ML18166A139

NRC Leadership Model

ML18166A139
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Issue date:	06/19/2018
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NRC Leadership Model i

June 19, 2018 Preface Through our behaviors and attitudes, every U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) employee, regardless of title or position, provides leadership by influencing work products and the people with whom we interact. Thus, everyone at the NRC should receive clear expectations to understand how we individually and collectively demonstrate leadership in fulfilling the NRC mission.

In light of this, the NRC Leadership Model was developed to provide a roadmap to communicate, in one place, how we individually and collectively demonstrate leadership in fulfilling the NRC mission.

The NRC Leadership Model complements the Principles of Good Regulation (ICORE) and NRC Organizational Values (ISOCCER) by elaborating upon six fundamental characteristics, which are not explicitly addressed by the either the Principles or Values. Specifically, Participative Decision Making Receptivity to new Ideas & Thinking Empowerment and Shared Leadership Diversity in Thought Innovation and Risk Tolerance Collaboration and Teamwork The Model describes the specific leadership behaviors associated with these characteristics that are expected from individuals, supervisors, and team members. It also describes the NRC programs and activities that contribute to, implement, and allow us to hold each other accountable for the concepts and ideals presented in the Leadership Model.

In closing the NRC Leadership Model will help us to nurture a strong organizational culture, enabling us to regulate with excellence into the future and ensure continued success in meeting the NRCs safety and security objectives.

Victor M. McCree i

Executive Director for Operations i

Contents Preface Part I: Introduction What Is a Leadership Model?

How Does the Leadership Model Relate to the Mission, Vision, and Values?

How Do We Inform, Make, and Carry out Decisions at the NRC?

What Is the Importance of Fostering a Climate of Trust?

Part II: PREDICTThe Six Characteristics of the NRC Leadership Model Behaviors for individuals, supervisors/managers, and teams/organizations Part III: People, Processes, and PartnershipsThe NRCs Strategies and Activities To Promote Leadership AppendixSpecific NRC Programs and Activities That Contribute to the NRC Leadership Model ii

Part I. Introduction What Is a Leadership Model?

A leadership model is a set of fundamental beliefs and assumptions about leadership and how it is practiced. At the organizational level, these beliefs should be agreed on, communicated, reinforced, and connected to the mission, vision, values, and desired organizational culture.

Shared understanding and practice of an organizational leadership model contributes to guiding people; creating and sustaining shared culture; and providing opportunities to enhance effectiveness, efficiency, and agility.

How Does the Leadership Model Relate to the Mission, Vision, and Values?

The Leadership Model of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) complements the agencys mission, vision, and valuesthey work together to help explain our organizational culture.

In general, an organizations mission, vision, and values concisely define its function, purpose, and direction. The mission presents what we do, the vision is what we strive to be as we carry out the mission, and the values are how we treat one another and others while fulfilling our mission. Collectively, the mission, vision, and values guide why we do things and why we do them in a certain way and allow us to gauge individual work activities against a common benchmark.

The NRCs mission is to license and regulate the Nations civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and to promote the common defense and security and to protect the environment.

The NRCs vision is to demonstrate the Principles of Good Regulationindependence, clarity, openness, reliability, and efficiency (ICORE)in performing our mission. To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Principles in 2016, the agency created the ICORE acronym and logo.

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The NRC organizational values are integrity, service, openness, commitment, cooperation, excellence, and respect. ISOCCER is an easy-to-remember acronym for these values, with a logo in which the words are displayed around a soccer ball.

The Leadership Model complements ICORE and ISOCCER by elaborating on certain fundamental characteristics (see PREDICT in Part II below) that the principles and values do not explicitly address.

Our behaviors, demonstration of values, and practice of leadership form a foundation for building agency programs and activities that enable us to fulfill our mission and achieve our vision. Our Leadership Model also recognizes that successful leaders apply conscious, balanced effort across three core areasprocesses, partnerships, and people. Figure 1 depicts the Leadership Model.

Figure 1. The NRC Leadership Model 2

How Do We Inform, Make, and Carry out Decisions at the NRC?

The NRC makes many decisions on safety and security and corporate management issues. It is important to make these decisions promptly based on the best available information. Making sound and timely decisions is easier when everyone knows that the agencys approach to informing, making, and carrying out those decisions is the key to successfully accomplishing its mission.

Achieving the mission of the NRC in an effective, efficient, and agile manner requires trust and teamwork to ensure timely decisions made in an open, collaborative environment that visibly demonstrates the agencys values. Whether we are facing a program or corporate issue, freely and respectfully sharing our perspectives better enables us to achieve our mission because the best decisions consider diverse views.

The NRCs most valuable resource is its people, and the decisions resulting from our knowledge and experience reflect the quality of our work and dedication to the mission. Our work often involves issues that are nuanced and complex, technically, legally, and administratively, and warrant careful study. Available facts and opinions must be sought openly when making decisions. Decisionmakers should seek and consider diverse (and possibly conflicting) viewpoints to fully inform final decisions. Although adopting everyones viewpoint is unrealistic, considering all views results in the most effective decision.

Empowerment means that people can either make or influence decisions, depending on their respective roles and responsibilities, in a helpful, sharing, team-oriented environment.

Consistent with the NRCs Principles of Good Regulation, final agency decisions must be based on objective, unbiased assessments of the available information and must be documented with reasons explicitly stated. After the relevant information and views are considered and a decision is made, we are most effective in carrying out our mission when we unify behind the decision and support its implementation with focused teamwork.

The following general expectations of NRC employees support timely and effective decisionmaking:

• We understand our expected role in the decisionmaking process. This includes knowing the identity and role of the decisionmaker for a particular issue and understanding how to keep him or her fully informed.

• While participating in the decisionmaking process, we engage one another in a manner that reflects our organizational values, particularly cooperation (being helpful, sharing, team oriented, and engaged) and respect (being professional, courteous, objective, and compassionate), as well as openness, excellence, and commitment.

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• Consistent with our organizational value of excellence, we strive to achieve the highest quality in our individual and collective actions, providing outstanding assessments and recommendations to decisionmakers.

• We are transparent and forthright while engaging in the decisionmaking process, which reflects our organizational value of openness. We raise any differing views as early as possible to support efficient and timely decisionmaking.

• We are encouraged to use the available NRC processes (e.g., informal discussions, Open Door Policy, Non-concurrence Process, and Differing Professional Opinion Program) to share our perspectives on matters that affect our regulatory decisionmaking and mission accomplishment, without fear of reprisal. Managers are expected to support use of these processes.

• We are expected to support and implement agency actions once the differing views have been considered and a final decision has been made.

• We are accountable for decisions. This includes the responsibility to explain the rationale for decisions, particularly those that differ significantly from the recommended approach.

What Is the Importance of Fostering a Climate of Trust?

Fostering a climate of trust is an important attribute of a high-performing organization. It involves building relationships in an environment where people feel free to speak out knowing that they will be heard, understood, and respected. When we experience and exhibit trust in the workplace, we are more likely to make well-informed decisions, demonstrate behaviors consistent with the leadership characteristics, and fully embrace our organizations vision, mission, and values.

We trust people when we have confidence in their character and competence. There are many studies, books, and consultants that examine the importance of trust in the workplace and offer practical tools to develop trust. The NRC encourages us to continue learning and developing skills and practices throughout our careers as we demonstrate the behaviors described in the NRC Leadership Model. For example, in 2017-2018, the NRC offered training on the Speed of Trust' method developed by Franklin Covey Company. The Behaviors of High Trust identified in Speed of Trust' are consistent with the behaviors in the NRCs Leadership Model, and the tools and techniques of Speed of Trust' offers excellent opportunities to practice these behaviors, set expectations for each other, and communicate with each other about the behaviors.

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Part II. PREDICT: The Six Characteristics of the NRC Leadership Model The importance of the Principles of Good Regulation and the NRC organizational values is well established, and they have served as effective guideposts to the NRCs organizational culture and performance for many years. Both ICORE and ISCOCCER present characteristics that guide our behaviors. The Leadership Model complements ICORE and ISOCCER by elaborating on six fundamental characteristics (PREDICT) that the principles and values do not explicitly address.

Consistency and predictability are necessary components of our regulatory mission and equally critical in leadership. They foster an environment and culture in which people can predict action-based outcomes. The consistent application of these behavioral characteristics is always important and becomes increasingly so during periods of significant change by positioning the NRC to respond more rapidly and productively. The explicit Leadership Model serves as a beacon by establishing characteristics that, when applied, can PREDICT positive results in how we interact and achieve mutual success.

Participative Decisionmaking Receptivity to New Ideas and Thinking Empowerment and Shared Leadership Diversity in Thought The best way to Innovation and Risk Tolerance predict your future Collaboration and Teamwork is to create it.

- Abraham Lincoln P Participative DecisionmakingAll employees have a role in the decisionmaking process, consistent with their assigned responsibilities. This work entails gathering facts and soliciting diverse viewpoints of those involved in the process. To make the most informed and soundest decision, the decisionmaker(s) should consider as many viewpoints as practical and critically assess the merits of each position. Once a decision is made, the person or organizational unit responsible should explain that decision and ensure that it is implemented accordingly.

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R Receptivity to New Ideas and ThinkingWe recognize that a key measure of our organizational agility is our ability to respond to change promptly and effectively. All employees are open to a broad range of possible solutions to resolve problems or find new ways of working.

E Empowerment and Shared LeadershipEach supervisor is expected to give his or her employees the support, access to information, and discretion to perform work consistent with their assigned roles and responsibilities. Each employee is expected to display leadership and initiative while engaging others in a manner that supports the mission and reflects the NRC organizational values and Principles of Good Regulation D Diversity in ThoughtAt the NRC, decisionmaking is enhanced when it incorporates a variety of viewpoints. For this reason, we cultivate a positive environment for the expression of diverse views, alternative approaches, critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, unbiased evaluations, and honest feedback.

I Innovation and Risk ToleranceAll employees are encouraged to actively identify new ways of doing the work of the agency. We embrace failures as learning opportunities that build personal and organizational character, and despite the possibility of falling short of our goal, we persevere in seeking ways to improve.

CT Collaboration and TeamworkWe are inclusive when employees deliberately work together with others internally and externally on a shared goal. This work involves collective brainstorming, debating, and developing possible solutions to inform a decision. Team members share the recognition that the best solutions often come not from a single individual, but through the team working together.

To explain PREDICT, the Leadership Model places particular emphasis on observable behaviors, rather than inherent traits or values. Observing what we do and how we react to each other provides opportunities to build trust through feedback and hold each other accountable.

Each characteristic of PREDICT is demonstrated through the behaviors of individuals, supervisors/managers, and teams/organizations. Every person at the NRC plays a role as an individual leader modeling leadership behaviors, no matter his or her position. In addition to 6

being individual leaders, managers and executives must also demonstrate specific leadership behaviors that enable both individual and organizational success, whether it be communicating goals with clarity, ensuring an open and collaborative work environment, or reinforcing expectations. Lastly, we exhibit specific behaviors in teams or organizations, whether at the branch, division, office, or agency level, that are focused on strategic aspects of our mission and how we act as an organizational unit.

Table 1 identifies the top behaviors currently representative of the six leadership characteristics.

For simplicity, behaviors that apply to multiple characteristics are identified only under the characteristic with which they are primarily associated. Also, behaviors such as being trustworthy, respectful, honest, accountable, and reliable are vital to success in demonstrating all six characteristics as well as the NRC values, so the table does not explicitly identify them.

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

- Ken Blanchard it starts with you 7

Table 1. Behaviors Associated with the Six Leadership Characteristics Leader Behaviors for Characteristic Individuals Supervisors and Executives Teams and Organizations

• Be respectful and communicate

• Proactively provide information and

• Proactively communicate frequently to solicit and provide regular solicit input through regular meetings, regularly through diverse feedback, understand the agencys periodic e-mails, and one-on-one channels to ensure staff is evolving priorities, and actively consider discussions to ensure staff is aware of aware of upcoming major diverse viewpoints. upcoming major decisions and has decisions and can participate ample opportunity to participate in the in the process.

• Take risks and have the confidence to process.

make your opinions heard, while

• Treat every member as recognizing that others also need to be

• Communicate openly and honestly to having value by seeking heard if there is to be trust. address misunderstandings and repair diverse viewpoints, rifts. challenging all to develop as

• Seek individual development, including individuals, and committing working with a mentor and striving to

• Ensure thorough modeling, support, and to communicating across all know your own strengths and promotion of appropriate behaviors so levels of the organization.

weaknesses. that people feel confident to speak up, trust their input will be considered, and

• Commit to transparency, Participative

• Be approachableshow vulnerability, understand the reasons for decisions and direct communication, and Decisionmaking admit mistakes, and be willing to not win how their input was considered. the truth as essential to a full every discussion. understanding of the

• Step outside your comfort zone, and opportunities and challenges

• Be curious and seek a full understanding understand your strengths, weaknesses, we face.

of complex situations. and biases.

• Develop the skills needed to

• Incorporate diverse viewpoints and take

• Create and maintain an environment of have hard conversations, responsibility for identifying and trust, and delegate authority. address misunderstandings, removing barriers to participation and and repair rifts.

communication.

• Spend time getting to know staff members and determine the best method

• Support and implement agency actions to communicate with each one based on once all views have been considered and emotional intelligence. Understand and a final decision has been made. show acceptance of strengths, weaknesses, and differences. Respect each persons value regardless of grade and position.

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Leader Behaviors for Characteristic Individuals Supervisors and Executives Teams and Organizations

• Recognize that the environment is

• Recognize that introducing new ideas

• Promote the use of change continually changing and that previous and thinking constitutes change. management tools and approaches and thinking may also need Ensure that change management tools reinforce expectations.

to change. are used as appropriate.

• Provide resources and

• Demonstrate engagement by providing

• Leverage operating experience and establish priorities to constructive feedback, asking questions, lessons learned before undertaking manage change initiatives raising issues, and offering alternatives important activities, and benchmark collectively. Strike an and solutions. other organizations. appropriate balance between the pace of change and the

• Recognize the need for continual

• Communicate new ideas and thinking organizations capacity to learning and development to ensure with clarity and specificity, and assimilate changes.

Receptivity to your agility in a changing environment. provide a compelling case for change.

New Ideas and

• Promote the use of project Thinking

• Show humility by valuing the views of

• Ensure sound project management management tools and others and seeking to understand the practices in implementing new reinforce expectations.

reasons for new ideas or thinking. solutions and ideas to ensure confidence in the organizations ability

• Reinforce desired behaviors

• Demonstrate active listening and a and capacity to effect change. through recognition.

willingness to set aside personal biases and established ways of working.

• Fully and objectively consider the

• Establish forums for merits of new ideas and thinking, and feedback and disagreement provide constructive feedback in an open and collaborative including the bases for decisions, as work environment.

applicable.

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Leader Behaviors for Characteristic Individuals Supervisors and Executives Teams and Organizations

• Demonstrate confidence in your ability to

• Provide timely, transparent

• Cultivate a shared leadership achieve, and be open, self-motivated, and communication and feedback in all culture that encourages all empowered with the mindset to do your aspects of business. individuals to be best. self-empowered to perform

• Encourage ownership by providing their responsibilities to the

• Take action when appropriate; when in team members with the necessary best of their ability.

doubt, ask. resources and latitude to perform their job effectively, while removing

• Demonstrate equal respect

• Engage in conversations, even when obstacles. for every individuals difficult. contribution and value to the

• Affirm a shared responsibility in the organization, and prioritize

• Seek a clear understanding of your role success and failures of our actions. We > Me and team above Empowerment in the organization and how your effort self.

and Shared contributes to the overall mission.

• Recognize that, with progressively Leadership higher positions of authority,

• Foster an engaged, agile,

• Model the NRC values, hold yourself accountability increases but control and resilient organization accountable for your actions, and decreases, and adjust accordingly. that demonstrates recognize your contribution to the team. acceptance, openness, and

• Facilitate and promote an open and rapid ability to recover from

• Self-identify gaps and frequently reassess engaged coaching environment vital to setbacks.

yourself to grow as an individual. individual development and team growth.

• Commit to embracing a

• Understand the difference between team environment that shifts collaboration and consensus your ideas from win/lose to win/learn will be considered but may not be and improving our collective adopted. willingness to engage productively.

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Leader Behaviors for Characteristic Individuals Supervisors and Executives Teams and Organizations

• Challenge and express ideas.

• Seek to become familiar with staff

• Reaffirm that the collective preferences, provide input in multiple power of diverse ideas can

• Use processes and avenues in place to ways, and remove barriers that may help organizations make share alternative thoughts. hinder communication of ideas. better decisions.

• Be open and respectful of all thoughts

• Seek to become familiar with the

• Support formal and informal and ideas. agencys formal and informal processes programs, mechanisms, and for sharing differing views, and avenues that value diversity

• Ask for and expect feedback, listen to encourage and support these programs in thought and promote its the feedback, support the decisions to enhance decisionmaking. use to improve made. decisionmaking and the

• Ask specific questions designed to elicit agencys safety and security

• Support and encourage others who constructive criticism and diverse mission.

express a differing view by listening and opinions to foster an environment where taking the time to learn about the employees are comfortable sharing their

• Create programs to affirm alternative idea(s). thoughts without fear of reprisal. that harassment, intimidation, Diversity in retaliation, discrimination, or Thought any other threats are not

• Acknowledge, understand, and consider all viewpoints and alternative thoughts. tolerated, and foster diverse Describe the path forward and give an viewpoints without fear of honest rationale and feedback related to reprisal.

decisions (explain the why behind your decisions).

• Affirm that decisionmakers should clearly communicate

• Recognize those who come up with feedback and the rationale creative new ideas. behind their decisions (especially if the decision involved diverse opinions).

• Support programs to recognize those who demonstrate creativity and come up with new ideas.

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Leader Behaviors for Characteristic Individuals Supervisors and Executives Teams and Organizations

• Support and encourage new ideas with

• Encourage and nurture new ideas by

• Build trust in the the potential to enhance performance investing the time and resources that organizations commitment through active participation and enable staff to generate and test them. to innovation by providing constructive feedback. opportunities to be heard,

• Share insights gathered from successful and involved, and create a

• Identify new opportunities and best and unsuccessful idea implementations transparent process for practices that will enable us to perform to enhance the environment for taking vetting and implementing our mission more effectively and risks without the fear of failure. new ideas.

efficiently.

• Encourage open discussions and be

• Leverage individual

• Use insights gained from successful and clear about balancing the risks and development and employee unsuccessful innovations to generate benefits of ideas. skills to generate new ideas Innovation and new and creative ideas. and enhance diversity of Risk Tolerance

• Recognize new ideas. thought.

• Make informed choices by assessing if the benefits of embracing a new

• Support and connect staff to the right

• Communicate continuously approach or idea outweigh the risks. individuals who are able to foster their to foster a culture where success. informed risks and false starts are embraced as learning opportunities.

• Use agencywide approaches to promote the development of innovative ideas and achieve greater benefits from broad implementation.

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Leader Behaviors for Characteristic Individuals Supervisors and Executives Teams and Organizations

• Listen to others without prejudgment,

• Establish clear expectations, roles, and

• Be courageous in encourage participation by all, and fully responsibilities for organizational acknowledging gaps in consider all ideas offered. teamwork and collaboration. behaviors and ensuring accountability up, down, and

• Place the agencys best interests first,

• Inquire as to the best solution rather across the organization.

then your teams, and then your own. than advocating for a position.

• Speak of colleagues with

• Pay attention to othersshow personal

• Act as a role model for teamwork and respect especially when they interest, recognize unique talents and collaboration and the NRCs Principles are not present.

roles, and eliminate distractive behaviors. of Good Regulation. Walk the talk!

• Build teams with diverse Collaboration

• Take actions that are reliable and timely.

• Establish clearly defined goals and membership to promote a and Teamwork Deliver work on time, consistently, and explain intention and context for broad spectrum of views.

reliably. assigned work.

• Establish IT infrastructure to

• Show mutual support for teammates, and

• Establish processes and standards for effectively support do not let them fail. behavior and monitor adherencedo collaboration.

not tolerate poor behaviors.

• Seek to develop and preserve personal

• Speak with one voice to the and organizational relationships.

• Give credit to the team! public.

• Share knowledge with other agencies and professional organizations. Publish informed decisions.

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Part III. People, Processes, and Partnerships NRC Strategies and Activities To Promote Leadership To positively influence an activity or group of people, leaders at the NRC apply conscious, balanced effort and behaviors across three core categoriespeople, processes, and partnerships.1 Developing and appreciating our people, the NRCs most valuable asset, clearly increases our capacity to achieve our mission effectively.

Similarly, leaders provide structure through organizational processes that help us all work towards a common purpose, take reliably consistent actions, and optimize results within our resources. Often, we think of processes (e.g., procedures) as mainly management tools rather than leadership tools, but they are both. (There are many interesting scholarly works that examine the difference between management and leadership). How we establish and use our procedures to guide, influence, and enable progress towards our goals speaks to leadership with respect to our Leadership Model.

Finally, we must foster partnerships because the nature of our work means we depend on each other to succeed at our tasks. Partnering with each other and our key external stakeholders ensures that we make informed decisions and enables efficient problem-solving.

The appendix provides information on specific NRC programs and activities that contribute to the NRC Leadership Model.

1 The three-core-area approach to describe the NRCs Leadership Model has been adapted for NRC use from the works of Dr. John Adair, a preeminent expert in leadership theory.

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