Welcome to the AACP Leadership Institute. My name is Lothi Mulder and I'm one of your leadership coaches. Your other coach is Catherine Stekenas and together we will guide you through this entire course and program. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about the course or if there is anything else we can help you with. You can reach us through the Leadership Institute website you see here. This course is organizational savvy and focuses on increasing your self-knowledge, your relationship skills, and your understanding of the culture of your organization and those you work with. There are many definitions of organizational savvy. Many focus on the political aspects and career development or on the job search. However, like everything in leadership, becoming organizationally savvy begins with you. It is your portfolio of competencies of approaches and behaviors used to navigate through your career and organization with success and integrity. This course focuses on increasing knowledge of yourself, your relationship skills, and understanding the culture of your organization. We will address multiple aspects of organizational savvy and provide you with insights and explanations for you to analyze and understand your organizational culture inventory report, your pre-course self-assessment. This is the overview of this Leadership Institute course. As you can see, the pre-course assessment should be completed prior to watching this webinar. Instructions to access it are on the next slide. At the end of the webinar, there will be a short test to assess your learning and a course evaluation. Once you have fulfilled these steps, the course will be considered completed and you can download the course transcript through your dashboard and claim your continuing education credits. The Organizational Cultural Inventory, the OCI, is an organizational tool that measures behavioral norms and expectations. In other words, what it takes for you and other people to fit in and meet expectations in your organization. The OCI also measures outcomes associated with culture that provide insights into the need for cultural change. In order to access the self-assessment, copy the link you see on this slide and follow these instructions. Organizational savvy spans a broad spectrum of skills, behaviors, attitudes, values, and relationships. In this course, we will focus on three areas of organizational savvy. We begin with explaining what organizational savvy means and what the personal, professional, and organizational implications are. Next, we will identify the shared values and beliefs that create and impact the thinking and behaviors that are part of an organization's culture. The Organizational Cultural Inventory self-assessment provides you with insights into the norms and expectations within your workplace. And lastly, we will discuss the significance of personal and positional power and your circle of influence. In the first section of this course, we will discuss the difference between organizational climate and culture. In addition, we will provide you with insights to analyze and understand your own organizational culture inventory profile. In basic terms, organizational savvy is emotional intelligence on both a personal and organizational level. It is a deep understanding of how individuals, teams, and the organization function and your ability to react appropriately to their behaviors. Organizational savvy begins with self-awareness about your behavior and approaches to organizational culture. This course will increase your skills and competencies related to the culture of the organization you work in. We will provide you with tools to analyze and understand the results of your organizational culture inventory profile to increase your skills and competencies in responding effectively to what's expected in your organization. In the Harvard Business Review series on office politics, experts were consulted to provide insights and practical advice for navigating the political playing field in an organization. Politics on the job is most often unavoidable because people have their own needs and wants, emotions and insecurities, opinions and prejudices. Employ a certain level of caution with those you work with and always be aware that people are competitive in the workplace. for the attention from their bosses, for promotions and recognition. First of all, building relationships and influencing people are, of course, essential to a successful career, both internally and externally. Furthermore, understanding the informal networks and even creating an organizational influence map can be of great benefit to your interactions at work. Knowing those internal networks will provide you with insights when creating an organization. Knowing those networks will provide you with insights when creating internal buy-in and when you need a mover and shaker in a particular field. However, be careful and stay away from negative players and social clicks. Your co-workers and upper management might have different views of those you associate with because as easy as it is to be associated with people and viewed in a positive light, you can also be judged or considered guilty by association. Climate has to do with perceptions, the information that people select and organize strictly by using their senses. Through perceptions we form an understanding of how things are or how things have been around here. For instance, as a newcomer, you might walk into an organization and see that workspaces are unique and highly personalized. Climate is perceptual, it's what you sense and perceive. Climate includes perception of systems, for example reward systems, to structures, such as distribution of influence, and technology, such as the design of their jobs. Climate also reflects outcomes of the culture, such as engagement, teamwork and perceived quality. A short overview of climate is that it is past and present focused, perceptual, so what people sense and perceive, and how things have been and are today. It is easier to change, it has short-term implications, and the outcomes are less reliably predicted. Organizational culture is the way we are expected to do things. Culture has to do with shared interpretations and drawn conclusions. Culture draws conclusions regarding the norms, so what is expected, the values, what is important, and the assumptions, so what's taken for granted as being true. Based on what we perceive about our organization, namely the climate, we infer how we should behave in order to fit in and to be successful, the culture. So if newcomers perceive that workspaces in their organization are unique and highly personalized, their co-workers are friendly toward one another, and employees make decisions on their own without the manager's input, they may conclude that they should openly express themselves, cooperate with others, and take initiative in order to fit in and succeed. To the extent that most people in the organization have come to these same conclusions, these beliefs define the organization's day-to-day operating culture. Culture is cognitive, it is what people believe and know. It reflects shared values, what is important, and beliefs, how things work. Culture encompasses norms and expectations that influence the way members of the organization think and behave. Please note, however, that norms and expectations, the current culture, are not always in alignment with shared values, the ideal culture. A short overview of culture is that it is organizational, future-focused, and cognitive, what people believe and know. It is about what is expected, valued, or assumed. It is harder to change, and the implications are long-term. Outcomes of culture are more reliably predicted. Many leaders focus exclusively on managing or changing the climate. Relatively few leaders pay attention to or take responsibility for the culture. While both climate and culture influence the performance and effectiveness of individuals, groups, and organizations, culture tends to be a more reliable predictor of behavior and performance than climate. This is because people generally act on their beliefs about what they need to do to fit in and succeed, rather than automatically reacting to what they perceive during a given moment. For example, in some organizations, people actively offer suggestions and ideas for improving the organization, even though there are no rules, company slogans, posters, or banners indicating that they should do so. In other organizations, people withhold their opinions and suggestions, even after their organizations have invested substantial time and money in initiatives to increase employee involvement, empowerment, or participation. In both cases, people's behavior are driven by their beliefs regarding what is truly expected and required to succeed, or at least survive, in their organizations, rather than being driven by their perceptions of current, possibly short-lived, symbols or events. In addition, certain aspects of climate that leaders may think are neutral or even positive can have a negative, possibly unanticipated impact on culture. For example, the use of performance-based rewards can lead employees to believe they must compete rather than cooperate in order to make it in their organization. Although culture is a more direct predictor of behavior and performance than climate, leaders need to focus on both. Employees act on the culture, and culture is shaped and reinforced by the climate. In particular, leaders need to examine the culture to understand the causes of people's behavior and performance. They then need to look at the climate to identify what can be done to reinforce desired beliefs and behavioral norms, as well as to change beliefs and norms that are undesired and counterproductive. To create change, leaders need to focus on changing climate, but with an eye towards its impact on culture. Culture then needs to be monitored to determine whether changes in the climate are effective. By actively focusing on both climate and culture, leaders will be more effective in creating and reinforcing the kinds of environments that lead to desired results. The organizational culture inventory measures the current behavioral norms and expectations of members within the organization. This inventory provides a point-in-time picture of the culture of your organization. It focuses on how members believe they should interact with one another in carrying out their work and meeting the expectations of their supervisors. The reliability and validity of the OCI is well documented. The survey is normed and has been completed by individuals from thousands of organizations throughout the world. The OCI helps identify the need for cultural transformation in an organization or department. It also enhances strategy implementation and supports employee engagement. Furthermore, the OCI can be used to gauge readiness for change and it addresses barriers to agility, adaptability and innovation. The OCI can help facilitate mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances and it evaluates the impact of change efforts when using the culture survey again and again to measure progress and identify what is working and what is not. The OCI uses the same circumplex as the Lifestyles Inventory Assessment of the Change Course. The circumplex has 12 specific styles of thinking and behavior. A thinking style is a set of thoughts, words and communication which produces a distinct pattern that determines one's behavior. You can see the 12 styles here. Achievement, Self-actualizing, Humanistic Encouraging, Affiliative, Approval, Conventional, Dependent, Avoidance, Oppositional, Power, Competitive and Perfectionistic. We will go over each style after we discuss the three separate clusters. The 12 styles divide into three types of cultures or clusters of styles that you can see here. Constructive, Passive-Defensive and Aggressive-Defensive. The Constructive cultures promote effective goal-setting and achievement, growth and learning and teamwork and collaboration. Passive-Defensive cultures lead to conformity, rigidity and lack of team member accountability and initiative. And the Aggressive-Defensive cultures lead to internal competition, management by exception and short-term emphasis as opposed to long-term effectiveness. The Constructive cluster includes the four different styles that you see here. Achievement, Self-actualizing, Humanistic Encouraging and Affiliative. They revolve around interacting with others and approaching tasks in ways that will help employees to meet their higher-order satisfaction needs. The Passive-Defensive cluster includes the Approval, Conventional, Dependent and Avoidance styles. These revolve around interacting with people in ways that will not threaten their own security. The Aggressive-Defensive cluster includes the Oppositional, Power, Competitive and Perfectionistic styles. This cluster is about approaching tasks in a forceful way to protect their status and security. Everyone exhibits a unique combination of styles. Effective organizations, teams and individuals show stronger tendencies along the Constructive styles. The characteristics of Achievement are that employees are expected to set realistic goals and solve problems effectively. With Self-actualizing, employees are expected to gain enjoyment from their work and produce high-quality products and services. With Humanistic Encouraging, employees are expected to be supportive, constructive and open to influence in dealing with others. And with Affiliative, employees are expected to be friendly, open and sensitive to the satisfaction of the workgroup. Effective organizations, teams and individuals show weaker tendencies across the Passive-Defensive styles. We all have experienced these types of expectations in organizations and their related behaviors. There is an emphasis on being good with the Passive-Defensive styles. The characteristics of approval are that employees are expected to agree with, gain the approval of and be liked by others. With conventional, employees are expected to conform, follow the rules and make a good impression. With dependent, employees are expected to do what they are told and clear all decisions with supervisors. And the characteristics of avoidance are that employees are expected to shift responsibilities to others and avoid being blamed for mistakes. Effective organizations, teams and individuals also show weaker tendencies across the aggressive defensive styles. Some people actually view these styles as positive, but they are not the key to sustainable results since members focus more on looking good than delivering sustainable results as a team. The characteristics of oppositional are employees who are expected to gain status and influence by being critical and constantly challenging one another. With power, employees are expected to take charge and control others and make decisions autocratically. With competitive, employees are expected to operate in a win-lose framework and work against their peers to be noticed. And with perfectionistic, employees are expected to avoid making mistakes, work long hours and keep on top of everything. The 12 OCI styles also divide based on the extent to which each style has a task or people orientation. Task orientation represents thinking and behavior that is primarily concerned with tasks. People orientation represents thinking and behavior that is oriented towards people. The OCI styles are also positioned in the circumflex according to satisfaction or security needs. Higher order satisfaction represents thinking and behavior motivated by a need for satisfaction, the sense of gratification, pleasure or contentment that comes from doing simply because it is personally fulfilling. Lower order security represents thinking and behavior motivated by a need for security, the strong desire to protect oneself from what one perceives as dangerous or threatening. You can see here how the two dimensions are dividing the circumflex. This is the OCI circumflex. On the top, you see the constructive styles in blue, the passive defensive styles in green on the bottom right and the aggressive defensive styles on the left. You can see here how the constructive cluster contributes to one's level of satisfaction combined with a focus on both people and tasks, how the passive defensive cluster promotes the fulfillment of security needs through interaction with people and how the aggressive defensive cluster fulfills security needs through task-related activities. The bold centering you see towards the middle reflects the median score for each of the 12 styles, so our 50% scores above this point and 50% scores below. Ideally, you want to work towards increasing your constructive styles and keep both your passive defensive and aggressive defensive styles below the median. The percentile scores in the table represent results compared to those with the sample group. For example, a percentile score of 29 means that they only scored higher than 29% of the other respondents in the sample. In contrast, a score of 96 means that they scored higher than 96% of the sample group and, in turn, indicates that the style is strongly descriptive of the organization. On the left, you see which styles are included in each of the three clusters. You can find your own results on the first page of your profile. The next slide will illustrate these results in a circumflex. This is a sample report of the OCI. You can see that this organization has some strengths in the constructive styles, namely achievement and self-actualizing, which both scored above the median. Humanistic, encouraging and affiliative are below the median, so this would be a development area. In regard to the aggressive defensive styles, oppositional, power, competitive and perfectionistic are all above the median. The passive defensive styles are all above the median, with dependent being the lowest. Both the passive defensive and aggressive defensive clusters are development areas. Generally speaking, it is harder to convince people that aggressive defensive styles are not good attributes, but once they understand that, they can bring these thought patterns down. It is generally harder to move people away from the passive defensive styles because they are based on a sense of security. These questions will help you to analyze your results, identify and list your organization's strengths and growth opportunities, and it provides you with a plan to become more organizationally savvy. This new knowledge can help you to position yourself for professional growth and further development of your leadership skills and competencies. Next, we will study the difference between positional and personal power. In this next section, we will discuss different forms of power, namely positional and personal power and your circle of influence. Understanding the different types of power you have and how to use them effectively will increase your influence as a leader. Knowing and understanding the difference between positional power and personal power is essential for any leader, emerging leader and employee. Power can be defined in relation to either our position or our personality, skills and persuasiveness. This slide provides a quick overview of the two different powers before we dive into each power more in depth. Positional power is external, for example your job title, and personal power is internal, so for instance your level of persuasiveness. In other words, positional power focuses more on formal authority, while personal power focuses on behavior. Positional power is vertical leadership, as it relies on hierarchical structures, and personal power equals horizontal leadership, as it does not rely on formal authority. Let's look at the differences between positional and personal power in more detail for a clearer understanding of the differences and how to best use both. Positional power is the formal authority within an organization. Our position or job title and its relevance can play a strong role in impacting the organization's goals and our networking skills, either positively or negatively. Your role in key networks is another example of positional power. Are you on the board of an organization? Have you been involved with a partnership for a long time? Are you in line to become chair of a commission? All these things can have an effect on your perceived formal authority. Your level of autonomy, freedom to make important decisions, and the visibility of your position or department can all be construed as positional power. If you have positional power, pay attention to how you use it. Are there certain situations in which you use your positional power to get a decision made? Are there moments where you don't listen to someone because they don't have positional power? Do you name-drop to establish credibility? Do you withhold certain pieces of information in order to appear like you know it the best? These are some questions for you to ponder to become more aware of your own organizational tendencies and see if this might be an area for you to improve upon. Please note that the positive use of positional power can have a strong impact on your networking skills, the perception others have of you, and perceived organizational savvy. Using your positional power wisely and sparingly will set you up for success. Personal power relies on your own skills and competencies, persuasiveness, confidence, and strength, and it is usually acquired in the course of your own development. It starts, like everything else in leadership, with self-awareness. In fact, almost every aspect of personal power is self-acquired and are part of specific job skills and skills that you've gained along the way. Experience is another aspect of personal power. For example, if you have never drawn blood or have never worked in a specific department, the chances of your suggestion for a new procedure being accepted will be slim. This is, of course, assuming that you don't have the positional power skills of persuasion. In short, personal power comes down to being a credible authority on a subject. You have control over the development of your organizational savvy and personal power, because learning about yourself, gaining knowledge and experience, and building credibility is simply a work in progress and an opportunity. As human beings, we have the capacity to be proactive and can focus on the things that we can actually do something about. The opposite side of that coin is that we can add to the stress in our lives by worrying about the things we have no control over. Stephen Covey, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, introduces the concept of circle of concern and circle of influence. The circle of concern, this purple circle, refers to everything we have concerns over, such as our jobs, finances, health, children, war, etc. Everything outside of this circle is of no concern to us. What is in and what is out of this circle varies, of course, per person. Within our circle of concern, there are things we can and things we cannot control. The things we can control are our circle of influence. Proactive people focus most of their energy on the circle of influence, the things we can actually do something about. They are more positive, they focus on enlarging anything and anyone they come in contact with, and this attitude increases their circle of influence. Reactive people focus on the circle of concern. They are more critical, focusing on weaknesses, problems, blaming, victimization and things they cannot control. This behavior and attitude causes their circle of influence to shrink. Take a moment to reflect if you spend more time thinking about the things inside your circle of concern or your circle of influence. Proactive leaders have a circle of concern that is at least the same size as their circle of influence, through knowing how to use their influence effectively and only in those situations they can control. This is because focusing on yourself, something you can control, allows you to influence conditions of a situation you cannot control. For example, I cannot control the train being late. However, it is in my circle of concern because I need to get to a meeting on time. What I can control is my reaction to being late. I can email the people I am meeting with before the meeting has started to let them know that they can get started without me and that I will join them as soon as I can. I can conference in for the first few minutes when I am still on the train. I could take an earlier train just in case it is late. These are all things that are in our control. Reacting proactively instead of reactionary to situations will grow our circle of influence. Improving your organizational savvy includes the self-awareness of what it is you can control and focusing your energy there. This slide illustrates how you can expand your circle of influence. Take the time to record the people and departments within and outside of your organization that it can help you to increase your circle of influence. You also might want to focus on the results of your OCI and identify the behaviors and styles that currently exist in your own workplace. This provides you with a roadmap of where to spend your energy to increase your influence. The modes of networking have transitioned from only a face-to-face approach to also include online networking. Both modes of communication inform and provide people with the resources and insights into what others need and how you can support them. Networking is a process that managers, professionals and employees use to build and maintain collaborative, mutually beneficial relationships with people inside and outside their immediate work unit. If we are to improve our organizational savvy, we need to expand our circle of influence and our networking skills. The Organizational Culture Inventory Assessment can help you to connect and collaborate with others more effectively. You can use the circle of influence model in your networking efforts to increase the circle and your organizational savvy. Ask yourself these questions. What do I need to do to increase my circle of influence? What are my real concerns? Do I have control over those concerns and areas of my life? Who can I reach out to in my network that can help me to increase my circle of influence and reduce my circle of concern? Networking is the first step in developing collaborative relationships. The foundation of collaboration is win-win relationships because it supports both your interests and the goals of others. This approach to networking proactively brings you helpful contacts and builds your credibility. Networking is most effective if you have a specific strategy. Know what specific networking connections you are looking for. Perhaps you are new to a field and want to know more people in that field. Perhaps you are looking to acquire a specific skill set. Maybe you want to keep your options open for future career changes. You can start creating a networking strategy within your own department or with a different department in your organization. Another approach to building your networking skills is to volunteer for certain meetings, tasks, events, or to volunteer outside of work for different organizations. When attending meetings, be early or on time. Do your homework and be prepared. This builds positive energy and expands your circle of influence. Be friendly and make time to help others as you hope they will make time to help you. Lastly, be genuine because if you offer someone to help and it is not sincere, your circle of influence will be negatively affected. Take time to think about the three questions on this slide. If you don't have the answers, give yourself time to think. The most important part of this exercise is pondering the questions so you can begin to develop your own organizational savvy strategy for your career development. And this is the final question to help you wrap up your learning in this course. What will you do differently as a result of what you have just learned about organizational savvy, the climate and culture of your organization, positional and personal power, yourself, and others? Thank you for watching this webinar. If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach us through the Leadership Institute website depicted here. Thank you!

organizational savvy

emotional intelligence

organizational culture

leadership skills

networking strategy

cultural understanding

continuing education