Managing Generation Y

‘Generation Y’ is the affectionate name given to the demographic cohort that was born between 1980 – 1995, although specific definitions do vary. This group hence forms today’s teenagers and twenty-somethings – a group highly sought after by large recruiters, and whom form the solid base of employees for many multinationals. The problem of how to lead this generation is a hot topic.

What Are Businesses Doing To Attract Generation Y?

As competition has increased among the large graduate recruiters to attract the best ‘Generation Y’ talent, they have been fighting among themselves to paint the best picture of their own workplace. Of course, promises have to be met, and so in painting their company in this brighter way, they have indirectly led to progressive changes in the workplace. These new changes to the working environment include:

1. More flexible working hours for a better work/life balance. (Example – ‘The Big Four‘)

2. Guaranteed acceptance onto management training programmes after preconditions have been met. (Example – Enterprise Rent a Car)

3. Extensive induction training.

4. The opportunity to rotate round departments and roles. (Example – Unilever, P&G and Johnson & Johnson)

5. Higher reliance upon internal promotions to fill vacancies.

It is clear that the recruiters believe that generation Y care less about salary and traditional benefits, and more about the pursuit of an interesting, fulfilling and and less stressful job than their parents. This trend definitely seems to be following the general shift away from Fordism factory workers, and towards independent, respected and empowered workers, that has been taking place in the last century.

What Are Businesses Are Doing To Lead Generation Y?

When it comes to leading ‘Generation Y’ – new leadership styles have evolved to compliment the new ‘people -orientated’ workplace. These have manifested into:

1. Annual reviews taking a more personal development focus, rather than productivity. Managers are trying to adopt more of a ‘coaching’ and ‘supportive’ role. Managers are told to encourage and train employees so that in the future they are able to take their place.

2. A more democratic and team-based way of working – where ‘on-the-job’ training is becoming more popular, and instructions on how to actually ‘get the work done’ is now coming from from experienced teammates more often than the manager.

Do These Methods Actually Work?

The evidence isn’t very clear on this issue. Despite all these new initiatives and opportunities that ‘Generation Y’s parents dreamed of, these young workers are extremely likely to leave a company they join after a short period of time (every 4-5 years on average), which is a far higher rate of turnover than their parents, the ‘baby boomers’.

I believe that this is happening for 2 main reasons. Firstly – only a fraction of companies are actually fulfilling the promises made to potential job candidates. The hype that recruiters drum up is unsustainable and almost impossible for companies to deliver on. This it doesn’t surprise me one bit to discover that graduates are continually drawn to the ‘greener’ grass on the other side of the hill.

Secondly, and this is linked with the first reason, managers are going about implementing these initiatives in a reluctant way and unsatisfactory way. Either managers are attaching too many ‘novelty’ initiatives to rudimentary and menial jobs – such that the employee feels like it’s all a show, or managers are only introducing leadership techniques as part of a ‘token’ effort.

For instance, I’m in disbelief at the number of times I’ve heard managers undermine their human resource counterparts with phrases such as “Now, I’ve been told by the people above to tell you that …”. This sort of attitude in implementing policies if effectively negating any positive effect they were supposed to bring.

Therefore I would argue that, while it appears that ‘Generation Y’ workers are extremely unappreciative of the benefits and perks that exist today – these so-called perks only exist in policy and paper and aren’t created or supported with sincere intention from managers. In fact – this move towards pseudo-policy is alienating our Gen Y workers, and this may be able to explain why they are constantly on the move.

My Recommendation

Changes that companies have made to their leadership and human resource strategies have been well thought out, and do add good value to the role a company could offer a graduate. However I believe that to be able to lead Generation Y effectively, the focus must then be on educating and training managers to sincerely back these new efforts.

Leadership Services

Looking For Infomation On Leadership Services?

You’ve landed on the right page.

Leadership services come in many different flavours and vary in price to suit the budgets of different organisations. The 3 main types of leadership services are:

1. Leadership Coaching

2. Leadership Training

3. Leadership Classes

4. Leadership Development Consulting

What I’ll do is quickly run through each type, and provide a link to a page on Leadership Expert that describes more about the different leadership services.

1. Leadership Coaching

Leadership Coaching is one of the most expensive type of leadership service. Provided by individuals whom are usually qualified by experience, and not necessarily qualification; leadership coaching is aimed at senior management of medium to large businesses.

2. Leadership Training

Leadership Training is an ambiguous term. Is usually refers to corporate training provided to ‘batches’ of employees, particularly upon recruitment to a certain level of management. Leadership training still retains some of the one-on-one interaction that you’d gain from leadership coaching, except this leadership service can help up to 50 employees to develop their leadership skills at the same time. This slashes the cost-per employee dramatically.

3. Leadership Classes

‘Leadership classes‘ is usually used to describe courses that individuals enrol in outside of the course of their employment. These are undertaken usually with the view to improve performance or to improve their prospects for promotion. These classes are usually rather expensive, and hence is an undertaking that really demonstrates the individuals desire to succeed.

4. Leadership Development Consulting

Leadership Development Consulting is a specific branch of leadership services that have a wider scope than other leadership services. While leadership classes and training focus on the personal development of the participant, leadership development consulting is also delivered with the organisations challenges and problems in mind also. Leadership consultants are first briefed on the specific nature of a businesses problems. The consultant will then analyse both the leadership management, and the leadership culture of the company. The consultant will end by apply their own knowledge and techniques to the scenario, to provide a relevant and effective solution.

How Effective Are Leadership Services?

The effectiveness of leadership services are limited chiefly by the employees willingness to open up to new ideas, and to implement ones that they aren’t at first wholly comfortable with. Leadership services don’t necessarily offer ‘agreeable’ solutions – but tried and tested ones, and thus management must be willing to try out techniques that they have previously rejected.

Is There A Cheaper Way To Improve My Leadership Skills?

Of course there is. Like many things in life – if you look in the right places, you’ll always be able to find a great resource for a bargain. I often recommend ‘The Ultimate Leadership Guide‘ to people because it’s an inexpensive and effective way to boost your leadership skills in a short space of time. It only costs a fraction of the price of a single leadership class, so that’s my advice.

Leadership Culture

Leadership Culture – What is leadership culture, which type does your organisation have, and how can you improve it?

Edgar Schein (1985) defines Leadership culture in an organization as being comprised of three elements: Basic assumptions, value and artifacts – with basic assumptions being the most important and in-grained element, and artifacts being the most superficial and easy to change.

Basic Assumptions in Leadership Culture

Basic assumptions evolve in a company after an action is repeatedly performed. These basic assumptions become part of our perception of our collegues and processes, and are so pervasive, they touch upon thought processes such as;

1. What we pay attention to.

2. What things mean.

3. How we should react emotionally.

4. What actions we should take in reaction to day-to-day events.

If you’d like to see a demonstration of different assumptions in action, then I’d ask you to imagine the reaction a Bailiff would have to someone objecting to pay them, and compare this to the reaction a small industrial company would have to someone objecting to pay them. To the bailiff this would be an ordinary and unsurprising occurrence – and they would feel little wrong in continuing to hassle the non-payer for money. On the other hand, a small industrial company would be concerned about maintaining good relationships with customers, and would approach the situation far more sympathetically. Neither reaction is necessarily the universal ‘right’ way to handle this occurrence, this is why different cultures form in the first place.

Values In Leadership Culture

Values are a less permanent form of leadership culture, and thus are more easily changed than assumptions.  Values reflect consensus in the organisation as to how things “ought to be done”. Examples of popular values are:

1. Equal opportunities for all employees regardless of age, race, religion or sexuality.

2. Employees should strive to produce high quality work.

3. Employees should always pursue challenges and opportunities for growth.

Values sound like ‘lip service’ items, but to take ‘pursuing challenges’ as an example – in professional services firms, it is genuinely frowned upon for a member of staff to attempt to stay in their comfort zone and not wish to be promoted further. Values are those beliefs that are commonly held across the company.

Artifacts In Leadership Culture

Artifacts are the most ‘obvious’ and present manifestations of a business’s culture. These include manifestations such as

1. Mission statements.

2. Procedures.

3. Methods of communication.

4. Technology used

5. Business strategy, such as level of customer service

Artifacts are proactively constructed and sculpted, and hence can be controlled easily by management. If however, artifacts that have been over-managed can become in-congruent with the employee’s actual culture – and their influence over organisational culture becomes minimal.

How Can A Leader Change The Leadership Culture?

What this theory demonstrates is that the basic assumptions in a company’s culture need to shift to improve the culture as a whole. This can only be changed through leading by example. This means you need to improve your own leadership skills and display them confidently. If you want to quickly improve your leadership skills then I suggest you check out a cheap product that other leadership professionals and I recommend to our clients: The Ultimate Leadership Guide.

People Leadership

People & Leadership. Two words that are undeniably related. People & Leadership are almost the same thing. Without people, leadership is an empty characteristic. Alternatively without good leadership, no amount of people can help an organisation to meet it’s corporate  goals.

If you’ve landed on this page, you’re probably looking to either develop leadership in other people, or develop your leadership over those people.

People Leadership – Developing Leadership In Others

Developing leadership in others takes time and energy. There are no quick fixes in the area of people leadership. To inspire subordinates and collegues to start their own journey in personal development, you need to have respect from them, and genuine respect is hard to come by in the workplace. Follow the following tips to increase your success at spreading leadership skills.

1. Be patient. Leadership is a complicated skill that needs to be nutured over an lengthy period of time. If you expect people to become leaders overnight, or during a powerpoint presentation, then your goals are unrealistic at best.

2. Teach by example. The best way to share leadership skills is to teach others indirectly. You can do this by simply leading to the best of your ability. This is a crucial point to give more thought. It suggests that you can actually help people develop their leadership skills by simply working on your own!

3. Be as original as possible. Leadership is taught worst when it is delivered in a ‘straight out of the box’ course. To really engage your employees, you’ll have to adjust, tweak, and inject some personality into any formalised training you give.

People Leadership – Developing Your Own Leadership Skills

Pursuing your own leadership development is admittedly an easier process. You are in complete control of your own behaviour and activities, and thus you can shape a plan of action to help improve your leadership skills. Here are some quick tips to help you go about doing so.

1. Educate yourself. One of the easiest and most practical actions you can do right now is to educate yourself and read widely on the subject. This could include looking in our leadership archives to explore deeper into the world of self improvement. You’ll find plenty of articles and material to get you thinking about leadership.

2. Invest in yourself & try out inexpensive e-courses. In the modern age there are a wide range of digital courses out there for you to absorb and master, some of which are available  for the same price as a restaurant meal. Such courses would normally cost hundreds of pounds if taught in person, but due to the ‘free’ delivery of such products – their prices are rock bottom. If you want to quickly improve your leadership skills then I suggest you check out a cheap product that other leadership professionals and I, recommend to our clients: The Ultimate Leadership Guide.

 

Leadership Styles – Autocratic vs Democratic vs Bureaucratic

Research and investigation into different management leadership styles has been fragmented and inconsistent. The key to good leadership development is a good knowledgebase.  That’s why we bring you an in-depth look at 3 key leadership styles that will highlight the benefits and shortfalls commonly associated with each. These styles are autocratic, democratic and bureaucratic. But enough talking – lets get stuck in!

What is Autocratic Leadership?

Autocratic leadership is a classical leadership style with the following characteristics:

1. Manager seeks to make as many decisions as possible

2. Manager seeks to have the most authority and control in decision making

3. Manager seeks to retain responsibility rather than utilise complete delegation

4. Consultation with other colleagues in minimal and decision making becomes a solitary process

5. Managers are less concerned with investing their own leadership development, and prefer to simply work on the task at hand.

The autocratic leadership style is seen as an old fashioned technique. It has existed as long as managers have commanded subordinates, and is still employed by many leaders across the globe. The reason autocratic leadership survives, even if it is outdated, is because it is intuitive, carries instant benefits, and comes natural to many leaders. Many leaders who start pursuing leadership development are often trying to improve upon their organisations autocratic leadership style.

What Are The Benefits Of The Autocratic Leadership Style?

Despite having many critics, the autocratic leadership styles offer many advantages to managers who use them. These include:

Reduced stress due to increased control. Where the manager ultimately has significant legal and personal responsibility for a project, it will comfort them and reduce their stress levels to know that they have control over their fate.

A more productive group ‘while the leader is watching’. The oversight that an autocratic manager exerts over a team improves their working speed and makes them less likely to slack. This is ideal for poorly motivated employees who have little concern or interest in the quality or speed of work performed.

Improved logistics of operations. Having one leader with heavy involvement in many areas makes it more likely that problems are spotted in advance and deadlines met. This makes autocratic leadership ideal for one-off projects with tight deadlines, or complicated work environments where efficient cooperation is key to success.

Faster decision making. When only one person makes decisions with minimal consultation, decisions are made quicker, which will allow the management team to respond to changes in the business environment more quickly.

What Are The Disadvantages Of The Autocratic Leadership Style?

Short-termistic approach to management. While leading autocratically will enable faster decisions to be made in the short term, by robbing subordinates of the opportunity to gain experience and start on their own leadership development,  and learn from their mistakes, the manager is actually de-skilling their workforce which will lead to poorer decisions and productivity in the long run.

Manager perceived as having poor leadership skills. While the autocratic style has merits when used in certain environments (as highlighted below), autocratic leadership style is easy yet unpopular. Managers with poor leadership skills with often revert to this style by default.

Increased workload for the manager. By taking on as much responsibility and involvement as possible, an autocratic leader naturally works at their full capacity, which can lead to long term stress and health problems and could damage working relationships with colleagues. This hyper-focus on work comes at the expense of good leadership development.

People dislike being ordered around. They also dislike being shown very little trust and faith. As a result, the autocratic leadership style can result in a demotivated workforce. This results in the paradox that autocratic leadership styles are a good solution for demotivated workers, but in many cases, it is the leadership style alone that demotivates them in the first place. Generation Y employees particularly dislike this style.

Teams become dependent upon their leader. After becoming conditioned to receive orders and act upon them perfectly, workers lose initiative and the confidence to make decisions on their own. This results in teams of workers who become useless at running operations if they loose contact with their leader. This is the result of a lack of time dedicated to leadership development on the employees part.

When is the Autocratic Leadership Style Effective?

Following on from the merits and drawbacks listed above, the autocratic leadership style is useful in the following work situations:

1. Short term projects with a highly technical, complex or risky element.

2. Work environments where spans of control are wide and hence the manager has little time to devote to each employee.

3. Industries where employees need to perform low-skilled, monotonous and repetitive tasks and generally have low levels of motivation.

4. Projects where the work performed needs to be completed to exact specifications and/or with a tight deadline.

5. Companies that suffer from a high employee turnover, i.e. where time and resources devoted to leadership development would be largely wasted. Although one could argue that a lack of leadership development in the first place caused the high turnover.

What is Democratic Leadership?

Democratic Leadership is the leadership style that promotes the sharing of responsibility, the exercise of delegation and continual consultation. The style has the following characteristics: 1. Manager seeks consultation on all major issues and decisions. 2. Manager effectively delegate tasks to subordinates and give them full control and responsibility for those tasks. 3. Manager welcomes feedback on the results of intiatives and the work environment. 4. Manager encourages others to become leaders and be involved in leadership development.

What Are The Benefits Of The Democratic Leadership Style?

Positive work environment. A culture where junior employees are given fair amount of responsibility and are allowed to challenge themselves is one where employees are more enthused to work and enjoy what they do. Successful initiatives. The process of consultation and feedback naturally results in better decision making and more effective operations. Companies run under democratic leadership tend to run into fewer grave mistake and catastrophes. To put it simply – people tell a democratic leader when something is going badly wrong, while employees are encouraged to simply hide it from an autocrat. Creative thinking. The free flow of ideas and positive work environment is the perfect catalyst for creative thinking.  The benefits of this aren’t just relevant for creative industries, because creative thinking is required to solve problems in every single organisation, whatever it’s nature. Reduction of friction and office politics. By allowing subordinates to use their ideas and even more importantly – gain credit for them, you are neatly reducing the amount of tension employees generate with their manager. When autocratic leaders refuse to listen to their workers, or blatantly ignore their ideas, they are effectively asking for people to talk behind their back and attempt to undermine or supercede them. Reduced employee turnover. When employees feel empowered through leadership development, a company will experience lower rates of employee turnover which has numerous benefits. A company that invests in leadership development for its employees, is investing in their future, and this is appreciated by a large majority of the workforce.

What Are The Disadvantages Of The Democratic Leadership Style?

Lengthy and ‘boring’ decision making. Seeking consultation over every decision can lead to a process so slow that it can cause opportunities to be missed, or hazards avoided too late. Danger of pseudo participation. Many managers simply pretend to follow a democratic leadership style simply to score a point in the eyes of their subordinates. Employees are quick to realise when their ideas aren’t actually valued, and that the manager is merely following procedure in asking for suggestions, but never actually implementing them. In other words, they’re simply exerting autocratic leadership in disguise.

When Is The Democratic Leadership Style Effective?

Now you’ve heard about the benefits and drawbacks of this leadership style, let’s look at where its actually implemented in the business world. 1. Democratic leadership is applied to an extent in the manufacturing industry, to allow employees to give their ideas on how processes can become leaner and more efficient. While ‘Fordism’ is still applied in some factories across the country, truth is that production managers are now really starting to harness the motivational bonuses associated with not treating employees like robots anymore. 2. Democratic leadershp is effective in proffessional organisations where the emphasis is clearly on training, professional & leadership development and quality of work performed. Democratic procedures are simply just one cog in the effective leadership mechanisms firms like The Big Four have created over the years. 3. Non profit organisations also tremendously benefit from drawing upon the creative energies of all their staff to bring about cost cutting techniques or fund raising ideas. 4. As previously mentioned, creative industries such as advertising and television enjoy alot of benefits from the free flow of ideas that democratic leadership brings.

What Is Bureaucratic Leadership?

The bureaucratic leadership style is concerned with ensuring workers follow rules and procedures accurately and consistently. Bureaucratic leadership normally has the following characteristics: 1. Leaders expect a employees to display a formal, business-like attitude in the workplace and between each other. 2. Managers gain instant authority with their position, because rules demand that employees pay them certain priveledges, such as being able to sign off on all major decisions. As a result, leaders suffer from ‘position power’. Leadership development becomes pointless, because only titles and roles provide any real control or power. 3. Employees are rewarded for their ability to adhere to the rules and follow procedure perfectly. 4. Bureaucratic systems usually gradually develop over a long period of time, and hence are more commonly found in large & old businesses.

What Are The Benefits Of The Bureaucratic Leadership Style?

Increased safety. In dangerous workplaces where procedures save lives, a bureaucratic management style can help enforce health and safety rules. Quality work. Some tasks, such as completing proffessional work or medical examinations, need to be done in a meticulous fashion to be done correctly. Laziness can result in poor work, and hence one solution is to enforce the rules via the bureacratic leadership style. Ultimate control. An environment whereby employees are intrinsically motivated to follow rules in order to be promoted and succeed results in the tightest control management can ever assume over a company. This control can be used to cut costs or improve productivity.

What Are The Disadvantages Of The Bureaucratic Leadership Style?

Dehumanises the business. Bureacratic companies tend to remove as much potential for ‘human error’ out of the picture as possible. Unfortunately this also has the effect of removing all the enjoyment and reward that comes from deciding how to do a task and accomplishing it. Lack of self-fulfillment. The bureaucratic way of working hampers employees efforts to become successful and independent, because the system becomes too contraining. Parkinson’s Law. Cyril Northcote Parkinson made the scientific observation that the number of staff in bureaucracies increased by an average of 5%-7% per year “irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done.”". He explains this growth by two forces: (1) “An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals” and (2) “Officials make work for each other.” Parkinson’s findings suggest that bureaucratic leadership encourages inefficiency and waste of internal resources in the long run. ‘Position power’ obessession. After working in an environment that reinforces the idea that authority is created by rules which in turn support senior positions. Employees become attached to the idea that simply being in a job position creates authority. This can lead to intense office politics, arrogant leaders and little incentive to perform well once an employee has landed a top job. Lack of creativity. It goes without saying that a rule-based culture hinders creativity and encourages workers to simply perform puppet-like work rather than think independently. This may result in a lack of growth in the business due to employees simply not thinking out of the box or looking for new areas to develop. Poor communication. A common feature of a bureaucratic system is a complicated network of communication lines. Managers who don’t want to be ‘bothered’ by junior staff simply create procedures that allow them to avoid communicating with those below them. ‘Go through the formal process’, ‘Talk to my secretary’ and ‘My schedule is full’ are common rule-based excuses for blocked contact. Barriers to communication can hinder the success of any company. For example, the board may be charging ahead with a doomed product simply because their shop floor workers cannot pass on the message that customers are giving very negative feedback.

When Is The Bureaucratic Leadership Style Effective?

Bureaucratic leadership is found in extremely large corporations such as General Electric, Daimler and General Motors. However these cultures have evolved due to the age and size of these companies, and are generally blamed for the slow growth and recent failures at these companies. 1. Governmental bodies often have bureaucratic systems, and while these are often despised by the public, they ensure accountability to the tax payer and fair treatment for all. Excessive form-filling also serves the purpose of passing effort from the government authority (with a tight budget) onto the individual, helping to save costs. 2. Dangerous workplaces such as mines, oil rigs, construction sites and film sets all benefit from the tight control over health and safety that rules offer.

What Different Leadership Types Are There?

These 3 key management leadership styles are by no means a comprehensive list. Different leadership styles include laissez faire leadership, where the leader sets tasks and leaves workers up to their own devices to complete it.

To help you discover which leadership style you possess, try our new:

Leadership Style Questionnaire.

Leadership Development

Leadership development is a complicated area, and thus countless styles have been theorised and researched. Good leadership development often involves using resources such as Leadership Expert to be ‘sift’ through these different leadership development tips and ideas. Once you’ve been able to pull together a solid leadership development plan for yourself, you can start to really engage your employees – and maybe even set them off on their own leadership development quest!

Leadership Expert also has articles on another leadership style: charismatic leadership. You may also want to read our articles on leadership theories and common leadership traits.

 

The Ultimate Guide to Leadership Communication

N.b. You may be looking for the Ultimate Leadership Guide.

Change is all around us. Effective leadership communication during times of change creates stability and trust. Leaders at all levels must communicate change and share information as soon as possible. Here are tips for a communication-rich culture.

1. Communicate change as soon as possible. People do not want to hear about a merger or acquisition through the grapevine. Communicate even when you don’t have anything substantial to say. This lets people know you are aware of their need for information and you will provide it as soon as possible. Provide frequent updates to keep their need for information satisfied. People who do not have useful information in a timely manner feel confused, stressed, scared, and insecure.

2. Explain what is changing, how, and why. Let people know the business reasons behind the change and how it impacts them. Anticipate any questions they may have and give them detailed, valuable answers.

3. Let people know what they can do. Empower people to make a difference during volatile times. Inspire and motivate people to own the change and to be innovative in helping to resolve issues. Provide them with a specific call to action to make them feel included and important to the process.

4. Be visible during times of change. Be accessible and allow people to ask questions and offer ideas. Schedule meetings to communicate up, down, and across the organization. Follow through with your commitments to follow up with people.

5. Be a role model for change. Demonstrate high levels of emotional intelligence during uncertain times. No one wants to see a leader have an emotional meltdown. Your actions and leadership presence will speak volumes about what is really going on and help others deal with their fear and resistance.

6. Use a variety of methods to communicate. Select the most useful and effective channels to communicate. These methods can range from town hall meetings, to small group meetings, to newsletters and e-mail updates. Create a trustworthy, communication-rich environment that is reliable and effective leadership communication will follow.

7. Communicating bad news is often uncomfortable for both the sender and receiver. However, direct talk is often the best choice. But always deliver your message with tact and diplomacy. Demonstrate empathy when delivering bad news. Understand the emotion, resistance, and discomfort toward change.

There’s no perfect way to communicate during uncertain times. Transition makes most people uneasy, and behaviors and long-held habits are not easy to change. Communicate clearly, openly, frequently, and most important, honestly.

Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leadership is all about a superhero act. In an article titled “What exactly is charisma?” published in Fortune on January 15, 1996, Patricia Sellers says, “Charisma is a tricky thing. Jack Kennedy oozed it – but so did Hitler and Charles Manson. Con artists, charlatans, and megalomaniacs can make it their instrument as effectively as the best CEO’s, entertainers, and Presidents. Used wisely, it’s a blessing; indulged, it can be a curse. Charismatic visionaries lead people ahead, and sometimes astray.”

Practitioners of charismatic leadership have a firm belief that they can lead followers by unleashing their personal charm and grace. You can recognize one by the way he or she interacts with others – making each person feel like the most special on the planet!

While charismatic leadership is most often employed in the political arena where a large number of people have to be influenced within a short time, using little or no personal contact, it can be applied equally in a business situation. The leader seeks a “fan following”, and a devotion among followers which is usually absent from other forms of leadership. You can think of at least a couple of U.S. Presidents who had an almost hypnotic effect.

Charismatic leadership involves a great deal of theatrical behavior. A charismatic leader is a persuasive speaker, and a master of body language. Charismatic leaders are great at reading the occasion, and will tailor their behavior to suit the mood. At the same time, they are willing to take personal risk and make sacrifices in order to build their own credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of their followers. Once their leadership is established, they will try to carve a distinct identity for their group of followers, and build an image of superiority for it. At the same time, these leaders identify themselves so strongly with the group that the group and the leader become nearly synonymous.

Academics have identified the following four stages of charismatic leadership:

Creating a new vision: Charismatic leaders are able to assess unfulfilled needs and opportunities in their environment and project their vision for a future without any shortcomings.

Articulating the vision: The leader will be able to communicate his belief in the vision to his followers and convince them of its viability.

Building trust: The next phase of charismatic leadership involves engendering trust among group members and securing their commitment.

Achieving the vision: The leader will set a personal example and empower others in order to sustain motivation so that the vision can be realized.

It may sound strange, but charismatic leadership is not necessarily an inborn trait. It can be learned and perfected, usually by watching the actions of other charismatic leader role models and modifying behavior in certain ways.

It is important to note that charismatic leadership can be a double edged sword. It all boils down to the motives of the leader. Charismatic leaders can be a bit insincere, more concerned about themselves than their followers. Such a tendency towards narcissism can do a great deal of damage to organizations. On the other hand, if their heart is in the right place, charismatic leaders can work magic like no other.

Leadership Model

There isn’t much doubt that most effective high impact leaders are driven by a model. This is true even when that effective leader doesn’t take the time to define his personal unique model. A model is a tool that leaders use to predict future outcomes of current decisions; a tool that not only enhances personal creativity but encourages creativity in the minds of their employees. An executive’s model is built from the sum of their experiences, knowledge, deeds and, in fact, many of their mistakes. Best practice alone will not get the job done. Effective model driven leadership utilizing best practice is a combination that is an absolute must. Different leaders create their models through different approaches. Each model is unique to the individual but the following three examples explain the platform that models are built on.

The Competitive Desire Model

Some leaders strongly shape their model by working in every aspect of the business and also from learning the business from the ground up. They always carry a strong desire to compete and win. The Leaders competitive instincts are generally tempered by personal humility and respect for the individual managers on his team. Listening skills and genuine interest in what is right for the business are key tools in building a consensus. Belief in the employees is a guiding principle in leadership style. This same approach is used with both suppliers and customers to find the innovative win-win solution. Make no mistake; this approach is very different than typical negotiation approaches used in many wholesaler-distributors.

It becomes a discipline. This discipline circumvents growth mistakes so common in the industry. The other implication of this model is providing significant autonomy to the executive team. The leader makes sure the executive team has a detailed and shared vision of the business objectives and goals. He believes his role as chief executive is to provide the shared vision and make sure that it is clear and also current.

The Elegant, Powerful Win-Win Innovation & Creativity Model

Another variation of the servant style of leadership models is the elegant, powerful, and simple model. This model starts with an open and clear balance between the various stakeholders whether they are customer/owners, employees, or suppliers. It is a truly win-win model without the destructive negotiation experienced by many other distributors. Using this foundation and a long established set of core corporate values and best practice the leader consistently reminds each stakeholder group of the key messages while continually focusing the organization on innovation and creativity. Innovation becomes a key strategic initiative for growth. It is exciting to see the accumulated economic power that canbe developed by a constantly evolving innovative business model and effective leadership combined with best practice utilization.

The Strategic Shift Model

A third example of leadership modeling is about managing a strategic shift from being a traditional box-moving wholesaler with limited growth prospects to a logistics powerhouse that provides significant value in the supply chain.

Strategy is said to be obvious once you’ve had it explained. It is also said that customers don’t see strategy, they only see execution. This model like the other examples platform a strong sense of curiosity about other companies and how to apply lessons learned in their own organizations. The answers needed for major change and organizational renewal lie outside the enterprise and effective leaders using this model are able to take prior “lessons learned” and bench marking to generate success.

Over ninety percent of the reasons companies fail can be traced to ineffective leadership. It’s not because of the economy and it is not because of the competition. It is a failure to learn. Effective leadership will overcome these obstacles, and they’ll be looking down the road at what needs to be done to grow the current model once the model is no longer ‘grow-able. Attention is paid to the lessons learned.

What is a High Impact Leader?

High impact leaders, regardless of their personal model demonstrate a curiosity that can not be satisfied without personal examination of what exactly were the causes of any failure to meet expectations. Non-performance is just not acceptable. Leadership is a key in every instance to creating an attitude, structuring an environment and developing employees as the very essence of success. Although individual leadership models differ in some specific approaches the common thread that links every model together is respect for the individual employee and the willingness and ability to listen with an understanding that embellishes their own leadership contribution to the organization. Best practices are a part of every successful leadership model but best practice alone will not create the level of success demonstrated by the high impact upper quartile performers. Effective leaders create a culture where employees can express themselves and fight for what is right; employees become responsibly fanatical about aligning their resources to add value to the customer and the company. That’s what high impact leadership is all about.

Author:  Dr Eric Johnson – http://www.ceostrategist.com

Situational Leadership

Situational theory is one of the type of leadership theory, leadership model and leadership style that believes that different leadership style suit different situations. That is as per the situation, you should apply leadership style. Situation leadership theory assumes that the best action to be taken by a leader depends on the situation. The leader should also be able to adapt the style according to the situation. As the situation changes, you (leader) should also quickly change the leadership style. Depending on the situation, you (leader) should adopt leadership style.

Adopting a particular leadership style also depends on the relationship between the followers and the leader. The cooperation of the employees also plays a major role in deciding the type of leadership that should be in that organization. Factors such as mood and stress may affect the leader’s behaviour. When a situational leader is required to take a decision, he or she does not use only one preferred style. Situational leaders are effective and versatile. In our day-to-day life, we do this in dealing with different people. That is our leadership style is different for different people.  We avoid getting angry if a new employee makes a mistake. We also remind forgetful employees. This theory is not only applicable to people who are leaders or are holding leadership management positions but is also applicable to those people that lead others  at play, at work and at play.

Alternatively, smart people have often forgone formal situational leadership theory and sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and leadership.

A situational leadership model is also associated with situational leadership theory.

The basic idea of this model is that leadership flexibility is necessary for effective leadership. It also believes that different leadership approaches are required for different situations. This model defines four leadership styles. These styles are based on how much guidance or direction the leader can give to his or her followers.
Leadership Styles are as follows:

Directing Leaders.  Tasks and roles of the followers are defined by these leaders. Directing leaders also supervise their followers very closely. All decisions are taken and announced by the leader. Here the leader is more focused on completing the task than keeping a good relationship with the follower. Thus, communication is one way.

Coaching Leaders. Here the leader still defines the tasks of the followers but asks for any suggestions from the follower and tries to keep a good relationship with the follower Final decision is made by the leader and not the author but communication is two way.

Supporting. Here the leader frequently takes the help of followers for day-to-day decision. Decisions include processes and task allocation. The leader facilitates decisions but the final decision is taken by the follower.

Delegating Leaders. Here the leader is too involved in problem solving and taking decisions but the authority to take the final decision is with the follower. Followers also decide how and when the leader should be involved.

Depending on level of development of the employees, a particular style will be most effective. The leadership approach should also match to what is required or needed by the employees or followers.

100+ Brilliant Ways To Motivate Staff In A Recession

As times are getting harder, managers have been re-evaluating how they motivate their workforce. At Leadership Expert, we’ve put together this comphrehensive collection of motivation tips & tricks to help managers increase their employee’s productivity in this tough economic climate. Most of the tips don’t involve spending a penny, and the ones that do will create far more value than you spent, meaning they’re perfect to use during a recession.

One final point to make before we embark on this list, is that you should consider this a ‘sweet shop’ of motivation tips, i.e. you should only pick a few and certainly not attempt to implement them all. There’s nothing worse than being sandblasted by motivational techniques.

Policy

1. One-on-One coaching - People appreciate learning directly from their senior on an individual basis. It helps them remember what they learn, and ask any questions they wish to help form a deep understanding of their work.

2. Training - In general, training is one of the most empowering tools a company can offer it’s employees. Subsquently all large companies invest heavily in training and enjoy the long term payoff.

3. Clear Career Path – Staff are better motivated when they can see where they should be in 3 years time if they work hard. The more barriers between them and promotion that cannot be solved by hard work will only demotivate.

4. Safe Work Environment – Maslow theorised that safety is one of the fundemental pillars of motivation, and that a safe work environment is necessary for all other motivating factors (such as self esteem) to start having a positive effect.

5. Executive Recognition - A congratulatory conference call from the CEO or visit from the finance director will do well to swell the chests of your workforce with pride and admiration for their work.

6. Time off - Motivated employees will not gladly take time off, however a generous time-off system needs to be in place to create motivated employees. Staff are likely to work harder and longer with the safety and knowledge that should they need time off due to stress, they could take it.

7. Encourage employees to praise good work of their fellow colleagues – Build a feedback procedure whereby collegues regularly pass comment on each others work, or team mates share their opinions after completing a major task. Feedback such as this helps reduce infighting and will give many people tips on how to improve their work.

8. Be sympathetic to personal problems – Offer generous time off for those who suffer bereavement. In most cases it won’t be taken, but the gesture will improve relations between managers and staff.

9. Keep your door open – An open office encourages the open share of ideas. You want to remove any barriers to communication, and a closed door certainly constitutes a barrier.

10. Allow flexible working hours - Allowing employees to manage their own time so they can participate in outside work-related activities won’t make their hours shorter. Employees who would take time off to see their child’s sports day will likely ‘pay back’ the favour by working longer hours afterwards.

11.  Have annual or quarterly reviews – These are where an employee goes through some targets and review points with another member of staff who is not directly above them, and is more of a guidance counsellor than a boss.This will allow them to discuss important long term career topics that will feed their desire to work.

12. Let your employees choose their own lunch break- Unless your company happens to be a food outlet, it really doesn’t matter whether your employee takes their lunch at 11:30 or 2pm, so don’t attempt to force them to stick to a routine.

13. Forward information to staff after management meetings - A quick debriefing will increase their sense of involvement.

14. Rotate job roles – More appropriate for manufaturing, the rotation of job roles has been proven many times to increase employee productivity, despite the decrease in specialisation. This technique can be applied to any low to medium skilled jobs with a powerful effect. Multi-skilled workers also make life easier for your HR department.

15. Provide quarterly updates on relevant business and customer issues – many members of staff aspire to be senior management in the future, and will thrive on being kept in the loop when it comes to high-level business infomation.

16. Give an incentive to get employees to work earlier in the morning - I’ve learnt from experience that if a salary-based employee gets to work an hour earlier, it is likely they will work until their usual finishing time.

17. Support charity work within the company – Donate 1 or 2 days of charity work per year to good causes. This will help your business get into the local media and make staff feel like they’re a part of a responsible company.

18. Address the environment issue – While we’re on the subject of responsibility, it’s worth noting that employees prefer working for a company with green credentials, so setting a carbon reduction/ energy efficiency/ recycling intiative will help enthuse the workforce.

19. Give your employees choice over their uniform – Often a business casual work dress code makes employees feel more independent than full suit and tie – which is often not necessary in an office environment.

20. Obey confidentiality – A manager who pretends to care about his employees but simply laughs and bitches about them behind their back will loose all respect and credibility extremely quickly.

Freebies

21. Offer stress management/counselling services – These services are easy to outsource and admitedly are very rarely used. But the availability of such a service increases moral without costing you a penny.

22. Use gimmicks -  Give out novetly ‘trophy’ style items for exceptional work. For example, give a LP record for an employee breaking a record.

23. Bring in sweets to share out on random days – This is a cheap technique that will improve the relationship between management and the workforce.

24. Give out tickets to cultured events such as theatres and music shows.

25. Send a company T-shirt or hat to the employee’s child(ren).

26. Walk around with free lunch coupons -  Hand out on the spot.

27. Give workers a surprise for their work area - A desk organizer, a picture or poster, a new mouse pad even. Any new gift will be an interesting novelty.

28. Give a subscription to a work-related periodical - This is an interesting gift that shows your commitment to their professional development.

29. Buy lottery tickets or scratch cards for people on an irregular basis.

30. Hand out classic self help literature and excellant leadership books – Hand these out to entire departments at a time, or they may feel that you’re indirectly critisising them. Success literature can really inspire employees to work harder – but be wary of the core message of the book. Many of these books encourage workers to quit their 9-5 jobs.

Behaviour

31. Give recognition – Every worker wishes wants to be ‘known’ by those above them, so talk about your workers to your managing collegues and ensure that none of your subordinates go un-noticed.

32. Give Attention – To be distinguished from recognition. Recognition is the long term awareness that boosts self esteem, whereas attention is a short term devotion of time that will keep employees on task and able to voice concerns as early as possible.

33. Applause - Because sometimes words just aren’t enough.

34. Always carry a smile – I once knew a senior manager who famously was never seen with a negative expression on his face. This sort of reputation really inspired subordinates such as myself, and completely stands again the cynicism and sarcasm that exist in workplaces across the country.

35. ‘Manage by wandering around’ – Rather than calling employees to your office, go and visit them yourself. This is a sign of respect and reduces the interuptive impact you have on your team.

36. Listening to employee efficiency suggestions – And more importantly you should be acting on as many as possible, even the petty suggestions. This way you build up credibility in the system, leading to more important, significant proposals to be put forward in the future.

37. Lead by example and follow through with what you say. Just as following through with suggestion box comments you build credibility in the system, if you follow through with your own promises, you build credibility in the system of management as a whole.

38. Ask! - Ask the employees what they want from you.

39. Listen! – Listen to what employees have to say about YOU and what you can personally improve upon.

40. Add a personal touch by going out of your way to inconvenience yourself to please a member of staff. Just the occasional gesture in a busy period can be enough to remove that employees doubt over whether you have their best interests at heart.

41. Understand employee behaviour - Often a negative attitiude or behaviour is a direct response to bad controls/procedures that you can correct or change.

42. Write thankyou notes fairly regularly – These notes only take a second, and will float around for a long time, making the employee feel proud.

43. Actively make a point to speak to every member of staff each day. This doesn’t need to be a major catch up, but just enough so that you’re maintaining a good working relationship, and they would feel comfortable in coming to you when they’re struggling.

44. Ask employees “What can I do to help you with your job?”. You may surprised at the responses and ideas you get in return. A little help like this can sometimes be more effect than formal leadership coaching or leadership training.

45. Get your hands dirty with your staff -  Learn about the good and bad aspects of their day to day work. Only through understanding what their day actually entails will you be able to see what would motivate and enthuse this person to work more effectively.

46. Show the courage to let your employees learn from their mistakes - Don’t jump on their error and shout at them, as they will already feel embarassed enough. Managers often destroy many hours of work building up trust and enthusiasm by loosing control and shouting at workers when things go badly. Nothing destroys intrinsic motivation quite as quickly as raving tyrant.

47. Show great confidence in relying on subordinates expertise in areas that you have none – Trusting in the skills of others is a sign of a great leader. It will improve the confidence of others as well as take some weight and responsibility off your shoulders.

48. Stand behind your employees and back their decisions -  Similar to relying on a subordinates’ expertise, this will improve their view of their own skills, and benefit you in the long run.

49. If you have many employees with the same job title, give them a list of the tasks that need doing and let them divide the work up among themselves. It reduces the feeling of ‘meddling manegement’ and allows for more efficient work allocation - as people are more likely to take on jobs that they’re personally good at.

50. Don’t be a pushover -  While nearly every employee would love to have a soft manager, they would also admit that it is because they would do less work. Be clear with orders and don’t allow yourself to be fobbed off with excuses.

Financial Incentives

51. Arrange discounts for them at local stores to increase loyalty

52. Offer rewards for great ideas. If it saves money or brings in business, give the employee a percentage of the savings or profit. – entreprenial atttiude.

53. Send $10, $25 or more to a spouse with a thank-you note for his or her support during the employee’s overtime.

54. Pay an employees rent for a month - This will take the weight of their shoulders more than a simple cheque would. Give your employee piece of mind.

55. Pay for the tutoring of an employee’s child - This is a generous ‘donation’ that will really help establish true loyalty and admiration for the company.

56. Give employees who recruit new workers a cash bonus.

57. Sponsor membership in a professional group for your employee.

58. Surprise your staff with a new challenge out of the blue – Give your employees 2 weeks to increase their sales by 15% for a 5% salary bonus reward and watch how they suddenly start looking at their work in a whole different way.

59. Move your staff onto more heavy commission based salaries – This brings employees personal goals in line with those of a sales department. A word of warning – make sure the variable upon which the commission is based is what you truely want. Because staff will often chase that commission at the expense of others goals such as customer satisfaction and quality of service.

60. Give out gift vouchers as a way of rewarding individuals for a good job on a specific task – Amounts of £50 are respectable but won’t break the bank. You can reserve these for when staff members have demonstrated working by company’s values, or have shown hard work.

61. Give generous staff discounts on products - This is a rather standard perk in the modern day, but its effect on employee morale must not be forgotten.

Activities

62. Pizza/Popcorn/Cookie Days - These really put a smile on alot of employees faces. Just hope that few people are on strict diets at the time!

63. External Seminars - These can be attended by individuals, teams or whole departments if they’r relevant. Trips to seminars, events and conferences can be a welcome break from work for staff, while actually still building their skills and adding value to the company.

64. Dress-down Days – Again, another motivational tool that has become a standard in all companies large and small. And why are they popular? Because it really does improve morale!

65. Leadership Teasers - Give employees a glimpse at what it is like to run a team, lead a division or speak in public. These positive ‘taster’ leadership sessions will really get them hooked onto their career track and really kick start leadership development.

66. Share letters of praise from customers with the member(s) of staff involved - A kind word from a customer not only gives effective feedback on the service at your organisation, but it also warms the hearts and motivates the staff who read the mark of appreciation. These are so effective that I would suggest you contact customers to ask for feedback.

67.  Have a family day - Perhaps on the last day before a public holiday, you could arrange for staff to bring their children to work. As well as lightening the atmosphere of the workplace, it also helps create harmony and understanding between workers, as they come to understand more about each other and what they’re like as a family person.

68. Go to lunch with each one of your employees on a quarterly basis – Ask the question, “What do we need to do to keep you with us?”

69. Invite employees to your home for a special event - This gives you the opportunity to recognise them in front of their spouses and co-workers. Obviously only suitable for small businesses or departments, this activity is a rare but powerful one.

70. Let them attend a meeting in your place – As well as giving temporary empowerment to your staff, letting them sit in or replace you in a meeting also will increase their understanding of what pressures you are under and what you need from them.

71. Let them “sit-in” with an upper level person for part of a day – Similar to the leadership taster, this shadowing of senior management is more appropriate for junior members of staff. Middle management may feel uneasy about taking a perceived  ‘step back’ into the activity of shadowing.

72. Involve them in a special project that allows for company exposure and visibility. Such as being written about in the news. All too often – these sorts of tasks are handled by only a couple of individuals who become desensitised to the novelty of being publically recognised. By rotating these sort of tasks round a larger number of employees, you are efficiently maximising the motivation gained from such a job position.

73. Let your employees craft the mission statement – More and more managers are discovering how effective this is as a motivational tool. It’s most powerful when absolutely every employee contributes torwards it’s creation. Without proper employee involvement – mission statements are simply empty rhetorical ‘wish lists’ of values and objectives put forward by the CEO.

74. Minature golf and other fun indoor activities - Fun golf courses, bowling alleys, Scalextric tacks and casino tables can be affordably hired in a recession as businesses cut back on novelty client entertainment and expenses. You can use this to your advantage by hiring such fun equipment to become the centrepiece of a project-end event. Having something fun to look forward to at the end of each major project will have a motivational effect.

75. Team building days out – In a similar fashion, outdoor activity courses and events can also be used to keep your staff happy and promote good team leadership.

76. Hand out awards - Prizes for awards such as ‘best team player’, ‘best attitude’ etc should be also accompanied by humourous ‘caffeine addict’, ‘chief photocopier person’ and other quirky awards.

77. Run short term target-based competitions between staff for freebies or bonuses. But ensure a level playing field or you’ll only create frustration and conflict!

78. Take your employees to the cinema. Cinemas offer cheap corporate deals and will cater well for your employees. Picking the right film is tricky though!

79. Promote the creation of company sports teams – These will help build ties across departments. Encourage recruitment from all areas, rather than simply being teams of  cliques.

Other

80. Develop a Wall of Fame to share letters of praise and similar with everyone in the office – Put it near the photocopier for maximum exposure.

81.  Create personalised rewards – everyone values different types of rewards more than others. Some workers prefer time off, others prefer cash, so ask people which they’d prefer before setting up any bonus or reward scheme.

82. Additional Responsibility – While you may grimace at the idea of being given ‘another’ batch of responsibility, a more junior member of staff may actually jump at the thought. Start leadership programmes that give subordinates that opportunity at stepping up.

83. When pay cheques are sent out, always write a note on the envelope recognizing an employee’s accomplishment(s).

84. Try to remove all the cynical and sarcastic posters & slogans from around the office. They provide a cheap giggle but demoralise staff. A quick example of short term benefit, long term pain.

85. Remember birthdays with a simple birthday card, mini cake or gift.

86. Take out an advertisement in a local paper and include your star employees’ names and pictures in the feature.

87. Speak truthfully and transparently – All employees have a good skill at knowing when they’re being lied to, so don’t even attempt to pull the wool over their eyes. Learn from Obama – he didn’t try to tell America that the economic was just a ‘little’ bit under-the-weather; he told it how it was. Rather than trying to cover up the failings in a company, instead emphasise how you are going to solve it, and employees will reward you with hard work.

88. Increase your employees span of control – this decreases costs and motivates them if they’re the type that crave control and authority.

89. Remind people of what drives them to do what they do. Allow pictures of family and other such drivers to be strewn around the office, and talk to them about their family, their dreams for the future and desires. You can use their dreams to motivate them easily.

90. Pin up genuine motivational posters etc around the office. These motivational quotes really do inspire some people.

91. Get your employees to replace their default screen saver with a playful ‘Get off your butt and back to work’ message that they’ve typed themselves.

92. Let employees give new recruits on-the-job training - It’ll show them how much they’ve grown as an employee in your company and leave them feeling senior and skilled.

93. Make sure you know everyones name in the office - whether they’re in your span of control or not.

94. Ensure free coffee is available. Caffeine or hot chocolate will always help!

95. Have a bowl of fresh fruit for employees to snack on – The women especially will appreciate this nice gesture, yet it only costs a tiny amount per day.

96. Make sure the service staff (cleaners, janitor, receptionist) greet staff throughout the day, rather than simply trying to be invisible.

97. Play the occasional tasteful practical joke

98. Invite in a motivational speaker to talk to your staff - These speakers often charge high fees however, so ensure that their key messages concern long lasting motivation rather than a ‘fad-like’ short term buzz that will fade as the speaker slips from memory.

99. Give your team a cool team name - Admittedly easier said than done.

100. Ensure that all members of staff feel that they are the best at at least one task - This will give them a ‘place’ in the organisation and make them feel important.

101. Finally -  Share this blog post with other managers in your organisation!

Phew! We’re done! If you found this article as helpful as I enjoyed making it, then please use some of the neat buttons below to help share this motivational advice across the world!

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