– and how to develop them within yourself, starting today. And perhaps, most of all, when we call something a best practice, that claim is backed by dozens of research studies that demonstrate the impact of that practice on organizational performance.
At DDI, we believe that better leadership is far more science than art. Yet, it is based in a deep respect for and understanding of the people side of leadership. We believe that people can transform their relationships in work and life by modifying their behavior in simple, clear, and measurable ways. We've trained and sat with hundreds of new leaders just like you and personally shared the advice that's in this book. You'll hear some of their stories in these pages.
Although you can open this book at any point and find immediate solutions to problems you may be experiencing, we hope you first spend some quality time on the first section. These nine chapters distill DDI's work on early leadership and provide the best foundation for starting your leadership journey.
The second section is a deeper dive into some of the key skills you'll need to master in order to succeed. These mastery and leadership skills chapters can be read sequentially, or you can jump to the chapter that best meets your current need. Expect short, specialized content to help you tackle the nuts and bolts of mastering your new position. You'll also find checklists and discussion guides that you can use immediately in your working life. Revisit them often. And through our “Your First Leadership Job” microsite, we offer links to bonus chapters, online resources, content, and communities that can help you connect with other leaders in transition. You'll want to bookmark this site and return to it frequently:
www.YourFirstLeadershipJob.com
The book also includes exercises, quizzes, diagnostics, and other interactive tools in every chapter. We encourage you to explore them. Designed by orga-nizational psychologists, they've been proven effective over the years. Use them and you'll be more successful.. and find your job more enjoyable.
In addition to the research cited throughout this book, you'll meet real people who have shared their experiences as first-time leaders. Each story conveys a lesson, insight, success story, or cautionary tale. (We've changed names and masked companies to encourage candor.) We've also queried people via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Quora, looking for stories and inspiration from their own leadership journeys. You'll find results from our questions and surveys throughout the book.
If you have one takeaway from this book, it should be this: Great leadership takes place every day, in the smallest of ways. It is reflected first and foremost in your conversations, the way you influence others, and how you interact with the people on your team and in your network. But the first step in your leadership journey is to think of yourself not as a boss, but as someone who can and should ignite a chain reaction of effectiveness that positively impacts direct reports, customers, vendors, peers, and supervisors alike. Your journey starts with a very specific kind of spark.
2
Boss or Catalyst?
A catalyst leader is someonewho ignites action in others.
Your New Job: Catalyst Leader
The term boss has taken a real beating both in work and popular culture. In movies the boss tends to be a ruthless gangster or amoral chieftain. In digital gaming, the boss is the last, biggest, and most horrific in a series of monsters that must be defeated. But in the workplace, now it's you. And you've got an image problem. Search for “Bad Boss” on Google and find over 36 million entries. Headlines include “Ten Things Only Bad Bosses Say,” “What Makes a Bad Boss Bad,” or, our favorite, “How to Survive 13 Types of Dysfunctional, Disrespectful and Dishonest Little Dictators.” There are even multiple websites for bad bosses. One, BadBosses.com, shows a photo of a person with the head of a wolf. Needless to say, you don't want to become the wolf in your office.
Consider Marian, a marketing and social media specialist and writer in a communications department at a midsized university. She had the classic bad boss: didn't communicate, failed to set team goals, missed deadlines, and played poorly with his peers in other departments. His inefficiency gave the department a bad reputation throughout the whole campus.
When Marian's boss was abruptly fired, the team was shocked. We had no idea he was so unpopular outside of our team, she said. But when Marian was tapped as his interim replacement, there was a catch: He had negotiated to stay on for six months and was refusing to announce Marian's new job or even train her for it. And all of this remained a secret. He told me that he didn't want to be seen as a lame duck, but it got really awkward, she said. As the months ticked by and no replacement was announced, the team became more and more anxious about the future and other departments began to openly revolt. To make matters worse, the not-yet-exiting chief had run projects aground across the university and had badly alienated senior leadership. Nasty surprises abounded. Marian, who was a half-time employee about to run a team of 11, had no idea what to do. This is his legacy, Marian said. And I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to turn it around. (For more on how Marian used her new network to revive her demoralized team, see Chapter 19 on networking.)
When we train frontline leaders, we use a different word that paints a far more positive picture than describing a leader as an irresponsible or horrific boss: catalyst. Much like an ingredient that induces a chemical reaction, a catalyst leader is someone who ignites action in others. That ignition might jump-start a change in an inefficient process, spawn a new idea for a new product, or, most important, effect change in others.
Both our research and observations show dramatic differences between poor and even average leaders and those we would label catalyst leaders. The latter have a knack for building engagement, involving others, and capitalizing on people's strengths and diverse viewpoints. And, they rarely blame others. Rather, they accept accountability to deliver on expectations.
Figure 2.1 illustrates what being a catalyst leader is all about.
Fig 2.1 Catalyst Leader
Whether you're a new leader or have a few years of experience, becoming a catalyst leader is hard work. It doesn't happen overnight. The common characteristic in great catalysts is their passion to become better leaders. They're constantly building their leadership skills. They're also introspective – looking in the mirror every day and asking what they could do to become better leaders.
What do great leadership and sushi have in common? Rich Wellins offers a powerful way to reframe how we think about leadership at our microsite.
Tool 2.1 is a self-assessment of your current proficiency as a catalyst leader. It will allow you to pinpoint strengths and areas you might want to work on.
Catalyst leaders find opportunities to ignite action in others. Are you a catalyst leader? To find out, first circle the number for each item that represents your current behavior. Next, add the numbers to determine your catalyst index. Finally, in the column to the right, check (
*To download and print this form in pdf format, go to www.YourFirstLeadershipJob.com.
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