Zero to Dangerous - Workbooks
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The 101 on Peak Performance Leadership

The adaptive leader must “monitor the stress people are experiencing and keep it within a productive range ~ Northouse, 2016
 

Table of Contents

 

Key Takeaways

  1. Ultimately We Want Positive Leadership
  1. Transformational Leadership
  1. Adaptive Leadership
  1. Servant Leadership
  1. Becoming a Flow Conscious Leader
 

Exercise - Identify Five Improvement Points for Yourself as a Leader

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Glossary

Positive Leadership: Positive leadership is an area of study within positive psychology concerning leadership styles, techniques, and behavior that can be classified as deviant—positively deviant. Positive leadership encourages, empowers, and energizes people
Positively Deviant: Being positively deviant means that the style, technique, or behavior the leader engages i n falls outside of the normal range observed in leadership. Think of a bell curve of leadership behaviors, with negative behaviors on the left and positive behaviors on the right. Most leadership behaviors will fall somewhere within the middle, the thickest part of the bell curve. Bad behaviors will fall in the far left tail, while positive leadership behaviors fall in the far right tail.
Negative Leadership: Negative leadership drains them, discourages them, and demoralizes them.
Transformational Leadership: Transformational Leadership is a style that is utilized by leaders possessing specific traits, who look to work alongside their team members to identify change and develop the next action steps. But most importantly, they transform others - developing and empowering their individual followers to become leaders in and of themselves.
Idealized Influence (II): This refers to the way in which transformational leaders exert their influence within a group.
Intellectual Stimulation (IS): Transformational leaders create a diverse and open environment, within which they encourage others to innovate and to form new ideas for the organization and themselves.
Inspirational Motivation (IM): Transformational Leaders play an important role in improving performance, by working to raise team morale through motivational techniques and acting as inspiration for their followers.
Individualized Consideration (IC): Transformational leaders actively work to create a diverse environment and supportive environment, where individual differences are respected and celebrated.
Adaptive Leadership: An adaptive leader is one who can mobilize people to act on tough challenges, even if the solutions to those challenges are not readily apparent.
Technical Challenges: Problems in the workplace or community that are clearly defined with known solutions that can be implemented through existing organizational rules and procedures.
Technical and Adaptive Challenges: Specific and clearly defined challenges. There is however, no set organizational solution to fixing the problem. The leader provides some guidance but followers have to chip in and adapt to changes as the need occurs.
Adaptive Challenges: These present problems that are not clear cut or easily defined. Neither the expertise of the leader nor organizational procedures can address the issues.
Servant Leadership: The servant leadership theory places the needs of others over their own self-interest. The idea is that you serve first, shifting the power to those who are being led.
 

Lesson Resources

  1. High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create It
  1. Flow Research Collective Radio, Paul Zak
  1. Trust Factor, By Paul Zak
  1. Neuroscience of Trust
  1. Unlocking the mask: A look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors, By Avolio, B. J., et al., 2004
  1. Unleashing individual potential: Performance gains through positive organizational behavior and authentic leadership, By Gardner, W., Schermerhorn, J., 2004
  1. Authentic Leadership Development, By Luthens, F., Avolio, B., 2003
  1. You can determine whether a leadership behavior is positive or negative (or neutral) by asking yourself these questions:
    1. Does it encourage or discourage followers?
    2. Does it empower or demoralize followers?
    3. Does it energize or drain followers?
  1. Adaptive Leadership 101:
      • Get on the Balcony: Get away from conflict without dissociating from it entirely. Attain a “high-perch” view to get a full understanding.
      • Identify The Adaptive Challenge: Pinpoint the problem and differentiate between technical and adaptive challenges. Ensure an accurate diagnosis of the problem.
      • Maintain Disciplined Attention: Help to provide focused attention on the key issues at hand.
      • Give the Work Back to the People: Once attention is directed, limit top down influence and redirect problem solving back the people involved.
      • Protect Leadership Voice from Below: Listen to the people who may feel marginalized or judged because of their opinions.
      • Regulate Distress: Help others to become aware of the need for change without the feeling of being overwhelmed by the need for change itself.
  1. Servant Leadership 101
      • Put Yourself Last: Remember, you are merely “in service of” something else.
      • Win by Elevating Others: Seize every opportunity to celebrate someone else.
      • Cultivate Psychological Safety: Celebrate problem identification, discourage problem hiding.
      • Be Candid with Positive Intent: Speak the truth to improve things.
      • Exude Humility & Vulnerability: Especially when confidence in your ability is established.
  1. Becoming A Flow Conscious Leader
      • Elongate the Stimulus Response Gap: The longer this is, the more choice you have around what kind of leader you are. ‣ Sleep, mindfulness, gratitude, nutrition, hydration, exercise, active recovery, burnout avoidance, social connectedness.
      • Fight for Alignment: Ensuring everyone is in sync as much as possible. ‣ Necessary to leverage the shared goals and constant communication triggers.
      • Listen Like Your Life Depends on It: When listening, be intensely present, ensure this is felt by the individual sharing. ‣ Necessary to leverage the close listening triggers.
      • Maximize Autonomy: Find the best people in the world, then get out of their way. ‣ Necessary to leverage the sense of control and autonomy triggers.
      • Create Vulnerability: Reframe vulnerability as bravery to expand information flow. ‣ Necessary to leverage the familiarity, constant communication, close listening triggers.
      • Cultivate Psychological Safety: Minimize fear, maximize resources allocated to productivity. ‣ Consistency is key to psychological safety.
      • Multiply Others: Shut up, listen, encourage feedback, request input, resist problem solving. ‣ Necessary to leverage the equal participation and yes and triggers.
      • Reinforce Purpose & Goals: Remind everyone, all the time, of the goal. ‣ Necessary for sheared goal and shared group risk triggers.
      • Judge By Outcomes Not Inputs: Gauge success by what is achieved, not how much is done. ‣ Leave your people alone, let them work how they work best.
      • Encourage Peak Performance: Encourage and enable your people to hack flow.
 
© THE FLOW RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
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