Leadership Resiliency Factors in time of Crises

ALICE GORDON HOLLOWAY, MBA CEO OF SKYE CONNECT INC. & ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR

SHELIA K. FONDREN, HR CORPORATE TRAINER

JUNE 18, 2020

AGENDA

DISCUSSION

POINTS

Leadership Styles

HR Inclusive Action

Definitions

Language, Signs, Symbols

Where do we go from here Discussion

Action Steps for HR Leaders

• Organizations, businesses, entities are in a full-blown critical care emergency situation. Never in our history has there been a crisis (crises) which effectively shut down down commerce without warning (COVID-19 & Racial Injustice.) We must learn adaptation techniques from these crises….now!

State of Affairs

• Leadership – the process of influencing others.

• Shared Leadership - ‘‘a dynamic, interactive influence process among

individuals in groups for which the objective is to lead one another to

the achievement of group or organizational goals or both.’’ (Pearce &

Conger, 2003, p. 1)

Overview

• Several studies show that leadership makes a difference under conditions of

crisis as follower perceptions of the leader and the leader’s influence on group

performance are higher under crisis than no crisis conditions.

• Two prominent leadership styles have been consistently linked to crisis: charismatic and transformational leadership.

Leadership Style

Bligh, Kohles, and Meindl, 2004 a,b)

Mumford, Friedrich, Caughron, and Byrne, 2007).

What is the Role of HR During a Crisis?

Audience

Question

Common Cues that are Missed in Organizations

1. Missing signs and trends

2. Believing that you will have time.

3. Second guessing yourself

4. Not engaging your team and those outside of

your team

5. Missing the opportunity to

manage relationships with

employees.

6. Believing the issue will go away with the next news

cycle.

Effective Ways

to

Communicate

Listen Intently (Eyes and ears)

Ask Probing (uncomfortable) questions

Work to avoid yes or no based responses

Encourage the other person to elaborate

Signs, Language, Icons

Words We Hear…Defined

Implicit bias - automatic mental associations made between members of a social group which can bring about bias judgement of biased behavior (negative evaluation). (Fitzgerald et. al, 2019)

Microaggression – brief and commonplace daily verbal/non verbal derogatory racial/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, religious insults, slights..common when people are perceived as “others.”

Systemic racism happens when these structures or processes are carried out by groups with power, such as governments, businesses or schools.

Words We Hear…Defined

White Privilege – Author Frances Kendall, “having greater access to power and resources than people of color [in the same situation] do…. A built-in advantage, separate from one’s level of income or effort.”

Dr. Peggy McIntosh, Harvard Ph.D. (1988)– “I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks. “

https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really

Appreciative Inquiry Style of Leadership

-

David Cooperrider

Audience Question

Example of Company Response to Racial Social Injustice

• Best Buy

• Lowes

• Liberty Bank

• Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream

• UPS

• Protective Life

• Bath and Body

• NFL, NASCAR

Ten Leadership Effectiveness Tips

1. Be curious

2. Review internal set of competing ideas and perceptions

3. Practice humility vs. confidence

4. Be careful of anchoring the conversation

5. Rethink and constantly refresh your assumptions

6. Review company and organizational normal and social cues.

7. Assemble all resources and data points to engage everyone

8. Recognize emotions which trigger decision making (instead of asking why? Say tell me more…)

9. Skillful leadership means not simply saying what you think but rather reviewing implicit and current messages

10. Practice consequence processing – by DEMONSTRATING ACTION

Action Items HR Professionals Can Do

1. Develop Mentoring and Reverse mentoring initiatives

2. Exercise Authority vs. Exercise Leadership

3. Jointly draft a vision statement everyone can get behind.

4. Set up a Concerns Department of number for employees

5. Establish a Diversity Council to mentor and employee success base planning at the organization.

6. Conduct a bi – annual Appreciative Inquiry -Collective discovery process

7. Host “Lets Talk” session with an outside facilitator

Open Group Discussion