Leadership Excellence - March 2012 - page 10

evoke these same values and emotions?
• Assess how well the metaphor fits your
team’s purpose
. Thinking through the
implications of the metaphor will help
you to see the ways in which the meta-
phor supports the team and the ways in
which its natural limits hold the team
back. For example, if you think the
fami-
ly metaphor
fits, does that also imply that
out of loyalty you wait too long before
addressing poor performance? Also,
consider whether the metaphor is com-
patible with larger organization culture.
This evaluation may lead you to consid-
er whether it is time to change your
metaphor.
• Identify leadership skills implied by the
metaphor
. Leading a “
tossed salad
” team
might demand inspirational leadership
and negotiation skills, whereas empa-
thy and strong skills in developing oth-
ers might be in higher demand in a
family atmosphere. Taking stock of
your skill set is vital when you are
thinking of changing the metaphor
because of the implied changes in your
leadership style.
• Go to your team
. Sharing a mental
model increases a team’s effectiveness.
Find or create opportunities for team
members to communicate
their metaphors. If your
team is in the habit of regu-
lar self-evaluation or
retreats, these present an
ideal setting to address the
questions presented above
as a team. Short of these
kinds of opportunities, lis-
ten with a critical ear to
your team’s talk. Do mem-
bers express themselves in
metaphorical language? For example,
do you hear them talking about things
“running smoothly” or “humming
along”? Do they make reference to their
“sister department” or the “parent com-
pany”? All such phrases may not neces-
sarily be evidence of a pervasive meta-
phor, but if you listen with a detached
view, you may be surprised by the ten-
dency of an overarching metaphor to
surface through everyday language.
Leadership Models and Metaphors
Every leader has in mind a model, or
metaphor, that represents his or her
team. Some are more clearly developed
than others. Some leaders may even
have more than one. Bringing your
metaphors into sharper focus will boost
the power of your leadership.
LE
Poppy Lauretta McLeod is Assoc. Professor of Communication
at Cornell Univ. and Faculty at Weatherhead Executive
Education. Visit
ACTION: Choose the right metaphor for your team.
behind her choices. Her manager’s sup-
port eroded too, however, after he sat in
on one of her team meetings. Her open,
exciting, and free-wheeling atmosphere
appeared to him to be chaotic, out-of-
control, and unprofessional. He left the
meeting with doubts about her leader-
ship ability and whether her team
would produce anything of much value
to the company.
Fortunately, a long conversation with
her manager helped Julia to see the pro-
blem with the mental model she held
for her team. Her tossed salad didn’t fit
well in a
meat-and-potatoes
culture. This
is not to say that the company did not
value and seek innovation and creativi-
ty, but the approach could not go com-
pletely outside of organization practices
and norms. Julia might have been on
firmer ground had she started by trying
simply to substitute rice for potatoes.
3. Know the limits of the metaphor.
All metaphors have limits. Metaphors
help you to identify and focus on the
key qualities and values of your team,
but should not be taken too literally. A
well-organized and -trained team can be
like
a machine: efficient, productive, and
reliable.
But people are not machines
.
When things start to go
wrong on a team, they can’t
easily be traced to a faulty
part
, or fixed by replacing it.
Most people don’t want to
work on a team in which
people are seen as disposable
.
Be aware that the
metaphor-in-use in your
leadership style may also
place limits on what your
team can accomplish. A
team that operates as a family may fos-
ter mutual commitment, trust, and a
sense of security, but may also breed
insularity and closed-mindedness to
new ideas. As another example, in a
highly competitive industry, evoking an
image of “combat-readiness” may have
an inspiring effect on a team, but mod-
eling the strict hierarchy of a military
unit may inhibit individuals on the
“front lines” from taking initiative and
decision-making authority.
4. Work the metaphor in four ways.
• Identify the key values
that operate in
your team. Are they: Achievement?
Risk-taking? Excellence? Openness?
Dependability? Competition?
• Describe the everyday emotional climate
in the team. Is it:
Inspired
? Fun? Upbeat?
Hopeful? Tense? Fearful? Depressing?
Do these values and emotions fit the
picture of your team in your mind? If
not, or you can’t identify the picture,
what
comparison(s
) can you make that
was anxious to be accepted as a mem-
ber of this
happy family
.
He soon found, however, that the
team members resisted his attempts to show
a personal interest in them
. Worse, they
also seemed resistant to opening up to
him about work issues. He even had a
vague feeling they were relieved and
worked better when he wasn’t around.
Meanwhile, concerns began to crop up
in the water cooler talk that the new
boss was an intrusive micro-manager.
Alex misread the team’s metaphor-
in-use. He failed to recognize that
the
true source of team members’ enjoyment of
each other was deep respect for each other’s
professional contributions
. Team members
were highly trained, and their skills and
knowledge areas meshed in a comple-
mentary way. They were used to work-
ing independently. They, in fact, saw
themselves as a
machine
that was well-
designed for the work at hand. They
expected their manager to obtain re-
sources, to ensure that new members
were trained well to fit into the system,
and to communicate the team’s goals
clearly, then leave them to
get on with it.
Had Alex observed and listened
more carefully he would have noticed
that the strong relationships within this
team were a byproduct of the team
members’ pride in their achievements,
not a result of direct intervention.
2. Make sure that the metaphor fits
your culture.
Julia learned this lesson
the hard way when she was charged
with creating a new data management
process for her financial services firm,
and was given free rein to assemble the
team. Julia saw this as a chance to infuse
creativity and innovative work meth-
ods into the company. She wanted to
have a team element that was dynamic,
exciting, open, and free-wheeling. She
envisioned meetings where ideas
would be freely tossed around and the
best kept for further development. She
smiled to herself as the image of a
tossed salad
came to mind. Her team
would produce fresh ideas, and their
recommendations would be not only
viable, but also innovative and unique.
The trouble began when the mem-
bership of the team was finalized. In
her zeal for innovative and creative
thinking, Julia populated her team pri-
marily with people who had been with
the company for a relatively short time
and with people from outside of the
core lines of business, overlooking com-
pany veterans with deep knowledge
of the business. People immediately
expressed concerns to Julia’s boss about
the team’s credibility, but he initially
affirmed his support of the reasoning
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