Ed Batista

Leading In Four Dimensions

Pierluigi Pugliese is a software consultant and agile coach whose views on coaching have influenced on my own over the last few years. [1] I've particularly appreciated learning about the many parallels between agile coaching with developers and executive coaching with leaders. [2]

Pugliese recently gave a presentation in Prague on coaching, and his deck included a diagram similar to the one above. [3] He notes that a coach working with a software development team will play these eight roles, and going a step further, I find this a compelling model for the range of roles that must be played by every leader in any group.

I've re-organized Pugliese's schema by pairing up the roles along four axes, each of which represents a different dimension of leadership behavior, and the definitions below are my own, so don't blame Pugliese if you disagree.

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Expert vs. Coach

The primary leader archetypes: the Expert with the answers, whose extensive domain experience is the basis for their authority, and the Coach with the questions, whose expertise lies in helping people discover the answers for themselves.

Evangelist vs. Motivator

Our word "evangelist" derives from the Greek "euangelistes," which means "bringer of good news." The Evangelist is on a mission to spread a message, and their goal is to rally others to their cause. The Motivator is agnostic, seeking to identify others' personal goals and help them move forward in their preferred direction, whatever it may be.

Trainer vs. Mentor

The Trainer is focused on the task at hand and shows others what is to be done (and how to do it better). The Mentor is focused on others' development, and immediate tactical performance is secondary to long-term strategic growth.

Mediator vs. Facilitator

The Mediator seeks to resolve conflict and maintain harmonious relationships in the service of group effectiveness. The Facilitator seeks to maximize learning and ensure that all voices are heard in the service of candor, integrity and authenticity.

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Looking over this framework, I'm reminded of a passage from Peter Drucker:

Increasingly "employees" have to be managed as "partners"--and it is the definition of a partnership that all partners are equal. It is also the definition of a partnership that partners cannot be ordered. They have to be persuaded...

One does not "manage" people.

The task is to lead people.

And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual. [4, emphasis original]

And of this comment from Bill George:

We need to disavow ourselves of the notion that leadership is power over other people. Leadership capacity is the ability to empower other people to step up and lead. [5]

The better we can fulfill the Coach / Mentor / Motivator roles as leaders, the more effectively we can meet the challenges posed by Drucker and George (and the many others who've expressed similar thoughts in recent decades.)

But that's not to say the Expert / Evangelist / Trainer roles are unhelpful--they're essential leadership tools, particularly early in a group's development or when leading the inexperienced. In Daniel Goleman's research the leadership style with the greatest positive impact on "climate," his term for working atmosphere, is the Authoritative style, which he describes as follows:

An authoritative leader takes a "Come with me" approach: she states the overall goal but gives people the freedom to choose their own means of achieving it. This style works especially well when a business is adrift. It is less effective when the leader is working with a team of experts who are more experienced than he is. [6]

It's not a matter of answering a single question--What type of leader am I?--but, rather, a series of questions:

• Can I adjust my style to best fit the needs of the situation?
• Am I flexible and adaptable as a leader?
• Can I sense what is called for and deliver it?

 

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Footnotes

[1] Pierluigi Pugliese is the founder and managing director of Connexxo.

[2] Pierluigi Pugliese on Agile Coaching

[3] The Scrum Master as Team Coach (Pierluigi Pugliese, 2013)

[4] Management Challenges of the 21st Century, pages 17-22 (Peter Drucker, 2001)

[5] Bill George on Leadership at the Stanford Faculty Club

[6] Leadership That Gets Results (Daniel Goleman, Harvard Business Review, 2001)

20 Tools for Coaching and Teaching

The resources below have been important tools in my efforts to help clients and students develop their leadership and interpersonal skills, but they can be applied by any leader or manager seeking to support their employees and colleagues.

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1. Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy, Status Anxiety and The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

De Botton is best described as a "pop philosopher"--he addresses important issues in a readily accessible style, and I find the the three books above particularly useful.

2. Brené Brown on vulnerability

Brown is a professor at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work, and her research addresses such topics as vulnerability, authenticity, courage, empathy and shame. This 20-minute TEDx talk shot in Houston in 2010 is one of the most-viewed ever--I've seen it many times and continue to find it useful.

3. Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups

In this 2001 HBR article Vanessa Druskat and Steven Wolff make a compelling case that a group's effectiveness is based on norms that help its members deepen emotional awareness and exercise emotion regulation.

4. Carol Dweck's concept of fixed and growth mindsets

Stanford psychologist Dweck has found that we tend toward one of two "mindsets"--in a fixed mindset we view our abilities as inherent, and we view mistakes as character flaws, while in a growth mindset we believe our abilities can be developed through persistent effort, and we view mistakes as learning opportunities.

5. Coaching with the Brain in Mind

Written by executive coach David Rock and Linda Page, this wide-ranging book explores a series of bedrock concepts (from ontology to management theory) that support "coaching pillars," which in turn underpin a "neuroscience platform."

6. Dan Oestreich's blog

Oestreich is a coach and consultant based near Seattle, and I've found his writing to be a great source of learning and inspiration. He's one of the most heartfelt and personal writers on this list, and he illustrates his blog with an assortment of stunning nature photographs--usually taken on hikes in the Pacific Northwest. (I was honored to be interviewed for his newsletter in 2012.)

7. David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water"

In 2005 author Wallace delivered the commencement address at Kenyon College, after his suicide it was published in The Wall Street Journal. An original audio-recording is available on YouTube, and I've adapted both sources into an integrated version. It's worth noting that Wallace had a history of violence and abuse, and even his close friend Jonathan Franzen has made clear that Wallace shouldn't be viewed as some sort of "great and gentle soul." But the failings of the messenger don't eliminate the value of the message, and I've learned much from Wallace's message here.

8. David Rock's SCARF model

Rock, a coach based in New York, studies current neuroscience research and discusses its implications for leaders and managers. One of his most compelling findings is this model that helps to explain the types of interpersonal situations likely to trigger a threat response.

9. Don't Break the Chain

This absurdly simple site is still the primary tool I recommend to clients to track daily activities.

10. The HBR Guide to Coaching Your Employees

I'm one of the co-authors, so I'm hardly an objective reviewer--but I still think this book is a great coaching and teaching resource, and I'm proud to be associated with the other contributors.

11. Helping: How to Give, Offer and Receive Help

Edgar Schein's 2009 book is the single best resource I know on how to initiate and sustain successful helping relationships, and while it's had a substantial influence on my approach to coaching and teaching, I also believe its message is relevant to any leader.

12. How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life

This 2016 book by coach and consultant Caroline Webb is one of my favorites. Webb explores a trove of research findings from social psychology, neuroscience and related fields and translates them into actionable guidance for professionals.

13. The Life Cycle of Learning Design

A post based on my own experience as a teacher and curriculum developer.

14. The Neuroscience of Joyful Education

Judy Willis is a former neurologist who obtained her teaching credential after a 15-year career in medicine and now teaches at Santa Barbara Middle School. Willis also writes about how to apply what we're learning from neuroscience research in educational settings, and this 2007 paper has had a significant impact on my own approach to teaching.

15. Managing Oneself

I came across Peter Drucker's Harvard Business Review essay, first published in 1998, while I was in business school, and it continues to influence my work with clients and students today.

16. The Resilience Factor

This 2002 book by psychologists Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté explores their theory that resilience is comprised of seven specific practices, each of which we can pursue more deliberately as we seek to build our capacity to persist through difficulties, overcome obstacles and deal with setbacks. It's been on my syllabus in The Art of Self-Coaching ever since I launched the class at Stanford in 2015.

17. Self-Science: The Subject Is Me

This out-of-print book from 1978 by educators Karen Stone and Harold Dillehunt provides a curriculum for elementary school teachers, and yet I've found it a great source of inspiration in my teaching and coaching. Stone and Dillehunt taught at the Nueva Learning Center--now known as the Nueva School--and were among the pioneers of social-emotional learning.

18. Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor

This 2014 book by cartoonist Lynda Barry had a profoundly liberating effect on my work with groups, not only with students in a classroom, but also in any facilitation process.

19. What Should I Do With My Life?

For this 2003 book Po Bronson interviewed some 900 people who were struggling with this question, and just over 50 of their stories made it into print. It doesn't quite rise to the level of Studs Terkel's majestic oral histories, but with its focus on people struggling to find a sense of meaning and purpose it's a uniquely valuable resource that I highly recommend.

20. Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?

In 2006 UK-based coaches Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones expanded their Harvard Business Review article into a full-length book, drawing upon experiences with their clients to illustrate their core concepts. It's one of my favorite readings in any field.

 

Updated February 2022. Several of the resources that were originally included here are no longer available or seemed less relevant, so I replaced them in order to keep 20 items on the list (a number chosen at random when I first published this post in response to a request from a friend.)

Photo by Ron Matson.

Three Critical Tasks: The Work of Senior Leaders

If you're a senior leader, no matter how complex your job may be you ultimately have just three critical tasks. These duties are easy to understand and very difficult to put into practice:

1. Set your priorities.

Don't let them be set for you by others, by circumstances or by your Inbox. And the more senior you are, the more latitude and choice you have, the more you need to rely on your judgment and intuition. This requires being open to influence while resisting advocacy, being attuned to the data while knowing when to ignore it, and being prepared to take calculated risks.

• The Most Productive People Know Who to Ignore
• Confusing Motion with Progress
• Taking the Leap (Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty)

 

2. Focus your attention.

Focused attention is your most important resource, not only because it's so powerful, but also because it's finite. Even when you work longer and harder, your capacity for truly focused attention is neurologically limited. So it's crucial to focus your attention on your priorities, without allowing yourself to be distracted by things that appear urgent but lack importance. This requires establishing boundaries to protect your attention, developing habits that help you maintain focus, and switching off the false alarms (digital and emotional) that constantly interrupt you throughout the day.

• Importance vs. Urgency
• How to Think (More on Open Space and Deep Work)
• Growth, Profitability and Return on Attention

 

3. Manage your emotions.

Note that manage doesn't mean suppress. Emotions are essential to effective influencing and decision-making, and you need to harness them to serve your needs. You also need to resist being hijacked by them, and this involves not only the big emotions that disrupt you in dramatic fashion, but also the subtle ones that sidetrack you and slowly draw you off course over time. This requires an ongoing commitment to sense, understand, articulate and express your emotions effectively.

• The Tyranny of Feelings
• Emotional Speed Bumps
• To Stay Focused, Manage Your Emotions

 

When you get these three tasks right, everything else tends to fall into place--and when you don't, you waste endless amounts of time and energy trying to compensate.

 

Updated December 2022.

Photo by Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier.

Startup Communication at Bloomberg

Last night I facilitated a workshop on Startup Communication at Bloomberg's San Francisco offices aimed at helping co-founders 1) communicate more effectively with each other, 2) establish group norms in the company that support better communication and 3) model better communication with their employees.

The evening was organized by Alicia Morga, Joe Greenstein and Roy Bahat, who care deeply about this topic. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there--I really enjoyed it.