The 2 Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership

According to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found that:

• Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.


• Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key to winning organizational trust and confidence:
  
  
  
  1. Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.
  
  
  2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
  
  
  3. Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing — relative to strategic business objectives.
  
  
  
  

Principles of Leadership

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.


2. Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.


3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.


4. Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.


5. Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi


6. Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.


7. Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.


8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.


9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the key to this responsibility.


10. Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.


11. Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.

(U.S. Army, 1983)

Words that Inspire!

We can get acquainted with quotes of leaderships through schools, colleges, libraries, universities and they can be of great help as these are inspiring for the young generation for improving their leadership potential. After all, they are going to lead this future universe. These quotes of leaderships from famous people are often displayed by hanging them on furnished walls of interiors of the classrooms of the schools, colleges and universities.

In his quote “When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out”, the great French King like Napoleon Bonaparte tells us about the basics of the administration. According to him, never impose your opinion on others though you are a final decision maker. Always analysis the suggestions from your subordinates and in critical situations try his capabilities, decision making and his approach to such situation. The great Bonaparte stuck to his quote and so he was the strong leader and a wise administrator.

Another quote from the famous American president like Woodrow Wilson is incorporated with very valuable message that “Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise”. It means that sometimes, there is no place for compromise, negotiations in the governance. The leader has to take hard decisions for a peaceful cause and safety of the nation.

As a president of America, the tenure of Woodrow Wilson was the significant example of his powerful and sensible decisions, his governance. He was firmed to his opinions according to his quote and got a significant place as a true leader of America.

Likewise his quote such as “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent”, in his presidential inning of America, Abraham Lincoln gave importance to the teamwork and co-understanding between his administrative staff.

In the modern corporate world, these quotes on leadership are used as the guidelines for all those executives and mangers for carrying out the managerial and regulating administration more accountable and responsible. These quotes on leaderships facilitate them with various kinds of phrases, usages, rules, and theories of how to get excellence in the leadership qualities.

Such Quotes on leadership really facilitate them to how to make co-ordination between the employees, how to make himself strong for decision making in critical situation, how to persuade the employees from organizational threats like strike, low productivity and loss.

In the business leadership coaching sessions, leadership journals, online leadership columns, articles; the reader views and read a wide range of quotes of leadership. Therefore, such quotes instrumental with accountability and responsibility while managing any business organization. Some of the quotes of leadership facilitate you with the secret of leaderships. By arranging the special session on such quotes of the leadership, we see the enhancement in the potential and productivity of the employees.

The usability of such quotes from famous people of leadership is not limited to only business sectors. These are instrumental in every field of society like science, politics, educations, sports, space research, music, etc. so in adverse situation, these quotes on leadership reinforce our talent and confidence to overcome such situation. So according to these quotes, for acquiring success, satisfaction and development in life, proper   execution of leadership has to be there.

Source successfuleducation.com

The Heart of A Leader!

When you think of leadership what comes to mind? You can ask a hundred people and get a thousand different answers.  Some of the quotes gathered here will allow you to look at the heart of a leader and provide an overview of how only true leaders lead from a place of love and admiration.

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter F. Drucker

"If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny." - Dee Hock

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say 'we did it ourselves.'" - Lao Tzu

"The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader." - Albert Einstein

"The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why." - Warren Bennis

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you." - Max DePree

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

"The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist." - Eric Hoffer

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln

"Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead." - Ross Perot

"Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob." - Oscar Wilde

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." - John Kenneth Galbraith

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions."- Harold S. Geneen

"Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." - John Maxwell

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision."-Theodore Hesburgh

"The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." - Kenneth Blanchard

"Leaders conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts." - John Gardner

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership." - Jim Loehr

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - General George Patton

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Bill Gates

"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." - Norman Schwarzkopf

I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control." - Margaret Wheatley

"The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey S. Firestone

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." - Arnold Glasow

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." - Stephen Covey

"No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings." - Peter Drucker

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt

"A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone." - Harry Truman

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing." - Albert Schweitzer

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert." - Theodore Roosevelt

The Ability to Lead with Integrity

Leadership is about character, integrity and courage more than being the smartest, strongest or the best at something. The foundation of a leader is integrity and must be displayed. The dictionary states integrity as; soundness of moral character; honesty. Simply put integrity means true to your word, owning up to your mistakes, not making excuses and taking responsibility for your actions. Courage is doing the right thing, for the right reasons even when no one is around. The ability to act is truly courage, action is how you are courageous to go against all the odds when you know something is right.

Do what you say. The saying, lead by example, are the actions of a leader. Think of someone you have personally known who you thought was a good leader, but it turned out they were not. They were saying all the right things and you probably believed them, but their actions did not reflect what they were saying. These are the actions of a leader who have their own agendas and do not possess the courage to do what is right for their people.

Leaders never give up on something, once they have chosen their dream. Many leaders have failed countless times, that is how they have learned. If you try to avoid failure, you will also be avoiding action. The ability to persevere and never give up is how you become a leader.

Integrity, lead by example and perseverance these are the qualities of a great leader. The greatest leaders are also compassionate towards others, but are not easily influenced. I will now leave you with a quote that shows the power that a single leader can produce. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion”… Alexander the great.

Source successfuleducation.com

Leadership DNA

What’s your definition of Leadership? In thinking about the comments I’ve received from readers on the topic of leadership I noticed an interesting paradox…while many of you vehemently disagree on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of different leadership styles, most of you are in total agreement on the qualities and attributes possessed by great leaders regardless of style. In further pondering this dichotomy an interesting thought came to mind – If I could genetically engineer the perfect leadership gene what qualities and characteristics would constitute the architecture of leadership DNA? In today’s blog post I’ll attempt to paint the portrait of the perfect leader…

So, what traits would my perfect leader possess? Courage, character, vision, wisdom, integrity, empathy, persistence, compassion, aggressivity, discernment, commitment, confidence, a bias to action, a servant’s heart, determination, creativity, self-discipline, love, loyalty, confidence, outstanding decisioning ability, engaged, authentic, transparent, a great strategic thinker, passion, a positive attitude, intelligence, humility, great communication skills, common sense, generosity, the ability to identify and develop great talent, creating a certainty of execution, attention to detail, faith, an active listener, a prolific learner, respect for others, innovative, excellent tactical capability, charisma, extreme focus, a high risk tolerance, a broad range of competencies, and the list goes on…

If any of you possess all the above attributes please forward your resume to my attention! All kidding aside, the longer my list of desirable qualities became, the more I realized the frivolity of this exercise…There is no perfect leader; only the right leader for a given situation. As I’ve said in other posts, great leaders have the innate ability to call on the right skills in a contextually and environmentally appropriate fashion. No single leader can possess every needed attribute. It not the traits you possess as a leader, but what you do with them that matter. If I were successful in my genetic engineering exercise I would no doubt have created a leader who would be driven crazy by emotional and intellectual conflicts.

Leadership DNA aside, I recently crafted my definition of leadership. It contains what I believe to be the necessary qualities a leader must possess to be successful. While it’s a bit wordy, I’ve found it to inclusively articulate the principles needed for effective leadership :

“Leadership is the professed desire and commitment to serve others by subordinating personal interests to the needs of those being led through effectively demonstrating the experience, wisdom and discernment necessary to leverage trust & influence to cause the right things, to happen for the right reasons, at the right times.”

Since one of the leadership qualities I noted in the laundry list above is wisdom, I thought I’d leave you with the wisdom of others…Spend a few minutes pondering the quotes below as you consider some of the qualities which play into the make-up of great leaders:

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“There can be no power without mystery. There must always be a ‘something’ which others cannot altogether fathom, which puzzles them, stirs them, and rivets their attention…. Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools.”
- Charles de Gaulle

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
- Albert Einstein

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
- Stephen R. Covey

“It’s not the will to win that matters…everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
- Paul “Bear” Bryant

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”
- Lee Iacocca

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
- Willa A. Foster

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”
- John Wayne

“The true leader serves. Serves people. Serves their best interests, and in doing so will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price.”
- Eugene B. Habecker

“Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results, is the definition of crazy.”
- Unknown

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.”
- John Scully

“The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.”
- Woodrow Wilson

“Even if you’re on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
- Will Rogers

“When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I’ll like it or not. Disagreement, at this state, stimulates me. But once a decision is made, the debate ends. From that point on, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.”
- General Colin Powell

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
- Dale Carnegie

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
- Helen Keller

“Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no persuasion move thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so shalt thou always live jollity; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“A person who is fundamentally honest doesn’t need a code of ethics. The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are all the ethical code anybody needs.”
- Harry S. Truman

Please comment below sharing your thoughts and insights on what you believe defines great leadership.

Source Mike Myatt

Are you asking yourself the right questions?

Are you asking yourself the right questions? Inspiring minds want to know. The right question can be just the right prompt to inspire you to action, gain better perspective, or help you make the most of any situation. But it's up to you to make sure you ask yourself some of these questions.

Here is a set of 101 questions that can help shape your day, solve a problem, figure out next steps, or get “on the right path.”

1. What’s the way forward?


2. What do you want your life to be about?


3. Who do you want to be and what experiences do you want to create?


4. How does that serve you in terms of who you are and who you want to be?


5. Are you giving your best where you have your best to give?


6. What do you want to accomplish?


7. What do you want to do more of each day? … What do you want to spend your time doing more of?


8. What do you want to spend less time on?


9. If this situation were to never change, what’s the one quality I need to truly enjoy it?


10. If not now, when?


11. If not you, who?


12. What’s right with this picture? (if you always ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?”, this is a nice switch)


13. How can you make the most of the situation? … If there are no good options, what’s the best play I can make for this scenario?


14. Who else shares this problem? … Who would solve this problem well? (a great way to find models and learn from the best)


15. What would <famous or interesting person XYZ> do?” … How would I respond if I were Bob Hope? … Leonardo da Vinci? … Guy Kawasaki? … Seth Godin? … etc. (this is a great way to come up with new ideas or plays for your situation)


16. What are you pointing your camera at? (a simple way to direct your day on a scene by scene basis)


17. What’s good enough for now?


18. What can you be the best at in the world?


19. What’s the most effective thing for me to focus on?


20. Are you asking the right question? … Is that the right question?


21. How is that relevant?


22. What’s that based on?


23. What’s the goal? … What are the goals?


24. What would success look like?


25. What do you need to be successful? … What do you need to be successful in this situation?


26. Is it working? … Is it effective?


27. What do you measure? … What are the metrics?


28. What are the tests for success?


29. How do you know it’s working?


30. How do you know when you’re done?


31. What did you expect?


32. Are you creating the results you want?


33. Does it matter?


34. Will it matter in 100 years?


35. Is it worth the effort?


36. What actions have I taken? … What steps have I tried? ( a great sanity check when you’re testing your ability to take action)


37. What’s next?


38. What do you want to do?


39. What’s best for you?


40. What’s the best thing for now?


41. What’s your next best thing to do?


42. Is that a good idea?


43. So what? Now what?


44. What’s the problem?


45. What’s the threat?


46. What’s the concern?


47. When do you want it by? … You want what by when?


48. Who needs to do what when?


49. Who needs to do what differently?


50. Who should do what when?


51. What would you have them do differently?


52. What’s wearing you down?


53. What’s lifting you up?


54. Why do you get up in the morning and come to work?


55. What do you want to experience? … What do you want to experience more of?


56. What are you trading? … What are you trading up for?


57. What did you learn that you can use next time?


58. What would you do differently next time around?


59. Where’s the growth?


60. What would people pay you for?


61. Do you want to run towards or away from the problem?


62. How big is the pie, how big is your slice?


63. Does it make business sense?


64. Is it business critical?


65. What’s our capacity?


66. What’s our constraint?


67. What are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?


68. What’s our core business?


69. What does the market want?


70. Is it push, pull or indifferent?


71. What’s the trend?


72. What to cut back on?


73. What does the pro know that you don’t? (this is a good way to figure out if knowledge or insight can make a difference)


74. Now what are you going to do about it?


75. Can you teach it to someone else?


76. How can I use this?


77. What do you want to say?


78. What’s the right thing to do?


79. Is now the right time?


80. Is this the right forum?


81. How much time do you have?


82. What are you making time for?


83. How much time should you make for it?


84. What can you do all day long?


85. What are you spending the bulk of your time on?


86. Does your schedule reflect your priorities?


87. If you had all the time in the world, how would you spend your time?


88. If you had all the money in the world, how would you spend it?


89. Where are we on the map?


90. What would make life more wonderful for you?


91. How can you chunk it down?


92. How fast can you do it?


93. What’s the impact?


94. What would you like to have happen? … What would you like instead?


95. What’s the opposite of that?


96. How might that be true?


97. What are you seeing that I’m not?


98. What did you see, what did you hear?


99. What’s the writing on the wall?


100. What’s their story?


101. Who’s stopping you? … What’s stopping you? … What’s holding you back?

What questions drive you? … Share your favorite question in the comments.

Source Sourcesofinsight.com

Attitudes Leaders Have Towards Social Media

Slowly but surely, business leaders are shifting their attitude toward social media — from seeing it as a threat to discovering its very real opportunities.

And their attitude matters, a lot. Social media is about people, not technology. Its business value does not come from social software or a snazzy website, even one with 800 million users. Its value stems from how business leaders, from senior executives to managers, use it to foster new collaborative behaviors that materially improve business performance.

Leadership attitudes, and the organizational culture they spawn, are critical to social media success. They are among a company's most fundamental social media assets — or liabilities. Here are the six basic categories that business leader attitudes toward social media fall into:

Folly
Leaders with this attitude consider social media a source of entertainment with little or no business value, and they typically ignore it. Where a folly attitude prevails, the approach to a social media strategy must emphasize direct business value tightly tied to well-known and recognized organizational goals or challenges — and it must avoid flabby value statements around improved collaboration and stronger relationships.

Fearful
Fearful leaders see social media as a threat to productivity, intellectual capital, privacy, management authority, regulatory compliance and a host of other things, and often discourage and even prohibit its use. This attitude can reduce the potential risk, but it also stifles any possible business value. To counteract fear, the strategic approach should focus on relatively low-risk initiatives, even if other, higher-risk opportunities might offer greater business value.

Flippant
These leaders may not ignore or fear social media, but they don't take it seriously, either. This typically leads to a technology-centric approach where the company simply provides access to social media and hopes that business value will spontaneously emerge. This rarely bears fruit. Important in countering this attitude is convincing leadership that purpose matters, and that they should progress beyond the technology and identify good purposes for social media — causes that are strong enough to catalyze and mobilize communities of people to act in a way that delivers value to the community and the organization.

Formulating
Formulating leaders recognize both the potential value of social media as well as the need to be more organized and strategic in its use. The right approach here should build on this positive foundation, emphasizing the broader strategic value of social media and mass collaboration, with a succinctly expressed set of business opportunities that (1) demonstrates social media's potential impact across many areas of the business, and (2) is strong enough to capture the attention of the most senior leaders.

Forging
In companies where leaders have a forging attitude, the whole organization is starting to develop competence in using social media to assemble, nurture and gain business value from communities. To keep progressing, leaders should recognize previous successes, capitalize on growing momentum, advocate continued evolution and increase investments. They should also promote additional grassroots social media efforts as critical in becoming a highly collaborative social organization.

Fusing
This is the most advanced attitude, and still rare. Fusing leaders treat community collaboration as an integral part of the organization's work, ingrained in how people think and behave. This is a description of a social organization, and in such organizations the need for an explicit vision and strategy subsides — all business strategy and execution already include community collaboration where it's appropriate.

How do most leaders shape up? Right now, our analysis indicates that leaders of most organizations have yet to progress to the Formulating stage, which accounts for the high social media failure rate. We know treating social media as strategic can lead to tangible business value and competitive advantage, so the goal is for business leaders to move quickly past the Folly, Fearful, and Flippant stages and get right to Formulating. Ignoring social media, or throwing it over the fence to Marketing or IT could create serious business risk.

Where does your organization stand?

Source Harvard Business Review

The Makings of an Effective Leader!

Sandra Larson, previous executive director of MAP for Nonprofits, was once asked to write her thoughts on what makes an effective leader. Her thoughts are shared here to gel other leaders to articulate their own thoughts on what makes them a good leader.

Passion

An effective leader is a person with a passion for a cause that is larger than they are. Someone with a dream and a vision that will better society, or at least, some portion of it. I think a very key question has to be answered: Can someone who is a charismatic leader, but only to do evil or to promote herself, be a leader -- especially if she has a large following?” I would say no, she is a manipulator.

Also, without passion, a leader will not make the necessary courageous and difficult decisions and carry them into action. This is not to imply that all decisions are of this nature. But you can be sure, some of them will be. The leader without a passion for a cause will duck.

Holder of Values

Leadership implies values. A leader must have values that are life-giving to society. It is the only kind of leadership we need. This then also implies values that are embedded in respect for others. So often we think of people skills or caring about people as being “warm and fuzzy.” I think a leader can be of varying ‘warmth and fuzziness,” but a leader has to respect others. You can’t lead without it. Otherwise we are back to manipulation. Respect means also that one can deal with diversity -- a critical need for a leader in today’s world -- probably always has been, although diversity may have been more subtle in the homogenous societies of the past.

Vision

This is a bit different than passion, but in other ways it isn’t separable. If one doesn’t care about a subject, an issue, a system, then one won’t spend the time thinking about how it could or should be different. Yet, one could have strong feelings about something and not good ideas, particularly if she didn’t spend a good deal of time studying the topic. Thus a leader has to have some ideas about change, about how the future could be different. Vision then is based on two components that leaders also need: creativity and intellectual drive.

Creativity

One has to try to think out of the box to have good visions and to come up with effective strategies that will help advance the vision. I’d also add here the need for a sense of humor. It’s a creative skill that is in great need by leaders. We should read the funnies more!

Intellectual Drive and Knowledge

I believe a leader has to be a student. In general it is hard for a leader to be around enough other leaders to pick this up just through discussion, so I think a leader has to be a reader and a learner. Furthermore, I can’t see someone leading in a field they know nothing about.

Confidence and Humility Combined

While one can have a great vision and good ideas for change, and even passion for it, if one isn’t confident, then action will not occur. Without action, there is no change. Yet, paradoxically, a leader needs to have humility. No matter how creative and bright one is, often the best ideas and thinking are going to come from someone else. A leader needs to be able to identify that, have good people around who have these ideas. This takes humility, or at least lack of egocentricity. The leader is focused on the ends and doesn’t have to see herself always as the conduit or creator of the strategy to get to that end.

Communicator

None of the above assets will work for a leader if she can’t speak or write in a way to convince others that they should follow along, join the team, get on board. All the above gets to the old adage that a leader knows how to do the right thing and a manager knows how to do things right. But a leader has to be a manager, too. I don’t think these skills and abilities can be separated out very easily. Both need to be in the mix.

Thus a leader has to be some of the following, too:

Planner/Organizer

Someone who can see what needs to be done and help the team plan and organize the getting it done. Management is getting things done through people. While a writer or other visionary person may be very influential, even seminal for the cause of change, this is not quite my definition of a leader. A leader means to me, someone who is taking action, trying to get others to do something they want to see done.

Interpersonal Skills

Leaders must have the ability to act in an interpersonally competent manner, yet they also need to learn the techniques of good listening, honest and open communication, delegating, conflict resolution skills, etc., to actually get work done and keep the whole movement/organization/project together.

Other Business Skills

While in some arenas you may be able to get by with only some of these skills or none of them (if you can hire good enough people to do it for you), generally speaking you must have at least some skills in financial management, human resources, information management, sales, marketing, etc.

If I were to sum it all up, I’d say a good leader has to have a purpose that is larger than they are and the balanced personality and skills to put that purpose into action.

Copyright Sandra Larson, Minneapolis, MN.

Leadership Myths

Ten or twenty years ago, debunking leadership myths was easy. In every other corner office you could find an overconfident boss barking orders to masses of underperforming employees. However, over the last decade there has been a shift in the prevailing management winds.

Most of the changes have been good—though none revolutionary. People are getting more respect. Collaboration, engagement, and performance are all on the rise. More and more companies are doing well by doing good. None of it is “new,” successful leaders have been doing this stuff for years. It’s just becoming more acceptable.

However, there are some questionable tenants in this growing “new” leadership doctrine that haven’t been fully thought out. They sound good and leaders are assimilating them as founding principles, but after further inspection, you’ll see many of their premises are flawed.

I offer the following examples and ask for your feedback:

Myth #1: There’s no place for harsh or domineering leadership styles. In this new era of individual respect, the idea of a leader issuing unilateral orders without asking for opinions from others seems utterly barbaric. As a result, the autocratic leadership style is snubbed and reserved for dictators and half-wits. In fact there a number of situations where a strong autocratic leadership style is called for—so we should learn how to use it, not ignore it. What would you think of an EMT that arrived at the scene of an accident and promptly gathered everyone around to hear their opinions on what to do first—CPR, call for more help, or tend to other wounds?

Myth #2: Experience is the best teacher for a leader. It’s etched in every big company’s fast-mover career timeline—get the right jobs to get the right experience. You do that and you’ll be better qualified for leadership positions at the top. I have nothing against experience. In fact, it’s an absolutely essential part of learning—but it’s not always the best teacher. Yesterday’s experience may be totally irrelevant to tomorrow’s challenges. If you’re not careful it could pigeonhole your view of the world and lock you into an antiquated perspective. For experience to make you better, you must reflect on it.

Myth #3: You have to be an optimist to be a great leader. There’s no room for pessimism among great leaders—they’re always hopeful, always positive, and always believing that good will triumph in the end. Yeah, well, you could say the same about the couch potato who sits at home all day watching motivational speakers on YouTube. The fact is, you need some pessimism as a leader. You need to be able to envision the worst possible scenario—and really believe it could happen—if you’re ever going to successfully defend against it. And honestly, without pessimism, there would be no real change. All change starts with a discontentment.

What do you think are the big myths in leadership today?

Source Geoffrey Webb

Solving the Leadership Puzzle

Many of the challenges we face as a leader seem tough, unusual, and perhaps unsolvable.  Many puzzle enthusiasts, working on puzzles as diverse as Sudoku,  crosswords, video games (and more) thrill for puzzles with those same descriptors.

Perhaps our leadership lesson from them starts from recognizing their attitude and it’s important to ultimate success.  Rather than procrastinating or ignoring a tough problem, puzzlers get started.

Once they get started they likely use a three step formula (consciously or not) to help them get going.

1.  Look for patterns.

2.  Find the way in.

3.  Build on your success.

These three points were in the May 2009 issue of  Wired Magazine (the issue isn’t online at this writing).  The points are attributed to Dvora K. Klaviatura, head of the Belarus Enigmatology Institute, and you can see how they make sense to a puzzle.

When considering a challenge or problem you as facing as a leader, make these steps part of your next leadership activities:

1.  Recognize that problems and challenges come with the territory. Rather than lamenting or procrastinating, take the puzzlers approach and dive in.  Not only do you stand to solve the problem, but you will also learn something and gain confidence and excitement from success!

2.  Look for patterns. Ask yourself questions like:  What about this situation looks or seems like past challenges or problems?   What else does this situation remind me of?

3.  Find the way in. Look for an entry point – something to try, someone to talk to, a way to begin a conversation, a question to ask.  Finding the way in, helps you take action and get started.

4. Build on your success. Once you have gotten started, be persistent.  Use what you have learned up until this point to help you be more successful.  Apply what has proven successful so far as you move forward (without becoming blinded by success – remember the challenge you face may be pretty complex!)

Consider these steps as you solve a leadership puzzle – and recognize these as building blocks to your effective leadership skills

Source Kevin Eikenberry

A Great Leader Guides!

A leader is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. A leader is not the boss of the team but, instead, the person that is committed to carrying out the mission of the Venture. Below are some qualities a strong leader may possess.

Qualities of a Leader

Good Listener:

Your teammates may have a great way to improve your idea. By keeping your mind open to other ideas, you can come up with new ways to accomplish your goals. It is your job to make sure that everyone in the group is being heard. Listen to their ideas and accept their constructive criticisms.

Focused:

Constantly remind yourself and the group of your Venture’s goals and mission. If you stay on track and keep others on track, the team will stay motivated and be more productive. As leader of the group, it is important that you schedule time to meet with your Venture Team to establish and check-in about the goals you hope to achieve.

Organized:

A leader can set the tone for the team. A leader who is organized helps motivate team members to be organized as well.

Available:

As a leader, you’re responsible for a lot and you’re probably going to be very busy at times. However, you still need to find time to talk with your team. A good way to do this is to set frequent group meetings, so that no question or concern goes too long without attention.

Include others:

A leader should not do all the work. Doing everything yourself is a poor use of time and prevents your Venture from growing. Instead, a leader should work with his/her teammates and learn how to delegate responsibility while being mindful of everyone’s interests, goals, and strengths.

Decisive:

Although an important part of being a leader involves listening to the people around you, remember that you are not always going to be able to reach a compromise. When this happens, don’t be afraid to make the final decision, even if some team members disagree with you.

Confident:

This could be the most important characteristic of a leader. If you don’t believe in yourself and the success of your Venture, no one else will. Show others that you are dedicated, intelligent, and proud of what you are doing.

How to Lead!

Contrary to popular belief leaders are not only born, but they are also made. However, made leaders have to work a little harder than born leaders to make sure they are successful and effective. The following steps will assist you in becoming a better leader, whether you are already one or desire to be one.

Make decisions. As a leader, making decisions will be one of your first objectives. You have to be able to make smart decisions without hesitation or regard for yourself

Learn how to take smart risks. These are all part of the game, regardless of the business of industry. You have to be ready and confident enough to take smart risks. People are told all their lives not to risk anything. These individuals were never and will never be leaders. To be successful in a business, leaders have to be able to take calculated risks.

Know how to motivate others around you. Know the members of your team. Understand what makes them tick. By motivating your co-workers and team members, your company/business will be more successful than ever.

Communicate well. Communication can either build a business stronger or tear it down to the foundation. Be honest in your communication with everyone you come in contact with. Honesty will strengthen the respect people have for you, as well as solidifying business relationships.

Guide others to success. As a leader, you cannot be solely concerned with your own success. You have to be concerned with the success of others in your organization as well. Without this guidance, the business will not thrive forever.

Set personal and team goals. You and your co-workers will not be working toward anything if you do not set goals. You should have personal goals but you should also get goals for the entire team as well. Set all goals lofty, but attainable.

Take criticism well. Remember you will never be able to make everybody happy. Because of this, you need to look at all criticism as constructive criticism. In other words, take all criticism and see what you can make positive out of it.

Stand strong in your beliefs regardless of who is standing with you or against you. You may not always be a popular person because of this but you will be a very successful and respected leader.

Be fair. To your customers, co-workers, and anybody else you come in contact with. As long as you remain fair to them, they will honor you with the same thing.

Source eHow.com

A Leader Who Shows Promise!

Ten Ways to Identify a Promising Person

The most gifted athletes rarely make good coaches. The best violinist will not necessarily make the best conductor. Nor will the best teacher necessarily make the best head of the department.

So it's critical to distinguish between the skill of performance and the skill of leading the performance, two entirely different skills.

It's also important to determine whether a person is capable of learning leadership. The natural leader will stand out. The trick is identifying those who are capable of learning leadership over time.

Here are several traits to help identify whether someone is capable of learning to lead.

• Leadership in the past. The best predictor of the future is the past. When I was in business, I took note of any worker who told me he was superintendent of a school or a deacon in his church or a Boy Scout leader. If he showed leadership outside of the job, I wanted to find out if he had some leadership potential on the job.


• The capacity to create or catch vision. When I talk to people about the future, I want their eyes to light up. I want them to ask the right questions about what I'm talking about.


• The founder of Jefferson Standard built a successful insurance company from scratch. He assembled some of the greatest insurance people by simply asking, "Why don't you come and help me build something great?"


• A person who doesn't feel the thrill of challenge is not a potential leader.


• A constructive spirit of discontent. Some people would call this criticism, but there's a big difference in being constructively discontent and being critical. If somebody says, "There's got to be a better way to do this," I see if there's leadership potential by asking, "Have you ever thought about what that better way might be?" If he says no, he is being critical, not constructive. But if he says yes, he's challenged by a constructive spirit of discontent. That's the unscratchable itch. It is always in the leader.


• People locked in the status quo are not leaders. I ask of a potential leader, Does this person believe there is always a better way to do something?


• Practical ideas. Highly original people are often not good leaders because they are unable to judge their output; they need somebody else to say, "This will work" or "This won't."


• Brainstorming is not a particularly helpful practice in leadership, because ideas need to stay practical. Not everybody with practical ideas is a leader, of course, but leaders seem to be able to identify which ideas are practical and which aren't.


• A willingness to take responsibility. One night at the end of the second shift, I walked out of the plant and passed the porter. As head of operations, I had started my day at the beginning of the first shift. The porter said, "Mr. Smith, I sure wish I had your pay, but I don't want your worry." He equated responsibility and worry. He wanted to be able to drop his responsibility when he walked out the door and not carry it home. That's understandable, but it's not a trait in potential leaders. I thought about the porter's comment driving home. If the vice-president and the porter were paid the same money, I'd still want to be vice-president. Carrying responsibility doesn't intimidate me, because the joy of accomplishment-the vicarious feeling of contributing to other people-is what leadership is all about.


• A completion factor. I might test somebody's commitment by putting him or her on a task force. I'd find a problem that needs solving and assemble a group of people whose normal responsibilities don't include tackling that problem. The person who grabs hold of the problem and won't let go, like a dog with a bone, has leadership potential. This quality is critical in leaders, for there will be times when nothing but one's iron will says, "Keep going." Dale Carnegie used to say, "I know men in the ranks who will not stay in the ranks. Why? Because they have the ability to get things done." In the military, it is called "completed staff work." With potential leaders, when the work comes in, it's complete. The half-cooked meal isn't good enough.


• Mental toughness. No one can lead without being criticized or without facing discouragement. A potential leader needs a mental toughness. I don't want a mean leader; I want a tough-minded leader who sees things as they are and will pay the price. Leadership creates a certain separation from one's peers. The separation comes from carrying responsibility that only you can carry. Years ago, I spoke to a group of presidents in Columbus, Ohio, about loneliness in leadership. One participant, president of an architectural firm, came up afterward and said, "You've solved my problem." "What's your problem?" I asked. "My organization's always confused," he said, "and I didn't know why. It's because I don't like to be lonely; I've got to talk about my ideas to the rest of the company. But they never know which ones will work, so everybody who likes my idea jumps to work on it. Those who don't, work against it. Employees are going backward and forward-when the idea may not even come about at all." Fearing loneliness, this president was not able to keep his ideas to himself until they were better formulated. A leader must be able to keep his or her own counsel until the proper time.


• Peer respect. Peer respect doesn't reveal ability, but it can show character and personality. Trammell Crow, one of the world's most successful real estate brokers, said that he looks for people whose associates want them to succeed. He said, "It's tough enough to succeed when everybody wants you to succeed. People who don't want you to succeed are like weights in your running shoes." Maxey Jarmen used to say, "It isn't important that people like you. It's important that they respect you. They may like you but not follow you. If they respect you, they'll follow you, even if perhaps they don't like you."


• Family respect. I also look at the family of a potential leader: Do they respect him or her? Fifteen years ago, my daughter said, "Dad, one thing I appreciate is that after you speak and I walk up, you are always attentive to me. You seem proud of me." That meant a lot to me. If respect isn't there, that's also visible. The family's feelings toward someone reveal much about his or her potential to lead.


• A quality that makes people listen to them. Potential leaders have a "holding court" quality about them. When they speak, people listen. Other people may talk a great deal, but nobody listens to them. They're making a speech; they're not giving leadership. I take notice of people to whom others listen.

It's not enough for people to have leadership potential; they must have character and the right setting in which to grow. Before I give someone significant leadership responsibilities, I find it helpful to ask myself several questions:

• What will this person do to be liked? It's nice to be liked, but as a leader it cannot be the controlling factor. The cause must be the prime motivator.


• Does this person have a destructive weakness? There are only two things I need to know about myself: my constructive strength and any destructive weakness. A destructive weakness may not show up on a test; it's a character flaw. A destructive weakness may, for example, be an obsession. An obsession controls us; we don't control it. It only grows worse over time.


• Can I provide this person the environment to succeed? It is so important, particularly in the early days of someone's leadership, that he or she be put into a congenial environment. I wouldn't want, for example, to put someone who requires mentoring with a leader who pays no attention to people. An environment that threatens our sense of security or well-being splits our concentration from the cause. Young leaders need an environment in which they can concentrate on leading.

(Fred Smith, LEADERSHIP JOURNAL; Fall 1996, Vol. XVII, No. 4, Page 30)

Define Your Leadership Style

Leadership has a formal aspect (as in most political or business leadership) or an informal one (as in most friendships). Speaking of “leadership” (the abstract term) rather than of “leading” (the action) usually it implies that the entities doing the leading have some “leadership skills” or competencies.

Types of leadership styles

The bureaucratic leader (Weber, 1905) is very structured and follows the procedures as they have been established. This type of leadership has no space to explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow paced to ensure adherence to the ladders stated by the company. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been followed prior to sending it to the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals, banks and government usually require this type of leader in their organizations to ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Leaders that try to speed up the process will experience frustration and anxiety.

The charismatic leader (Weber, 1905) leads by infusing energy and eagerness into their team members. This type of leader has to be committed to the organization for the long run. If the success of the division or project is attributed to the leader and not the team, charismatic leaders may become a risk for the company by deciding to resign for advanced opportunities. It takes the company time and hard work to gain the employees’ confidence back with other type of leadership after they have committed themselves to the magnetism of a charismatic leader.

The autocratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) is given the power to make decisions alone, having total authority. This leadership style is good for employees that need close supervision to perform certain tasks. Creative employees and team players resent this type of leadership, since they are unable to enhance processes or decision making, resulting in job dissatisfaction.

The democratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939)listens to the team’s ideas and studies them, but will make the final decision. Team players contribute to the final decision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their input was considered when the final decision was taken. When changes arises, this type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly than other styles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision making process, minimizing resistance and intolerance. A shortcoming of this leadership style is that it has difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment.

The laissez-faire (”let do”) leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) gives no continuous feedback or supervision because the employees are highly experienced and need little supervision to obtain the expected outcome. On the other hand, this type of style is also associated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in supervising team members, resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad service or failure to meet deadlines.

The people-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967) is the one that, in order to comply with effectiveness and efficiency, supports, trains and develops his personnel, increasing job satisfaction and genuine interest to do a good job.

The task-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967) focus on the job, and concentrate on the specific tasks assigned to each employee to reach goal accomplishment. This leadership style suffers the same motivation issues as autocratic leadership, showing no involvement in the teams needs. It requires close supervision and control to achieve expected results. Another name for this is deal maker (Rowley & Roevens, 1999)[4] and is linked to a first phase in managing Change, enhance, according to the Organize with Chaos approach.

The servant leader (Greenleaf, 1977) facilitates goal accomplishment by giving its team members what they need in order to be productive. This leader is an instrument employees use to reach the goal rather than an commanding voice that moves to change. This leadership style, in a manner similar to democratic leadership, tends to achieve the results in a slower time frame than other styles, although employee engagement is higher.

The transaction leader (Burns, 1978)  is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team’s performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached.

The transformation leader (Burns, 1978) motivates its team to be effective and efficient. Communication is the base for goal achievement focusing the group in the final desired outcome or goal attainment. This leader is highly visible and uses chain of command to get the job done. Transformational leaders focus on the big picture, needing to be surrounded by people who take care of the details. The leader is always looking for ideas that move the organization to reach the company’s vision.

The environment leader ( Carmazzi, 2005) is the one who nurtures group or organisational environment to affect the emotional and psychological perception of an individual’s place in that group or organisation. An understanding and application of group psychology and dynamics is essential for this style to be effective. The leader uses organisational culture to inspire individuals and develop leaders at all levels. This leadership style relies on creating an education matrix where groups interactively learn the fundamental psychology of group dynamics and culture from each other. The leader uses this psychology, and complementary language, to influence direction through the members of the inspired group to do what is required for the benefit of all.

From en.wikipedia.org

Leadership Skills and Leadership Qualities

Leadership qualities matter in business, in education. Yet the doctoral student can't find information on leadership skills. If the discipline isn't leadership she has to cry for help: What're leadership qualities?! Others would like to know too what are the personal qualities of leadership! Business leadership is important. Educational leadership is in demand. But, what are leadership skills, qualities?

Reason for Leadership

Interest they have in business or educational leadership. Perhaps also leadership qualities. Knowledge of what is leadership, not. If they see a worker a few times resting who routinely unloads, sorts, stacks, rests, repeats, he is lazy. That's not good leadership! If leadership qualities or skills are lacking it causes annoyance, loss of production.

Need for Leadership

Leadership in education or business are acquirable skills.

In Britain there is confusion on what is leadership. The Department of Employment has publications on how to train, e.g., supervisors. Yet even supervision are known to have been deemed by the Training & Enterprise Councils to be an inherent quality, by the Employment Tribunals with members from the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry not an acquirable skill. In the USA the position is not dissimilar.

Leadership qualities aren’t the same as leadership skills.

There are exceptional 'born leaders', extraordinary circumstances calling for inherent leadership qualities for exceptional motivation with no apparent incentives. But routine administration, business leadership or educational leadership demand only professional acquirable skills.

Leadership qualities are different than leadership skills.

Popularity in Leadership

Approaches to administrative leadership differ. Business leadership strategies vary. Educational leadership policies change. So do leadership skills. The value of leadership qualities never change.

Leadership is about people. Good leadership is popularity based. A French emperor called his soldiers his children, after a defeat again raised volunteer armies. A popular Scottish preacher got nominated for the US senate.

Leadership qualities are inherent. But leadership skills often suffice. Both involve popularly interesting people.

Popularity aids leadership qualities. It helps leadership skills. So in business or educational leadership.

What is Leadership?

Charisma alone it isn't. Nor is it love, care, perseverance that enables popularity in successful leadership. It is also an interest in understanding the human nature, knowing what motivates. That is the basis of leadership.

A car plant boss praises the night shift's work, the day shift competes for equal pride, production increases.

A congressional medal, the offer to be Education Secretary, a biographical movie for a Chicago school teacher who enabled exam. success for eleven pupils was because she could get from them what an education authorities' educational leadership skills couldn't.

Personal Qualities of Leadership

Depending on approaches, business and educational leadership classifications vary. Basically all leadership are of two kinds: leadership and exceptional leadership.

The former is leaderships skills; acquired, ordinarily, routinely at work: e.g., leadership in education, business.

The latter is based on inherent leadership qualities. It enables exceptional motivation with incentives hardly perceptible in extreme inappetence. It is the most rare extraordinary leadership, enhanced by the most exceptional leader's charisma, communication ability, wit, trustworthiness, with much philosophical, sociological, psychological insight, high logical reasoning ability, the vision, heroic courage, love, care, dedication, passion of rational sensible idealism, sacrifice in time, effort. This 'moves mountains'; be it leadership in education, culture, religion, politics, business, it reforms: socially and historically visibly, lastingly, memorably changes established culture, life styles, society.

Exceptional leadership, business or educational or other -in one field or more, of historical noteworthiness demands personal qualities, for it begins with popularity that is not coerced but is by virtue of, irrespective of wealth or position, at personal level earned and deserved trust and faith in the genuineness, sincerity of one's intentions -honesty in intention.

Professional Leadership

What is routinely at work is skills based leadership. Mostly it is leadership in education or in business, of the kind that acquirable skills are adequate for. It does not demand any exceptional leadership qualities. Acquirable are interested behavior and competence. Proportionately to one's degree of interest, basic leadership skills often suffice to function as a professional leader, to lead in one's field.

On professional leadership many have written. There are commonly agreed basic modern leadership principles generally adequate in any field of average competence.

Effective Leadership

Leaders with leadership qualities or skills know this: The average employee does like to be so directed as presumes that he generally wishes to avoid responsibility with relatively little or no ambition and dislikes work except to the extent essential for survival with basic security. People have an inherent need in an adult way to exercise their understanding, capacities, skills motivated by incentives also non-economic and culturally varying. This appreciation is a must for effective leadership.

Leadership Values

Trustworthiness is one of the personal qualities of leadership that can never be imitated in professional leadership for truly great achievement. But the skilful appearance of trustworthiness succeeds. Usually the only task of professional leadership is obtaining the co-operation of colleagues and employees.

This is best done, by making the organization's objects or visions pursued or desired of personal significance to people. That must be based on their values and expectations to generate their energy and enthusiasm. Good leadership on that basis can prepare people for the various controllable and uncontrollable changes, appreciating that leadership attitudes matter above all and must be 'trust' based... In the 1990s' England an industrial strike over pay continued after Railtrak agreed: the workers had discovered that the government had secretly sought to influence the negotiations.

Leadership Strategies

Trust is the most useful of leadership values. Good leaders' people feel valued. Job satisfaction enhances performance and productivity and job satisfaction includes feeling valued. This leadership strategy avoids dissatisfaction, increases job satisfaction. Co-operation is based on others feeling valued enough to be trusted.

Information works at two levels: it shows trust and contributes to the leader's objective others' valid views.

The value of others valid views which free flow of information (or the successful [but risky] appearance of it) enables is not overlooked in good leadership. In, e.g., educational leadership staff's familiarity with consumer culture, in business leadership workers' consumer choices reduce the risk of missing the wood for the trees.

In leadership strategies learning from experience by trial & error is unaffordable in the short term. The complexities of long term results necessitate cultured thought.

Leadership Qualities

In leadership it is generally agreed that personal leadership qualities mater. Success in leadership depends also on the degree of the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the needs and the expectations of those who are to be led, and of how the group is structured -especially as to the relevant situation immediately confronting them in their environment.

What exactly are the personal qualities of exceptional leaders, in leadership of historical noteworthiness, have not been able the psychologists to ascertain in terms of specific character or personality traits. But professional leadership also is people based and it often suffices to 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'

Leadership Skills

Personal qualities of leadership enhance professional skills. But in no field are called for exceptional personal leadership qualities or even professional skills routinely. In ordinary, e.g., business or educational leadership to envision and enable, to empower and energise routinely basic leadership skills suffice. These comprise simply of the knowledge of, and an honest intention to also cater for, the expectations of those to be lead, any problems faced in terms of their means, abilities, social influences.

In ordinary routine leadership, subject to average competence in one's field, nothing is basically essential other than this leadership appreciation and reasonable honesty -i.e., simply treating people as people.

 

Empower Your Staff Through Leadership Training

"Empowerment" is a key word whenever you go to any human resources conference these days. However, it takes more than bandying about the word to empower your staff. The essence of empowering your staff is to provide a facilitative style of leadership that enables you build up and encourage individual staff members to reach their full potential. This leads to many benefits for the company including higher staff morale, increased productivity, reduction in leave, and reduction in staff turnover.

Your role, as a leader in this process, is to ensure your team has:

A clear understanding of their boundaries
Access to the information required to make confident decisions
The ability and skills needed to work in smaller, self-managed teams

As part of this strategy leadership training can be the key to empower individuals and team members to tap into their full potential.

Personal Empowerment

When you send an individual to a good leadership training course, you provide that person with the opportunity to learn personal development skills. Since good leaders must understand the intricacies of interpersonal communication and learn how to motivate team members, the leadership training course will enable individuals to learn a range of skills that will allow them to better communicate on a number of different levels.

An individual attending a leadership training course will learn what their own personal motivation for working is and will learn how to self-motivate to achieve their goals. These communication skills and increased motivation are useful to individuals in whatever role they have within the organization. Individuals who undertake leadership training become more self-aware, empowering the individual to put those new communication skills into practice on the return to the workplace.

Building Team Skills

One of the ‘hidden' benefits of sending an individual staff member to a leadership training course is the difference it can make to team communication practices. Leaders learn how to appreciate other people's contributions to team projects and how to encourage individuals to give their best performance to each task.

Even if an individual does not take on a leadership role within the team, the training will open his or her eyes to the contributions of others within the team. This understanding can encourage greater team harmony and the willingness to work together to achieve the goals of the organization.

Team Empowerment

When you send several team members to a leadership training course, you will find that the entire team becomes empowered. Increased skills in working together are derived through such things as:

The leadership skills of appreciating another's contributions
Enhanced interpersonal communication skills
The ability to motivate others to achieve

The entire team or department can benefit from the increased understanding and reduction in miscommunication that arises when people learn interpersonal communication skills through leadership training. If you want to empower your team to move past a "storming" phase and get into productive work faster, you need several people on the team with a range of skills that will build up and encourage the team to succeed as a unit.

Leadership Empowerment

Finally, sending your team members to leadership training can have many benefits for you as a manager. If you have people who have some leadership skills working with you, it is easier to delegate tasks and share the burdens. You may not need to facilitate as many team sessions, or could find that the team is able to work productively without your continual input, as the team members become empowered to take on a range of leadership tasks themselves.

As a manager, you have many roles within the organization and delegating some of the tasks involved in leading a department can ensure you have time to attend to other important tasks too.

Leadership training empowers individuals, benefits the team, and provides easier delegation for leaders and managers. Everyone in the department wins when individuals become empowered through leadership training.

Source Timothy Millett

Educational Leadership Degrees Build Strong Foundations

In the field of education, there is a strong need for leaders and administrators who will be able to instill confidence in the teachers who work for them, the students who learn from them, and the parents who trust their children to them. The educational system is in flux right now and school environments are changing. Parents are holding teachers more accountable than ever for the success of their children, and governments are using standardized testing to measure the effectiveness of teachers. Good educational leaders are not those who simply hand out directions and expect that they will be followed; rather, they are those who pave the way for success through knowing the current lay of the land and leading by example. Building these critical leadership skills necessary for the modern school administrator begins with a solid educational foundation.

Many Areas of Specialization

There are a variety of degrees in Educational Leadership available, both available online, in a traditional setting and in a setting that combines both. The choice is really up to the person pursuing the degree. Educational leadership degrees can range from master's-level degrees up to the doctoral level. These degrees help interested professionals pursue positions such as assistant principal, principal, or superintendent; and help administrators enter leadership positions at the local, state and national level. The requirements for these specific positions vary from state to state, and acceptance into these programs usually requires a bachelor's degree.

Many states require teachers to receive a master's degree within a few years of starting their teaching career. Even teachers who have no designs to become administrators or policymakers can benefit from continuing their education by staying on top of the most current trends.

Leadership Skills

In educational leadership programs, participants learn a variety of skills including historical applications, qualitative applications, theories about leadership, skills in analysis of a variety of situations, communication skills both as a skilled writer and an orator, skills in problem-solving and critical analysis of situations that appear instantly, how to develop team-building qualities in a staff and, in the age in which we live, technology skills that will be critical to both job performance and curriculum development. Courses will be specific to the state in which the degree is being sought but these skills will enhance the knowledge base of each participant and help them develop the critical thinking skills needed for the administrative roles they seek.

The current state of our educational system is in flux. Now, more than ever, school districts and states are seeking qualified leaders to help their schools and their students succeed.

The Educational Leadership program DOES NOT lead to teacher or administrator certification, licensure, or endorsement in any state in the United States. These programs are designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of students who are already certified, licensed or endorsed and for students who are interested in pursuing these degrees for reasons other than obtaining teacher or administrator certification, licensure, or endorsement. Additionally, the credits earned through participating in these programs offered by Argosy University are unlikely to be transferable to any other similar program that is approved for teacher or administrator certification, licensure or endorsement in any State.

 

Team Building to Improve Efficiency

by yewenyi

Team Building to Improve Efficiency

There is no doubt about it; Team building certainly does improve efficiency in the workplace. Very often people from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds find it difficult to work together. They are under the pressures of their work and do not then have the time to find out just where the other person is coming from or what makes them tick.

It's like working with strangers all the time - people you are not quite sure you can trust and you don't empathize with. But once Team Building Activities begin you are able to relate to those people in a different way. Team Building Games help people to see each other in a different light – in a social atmosphere rather than just in the workplace.

Team building events place people on the same team so that they begin to see each other as team mates who must pull together to win. This feeling then spills over into their working relationships and their workplace. Suddenly they start to work together as a team rather than several different entities that just happen to work for the same company.

This is particularly so with adventure team building because there is nothing like having an adventure to meld people together. There are now many Corporate Team building events that employees can be booked into, from paintball to table tennis and from ten-pin bowling to caving. Melbourne team building can help many companies with their team building efforts.

If you are based in Sydney and looking for some ways to help your employees into higher creativity, Team building in Sydney have many solutions. Likewise, team building in Canberra may have just the right games, events and simulations to ensure your team building efforts not only build teams but that those teams have fun while they are learning to work together to achieve their goals.

Source Team Building Articles

Evolution of an MBA

Obtaining an MBA can be cumbersome for some. Enjoy this parody depicting the evolution of an MBA!!

 

Produced by the 2011 Wharton Follies Video Team. Written and Co-Directed by Dan Garblik; Co-Directed, Shot, and Edited by Paul Vogelman. A Dove Evolution parody depicting the evolution of an MBA. From studying to partying, it is truly a wonder what goes into an MBA.
Video Rating: 5 / 5

The High School to College Transition

The transition that one goes through from School to college life comes with a mixed bag of emotions. In school you are just too pre-occupied with how to break the rules and become cool among your friends, sleeping in the classes, just freaking out at the thought of holidays and of course the classes, tests, studying just the day before the exams. It was just like a second home and one would just wish that they remain and enjoy there their whole life that was school life. But then the time comes when one gear towards making a grand entry to their college life.

College is a different bet where you have no rules at all you are free to do anything you want and that is where the fun goes missing as breaking the rules had a different feeling. In college one gets involved in the politics and just thinking about the future. But college life is not that boring it comes with its share of fun when one the college festivals are round the corner that is when the whole fun starts. And yes the age-old tradition of ragging comes with it which is quite cool. Then you are just busy attending fresher's parties and farewell parties.

College really is the best time of your life. It is a time to be involved in everything your college or university will have to offer. When you reach your 30s, you will likely look back at your college experience and wish you really could do it all over again. College is a time when the "cool kids" disappear. Who you eat lunch with does not define you as a person. There is no such thing as "un-cool." Welcome to college, where you are now considered an adult.

Being a first-year student is fun! Unlike high school, where your first year is usually filled with anxiety and the occasional wrong-classroom mishap, colleges prepare their students to get to know their classmates. Get used to saying "Professor" or "Dr." Your teachers are no longer Mr. or Ms. Brown, but Professor or Dr. Brown, and guess what? You are expected to have an opinion! You are no longer a passive learner who just sits and listens to a teacher, occasionally writes a paper, and takes a test in which you are expected to simply reiterate what you have learned or been told by the teacher. You will not be provided with notes; rather, you are expected to figure out on your own what's important.

So just enjoy your trip from school to college which can be life-changing…

Top 10 Characteristics of a Leader

This video is a simple presentation that reveals the top 10 characteristics of a successful leader.

This is a top 10 qualities of a good leader for people in any business. These leadership qualities fit together in perfect harmony as you will see after you read the list.

Life isn't Fair...Get use to it!

Common Sense Rules from Bill Gates!

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.