Here are some of great responses to a question about this on LinkedIn. The responses are from the Chief Learning Officer Group. Their explanations and wordsmithing could help you with pitching this type of leadership development training to your boss or recipients: 

• John Hoskins: “The label does diminish the value of the skills. One might argue that you could have all the ‘technical’ hard skills in the world but be pretty ineffective in working with others if you lack the ‘soft skills.’ ” 
• Brent Darnell: “I tend to use people skills. Keep in mind that I work exclusively with technical people, mostly contractors and engineers. They seem to accept it fairly well.” 
• Jerriann Massey: “I always and ONLY use Critical Skills and explain that relationship skills, interpersonal skills and the like are critical in business.” 
• Adrienne Russ- Chief Consultant:  ”Personal Development” 
• Joshua Holman: “I prefer ‘essential skills’ myself.” 
• Lefteris Kanavas: “I’ve used several phrases in the past:  
• Corporate Interdependence Skills
• Inspirational Skills
• Acceleration Skills
• Rapid-Change Skills
• and the names I selected depended on the recipient audience (I’ve taken the above names from Leadership Development type of audiences)”
• Darren Levy: “This does bring up a fundamental lack of understanding with many organizations of the difference between management and leadership. The term soft skills is often used to potentially cover up a lack of awareness of what management vs leadership development actually is. I tend to preface it as are we developing management capability, leadership confidence and ability, mindsets and skill-sets.” 
• Amit Rathi:  ”Emotional Intelligence Quotient” 
• Andy Garlick: “Interpersonal Skills? Management Skills? Life Skills? I have always been fascinated that we screen for ‘technical skills’ and wonder why we end up with people who can’t think out of the box; people who are obnoxious; people who are passive; etc.” 
• Jim Grossen: “We use ‘Professional Effectiveness’ 
• Fred Lang, PhD: “Don’t allow anyone to use the phrase ‘Soft Skills’ when you refer to leadership skills. They are ‘Critical Skills’ which enable the enterprise to move forward.” 

Did we miss any?

Have you ever watched the TV show Undercover Boss?

The “plot” is fairly simple. Each week, the CEO or owner of a business goes undercover as an entry-level employee in his or her own company. S/he typically works in different jobs and different areas of the company.

In the episode I watched, one part that struck me as particularly genuine was the owner’s reaction to the challenges his front-line employees face every day. He seemed honestly surprised to learn what they went through on a daily basis and what it took to get their jobs done.

And that leads me to this point – most CEOs, owners, and C-level business leaders tend to view their organizations through rose-colored glasses. Meaning they often have unrealistic ideas of what goes on in their organization and how others view the company.

This unrealistic view occurs for two reasons:

1. Business leaders tend to be optimistic by nature. They’re problem solvers and go-getters who like to make things happen. So they instinctively pay more attention to what’s going right in the business than what’s going wrong. They tend to focus on what is possible and the future more than the past.
2. CEOs generally surround themselves with a small group of people (the management team) who depend on the boss for their jobs. These people often tell the CEO what they think she wants to hear rather than what she needs to hear (the unvarnished truth). This often results in a leader with no real understanding of what goes on in the business on a daily basis.

Having an overly optimistic view of the business is a natural and valid bias/thought bubble for C-level executives. However, it doesn’t serve the organization well. The trick is to find ways of behaving that allow you to constantly refresh that bubble and get more in touch with the day-to-day realities of your organization.

Start by getting out of your office and spending more time with customers and employees. They will tell you what is really happening in your company. If you find it easier to connect with customers (as many CEOs do), make a point to get out of your comfort zone and engage with employees as much as possible.

One of my fellow Vistage International speakers, Kraig Kramers, recommends a great technique for finding out what’s really going on in your organization. A former CEO of eight different companies, he calls his technique “W4C,” or walk the four corners.

Every day, spend 20 minutes walking around your business doing nothing but talking to people and asking three specific questions: How can we improve the company? How do we fix the problems? What opportunities can we take advantage of? The key, says Kramers, is to ask them how rather than telling them how.

Next (and you’ll get plenty of time to practice this skill if you walk the four corners) is to listen actively. Go into each department or team, ask people what’s on their minds, and then listen. Suppress your natural instinct to argue, defend or explain. Just listen, and then thank people for their input.

If you find it absolutely necessary to speak, ask clarifying questions rather making than definitive statements. For example, “That’s interesting, what leads you to that conclusion? What would you recommend as a possible solution? What would you do if you were one of our customers?”

Finally, broaden your inputs and sources of data, both internally and externally. A good internal technique is the “cold-eye review,” whereby non-experts research various aspects of the business and report back to you. For example, have someone from accounting take a look at marketing and give their perspective on that area of the business.

Externally, if you don’t have some sort of system for regularly staying in touch with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders, get one now! Focus groups, intranets, monthly lunches, etc., etc. The options are limited only by your imagination.

To lead effectively, leaders need to see things as they really are. So take off your rose-colored glasses every now and then and, like the undercover boss, you’ll be amazed at what you see!

—

Holly is CEO of The Human Factor, Inc., and helps business leaders and their companies achieve higher levels of performance and profitability.  Holly was previously President of The Ken Blanchard Company and LumMed, Inc.  Holly’s clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Expedia, Nokia, and Google as well as numerous small and midsized businesses. 

Holly’s top selling book, More Than a Minute: How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s Changing World (available in 9 languages globally) goes beyond the theory of leading and managing by providing practical, action-oriented information.

Lois Zachary

One of my favorite children’s stories is Seven Blind Mice. I was rearranging my bookshelf last week and I reread the story for the first time in many years. It struck me that this familiar tale offers some valuable lessons about an increasingly popular form of mentoring, the board of directors (sometimes referred to as mosaic mentoring). 

Let’s recap the story first, just in case you get confused about your elephant and mouse stories. The story I am referring to is the one about seven different-colored blind mice who set about investigating “a strange Something” by their pond. Each mouse, in turn, ventures out one by one to discover what the “strange Something” could be. Each comes back with a different thought about what it is. The seventh mouse explores the complete “Something” and, in the process, discovers that the “Something” is actually an elephant, a conclusion she couldn’t have come to without the input of the other mice. The story concludes with a moral: “Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole.” 

The board of directors (“BOD”) has the advantage of providing multiple perspectives and diverse feedback from a variety of mentors serially or simultaneously. It offers a 360◦ perspective that fast tracks the learning. It exponentially clarifies, broadens, deepens and expands a mentee’s thinking. The synergy and excitement that takes place among mentors when they share their wisdom is energizing for mentees and mentors alike. 

Having diverse and multiple mentors with different backgrounds, experiences and ideas can guide you to new discoveries, facilitate your growth and development as a leader, enhance your capability and expand your capacity as a leader. This model is not for everyone but it is for you if prepare yourself, carefully select your mentors, set the tone at the first meeting, create momentum, and commit to the relationship.

Prepare

Make sure that you make the time to reflect on your purpose for creating a BOD. Clarify your own goals, objectives and intention. Consider what it is you are willing to contribute to the relationship. Be willing to candidly share your needs, expectations and limits. Identify the characteristics you are looking for in each of your BOD mentors. In doing so, reflect on your past mentoring relationships and what was most helpful to you.

Carefully Select

Seek out and recruit multiple mentors to help you achieve your specific goals. You will want to make sure your choose mentors who will challenge your thinking and encourage you to raise the bar on your own growth and development. In addition to the characteristics you identify, you will want to consider if your mentors individually and collectively have the expertise, experience, time and willingness to help you achieve your learning goals. Make sure that you make your final selection whether or not you feel there is a good learning fit, not on the basis of chemistry.

 Set the Tone

You should plan on meeting with your BOD regularly. They will be looking to you to manage the learning process, arrange and host the meetings. You will want to get them invested in shared accountability for the learning process and achievement of desired results.

It is important that you create the right climate at the first meeting. Mentors need to get to know one another and understand what each brings to the table. Carefully orchestrate this process in a way that thoughtfully and respectfully honors confidentiality and creates value for your mentors.

Satisfaction and success for everyone is increased when your BOD mentors have a firm understanding of your desired outcomes. Allot adequate time to clarify your learning goals and needs. Clarify ground rules, boundaries and expectations. Once the deliverables are agreed upon, establish specific processes and procedures for monitoring progress and measuring results. Collaboratively develop a work plan.

 Create Momentum

Your mantra throughout the BOD process should be, “communicate, communicate, communicate.” Make sure that you update your BOD on your progress and provide them with feedback as to what is working for you and what is not. Express your appreciation and let them know how you are applying what it is you are learning. Use their time well and provide background material in advance of meetings.

Stay Connected

Your relationship with your BOD mentors will change once the mentoring relationship ends. You may decide to continue the relationship on an ad hoc basis or continue to connect informally. Once you have redefined your relationship, it is time to “let go” of the relationship as it was and embrace it as it will be.

A mentoring BOD provides a special kind of wisdom comes that from seeing the whole. Perhaps you will want to consider it as a way to further develop yourself as a leader.

—

Lois Zachary is the President of Leadership Development Services, LLC. and an international expert on mentoring and leadership development. She has written several books on mentoring. The newest one is The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships. Other books include Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide, and The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You.

We’re often asked how to train managers to become leaders. Usually what is behind this request is the need to get managers to motivate their team to excel at reaching goals. However, the sad truth is that often star employees who have excelled because of their individual performance have been promoted into management only to flounder.

They have not yet learned how to move from “I” to “We”, as former NBA star and N.J. Senator Bill Bradley says in The Wisdom of Teams DVD/video training.  Managers not only need to do this themselves but instill that behavior in their team. That means that the person who was just promoted into becoming a manager might have to be tough or candid with a colleague that used to be a co-worker so s/he doesn’t derail the team with a bad attitude or sloppy work.

Read more on leadership development for managers >>

==

Check out these DVD Trainings for Managers: Economical video trainings that show good leadership skills. Save time creating a training from scratch and benefit from great leaders who show what good leadership is. Check out our free video previews:

• Effective Leadership Skills with Marshall Goldsmith
• The Wisdom of Caring Leaders
• The Wisdom of Teams
• Effective Leadership Communication skills
• We’re in the Band

===

Sports fans, listen up. Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith who coaches Fortune 500 CEOs and their teams on leadership skills has advice for former and current coaches of the NY Yankees. Think filling big shoes, bad bosses and proving yourself.  Yes, just like you leaders have to do everyday:

1. Advice for Joe Torre
2. Advice for Joe Girardi

They have not yet learned how to move from “I” to “We”, as former NBA star and N.J. Senator Bill Bradley says in The Wisdom of Teams video training.  Managers not only need to do this themselves but instill that behavior in their team. That means that the person who was just promoted into becoming a manager might have to be tough or candid with a colleague that used to be a co-worker so s/he doesn’t derail the team with a bad attitude or sloppy work.

By definition being a manager requires self-awareness and the ability to coach and mentor teams to execute on a process to reach a goal. Sure, they’re not setting strategy for the overall business or articulating a vision that would qualify them to be a “leader” but good managers are creating a vision that empowers their teams.  In fact, good managers develop their leadership skills using effective communication skills that empower employees. 

If you’ve worked for a good manager, you know what this means.

In fact, the direct supervisor or manager has the biggest influence on engagement. Employees of a disengaged, inept manager are four times as likely to become disengaged and more likely to bolt. 

Fix the manager and you fix morale among a lot of folks that cost a lot of money to hire and train. Small investment for a big ROI. Right?

—

Photo:Royal New Zealand Navy

Joe Girardi became the coach of the New York Yankees in 2008. I was recently asked what leadership advice I would give him.  Think of this in the context of being a new leader, succeeding someone who was very successful. In this case, Joe Torre:

1. Bust your butt.

You have been given a once in a lifetime opportunity. Go for it. There is a time in life to have balance and be well-rounded. This is not that time for you. Do whatever you can to help the Yankees win. If they don’t, you will soon be gone. Young lawyers, investment bankers, and consultants work 80 hours a week to make it in the big leagues. Now it’s your turn.

2. Forget about life being fair.

The New York press has no interest in being fair and balanced in their reporting of your work. If the team loses, you are going to take the heat. If you get even a little defensive, it will only get worse. Take all the responsibility for any failures. It will be laid at your feet anyway.

3. Just smile at Hank Steinbrenner.

Yes, he may be your boss, but ignore his comments as much as you can. This family has no history of supporting its managers, so don’t expect it will start with you. Joe Torre was a wonderful role model for how to manage this relationship.

4. Recruit the veterans to help you out.

Your team has some of the most experienced and successful professionals in the history of the game. Recognize them for who they are. Be honest about what you need. Share your leadership responsibilities with the team.

5. Take it seriously, but have fun.

You have a tough act to follow. I got my PhD at UCLA when John Wooden was the basketball coach. Guess what happened to the next several coaches? They were all fired in short order because they “just weren’t him.” If you are not an instant success and you do get fired, nobody is going to be surprised, and neither should you.

In the great movie Twelve O’clock High, General Savage (played by Gregory Peck) sent a message to all of his fighter pilots (who were engaged in daylight precision bombing): “Assume you are dead. Forget about going home. Then it won’t be so hard.” My advice for you is the same: Assume you are dead. Forget about the keeping your job. Then it won’t be so hard.

6. Look at the upside.

Hank Steinbrenner has said, “What we’re looking for is a guy who’s maybe going to be one of the greatest managers of all time over a period of, oh, 10 to 20 years.” Maybe that manager will be you. Bear in mind you’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Make the best of it.

It occurred to me as I was writing this that there are valuable lessons here for leaders in business, whether you’re in the Joe Torre position of having had great success somewhere and are in a new position, or whether, like Joe Girardi, you’re taking over from a legendary leader. And I am sure that many of you have some advice for either – or both – of these two Joes.

• Change Management E Learning
• Marshall Goldsmith Effective Leadership Skills DVD

My newest book, MOJO, is a New York Times (advice), Wall Street Journal (business), USAToday (money) and Publisher’s Weekly (non-fiction) best seller. It is now available online and at major bookstores.

Photo: © Andrew Kazmierski | Dreamstime.com

“In today’s fast-changing business environment, organizations tell us that their #1 goal is to improve their ‘business agility’ – their ability to understand market changes, rapidly adapt, and operate as a globally integrated business. How can your HR, learning, and leadership programs help make this happen?” Bersin Associates

We think an effective way to build agility is to create workforces that think like entrepreneurs. 

Want to create a workforce that thinks like the best entrepreneurs?  They take initiative, come up with solutions to problems, innovate and have a “can do” resilient positive attitude in the toughest of circumstances.  Our new E-learning course on Entrepreneurship is designed to empower the self-motivated who want to create the environment for teams to excel. That could be a small business owner to a leader of a division…an intrapreneur. 

Here are the ten learning modules designed for the time strapped. Take one module or as many as time permits. This course is also a great pre or post learning that can be combined with an in-classroom training.

1. How to find great ideas that will help you beat the competition and innovate faster (Intel co-founder Andy Grove)
2. Change a behavior that is holding you back or getting in the way of your company’s progress(Marshall Goldsmith)
3. How to empower your team in good times and bad times(AOL co-founder Steve Case)
4. How to sell to big companies
5. How to get in the door to land a big sale
6. How to influence people to raise money, hire top talent,etc.(Stephen Covey)
7. How to create the right work environment to keep top talent
8. How to communicate to build trust and confidence
9. How to manage your time effectively
10. Stress reduction techniques

Find out more here and see a demo of the module on Attitude>>

by Holly Green

Are you brave, valiant, valorous, audacious, and swashbuckling? Or are you timorous, trepid, faint-hearted, and pusillanimous? Find out how to be bold as you “go for the gold.”

2012 is the year to be bold! 

The economy continues heading in the right direction. Employers are starting to hire again. Opportunities abound for companies that have the vision, resources, and boldness to go after them. 

What does it mean to be bold? 

The dictionary defines it as “showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous.” But I like the thesaurus description much better: daring, intrepid, brave, valiant, valorous, fearless, dauntless, audacious, adventurous, heroic, plucky, spirited, confident, assured, swashbuckling… 

I love the word “swashbuckling,” as it evokes images of pirates and sleek clipper ships running fast with the wind. Just imagine if we dressed up as pirates when describing our vision of winning to employees and stakeholders! Think it might change how they hear the message? 

Bold can also be a word to describe your actions, your drive, your efforts, and your organization. But only if you’ve created habits and behaviors that constantly progress you and your team towards your vision of winning and excellence. 

People are attracted to bold. Employees want to believe in something big. They want to pursue goals that push the limits, and they yearn to achieve something that has never been done before. They want to take bold steps to achieve their dreams and have a significant impact on their customers and the world. 

The opposite approach is to be timid. And who wants to be known as bashful, fearful, apprehensive, timorous, trepid, intimidated, mousy, cowardly, faint-hearted, pusillanimous, or wimpy – especially by their customers? 

Timid takes the safe course of action when the riskier one would yield much bigger rewards. Timid operates with a fear of failure mindset rather than a ”we play to win!” attitude. Timid settles for the field goal rather than going for the touchdown when it’s fourth and goal on the one-yard line. Timid may protect you from the pain of failure, but it won’t put you in a position of market leadership. 

How do you get bold?  

Pause and get clear on winning. But make sure it’s a big win. In football, teams want to win their divisions. But what they (and their fans) really want is to win the Super Bowl. Define what the Super Bowl looks like for your business or industry and then go out and win it! 

Push the envelope. Bold doesn’t involve doing the same things over and over again. Remember the old Star Trek theme: to boldly go where no man has gone before.  Fire up your Starship Enterprise and lead your company, your market, or your entire industry to a place it’s never been before. Keep in mind that what made you successful today will not necessarily make you successful tomorrow. 

Project a bold image. For example, Starbucks currently has its baristas wearing red stickers about Bold. Of course, it refers to a new coffee they’re promoting. But no matter the context, the word “bold” reaches out and grabs your attention. 

Think about some of the memorable tag lines or slogans that project bold. Nike’s ageless “Just do it!” Gatorade’s new slogan, “Win from within.”  Apple’s “Think different.” Fed-X’s “When it positively, absolutely has to be there overnight.” Or even the Olympic phrase, “Go for the gold!” These exude bold. They draw a line in the sand and dare you to cross it. They make you want to get off the couch and achieve something big. 

Act decisively. One disadvantage of today’s thoroughly wired world is that we can easily get paralyzed by information overload. The tendency to wait until we have gathered all the data before moving forward with a new project or product offering can be hard to overcome. Except that we will never have all the data. 

Instead, we need to gather what we can from diverse sources and make sure we have considered as many different perspectives as possible. Then move forward boldly and aggressively, knowing that our plans will change along the way. 

Most of all, position yourself as a winner by your thoughts, words, actions, and deeds. People want to align with a winner. And in today’s markets, it takes boldness to win. 

If you’re not bold, what are you waiting for? Things to slow down? Fewer emails to distract you from winning? The light at the end of the tunnel (which is really a train coming at you full speed)? 

The time to be bold is now!  Being timid is not a goal or desired state, it is a default when we don’t pause and get it right, make it big, and stay focused on achieving something!

—

Holly is CEO of The Human Factor, Inc., and helps business leaders and their companies achieve higher levels of performance and profitability.  Holly was previously President of The Ken Blanchard Company and LumMed, Inc.  Holly’s clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Expedia, Nokia, and Google as well as numerous small and midsized businesses. 

Holly’s top selling book, More Than a Minute: How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s Changing World (available in 9 languages globally) goes beyond the theory of leading and managing by providing practical, action-oriented information.

I love to listen. I’d much rather ask questions than talk. I like to receive information and think about what is being said. Sometimes, I’ve been asked whether “I get it”. Often that has been code to me for, “I’m making an extrovert, or a heavy talker, nervous.” But, really what is going on is that I’m deeply listening and want the person to elaborate further. (Of course, there are exceptions to this).

Hi, I’m an introvert. (You don’t need to clap.:))

NPR recently did a wonderful interview with Susan Cain, the author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. She explains introversion and extraversion and how extroverts became the ideal for leaders in the 20^th century. (Not all leaders are extroverts. Bill Gates , Mother Theresa, and Joe DiMaggio are and were considered introverts.)

“Suddenly, people were flocking to the cities, and they were needing to prove themselves in big corporations, at job interviews and on sales calls.”

But, Cain argues that we’ve gone too far:

“It’s quite a problem in the workplace today, because we have a workplace that is increasingly set up for maximum group interaction. More and more of our offices are set up as open-plan offices where there are no walls and there’s very little privacy. … The average amount of space per employee actually shrunk from 500 square feet in the 1970s to 200 square feet today.”

This would make an introvert wretch. I know it because it happened to me. I worked in an open cubicle environment where the stimulation was not energizing, but overwhelming and not productive for me. I felt for my co-workers who could sense my dread as they approached. Needless to say, this was not the right work environment for me and I quickly learned how to maneuver my way out of that situation. (lucky for the company too).  

For those of you who might think this is anti-social, it really is about where we get our energy. After all, we want workers to thrive and be their most productive. Right?  For introverts, energy comes from deep one-on-one connections or from the ability to focus deeply on a task or thought before giving their opinion. They don’t want all the interactions and interruptions that energize extroverts.

So, the next time, your organization wants to build teams by having them work together as a group on a project, don’t be surprised if you see some unenthused workers. Cain explains it well here:

“None of this is to say that it would be a good thing to get rid of teamwork and get rid of group work altogether. It’s more just to say that we’re at a point in our culture, and in our workplace culture, where we’ve gotten too lopsided. We tend to believe that all creativity and all productivity comes from the group, when in fact, there really is a benefit to solitude and to being able to go off and focus and put your head down.”

Amen.

Sometimes teamwork doesn’t mean being together all the time. People can have the same goals but work in different ways to achieve them, very much with the team in mind. Solitude, focus, alone time, quaility listening time,uninterrupted. Give an introvert that and it’s like rocket fuel.