Sunday, September 6, 2009

Leader Values - Part 1

Values are at the core of our being. They underlie why we do what we do. We must select leaders and team members with the right values for teams to succeed. We cannot expect to hire people with inappropriate values and then expect them to change. The effort is too great and the outcome too uncertain to merit the attempt. When it comes to values it may or may not be true that, "What you see is what you get!" Over time, individuals' values show through in their actions. However, if we do not know the person well (e.g., a new hire), the person can state a set of values that is what we want to hear without it being consistent with his/her practiced ones. We have little way of knowing a person's real values until we observe his/her behaviors over an extended period of time.

If people were onions, as we peeled away our layers, we would find from the outside to the inside:

1. Behaviors (Outermost - observable)
2. Feelings
3. Beliefs / Attitudes
4. Values (Innermost - hidden)

Our external behaviors are the result of the three underlying attributes. For self-directed organizations to have the behaviors they require to succeed, the proper feelings, beliefs, and values must be in place. We can infer values from behavior.

Training and consequences influence beliefs and shape behaviors, but they rarely alter basic values. Beliefs are logical connections shaped by education and experience. Training or other experiences can demonstrate new, more workable connections and thus change beliefs. "I'll believe it when I see it" is a workable formula for learning. Leaders who are skeptical about self-directed work teams can visit a successful self-directed organization and change their beliefs of what is possible as a result. Persuading people to change values is much more difficult.

When individuals find themselves behaving in ways contrary to their values they experience considerable emotional tension. Their behavior is a sham. Under such circumstances, these persons will:

a. Give the behavior lip service and minimal use. (Compliance)
b. Abandon the behavior altogether and resist the environment. (Resistance)
c. Try to change the environment to eliminate the pressure for the behavior. (Opposition)
d. Leave the environment. (Avoidance)

In a few cases, they may readjust their values to be consistent with the demands in the environment. Forced to engage in the behavior, it may reshape individuals' values -- but don't count on it! In any event, they will eventually try to eliminate the internal tension they feel.

Values have an important impact upon the vision for the organization. Leader's with strong and appropriate values instill them in their organizations. Whenever the propriety of a decision is in question, referring to values is the how we determine whether it is ethical for us as individuals.
 
There is no other more basic requirement for effective leadership than a productive set of core values.
 
Values lie behind the question of how organizations exercise control. Organizations whose leaders value personal power and prestige will place control high up in the hierarchy. Control of decisions is power. Organizations whose leaders value personal growth and a sense of achievement for everyone will embrace self-direction.

Douglas McGregor set the stage for examining the values that underlie leader behavior. He described two sets of assumptions about human behavior that he labelled "Theory X" and "Theory Y." McGregor's words in 1960 still contain some of the most fundamental truths for the establishment of self-directed work systems. Here's McGregor's list from his book, The Human Side of Enterprise (McGraw Hill, 1960).

Theory X Assumptions*

  • The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.
  • Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives.
  • The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, wants security above all.

Theory Y Assumptions

  • The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
  • External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about effort toward organizational objectives. Man will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which he is committed.
  • Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.
    The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek responsibility.
  • The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.
  • Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.
The impact of these two different sets of assumptions on how organizations are built is unmistakable. However, some people still believe and act on Theory X assumptions. Why?

There are people who behave in the ways Theory X describes. Fortunately they are not the majority. Organizations have also created conditions that promote Theory X behaviors -- a self-fulfilling prophecy. Treat people as though they are untrustworthy and lazy and they will tend to act that way. Change the assumptions and create conditions for excellence and the Theory Y in people will emerge. When that happens, the hard core Theory X believers and actors will need to find another place to work.

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