BARBARA KELLERMAN ON LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP

Communication is an essential part of the leadership equation. It is not only top down communication that is important here though. As modern leadership theory has developed, old top-down communication-only autocratic models of leadership have been sidelined for new approaches.

One leadership commentator who has explored these new aspects of leadership is Barbara Kellerman, the James MacGregor Burns lecturer in public leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the founding executive director of the Kennedy School’s Centre for Public Leadership. Kellerman has written a number of books on leadership, notably Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters (2004); and her latest book, Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders, published by Harvard Business School Press in February, 2008.

In a recent interview, Kellerman spoke to Idea-Log about leadership, followership and communication.

Is leadership changing in a way that means two-way communication becomes more important?

The old way of leading and managing was command and control. By and large, that does not wash anymore. Compared to the leadership literature of a decade or so ago, you are finding a far more democratic impulse.

In its context, leadership is much more democratic. It requires more participation, more attention to your audience. It’s almost like being an entertainer; if you lose your audience nowadays as a leader or a manager, if they turn against you and start to walk out, metaphorically at least, you are going to have greater trouble than you would have ten or twenty years ago.

So, it is much more related to being popular, well liked, well understood; and about greater participation in leadership and management, broadly present throughout the organisation, top down.

In terms of the bonding between leader and follower, does that mean leaders have to be better at articulating their values?

Anything a leader can do to bring in their audience, bring in subordinates, incorporate them into the story, sharing the meaning making, will be to their advantage. The corporate, organisational, or non-profit, leader needs to be more of a politician now. The political dynamics of leading, and the interpersonal dynamics of leading, play a larger role than they once did.

What about leaders who struggle to connect with followers?

Unless they keep tabs on their followers, leaders will be evaded. That can be a positive or a negative force. Where followers have concerns that their leaders are not paying attention to -- the environment, for example, or animal rights -- people will simply take matters into their own hands.

And what are the dangers of not paying attention?

Leaders who don’t pay serious attention to subordinates miss out on an enormous opportunity to lead wisely and well. You need to be able to distinguish among your subordinates and between them, in order to lead appropriately for the particular audience you’re trying to target. It’s a bit like selling a product, where instead of targeting your audience, you simply try to sell it in the same way to people who are in fact very different.

So, it’s important for leaders to be able to sell their product -- the goals they wish to achieve, with their audience in mind.

QUALITY IS IN THE MIND OF THE BEHOLDER

Business school academics have recently come up with some evidence to back up the assertion that "you get what you pay for". Or at least "you get what you think you pay for."

The research was published in a paper Marketing Actions Can Modulate Neural Representations of Experienced Pleasantness, and led by Baba Shiv, associate professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business in the US.

Shiv is an expert on the way that emotion affects decision-making. In economics there is a basic assumption, according to Shiv, that someone's experienced pleasantness (EP) from consuming a product is just down to the product's intrinsic properties and the individual's physical need—in this case thirst – for the product. Marketers, however, try to shape consumer behaviour by manipulating the price of a product. Through a kind of learning loop mechanism EP can shape future behaviour. But also, it appears, the actual physical function of the brain.

So, for example, Shiv has demonstrated that people who paid more for an energy drink, like Red Bull, could solve more brain teaser problems than those who paid a discounted price for the same product.

In this case the study involved 11 Caltech graduate students who were asked to try five different Cabernet Sauvignons. In reality, however, only three wines were used, with two of those offered up twice. Wine number one was labelled with its true bottle price of $5, and a fake price of $45. Wine two was priced at $90 –its real price - as well as being given a fictitious $10 tag. Wine three was correctly priced at $35.

The students, who were asked how much they enjoyed each wine, were also given functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to observe how the part of the brain that indicated pleasure reacted.

For a start the participants said that they could taste five different wines, and that the most expensive tasted best. Most interesting, though, was the fact that an expectation of quality led to an actual physical perception of increased quality indicated on the MRI. In other words, the higher the product was priced, the better the quality.

As Shiv says: "Price is not just about inferences of quality, but can actually affect real quality. So, in essence, [price] is changing people's experiences with a product and, therefore, the outcomes from consuming this product."

Or: your brain makes sure that you get what you think you are paying for.

CHINESE BRAND CHALLENGE

With over a billion eager consumers waiting to snap up their products, it is no surprise that the issue of how to advertise effectively in China is high on the agenda of Western based multinational corporations, and their advertising agencies.

Research by Nader Tavassoli, professor of marketing, at London Business School highlights the challenge that Western companies face when trying to enter markets in China.

Tavassoli draws attention to the challenges of branding and marketing relating to the most apparently simple of issues - the translation of branding copy in English into its Chinese logograph counterpart.

It transpires, however, that a different approach is required to get over the brand message in China from that in the US or the UK. With over 10,000 logographs each corresponding to a single spoken syllable, the Chinese language is visually rich in a way that English is not.

For maximum impact when creating branding and advertising messages in Chinese, marketers should be aware of a number of issues, says Tavassoli.

For example, reading logographs involves more visual processing. Consequently, visual features, such as colours assume greater significance in branding. Unfortunately, the strong resonance of colour with brand means that creating copycat brands is easier using Chinese logographs.

Equally, Chinese consumers are more sensitive to the fonts used. So for example, Chinese consumers are more attuned to the perceived femininity or masculinity of fonts. Use a masculine font to advertise a new lipstick and sales may not meet expectations.

The spatial location of design elements assumes greater significance to a Chinese consumer. And so changes in design layout may trigger unexpected responses.

Western ads frequently use music, jingles and other audio elements in conjunction with linguistic elements to create a brand image. In China, however, the importance attached to visual elements such as logos and other design elements, means that it is these, rather than sounds, that are likely to have a greater impact in terms of ad retrieval cues.

Finally, marketing best practice in the West holds that referencing the brand name verbally early on in any advertisings or marketing material is important in terms of creating lasting impression. In China, however, says Tavassoli, the order in which verbal information is presented is not so important.

Style it seems, is as important as substance, when it comes to composing ads in China.

STORY-TELLING: PASSAGE TO INDIA

In keeping with the global business theme the Economic Times in India reports that Western businesses entering the Indian market struggle to grasp the concept that India has a tradition of verbal communication in business. By way of attestation to the importance of the oral tradition in India, the article points out that the epic poem, the Mahabharata, was, according to legend, related by Vyasa and recorded on palm leaf manuscripts by the elephant-headed Ganesha using his tusk as his pen. Yet the tale of Mahabharata comes to the Indian people most commonly in the form of a narration. Just as the collection of Ancient Indian texts called the Vedas, from the Hindu religion, are supposedly "sruti" – or that which is heard. Apparently, the Indian fondness love of the spoken word, became apparent to one French student on an internship with an Indian software company. The student noticed that his colleagues didn't write down meeting minutes, or project plans, yet everyone still seemed to know what to do and when.

There were telephone conversations a plenty, but not much note taking. Despite the lack of written planning, the software project was completed on schedule. The client, though, didn't bother to check the requirement document against the finished product—they just wanted to know that it worked. The client relied less on manuals, and screenshots, and more on constant phone calls in the weeks that followed, as any problems that cropped up were resolved through verbal discussion.

"Verbal communication is the key to success in the Indian business environment," asserts the article, concluding that email messages are not enough when it comes to team leadership. Instead verbal communication is mandatory, face to face if it is an important issue.

Whether this reliance on the spoken word is down to poor levels of literacy, or a dislike of the permanence of the written word in a country where truth is shifting concept depending on context in many cases, both suggestions offered by the author, is unclear.

What appears certain is that for once idle gossip, chit-chat, story telling, and other forms of verbal communication are to be positively encouraged around the office. And not just at the water cooler or by the photocopier. In a world where work communication seems to be increasingly dominated by the written world whether it is email or text messaging, that's a refreshing thought.

WHAT'S THE IDEA?

Brainstorming, sparking off of your team mates, comedy duos, copywriting teams, R&D research labs populated by groups of brilliant minds; the popular notion seems to be that the rule for the creative process is – two's company, one is devoid of ideas.

Yet the natural assumption that teamwork offers certain advantages in the workplace for innovation and idea generation, may be misplaced. Business school professors from Wharton Business School in the US and INSEAD in France challenge this assumption. After examining two idea generation processes - one, where a team works together as a team, and the other where individuals first work alone and then work as a team – the professors conclude that generating and evaluating ideas within a team is a less effective process than one where individuals are able to work independently for at least part of the time.

The process used by the professors to generate this interesting idea is not known.