People Leadership Strategies Model – Reflecting on your people leadership practice

Over the last few years we have published a series of six posts about themes / conditions a leader needs to focus attention on in their working climate to help get people to perform at their best (see links below).  These six major themes have emerged through our work with close to 1,000 Discovery in Action® (Leading People) program participants.  We have now created visual forms of this material organised around three layers of leadership that capture the cause and effect relationships implied in effective leadership practice:

1. The ultimate business outcomes of great leadership practice (the right side of the graphic) – desirable outcomes such as high levels of discretionary effort in the team, high quality outputs being produced, efficient delivery, innovation and customer focus;
2. The positive impacts of effective leadership on the people you lead (the middle layer of the graphic / wheel) that will contribute to the achievement of those business outcomes – when you are ‘doing great leadership’ your people will be saying: ‘I feel supported, valued and safe’; ‘I am learning and growing’; ‘I feel empowered’; ‘I am clear about my role’; ‘I feel part of a team’; and ‘I am doing purposeful, meaningful work’.  These largely describe the dimensions of a positive team climate.
3. The broad leadership strategies (the outer layer of the wheel / left side of the block visual) that you, as a people leader, could implement that will enable these positive impacts on your people and maintain a healthy team climate.  We have articulated 31 of these strategies (5 or 6 per theme) that form the framework of the practical ideas guides which articulate possible actions to operationalise these strategies.

These have all been captured in 2 simple visuals – one in the form of a block format and one in the form of a wheel.  It is important to note that this is not a validated model of leadership – it is merely a synthesis of the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ through our work with over 1,000 participants in the Discovery in Action® (Leading People) program as they have explored these simple but powerful action research questions grounded by their lived leadership experiences:

• What does high performance look like?  [see outcomes above]
• When do people perform at their best? [see impacts above]
• What do I have do to get them to perform at their best? [see leadership strategies above + practical leadership actions]

Block form

Wheel 

So, how might you use these one-page graphics?

There are a range of ways you can potentially use these visuals to reflect on your leadership practice:

1. Reflect on the climate of your team – to what extent are the six conditions present where people perform at their best i.e. people feel supported, valued and safe; clear about their roles etc (the middle layer of the wheel)?  You may have an intuitive feel about the extent to which these conditions are current present in your team.  Alternatively you could use the six statements as the basis for a simple pulse survey in your team.  A recent client ran their own branch pulse survey once per month using similar statements to these over a nine month period and saw steady and significant improvement over the period due to an emphasis on leadership practices in the leadership team over that period.  Of course, once you get a sense of which of the six conditions might need attention you can use the leadership strategies and practical actions as a guide for improvement.
2. Reflect on individual staff performance issues – if you have a staff member with some performance issues (poor performance outcomes against the elements in the centre of the wheel) you could use the six conditions (the middle layer of the wheel) as a diagnostic tool to reflect upon what might be contributing to their poor performance and then ask yourself: What leadership strategies and actions can I take to improve their performance? and refer to the outer layer for some guidance.   You may also want to refer to our recent post: How did you make your staff feel today?
3. Reflect on your own leadership practice – you may want to use the outer layer of the wheel (people leadership strategies) to reflect on your own strengths and areas for improvement.  This might just be a self-reflection and/or you could run your own 360-degree survey and get feedback from your team.  We have converted this into a one-page assessment tool that you could use for either purpose.  Again this may highlight areas for you to focus your leadership practice – reference to the previously published practical leadership actions provide plenty of ideas about actions or behaviours you could implement.  You may also want to refer to one of our previous blog posts on shadow beliefs that drive your actions that may provide deeper and insightful reflections about your leadership practices.

Maybe just printing out the visual and pinning it to your wall, might just help as a simple reference guide when you are looking for inspiration!

Want to see the 6 Practical Leadership strategies theme posts?

How to ensure people feel supported, valued and safe (includes 6 strategies)

How to create a team environment (includes 5 strategies)

How to support learning and growth (includes 5 strategies)

How to empower staff and build autonomy (includes 5 strategies)

How to ensure clarity of roles and expectations (includes 5 strategies)

How to create meaning and purpose (includes 5 strategies)

There are 6 themes for a positive working climate, 31 people leadership strategies and 31 practical ideas guides – one for each people leadership strategy.