Situational leadership LO6454

Keith Cowan (72212.51@compuserve.com)
05 Apr 96 19:07:17 EST

Replying to LO6342 -- was: It's not just semantics

>...Being a coach is one of these stages. In other stages, other skills are
>needed. It is analogous to some extent with being a parent. The art of
>parenthood is knowing when to let go and how much to let go. Learning to
>ride a bike is not so different from becoming a fully functional,
>high-performing professional.
> Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Further to my last response, the description of desired outcomes applies
to fourth stage professionals, in other words, there must be at least one
of them in the group being empowered. In the bike example, it is possibe
to move through all four stages relatively quickly.

What many organization do by mistake is set out all the rules on how to
ride the bike, train people in class, then demand that they make NO
mistakes while executing the rules as they try to master riding it. In the
process of being intolerant to errors, they turn lots of people off who
then stop trying to learn to ride...

In my previous example, the empowering manager would show how to ride (the
outcome desired) and leave them alone to try until they needed some more
instruction, make sure asking was not viewed as failure, then leave them
alone again until the desired outcome was reached. (PS This is how I
taught my youngest son to ride his bike - he retained a stronger desire
and ability than my first who I watched and worried about injuries and
constantly corrected during his learning!) ... hopefully we all learn by
our mistakes! ...Keith

-- 

Keith Cowan <72212.51@compuserve.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>