In business, advertising is often critical to success and companies will go great lengths to promote their product(s) or service(s). These days, no matter where consumers are, advertisements are everywhere. From billboards to buses and even their own phones, consumers are constantly barraged by advertisements, whether they like it or not. With the dawn of social media in an age of information, companies have found ways to incorporate themselves into consumers’ very lives, with their incessant need to promote as strong as ever. Continue reading
How to Create Employee Leverage by Maximizing Their Leadership Potential
When you think of a leader, what image or person comes to mind? Is it the President of the United States (POTUS), your pastor, military member, corporate executive, principal, football coach, teacher, or could it be the little elderly lady who has spent years mentoring girls from broken homes? How you answer this question depends upon your definition of leadership and the characteristics that you believe leaders should possess.
After examining much of the literature, I elected to define leadership as “The ability to influence the behavior of others to the extent that they are willing to engage in activities that promote accomplishment of the organization’s mutual goals and objectives.” The key word is influence. Having the ability to influence, motivate, or change another’s behavior to achieve a common goal is the ultimate objective.
As leadership development continues to evolve, senior leaders must be able to maximize their employee’s productivity by unleashing their leadership potential. Senior leaders must be able to influence the leadership development behavior of their team. There has to be a reassessment of how future/emerging leaders are groomed and developed. In order to accomplish this objective, I propose that senior leaders consider the following:
1. What would happen if the question surrounding one’s leadership lineage became obsolete?
2. What positive outcomes would occur if organizations would change their perspective on the pedigree and demographics of the employee and begin focusing on the leadership potential within that employee?
For years, leadership theorists postulated that leaders possessed certain traits. They depicted key behaviors, or responded to situations in a way that characterized leadership. Some advocates even suggested that if you were born into a certain family, then you automatically possessed a certain degree of leadership potential. However, as time progressed paradigm shifts began to occur in the thinking and logic of many theorists.
As a former Senior Executive Service (SES) member with the Department of Defense, and a retired Air Force Colonel, I have served in numerous leadership positions. With a combined 30+ years of information technology, leadership and management experience, I believe-no I am convinced that there are many people with latent/undeveloped leadership potential. They possess an inherent degree of undiscovered leadership talent. Unfortunately, sometimes, their leadership potential lies dormant and simply requires an external source to “coach” them through their leadership journey.
I have worked in many organizations where some employees were literally regulated to performing certain tasks because they were not deemed “leadership material.” Yet, on numerous occasions, history has proven this strategy flawed. When given the opportunity, many of these individuals excelled in leadership roles. Therefore, organizations destined to win must continue to invest in leadership developmental programs that augment and enhance an employee’s professional growth. I often encourage senior leaders to practice seeing beyond the present. Is this individual a hidden leadership gem just waiting to be discovered? What are you doing to enable that individual to grow and develop as a leader?
In summary, I believe that the art of genuine leadership is developing the next generation of leaders. Therefore, as senior leaders, we must look beyond pedigree and expand our development of future leaders across the board. We must continue to motivate our team members to elevate their potential. Additionally, we must encourage our employees to collaborate and partner with the leadership potential that resonates inside of them, so that they can reach the leadership destination that is before them.
For more information on this topic, please check out the book, “The CORE Leadership Development Model” and visit my website at [http://www.m2gleadershipbiz.com].
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mary_M_Gillam,_Ph.D/1488863
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Showing Courage in the Face of Adversity
Adversity is defined as a state, condition, or instance of serious or continued difficulty or adverse misfortune. That said, adversity can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
“To be, or not to be, that is the question– / Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer / The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, / Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them?” — Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act III, Scene I
For Shakespeare, adversity meant nothing more than the world around him, the only obvious end to it being suicide. However, suicide is a very permanent solution to the often temporary troubles of the world, and Shakespeare understood this to be true. In the aforementioned quotation, his character Prince Hamlet broods over that which is unfair and unpleasant, offering his critique of the human experience but eventually coming to the realization that the alternative isn’t much better. Continue reading
Why Leadership-Development Programs Fail To Deliver Results?
With over 20,000 books and millions of articles about the critical elements of leadership and its overall impact, the issue of leadership really must be important to organisations.
Most organizations have lavish budgets and allot lots of time and effort on improving employee and manager capabilities and also nurturing new leaders. In the USA itself, companies spend almost $14 billion annually on various leadership programs and many colleges and universities now offer degree courses on leadership.
Moreover, in a study of 500 executives asked to rank their priorities, leadership development was listed by most of them. This shows how important the topic of ‘leadership’ is to most companies. However, many leadership development programs initiated to train employees on leadership skills and qualities fail due to lack of focus.
After getting in touch with hundreds of chief executives about their struggle and observing their more successful initiatives, a report by McKinsey has identified four of the most common leadership development mistakes. We discuss these along with some tips to overcome them in the article below.
Mistake Number 1: Overlooking The Real Need
A critical component of leadership development is reality and on ground situation. It is important to understand that a business leader in one situation does not perform the same way in another.
Most training initiatives are set on the assumption that one size fits all and the same style of leadership skills are required to be groomed into all leaders, irrespective of the organizational culture or strategy.
When designing a leadership program, it is important for the designers to understand the nature of the program. What exactly is the program for and who exactly would benefit from it?
It is very important to focus on the context and equip leaders with a small number of competencies or skills rather than trying to teach them everything. This is sure to achieve a much better outcome.
Moreover, leadership programs generally involve a one-time effort or a few training sessions. But learning about leadership requires revision, and the focus should be on regular experiential learning rather than cognitive learning.
Mistake Number 2: Implementing What Has Been Learned
When it comes to designing the development curriculum, many organizations face a balancing issue. On one side, there is value in off-site programs like university or college settings that offer students time to step back and flee from the pressing demands of a day job.
On the other side, even after basic training sessions, adults generally retain only 10 per cent of what they really hear in the classroom as compared to nearly two-thirds when they are learning by doing.
Moreover, many leaders find it difficult to extrapolate their off-site experience into real work scenarios. Hence, the importance of finding a balance between the two cannot be ignored.
The ability to train participants while also giving them real world experience to apply their newly learnt skills is a valuable combination in today’s business markets. Furthermore, it is important to integrate leadership development components into the project itself.
Mistake Number 3: Underestimating Mind Sets
To become an effective leader, it is important to change behaviour. While many companies do understand that this means changing underlying mind-sets, they are often reluctant to address the cause of why leaders act the way they do, as doing so can be uncomfortable for participants, mentors and trainers.
Moreover, even if there is no discomfort, the chances of them changing their behaviour are low. Moreover, leadership programs should also focus on increasing self-awareness and understanding of how their behaviour affects others, rather than just building competencies and skills.
Mistake Number 4: Not Having Concrete Metrics to Measure Effectiveness
It is often seen that companies pay lots of importance to development of leadership skills but do not ultimately quantify the value of their investment. When businesses fail to keep a track of leadership performance over time, they increase the chances of the initiatives not being taken seriously.
In most cases, evaluations to the leadership development program are given by participant feedback. However, if the scenario is moved to a business-performance program, the assessment or feedback is generally in the form of success or failure, which is probably more valuable.
So, if you are looking for robotic leaders – train them. Alternatively, if you are looking for innovative dealers – develop them over time with real-time experience and empowerment.
Jappreet Sethi
I am a HR & Business Strategy professional with experience of leading HR & People Consulting practice of multinational professional services firms, including a Fortune 500 company in India. I was also Heading CSR at a Forbes Platinum 400 company and a member of its Global Diversity Council.
I am a consultant for start-up ventures in South Asia and have been rated twice as one of the Top 100 employee engagement experts in the world by a New York Times bestselling author.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jappreet_S/1328581
Creating Partnerships for Business Growth
When crafting a business partnership, it’s important to take a number of things into consideration, especially if a partnership is expected to stand the test of time. Business partnerships are established for many reasons, but of course when going into business with someone, it’s important to trust them. Trust can be a hard thing to develop, but a partnership isn’t much of a partnership without a degree of trust.
When forming a partnership, both parties should spell out exactly what their expectations are and what they’re contributing, and more importantly get all of that in writing on a legally binding partnership agreement. This way if either party steps out of line, they can hold each other accountable. Continue reading