1. pygmalion
work climate,
leadership and coaching
diciembre 2011, ejecant, santander
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Monday, January 2, 12

2. day 1 pygmalion
pygmalion
lifelong learning
leadership
On day one of the course we looked at how we learn and how we will need to develop what
Foucalt called the ‘Technologies of the self’, self knowledge and the capacity for deep
transformative learning to adapt to the ever changing world we live in.
We looked at different types of learning: cumulative, assimilative, transcendent and
transformative and discovered that we had done plenty of the first two types and very little of the
last two types of learning throughout our education. We also discovered why exams are
absolutely no use at all and only help us to forget what we learn faster.
As regards leadership, we looked at Western’s 4 leadership discourses: from the ‘controller’
discourse in , therapist, charismatic and the more recent eco-leader discourse. We also looked
at the dangers of what Mendl described as the ‘Romance’ of leadership, or attributing to much
importance to the leader and not enough to the context or the team around them.
And finally, we looked at what leadership really means, when we ‘do’ it and what makes it
different from management and command. To do this we looked at the ideas of Keith Grint and
the concept of critical, tame and wicked problems. Grint maintains that the more complex a
problem, when it is impossible to separate the problem from its context (think ‘the Euro’,
‘global warming’) the less likely an ‘elegant’ solution exists, and the greater the need for
collaborative, negotiated, ‘clumsy’ solutions.
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3. day 2 pygmalion
pygmalion
coaching, work climate and
EI leadership
On day 2 we continued looking at the ideas of Grint and applied them to the cultural theory Grid/Group
ideas of Mary Douglas. In this way we started to develop empathetic responses to problems along the
lines of “How would a neo-liberal approach this problem? What would the military do? What would my
grandparents do? Sadly, we agreed that too many of us are trapped in Fatalist Communities at work.
We also started to identify different leadership styles and took a careful look at the ideas of Daniel
Goleman and Richard Boyatzis... Why careful? Well, there is a lot of bad, bad science in the world of
coaching, business and economics, and Goleman’s idea that we can model our behaviour on others for
economic gain sounds a little ‘individualist’. And because it is good to question what we are sold as
answers.
Goleman and Boyatzis identify 6 leadership styles (commander and pace-setter as potentially
dissonant and toxic; visionary, coach, affiliative and democratic as examples of what Goleman calls
resonant leadership. We talked about the pros and cons of these styles and where they fit in
Western’s leadership discourses and which style might be most useful when tackling a wicked
problem.
We also practiced a coaching session using the GROW model of a typical leadership coaching session
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4. day 3 and 4
Work climate, collaborative pygmalion
pygmalion
leadership, power authority and
persuasion
On days 3 and 4 we talked about how culture and organisational context affect leaders.
we learnt how to see ourselves as a product of the social group around us and discovered the
multiple identities we possess (or which possess us). We are not the same person in a bar on
the latest trends in ‘collaborative leadership’ and how this affects the climate of organisations
and workplaces. We discovered that when we work as a group towards a clear objective we are
all a lot more creative than, say, Renzo Piano, and all we need is some old newspapers, tape and
straws. Which led us to the nature of work today and the skills we need. At this point we talked
about what works and what doesn’t. Spanish restataurants are a success story today, but why?
and more importantly how? With the help of business guru Gary Hamel we looked at companies
like Gore, Whole Foods Market and others to see how they had radically changed work culture to
improve climate (and results). Without forgetting that Hamel once praised Enron as the best
company ever!
And although unpleasant men still earn 20% more than the rest, we concluded that change in
the way we do things at work is necessary for all of us.
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5. day 5 - Change and pygmalion
pygmalion
leading ourselves
On the final day of the course we looked at why most change is really complicated (according to
Grint up to 75% of change programs fails). Most business studies courses teach us the process
of change, but not how to get people to accept change. The work by Kubler Ross and others
show us that people have a very hard time adapting to new circumstances. And, as we saw
earlier, transformative learning hurts.More modern approaches to change take the emotional,
social aspects of change management into account.
Finally, we looked at leadership of the self and some useful (and some useless) things you can
do if you’re ‘between jobs’. The interview material is here. Remember: the capacity to accept
responsibility and lead others at work will give you enormous advantages over the rest.
Leadership is something we learn through trial and error, observation and practice. It requires
psychology, of course, but also sociology, philosophy and values to lead others. Above all,
effective leaders are ‘accountable’ for their actions.
We’ve seen in the course how culture and context are constantly evolving and how leadership
trends evolve with them. We agreed that we are moving into a period where we will demand
greater ‘collaboration’, where there is often no single, simple solution to the problems we face.
For me , the greatest challenge we face is converting managers into leaders...
Good luck!
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6. for further reading
• Grint, K, (2005) ‘Problems, Problems, Problems: The Social Construction of Leadership’, Human
Relations, 58,11, 1467- 1494.
• Management challenges for the 21st Century - Peter Drucker
• Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (2001) Primal Leadership
• The Great Reset - Richard Florida
• Collinson, D. (2005) Rethinking followership: A post-structuralist analysis of follower identities
• Hickman, G. (2010) Leading Change in Multiple Contexts
• Western, S. (2008) Leadership: a critical text
• Douglas, M, (1966) Purity and Danger, Routledge.
• Games for trainers - Harrison Snow
• G. Hamel, (2007), The Future of Management, Harvard
• Knud Illeris et al, (2009) Contemporary Theories of Learning, Routledge.
• Michael Foley, (2010)The Age of Absurdity, Simon & Schuster
• Richard Wiseman, 2010, 59 seconds.
• Dave Grey et al, (2011) Gamestorming, O’Reilly
• Norcross et al Discredited Psychological Treatments and Tests: A Delphi Poll http://
Monday, January 2, 12