LPO Exam Framework/Concept Overview

Team Effectiveness Model:

 Split into three basics – team levers, team builders, team results
 Inputs (what do we have)
 Organizational: culture, information systems, incentives, strategy, senior
leadership (STAR)
 Team: team leader, prior goal attainment, prior efficacy
 Individual: personal situations, personal rewards, job characteristics, cognitive
biases
 Ex. Strong hierarchy, reward systems
 Mediators (processes, emergent states), connects inputs with outputs
 Processes: Task vs relationship conflict
 Task vs. personal conflict
 Task = good, personal = bad
 Emergent states: psychological
 Team efficacy: team believes they can get stuff done
 Team cohesion: strong emotional bonds between team members, too
high = members strive too hard for harmony, too low = can’t work
together
 Groupthink: type of cognitive/confirmation bias, because everyone is
thinking the same thing, you’re going to automatically think this too,
you want to avoid this
 Psychological safety: team members feel accepted and well-respected
 Outcomes – good output, better team, better individuals
 **all segments affect one another creating an episodic cycle**
Star Model – all centered around and feeds into the culture:
 Evaluate extent that the organizational culture supports business goals, find ways to improve
alignment, evaluate how organization culture fits personal career goals
 1. Determine the core values
 2. Identify problems which problems/situations fall under each pillar
 3. Recommend changes to specific pillars
 Vision & STRATEGY: overall direction, business model, goals/objective, values, mission
 If missing/unclear = confusion, no common direction
 Structure: functional, divisional, matrix’s, basis of teams, interdependence, (De)centralization,
formalization, span of control
 if structure isn’t aligned to strategy = friction, inability to mobilize resources, ineffective
execution, lost opportunity for competitive advantage
 where is the location of decision power?
 Are there interdependencies
 Functional – grouped according to purpose (IT, finance)
 Pro – employees with shared skills and knowledge, greater efficiency
 Con – no communication/coordination with other departments
 Divisional – smaller organizations within umbrella of a large organization covering
different products and market areas
 Pro: needs met more rapidly and more specifically to geography/product
 Con: communication inhibited between experts, costly
 Matrix – hybrid of divisional and functional
  Pro: benefits of functional and divisional within single organization (fast, flexible,
strong, coordination)
 Con: power struggle between areas with dual management, confusion/conflict
over authority and responsibilities
 Span of control: # of direct reports to a manager
 Interdependencies: pooled, sequential, reciprocal
 Steep vs. flat hierarchy
 Formal vs. informal rols
 People & People Systems: Recruitment & selections, training & development, performance
appraisal, feedback & coaching, promotion and rotation
 if people aren’t enabled and empowered = low performance, effort without results, low
employee satisfaction
 link to individual performance model – ability, motivations, resources, direction
 Reward Systems: Intrinsic/extrinsic rewards, amount of rewards, base vs. variable, individual,
group, organization based, what takes reward risks? What kind?
 If metrics and rewards don’t support goals = internal competition, wrong results,
diffused energy, low standards, frustration and turnover
 Intrinsic = intangible, this is more sustainable in the future but difficult to implement
 Extrinsic = tangible, easy to implement, dependent on external validation
 Consider the compensation system, individual or team based? Variable or base?
 Theory of motivation: action to results = results to evaluation = evaluations to outcomes
= outcome to need satisfaction
 Satisfaction = internalized values = motivation = commitment
 Information & Decision-Making PROCESS – how are decisions made? Who makes decisions?
Reliability and timeliness?
 If development of coordinating mechanisms is left to change = gridlock, lack of
collaboration across boundaries
 Vertical process = allocation of talent and budget
 Horizontal process = lateral relationships between departments
 Accessibility of information? Conflict with structure?
 What are risks associated with decision making?
 ALL BUILDS TO CULTURE: the values – how important are the values? How shared are the
values?
 ALL AREAS OF STAR MUST ALIGN TO CREATE A GOOD CULTURE

LPO Course
Three dimensions for Trust:
 Honesty/Integrity
 Credibility/Knowledge
 Caring/Benevolence
We aim to keep you in flow; high skills, high challenge
Flow: Fully immersed and involved, feeling both energized and focused, performing at one’s peak, and
fully enjoying the process of the activity
 Need to keep learning and increasing challenge to maintain flow
  Interdependency increases conflicts & emotions in teams
 Task conflict can be constructive
 Personal criticism, relationship conflict is destructive
 Either kinds can lead to negative emotions, which need to be managed

 Good leader vs. bad leader | Good follower vs. bad follower
BCPC
 In cross-functional teams with different hierarchies, leaders must manage power dynamics and
create psychological safety
 An individual does not have all the answers
o Teams synthesize important information/perspectives into brand new ideas
 Conflict management styles + HEXACO + EI
TEDx – How to turn a group of strangers into a team (Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School)
 Teaming – When people come together quickly (often temporarily) to solve new/urgent/unusual
problems
 “Professional culture clash” between professions & industries creates huge problems
 Situational Humility + Curiosity = Psychological Safety
o “It’s hard to learn if you already know”
o “It’s either me or you” is not true – Scarcity doesn’t exist in the situation
The Competitive Imperative of Learning
 Execution-as-learning > Execution-as-efficiency
o Sacrifice short-term efficiency
o Use best knowledge obtainable
o Enable employee collaborating by making information available
o Continuously capture data to discover and study how work is really being done
 Execution-as-efficiency
o Manufacturing-dominated era focused on employees performing controllable repetitive
tasks for maximum efficiency
 Motivated with carrots (tasks completed  higher pay) and sticks (reprimands
& threat of job loss)
 Employees are “fearful” and do not speak up about ideas, questions, &
mistakes
o Problem: Employee productivity and individual performance is almost impossible to
measure
 Performance is determined by unmeasurable factors (ex. Intelligent
experimentation, ingenuity, interpersonal skills, resilience in the face of
adversity, etc.)
o Results in:
 Critical information and ideas failing to rise to the top
 Not enough time & resources for people to learn (Ex. Not switching to a better
software because employee will work slower when they start learning)
 Unhealthy internal competition
 Companies who think they can do no wrong
 Confirmation Bias
 Psychological safety is independent from employee accountability
o Healthy organizations foster both by setting strong goals & acknowledging/discussing
uncertainty
 o
 Execution-As-Learning Steps
1) Provide process guidelines that facilitate learning
a. Simplify routine action & highlights discrepancies
2) Provide tools for employees to collaborate in real-time
a. IT systems, face-to-face forums
3) Collect process data
a. Ex. Doctors can deviate from guidelines, but must explain what they did and why
4) Institutionalize disciplined reflection

Note on Workplace Psychology Theories

Fundamental attribution error – Mistake that people frequently make by overestimating the impact of
internal factors and underestimating the impact of external factors
Self-serving bias – When we succeed, we attribute to internal factors. When we fail, we tend to blame
external factors
Cognitive Dissonance – An incompatibility between our attitude and our behavior or another attitude
that causes tension
Self-fulfilling prophecy – Our behavior is heavily influenced by the expectations of those around us
Organizational justice – Employee perception of fairness in the workplace. It is judged based on:
 Distributive justice – perceived fairness of an outcome
 Procedural justice – perceived fairness of the process to determine an outcome
 Interactional justice – perceived degree of respect that is given
 Note: One high dimension can make up for other low dimensions
Learned helplessness – When you believe you have little control over a situation so you don’t try
Five Dimensions of Power
1) Coercive power – ability to punish someone if they do not comply
2) Reward power – ability to bestow positive benefits on employees
 3) Legitimate power – authority inherent in a person’s role
4) Expert power – influence that comes from special knowledge
5) Referent power – influence due to admiration
Decision making is not completely logical and is influenced by stereotypes and confirmation bias
 Escalation of commitment – Sticking with a decision even though there are rational reasons to
change our minds due to sunk costs & embarrassment
 Overconfidence bias
 Availability bias – Tendency to heavily weigh information that is readily available, emotionally
stimulation, or that came to our attention most recently (called to mind easily)
Tall Poppy Syndrome – When those who are envied are “cut down to size” by jealous onlookers
 To combat this, demonstrate humility and work to contribute to others’ performances
Big Five Personality Model
 Conscientiousness (best predictor of job performance)
o Dependable, more effort, more drive, more organized
o Struggles with creativity
 Emotional stability (most related to life/job satisfaction)
o Ability to be calm under stress
o Low score – difficulty dealing with unexpected changes
 Extraversion (predicts performance in jobs that require a lot of personal interaction)
o Comfortable connecting with others, emerge as leaders
o Low score – thoughtful and reserved
 Openness to experience
o Curiosity, adaptable, creative, prefer autonomy, agile learners
o Low score – Prefer the familiar
 Agreeableness (predicts performance in interpersonally oriented jobs)
o Defer to the needs of others, liked by others, follow rules, engage in helping behavior
 Honesty-Humility (New addition)
o High value on justice & modesty
o Low score – seen as deceitful & pretentious
Perceived Organizational Support – How the employee thinks the company values their work & well-
being
 High POS leads to employees who have higher commitment & performance
Organizational Citizenship Behavior – When employees engage in activities that are not required but
contribute to the workplace
Psychological contract – Implicit, influential, and infrequently discussed obligations between employee
and employer (ex. Diligent working when unobserved, help save company money, etc.)
 Impossible to address every consideration in employment contract
Theories of Motivation
 Expectancy theory – The way we act depends on what we expect to happen and how much we
want that outcome (Three key relationships need to be positive)
o Effort and performance
o Performance and reward
o Reward and personal needs
  Equity theory – An employee will assess what a job gives him and what he is putting in and
compare this ratio to what others are experiencing (inside and outside the workplace)
o Related to distributive justice

Feedback
Building Block #1: Feedback process

Building Block #2: Core Content of Feedback

Virtual Teams & COVID-19

Working Well in Virtual Teams is a Superpower
 In non-pandemic times, virtual teams are created for tasks that require multiple perspectives
and a lot of adaptation and persuasion (ex. Cross-company implementation of technology, key
account management, global supply chain management)
 Virtual teams are created for demanding tasks but create value that face-to-face teams couldn’t
create
Five challenges that ordinary virtual teams face taken in COVID-19 context:
1) Monitor Trust
a. Original concern – Establishing trust virtually
b. New concern – Maintaining & monitoring team trust
c. Resolution – Monitor to catch any violation early by checking in with team members
and being mindful of their interactions; establish policies (ex. 48 hour response)
2) Focus on Process Gains
a. Original concern – Informal interactions do not really occur
b. New concern – Being able to foster informal interactions through the transition
c. Resolution – Focus on process gains (ex. Communication) by providing direct channels
for information sharing (ex. Happy hour, e-introductions, e-training)
3) Foster Inclusion through Psychological Safety
a. Original concern – Creating an inclusive culture
b. New concern – Creating an inclusive culture without occasional face-to-face
c. Resolution – Allowing teams to learn more about each other at a deeper level in the
current platform
4) Assess Teamwork Often
a. Overall concern – Ability to monitor team members’ performance
b. Resolution – Focus on assessing collaborative behaviors and providing constructive
feedback to the team

A Note on Leader Character and Organizational Culture

Character – Habit of being that empowers individuals to bring out the best of themselves across
contexts
 Traits – Individual attributes that influence behavior
o Relatively stable, predict “default mode” that guides a person’s behavior
 Values – General “rules of conduct” that people learn/adopt as their own
 Adaptive behaviors – Ability to shift one’s behaviors when the context norms change
Character arises when the three become interconnected and mutually inform each other
Organization Culture

 Underlying basic assumptions – an organization’s default mode, by which the members deal
with everyday issues
o May become obsolete over time
 Organizational values – somewhat explicit social norms regarding appropriateness of actions,
choices, and behaviors
 Cultural artifacts – symbolic tangible/intangible creations of the organization (ex. Google
doodles)
o “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Google employee petition against Project Maven
 Heroes – Individuals valued by the organization and whose deeds are celebrated by its members
o Role models that shape the way organizational members think  how they tackle
problems
Using Character to Shape a Culture of Excellence
Map the Underlying Assumptions of the Existing Culture
 Contrast with operating market/environment
Anchoring Organizational Values within Universal, Virtuous Values
 Universal values are contained in facets of character
Bringing Values to life
 Create cultural artifacts that embody the 11 character dimensions
 Ex. “flagship projects”, Mandela developing Rugby team & hiring former “enemies” as
bodyguards
Sustaining a Culture of Excellence (Align all 5 components with Organizational Culture)
Strategy – “The company’s formula for winning”
 Mission statement, vision, overarching goals/objects, etc.
Structure – Formal ways by which work is accomplished
 Shape - # of levels in organization’s hierarchy
 Specialization - # of job specialties required to complete a task (high specialization  only
perform outlined tasks)
 Distribution of Power – Degree of centralization
o “Matrix” design approach – Employees report to “functional manager” and also “project
manager”
Processes – Information Flow & Decision-Making
 Vertical processes – managerial decisions/actions regarding the allocation of resources & talent
 Horizontal processes – workflow & operations
Rewards – Ensure effort applied to asks is measured and acknowledged
 Tangible rewards lose their energizing effect after a certain income level
People/HR Management – Recruitment, selection, rotation, training, and development of individuals
 Misalignment leads to employees deviating towards practices implied by culture
 Human capital resources – high-level unit or firm capabilities arising from effective
combinations of individual-level capabilities
o Can drive competitive advantage
 Competencies – The sets of knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable individuals to perform
effectively in each job
o Incorporate character dimensions & competencies in hiring
 Vicarious Learning – role modelling
 Feedforward Loop – When great leaders use their unique position to communicate information
available for upper echelons to their close collaborators
 Feedback Loop
  Systems come first and performance comes later
o Systems are more impactful than individual practices

Working with a Bully

Workplace Bullying – Repeated health/career endangering mistreatment of one employee, by 1+
employees
 Form of psychological violence & affects physical/mental health
Dealing with a Bully
1) Understand the bully (Males tend to recruit management, females recruit from social network)
a. Subtle bully – two-faced, passive-aggressive destroyer of reputation
b. Abusive bully – no mercy in public
c. Controlling bully – Withholds resources necessary to succeed
d. Raging bully – out-of-control anger & intimidation
e. Echo bully – mimic bullying behavior
f. Opportunistic bully – competitive people who step on others for career gains
g. Critic bully – false undermine targets behind closed doors (target’s self-identity)
2) Identify type of bullying – Job demands, criticism, work environment, credit/recognition, abusive
behavior (insults, yelling, etc.)
3) Document instances of bullying in detail
a. Specifics, time & date
b. Identify trustworthy allies
c. Determine code violations
4) Determine a plan to resolve bullying
a. Request meeting in professional setting
b. Seek assistance from senior management, third party mediation, legal advice
c. Get medical attention
d. Establish & protect boundaries
e. Do not blame yourself
f. Solicit witness statements
g. Follow internal complaint process
The Toxic Triangle
Leadership That Gets Results
The most effective executives use a collection of distinct leadership styles—each in the right measure, at
just the right time. Such flexibility is tough to put into action but pays off in performance. This can be
learned.
6 Leadership Styles (Hay/McBer study)
1) Coercive – Demands immediate compliance (Do what I tell you)
a. Drive to achieve, initiative, self-control
b. Works best in a crisis, turnaround, or problem with employees
c. Negative
2) Authoritative – Mobilizes people towards a vision (Come with me)
a. Self-confidence, empathy, change catalyst
b. Works best when changes require a new vision, or when a clear direction is needed
c. Most strongly positive (most similar to transformational)
3) Affiliative – Creates emotional bonds and harmony (People come first)
a. Empathy, building relationships, communication
b. Works best to heal team rifts or to motivate people during stressful situations
c. Overall positive
4) Democratic – Builds consensus through participation (What do you think?)
a. Collaboration, team, leadership, communication
b. Works best to build buy-in or to get input from valuable employee
c. Positive
5) Pacesetting – Expects excellence and self-direction (Do as I do, now)
a. Conscientiousness, drive to achieve, initiative
b. Works best to get quick results from a highly motivated/competent team
c. Negative
6) Coaching – Develops people for the future (Try this)
a. Developing others, empathy, self-awareness
b. Works best to help an employee improve performance or develop LT strengths
c. Positive
Climate – 6 Key factors that influence organizational working environment
1) Flexibility – How free employees feel to innovate unencumbered by red tape
2) Responsibility – Employees’ sense of responsibility
3) Standard – Level of standard that is set
4) Rewards – Sense of accuracy about performance feedback and aptness of rewards
5) Clarity – People’s clarity about mission and values
6) Commitment – Level of commitment to a common purpose

Transformational Leadership – The Closest We Have to a “Law” of Leadership (most-studied leadership

theory)
 Leader “transforms” followers to take on direction/mission/vision as their own, beyond their
own self-interest
 Behaviors can be learned
o Idealized influence – Developing vision for team collectively & living it confidently
 Evokes strong emotions & loyalty (Charisma)
 o Intellectualized stimulation – Challenging status quo using evidence & clear thinking
 Evokes innovation & personal growth
o Inspirational motivation – Articulate organizational goals; hold all accountable to high
expectations; stresses importance of the work
 Evokes intrinsic motivation
o Individualized consideration – Encourage/mentor/coach each person; listen to concerns
& attends to others’ needs
 Evokes empathy, compassion

Becoming the Boss

The earliest test of leadership comes with that first assignment to manage others. Most new managers
initially fail this test because of a set of common misconceptions about what it means to be in charge.
 Learning to manage is hard because the skills and methods required for success are different
 Create the Conditions for Your Success (ex. Delhorne could not secure funding for critical
marketing information system and was fired for not meeting certain targets and “sitting back
and not asking for help”)
 It is key to develop a good relationship with your boss, who has gone through the transition to
management
Misconceptions

Drivers of Individual Performance

 Performance is function of ability and motivation (internal), as well as resources and direction
(external)
o None of these 4 buckets can be empty
 Impacts of inputs into buckets is explained by theories of organizational behavior and social
psychology
Extra Notes
 Assume positive intent, assume ignorance over malice
 Authoritarians are weak leaders
 Common Information Effect – Information held by more members before team discussion has
more influence on team judgements (independent of the validity of the information)
 VUCA – Volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous environment