Leadership

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.

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

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

o 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.

Tim Maher is interested in personal development in all its facets and has read many books on this topic. It is an interest that is fed and nurtured by listening to audio books and seminars when possible. To assist your own personal growth journey get your audio resources at ==> [http://www.magillaudiobooks.com/list.aspx?catId=137]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tim_Maher/71401

 

Leadership

The Lead Wolf Model of Leadership

Effective leaders are driven by a model. A model is a tool used to predict future outcomes of current decisions. Effective leaders build their models on the sum of their experiences, knowledge and deeds as well as their mistakes. This truth is at the core of learning how to be a winner instead of a survivor.

o Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.

o Recognition and praise raises self-esteem. Positive feedback and ample communication allow employees gratification and a newfound confidence in the organization. Command and control works for the military but leadership in the business environment must be built on dignity and respect. Remember, employees are your most precious asset. Respect them, train them, coach and mentor them, trust them and they will create competitive advantage for your company.

o Companies today are increasingly characterized by a large and incredibly complex set of independent relationships between highly diverse groups of people. To be successful, you must determine how to get active involvement, innovation and creativity out of your employees. Success depends on more than just “best practice” success drivers. Success demands a superior level of leadership–a level that requires deep commitment. This commitment will not flourish in workplace environments that are still dominated by the “slap & point” or the “carrot and stick” method of management often used in the past

o People cannot “Live to Work” they must “Work to Live”. This is about keeping family life and personal values in perspective.

o People are the most important ingredient to every organization and the organizations behavior. People and how they are treated will reflect the organizational characteristics, the way it acts and interacts with its own people.

o Leadership —- Make no mistake – leadership is about Trust – Respect & Integrity.

Employees won’t start respecting you as a leader until you start respecting them

Employees will not trust you as a leader until you start trusting them

Gaining trust and respect from your employees is built on a platform of integrity.

o Ethics are the breeding ground for trust. Do the right thing – always and commit to conducting yourself with the highest standards of ethics and integrity.

o An effective leader is only as good as the people he/she surrounds themselves with.

o “It’s not about power and politics; it’s about principle and process.”

o Employees want to take pride in their leaders. They are eager to give their trust, but demonstrating the kind of leadership character that deserves that trust cannot be over-emphasized.

o Character is built around a true concern for the people within the organization. It is based on fairness and consistency.

o The culture and environment of the organization are going to have a major impact on leadership’s self-expectations. This is a critical element that executives who are not successful fail to recognize. Organizational culture is extremely important to successful growth.

o Problems with staffing and retention may not be due to bad hires or a low unemployment rate. In fact, they may be related to poor leadership insight by not recognizing employees as a core competency in the business strategy. Although employees may not fit the strictest definition of a core competency, it is a fact that employees are the ones responsible for creating many of the core competencies. It is an undisputable fact that failure to recognize the importance of employee contributions will lead to failure regardless of your business strategy.

o The leader has to be an agent of change. Most people in most organizations prefer not to change, It’s scary. One of the roles of leadership is to cause change, to create change, to force change, to instigate change. Whatever verb you want to use.

o Creating change, managing during turbulent times, or fostering growth after restructuring all depends on a balance of leadership. No one person can make a company successful. It takes a lot of people, but one person with a command of leadership can transfer enough influence, creating enough leadership amongst the management group to guarantee success

o Change really occurs more easily when everybody sees the need for it.

o Communication is key in creating an environment that encourages employee retention. Respect, belief in employees, empowerment and involvement are key factors in retaining employees. Effective leadership & respect must be demonstrated at every level in the organization.

o Leadership without communication is like a gun without a bullet. It looks impressive but it can’t do anything.

o Next to people, communication is the most critical element to success, whether the company is in a growth mode or facing challenges to maintain market share. Failure to communicate is like a virus that can lead to total failure.

o Communication is essential to developing trust. Trust is necessary to get people to reach down deep inside and give everything they have under the most difficult circumstances. Trust will allow people to give their discretionary energy to meet objectives.

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Business Strategy, Capital Markets, Contracts & Legal, Finance, People, Project Management, Start-ups

Understanding Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) -part1

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In this multi-part video presentation, Nishant Saxena describes the complete M&A process, with learnings from various transactions. We believe this is one of the most comprehensive M&A presentations available on the Internet for free viewing and download: Mergers & Acquisitions Deal Process



The M&A process is usually a long process that must go through a range of details, people, and decisions.

  • The larger the deal size, the more complicated the process, with more people getting involved, and more views to accommodate.
  • If you are buying a company strictly as a financial venture, the M&A process is complicated enough. Adding specific personnel, technological or strategic objectives to the transaction goals simply complicates the process even more.
  • Buyers and sellers should understand their specific motivations and goals as they pertain to the purchase under investigation. It is important that buyer and seller understand the perspective and real-needs of the other party.
  • The M&A process may take a weeks, months, or even years, though the usual time frames are about 3-9 months. And during this period, the buyer and seller learn details about each other.
  • Its absolutely essential to ensure trust and integrity in the process – otherwise the deal can often break at the last minute. No issue is a non-issue. Every question needs an answer.
  • Clearly defined goals help greatly in evaluating the impact of subsequently uncovered details. Developing these goals requires advance preparation and evaluation on the part of both buyer and seller and greatly enhances the likelihood of post-acquisition success.

About the Presenter: Nishant Saxena is the CEO of Elements Akademia. He has seven years experience in Corporate Finance with Procter & Gamble – including Strategic/ Financial Planning, M&A, Value creation, White-space expansion, GAAP Accounting, and Internal Controls/Audit etc. Worked across various geographies in Asia (Japan, Philippines, India and Singapore) and across various business units. BE, MBA from one of India’s top schools. He founded Elements Akademia in 2007 along with 10 other IIM alumni. The company focusses on the high growth education sector in India and other developing countries.

FAQ, Finance, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, Training

Basic Financial Management-What is a Cash Flow Statement?

The Cash Flow Statement is typcally the 3rd of the 3 financial statements found in an Annual Report. This video provides an overview. It gives a clear explanation of the relationship between the income statement and cash flow statement.




About the presenter: Michael Fischer spent nine years at Goldman Sachs, advising some of the largest private banks, mutual fund companies and hedge funds in the world on investment choices. He started his finance career at Credit Suisse First Boston in early 1995. During these ten years, he was frequently ranked as the top advisor by many of his clients and peers. He gave his opinion to managers of trillions of dollars of assets and came across hundreds of different investment styles and approaches; he also bought and sold billions of dollar of investments on behalf of his clients and himself. Michael holds an MBA from INSEAD (Dec 1994) and an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Toronto (1989). He has also written a book on Saving and Investing because he feels strongly this material is too important in our world today to ignore. You can learn more about his book at the following website: http://www.savingandinvestingbook.com

FAQ, Finance, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, Training

Basic Financial Management-What is a Balance Sheet?

The Balance Sheet is one of the 3 main financial statements of a company — it captures the Assets, and the Liabilities (equity+debt) at a “certain point in time” – like the end of the year. And it balances.





About the presenter: Michael Fischer spent nine years at Goldman Sachs, advising some of the largest private banks, mutual fund companies and hedge funds in the world on investment choices. He started his finance career at Credit Suisse First Boston in early 1995. During these ten years, he was frequently ranked as the top advisor by many of his clients and peers. He gave his opinion to managers of trillions of dollars of assets and came across hundreds of different investment styles and approaches; he also bought and sold billions of dollar of investments on behalf of his clients and himself. Michael holds an MBA from INSEAD (Dec 1994) and an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Toronto (1989). He has also written a book on Saving and Investing because he feels strongly this material is too important in our world today to ignore. You can learn more about his book at the following website: http://www.savingandinvestingbook.com