Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report

MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

Executive Summary of our team’s interpretation of the results

Our client is the Executive Director of Casa Allegra Community Services in San Rafael. Casa

Allegra provides homes and activities for developmentally disabled adults. Ann met with the

client on May 10, in the Casa Allegra administrative offices. The client was most interested in

obtaining feedback on her effectiveness as a leader, as she has few peers or leaders with whom

she can consult or solicit feedback. Ann had an informal introductory discussion with our client

and clarified a few minor details about the During the meeting there were a few minor details

about the Leadership/Impact process. clarified, and an informal introductory discussion. In early

August Sheryl contacted the client by phone to introduce herself and discuss the feedback

session. On July 31, Sheryl contacted the client to introduce herself and help the client feel

prepared for the upcoming feedback session. The client stated she reviewed the report slowly and

carefully while on vacation, and is preparing her next steps now. Sheryl assured her that we are

looking forward to hearing her thoughts and action plans and which we will spend significant

time exploring.

Sheryl, please put any relevant impressions of your discussion here.

Our clients Leadership/Impact confidential feedback reports shows that as a leader, our client

is doing most things effectively. To her credit she has a constructive style which is both people

and task oriented; based on the feedback she received weon can concluded she is very effective

in her current role. She has a mentoring and delimitingenvisioning style, which provides a

direction and creates an environment that is “safe” for learning., The tool showed ourOour client

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

is clear about what she does not like, or that she sees herself as clearly defining what she does

and does not expect or want in the work environment..

There is room for improvement in our client’s achievement and perfectionist style. Our client

motivates and encourages others to set challenging, but unrealistic goals. Her strategies of

stimulating thinking and influencing displayshow evidence of an emphasis on linear

thinking,thinking. In addition she and theexhibits the need to justify each step; and usesing her

position to limit people’s discretion.

We recommend to our client that she:

• Engage her staff in developing priorities and time frames.

• Use SMART goals to positively impact employees and the organization.

• Share long-term strategic growth plan with employees.

• Solicit and explore ideas for staff development and future growth. , particularly for staff

development.

Summary of the Leadership/Impact tool and Circumplex constructs

This Leadership Impact survey is designed to provide feedback about leadership styles and

the impact that leaders have on the people in their organizations. the impact that leaders have on

others in that leaders on their organizations, for which they are responsible. The tool also shows

the strategies and techniques that account for this feedback. This report focuses on three major

topics: 1) Leadership Strategies which measure the extent to which a leader personally acts in a

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

prescriptive versus restrictive way; 2). Impact on Others which measures the extent to which a

leader motivates or drives people to behave in Constructive versus Defensive ways; and 3).

Finally, Leadership Effectiveness which measures current performance along personal, in

addition to organizational leadership criteria. (Human Synergistics, June 2006)

When looking at a leader’s impact on others, this can be either Constructive or Defensive, or

possibly extending in both directions, which would then cancel out any significant constructive

impact. Leaders with a constructive impact motivate people to think and behave in achievement-

oriented and cooperative ways that emphasize growth and development. Leaders which exhibit a

constructive style motivate their employees to be both task and people oriented, and also

stimulate need for satisfaction. Leaders with a defensive impact drive people to think in either

aggressive or passive ways to protect their status and position; in doing so a leader stimulates a

need for security in their employees. Whether the impact is Passive or Aggressive this leader’s

behavior causes people to become more people or task oriented, respectively. Therefore, more

effective leaders would exhibit more constructive type behaviors because they lead to better

performance levels, increase levels of personal satisfaction and lower levels of stress. The

following is an example of how effective and ineffective leaders are constructed in the

Circumplex: (Human Synergistics, June 2006)

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

Impact Profiles
Effective/Successful Leaders Ineffective/Unsuccessful Leaders
(n=20) (n=23)

(Leeds, Christopher Ph.D., December 3, 2005)

On the left we see what an effective or successful leader’s results look like. There are strong

eExtensions along the four Constructive Behaviors and relatively weak extensions along the

Aggressive/Defensive and Passive/Defensive areas are the most desirable results. The effective

leader is this example is encouraging positive, Constructive Style behavior and discouraging the

other two types. InBy contrast, you can see the diagram on the right shows an ineffective leader

with strong extensions in the Passive and Aggressive sectors and two negative areas and minimal

extensions in the Constructive sectors. (Human Synergistics, June 2006)

Identification of strengths and opportunities for improvement

In phone conversation with Sheryl, the client stated she found herself looking at

recommendations, “going off on her own tangents a bit,” and creating her own

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

recommendations. It will be important to recognize the client’s accountability for, and desire to

improve her performance during the feedback session, as well as, allowing ample time to explore

her thoughts. The client shared with Sheryl that she “didn’t pick people who are just like me.”

(Client) She identified her survey respondents as follows:

• one professional colleague not associated with Casa Allegra

• two parents of clients currently supported by Casa Allegra (one a current Board member

of the organization, and the other a past Board member)

• two service directors who she works most closely with daily

• two development directors (one the new Controller)

• one (her personal) administrative assistant

Our client explained that she had different relationships with all of these people. The service

and development directors represent the program area of Casa Allegra while the administrative

assistant represents the administrative side of our client’s work. The fact that members of the

Board of Directors have children served by this agency could have impacted her survey data.

This will not, however, be necessary to share with the client.

Our clientsclient’s strengths are in her constructive style. , sShe is well balanced, being both

people and task oriented. Her strategies of mentoring and delimiting provide her employees with

direction and create an environment that is “safe” for learning. Our client is clear about what she

doesn’t like. There is room for improvement in our client’s achievement and perfectionist style.

Our client motivates and encourages others to set challenging, but possibly un unrealistic goals.

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

Her strategies of stimulating thinking and influencing show evidence of an emphasis on linear

thinking and the need to justify each step; and using her position to limit people’s discretion.

Our client’s Circumplex followsis below:

(Human Synergistics, June 2006)

The client’s responses reflect almost full coverage in all of the Constructive styles which is

exactly what we want is reflected in an effective leader. By contrast you can see the negative

Passive/Defensive and the Aggressive/Defensive styles are all contained within the first three

sectors, which is less than 50%. When reviewing the responses by others, there is also a strong

extension into the Constructive Styles with the Affiliate sector having the largest extension for

both the client and others; meaning the client motivates and encourages others to treat people as

members of a team, to be sensitive to the needs of others, and to interact in cooperative ways. A

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

large gap in responses by the client versus all others is indicative of a lack of insight on the

leader’s part as to how other perceives them. The largest gaps were Achievement and

Perfectionist.

Below is the client’s strategies summary:

(Human Synergistics, June 2006)

When reviewing the ten Strategy Summaries we understand that Prescriptive strategies are

most effective. An effective leader will have the Prescriptive areas showing numbers closer to

four by both the client and others, meaning the positive prescriptive strategies the client wants to

exhibit are seen by others. In this slide we can see the client has strong Prescriptive numbers in

the Envisioning and Role Modeling Strategies. In fact this leader sees herself as being more

restrictive than the delimiting area than others have found her. She also views herself as either

being more passive in her mentoring skills, or thinks she should be more passive, than is the case

with how others see her. It is possible that she is canceling out her own effectiveness in these

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

areas by lack of clarity, or perhaps true confusion, in what her role is or should be. Because

others see her as less pass or aggressive that she is, this will help her to understand their

perspectives.

(Human Synergistics, June 2006)

The slide above reflects positive Monitoring and Providing Feedback Prescriptive Strategies and

minimal Restrictive Strategies. In this example, most of the client’s Restrictive Strategies are a 1

or below, which is indicative of an effective leader.

Proposed suggestions for the leader on way to positively impact areas in need of

improvement

How do we become more effective as a Leader? There are three areas we need to examine. In

looking at Organizational Effectiveness, leaders would like to be viewed by the people around

them as being visionary and future-oriented. They also want to empower employees, bringing

out the best in them, and look at long term performance. With respect to personal effectiveness,

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

leaders want to be viewed as relaxed and at ease, ready for promotion to a higher level, accepting

of feedback, and interested in self-development. Finally, in terms of balance, a leader wants to be

viewed as being properly valued by the organization. This means midway between being

undervalued and overrated. They also want to be midway between having too much authority

and too little authority. (Human Synergistics, June 2006) There also needs to be a balance in

advancing their success against the organizations. We understand the cross-section between an

individual’s striving for growth, development and success, and the organization’s goal of

maximizing productivity. These strategies are broken down into two different types; Prescriptive

and Restrictive. Prescriptive leadership strategies are those which facilitate activities and

promote behaviors towards goals and opportunities. Restrictive strategies, on the other hand are

those which constrain thought, development or activities, and prohibit behaviors towards goals

and opportunities. A leader using a lot of these strategies could be seen as conforming to the

rules, rather than soliciting development, change and even excellence. Some examples of

Prescriptive behaviors are: envisioning, mentoring, reinforcing, and influencing. Some

examples of Restrictive behavior are: circumscribing and constraining.

When coaching our client we will begin with open ended questions, in order to gather her

views and thoughts about the process and confidential feedback report. We will lead the

discussion in a way that allows her to self-discover the possibilities for growth. For example, if

she has concerns, ask “What specifically are you focusing on? How does this interpretation affect

you? Or, what needs to happen for you to be comfortable with this?” We can also offer to

practice a few minutes of role playing with her, if this will help.

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

Initially, we will be prepared to adapt our discussion to her thoughts and needs, gently

guiding the discussion to our recommendation that the tool indicates are needed. We are

cognizant of needing to avoid falling to common traps in giving feedback presented by Tom

Ucko. These traps include, flooding the client with data, failing to deal with resistance on her

part, and softening tough feedback. As two coaches working together, we can help our client by

noticing if one of us is falling into these traps.

In addition, we will focus a great deal on our client’s leadership effectiveness and strengths,

emphasizing all of the things she is doing correctly. We will help her clarify which constructive

strategies to employ and suggest she make time for periodic reflection for the reviewing the

information in her confidential feedback report.

Our team will recommend that in order to empower her people and push decision making

down in her organization, that she engages her staff in developing her priorities and time lines

and; using SMART goals (to allow employees an opportunity to help create the future and make

a positive impact in their organization). We will also recommend that our client share long-term

strategic growth plans with her team. Finally, we will recommend that our client solicit and

explore her staff’s ideas for their own development and future growth.

The final task in the coaching session is helping the client plan the next steps. Now that the

areas for improvement are identified, it is important the client plan how to implement these

improvements and reflect on her success over time.

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 Leadership/Impact Case Analysis Report
MBA 5104
Sheryl Daida, Ann Thalman, Ken Voohrees
August 5, 2006

Works Cited

Client. Executive Director, Casa Allegra Community Services. 31 July 2006.

Human Synergistics, Leadership/Impact Confidential Feedback Report for Chris Bonfiglio.

Dominican University Learning Lab June 2006.

Leeds, Christopher Ph.D. MBA 5101, Leadership/Impact presentation December 3, 2005.

Lusnar, Mark. MBA 5104. Leadership Class presentations.

Ucko, Tom and Schmuckler.. Giving Feedback to Leaders: Avoiding the Traps. Presented July 8,

2006.

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