Communication Strategy for Adaptive Leadership Success

1 Communication Strategy for Adaptive Leadership Toolkit Karen K Boyd Southern New Hampshire University MBA 530: Leading People & Organizations Professor Michael Alexander November 19, 2023

2 Overview This paper covers the communication strategy of my organization and the business problems we are currently facing within our leadership. We will discuss the leadership strengths and weaknesses of our employee engagement survey. I will discuss the personal development plan and the leadership goals. I will also address the adaptive leadership toolkit I have designed to address the leadership needs of our company. I will conclude this paper with information on the rollout and implementation, the metrics and deliverables, and the methods of communication and feedback that can be implemented.

3 Business Problems Currently, within the company, the struggle is within leadership and how they are interacting with their teams. Some leaders are aware of their emotional and social intelligence while being aware of their interpersonal skills. The impact of emotional intelligence on a team can play a significant role in how they work together and with their leader. According to Lundberg, "Depending on how we handle highly challenging situations, we can be the positive, calming voice that demonstrates wisdom, knowledge, and high emotional capacity." (Lundberg,2021) Being a leader who can exhibit both emotional intelligence and social intelligence and interpersonal skills can build and manage a successful team. Current Areas of Strength Adaptive leadership has been described as the ability of a leader to assemble individuals to solve complex problems and flourish (Doyle, 2017). The current strength of the prosthetic company is the level of service it provides to its clientele. Employees noted within the survey that they have the tools and resources to do their job and clearly defined quality goals. This is possible because the company has Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) Goals. The company also makes it a point to have an outstanding work-life balance. Current Areas of Weakness A significant weakness within the company is how employees feel toward leadership. The employees need more trust in some of their leaders due to a lack of recognition and not feeling they matter to the company. Solis (2021) shared that only 22% of executives surveyed by the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services are making employee experience a top-five

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4 priority for investment. When leaders show that employee experience is not as important as making money or dealing with unethical behavior from their management team, it creates an unhealthy work environment. Employees also feel that management needs to score higher about an inclusive environment where employees are considered individuals and that management has created an environment where they feel that their suggestions and complaints are addressed. The adaptive toolkit can help improve these areas that have dropped in numbers over the last four years. Personal Development Plan Each manager and team leader needs to conduct a Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) Assessment to see where they are regarding their type of leader. "Leadership development involves the interaction between the individual leader and the social environment." (Doyle,2017) The employee survey gives insight into how the company functions. In contrast, the LPI will provide insight into their strengths and weaknesses, thus helping to create a personal development plan for each manager. This personal development plan will include creating SMART goals, addressing learning goals, resources, and strategies for learning, identifying measurable outcomes, and specifying completion dates for learning experiences. ( Leadership Development Toolkit , 2008) SMART goals help to create a way for the manager to track their efforts to reach their goals to improve how they interact with the employees. Leadership Styles Taking the time to take the LPI and creating SMART goals will help the management and employees work together to achieve the company's goals as long as the leaders can work toward the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership by modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. "Adaptive

5 leadership has been described as the ability of a leader to assemble individuals to solve complex problems and flourish." (Doyle, 2017, p. 20) Using the Adaptive Leadership Toolkit is a step in the right direction in improving company leadership. Adaptive Leadership Toolkit Identification of leadership behavior to improve. Company & Strategy: "My company cares about its employees." It has had a drop of 15% over the last four years. As employees feel less cared for by their employers, their morale decreases and there is an increase in turnover. The results from this part of the survey show that we need to work on inspiring a shared vision. To do that, the new toolkit needs to include the ability for the leaders to let their team members help create a shared vision. Kouzes and Posner say, "You cannot command commitment; you must inspire it." By sharing the aspirations of the vision about the move into Canada and getting their ideas to help move that vision forward. Identification of successful leadership. Based on the Employee satisfaction survey, they have rated "constantly strives to provide value to our clients and customers." Within the Ten Commitments of Exemplary Leadership, "Model the Way" is what the company has been doing to keep this score so high. The leaders are setting the example of continuing to get high scores by keeping clients/customers happy. One must be clear about their guiding principles to Model the Way effectively (Kouzes & Posner, 1987, Chapter 1, pg. 12). The leaders are making clear that customers/clients are essential to the business's success.

6 Identify the lowest leadership behavior. Based on my results, I ranked the lowest in "Inspire a shared Vision," just above the 30 percentile. I was truly surprised by this result; the more I thought about it and looked at how I currently lead, the more I realized this is indeed the weakest part of my leadership abilities. "The central task for leaders is inspiring a shared vision…" (Kouzes & Posner, 1987, Chapter 5, pg. 105). Inspiring a shared vision is the ability to get my team and myself to work toward the vision in front of us at that time. The company's current vision is to increase our presence in another country. Developing this area is essential to improve skills related to leading others. According to Kouzes and Posner, "People commit themselves fully and deliver their best only if they share the same passion as the leader does, and it is critical that they can picture their aspirations in the shared vision." By not inspiring a shared vision, I am short-changing the company and the growth of what my team can achieve. I want to build a following of great leaders and have a team that walks beside me, not behind me. As a leader, I need to look forward and backward to help create a buy-in for the vision and to ensure that I include my team. Identify the highest leadership behavior. The area I ranked the highest is "Enable Others to Act." This was not surprising; I encouraged my team to collaborate and work together. When training a new team member, I never ask them to do something I would not do myself. We must ask the team for ways to improve issues we may have with a situation. "When people feel trusted and empowered, extraordinary things happen" (Kouzes & Posner, 2022). The company's growth into a new market creates an excellent opportunity to encourage others to act and feel part of the team.

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7 Role of being an effective leader. As a leader, it is essential to ensure team members are given the latitude in what they are working on. This results in better outcomes and strength within the team. It shows that I trust they will make the right decisions to help improve the team's performance. Whenever I let someone on my team decide differently from how I would handle the same situation, it boosts confidence, builds resilience, and highlights collaboration over competition (Theodore, 2017). Collaboration that results from creating and building trust within the team increases performance and the desired results, which can also help me inspire a shared vision within my team. Rollout and Implementation The adaptive leadership toolkit should be rolled out with a pilot program to ensure that any significant concerns arise. Once the pilot program is worked through, within six months of taking the assessments and understanding where we as leaders need to be and what we need to work on, it will become implemented throughout the company. Making sure to do a phased rollout will help with the implementation to make sure that this toolkit is successful. Once the toolkit has been in effect every three months, we will need to review where we are as leaders and make any course corrections that have come up through these evaluations. Metrics and Deliverables The metrics will be employee satisfaction, increased production, and higher retention rates. They are creating training modules geared toward each leader's needs. Implement the toolkit within each of their teams and seek regular feedback from their teams on the effectiveness of the toolkit.

8 Critical milestones for tracking the toolkit's success are using the SMART system when creating the goals for the adaptive toolkit. Conducting a 360-degree feedback assessment measures the leader's engagement and commitment to the program. "When the connection between the leaders' behavior and an important metric like engagement is made visible, they better comprehend the consequences of their actions." (Zenger & Folkman, 2020) It is also important to celebrate the new toolkit's successes and consistently update it with new information or improvements. Methods and Communication We must ensure that we are " Building two-way relationships with your employees is the only way to build a successful internal communications strategy ." (Jounay, 2019) The communication for this toolkit should be done in a few steps. It will consist of meetings, emails, and memos. Having a meeting with supporting information such as the results from the employee survey is broken down into the areas we are great at and where we are struggling. This will help engage the management team and address how my audience takes the information. Knowing my audience and how they like to receive their information is essential. Some make data, charts, etc., while others may like the approach of meeting and discussing the results and the needs of the adaptive toolkit. Feedback and communication Within the adaptive leadership toolkit, employees should be encouraged to provide feedback on any issues that come up throughout the improvements, which can create an environment of growth and encouragement. Feedback should be reviewed regularly by creating a committee with management and employees to address concerns from the survey results and throughout the year.

9 References Doyle, A. (2017). Adaptive Challenges Require Adaptive Leaders. Performance Improvement , 56 (9), 18–26. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1002/pfi.21735 Leadership Development Toolkit . (2008). https://www.opm.gov/wiki/uploads/docs/wiki/opm/training/leadership_toolkit.pdf Jounay, V. (2019, September 8). Internal Communications: the Shift Toward Two-Way Relationships . Haiilo. https://haiilo.com/blog/internal-communications-the-shift-toward- two-way-relationships/ Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2022, January 10). The Leadership Challenge - Enable Others to Act: How Building Relationships (and Trust) Can Elevate Your Business. Www.leadershipchallenge.com. https://www.leadershipchallenge.com/lead-on/enable-others-to-act-how-building- relationships-and-trust-can-elevate-your-business.aspx Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1987). The Leadership Challenge. Jossey-Bass. Lundberg, I. (2021, February 16). Council Post: Why Emotional And Social Intelligence Are Must-Have Leadership Traits . Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2021/02/16/why-emotional-and- social-intelligence-are-must-have-leadership-traits/?sh=5adb6985a6ee

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10 Solis, B. (2021, August 2). Here’s What Happens When You Focus on Employees to Better Serve Your Customers - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM SALESFORCE . Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/sponsored/2021/08/heres-what-happens-when-you-focus-on- employees-to-better-serve-your-customers Theodore, B. (2017, August 23). On becoming a leader: Enable Others to Act. Northstar Team Development. https://northstarteamdevelopment.com/2017/08/23/on-becoming-a- leader-enable-others-to-act/ Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2020, December 23). What Makes a 360-Degree Review Successful? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/12/what-makes-a-360-degree-review- successful

Communication Strategy for Adaptive Leadership ToolkitMBA530Final

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