Toronto Agile Tour - Timeless Leadership

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@ADRIANAGIRDLER | @JASONLITTLE | #TOAGILE2017

Why Timeless Leadership?
We have centuries of great stories and models about leadership

Agile Leadership?
Isn’t great leadership, just leadership? What did leaders do before 2001?

Trait Leadership (Stogdill, 1948)
“Great Man” Theory (Thomas Carlyle, 1840’s)
Scientiﬁc Management (Winslow-Taylor, 1920’s)
Lewin’s Leadership (Kurt Lewin, 1939)
Charismatic Authority (Max Weber (not to be confused with Max Webster m/), 1976
Contingency Theory of Leadership (Dr Fred Fielder,
Participative Leadership Theory (Renis Likert, 1976)
Leader-Member Exchange Theory (Dansereau, Graen, and Haga, 1975; Graen &
Cashman, 1975; and Graen, 1976)
Situational Leadership (Ken Blanchard)
Path-Goal Leadership (Martin G. Evans (1970) and Robert J. House (1971)
Servant Leadership (Robert Greenleaf (1970 and 1977) )
Transformational Leadership (James McGregor Burns and Bernard Bass, 1985)
It’s all been invented folks…

“The way forward is
paradoxically to look not
ahead, but to look around”
John Seely Brown, Social Life of Information

Your employees come ﬁrst. And if you
treat your employees right, guess what?
Your customers come back, and that
makes your shareholders happy. Start
with employees and the rest follows
from that.
Started Southwest Airlines in 1972
Served a 4-plane customer base with 3 planes
Pioneered the 10-minute Turnaround
Book: Lead with LUV - Ken Blanchard, Colleen Barrett

You'll never have the market cornered
on what you know. Continue to learn,
grow, and develop is the the key to
becoming a leader and the pathway to
the top.
Chief Security Ofﬁcer (CSO) Microsoft, ex-CIA
Pioneered the Gold Standard for Corporate Security-GSOC
Created and implementing a new Platinum Standard for
Corporate Security-VSOC

I make a point of talking to clients nearly
every day, but often in a place where
they look for answers: our call centre
Took Helpdesk calls once a week
No ofﬁce, sits on the ﬂoor with everyone else
Walked around and said hi to people when he started
Book: Weology by Peter Aceto

Our vision is the reason why we get up
in the morning, why we go to work!
Executive Director, Sales Operation
Create and develop a new cross-functional brand team for a new key
product offering
Bridging gaps, breaking down silos and connecting the team with a
greater purpose

Exercise 1:
When you think of great leadership, what comes to mind?
Example: If you think great leadership is about listening, write
‘listening’ on the sticky note.
1. Silent brain writing, 1 word, or short-phrase per sticky.

2. Each person shows their list, remove duplicates.

3. Organize your stickies on your table in these columns:

Tangible
(process/tools/models/practices)
In-Tangible
(behaviours/attributes/traits)
20 minutes

VISIONING
INVENTING
SENSE-MAKING RELATING
Action
Enablement
Everyone has their unique signature, and must balance these capabilities

What future possibilities exist?
Vision is based on the leaders core values.
Reinforce the urgency of now.
We, not me.
Who are strong visionaries?
What happens if Visioning is the dominant
capability?
“Paint a picture of what could be.”
VISIONING
“

INVENTING
Enable others to do what hasn’t been done before
Chart a path through uncertainty
Who are strong inventors?
What happens if Inventing is the dominant
capability?
“An eﬀective leaders enable others to create new processes and structures”

Get out and understand what’s going on
Create shared understanding via co-creation
Internally and externally focused
Who are strong Sense-Makers?
What happens with strong Sense-making, but weak
Inventing, Relating and Visioning?
“Great leaders understand the new rules of the game, while it’s being played.”
SENSE-MAKING

Be visible.
Be re-assuring.
No placating.
Inquiry, advocacy, connecting
Who are strong Relaters?
What happens with strong Relating, but weak
Inventing, Sense-making and Visioning?
“Here’s what we know, what we don’t, and here’s our current plan.”
RELATING

HOMEWORK - WHICH LENS?
Strategic
“brain”
Political
“Gut”
Cultural
“Heart”
Strategic: “Architect” (Sense-making/Inventing)
Political: “Golden Retriever” (Relating)
Cultural: “Visionary” (Visioning)
Strategic (Rational View): Structure, tools and processes
- How people are grouped (functional, x-functional, regional, product etc)
- How groups are linked (programs, matrices, projects, ‘ceremonies’
- How groups are aligned on direction, and is it working?
Political (Social View): What’s in it for me and you?
- Power and inﬂuence
- Conﬂict resolution
- Social networks and structures
Cultural (Irrational View): The way things work around here
- mental models
- Cultural assumptions
- Habits and rituals

VISIONING
INVENTING
What might this mean?
Who could be an example?

Tangible
In-Tangible
VISIONING
INVENTING
SENSE-MAKING
RELATING
Exercise 2: Bring your stickies hither!

VISIONING
INVENTING
My Actions for Improvement
Visioning:
Inventing:
Sense-making:
Relating:
What possibilities exist? Vision is based on the leader’s core values.

Empowering others to invent the future, create new processes, products and more.

Making sense of the organization, its market, and co-creating plans of action

Being visible, being inclusive, and being authentic
20 minutes
Exercise 3: Create your signature,
discuss with a partner

Tangible
In-Tangible
VISIONING
INVENTING
SENSE-MAKING
RELATING
Actions
Exercise 4: Bring an action up, associate it to a capability

History of Leadership
https://toughnickel.com/business/The-History-of-Leadership-Studies-and-Evolution-of-Leadership-
Theories
History of MIT’s 4-CAPS model:
http://ebusiness.mit.edu/research/Briefs/Ancona_Leadership_Final_VI.pdf
Alan Mulally (Boeing, Ford)
http://leadership.mit.edu/rare-ﬁnd-alan-mulally-complete-leader/
John Seely Brown (Xerox PARC)
https://www.wired.com/2000/08/brown/
RESOURCES AND STORIES
Get leadership tips from Adriana:
http://www.cornerstonedynamics.com/
http://timelessleadership.ca

VISIONING
INVENTING
timelessleadership.ca

VISIONING
INVENTING
My leadership signature My Actions for Improvement
Visioning:
Inventing:
Sense-making:
Relating:
What possibilities exist? Vision is based on the leader’s core values.

Empowering others to invent the future, create new processes, products and more.

Making sense of the organization, its market, and co-creating plans of action

Being visible, being inclusive, and being authentic

Strategic
“brain”
Political
“Gut”
Cultural
“Heart”
Strategic: “Architect” (Sense-making/Inventing)
Political: “Golden Retriever” (Relating)
Cultural: “Visionary” (Visioning)
3 Lenses Mapping Capabilities to the 3 Lenses
Strategic (Rational View): Structure, tools and processes
- How people are grouped (functional, x-functional, regional, product etc)
- How groups are linked (programs, matrices, projects, ‘ceremonies’
- How groups are aligned on direction, and is it working?
Political (Social View): What’s in it for me and you?
- Power and inﬂuence
- Conﬂict resolution
- Social networks and structures
Cultural (Irrational View): The way things work around here
- mental models
- Cultural assumptions
- Habits and rituals

Toronto Agile Tour - Timeless Leadership

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