How To Build A Responsibility-Driven Culture

By Emmett C. Murphy, Written for Leadership Expert.

In 2003 Lego lost $238 million due to overly complex designs, failed forays into new markets, and costly licensing ventures.  In 2004 they took previously untried steps to restore integrity and profits.  Lego engaged a group of devoted fans to help them redesign a lagging product—Mindstorms, the company’s customizable robotics kit.  This move broke with the creative team’s history of privacy and exclusiveness.  The “Mindstorms User Panel” wanted to be paid in Lego blocks.  They purchased their own tickets to Denmark for meetings.  They routinely replied to single-line queries from the company with multi-page emails.  They enabled the creation of wildly new and unconventional robots, such as toilet scrubber robots and bulldog robots.  After experiencing the pitfalls of insularity, Lego’s decision to partner with the customer was an act of humility.  It was also an act of responsibility.  Leaders who admit they have a lot to learn, that they make mistakes, and that they can’t run the company alone earn respect and engender responsible attitudes in others.  Three key practices of good leadership stem from humility—and inspire responsibility.

Partner with the Customer—Achieve a Shared Vision

Before Lego partnered with its customers, it was at risk of alienating them. Users had begun losing interest in products they considered too complex.  Leaders who do not believe in the partnership model often act out a predatory model, subordinating the customer’s interests; Lego was heading in that direction.  Instead Lego executives traveled to the world outside the organization to guide the customer to the center of organizational life.  This act overtly recognized the organization’s dependence on the outside world and helped build a stronger ethical relationship between customer and organization.  By “traveling outside” to gain new knowledge, Lego executives created a dynamic organizational model that embraced the “constant” of change and the need for continual adaptation.  By working in close back-and-forth contact with their customers, the leaders at Lego also found that partnering with customers meant achieving a consensus.  Rather than compromising or seeking to win, the customer-partner model describes a synergy that comes from achieving a shared vision.

Connect with the Frontlines—Learn From Those Who Know

Leaders who act with humility aim to achieve a shared vision with everyone in the organization.  They want to understand the perspectives of those at the frontlines and adapt to accommodate those perspectives.  Recently Brian Dunn, the chief executive of Best Buy, expressed his faith in following the frontlines—he had been a frontliner himself once.  As a teenager working at a grocery store he had interacted with customers on a daily basis.  His manager regularly asked him what he thought of new policies—for example, the store’s policy of having customers load their own groceries.  “I know it seems simple,” Dunn said in a recent interview with The New York Times, “but just that notion of learning from people who are actually doing the work, and the encouragement he gave me to tell him exactly what I thought really stayed with me.”  Leaders motivated by fear or arrogance remain aloof, removed from their employees.  Those motivated by humility remain physically present and personally connected; they fear ignorance more than they fear confronting mistakes or problems.  Humility drives responsibility:  when leaders focus on customer needs, they train others at the frontlines and elsewhere to move beyond self-interest too.

Understand Work Roles—Don’t Place Blame

Strong leaders respect the careers of others as much as they respect their own. Rather than assuming they know what’s going on in the workplace, leaders driven by humility make a practice of asking questions to understand what others do and what they need.  They practice active listening and seek out quiet environments to interact with others without distractions.  They empathize with their associates and ultimately empower them by reinforcing strengths and resources.  When problems arise, worksheets and scripts can help a leader chart an individual’s work life in a pragmatic and open-minded way.  The work-life map then serves as a tool for learning what changes need to be made.  When a leader finds misalignment in an individual’s work-life map, he or she practices humility by avoiding blame.  The goal of assessments is to transform problems into opportunities and to encourage others to take responsibility for their work, not to engage in a blaming game.

The most responsible leaders don’t let pride get in the way of progress.  They seek a purpose for leadership beyond self-interest, which helps them create partnerships—with customers, frontliners, and associates.  You might say that when Lego solicited its staunchest fans to help with product development, it pioneered one of its best designs yet.

Emmett Murphy, Ph.D., is Founder and President of Murphy Leadership (www.murphyleadership.com), a global leadership consultancy.  Murphy is the author of several books including Talent IQ.   He is currently at work on his new book, Entrepreneurial IQ.

Leadership Exposed: Things You Thought You Knew About Leadership

Much has been written about leadership: rules, pointers, styles, and biographies of inspiring leaders throughout world history. But there are certain leadership ideas that we ourselves fail to recognize and realize in the course of reading books. Here is a short list of things you thought you knew about leadership.

1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, congressmen, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to by virtue of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

Lewin’s three basic leadership styles: authoritative, participative, and delegative

Likert’s four leadership styles: exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative

Goleman’s six emotional leadership styles – visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.

2. Leadership is a process of becoming.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities.

Knowledge on leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning.

You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street.

Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character. Steven Covey’s book entitled “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” provides good insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill.

Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership.

To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

How come dictatorship works for Singapore but not in the United States of America? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation.

In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions. The case is of course different in times of peace and order—different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance.

Another case in point is in leading organizations. When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

Now that you are reminded of these things, keep in mind that there are always ideas that we think we already know; concepts we take for granted, but are actually the most useful insights on leadership.

About the Author: Visit Carl Hoffman

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

Why Use Golf To Develop Leadership?

There’s a surprising similarity between playing the game of golf and leadership. Once the analogies are made clear to you, you’ll wonder perhaps why you didn’t see it before. By the time you’ve finished reading this, you’ll know the major connections and feel compelled to find out more.

35% of registered golfers in the UK are senior managers, professionals or executives , according to Mintel. This rises to 43.3% of London Golfers. And 12.8% of all golfers in the UK are senior managers, executives or professionals – that’s about 1.8 million golfers are senior managers, executives and professionals in the UK alone! (Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2006/Mintel) 44% of senior managers executives and professionals in the UK have played, do play or would like to play golf. (Source: BMRB/Mintel) Add another 1.4 million managers (Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2006/Mintel) and you realise just how big a sport golf has become – and it id predominantly ABC1 who play the game, and still predominantly male – 83%!

In part, business leaders, particularly those with some marketing or sales role, play golf to network with prospects and clients. There’s certainly some social status about being a golf club member, and for sure, in part there’s the ‘coincidence’ of playing golf and being a business leader.

The characteristics of those who play golf and those who are business leaders shows considerable similarities. For example, the desire to score well (even win) a round of golf. To be concerned about one’s personal performance and strive to improve it relates to a strong personal ‘Achievement Orientation’. I want to do well because I want to do well!

There are differences too, and important ones. On the golf course, the golfer is playing against the course. It is one of very few sports where the play of others has no effect on the golfer’s performance at all… unless he (and it is predominantly still ‘he’) allows it. This is not the case for the majority of business leaders where personal performance can be impacted by the performance of others. So the golf course is the place where a player can assuredly adopt the attitude, it’s MY performance that matters and only their actions change the result. This suggests the desire for control – or Directiveness.

76% of golfers play for social reasons (GMI/Mintel) – this demonstrates a desire, if not ability, in the competencies of influence and communication.

So why use golf to develop leadership?

The game of golf attracts business leaders more than other groups – & perhaps the conclusions above suggest why. So it became increasingly obvious to our team that golf could be both an attractive idea for development within this group, and that the game of golf itself could be deliberately used to develop the competencies and behaviours associated with great leadership. Indeed, many of our clients confirm the attraction of golf for our senior management training programmes by requesting training to take place at golf clubs.

Our research into using simulations has shown that given a truly safe environment to practice the tools and techniques of leadership and management, participants not only learn more (23% greater learning) than using more traditional methods like case studies, they enjoy it more (17% greater) and demonstrate greater transfer of new behaviours to the workplace (26% greater transfer).

Not only this, but studies in societies where females are considered disadvantaged in management showed a greater improvement in demonstrated management and leadership competencies after a simulation based programme than a traditional programme over their male counterparts 16% greater improvement in demonstrated competencies. The key to the success of using simulations is that they provide a realistic, safe environment to practice the tools, techniques and behaviours of great leadership (Kenworthy 2005)

Is golf a safe, realistic environment?

The great thing about golf is that it is one of the very few activities that provides a genuinely level-playing field – through the well-established handicapping system. It may not be perfect, but it’s very close. This means that a scratch golfer competes fairly with a complete beginner. There are also rules within which the game must be played – these represent the constraints of doing business. There are established game rules that encourage pairs or foursomes to work together, and there are rules to foster individual competition -sometimes in business we want our leaders to be entrepreneurial and ‘go-getters’ – leading by example, at other times, we want them to be team leaders, or team players.

Caddies, provide a perfect metaphor for coaches and mentors. The course itself provides a varied environment, shifting according to things beyond the control of the player, but observable by them. The hole provides a target, the course provides for a strategic plan to achieve the real goal. The points scored can directly relate to revenue or profit. The clubs and balls are resources – even the golf pro can be a consultant resource.

The game of golf provides a fantastic platform to learn leadership – its safe and fair, it’s as realistic as you need it to be and it’s fun!

Can you just play golf to develop leadership?

There’s certainly something about the game of golf that shares characteristics of great leadership, but whether it’s the playing golf that develops the person as a leader or that the leadership capability makes for a golfer is an unanswered question. Like any powerful training programme, leadership development needs a supporting, robust model of development. Unfortunately it’s not much use telling someone to BE Jack Welch, or even to tell someone what it is that Jack Welch does – that doesn’t make you a leader. Nor, can we simply seek to develop the 10 principles, 7 habits, 12 big things etc. of the best leaders in the world – leadership is personal – the first step in becoming a leader is to take charge of yourself and align your personal values to achieving what you want to achieve. If it were that simple then there wouldn’t be a leadership issue anywhere in the world today.

Solid Foundations

Effective leadership development (indeed for adults to learn anything effectively) needs the learner to go through three learning processes according to Bloom -cognitive, affective and psycho-motor learning. That we need to develop knowledge about leadership, associate a feeling or emotion with the desire to learn the knowledge and physically put that knowledge into practice.

Most business leaders have some knowledge about what constitutes ‘good’ leadership – though few practice it all the time. They may have seen ‘good’ leadership exemplified by others in their past or present. They may have read a book on leadership – such as the 7 Habits. Where these most often fail to become new behaviours is twofold – Firstly, most examples of ‘good’ leadership are often carried out ‘naturally’ by the person demonstrating them -we often refer to them as ‘born leaders’. They are ‘good’ leaders, but they don’t consciously know what it is that they do – and therefore they are unable to share with others what they should or could do. Most books, on the other hand, tend to focus on one of two aspects – how to be a leader – here is Mr Great CEO and this is what he did, you must do the same. or they distil ‘best’ behaviours and provide a checklist for you to do ‘good’ leadership.

In the former situation, the ‘born leader’ is unable (or unwilling) to give you the requisite knowledge to learn. In the latter (books), they often fail to make an emotional connection to implement the knowledge (other than you’ve bought the book therefore you must want to learn), or they provide simplistic implementation checklists, do this, then this then this at work. If the new ‘habit’ doesn’t work first time, the book provides little or no guidance as to what you should do now.

What people need is a synthesis of the tools, techniques, attitudes and attributes of ‘good’ leadership within a structured model supported with templates that enable you to physically learn the behaviours. And one way of ensuring an emotional learning hook is by using the game of golf as a metaphor, and golf provides a means for you to put your behaviours into physical practice for yourself first – i.e. self-leadership, then you can use the templates at work. All practiced within a safe and realistic environment that is fun.

Build on this foundation the safe and realistic learning environment of a business simulation on the golf course and you have leadership development that actually does what it says on the box.

Author:  Gainmore Advantage – www.celsim.com

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 nurturing and encouraging leadership skills in their staff. Modern day leadership 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, never mind 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.

 

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.

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 occurance – 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 neccessarily the universal ‘right’ way to handle this occurance, this is why different cultures form in the first place.

Values In Leadership Culture

Values are a less permenant form of leadership culture, and thus are more easily changed than assumptions.  Values reflect concensus 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 constructeded and sculpted, and hence can be controlled easily by management. If however, artifacts that have been over-managed can become incongruent 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.

Author – Simon Oates

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.

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