, along with proven business and political acumen, building partnerships, walk the talk, show incredible drive and enthusiasm and get things done … whilst the leader demonstrates innovation, creativity and thinks ‘outside the box’… they like to be challenged and they’re prepared to take risks … honesty, integrity, empathy, trust, ethics and valuing diversity are added to the list.

(2003: 37)

Reliance on individual positions potentially sets up the person and the organisation to fail, especially with the flattening of structures, where individual accountability can become lost in the vast spans of responsibility; this concept, therefore, no longer fits. Ensuring every single individual counts and concentrating on self as the leadership focus are characteristic of a ‘dispersed leadership’ approach, which becomes the vehicle for creating a momentum of significant and sustained cultural change. Katzenbach and Smith (1993: 45) describe ‘dispersed leadership’ as: ‘people with complementary skills who are committed to a common performance purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable’. Engaging expertise collaboratively within the organisation rather than concentrating on formal remits is proposed to increase professional responsibilities, add to a learning culture and create better teamwork (Hafford-Letchfield, 2007).

Borrowed models

Some models, methodologies and approaches have been borrowed from ‘elsewhere’ and are seen as the next ideal thing to learn and follow. The public sector, for example, has looked to the construction industry in the shape of PRINCE II (PRojects IN Controlled Environments), although it fits poorly with the true requirements of social work and care. Lean and Six Sigma (www.leansigma.com/index.php), borrowed from business, have transferable qualities to inform more efficient ways of working. However, social work and care provision is about much more than efficient work habits.

Additional models of leadership development have been introduced from outside in the belief that someone else has all the answers. The typical example for the NHS was the ‘Leading an Empowered Organisation’ (LEO) approach, imported from the United States, which, while having a brief impact, became another training course to add to the suitcase. Other models, approaches and ideal behaviours proposed as the latest in leadership development include the case for the authentic leader.

Authentic leadership

Understanding self in the fullest sense - what motivates an individual and is the individual’s true passion - is essential to discovering purpose (Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999). Discussions about the lack of authenticity within corporate leadership seem to have resulted in the need to specify and propose an approach based on ‘acting with integrity’ (Kouzes and Posner, 2007: 50) and finding one’s values. The model has been described by a number of authors; Sparrow (2005: 422), for example, alludes to ‘consistency’, which he believes results from ‘self-awareness’ and ‘self-regulation’.

Avolio, Wal...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of activities
• Foreword
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART 1 UNDERSTANDING THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIOURS
• PART 2 BECOMING AN EXQUISITE COMMUNICATOR
• PART 3 EFFECTIVE INFLUENCING AND MOTIVATING OTHERS
• PART 4 LEADING SELF
• Appendices
• 2. ‘Presuppositions’ as guiding principles
• 3. Parts of speech
• References
• Suggested further reading
• Index