Category Archives: Leadership

Leadership

Creating a Leadership Development Blueprint for Your Organization

This is an overall leadership development (LD) blueprint that does not pretend to be all-inclusive but, if you do not have a clue where to begin, it will get you started in the right direction. I know it works because it was the same blueprint I designed and used in creating a LD program within a large Fortune 500 bank a few years ago.

Some unintended, but very favorable consequences, of our leadership program happened to the executive sponsor – our “Champion” – during a monthly meeting with the bank’s executive committee.

They were discussing the trend of the constantly improving metrics in the operations division when the chairman asked our executive to describe how he was doing it.

“I can account for about half of it”, he admitted, “but, beyond that, I don’t have any specifics.”

“What?” responded the chairman. “How can you NOT know everything about it?”

“Because we’ve empowered our leaders down to the line level to make decisions up to a certain financial threshold on their own without having to ask. So the numbers are getting better but I haven’t asked them how…and do not plan to. We have trained them to act and they are doing it. Much better than we ever expected!”

As additional incentive to use this blueprint, be sure to keep this fundamental organizational fact burned into your “memory chip” if you are a Human Resources professional: Human Resources, though its linkage to hiring, firing, training, performance management, benefits and compensation, has a unique and powerful influence on the greatest organizational expense: the workforce.

Therefore, HR has an opportunity UNLIKE ANY OTHER SEGMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION to impact the bottom line if it will consider this simple fact of business life: every dime saved in operations expenses goes directly to the bottom line; i.e., PROFITS.

And, the easiest way to make that profitable impact on the bottom line is to improve the leadership skills in the operations area. This is because employees are more closely tied emotionally to their leader than to their employer! If an employee has a good leader, they will have high morale, maximum productivity, and stay with them through stressful times. If they have a poor leader, they will do the least they can to get by, become clock watchers, and leave at the first opportunity.

It all comes back to leadership skills. Even if an organization could afford a full-blown, LD initiative provided by an outside vendor, many still could not easily send their employees to traditional classroom training because of staffing, workplace locations, or work schedule issues like we faced during the development and implementation of this program.

Therefore, we have modified this guide from the original to use a self-study approach that would allow participants to receive the training they need in spite of any scheduling, work, or training obstacles encountered.

Telephone conference calls, webinars, or web video conferencing can bring a widely dispersed audience together for meetings, sharing experiences, or updates on the program itself and should be a part of the program.

Although we are now using a self-study format as the foundation for this guide that makes it easier to deliver the training, no amount of training is worthwhile without support from an organization’s leaders to make sure the participant applies the skills learned on the job after the training and the participant has the opportunity to share lessons learned and network with peers.

Just as the leaders are expected to protect the organization’s investments in capital improvements, they should be just as diligent maximizing the return on investment in developing their workforce.

Much of what we describe in this guideline will need strong support from a training manager, HR representative, or some strong project manager to act as the primary connection point to answer questions, provide forms, or collect suggestions for improving the program. This person would also be the central keeper of the participant’s electronic development records while being able to send a copy to the participant at the completion of each item in the plan.

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Leadership

Is Your Leadership Limiting Your Organizations Ability to Grow?

Leadership capacity is more than simply skill development; it’s about performance, growth, transformation and change. For the purpose of our discussion in this series of articles, let’s define it as;

 

“Leadership Capacity is the skilful use of leadership attributes for the growth and development of ourselves, our colleagues and our organization”.

 

Great leaders not only understand how to engage and inspire their teams to get the best results – they understand the need to create participatory and collaborative processes that develop the abilities of the next generation of leaders.

Leadership lays the groundwork for success

Successful companies do not happen by accident. They are the result of building effective leadership capacity and an awareness and willingness to take the necessary steps in identify internal talent and nurture them into the leaders of tomorrow.

Leadership lays the groundwork for success in 3 key ways:

 

    1. Builds an internal development system: Not unlike a great sports dynasty with a deep pool of talent in their farm teams, strong leaders foster leadership in all levels of their organization. When leadership capacity is developed at all levels of the organization, it creates a farm system of future leaders that will be prepared to move up and take on new challenges, preventing the organization from experiencing a future leadership gap. Internal leadership capabilities also create a rich internal resource of new and innovative ideas that management can consult when charting out the future of the organization.
    1. Creates a competitive advantage: Companies that invest in leadership development are the minority. Organizations and their leadership get caught up and focus on the day to day operations of the business – the most pressing issues that drive short term results. They forget to invest time in the future because the ROI is less obvious. When this happens, it is the long term vision and growth potential that tends to suffer because of gaps in leadership transition. If your organization is one of the few that consistently commits to developing internal leadership capacity and is constantly producing future leaders, you will have an advantage over competitors – not only because ideas and innovative thinking are constantly being revitalized, but also the ability to attract the best new talent that can be developed into future leaders.
  1. Fosters innovation: Leaders at the top of the organization need to intentionally gather information from across the organization. To consistently have the ability to grow and stay fresh with your thinking you need leaders at all levels of your organization that are able to evaluate activities and provide honest feedback based on understanding the vision and values of the organization. When employees are given additional responsibilities and the ability to make decisions, this puts them in a position to expand their capabilities, grow as an employee, and develop their skills – which leads to new insights, perspectives, and efficiencies that benefit the broader organization as well.

 

Leadership elevates your ability to grow

Leadership has a direct impact on your company’s ability to grow. While much of the attention about leadership is focused on the leaders at the top of the organization, it is the leaders at the mid-level and front line that have the greatest direct impact on growth.

No matter where your leadership development is as an organization, here are 4 critical elements to consider when evaluating the overall leadership capacity and culture within your organization.

Establish and communicate a clear direction: Strong leaders communicate a vision that inspires and attracts people with shared beliefs and values. Having a clear direction ensures that the correct infrastructure, resources and people are in place to advance the growth process. A clear direction also provides leaders with a measuring stick they can use to gauge decisions, strategy and future planning. A clear direction, clearly communicated is also a highly effective recruitment tool for other top performers.

Define goals and objectives: Leaders that clearly lay out the specific goals and objectives not only for the organization, but for each department, project, and employee make it easier for employees to commit to those outcomes. Everyone needs to be clear on what success looks like in the organization. Leaders that define what needs to be done will have greater success gaining the desired results from their people.

Set standards of behaviour: Outcomes are important – but by themselves can be detrimental to the organization if the “how” is also not clarified. Great leaders understand that leadership starts first through the behaviours they model; however, true leadership capacity is more than simply leading by example. Leaders must create a working environment that fosters and rewards desired behaviour in addition to the desired outcomes.

Embed continuous improvement into your culture: Many organizations are pretty good at the first 3 elements – but fall down in the area of continuous improvement, which is the most critical. This only occurs when everyone in the organization is committed to building their own leadership capacity and helping the organization grow and evolve based on people willing to providing input from across the organization.

If the organization only has direction, goals and behaviours – without the consistent, positive tension of personal contribution and improvement, senior leaders lose the benefit of the wealth of ideas from less senior leaders across the organization. Resultant, the farm system is not strengthened and the flow of innovative thinking is stifled.

What can leaders do tomorrow?

Building out your leadership capacity must one of your prime objectives. Without building your personal leadership capacity, you will inhibit both your personal and companies’ ability to change and grow.

Leadership impacts performance and performance impacts growth. Growth will not happen if people do not perform. Effective leadership builds more effective people, teams, and organizations. When leadership is present at all levels it helps to accelerate business results and makes it possible to fire up change and growth.

Consider this information and think about how it applies to you as a leader and your company. Think about the current state of your leadership and think about ways that you can put yourself in a position to be a better leader and achieve change in your organization – even from the bottom up.

Bill Hogg: Performance Excelerator | Leadership & Employee Engagement Expert| Professional Speaker

Bill is recognized as the Performance Excelerator because of his uncanny ability to navigate change and transform organizations — and measurably improve bottom line results.

Senior leaders hire Bill to influence and inspire higher performing, customer-focused cultures that create long-term, profitable relationships with your customers and excelerate performance, productivity and profits with leaders and employees

For over 30 years, Bill has been a trusted adviser to senior leaders at national and international clients. By drawing on real-life experience, his message is inherently credible and incorporates practical applications that change attitudes and behaviours.

Whether working with boards or operations teams and employees, his no-excuse approach breaks down the silos and gains consensus and clarity throughout the organization.

Bill Hogg provides dynamic keynote presentations, transformative workshops, high stakes facilitation and world class executive consulting.

For additional information email bill@billhogg.ca or visit online at http://www.billhogg.ca where you can download Bill’s 1-sheet or access more articles.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bill_Hogg/217905

 

Leadership

Different Leadership Models

Leadership models enable us to comprehend the reasons why a leader acts the way that he or she does. One popular example of these leadership models is the Four Framework Approach. In this type of leadership model, it suggests that a leader can be placed into one of the four categories in the Four Framework Approach which include: Human Resource, Structural, Symbolic and Political. It also suggests that in some cases, one approach is suitable and there are also times when it is not. Depending upon a certain situation, a type of style can be effectual or not. One must be aware about the four approaches as relying on a single or two approaches would be insufficient. Aside from this, one must also be mindful of the limitations of supporting a single approach.

Human Resource Leadership Model Framework

In the Human Resource framework, a human resource leader is easily reached and able to be seen, believes in people and communicates it. They also authorize, share information, support, and budget decision-making down into their association and boost participation. In the Human Resource Framework, the leader is a means and servant whose leadership approach is advocating, support and empowerment in an effectual leadership circumstances. In an ineffective leadership circumstances, a person’s leadership style is deception and abdication and is an easy target.

Structural Leadership Model Framework

In the Structural Framework, a structural leader focuses on strategy, implementation, adaptation, experimentation, environment and structure. In an ineffective leadership circumstances, the person’s leadership style is details and is a petty oppressor while in an effective leadership condition, the person’s leadership style is design and analysis and is a community architect.

Symbolic Leadership Model Framework

In the Symbolic Framework, a symbolic leader uses symbols to get attention, find out and converse a vision and view associations as a stage to participate in specific functions and bestow impressions. They also endeavor to frame experience through providing reasonable understanding of experiences. In an effective leadership condition, the leadership style of an individual is inspiration. In an ineffective leadership condition, the leadership style of an individual is mirrors and smoke and is a fanatic.

Political Leadership Model Framework

In the Political Framework, a political leader reviews the distribution of interests and power and makes what they want and what they can get clearly. They also utilize persuasion first, construct relationship to other stakeholders and employs negotiation and force if it is really necessary. In an effective leadership circumstances, the leadership style of a person is alliance and construction. In an ineffective leadership situation, the leadership style of a person is manipulation.

A leadership model is simply a way of knowing and better understanding why leaders have to act the way that they do and make the decisions that we sometimes do not agree with. However, this does not necessarily mean that you only have to focus on the type of behavior discussed in the leadership models but these models is a means of understanding that each kind of situation identifies for a certain approach or behavior that a leader must take into consideration. If you want to know more about leadership models there are numerous resources online and in publication as well as some popular classroom educational resources that can help elevate your understanding and ability to utilize leadership models to benefit your classroom, team, company or organization.

Check out some of my other leadership articles here: Charismatic Leadership [http://learnhowtobeconfident.net/23580/charismatic-leadership/]. or Effective Leadership [http://learnhowtobeconfident.net/23589/effective-leadership/]!

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Chris_M_Yarbrough/848674

 

Leadership

Leadership As a Human Service

What is leadership or who is a leader? The common knowledge about leadership definition is to influence the thoughts and behaviors of other people by motivating and inspiring with the purpose to utilize resources (human & material) so as to build organizations, communities, nations and the globe. The bottom-line is to put people into a service willingly and happily through a leadership talent. Now, it is not difficult to define who is a leader or what is a leader all about. A leader is someone who inspires, motivates and utilizes both human and materials resources wisely or effectively. This very definition carries a wisdom that supersedes the literal definition of leadership. If we think critically and analyze the essence of leadership, it is all about human service-the universal service.

At the surface, the definition of leadership seems a piece of cake to understand and far from complexity. However, it is not easy to serve organization, communities, nations and the world without the wisdom of leadership. The very essence of leadership is service. By service it means that to devote one’s life wholeheartedly to the entire humanity without segregation. Leadership is a choice to serve. It has nothing to do with a position, good office or title. Hence, good leaders deliberately choose to serve, not to be served.

Leadership is wide in scope, complex in nature and abundant in service. It is also a universal truth that humanity needs to survive and flourish. Humanity merely flourishes, if it starts to serve itself; otherwise, without service the devil is too big to overcome. Without visionary leaders, tomorrow is too obscure and more uncertain. Humanity needs not managers or administers, but leaders who can reconnect yesterday to today, and today to tomorrow, for service is not one time event. This is meant to say that genuine leaders have the enormous power to connect cultures and histories to the promising future.

Indeed, life is a service. The foundation or the root of life is service. Jesus Christ, the leader of leaders, served humanity to death. He is still the iconic model of leadership for those who want to serve life entirely. He sweated blood and served humanity to death. He served, but He was not served in return. During His time, on the planet, He taught humanity to love and serve itself. Even in His last time, before He departed, He deeply interceded the disciples to go to the world and serve humanity to death. This is the moral and wisdom of leadership that we learn from Jesus. In accordance with this, we had also a number of leaders who sacrificed their lives for service, such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and mother Teresa. These three people had a lot in common. Three of them consumed their lives in serving humanity. Even Nelson Mandela, the living leader, is also one of the best leaders ever Africa produced. If we look back to their histories, we find freedom, love, liberation, prosperity, truth, but to the extreme their histories carry an absolute service to humanity. Truly, humanity is blessed and flourished to freedom through their leadership services. The service is diverse in kind, but universal toward the path of prosperity. Their echoes and traces are still behind them and helping us to enjoy the beauty of life. Hence, their histories are the assets of leadership and by far the figures or model of service.

If leadership is about service, who wants to serve? Apparently, we all want to be served, and don’t want to serve humanity. We are ego-centric or selfish spirit. Selfish spirit wants this and that, never gratifies. For someone to be a good leader, the self-concept must be overlooked and become the true him in order to be an instrument of service. Service is an innate, but selfishness is an induced spirit from the outside world.

True leaders are original, unshakable, unified, lived spirit and flow like a river to serve and reconstruct the planet, and also understand the very nature of life as a service rendering to the whole humanity irrespective of race, religion, ideology or nationality. Such deeper understanding happens to be because of leadership discovery. Leadership is special, but subtle and complex, because leaders should discover the talents, gifts, abilities and skills within the ‘being’. It is true that for someone who has not discovered the inner treasures, has nothing to offer, but a lot to take from others through selfish spirit. If by chance he or she comes to a position to lead a nation, the whole country’s treasure will be put into his/her personal account. We can take dictators as an example in this situation. Dictators draw the whole countries’ assets into their personal interest and assume little responsibility. Under dictatorship leadership a considerable human resources can easily be exploited, wasted or misused. Dictators are unrealized leaders and threat to human civilization. The failure to discover their inner leadership talents and gifts resulted to a nations’ definite backwardness, diseases, illiteracy, tribal conflict, tyranny, sordid poverty and many other problems that are pertaining to human issues. Such dilemma is more visible in countries under dictatorship leadership, particularly in the developing countries.

Dictators and leaders are diametrically opposite. There is no a commonplace between them. It is like the difference between the sky and earth. When one goes up, the other goes down, or vice versa. Leaders are realized talents, whereas dictators are unrealized talents. Leaders produce whereas dictators waste or abuse. Leaders render service whereas dictators take away. Leaders are visionary whereas dictators are shortsighted mind. Leaders aim high whereas dictators aim personal. Leaders are change agents whereas dictators are deteriorate agents. Leaders build whereas dictators destroy. Leaders die for service, whereas dictators die for the self.

It is the same talent that works in both. The same energy builds or destroys, or the same energy makes a leader or a dictator. It depends on how it is wisely or foolishly used. The same water can cultivate or destroy vegetations at the same time. Hence, the usage matters a lot more. Leaders discover the talents from within and use them wisely for human service and future generation.

Leaders are not made or born from the outside world. Leaders are born from within. Some leadership authors adhere to the idea that leadership is a learned or acquired. However, if we look back to human history, we find a lot of learned leaders who have committed a colossal errors and tortured humanity to death. Education has nothing to do with genuine leaders, though it is important as a stimulus to cause the leader within everyone to be born. Even intelligence is not an indispensable unless it is tuned up by the spirit of leadership. For instance let’s take Adolf Hitler, the butcher of humanity. Hitler’s IQ was around 140, but he ended up against human gene. He had the wrong spirit though he was genius and courageous.

True leaders are holy spirited, visionary, born from within, shone from in-out and dedicated to the purpose of human service. The service is universal for common purpose in reference to human prosperity and rebuilding of the planet. Leaders have an infinite potential to serve, create, change, innovate and develop nations to the heights of civilization.

In the 21st century, we don’t need administrators or managers, but deadly we need leaders. Nations are over administered or managed, but little change, innovation and development. The absence of leadership resulted to nations’ stagnation, tribal conflict, genocide, tyranny and problem of implementations. All the global issues, such as nuclear weapon, economic crisis, epidemic diseases, global warming, ideological conflicts, severe corruption and many others, are also byproduct of poor leadership capacity. The new brand of leadership that points towards service is the solution to all these global issues. The new brand of leadership makes the clear-cut between leadership by consent and force, and calls for the deeper relationship between leaders and followers, employers and employees. This kind of leadership will help the world to enter into new era of potential realization, and the downfall and disappearance of dictators and kings.

Leadership as a service emanates from within, assumes a considerable responsibility, and characterizes by loyalty, trustworthiness, unwavering courage, definiteness of decisions and plans, cooperation, change, innovation, solid personality, sympathy, sense of justice and the like. It dismisses also the threats of human survival, and is more powerful than any form of leadership, for it helps humanity to prosper, cooperate, function, realize and reach the heights of civilizations.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Berhane_A_Tedla/1257974

 

Leadership

Tripping Over Leadership

CEOs’ Tripping Over ‘Leadership’

There is a huge opportunity for success and for us to contribute back into society and business through developing our awareness of nominalisations.

Nominalisations are when we talk about a verb, process or an action as if it is a noun, as if it is an object or a ‘thing’. For example, ‘relationship’. In reality relationship is not something that you can hold, touch, see or a thing you have. Instead we relate as a process.

There are many nominalisations in society, business, and our individual lives that can and do trip us up! I refer to not knowing of the effects of nominalisations on our society, success and in ourselves as a ‘blind spot’. Blind spots are the parts of our ‘maps of the world’ and the ‘map of ourselves’ that we don’t know about yet!

Even at the lofty top of CEO and Leadership, people have blind spots and are still falling over the trip-wire of nominalisations. This time it is the term leadership.

To share some insight, I have gained permission from three of the leaders I am currently coaching, to share their ‘first’ definitions of leadership. Two of these CEOs’ are in Australia and one in the USA. To set the scene, these conversational extracts are from our first session meetings. All three of these leaders are leading over five thousand employees.

Client One – Bob

Coach: So, Bob thanks for giving me such an in-depth outline of the organisation and the people you lead. So I can identify a benchmark of where we are, would you mind sharing your definition or understanding of ‘leadership’?

Bob: Sure, leadership is being the light at the top of the hill, not the lantern… the light…

Coach: Okay, thanks, how does someone know when you are applying your leadership skills Bob?

Bob: It’s bright, very bright…

Client Two – Craig

Coach: Craig, so as I can identify a benchmark of where we are in the leadership coaching process, would you mind sharing your definition or understanding of leadership?

Craig:…(long pause) of course not, do you know how your nails grow?

Coach: Not consciously Craig, no!

Craig: That is how leadership is, if you are born with it, you just have it, if you are not, you don’t, and it’s that simple! Believe me I know!

Client Three – Matthew

Coach: Matthew, just so I can get a grip on your being and doing of leadership, would you mind sharing with me your definition of leadership?
Matthew: Leadership does not exist…

Coach: Great!

Matthew: Leadership is simply management with more POWER!

Coach: Oh… let’s start then shall we?

Talk about tripping over nominalisations! People have fallen so hard from what they held in their believing; that leadership was immeasurable, a thing, that they could happily give their questionable definitions and that would be enough.

During the continuing coaching, we explored what leading could also be. This was the catalyst for their ‘getting back up’ as they were starting to see through the nominalisations of leadership, and that as processes of leading, they are visible to their staff/ stakeholders! Now they were breaking through their blind spot.

From the perspective of any ability, there are governing principles and contextual rules that enable one to develop competency and mastery in a given area. Can you imagine trying to effectively lead thousands or even five people through accepting nominalisations as guides?

When people come for leadership coaching, they know that they are curious about leadership and leadership coaching, but are often unsure why! In reality, what they want is to get asked the questions and receive the feedback that they do not get from within their organisation because of their power position.

There is often mist surrounding their understanding and application of leadership. This most often turns out to be because of… you guessed it, nominalisations. In general though, they come to discover the being and doing of effective leadership. To actualise their fullest potentials, and at some level, they know that their own staff are feeding them many nominalisations, and they want to be able to effectively challenge these.

Blind spots are blind spots, we cannot know what we do not know, this is one of the most valuable contributions coaching can provide in coaching leaders; the opportunity to develop greater awareness. Of course, there are many perspectives on what leadership is. Some of the more useful distinctions floating about name it in single words, such as “leadership is relationship” or “leadership is vision”.

Although these may be useful, it is in experience, leaders and future leaders benefit from realising that leadership doesn’t exist as a thing. Leadership is many processes that can be witnessed and measured. Not unlike to the early scientists who were bamboozled by the opinion that ‘heat’ was a thing.

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