Comments on: Leadership: My Bias

By: Hubris: The Other Side of Level 5 « Bret L. Simmons

Hubris: The Other Side of Level 5 « Bret L. Simmons — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:34:32 +0000

[...] I strongly recommend that you don’t read another book on leadership or management until you have read The Halo Effect. The bottom line from this book is that there is no simple formula for either employee or organizational performance, which I have to keep in mind as I talk and write about leadership. [...]

By: What Type of Followers Do You Have? « Bret L. Simmons

What Type of Followers Do You Have? « Bret L. Simmons — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:26:43 +0000

[...] am passionate about leadership; consequently, I am even more passionate about followership. I am convinced that most of us lead [...]

By: Help your employees kick ass « Bret L. Simmons

Help your employees kick ass « Bret L. Simmons — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:36:45 +0000

[...] this perspective, one of the most important questions we need to ask ourselves as leaders is “how can I help my employees today be better prepared to impress the socks off our [...]

By: Pat’s Garage: Kick Ass Excellence in Action « Bret L. Simmons

Pat’s Garage: Kick Ass Excellence in Action « Bret L. Simmons — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:30:35 +0000

[...] of Pat and his garage is an excellent example both of the service profit chain at work and of my leadership bias. While Pam says of Pat “his personality clearly shows up in every aspect of his business” [...]

By: My Best Leaders: Part I « Bret L. Simmons

My Best Leaders: Part I « Bret L. Simmons — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:57:36 +0000

[...] want to share with you some brief descriptions of my best leaders. The first person I want to talk about is Henry Kitts. Back in 1988, I was in the U.S. Air [...]

By: Bret L. Simmons

Bret L. Simmons — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:46:32 +0000

Hey Alex, sorry for the slow reply, but I have been in transit to Spain and my internet access here is very minimal.

I appreciate you sharing your thought! The equation notation is not by the book! It is meant to say that behavior is a function or combination of person and environment factors. My math inclined audience always catches this

In practice, this means that as leaders we have a lot of influence over how our employees behave because we, not our employees, control systems. We can blame employees (p or person factors) but the truth is e or environment factors are strong drivers of behavior.

And as employees, we should be making suggestions on how to improve processes and systems. This is the most effective way we can “manage up”.

Great thoughts. Thanks!

By: Alex Kugel

Alex Kugel — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:06:41 +0000

Bret,

I’m curious about the practical implementation of this approach. In particular, I worry about the stagnation of employees and their attitudes as a result of a loss in interest or buy-in to continuously changing leadership ideals. Top-down implementation from the executive level at large organizations tends to change like the weather so moving into a new system is like having a new flavor of the day. (My experience was a lack-luster buy-in at the employee level to a mandated Six Sigma implementation)

In addition, if B=f(P,E) (the way you have Lewin quoted on the top of this page is confusing to me because it represents an inverse relationship between environment and person which can’t necessarily be the case, or is it?) then behavior changes at the leadership level need to occur internally to the leader themself. Is that correct?

I really like the ideas here, I’m just hung up on trying to figure out how they can be leveraged. I can influence myself the most and exert some influence by manipulations of the environment but I really want to know more about the need to cater to the individual and the “P” component of the equation.

Is the assumption with application of these principles always that the “leader” is the boss? What about managing up? Do you have any words of wisdom on that?

Alex