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Leadership, Followership and Star Performance

About This Program:

Leadership, Followership and Star Performance is a unique productivity enhancement process based on the research of Dr. Robert E. Kelley, management consultant, professor and author of the best-seller "HOW TO BE A STAR AT WORK: Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed."

Over a seven-year period, Dr. Kelley and his colleagues led nearly 1,000 knowledge workers at AT&T's Bell Labs through their unique development process-with outstanding results. Program participants noted such dramatic improvements in their personal productivity that the program was featured in a Harvard Business Review article, "How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers." The research has since been validated in several additional global organizations.

In this one-day program, learners are introduced to the research and are provided with an overview of the nine breakthrough strategies. Particular emphasis is given to the followership and leadership work strategies. Despite negative stereotypes associated with the word 'follower,' learners come to understand in the course that followers play a necessary and critical role in helping the organization achieve its strategic objectives. Learners complete a pre-session assessment of their followership 'styles' and discuss specific behaviors associated with each style. They identify ways they can help themselves and others be more exemplary in their followership behaviors. Additional emphasis is provided on the impact of leadership behavior on followership styles, and learners focus on understanding how they can gain credibility and trust among their followers, especially when they have to lead without formal authority.

Who Should Attend:

The program is targeted to knowledge workers- engineers, developers, project managers, programmers, designers, analysts, technicians and professionals who are relied on for their technical competence, problem-solving skills and ability to exercise good judgment. Most groups include both individual contributors and managers-anyone seeking to improve their personal productivity and the value they contribute to their organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Accelerate personal productivity by learning and applying new approaches to accomplishing work
• Understand how to become more engaged in the success of the enterprise, and apply talents toward that success
• Learn how to gain credibility and influence when leading others, especially in the absence of position power (i.e., authority)

Program Outline:

Research on Star Performers

• To provide the context for the topic, the facilitator presents and discusses the findings from Robert Kelley's research on star performers at AT&T's Bell Labs
• Facilitator introduces the Star@Work model and provides an overview of the nine work strategies
• Participants briefly introduce themselves

Defining Exemplary Followership

• Facilitator describes the two primary characteristics that distinguish exemplary followers from others
• Facilitator introduces the Followership Styles Grid, and reviews the characteristics of each type of follower
• Facilitator leads a discussion about the influence of organizational and other factors on followership style

Encouraging Exemplary Followership in Others

• Participants discuss approaches for working effectively with other followers, and develop strategies for encouraging others toward exemplary followership
• Participants consider the obligations of a follower by reviewing and discussing the followership checklist
• Facilitator summarizes the key aspects of exemplary followership and links them to PPG's Prime Success Factors

Followership-Leadership Simulated Interaction

• Volunteers simulate a task force meeting that focuses on tensions inherent in the leadership-followership relationship. The activity provides an opportunity to highlight the critical role of the follower, and demonstrate skills used by exemplary followers and leaders
• Simulation participants and observers give feedback about the simulation and discuss the interaction between the leader and the followers
• Through group discussion, the facilitator clarifies the relationship between leaders and followers as defined by Robert Kelley's research and addresses the big "L" versus small "L" leadership styles
• The facilitator introduces the three leadership quotients and demonstrates how strength in each quotient is essential to exemplary followership

Building Credibility and Trust with Your Leader

• Facilitator introduces strategies used by star followers and leaders to build credibility and trust.
• Participants assess their own credibility and trustworthiness

Examining Your Level of Independent, Critical Thinking

• Through group discussion, participants clarify the value of and highlight opportunities for original and evaluative thinking
• Participants discuss what it means to disagree agreeably and demonstrate a courageous conscience
• With a partner, participants consider specific opportunities to contribute independent, critical thinking

Discoveries and Goal Setting

• Participants note their discoveries
• Facilitator reviews instructions for writing a development objective and SMART goals
• Participants formulate objectives, and draft several development goals that will impact their performance
• Participants select their coaching partners and share discoveries and goals with them
• Goals are refined based on feedback and participants make plans to discuss goals with their managers

Professor Bios:

David Binder is a Principal Consultant for Avid Learner Inc., based in Pittsburgh PA, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business.

David has worked with organizations in industries including manufacturing, high technology, banking, service, health care and government. He has extensive experience in delivering training on productivity, leadership, organizational change, team-building, problem-solving, performance management and selection skills to employees and all management levels.

He has worked with Hewlett Packard, Eaton Corporation, PPG Industries, Metavante Corporation, Nova Chemicals, and other clients on projects aimed at improving the productivity of knowledge workers through the use of the nine strategies described in How to be a Star at Work, written by David's colleague, Dr. Robert Kelley. He has also designed and delivered executive leadership development programs for organizations like DaimlerChrysler AG, The Edgewood Chemical and Biological Defense Center, and Sandvik Steel Company.

As an adjunct professor David has taught courses in both the full-time MBA and part-time Executive MBA programs at the Katz School.

David Huffner is a Principal Consultant for Avid Learner Inc., based in Pittsburgh PA. David has worked with organizations in industries including manufacturing, high technology, banking, service, health care and government. He has extensive experience in delivering training on leadership, organizational change, team-building, problem-solving, productivity, performance management and selection skills to employees and all management levels.

He has worked with Hewlett Packard, AirTouch Communications, Delta Air Lines, Sharp Laboratories, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lexis-Nexis, American Electric Power, Kimberley-Clark, the American Association of Retired Persons and Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute on projects aimed at improving the productivity of knowledge workers.

Before joining Avid Learner, David was a Product Manager and Senior Consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI) in Pittsburgh. At DDI, he was instrumental in researching new learning and performance technologies. He led efforts to develop alternative delivery platforms, including CD-ROM and self-study versions of classroom training programs, and served as a subject matter expert in the development of an on-line performance and learning system. He also developed distributed learning solutions to meet self-paced, same-time and asynchronous collaborative learning needs.