Victorian TAFE Staff Development Network (VTSDN) Practical ways to develop leaders in the workplace: Stories from the field Professor Victor Callan [e-mail]

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Victorian TAFE Staff Development Network
(VTSDN)Practical ways to develop leaders in the
workplace Stories from the fieldProfessor
Victor Callanv.callan_at_business.uq.edu.au

• Thursday 11October 2007

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Leadership challenges in VET

• Leadership of continuous change in a complex VET
  environment
• More strategic thinking about growing and
  sustaining the organisation
• Greater client focus
• Providing enabling systems, structures and
  cultures that sustain change
• Growing the levels of confidence in staff about
  being able to achieve different goals - with
  related developments in building trust, higher
  performing teams, teams, sharing learning,
  empowerment
• Building internal and external partnerships

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Comparing management and leadership roles
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Comparing management and leadership roles
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What do we know from research?
The Variety of Experience
Learning from Others
Other Events
Challenging Assignments
Hardships
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The Variety of Experience
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Organisations need to support the learning
experience
Potential Learning Event Challenge, Transition,
or Stress
Learning Performance Recovery,
Change, and Enhancement
Going Against the Grain Temporary Drop in
Performance
Leveling Off The Comfort Zone, What I Already
Know How To Do
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Practical ways I use a lot
360 degree
guest speakers, including executive in residence
learning journals
The VET Manager and leader
Readings and lunch groups
coaching
On the job challenging assignments, feedback,
acting positions
Action learning projects
Off the job, short courses and executive education
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What practical ways are you using in your
organisation?

• Small group discussion
• Reporting on what you feel works well, less well,
  and why?
• What does this reveal about the practical ways
  being used in the VET sector today?

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Some research evidence Practical ways to develop
VET managers and leaders

• Supportive models and frameworks
• Off the job experiences
• On the job experiences
• Callan, V.J., Mitchell, J., Clayton, B.,
  Smith, L. (2007) Approaches for sustaining and
  building management and leadership capability in
  VET providers. Adelaide National Centre for
  Vocational Education Research. http//www.ncver.ed
  u.au/publications/1802.html

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Supportive models

• Organisational supports (e.g. TAFE Development
  Centre WA DETA and its VET Teaching and Learning
  Directorate Victorian TAFE Association
• Growing use of guiding capability frameworks
• Strategic statements of intention about
  significance of leadership development Uni. of
  Ballarat Roadmap for Leadership in the Future
  NSW North Coast TAFE and Staff Development Plan
  SW Sydney TAFE and leadership is our strength
  positioning

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Off-the-job development

• Higher education programs Vocational
  Certificates in Educational Leadership, Master of
  Adult and Vocational Education
• In-house programs some accredited but mostly
  not 2-5 days action learning to class based
  external facilitators reactive little follow
  through
• Better example is the Chair Academy Program
  individualized PD plan, mentoring program,
  workshops, mix of participants, with
  accreditation, but even it has its critics
• Use of annual development and training calendars
  Staff development days

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Anything to add around practical off-the-job?

• Your experiences
• Other initiatives you have heard about that seem
  practical and useful

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Off-the-job Strengths

• Raised awareness about the role and activities of
  their own Institute, as well as the strategic
  planning processes and the challenges
• Gained an appreciation of the role of middle and
  senior manager
• Expanded their networks inside the organisation
  through the contact with fellow participants
• Provided opportunities for structured and
  unstructured reflection about their skills, roles

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Off-the-job Strengths

• Given them more confidence around leading change
  and in responding to resistance, dealing with
  difficult people and poor performance
• Provided often deep personal insights about
  personal preferences and leadership styles, and
  feedback about ways of developing their skills
• Given them access to experienced and interesting
  external consultants who talked from both theory
  and practice

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Off-the-job Shortcomings

• Quality of some external programs and
  facilitators - a more generic feel than being
  TAFE specific
• Quality of some internal facilitators who had VET
  knowledge but were less skilled as facilitators
• Lack of integration between parts of a program,
• Some programs not being well themed across the
  various days
• Fragmentary, reactive and short term nature of
  professional development

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Off-the-job Shortcomings

• Lack of support by the senior executive for the
  program, its projects and the participants
• Lack of clear guidelines around the role of
  coaches and mentors associated with some programs
• Failure to make clear the expectations upon
  participants about their attendance at each
  workshop, their commitment to the program, and
  the time outside of work hours that was required
  to get the best outcomes from the program

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A case for more internal programs

• A larger number of participants are exposed to a
  professional development opportunity at a cheaper
  average cost
• The internal programs build improved networks,
  shared visions, and result in more
  cross-institutional sharing
• Participants focus more on cross-campus or
  cross-department projects that can have added
  operational and strategic value
• Senior staff can be profiled to more junior
  staff, and to motivate and to challenge those
  below them

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A case for more internal programs

• Can be linked more to strategic goals of the
  organisation
• Members of the senior executive team are
  encouraged to be active as mentors to program
  participants and their projects
• Link the program to the option of completing
  assessment towards an accredited VET or higher
  education program
• Other reasons to support such programs?

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On-the-job development

• Formal projects with external funding (Reframing
  the Future) - advancing skills in change
  management, strategy development and
  implementation, team processes, rethinking
  diversity management issues
• TAFE Development Centre, Victoria (e.g.
  Leadership Development Scheme)
• Coaching and mentoring major initiatives, but
  needs work around training of coaches,
  guidelines, clarification of roles
• Staff rotation, challenging assignments,
  secondment to another organisation not really
  being exploited well

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Other on-the-job initiatives

• At your place?
• Elsewhere to share with the group?

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What I use or promote

• Encouraging managers to reshape their job
• Temporary assignments and acting positions
• Develop external interface roles through projects
  or tasks that get staff out of the organisation
• Managing problem employees with support of
  coaches
• Higher stakes projects - take on high profile
  project, represent the organisation in the
  media/at public meetings, take on
  responsibilities once done by their boss
• Manage a cross-cultural project or culturally
  diverse team

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3. Why is on-the-job happening less in VET?

• It is happening but
• A culture of being too busy to engage in ones
  personal development role of CEO
• Financial barriers - no back-filling need for
  policy
• Slow emergence of a strategic approach to
  management and leadership development around
  the recruitment, socialisation, development,
  workforce planning and succession planning for
  managers and potential leaders
• It is difficult to do well -try to provide more
  supports for the manager as learner in the
  workplace

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Preparing the learner to approach the workplace
as a learning environment

• Earlier ideas around capability models, access to
  coaches, integrating on and off the job
  initiatives
• Set the workplace learning around the Johari
  Window
• Encourage more opportunities for reflection
• Give them access to more tools and people that
  provide feedback
• Workshop topics that capture why projects succeed
  and fail
• Provide access to coaches who support people on
  capability-driven assignments

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JOHARI WINDOW(Joseph Luft Harry Ingram)
Known to Self
Not Known to Self
Known to Others
Open Self
Blind Self
Hidden Self
Unknown Self
Not Known to Others
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JOHARI WINDOW

• Open What you knowingly share about you and is
  on public record (what you know, what you know
  they know)
• Blind Represents information about yourself
  that others know but you dont
• Unknown Represents parts of yourself about which
  neither you nor others know
• Hidden Contains what you know of yourself but
  hide from others

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REFLECTION
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TOOLS FOR FEEDBACK

• 360o questionnaires
• Coaches/mentors
• Challenging assignments
• Projects
• Syndicate work

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Coaching to support capability-driven
assignments

• Coaching is essentially one way of leading
• Coaching is a structured conversation or managed
  dialogue leading to positive change
• Coaching is about building trust and confidence
  and being a sounding board, providing support and
  encouragement to staff
• Coaching is also about your enhancing the staff
  members performance capability
• Coaching needs to be seen as a process to help
  another person fulfil their potential

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Six Questions to Guide the Coaching Relationship

• WHO? Who are they and their needs and
  expectations? What are my expectations as their
  coach? What is my style as a coach?
• WHY? Why am I coaching? How will I know coaching
  is effective?
• WHAT? What will we talk about? Who sets the
  agenda?
• HOW? How will I coach them?
• WHEN How often for how long will we get
  together?
• WHERE? Where will be have these sessions?

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Concluding comments

• We need to promote the view in VET that effective
  leaders are those who continue to develop their
  repertoire of capabilities throughout their
  careers
• A significant part of this development occurs
  through practical experiences
• The more varied the practical experiences, the
  greater the likelihood of developing a broad
  repertoire of capabilities

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Sources

• Bentley, T. Kohn-Bentley, E. (2002) Leadership
  Coaching for the Workplace, Toronto Irwin
• Buckingham, M. (2005) What Great Managers Do,
  Harvard Business Review, March, pp 70-79
• Callan, V.J. and Latemore, G.M. (2007, in press)
  Developing Leaders Through the Inner and Outer
  Theatre International Journal for Leadership
  Development
• Daudelin, M. (1996) Learning from experience
  through reflection.
• Hayes, K. (2003) Leadership Coaching A Practical
  Guide, Frenchs Forest Pearson
• McKenna, P. J. Maister, D. H. (2002)Win
  Permission to Coach in First Among Equals How
  to Manage a Group of Professionals. New York The
  Free Press p 57-94
• Peltier, B. (2001) The Psychology of Executive
  Coaching, New York Brunner Routledge
• Skiffington, S. Zeus, P. (2003) Behavioural
  Coaching, Sydney McGraw Hill