Advance Course in Social Psychology

Module-11
Lecture-51
Group Leadership
Prof. Pooja Garg
Associate Professor
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

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➢Mentoring: It is the formal process in which employees receive help, either
formally or informally, from more experienced colleagues in the organization as a
means of helping them develop their careers.

In the process of mentoring, mentors also may come from outside the organization,
but such relationships are more likely to take the form of coaching.

This approach is unlikely to include a formal assessment of a leader’s strengths and

limitations, and tends to focus on personal and professional support.

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A potential problem with mentoring is that protégés (i.e., the individuals helped by
mentors) may become so highly connected to their mentors that they fail to think
independently.

Soon, what a mentored employee does is just what the mentor would have done.
Although this is beneficial, it can also be potentially limiting, leading to a
narrowness of thought.

This problem is especially likely to occur in the case of executive coaching because
individuals making important decisions may fear straying
from the tried-and-true solutions of their mentors. And
whenever this occurs, the organization is denied any fresh
new perspective that the less seasoned executive might be
able to provide.
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➢Job Assignments: One of the most effective ways of training leaders is by assigning
them to positions that allow them to gain “on-the-job” experience.

With this in mind, many companies intentionally assign personnel to relatively

unfamiliar positions in other countries so they can broaden their experiences by
developing new areas of familiarity.

For example, the Coca-Cola Company transferred more than 300 professional and
managerial employees from the United States to facilities
abroad for one year in an effort to develop leadership skills
before returning them home to assume new leadership
positions.

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Procter & Gamble does the same thing on a regular basis, assigning prospective
leaders to positions at foreign affiliates for periods of one to three years.

For job assignments to serve their developmental function, it is necessary for the
newly assigned positions to provide the kind of opportunities that make learning
possible.

These jobs give newly developing leaders opportunities to try out different
approaches to leadership so they can determine what works for them.
.

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In other words, they should be given the latitude to try different approaches, even if
they fail.

It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of the job assignment is to facilitate
learning, in which some degree of failure is inevitable.

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➢Action Learning: Much of the learning that takes place when people are taught to
lead occurs in the classroom. The problem with this approach, however, is that
shortly after the formal training sessions are over, people revert to their old ways
when back at their jobs, resulting in little if any developmental progress.

To combat this problem, many organizations have been turning to action learning,
which is a continuous process of learning and reflection that is supported by
colleagues and that emphasizes getting things done.

The underlying assumption of action learning is that leaders

develop most effectively when they are working on real-time
organizational problems.

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Citibank used action learning to help develop its leaders, who were having difficulty
thinking about problems from a broad perspective. Specifically, they took the
following steps:

1. The issues to be worked on were selected by heads of business units. These had
to be ones that affected total Citibank performance.
2. Participants were selected from throughout the world based on a thorough
review of their talents.
3. A three-day orientation session was held off-site in which team-building skills
were practiced.
4. For two to three weeks, data were collected about
effective banking practices from both inside and outside
Citibank.

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5.These findings were systematically analyzed and recommendations were
developed.
6. Findings were presented to area heads and the CEO in 90-minute meetings.
7. A one-day debriefing session was held with a coach. These focused on the
recommendations, team processes, and individual development opportunities.
8. One to two weeks later, senior managers followed up and made decisions
regarding the various recommendations.

Action learning has been used not only at Citibank, but also at such organizations as
General Electric (to develop new markets), ARAMARK
(to promote cross-cultural opportunities), Shell Oil (to alter
perceptions of the company’s financial strength), and the U.S.
Army((to share lessons from battlefield experiences).

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 The Ethics Angle: Using Leadership Development Techniques
to Promote Authentic Leaders

Individuals considered authentic leaders may be effective because of their

emphasis on morality and ethics in their relationships with others. Scientists have
observed that leadership development techniques have the ability to promote
authentic leaders and possess four particular qualities that contribute to their
effectiveness as:

i)Self-awareness: The extent to which people are aware of

their own strengths and weaknesses and also understand
their own emotions and personalities.

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Self-awareness may be developed by using 360-degree feedback. The idea is that by
gaining insight into how we are viewed by others (e.g., followers, peers,
supervisors), it becomes possible to discover inconsistencies between the ways we
see ourselves and how others see us.

Focusing on this can help people derive insight into their own values and beliefs.
And, of course, it is useful as a means of identifying strengths and weaknesses.

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ii) Unbiased processing: The degree to which individuals are capable of judging and
accepting their positive and negative qualities in an objective fashion. Unbiased
processing may be developed by using assessment centers.

With this in mind, it has been recommended that people being trained to
participate in assessment centers, where they can take part in experiential
exercises that allow them to gain insight into themselves. Participants are asked to
adopt various roles (e.g., supervisor, employee) in the course of discussing various
topics (e.g., giving performance feedback).

Analyzing these dialogues with the help of others in

attendance allows people to learn unbiased information
about themselves.

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iii) Authentic behavioral acting: The ability to act in ways that are consistent with
personal values and preferences instead of ones designed merely to get others to
respond positively (e.g., by offering rewards).

Authentic behavior or acting may be developed by using coaching or mentoring.

Inherent in the experience of being coached or mentored is the potential to observe
role models who are especially good at behaving in ways that are consistent with
their own values. For example, a highly authentic leader (coach or mentor) may be
paired with an aspiring leader (trainee or protégé),
allowing the trainee to observe what the authentic
leader is doing and the beneficial reactions that result.

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iv)Relational authenticity: The ability to share information about oneself, developing
close and trusting relations with others who recognize both good and bad in them.
Relational authenticity can be developed by using 360-degree feedback.

Authentic relations are ones characterized by openness and truthfulness. As a first

step toward developing these qualities, it is quite useful to receive information from
others who know you well (e.g., because you have worked together over the years).
If the setting is structured appropriately, feedback may
emerge that may prove invaluable when it comes to
developing relational authenticity.

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Thank You

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