Spring 2014 Issue

Importance of women's political skill in male-dominated organizations

The Depleted Leader: The influence of leaders' diminished psychological resources on leadership behaviors

Team Effectiveness & Team Coaching Literature Review

Dear Clients & Partners,

Welcome to the Spring 2014 edition of Executive Edge, where we share current leadership theories and research sourced and abstracted from preeminent academic journals and leading management authors.

We hope this edition is informative and thought-provoking and provides tools and resources to facilitate your success as a leader as well as aid in the development of others. Do let me know if you'd like to know more about any of these studies.

Sincerely,

Margaret D'Onofrio

Principal / Executive Coach

DCP Moves Offices

in May

Effective from May 26th, D'Onofrio Consulting Partners will be moving across the street to:

1700 Post Oak Boulevard, 2 BLVD Place, Suite 600, Houston, Texas, 77056.

We're not going far, but if you're visiting us, please make a note of our new location!

RECOMMENDED READING

Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less

Joe McCormack argues that brevity is a skill that has to be mastered to be successful and he presents a proven approach that has helped entrepreneurs, military leaders and Fortune 500 leaders master the art of brevity.



  HOW QUICKLY DO YOU GET TO THE POINT?

According to McCormack, the average professional receives 304 emails per week and checks his/her smartphone 36 times an hour and 38 hours a week. The average attention span has shrunk from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight in 2012. How do you get to the point quickly?

The Brief Lab Whiteboard Narrative

For more information and resources click the brief lab image below.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Simon Sinek:
Why Leaders Eat Last

From his upcoming book, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't", leadership expert Sinek explains why leaders get the first pick of food and other spoils, but at a cost.

Sheryl Sandberg:
So we leaned in ... now what?

In this interview, Sheryl Sandberg weighs in on the ongoing global struggle of women in leadership since her Lean In book and TED Talk.

From the

Lead At Your Best

McKinsey Quarterly

April 2014

by Joanna Barsh and Johanne Lavoie

The authors share five simple exercises adapted from their new book, Centered Leadership, that can help you become more aware of your mind-sets. .

Web Link - Does not require a paid subscription

To Get Honest Feedback, Leaders Need

to Ask

HBR Feb 27, 2014

by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

Web Link - Does not require a paid subscription

Executive Coaching Survey 2014

Sherpa Coaching March 2014

In this ninth annual Executive Coaching and Leadership Survey of coaches, clients, HR and training professionals, three themes emerge that shed light on executive coaching and where the industry is heading.

Web Link - Does not require a paid subscription

Feat

Women, Wit and Wisdom is now on Facebook. Click the icon above and like our page. We post research and thought-leadership, ideas and advice, women in the news and more. For anyone who is interested in advancing women's development, please visit us and join the conversation.

Follow the links below to stay connected with news, information and more great resources that we're sharing on these social media sites.

Importance of women's political skill in male-dominated organizations

Harla Baskerville Watkins & Alexis Nicole Smith

Journal of Managerial Psychology. Vol. 29 No. 2, 2014

pp. 206-222.

In this original research study, the authors noted that more attention has been given to factors that impede a women's advancement than those that facilitate it. "Little is known about how women may successfully steer through the political quagmire that surrounds them at work."

This study explored whether political skill helps women achieve positions of authority in male-dominated environments. The researchers studied 140 female lawyers who possessed an average of ten years of practicing law and an average age of 38. While women make up 47% of law students in 2009, they made up 31.5% of all lawyers; 15% of equity partners and made 77.1% of their male counterpart salaries in 2010.

Using Ferris et al's 18-item political skill scale and questions designed to assess those holding positions of authority, two hypotheses were tested.

Results:

Professional women working in male-dominated organizations were less likely to hold positions of authority than their counterparts in non male dominated organizations. (Hypothesis 1 was supported).
Highly politically skilled professional women in those male-dominated environments are more likely to hold positions of authority, suggesting that political skill is a moderating factor in the attainment of positions of authority. (Hypothesis 2 was supported).

Practical Application:

Political skill is an important determinant of career success of both sexes. It is especially important for women in male-dominated environments where access to senior echelons is restricted through conscious and unconscious "social closure." Steps male-dominated organizations may consider are as follows:

Help women (and men) understand the importance of political skill.
Assess and develop political skill (in both sexes). See resources below.
Coach and mentor to develop the four distinct practices leaders can use to harness the positive effects of political skill (Ferris et al. 2005).
Awareness initiatives aimed at leaders of male-dominated organizations.
Policies and practices that aim to minimize the impact of bias when senior appointment hiring and promotion decisions are being made.

One excellent resource (shown right) is CCL's "Using Political Skill to Maximize and Leverage Work Relationships."
This excellent white paper includes a self-assessment and practical ideas for increasing political skill.

We also recommend this

Political Skill/Power Test

which is based on Ferris's work.

Web Link - Requires Paid Subscription

The depleted leader: The influence of leaders' diminished psychological resources on leadership behaviors

Alyson Byrne, Angela M. Dionisi, Julian Barling, Amy Akers, Jennifer Robertson, Rebecca Lys, Jeffrey Wylie, Kathryne Dupr�. The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 25, Issue 2, April 2014, Pages 344-357

The authors argue that while there is a wealth of research on the outcomes of leadership, much less attention has been given to the antecedents. In this study, the authors sought to understand how a leader's psychological well-being and "conservation of resources" impact his/her leadership behaviors. They hypothesized that a leader's depleted resources (manifested by depressive symptoms, anxiety and workplace alcohol consumption) would negatively impact leadership behaviors.

To test their assumption, 172 leaders and their direct reports completed confidential online questionnaires in which leaders were asked about their depressive symptoms, anxiety, and workplace alcohol consumption. Subordinates were asked to rate the frequency with which their leaders demonstrated eight transformational leadership behaviors within a month and the extent to which they engaged in five abusive behaviors.

Results:

The researchers found that a leader's personal resources are important for effective leadership. They found a correlation between depressive symptoms, anxiety and workplace alcohol consumption were:

Negatively related to transformational leadership behaviors
Positively related to abusive supervision

Practical Implications:

Leaders need to be sensitive to their own well-being and ways to increase their personal resources, especially when faced with challenging and/or complex roles. Knowing when to seek help at times they feel their resources are depleted is important for leadership effectiveness.

Organizations need to be aware of the connection between psychological resource depletion and foster conditions necessary for resource acquisition and maintenance. The strength of a leader's psychological resources is rarely considered when making hiring or promotion decisions and the findings from this study suggest it's an important consideration, particularly when considering leaders for high stress, complex and challenging roles.

Web Link - Requires Paid Subscription

Team effectiveness and team coaching literature review

Petersa, J. & Carr, C. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 2013,

Vol. 6, No. 2, 116-136

The authors set out to highlight team effectiveness research and team coaching literature with a view to helping leaders and coaches educate themselves and others to achieve greater team performance. Four team coaching models, four empirical studies and eight case studies were studied in this literature review.

Given that there are over 130 different models of team performance/effectiveness, the authors focused on research and literature concerned with leaders and team coaching practitioners working with, or leading intact work teams in organisational and business settings.

One study of 120 leadership teams by Wageman et al. (2008) found that four in five teams were mediocre or poor performers (failing to meet or exceed expectations).

Team effectiveness factors and conditions

From the studies reviewed, factors deemed as either "essential" or "enabling" high team performance include:

A real team with clear membership and boundaries
A compelling direction or purpose to guide the team's work
Team members with the necessary knowledge, skill and experience
A solid team design and structure with clear norms and agreements to guide how work will be done
A supportive organisational context that provides the information, time and resources to do their work
Competent team coaching to help the team grow individually and as a team, either provided internally from a team member or provided by an external coach or consultant
High communication quality that increases the level of interdependence and cohesion among the team
Collective intelligence versus high IQ of members individually is more important
Group decision-making with strong mechanisms for eliciting disparate perspectives is key for effective decision-making
Team learning through pauses for reflection; discussion of shared knowledge; networking outside the team; and team coaching
Healthy team and interpersonal conflict (which is not a product of dysfunctional individual behavior or structural issues)
Positive team interactions and behavioral flexibility (inquiry versus advocacy; other versus self focus and ratio of positive/proactive to negative contributions)

Team Coaching

Team coaching models, research and case studies are reviewed; a continuum of team coaching is shared as shown below (Hawkins, 2011).

Web Link - Requires Paid Subscription

In Closing ...

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of Executive Edge.

If you know of someone who would be interested in receiving a copy, don't hesitate to send this copy along by clicking the "Send to a Colleague" button below.

If you are not already getting Executive Edge and wish to subscribe, please visit the Resources section of our web site to do so.

Margaret D'Onofrio

Principal/Executive Coach

D'Onofrio Consulting Partners is a founding member of Columbia Coaching Alliance, a world-class group of seasoned executive and organizational coaches with diverse industry experience and unparalleled capability. Their access to Columbia's cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience, and organizational development establish an unmatched resource in the field and, together with their global professional network of coaching associations and support personnel, enable organizations to leverage their human capital advantage.

D'Onofrio Consulting Partners is a proud member of:

Margaret D'Onofrio

Principal & Executive Coach

1700 Post Oak Boulevard, 2 BLVD Place, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77056

Tel: (713)-963-3673

Fax: (281)-286-1129

margaret@donofrioconsultingpartners.com

Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last From his upcoming book, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't", leadership expert Sinek explains why leaders get the first pick of food and other spoils, but at a cost.

Simon Sinek:
Why Leaders Eat Last

From his upcoming book, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't", leadership expert Sinek explains why leaders get the first pick of food and other spoils, but at a cost.