Archive for March, 2010

5 Facts of Leadership Development

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

In this post I will give you five facts of Leadership Development, which you must know:

1.    You can make the difference between success and failure in your department. Yes you can…

2.    Leaders become successful through the help of others, therefore, you have to learn how to seek help from your peers and followers. And you can only get this help through the practice of leadership.

3.    You don’t have to be a manager in order to be a leader. In other words, you can be a leader immediately in which ever position you may be. You do not have to be promoted to be a leader.

4.    According to me, the essence of first level leadership is very simple. It is to motivate people to perform their best.

5.    Yes, leaders are born, but leaders can be made through leadership development. If you want to be a leader, you can learn how to be a leader like any other skill. Good leadership does not depend on cushy environment. Your ability to motivate people under any circumstances is independent of any limiting factors.

Tap your powers by adhering to these simple facts of leadership development. After all, awareness is the beginning of all learning.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Leadership, Leadership Development | No Comments »

Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Team Work – All sounds too Mumbo Jumbo? (Part 3)

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

The Team - ‘Team work’ is a phase susceptible to over-use and abuse in the workspace. A true measure of the effectiveness of team work is when you leave the team environment for a time and on your return find that things are running as smoothly as when you left. To develop value within a team, consider three areas:

  • Make the team feel like a team

Unless you include everyone equally in the day to day running of the team, favoritism, alienation and a lack of respect will develop. By letting the individuals see that you are a supporter and protector of the team. An effective vehicle to encourage this is a team briefing where everyone can get involved.

  • Make the team think like a team

Choosing the right medium to communicate to the team is important. Memos, letters and the telephone can often be seen as distancing you from the team. Regular team briefings can open a two-way channel of communication.

  • Make the team work like a team

Often as the size of department grows, jobs and sections of a team can become isolated and fragmented. Your job as a manager is to use your leadership skills to get everyone involved in the work place. Being enthusiastic about an individual’s input is important as it will encourage him to help others, and in so doing work together as a team.

Motivation when balanced with organizing skills will equal leadership

This will allow efficiency in completing daily routines and crisis management. However, leadership is not just organizing, it involves humanity, the human element; as a manager you require both if you are to lead and motivate your team.

Tags: ,
Posted in Leadership, Motivation | No Comments »

Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Team Work – All sounds too Mumbo Jumbo? (Part 2)

Monday, March 29th, 2010

The Individual – How can you modify your managerial/leadership approach to employee motivation?

Each of us is a complex bundle of wants and needs when it comes to motivation.

To give you every opportunity of meeting these wants and needs you have to modify your managerial approach in three particular areas:

  • Challenge: Unless you offer your team members a challenge they will never attain their true potential. By setting targets that will stretch them but are achievable, individuals will feel stimulated and involved in the team performance. This can be the further enhanced by asking them to develop special skills.

  • Praise: It is not uncommon for someone receiving praise to reject with “I’m only doing my job’. The end result of this is that, as managers, we only give praise when and where we feel it is deserved and do not take into account the feelings of the individual who feels he requires some recognition for his efforts. Giving acceptance and appreciation for effort, stops people wasting their enthusiasm. You may know the team’s abilities and they most probably know themselves. But do they know you know?

Concern: Showing concern to individuals is a way a leader gives confidence to individuals. Management by walking about (MBWA) is one way we can find time for individuals, and make them feel wanted. Their response will be a desire to show concern for the job and the organization.

Posted in Leadership, Management | No Comments »

Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Team Work – All sounds too Mumbo Jumbo? (Part 1)

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Leadership is a combination of organizing and motivating. The confidence which is given by the manager to his team can be developed by giving value to:

  1. Their job
  2. Them as individuals
  3. Them as a team

The Job – As a manager it is important for you to maintain the motivation within the department. To do this, three aspects of the job need to be taken into consideration:

Context: All too often people are told to get on with daily tasks in their jobs without being given a reason for completing them. The end result is “telling” rather than ‘selling’ atmosphere generated by the manager. You must be able to carry people along by allowing them to understand the context of the job and where it fits into the organization. This will stimulate interest and initiative from the individual.

Example: ‘Leading by example’ is an everyday cliché, but it has merit. Team members will view you as an example to emulate and therefore, you must set a positive example and approach to all aspects of work.

Importance: A good leader will let people know how important their work is, and recognize the importance of that work. Regardless of how ‘low profile’ or ‘high profile’ the job is, emphasis of importance must be offered to the owners of the job, if they are to remain motivated.

In the subsequent posts, we shall dilate on the other two categories mentioned above.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Leadership Coaching, Motivation | 1 Comment »

Managing Change

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Leadership Coaching is also of great significance in an ever-changing business environment. The issue faced by many managers is how to minimize resistance to new working practices? For many individuals fear of failing or fear of the unknown are the barriers to change. Coaching is a practical way to overcome these problems-by providing individuals with knowledge and guidance which enables them to achieves difficult objectives. It is a method which delivers quick and often impressive results, where recipients of the coaching get instant feedback on performance. Through coaching, individuals share experiences with others, thereby dramatically improving the others’ learning curve and the time it takes to achieve competence.

Posted in Leadership Coaching, Management | No Comments »

Benefits of Coaching

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Effective coaching can bring the following benefits:

  1. Improved Performance-people do their jobs better.
  2. Staff Development – staff can be groomed for greater responsibility.
  3. Increased jobs satisfaction
  4. Better personal relations
  5. More delegation and empowerment-which leads to better use of time and increased motivation all around.
  6. A wealth of ideas are generated-in an atmosphere of continuous improvement those managers who can produce and implement new ideas will survive and prosper.

Posted in Leadership Coaching | No Comments »

Coaching

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Coaching is a vital part of any business. Indeed, it could be argued that coaching is a critical means by which a company ensures that it does not repeat the same mistakes and errors. An effective way for a leader to learn and share information is through consciously reviewing key learning points. This is what lies in the heart of coaching. A dynamic process, which focuses on doing things better, move intuitively – through learning. Its value is not in telling others what to do, but in getting people to learn for themselves through creating the right environment.

Posted in Leadership Coaching | No Comments »

The Essence of Leadership Coaching

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

I am tempted to start this post with a quote from Galileo – “You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.”

In a world of management, what does Leadership Coaching mean? Every one talks about Leadership Coaching but what does it mean? I am of the opinion that before you can develop coaching skills, you must have a clear idea of – ‘what is coaching?’

Shall we arrive at a working definition of Leadership Coaching so that you can weave coaching into your management skills?

Coaching is –

a system of learning and development

helping someone achieve his or her goals

all about sharing knowledge in order to maximize performance

a method of focusing on future possibilities

Coaching is not:

an opportunity to tick off someone’s behavior to correct his or her actions.

Forcing someone to take actions

That you are the phantom of knowledge and have all the answers

In short leadership coaching is an activity designed to help people to improve their performance

As a coach, you try to get the best out of coachee. Coaching is a means of systematically increasing the capability of people so that their job performance improves. It is all about learning and performing. Coaching is very different from teaching or instructing. The coach encourages people to take responsibility of their learning.

There is no universally accepted definition of the term ‘Leadership Coaching’

How ever, there is no doubt that Leadership Coaching is an opportunity to contribute to another person’s development. There is a caveat – coaching is based on mutual agreement; therefore it is not appropriate for every situation.

Posted in Leadership Coaching | 2 Comments »