Leadership in Equality

Rob Beardall

Earth

Rings of Saturn

Taken, September 15, 2006 by the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn.

Leadership……• The quality of leadership, more than any other

single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization. Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers Improving Leadership Effectiveness

• I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. Mohandas Gandhi

• "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.“Dwight D. Eisenhower

What is Leadership..?

“Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less”

John C Maxwell: In the ‘21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership’

‘PERCEPTION’“Costly, time consuming, confusing, irrelevant, biased, not business sense”

OR.…“Understanding the customer, tailoring service provision, employing the best people, and….good business sense…”

So……How do we INFLUENCE…? Equalities is…. a ‘concept’ and therefore involves

The ‘COMUNICATOR’ carries the message, and can be perceived as…..

And the ‘COMMUNICATOR’ is up against..…..

Negative media Financial cuts

Competing priorities

Good intentions

Comfort zones

Collective ideology……………BUT………

Individualistic society

Legal compliance

focus

Words but limitedaction

Isolated Agenda

Middle Management

Resistance

Limited dedicatedresource

No significantbusiness plan commitments

LeadershipCommitment

Corporate Roadblocks

Pockets limited Improvement

‘Bare minimum’mentality

Constant progress chasing

• BOXED IN

Boxed in

Getting breakthrough …..

Organisational Psychology

• Social Identity - key leaders

• ‘In-groups’ and an ‘out-groups’

• Core identity of Equality Agenda

• Know roadblocks – who/what?

• Key motivational cues

CONTAINED LANGUAGE USE

Getting inside ‘mind’ of organisation…..

…..to change it you have to understand it

Positioning

Bottom up and…

top-down

Bottom – up

• Staff Networks e.g Cardiff Champions Scheme

• Strategic involvement

• Staff training

• Internal Communications

Top - down

• Build trust and credibility INTEGRITY

• Build robust evidence baseCAREFUL PLANNING

• Tap ‘corporate agenda’ ASTUTE OBSERVATION

• Position yourself within ‘in-group’LANGUAGE USE and ‘getting on’ the AGENDA’

Building trust and credibility

• "To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful."Edward R. Murrow

• ALWAYS professional, ALWAYS honest, ALWAYS supportive, ALWAYS realistic but firm,

• More than determination….carry an ‘astuteness’

• True to corporate agenda first, and frame agenda within that context

• Establish ‘must do’s’ and win ground

Useful tips• One 2 One meetings• Understand sub-cultures, FLEX to that

context• Demonstrate

– Knowledge and understanding– Balanced viewpoint with realism

• Engage influential champions…but ‘stay true’ to core leadership

• Empower leadership with:– Localised facts, figures, statistics– Evidenced service barriers – Changed outcomes

• Carry positive outlook – language use is key mecahnism

Summary

• Organisational psychology

• Perception is the lock, language is the key

• Positioning

• Leadership - crucial

• Building credibility