Leadership Pathways – A Worthwhile Course?

7 Tips To Transform Leadership

A leader can take several forms in a number of different commercial situations, often when a person isn’t even “the one in charge”. If you find yourself in a group with tight deadline to meet, with no obvious leader around, the one who needs to be the boss just might be you. When this happens, what should you do and NOT do?

When people normally think of a leader in business they think of the cliche ‘boss’, but being a leader doesn’t require a fancy title, official recognition, and certainly not a specified background. In reality, leadership simple requires one individual to stand up, assert authority, and enable the team to achieve the target set.

How can someone who has not been anointed or appointed accomplish this? Here are some brilliant tips for those who suddenly find themselves in an position requiring unofficial leadership to be asserted:

Unofficial Tip 1 : Group Triage
A very important step for a leader is to comprehensively understand all the various tasks needing to be accomplished to reach the goal. They must ask the questions: Who is best at what? Who would be most effective where? Hopefully you will already know, but most of the time you will need to find out. This will be the case in temporary-team situations.  So, clearly ask what they would be best at within the available tasks to accomplish? You’ll get honest answers, but sometimes the answer is not what they are best at, but what parts of the work they would rather do. If they are the only one to volunteer for a certain task, let them have it. If two or more chime in, then prompt them to discuss among themselves who would be better suited. If they amicably work it out between themselves; great, but often they will be still at loggerheads unless you listen carefully and make a quick decision at the outset. Things can always be changed around if intial allocations don’t work out.

Unofficial Tip 2: Tread Lightly
The leader does not need to be the smartest – or the fastest, or best looking. It could be anyone, but since it’s you standing up to be the unofficial leader, realize that others in the group may not agree. Simply proclaiming that you are in charge will cause more harm than good. Subtly is your best friend in the beginning of the transition from mob to team. Often, a leader can be created in the other’s eyes by simply being the first one to say, “Ok, so what do we do first?”. This is what I call practical leadership. Anyone can be given an honourary title, but people will still only look up to the person who can take charge.

Unofficial Tip 3: Walk First, Then Run
The first hurdle for an unofficial leader is to get the group talking. What are their ideas? What do they think is the best course to take? Of course if everyone agrees on one direction, then this stage is done, but that rarely happens. Most often there will be two different schools of thought. The leader should not take sides, but encourage discussion of opposing viewpoints and plans. Stay above the arguments to mediate and stimulate the flow of ideas. Soon, one course will become clear, or at least more feasible than the other. When this happens, you may be surprised to see everyone looking at you to give the final judgment on what to do. Already, you have become the lead person to go to in their subconscious minds. A simple mistake that many would-be leaders make in the early stages, is to use their new-found leader position to immediately begin pushing their own ideas upon the team. The best way to enforce leadership is to actually encourage and actively support the ideas of others to earn their trust, at least in the outset. If you have bold ideas, leave them for later.

Unofficial Tip 4: Not an Island
Realise that you don’t have to come up with a plan or best course of action all by yourself. You just have to pick the direction and get your people there. Or even better – let them carry themselves there! Recognise the best plan, even if it isn’t your own. Pay attention to complaints, and issues, but make sure to spot your own flaws as well. For the benefit of the team, volunteer for the job you are best suited for, even if it is one you don’t want to do. Remember that it is not about you being a leader, but your team accomplishing their goal and you are but one part of that team. If you are seen to be actively making personal sacrifices, then team members will have more sincere trust behind your later decisions – after having seen you are clearly not acting purely for personal gain.

Unofficial Tip 5: Motivate
A group with clearly defined capabilities to match all the tasks laid out,  with an embraced purpose and definitive goal is ideal. However it is somewhat of a ‘dreamlike’ situation that may not often occur. If it was the norm, the real world wouldn’t really need many leaders! Once your team is all facing the same way, you will probably find that some need to be moving faster than the others. An unofficial timeline, with specific deadlines is a nice subtle way to show where each person is at and where they should be. A quiet, private, chat with the problem group member might help as well, but make sure your persona is that of a fellow group member worried about the project and their own part in it, NOT as the unofficial leader. Group cheers and celebrations when one person or another accomplishes their part will help get the lagging member moving. Remember, “problems in private, praise in public.”

Unofficial Tip 6: Following Your Lead
Nothing gets a bunch of people moving faster than someone heading off in the right direction. Ideally, the team moves forward together, but there’s almost always a winding up period. Set the example by attacking your part with enthusiasm, professionalism, and vigor. If they see you working hard, helping others, and generally doing everything you can to get the team to its goal, then they will follow suit. They will notice if you are cheerfully doing a job they know you don’t want to do. They will notice you listening to other team members, taking advice, and following directions. It will motivate them to do their part for the team and add to your role as unofficial leader.

Unofficial Tip 7: Not Omnipotent
Since you have no official power, there is nothing to back you up. You can’t hire, fire, or discipline anyone, so why should they listen to you? Remember, you will earn your leader position by what you do, not who you are. Since being a leader is not about ordering people around, you will spend most of your time suggesting the best possible course, or coaxing the others in the right direction. Your best course is to get your people to do what they need to do without them realizing you’ve done anything.

And finally: The Good Follower
There is an ancient saying: “A good leader is a good follower.” This would be a simple paradox if not for the fact that most aspects of a leader involve following others. The leader will follow the best path for the team to take. The leader will follow the advice and direction of those in the team if they are better than the leader’s own. The leader must follow the leader’s own examples. If you look closely at the tips above, you’ll notice that each one requires the participation of the others in the team. A leader cannot lead without people to follow, but a leader can’t move forward without following the team.

Leading people is a privilege and an honor; both not to be abused. Being a leader makes you special, but you are not special because you are a leader. A leader is just a part of a team that together is working towards a goal. Accomplishing the goal… that’s the whole point to being a leader. It is not about you, your status, recognition, or the fancy title. It’s about making things happen. But, if you make things happen, then your status will rise, you will gain recognition, and, yes, get that fancy title. Always remember though, you can’t do it alone. A leader who is seen to lead to increase their own wealth or ego, will quickly self-defeat their role, and undermine their own leadership.

This was a guest article by the Amy Linley at http://www.accuconference.com.

Leadership Mentoring – Developing Your Own Style

When you were working yourself up the ladder undoubtedly there were days when you had to drag yourself to work. It wasn’t because of the job or your team mates; it was because the managers said the same thing day in and day out. Motivation was low and the word fun was non-existent

The shoe is on the other foot now and you can make a difference if you think about those rough days in the past. Typically there was one manager with charisma and motivation that gave you energy and motivation causing you to look forward to the day ahead. If you were smart, you realized this and stored it in your memory bank for the future. I am not suggesting that you emulate them totally but remember the experiences gained to develop your own leadership style.

Let me share an experience, when I was a young man I worked with a leader that was incredibly demanding. He daily challenged me, I would learn something new and the next day was proud and wanting to show him I knew my stuff. He without fail would ask me something entirely new and different. It took me quiet a while to fully respect and understand what he was doing for me, developing me into a leader. I thought I hated him but in time I realized he was the greatest mentor of my life. That was his leadership style and it worked, on me anyway.

Several years later I was fortunate to have another mentor that was a walking motivational machine. He was the most inspirational person I had ever met and fortunately for me I was the one he selected to groom. He made work a thrill teaching and sharing his wealth of knowledge.

I soon realized that one leader can make the difference in countless ways. I took a lot from both of these men as both had the same goal but different styles of accomplishing it. The first leader made me excited about coming to work to exhibit my talents while the second one honed my skills motivating me how to expand my knowledge and experiences. I didn’t emulate either one totally but admired and respected each equally and learned how to make a job enjoyable.

This is an article from a guest author – Ron Kirby. You can learn more about him on his profile page at http://www.egsebastian.com/RonK.

Leadership Exercises

The success of every corporate organization largely relies on its team-members performances, right the way from lower order employees to highly regarded directors. FTSE 100 managers constantly undertake various leadership exercises to improve the performance of their organization. By using these leadership exercises, they can help craft the atmosphere of their organization.

By using the leadership exercises, the person can increase the productivity and quality of the company. He has several leadership qualities to manage the performance of any corporate organization.

One of the integral parts of these leadership exercises is the teamwork consistently. Such ability to perform with groups increases the strength, productivity and quality of such organization. Such teamwork as a part of leadership exercises contain the skill of the leader to spot the positive points of his team members. Also apart from his teammates, he also gives importance to strengthen his organizing abilities. The leadership exercises also include the quality to tie up the skillful individuals into one unified entity. Also while uniting these skills and different human characters, the consent about the type of work, organization, ideology of the organization is one of the integral part. If the leadership exercises fail to satisfy their team members, the productivity will less and that makes crises in the organization.

So create an environment of mutual understanding is vital leadership exercise for making the environment fresh and undutiful. The true leader always gives emphasis to leading from the front. So leading the team with courage and confidence is the significant part of the leadership exercises. Such positive signs from the leader make the environment of the organization positive and optimistic. Also such leadership exercises also possess positive and attacking thinking which makes him and his teammates hungry for success. the encouragement, admiration and appreciation of the legendary qualities, dynamics of the team members is one of the type of the leadership exercises . These techniques are essential to increase the confidence among the team members.

While recruiting and appointing the eligible candidates, various leadership exercises are held by the corporate sectors, government sectors. The main aim of such leadership exercises is to familiar the trainee candidates with factual leadership tasks, responsibilities and problems regarding the leaderships.

In professional courses like MBA program, various internships of technical courses, civil services examinations; there is a provision to firstly conduct the leadership exercises for the selected, eligible responsible candidates of such course. So the main objective behind that leadership program is to develop the leadership qualities like teamwork, decision making in critical situation, developing the positive mindset, attacking attitude, etc. so these are the vital leadership exercises in the training program which makes the candidate well prepared for the actual situation in society while facing the crises.

In such leadership exercises, the inclusion of the leadership tips gives the candidate slight idea or experience about the adversity of exact problem. Such leadership tips contain the objectives of the leaders which are the vital part of the leadership exercises. These tips are making a plan to achieve the target, building a competent team to achieve that target, making the co-ordination between team members to achieve such targets.

Adapted from an Article Written By Muna wa Wanjiru – http://www.merpetsales.com/leadership/Leadership-Exercises.php

Leadership Development Programme

Leadership Development Programme is just one of the leadership development articles at Leadership Expert™. In this article, we will be taking a brief look at what a leadership development programme is and how to build an optimal programme for your employees.

What Is A Leadership Development Programme?

Leadership Development Programmes are tailor-designed schedules of activities that seek to improve the leadership skills of a workforce or group of workers. Leadership development programmes are typically targetted at the graduate intake who have been within a company for 3-5 years. At this critical point in their career – these ‘Generation Y‘ individuals will be looking to move on to the next step in their career. Whether that future is at their current company will depend on how attractive and possible a leadership role will be on their current path. Therefore by targeting leadership development programmes at twenty-something employees, companies are helping to retain talent within their organisation.

How Do I Build A Good Leadership Development Programme?

Good leadership development programmes consist of the following 5 success factors.

1. Multiple leadership training techniques

Employees learn in different ways and favour certain teaching techniques over others. Therefore it would be dangerous to create a course with only one technique in mind. You are not creating a ‘fad diet’ leadership course. You want to create a course that will hit all the bases and have the best chance at really engaging with the participants.

2. Hollistic view of leadership

Many companies take a very narrow view of leadership. Often management skill and strategic thinking are put at the forefront of important topics. While a good leadership development programme should also address people skills, leadership traits and charismatic leadership to deliver a wide picture and full curriculum.

3. Link  to On-The-Job Application.

A crucial element in a leadership development programme is the link between theory and practice. Abstract leadership principles may indeed be sound, but the true measure of the success of a leadership programme is whether these principles can be taught in a such a way that they can be instantly applied to the management of the business. This real-life link is the key factor that distinguishes self-help books from life coaches, dieting books from fitness instructors, and management books from good leadership programmes.

4. Respectable length of time

Leadership isn’t a skill that can be perfected overnight. Leadership excellence is often grown over years of experience. In an attempt to replicate this gradual development – it is important that leadership development programmes are low-intensity courses that span several months, as apposed to a one week crash course. By increasing the length of the programme – instructors will be able to use the programme to actually support and enrich the professional development that the manager gains from their day-to-day job. For instance, the manager can discuss problems that they are running into during the application of certain leadership techniques they have learnt in ‘class’, and hence the skills can be perfected and honed over time. And thus the programme and work life becomes incorporated.

5. A meaningful conclusion

Like every task set in a business – the end must be kept in mind. Why is this programme taking place? To prepare young employees to be managers? To improve the ability of senior management? Whatever the objective – the programme should end with a concluding activity that will display the skills that the participants have learned on their course. As well as this being motivational tool to keep participants actively involved with the course, it also helps to build confidence and affirm the belief that they are now capable of achieving more through leadership.

Examples of such events could involve hosting a conference (involving public speaking), implementing an intiative, heading up a new division, or receiving a promotion.

If you keep these sucess factors in mind when creating your leadership development programme – you should see improved results.

Simon Oates – Leadership Expert™

Leadership Development Training

Leadership Development Training is just one of the leadership development articles at Leadership Expert™. In this article, we will be taking a brief look at what leadership development training is, how much it costs, whether it’s a worthwhile investment, and whether there are any cheaper alternatives.

What Is Leadership Development Training?

Leadership Development “refers to any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization“. Therefore leadership development training is the formalisation of these activities into a structured plan to develop leadership in employees. Leadership training has taken centre stage in recent decades as managers across the world have turned their attention to nuturing and encouraging leadership skills in their staff. Modern day leaderhip development training is the manifestation of that attention.

Leadership development training includes activities such as seminars, leadership coaching, leadership classes, and other leadership services. More often than not, these are provided by external leadership training specialists. Even Fortune 500 companies seem to prefer to outsource their leadership development training rather than keep in-house dedicated staff.

How Much Does Leadership Development Training Cost?

Pricing varies wildly per employee depending on which type of training solution you adopt. One-on-one leadership coaching will cost between £100-£300 per hour, and hence will only be a cost effective leadership development training solution for senior management.

For middle management – small seminars of 5-10 participants are often used, that cost roughly the same (£100-£300 per hour) but naturally provide for a far greater number of employees to benefit from this same fixed cost.

The cheapest or ‘best value’ leadership development training for organisations are hired motivational leadership speakers who can literally speak to hundreds of your employees at once. Logistical problems aside, this solution is common in the USA due to its simplicity and low cost-per-employee. However the drawback with such events are that the package cannot be personally tailored to a specific job role, nevermind an individual person. And as such – these events can be largely ineffective in actually improving the real leadership skills of employees.

So as you can see, there is a very clear trade off between cost and quality of leadership development training. You quite simply get what you pay for.

Simon Oates – Leadership Expert

Examples Of Poor Leadership

History has presented us with plenty of examples of poor leadership. Some notable recent examples of poor leadership:

1. Richard Fuld – Allowed excessive risk taking and poor governance drive Lehman Brothers neatly into the ground.

2. Sir Allen Stanford – Showed a blatant disregard for integrity and commited fraud on a vast scale via his corporation Standford Financial Group. The SEC has recently described the scandal as a ‘Ponzi Scheme’

3. Rick Wagoner – Displayed a lack of strategic oversight while CEO at General Motors. The period of time he was at the helm – GM’s stock price plummeted by 90%. His strategies were simply not forward looking – and GM fell behind competition vastly in terms of cost cutting and product innovation. Rick was forced to stand down as CEO in return for receiving government aid in 2009.

Examples Of Poor Leadership Traits

Impatience. Leaders who don’t fully appreciate that good strategy takes time to implement, and that iniatives need room to develop and mature, invariably will frustrate and increase the stress of those beneath them. Constantly unrealistic demands will demoralise and sap away loyalty.

Aggression. There is no place for fear in the boardroom, and yet it still persists in badly led companies across the world. Women as well as men are perfectly capable of being aggressive torwards their collegues, and let me assure you that there is little else you could do that would cause a such a rapid loss of respect.

Insincerity. Insincerity is the underminer of all policy, all intiative, all strategy and all success in leadership. A word you speak without conviction might as well have not been spoken at all and may even cause damage. A leader might be able to bluff for a few months, but once they’re found out – the stack of cards will fall and your ‘greatest asset’ will be grabbing their pitck forks before you can say ‘lynch’.

Incompetence. Using the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie as an example – you do not have to be expert in your companies field to be able to lead a company brilliantly. Andrew famously praised his management team as knowing more about steel than he did – and this honest admission not only motivated his team, but reflected his own culture of respect.

At contrast to this however, is pretending to be an industry expert when you still have much to learn from the ‘Dumbies Guide to your industry’. Your secret will likely be discovered at the companies most critical time, and your employment prospects won’t look too peachy thereafter.

Simon Oates – Leadership Expert

The Pursuit Of Something Better – Review

If you’re looking for a review of “The Pursuit Of Something Better” then you’ve come to the right place. I’m currently reading an advance copy, and will be publishing LeadershipExpert’s official review within a week, so stay tuned!

Introduction

‘The Pursuit Of Something Better’ follows the story of  US Cellular – a regional telecoms company, through its journey to becoming home to one of the most vibrant and motivated cultures in the USA. As an underdog in the telecoms industry – US Cellular has to fight to survive in the modern world, but the employees fight for it, due to their extreme loyalty and pride.

On one day every year, the managers from across the organisation leave their positions to attend a conference that announces the results of something very dear to them – the annual employee satisfaction questionaire. Grass-root staff rise to the challenge and the company ticks over just fine without them. The atmosphere at the conference is likened to that of a concert – not an annual review. What on earth has happened at this company to drive such enthusiasm?

Well, you’ll have to buy the book yourself to find out!

Review

Review is coming soon!

Purchase

This title was released on the 15th of August 2009.

You can pre-order this book on Amazon UK here

If you’d like to read a review of this book on other blogs, you can visit here and here.

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 Busineses 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 intiatives 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 intiatives in a reluctant way and unsatisfactory way. Either managers are attaching too many ‘novelty’ intiatives to rudementary and meanial 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 negatating 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.

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