The What and How of Leadership

Whenever I’m asked about my approach to leadership, I begin with two sources:

·      The work of John Kotter that first grabbed attention with a 2001 article in Harvard Business Review

·      A 2007 article by Deborah Ancona, Thomas W. Malone, Wanda J. Orlikowski, and Peter M. Senge

Kotter addresses the “what” of leadership, while Ancona et al. cover the “how.”

Kotter says when you boil down what leaders do, the actions fit in one of three buckets – setting direction, gaining alignment, and providing motivation. Ancona and her co-authors found that leaders use four main capabilities to get their work done – sensemaking, relating, visioning, and inventing.

Each model is insightful; they are even more powerful when integrated. So, I’ve created a table (below) that illustrates how these frameworks complement each other. This integrated model doesn’t represent my entire framework, but it is the foundation.  

If employees in an organization do not understand why to move in a direction, then they aren’t aligned and motivated. People want to know why they are doing something or not doing something, especially when it has to do with the strategic direction of the organization. More than one person must be involved in creating a well-conceived “sensemaking” narrative, and a good one will be refined over time. New information will be interpreted, and the sensemaking narrative will pivot.

The “relating” capability also helps with setting direction, not only because it creates alignment and motivation but also because it helps determine the direction. As the leadership team talks with key constituents, the organization pivots. If it doesn’t change directions, it will not be as effective because of uncertainty and equivocality in the information. Ongoing conversation reduces the uncertainty and resolves the equivocality. Just sharing information in emails is not sufficient for equivocality reduction. This conversation also drives procedural justice, which enhances alignment and motivation. 

“Visioning” is an important skill for effective leaders. But it usually takes more than one person to create a vision for the organization that is well-illustrated, appealing, and inspirational. The ongoing sensemaking and relating also help to create a compelling vision. Consistent work at sensemaking and relating, especially when pivoting, will result in a winning vision. 

“Inventing” is needed for clearing obstacles to the direction, creating compelling processes to alignment, and incentive mechanisms for motivation. Again, hard work, effort, and time in sensemaking, relating, and visioning will make the inventing come about naturally. So, for all of this to work, much effort must go into sensemaking and relating.

Because I like the two models--Kotter and Ancona et al.--I combined them. The two tables illustrates the combination and Table 1.0 can be used to make sure you are not missing one of the critical cells of the intersection between the what and how of leadership. I will illustrate the application of this with our marketing efforts.

Table 1.0: Integrating the “What” and “How” of Leadership

Our efforts at the Walton College to build a best-in-class public business school marketing program illustrate what it looks like to integrate the “what” and “how” of leadership.

Table 1.1: Building the Best Public Business School Marketing Program

 (If you like this article, then you might also like https://walton.uark.edu/insights/leaders-know-your-values.php)