Leadership Agility why do you need it (Bill Joiner)

Leadership Agility:
Why do you need it?
How do you develop it?

Best Practice Institute Webinar

1. Leadership Agility:
Why do you need it?
How do you develop it?
Best Practice Institute Webinar
June 17, 2009
Bill Joiner

2. 1.Why Leadership Agility?
2.Levels of Leadership Agility
3.Developing a Culture of Highly Agile Leaders

3. The Agility Imperative
The global organizational environment:
•Accelerating change
•Increasing inter-
dependence and
complexity
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4. CEOs See It
“The world is more complex and
fast-moving all the time, and
that isn’t going away.”
Ed Zore, CEO of Northwestern Mutual
“Most Admired” financial services company
24 years in a row
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5. American Management Assn.
Study
80% of over 1000 executives around the
world say:
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•Change is speeding up
•High performers are more agile than low
performers

6. Economist Intelligence Unit Study on
Organizational Agility
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Three key findings:
•90% said agility is essential for business success
and growth
•Yet most companies admit they are not agile enough
•Most of the barriers to increased agility lie in the
organizational culture

7. London School of Economics
Study of 50 agencies in
8 countries
“Agile” government agencies
significantly outperform other
agencies on virtually every
important metric, from productivity
to employee and client satisfaction
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8. Pressing Need for Agile Teams
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9. “The ability to be agile
enough is the gut issue in
leading an organization
today.”
James McNerney,
CEO of Boeing
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10. What is Agility? 

11. The Essence of Agility
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Focus
Step back
Gain a broader, deeper view
Re-engage, take action

12. Agility as Reflective Action
{ Step Back }
{ Re-engage }
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13. Stages of Personal
Development
Conformer
Expert
Achiever
Pre-Adult Stages
Explorer
Enthusiast
Operator
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Adult Stages

14. Stages of Personal Development
Catalyst
Co-Creator
Synergist
Pre-Adult Stages
Conformer
Expert
Achiever
Explorer
Enthusiast
Operator
Institutional “Ceiling”
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15. Stages of Personal Development
Catalyst
Co-Creator
Synergist
Pre-Adult Stages
Conformer
Expert
Achiever
Explorer
Enthusiast
Operator
Institutional “Ceiling”
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16. 1.Why Leadership Agility?
2.Levels of Leadership Agility
3.Developing a Culture of Highly Agile Leaders

17. Levels of Leadership Agility
•10% Catalyst
•35% Achiever
• 45% Expert
•10% Pre-Expert
Institutional
“Ceiling”
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18. The Research Shows that …
•In overall development, levels
are not skipped
•Leaders retain capacities
developed at previous levels
•While developmental stage is
relatively stable, a leader’s level
of agility can vary throughout the
day
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•“Downshifting” to previous levels can be
intentional or unintentional

19. Tools for Assessing Agility Level
•Grid in Chapter 1 or White Paper
•Chapter 2: The Five Ed’s
•Leadership Agility book
•Leadership Agility 360
•Leadership Agility Bench Strength
Assessment
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20. The Leadership Agility Compass
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21. Three Action Arenas
•Leading organizational change
•Improving team performance
•Engaging in pivotal
conversations
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22. Expert Capacities
Awareness: Modest reflective capacity. Sees
shades of gray. Analytical, not yet systemic
Intent: To improve and accomplish things
Self-esteem comes from problem-solving,
developing their own views, standing out, giving
advice, completing tasks
Can be judgmental, perfectionistic, with limited
ability to empathize, take others’ points of view
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23. Expert Agility – Leading Change
Assumption: Leaders are respected and followed
because of their authority and expertise
Context-setting agility: Tactical. Focuses on incremental
improvements within unit over which they have authority
Stakeholder agility: Minimal attention to stakeholders.
Either strongly assertive or accommodative
Creative agility: One problem at a time. Low awareness
of subjectivity
Self-leadership agility: Strives to improve in technical or
functional specialty. Little openness to feedback.
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24. Achiever Capacities
Awareness: Robust reflective capacity. Thinks
strategically. Sees systems in their
environments
Intent: To achieve desired outcomes in ways
consistent with self-chosen values
Strong identity. Self-chosen values and world-
view. Self-esteem comes from achieving
significant outcomes for self-chosen institutions
More empathetic than Experts. Receptive to
other views, if these help achieve their desired
outcomes
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25. Achiever Agility – Leading Change
Assumption: Leaders motivate others by making it
challenging and satisfying to contribute to larger objectives
Context-setting agility: ~3-5 year outcome orientation.
Change initiatives include analysis of strategic
environment.
Stakeholder agility: Recognition of the need for
stakeholder buy-in. Mainly assertive or accommodative,
with ability to compensate with the less-used style
Creative agility: Sees connections between problems.
Aware of need for good data to test subjective judgment
Self-leadership agility: Strives to contribute to significant
outcomes. Open to feedback to achieve these outcomes
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26. Catalyst Capacities
Awareness: Able to reflect “in the moment,” to pick
up assumptions, feelings, behaviors formerly
missed
Intent: To create human contexts experienced as
meaningful and satisfying, which enable sustained
achievement of desired outcomes
Interest in quality of life, self-discovery, and the
process of experience. Aspirations are more long-
term, visionary
Sees others as humans first. Genuinely curious
about and open to differing frames of reference
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27. Catalyst Agility – Leading Change
Assumption: Leaders articulate an innovative, inspiring vision
and bring together the right people to transform it into reality
Context-setting agility: ~10 year vision. Initiatives include
developing cultures that promote teamwork, participation, and
empowerment
Stakeholder agility: Proactive engagement with diverse
stakeholders reflects belief that their input increases quality of
decisions, not just buy-in
Creative agility: Ability to try on frames of reference that
conflict with their own. Aware that all data are shaped by a
frame of reference
Self-leadership agility: Wants work to have meaning for self
and others. Proactively seeks and utilizes feedback
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28. Robert’s Story 
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Achiever Catalyst
Context-Setting
Agility
Focuses within
industry and on raising
stock price
Also aims to become
best regional in North
America and be
benchmarked by co’s
in other industries
Stakeholder
Agility
“Heroic” mentality.
Sees stockholders
and customers as the
only stakeholders
Involves a broad range
of stakeholders to
increase quality of
strategic ideas
Creative AgilitySees problem as
being like past
problems, therefore
having difficult but
familiar solutions
Sees problem as
unique. Develops
strategies through
creative problem
solving

29. 1.Why Leadership Agility?
2.Levels of Leadership Agility
3.Developing a Culture of Highly Agile Leaders

30. Expert Leadership Culture
•Managers operate within silos with little
emphasis on cross-functional teamwork
•Organizational improvements are mainly tactical
and incremental
•Managers are overly involved in subordinates’
work, fighting fires and interacting with them 1-
on-1
•Managers have little time to approach their own
role strategically
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31. Achiever Leadership Culture
•Customer-centric. Managers articulate strategic
objectives and make sure they have the right
people and processes in place to achieve them
•Change initiatives are strategic as well as
tactical, reflect an analysis of the larger
environment
•Managers work to develop effective teams,
orchestrating them to achieve important
outcomes
•Cross-functional teamwork and consultation
with key stakeholders are part of the culture
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32. Catalyst Leadership Culture
•Animated by a compelling vision that includes a
culture that is participative, empowering, candid,
collaborative, and decisive
•Senior teams are living laboratories that work
together to create this kind of culture internally
and to promote and encourage it in the
organization
•Leaders not only coach their people, they also
actively solicit informal feedback and work to
change their own behavior in ways that are
beneficial to the organization and themselves

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33. Typical Leadership Culture
•Catalyst leaders and pockets of catalyst culture
here and there (sometimes)
•Strong Achiever culture at the top levels
•Strong Expert culture at the middle levels
•High-potential and executive leadership
development programs focus mainly at Achiever
level
•Overall: An Achiever culture best suited to an era
of episodic change and moderate complexity

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34. Optimal Leadership Culture
•Strong Catalyst culture at the top levels
•Strong Achiever culture at the middle levels
•High-potential and executive leadership
development programs focus mainly at Catalyst
level
•Overall: An Catalyst culture best suited to today’s
era of constant change and high complexity

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35. Potential Concerns
•Who will do the tactical work?
•Will we wind up with insufficient
expertise?

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36. Executive Teams
•Optimal starting point: Creating
a new leadership culture within
this team
•Assess pace of change and
degree of complexity in this
team’s work environment

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•Determine this team’s current and optimal agility levels
•What to continue and what to change to activate the desired
level of agility?
•Methods of change: Training, coaching, facilitation

37. Coaching
•Start with needed behavior changes
and desired results, then add agility
level
•At any point in the coaching process,
be clear about what action arena you
and your client are focusing on

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•Use the Leadership Agility Compass to focus, as needed, on
context-setting, stakeholder, creative, and self-leadership
agility
•Effective coaching implicitly stimulates self-leadership. Be
sure to have your client explicitly learn and practice the self-
leadership process before formal coaching is completed

38. Coaching Questions
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Achiever Level
•What conditions in the
larger context are driving
the need for this change?
•What is the scope of this
change? What will be
changed and what will not
be changed?
•What are your desired
outcomes for this change?
How will you know that it is
successful?

Catalyst Level
•What changes are needed in
the culture and relationships
between groups?
•What assumptions are you
making about the scope of
change that it might be useful
to examine?
•What is a compelling vision
that would have greater
meaning and satisfaction for
yourself and others?

39. Leadership Development
•Reflective action is the essence of
agility and the primary way to
develop higher levels of agility
•The best vehicles for this
purpose – whether coaching,
workshops, or longer term
programs – emphasize action
learning
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•It is not necessary to segregate Experts, Achievers, and
Catalysts
•It is important to focus not only on learning new skills and
behaviors but also on developing the mental and emotional
capacities that make them possible.