Leadership is About Achieving Results (Which are Beyond the Ordinary!)

March 18, 2012 by

Leadership ResultsA few years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a ‘dialogic’ conference held at a small conference venue in a Château in the south of France, near the beautiful St. Paul de Vence.  This was a select gathering of leaders drawn from business, the arts, religion and academia; fourteen diverse minds drawn from across the world.  Who could possibly turn down such an opportunity, even if it were just for the wine, fabulous surroundings and ‘bonhomie’?

A dialogic conference is, as the name suggests, where people talk, present, ask questions and discuss.  The topic for the conference was the mere small and insignificant question ‘What is Leadership’?  After three days of intense discussion and fascinating rumination the group came to the interesting conclusion that it was impossible to define leadership because the concept meant different things to each individual.

To say the least, this was a little disconcerting, since I had promised to return to my organisation with an inspirational insight into leadership and here was I about to proclaim that some of the finest minds in the field had declared that it was an undefinable concept!  Moreover, the discussions had been brilliant; inspirational, thoughtful and intellectually challenging, so the lack of an outcome seemed wasteful in the extreme.  On the return flight I decided there must be some learning to be taken from the event.  From my folder of extensive notes taken from days in cloistered reflection came the following conclusions:

  1. Leadership is about outcomes not behaviours.  Training leaders cannot be achieved by training behaviours or developing qualities; this has been tried and discredited.
  2. Developing leaders, I believe, is about helping them develop a set of skills (intra-personal skills and inter-personal skills), which:
    – Encourage collaboration
    – Encourage the generation and execution of ideas
    – Maximize the potential of people
    – Maximize their own potential (including an understanding of their own limiting beliefs)
  3.  Leadership is a system that enables an organisation to achieve results beyond the ordinary. The leaders are the catalysts that make this happen.
  4. Good managers are not necessarily going to be leaders. Leadership should not be confused with Headship.
  5. Leaders will have an unequivocal source of inspiration that underpins their actions and can be drawn upon by their people.
  6. Most importantly, Leaders have clarity of purpose that drives them to find ways of achieving results that are out of the ordinary.

Of course, that’s not the end of it; there are always new ideas, concepts and approaches which are added ‘into the pot’. I’m tempted to suggest these points are the basis for a much broader discussion.  Anybody fancy three days in the South of France?

Connect with Dave Bradley: Website | Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn

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Reflection as a Leaders Tool

March 17, 2012 by

Leadership ReflectionWhen I started writing The Leaders Workbook back in 2009, I had discussed leadership and leaders with thousands of people around the world. I came to realize that we often ended up talking about the same topic – how can we become better at what we do? What are the key success factors to grow and develop as leaders? What can we – each one of us – do to develop ourselves?

We often agree that if we only could spend more time thinking about our actions, our plans, the results we create, how we ended up where we happened to be, why we made such and such mistake, how to avoid it in the future…the topic list goes on, while the challenge remains. I found that leaders on all continents, in all sectors, in all industries and on all levels, struggle with the same issue. The challenge of reflecting.

We all accept that we need to stop and rewind from time to time. There are not many I have met that call themselves a leader, who do not agree that we need to focus more on retrospection and reflection. Yet, very few seem to have found the key to reflection in todays busy schedule.

Time

As soon as you agree that reflection is important for you to grow as a leader, to develop yourself and your team, your first quest becomes to find the time for reflection. There are written books on time management, from Steven Covey’s Big Rocks to Getting things Done, from Personal Efficiency Plan (PEP) to Do it Now. There are trainings, theories, and competing theories of course,  and wars fought between some of these groups. None of these tools give you more time – they can only help you structure your time better.

No matter how you use your time, I believe that you are able to find the required time to reflect in your busy schedule. Most leaders I know, travel. Some only between their home and their office, others seems to always be stuck at some airport. And travel time is easy to convert to reflection time. When you sit there, stuck in traffic, you can spend quality time with yourself. And if you, like me, spend much time on airports and planes, you have plenty of time to bring out that notepad and jot down your doodles while thinking about how you are doing.

Even if you are not traveling, there are plenty of other opportunities for reflection – if you are working out, spend that time thinking, reflecting on your goals, and your results. You can make it a routine to take five minutes in the morning (or before going to bed at night) to reflect on a topic. Or you could schedule a meeting with yourself every week – 30 mins a week will take you a long way!

Take a couple of minutes right now, and review your weekly activities. Where can you add reflection to an activity? As soon as you figure out that it is quite easy to re-design your time to accommodate for reflection, the next challenge turns up.

 Topic

After time, figuring out what to reflect about seems to be the biggest hurdle for leaders I speak with. My answer was: Any reflection is good for you., it does not really matter what you reflect upon, as long as you reflect. In my own reflection, in retrospect obviously, I found that my answer wasn’t very helpful. It was too broad, to open to actually provide a solution.

I realized that most of us had unlearned reflection and reflective behavior, even if reflection is one of two key elements in experiential learning (Kolb, 1984). We need to relearn reflection. As leaders, there are some topics that tend to be more important than others, and the challenge for many leaders is to discover these topics, and to use those as a training ground for relearning reflection. As soon as you start searching for these topics, you realize that those tend to evolve around one main area – leadership.

Questions like «How valid is our goal?», «What is different now, compared to when we started? How does this impact our journey towards the goal?», «Where are we going if we continue down this path?», «What alternative paths are there?», «How can I change my behavior (so I am better suitable to reach our goal)?». The questions themselves may be different, and the answers you seek may not always be what you like to find. That is part of the purpose of reflection – you are to look deeply within to see if you are doing the right thing. For you, for your team, and for the organization.

Impact

I took it upon me to relearn reflection, as well as learning leaders how to reflect. All of the trainings I design are designed with reflection in focus. We use reflection actively to both teach the topic of the training itself, and as a way to exemplify how important reflection is in our learning and development. Often in our trainings, you will go through exercises designed for individual reflection, group reflections and plenum reflections, each iteration adding to your learning. And often without you realizing that what you are doing, is in fact, reflection.

The same is true when you start looking into reflection as a leadership tool. The more you reflect, the more you realize that it comes naturally, and that without it, you are not able to do your job. You will discover that we all reflect, most of the time. By relearning how to use your reflecting skills as a tool in your leaders toolbox, you can increase your ability to see possible challenges early, and seek alternative solutions before you are forced into a corner. You become pro-active.

To create that impact, I invite you to take a couple of minutes to identify three possible topics where you would benefit from reflecting more. If you like, you can share those topics below in the comments.

Connect with Kai Roer: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

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The People Will All Say, “We did this ourselves!”

March 8, 2012 by

Leadership - We did it“A leader is best when neither seen nor heard; Not so good when adored or glorified; Worst when hated and despised. Fail to honor people, they will fail to honor you; But of a good leader, when his (or her) work is done; The aim fulfilled; The people will all say: “We did this ourselves.” (Lao Tse).

Lao-Tse emphasizes peace of mind and tranquility of the spirit. He stresses how important it is to be one with nature because it provides positive character. He regards genuineness, sincerity, and spontaneity to be “natural” characteristics which people are born with and possess. Yet, he claims these qualities are destroyed through education and cultural influences.

In addition, he explains how a person is able to dismiss all authority except for the authority of self and a personal God. In this case, God is understood to be everything in nature. Thus, people who know and respect the authority of their inner nature know where they belong.

Leadership is the process of defining a vision and the guiding and inspiring others to reach that vision. Leaders, establish direction, align people and motivate and inspire people to complete the vision despite any obstacles they may face along the way.

In times of change, executives and managers alike make the mistake of thinking that if people are ordered to change, they will. This is a tragic misunderstanding of human behavior and often leads managers and executives to respond like drill sergeants. We, as humans, do not change simply from gaining information, people change because they support and trust their leaders.

Leadership is crucial, core values like integrity, excellence and respect or people are extremely important. To shape, define and sustain a winning culture you need to improve some attributes:

  • Vision.
  • Strategic Direction.
  • Prioritization.
  • Multi-functional Engagement.
  • Teamwork.
  • Accountability.
  • Analysis.
  • Problem solving.
  • Getting to action.
  • Excitement.

To lead effectively is important to do several things well:

  • Listen and understand your people´s needs.
  • Develop them into stronger and better employees.
  • Inspire them from their hearts.
  • Find ways to support them with what they need.
  • Encourage team members to take heart and do the hard things.
  • Recognize their achievements.

To get the best results from your team or from a group of people, a leader has to care about excellence. You have to show the way and help people understand what´s possible. To deliver the highest quality results, a leader has to set high standards and live up to them.

When a team member gives an outstanding effort, a strong leader shows appreciation and says “Thank you”. Give thanks for the moment, and you´ll capture it forever. Imagine how someone would feel if you didn’t. The person might feel that you don´t value for their hard work. So don´t wait, notice the positive thing your people are doing. Tell them how much you appreciate it.

A leader, has a vital relationship with the other members of the team. These people will give their best effort if they know, like and trust the leader. They´ll be loyal to the leader and the team because the leader is loyal to them.

You also need to develop these same factors in yourself, this self-development will focus on two areas: leadership skills, and the personal strengths of leaders, which are two very different things. You aren’t born with personal strengths, you begin developing these behavior patterns while growing up. And you continue to get stronger as you use them throughout adult life to cope with the challenge of work and life.

Connect with  Oscar Capote Agudo : Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

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Leaders …Let Go!

March 5, 2012 by

LeadersMany days run together in business and as a leader our job is to separate out what we do and what others can do for us …or with us.  The way to do this is to let go.  Not something that comes easy to leaders; most of whom like the control that comes with the title, especially if it is your name on the outside of the building.

Letting go is hard.  Letting go takes courage. Letting go means planning and following up.  Are you prepared to do this?  It is easier said than done!  What if the task is not done the way you want it? What if the time-lines are not met?  What if they do it better than you do?  Well, so what?  Think about that for a minute; new ideas, new perspectives, new solutions, the chance to develop someone else – could you ask for more?  And yes – it may take longer to let go and delegate the first few.  The fact is, in order to let go, you need to have the instructions, the explanations,  and the planning come out of your head and into someone else’s.  Eventually, they will get what you mean.  As time goes along, you will find that the follow up becomes more important and providing feedback and recognition is really where the growth comes in.

The benefits of letting go far outweigh potential issues that can arise.  Let’s look at just a few of the benefits of letting go:

  • Helps develop your team
  • Helps build morale
  • Helps build team spirit
  • Helps improve your delegation and follow up skills
  • Opens up time to reflect and plan what to let go of next
  • Shows your leadership in action

Letting go and empowering others will give you a sense of release and build morale on your team.  This is an opportunity to look at your team and help them develop personally and professionally.  By letting go, you are also setting the example that it can be done, and perhaps your team can look at what they are holding on to and find ways to do the same.  Leaders surround themselves with smart people who often have the skills and expertise they may lack.  Smart Leaders use the talent of letting go to function at full capacity.

Here is an exercise I do with my clients because the phrase I hear quite often is, “it is just easier if I do it.  It would take longer to delegate”.  Take 5 minutes today and think about all the ‘things’ you do as a leader.  What are you doing simply because it would be faster/better if you did not pass it on?  Who can you let that go to with the correct explanation and follow-up?  It may not be exactly how you would do it, but a new twist and perspective may create a very unexpected and positive result.

Go on …let go!

How are you going to let go? Please comment below to keep the conversation going.

Connect with Lora Crestan: Website |  Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

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