At is simplest, leadership is the act of influencing people to accomplish an organization’s goals. Not so easy, is it? How skilled are you at influencing people?

This e-newsletter is devoted to helping leaders increase their knowleldge, develop new skills, and expand their self-confidence.

Leadership is a complex process involving the interactions of leaders, followers and situations. Leaders and followers engage in two basic types of activities: tasks— getting things done and relationships— the way they get tasks done.

Additionally, situations independent of leaders and followers, such as unrelated market forces, will affect leaders and followers. Situations can literally engulf leaders and followers (e.g., natural disasters or radically new market forces that render whole industries extinct).

Followers outnumber leaders so naturally, there is diversity of needs, skills, and abilities. With globalization this is more true than ever. Notwithstanding, while there are many factors that contribute to effective workplaces, effective leadership is the single most important factor!

What is your leadership style? Do you have more than one? Are you able to adjust your style to the demands of different situations? Leadership style is about how we get things done.

Research has shown that there are universal leadership styles— both good and bad, effective and not so effective. Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatsis call the them resonant and dissonant leadership styles. Resonant leadership styles are:

• Visionary

• Affiliative

• Participative

• Coaching

Dissonant Styles are:

• Directive

• Pacesetting

All leadership styles can be appropriate at given times. For example, directive leadership is absolutely necessary in an emergency, but over time, directive leadership kills initiative, saps morale, and drives people away from your organization. By the same token, participative leadership is great for getting people involved and committed, but by itself, is not very effective for accomplishing long-term goals.

The most effective leaders are capable of utilizing all the leadership styles. More importantly, effective leaders know which style is appropriate for a given situation. Finally, effective leaders rarely apply a single style. Effective leadership requires blending styles, especially in large organizations made up of very diverse functional areas.

Our last issue was the first of three dealing with change. In it, we discussed "resiliency," which means an individual's capacity to absorb high levels of change while displaying minimal dysfunctional behavior, and we discussed the idea that everyone has different levels of resiliency. According to Daryl Connor, this can be called an individual's "speed of change." In this issue, we discuss the symptoms of burnout.

Initial Symptoms of Burnout   Burnout on change does not happen all at once. Like other kinds of burnout, it is gradual; eventually reaching a tipping point. The following behaviors may indicate the beginning stages of change burnout:

• poor communication and reduced trust;

• decreased honesty and directness;

• defensive and blaming behavior;

• reduced willingness to take risks;

• poor decision-making;

• increased conflict with fellow workers;

• inappropriate outbursts on the job;

More Serious Symptoms of Burnout

As change increases in speed and individuals become increasingly unable to absorb that change, additional symptoms may appear:

• feelings of victimization and a lack of empowerment (blaming others and failing to take responsibility for our own actions);

• lower morale;

• headaches;

• fatigue;

• stomach aches;

• chronic absenteeism;

• apathy or compliance behavior;

• feelings of resignation.

Very Serious Symptoms of Burnout

When individuals are overwhelmed with change and can no longer handle it, the predominant reaction may be some type of anger. Here are some of the symptoms which indicate that you are "maxed out":

• sabotage;

• chronic depression;

• substance abuse or other addictive behaviors;

• physical or psychological breakdowns;

• family abuse; and

• suicide.

Summary

Resistance is a natural reaction to change in our lives. Those changes might be in our work lives - who we report to or how we do our job - or they might be in our personal lives - changes in our relationships with friends or family. "Good" change is as stressful as "bad" change. A promotion can cause as much stress as a divorce. We have only a certain, finite amount of "resiliency" to deal with the changes in our lives. When those changes exceed our ability to deal with change, we may begin to exhibit some symptoms of dysfunction.

But we can learn to deal with change - resiliency is something we can learn and develop. In our next issue we will talk about ways to increase the ability to deal with change. After all, if the world is going to keep changing, our best hope is to increase our threshold of resiliency, and decrease burnout.