Tag Archives: Leadership Coaching

The Myth of Leadership Development

Developing leaders is a major strategic action for most large organizations and a multi-million dollar industry for training firms, consultants and universities. But if we have got the meaning of leadership badly wrong, much of this investment could be wasted. There are at least 3 problems with contemporary leadership theory:

1. Leaders are portrayed as occupying positions of authority over others which means that you can’t show leadership until you are in charge of people.

2. The idea that leadership is a learnable skill set fosters the impression that you can’t be a leader without training.

3. By associating leadership with emotional intelligence, what Daniel Goleman himself said is another word for maturity, the impression is created that you cannot lead until you grow up.

The bottom line is that leadership, as currently conceived, is an exclusive club for management level employees, something that those at the front line can only aspire to once they develop the relevant skills and maturity. This is a colossal waste of talent.

Dispersed Leadership and Employee Engagement

A different vision of leadership portrays it as something all employees can do. Certainly, the claim “not everyone can be a leader” is most definitely true when the focus is on what it takes to be a senior executive or even a front line manager. However, when leadership is defined simply as promoting a better way, then all employees who take a stand on any job-related issue, even in a very local, small scale manner, can show leadership to their colleagues and upward to their bosses. Because being a leader is glamorous, all employees can feel more engaged and motivated if they can see themselves as leaders even if they don’t manage anyone. So-called informal leadership means something different – informally taking charge of a group. Simply promoting new directions has nothing to do with being in charge, formally or otherwise, of a group of people.

Examples of Leadership Re-defined

” When Martin Luther King Jr. influenced the U.S. Supreme Court to rule segregation on buses unconstitutional, he had no managerial authority over that organization.

” When the Sony employee who influenced top management to adopt his proposal for PlayStation, they did not report to him.

” A new customer service employee might set an example of a better way of serving customers without being in charge of anyone.

” Whenever you influence your boss to think differently you have had a leadership impact on that person.

None of these examples entails managing the people on whom the leadership impact was felt. The leader sells the tickets for the journey and we need to upgrade our concept of management to take

care of driving the bus to the destination. Of course, further injections of leadership might be required enroute to resell the merits of the journey, but the bulk of the work in getting there requires good management skills. Management needs to be reconfigured as a nurturing, empowering and facilitative function, not just a mechanically controlling one.

Executive Development

What really gets developed in so-called leadership development programs are rounded executives. The truth is that leadership, conceived as challenging the status quo and promoting new directions, is based on youthful rebelliousness, something that is not a learnable skill set. When front line employees with no subordinates stand up for their ideas, they are showing leadership to the broader organization. So-called leadership development programs actually turn employees who are already leaders into managers. This is no bad thing. Organizations need good managers.

This view stands the conventional picture on its head: it is the front line knowledge workers who are the real leaders in organizations, not their managers. Of course, executives can also show leadership, whenever they too promote a better way.

The Benefits of Redefining Leadership

The main benefit is making it clear that all employees can be leaders and that, to do so, you don’t need all the skills associated with being in charge of people. You just need a good idea and the courage to defend it. Further potential benefits include better motivation and engagement of all employees, more innovation and front line ownership, better talent retention and less pressure on senior executives to show all the leadership a complex organization needs.

Why Make the Shift?

Leadership is based on power, traditionally the power of personality to dominate a group. This may still work in politics and public sector organizations but in businesses that compete through rapid innovation, the important power is the ability to generate new products and processes. In a war of ideas, leadership should mean the ability to successfully promote new ideas. So, the reason for making the shift in how leadership is defined is simply that the world is changing from one of stable, physical work to one of dymanic mental work.

See http://www.leadersdirect.com for more information on this and related topics. Mitch McCrimmon’s latest book, Burn! 7 Leadership Myths in Ashes was published in 2006. He is a business psychologist with over 30 years experience of leadership assessment and executive coaching.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mitch_McCrimmon/79532

 

Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk: Part 2

In Part One, I described the Leadership Talk and how it is a much more effective leadership tool than presentations or speeches.

I also described two fundamental premises that the Leadership Talk is based on.

In Part Two, I will show you the purpose of the Leadership Talk. You won’t be able to give a Leadership Talk effectively on a consistent basis if you misunderstand its purpose.

The Leadership Talk doesn’t drive purpose. Purpose drives the Leadership Talk. There is one and only one purpose of the Leadership Talk: that’s to motivate people to be your cause leaders in meeting the challenges you face.

This is important in understanding the difference between Leadership Talks and presentations/speeches.

You’re a leader. You have a task to complete. Do you want the people you lead to simply do the task? Or do you want those people to actually take leadership of accomplishing the task? For the difference between doing and leading in terms of accomplishment is stock car and a formula 1 racer.

Clearly, you can order them to accomplish the task; and if you’re in a position of authority, they will most likely carry out the order. But they might not do it with full commitment. Or they may resent being ordered. Or they may be inclined to do nothing unless ordered, and so after accomplishing the task, they do little else but wait for the next order.

However, their committing to take leadership involves your establishing a special relationship with them.

For instance, going back to the example I used in Part One, if one is a floor sweeper, one does the best floor sweeping, not simply by doing it but by taking leadership of floor sweeping.

Such leadership might entail: taking the initiative to order and manage supplies; evaluating the job results and raising those results to ever higher levels; having floor sweeping be an integral part of the general cleaning policy; hiring, training, developing other floor sweepers; instilling a “floor sweeping esprit”that can be manifested in training; special uniforms and insignias; behavior, etc.; setting floor sweeping strategy and goals.

Otherwise, in a “doing” mode, one simply pushes a broom.

You may say, “Listen, Brent, a job is a job is a job. This leadership thing is making too much of not much!”

Could be. But my point is that applying leadership to a task changes the expectations of the task. It even changes the task itself. Think of it, when we ourselves are challenged to lead and not simply do, our world is, I submit, changed.

Furthermore, though you may order people to do a job, you can’t order anybody to take leadership of it. It’s their choice whether they take it or not.

This is where the Leadership Talk comes in. Using it, you set up the environment in which they make that choice.

The Leadership Talk is not only the most important way to get cause leaders; it is the only way to get them on a consistent basis.

In the final part of this three part series, I’ll show you how to develop and deliver a great Leadership Talks.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com. For more on the Leadership Talk: [http://www.theleadershiptalk.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brent_Filson/1911

 

The Missing Piece in Sales Training

If the purpose of sales training is to share information, then using a classroom setting or on-line learning is the right forum. However, seeing, reading, and taking notes is passive learning and will not achieve sales competence. Add to this the generic nature of most courses, makes it difficult for a salesperson to relate the course to their selling environment. This often results in rejection of the content and old sales habits continue.

Small changes can make a difference.

Whether using an internal company resource such as learning and development or an external provider, sales training needs to be tailored so there is greater acceptance, and an openness to adopt the new behaviours. A competency-based structure with specific assessment criteria is essential and a variety of learning methods used to meet individual needs. With clearly articulated assessment criteria for each session, a salesperson will know what to expect in advance. This can help to reduce or eliminate the mental search for ‘what comes next?’

Once the structured classroom learning is completed, and a salesperson is rated competent according to the criteria, the real learning begins. To qualify – it does not mean a salesperson is an expert in sales. Learning how to ride a push bike when we were young, took time, on-going practice, patience and confidence to ride the bike competently in a range of situations. Developing sales competence requires the same level of commitment and determination.

Include field sales coaching

The next phase is crucial and depends on the structure of the sales function whether predominately business development or account management or a combination of both. The day is planned by the salesperson and accompanied by a sales coach who also needs to be a competent salesperson. The reason is they will need to be able to demonstrate specific sales skills in relation to the sales call objective/s and the skills to be developed. Prior to the sales call, sales interview protocols are discussed to ensure the right environment is created for the client. Throughout the day the sales coach’s role can be passive, so they do not get involvement in the sales process. When the sales coach demonstrates a skill in accordance with the objective/s, it becomes a powerful learning experience for the salesperson. This is because they have witnessed how the skill is applied and the outcome in a live sales situation. The experience is totally different from a role play and most often will motivate the salesperson to want to try it for themselves. The opportunity is the next sales call.

Behaviours that defeat effective sales coaching

1. Ego. This is when sales coaching is about the sales coach. They get involved in parts of the sales process to show the client their knowledge or expertise. The client in most instances will begin to relate to the sales coach and not the salesperson. This muddies the learning environment.

2. Taking over when it appears the sale is lost. It is tempting to save the sale, but sales coaching is about transferring skills and saving the sale is counterproductive. The emotional pain of losing the sale and the lesson/s learnt will be etched in their memory and the mistake will not be duplicated – ever. To quote Benjamin Franklin, ‘Those things that hurt, instruct.’

The missing piece in sales training is a skilled sales coach working in a structured manner with the salesperson. Field sales coaching has the potential to provide a strategic advantage for the organisation resulting in increased sales and profitability.

If you have any questions about this article or want to discuss a specific sales situation then contact me directly on +61 412 252 236 or email kurt@salesconsultants.com.au

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kurt_Newman/417035

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Leadership Redefined

Imagine it’s late on Friday (crises always seem to happen late on Fridays); you just finished a telephone conversation with your boss who is halfway across the country and is anxiously attempting to close a major account. The sticking point of her negotiation is a proposal incorporating detailed multi-year projections you and your team have been working on for months. You and your boss had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. The meeting was sooner than expected and sooner then you had planned, but now you are in the crosshairs of competitors who have all their ducks in a row and are trying to squeeze your organization out from this potentially very lucrative client.

The client has generously agreed to one final meeting on Saturday morning. Your boss is in a bind and now you’re in a bind. It’s crunch time. Your team members, already stretched thin with other critical work, have started to disperse for the weekend. What’s your strategy for getting the job done?

Are you going to rely on carrots and offer rewards as enticements to snap your team into focus and get team members to burn the midnight oil?

Or are you going to pull out the stick and coerce team members to get what you want and the organization needs now?

Carrots and sticks are age-old tools used to influence and manipulate behavior. Carrots or rewards are the potential for gaining something; in this case money, time off or a promotion perhaps. Sticks or punishments are threats to take something away; in our example time off, a shot at a promotion or even keeping a job perhaps. Human beings are motivated by carrots, the potential for gain, but they are extremely motivated by sticks; the threat of losing something. We’ll do more to keep what we have – whether we like what we have or not – than we will to get something new.

Knowing the threat of loss is a more powerful motivator than the potential for gain far too many bosses rely on sticks – threats and coercion – to get what they want. The truth to realize is using either carrots or sticks is not leadership.

Employing the potential for extrinsic rewards or the threat of punishment to motivate people is not leadership.

Over the last couple hundred years, since the term was coined, we’ve come up with a variety of definitions of leadership:

 

  • person(s) in position(s) of authority
  • ability to lead
  • an act or instance of leading; guiding; directing
  • the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group
  • the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal
  • a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal

We associate leadership with accomplishing a mission, goal or some task by whatever means is necessary. But is that what leading is really about? 

People take a lot of pride in occupying positions of authority. We label these positions boss, supervisor, manager, director, executive, chief, head, and so on. Occupying a position of authority however is not synonymous with leadership. Being in a position of authority equals leading is an erroneous assumption. While millions occupy positions of authority and possess the ability to employ carrots and sticks, genuine leadership is a rare commodity indeed.

And I bet you’ve realized our organizations, communities, country and our world need genuine leadership now more than ever.

So what then is leadership?

Leadership is the act of inspiring people to grow toward their full potential.

After reading that definition of leadership redefined, you’re probably inclined to challenge me asserting that that definition says nothing about missions, goals or tasks. How can that be leadership if nothing gets done?

The idea of leadership redefined is simple. I can illustrate from a personal-family, a market-business or a community-political perspective. I’ll use market-business.

The purpose of business, all businesses operating in the marketplace, is to satisfy people’s wants and needs. Everyone is in the people business. There is no other type of business.

We, all of us, make money by helping people get what they want. There is no other way to make money. Making money is creating value for others.

Producers, workers, add value and make money by helping other people get what they want.

Business and making money is all about satisfying other people’s desires. By satisfying other people’s desire we ultimately get what we want.

And while people in positions of authority often use power to get what they want (managers, supervisors and bosses employ the entire spectrum of carrots and sticks) leaders lead. Leaders are out front inspiring people to move toward their ultimate need (as I have redefined leadership): fulfilling their purpose and becoming all they are capable of becoming.

Achieving a mission, goal or task can be a contributing step, as all experiences are, in route to the ultimate objective. All other strategies – the use of carrots and sticks – risks making the mission, objective or task about that person in the position of authority. Leadership is not about the leader; it’s about the followers.

Leadership is about inspiring people on the journey; the journey we are all on. Leadership is fundamentally about helping people achieve their highest purpose.

To lead is to inspire.

Leadership is the selfless act, the selfless art of inspiring people to move beyond their comfort zones and sometime beyond what they believe is even possible, to become what they are truly capable of becoming.

Leading and leadership is no small matter. Inspiring people with vision and motivation to get better and grow – incrementally through missions, goals and tasks – is what leading and leadership are all about.

You can employ a wide range of strategies to get a job done, accomplish a mission and complete a task. Just don’t confuse the strategies, tactics and techniques most of us commonly employ, carrots and sticks, with leadership. Leadership is the act of inspiring others to grow toward their – their – full potential.

When you are out front leading; helping others grow; inspiring others to grow; you too are growing toward your full potential.

When you genuinely lead – inspire others – you redefine leadership and everyone wins.

Scott F. Paradis, author of “Sheep, Herders, Wolves – Why We Are Where We Are: A Modern American Fable” and “Explosive Leadership – The Ultimate Leader Training Experience,” focuses on the fundamentals of leadership and success. https://ScottFParadis.com Scott@c-achieve.com


Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Scott_Paradis/572571

 

How You Can Develop Your Leadership Quality

In the broader sense, developing leadership is an effective way of enhancing the skill of a person. A company can make arrangement for their employee a leadership training program or an individual can enlist him/her in a leadership training course. Quality leadership is a combination of the right qualities and the right training. Investing in leadership development program will help build your team’s leadership fundamentals, that will ensure you are more than likely to have a bright career path ahead of you.

A good coaching program where you get an online leadership certificate will help prepare yourself for facing any challenging situation in a cool and calm way, reshaping your decision making power and boost your personality. You will feel more confident to tackle adversity, hindrances and complexities tactfully. Influential leadership trainers from all over the world share their actual experience with you that will open up your eyes to understand the business world and what it actually demands from an individual.

Participants of the online leadership certificate courses obtain practical knowledge they can make great use of directly to their environment of work. The entire leadership training program is given online and designed in a way that an individual becomes eligible for common leadership and management challenges.

The participants of online leadership courses can develop the following three skills-

 

  • Creating goals: The most importing thing in a person is to set up goals for him/her in life as well as for the organization they are working for. Mentoring programs insert the skills in you to set up individual and organizational goals and figuring out tactics to achieve them.
  • Motivate others: Leadership courses also help you to become a motivator. It will not only help your subordinates but also to your superiors. You can become a trusted person on whom others can rely and ask for valuable suggestions.
  • Taking proper plan of actions: Creating business plans, making formal approaches and chalking out strategies for the company are the skills most important and it can be sharpened through online leadership development programs.

Prominent global companies, SMEs and other industries are taking initiatives to arrange leadership training programs for their employees with an aim to develop the leadership skills of their men. Coaches, motivational speakers, mentors and trainers can act as strategic agents to help you leading the line in the most comprehensive way. Participants will have a great sense of purpose and direction in their work life. This will surely lead to accomplish any given task with ease and greater motivation. 

From enhancing the communication skill to the 360 degree personality development, in an online leadership class you get the chance to discover your hidden talent and get the opportunity to properly polish your personality. Everyone will stand and admire you. The online trainers will offer you candid, insightful feedback on your progress and the areas where you have to improve more. You don’t need to take a break from your job for getting leadership training as you can enjoy the facility to get educated in a virtual classroom any time of the year. You just need to select a training slot according to your preference and schedule.

So take special care that you are not lagging behind in the highly competitive market where everyone is desperately trying to possess a competitive edge.

Rony Sneijder is a contributing writer in some of the renowned online blog platforms. Rony likes to share his knowledge with his readers and provide them with the best information on various topics. In this article he is writing about the importance of joining online leadership courses and its impact on the real-world.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rony_Sneijder/1505657