Managing the Global Workplace

Career Strength for the Future: Show You Care

2010-07-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

What’s the most important thing to learn if you want to advance your career?

Should you gain diverse experience? Specialize? Go back to school for an advanced degree? Attend workshops? Get a coach?

While all of these career decisions may undoubtedly prove beneficial, book smarts don’t guarantee good teachers, nurses, doctors, businesspeople or leaders.

In today’s emerging right-brain economy, most professions require a set of skills and characteristics that cannot be taught in schools. Professionals who have the edge — those singled out for high-potential programs — are skilled at forging meaningful relationships.

The adage “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care” has never been more relevant.

While a good education is important, it’s no longer enough. Unfortunately, most business schools aren’t teaching the emotional competencies future leaders require. Perhaps these skills are far beyond a classroom’s reach.

Leadership: Combining Smarts with Heart

2010-07-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

Human connectivity requires the right combination of IQ (intelligence) and EQ (emotional intelligence). Unless you can connect with colleagues and clients at a deep level, bringing both your professional expertise and emotional commitment to relationships, you will not advance in your career as quickly or as far as you desire.

IQ may get people hired, but EQ gets them promoted. Leaders who are rewarded with promotions demonstrate both smarts and heart.

To improve your leadership potential, start talking. Have meaningful, real conversations. Develop your personal relationships with colleagues and customers. Show your expertise, but show you care even more. If necessary, work with a professional coach to develop and improve your conversational and interpersonal skills.

Leadership: The Boss Is Last

2010-07-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

A Princeton University study explored how individuals felt about spending time with associates. Interactions with clients and customers topped the list, followed by interchanges with coworkers. Interactions with the boss came in dead last — rated, on average, as less enjoyable than cleaning the house.

The Gallup Organization conducted a famous study of workplace attitudes, asking 8 million people to respond to the following statement: “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.”

The results show that people who agree with this statement:

Are more likely to stay with an organization
Have more engaged customers
Are more productive

Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience. When a boss treats you like a friend and cares about your life, you feel more enthusiastic and committed to your work.

We spend 50 percent more time with our customers, coworkers and bosses than we do with our friends, significant others, children and other relatives combined. To be sure, finding a few strong office friendships will help anyone become more engaged and productive.

Training Leaders for Future Complexities

2010-07-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

Leaders and managers can study, train and be coached, but failure to work on interpersonal skills will derail them when faced with more complex responsibilities.

Almost all professional development programs focus on the individual and self-improvement, or on managing teams and influencing groups of people. Thousands of managers receive training each year, with an emphasis on leading others.

Unfortunately, very few programs focus on how to develop interpersonal relationships and conversational skills.

The best managers in the world are not only experts in systems, processes and technical competencies; they’re also proficient at managing emotions (their own and others’).

“As a leader moves up in an organization, up to 90 percent of their success lies in emotional intelligence,” notes Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence (2006).

In other words, nine out of ten executives who fail lack emotional competencies. A leader's most valuable currency is relationships, emotional capital and the ability to connect with others.

Sadly, most people’s experience with bosses falls short.

Leadership Skills for the 21st Century

2010-07-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Conversational skills, interpersonal abilities and emotional savvy are, in fact, the leadership abilities that will be highly valued in the future — and they can be developed.

Smart and engaged leaders who pay attention to improving these skills — those who value human connections — are the candidates most likely to be hired or promoted.

So, what happens when organizations place emphasis on hiring the most intelligent and educated individuals instead of the most personable and emotionally competent?

Several studies indicate that education and experience don’t necessarily produce good teachers or doctors. In one study, researchers measured whether a master’s degree made a difference in the quality of a teacher’s classroom performance, as measured by children’s achievements. The results: Neither a teaching certificate nor advanced degree separated the best educators from the average teachers.

In another study, Dr. Wendy Levinson, an international expert in the field of physician-patient relationships, examined why some doctors who made mistakes got sued and others didn’t. She found that patients filed lawsuits against doctors they didn’t like, while well-liked physicians were not sued.

Numerous studies confirm that physicians who avoid lawsuits take a little more time to talk with their patients — about three minutes more — than physicians who do get sued. Further, the quality of doctor-patient interactions has a tremendous impact on potential litigation.

When researchers reviewed surgeons’ conversations with patients solely on the basic of tone of voice, the doctors whose voices sounded more concerned and less dominant were less likely to be sued. Conversely, when surgeons’ voices were perceived as dominant, they were more likely to be sued.

In the end, the outcome seems to depend on respect, which in its simplest form is communicated through tone of voice. And by adding a few minutes of conversation, doctors strengthen the value of their interactions — an outcome that professionals in all industries should strive to achieve.

Managing with Effective Communication

2010-06-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Effective managers will change the intentions of their communication to meet the objectives of the situation. Those intentions could be to enlighten and motivate, inform and persuade, or clarify and question.

Ten step-by-step phases can serve as a template for more meaningful conversations:

Prepare to have your conversation in person, without distractions.
Clarify your intentions.
Prepare your opening statement.
Name the issue.
Select a specific example that illustrates the behavior you want to change.
Describe your emotions around the issue.
Clarify what’s at stake.
Identify the ways in which you contribute to the problem.
Indicate your wish to resolve the issue.
Invite your partner to respond.

Once you’ve made a trial run with these guidelines, debrief with the other person. You can say something like: “Thank you for hearing what I had to say and for sharing your perspectives. Your success is important to me, and I applaud your commitment to action. I’d like us to follow up on this later.”

Managing for High Performance

2010-06-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Change is all about growing and improving the way we do things. Part of creating a high performance organization requires that you take a reality look how things are currently done. The art of fierce conversations is an evolving practice — one that must be initiated and repeated on an ongoing basis. In her book Fierce Conversations and Fierce Leadership, Consultant Susan Scott describes four critical goals:
1.
I Interrogate reality

In business, marketplace realities, technology and global demands shift rapidly — and if you’re like most people, you try to fix the same problems with the same solutions, expecting different results.

If you fail to explore differing realities, you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time mopping up the aftermath of plans torpedoed by people who resent their organizations’ refusal to value their experience, opinions and beliefs.

Regularly interrogate reality. Ask yourself:

·         What has changed?
·         Does the plan still make sense?
·         If not, what’s required of you? Of others?
·         Which realities should be explored before important decisions are made?

2.       Provoke learning

Learning cannot occur in a conversation unless both parties agree to non-judgmental explore all sides of an issue. One common error occurs when you’re entering into a conversation with a fixed agenda, such as trying to persuade someone to alter his or her point of view.

a.       Begin with an open mind and the willingness to step out of judgment mode.
b.      Make a clear and succinct statement that describes the behavior or issue from your point of view.
c.       Proceed with an invitation, such as: “Please tell me what’s going on from where you sit. I want to understand your perspective and learn your thoughts.”
d.      Don’t ruin a conversation by yammering for too long about your own perspective, without giving the other person a chance to respond. Don’t interrupt to voice disagreement. You don’t want the person on the receiving end to tune out or go into defensive mode.
e.      Stop talking and start listening. When necessary, let silence happen.
f.        Facilitate openness by asking questions nonjudgmental.

3.       Tackle tough challenges

To have real conversations, you must be willing to identify and address the relevant issues in a truthful and courageous manner. Ask yourself: “What are the most important issues I should be addressing? Which issues am I avoiding?” Sometimes, this involves problems everyone knows exist, but rarely acknowledge or discuss.

4.       Enrich relationships

Each conversation you have is an opportunity to enhance a relationship. But for many hard-charging and competitive high achievers, conversations are used as opportunities to show off their brilliance and wit.

Fierce conversations are not competitive. Each participant must agree to communicate as an equal.

Conversations must no longer be about you, but centered on others. This requires asking questions and listening with total focus and attention on the other person.

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” Anthony Robbins

Leading Change, One Conversation at a Time

2010-06-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Business is fundamentally an extended conversation. Whether you’re speaking with your boss, team members, colleagues or direct reports, conversations shape what gets done.

As a leader, you must engineer conversations to foster clarity, cooperation, creativity and a connection to company values.

Sadly, the quality of many work conversations borders on mediocrity and/or boredom, with meaning and connection reserved for personal conversations.

Fierce Conversations

In her books, Fierce Conversations and Fierce Leadership, consultant Susan Scott explains that the word “fierce” doesn’t imply menace, cruelty or threats. In Roget’s Thesaurus, the word fierce is associated with the following synonyms like robust, intense, strong, powerful and passionate.

“The simplest definition of a fierce conversation is one in which we come out from behind ourselves, into the conversation, and make it real,” Scott writes.

Some people, however, are intimidated by the idea of talking about what’s real because it requires raw honesty and vulnerability. In truth, it’s the unreal conversations that should scare us because they never address what needs to be said, cost organizations untold fortunes and limit individuals’ career advancement.

While politeness and constructive criticism matter, they should not come at the expense of meaningful interactions that explore diverse perspectives and competing recommendations.

The Risk of Being Real

Today’s workforce is composed of men and women who consider themselves to be free agents. They own their free will, drive and expertise, and they’re willing to invest these assets in support of colleagues, ideals and goals in which they believe. As a leader, you can give them something to believe in by making every conversation real.

You have to remove your professional mask and leadership persona, setting aside your authority and power. You must open your mind to others’ potentially competing perspectives and accept that you don’t know it all or have all the answers.

Leaders who strive to increase their candor and authenticity experience a growing sense of personal freedom, vitality and effectiveness. By improving their ability to have robust conversations, they gain a higher level of personal authenticity, emotional honesty, integrity and greater capacity to inspire change in others.

Empowering Employees: Leading Your Boss

2010-06-04T06:08:00.000-07:00

Empowered employees lead outside the organization lines by owning their jobs. They do not just do what needs to be done but they think about how they could work smarter. When it comes to solving problems, they do their homework and make recommendations that are backed by implementations plans.

Some bosses might push back from empowering their employees. Some fear their authority will be undermined. Others are so insecure that leadership from below is a threat that must be stamped out at all cost.

These obstacles shouldn’t prevent you from trying to lead your boss, when appropriate. Observe the following guidelines:

Stick with the facts. Build your arguments with evidence. Make sure your research is on point.
Ask others to challenge your premise. Before presenting your ideas to your boss, find people who can play devil’s advocate and explore your assumptions.
Don’t confuse causation with correlation. Just because there’s a link between two issues doesn’t mean one provoked the other.

Dealing with a Jerk Boss

In some cases, all of the best data in the world won’t convince your boss that you’re right. If he’s a jerk, he’s probably insecure. He acts tough because he’s afraid of losing his job and control over others.

Jerk bosses cannot be reasoned with, so don’t even try. You can roll over, fight back or leave. Choose wisely.

Bounce Back

Ultimately, what really matters is how we recover when things don’t go our way. Resilience gives you the strength you need when faced with rejection.

Review:

What happened?
What could I have done better?
What did I learn?

The resilience to bounce back from a raw deal distinguishes those who succeed from those who become stuck, bitter and angry. Remain focused on goals and engaged in the process of fulfilling them.

Whatever success you are trying to achieve, attitude will be at the focal point of it. Whatever challenge you encounter along the way, attitude will help you emerge from it with the proper frame of mind. Focus energy on creating a positive attitude about change. Understanding that your life is created by your thoughts means that you can change the world through your thoughts. When you understand that every challenge is an opportunity, it encourages you to grow and prosper.

Unleashing the Leaders from Within: What’s Needed to Lead Up?

2010-05-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

To lead up, you must:

Establish trust by following through on your commitments; be impeccable with your word; do what you say you’ll do.
Connect with others authentically and honestly.
Get out of the spotlight; share the credit with others.
Demonstrate that you can think and act for the boss by taking initiative and following through.
Use common sense; think before you act; listen to others.
Do what’s practical to help the organization achieve its goals.

You will also need to think and act strategically:

Challenge the status quo and conventionality.
Reframe opportunities.
Get out of your box and out of your cubicle.
Turn information into knowledge.
Deal with ambiguity and uncertainty.

Assertive Diplomacy

Taking initiative requires assertiveness, confidence and decisiveness. But too much assertiveness (i.e., aggressiveness) drives people away, discourages collaboration and causes people to resist your influence.

John Baldoni, author of Lead Your Boss urges managers to practice “reflective assertiveness,” a quiet confidence and power. It emerges from experiences, including one’s trials and triumphs. You must:

Listen first, showing that you value others’ ideas.
Keep it low. People know where power lies. You don’t need to advertise it.
Act decisively.

Challenge Ideas, Not People

Those who resist your ideas will undoubtedly outnumber your supporters at first, but persistence pays off. Begin by challenging “the way we’ve always done it.” This allows you to constantly refine best practices and take risks.

At the same time, you may find it uncomfortable to challenge those in authority. It’s a natural feeling. The trick is to challenge assumptions, not the individuals in positions of power. Focus on ideas, not personalities.

Whatever success you are trying to achieve, attitude will be at the focal point of it. Your ability to foster the positive attitude in relationships allows those around you to grow while creating an enriched environment in your organization. Attitudes are presumed to influence behavior.

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2010-05-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

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2010-05-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

Leading from the Middle: Managing Up, Down and Sideways

2010-05-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

There’s a lack of trust in senior management, according to a survey by the human-resource firm Watson Wyatt:

*Only 49 percent of employees have trust and confidence in their senior managers.
•Just 55 percent say senior leaders behave consistently with core values.
•Only 53 percent believe senior management has made the right changes to stay competitive.

Clearly, much is going wrong in the workplace, which presents middle managers with unprecedented opportunities to step forward and offer course corrections.

What’s Happening

You see a problem. There’s a clear need for action within a certain time frame. You’ve discussed the issues and possible solutions many times with your boss, and she has agreed with your way of thinking. For unexplained reasons, she hasn’t acted or given you the go-ahead. What do you do?
This could be a situation in which you take action and lead your boss. You develop a plan on your own, gather data (both pro and con), suggest a course of action and ask permission to move forward.

In doing so, you’re filling a leadership void through prompt decision-making and follow-through. You’re demonstrating what it takes to “manage upward,” or lead your boss. But you’ll soon discover that you need buy-in from more people, including peers and subordinates. You’ll have to become a leader without authority—an ambassador sans portfolio.

Emerging from the Middle
Those who succeed at leading from the middle are artful, skilled managers who:
•Establish goals
•Plan projects
•Organize people
•Execute projects on time and on budget

To accomplish this, you must rethink what you want to achieve and how you’re going to do it. In essence, you’re not acting for yourself, but for the good of the organization.
According to John Baldoni, author of Lead Your Boss, managers who lead up demonstrate they’re aware of the bigger picture. He urges readers to ask themselves:

1.What does the leader need? The boss is responsible for motivating people to get things right. What does she need to do her job better?

2.What does the team need? Teams don’t always pull together because egos get in the way. What if you stepped forward and helped bring everyone together?

3.What can I do to help the leader and team succeed? Perhaps you can take on more responsibility or step back and let others rally. Maybe you can sacrifice a personal need that allows the team to conquer a challenge.

In summary, there appears to be a need for good leadership in organizations today. Creating a culture of an empowered organization focuses on questioning the how and why things are done, and its managers refine best practices and take risks. Our clients develop an empowered workforce by coaching, training, and nurturing their team members. A professional coach can offer ways to be diplomatic and allow you to grow your leadership skills. Organizations that provide continual personal development of their employees can create a competitive advantage against the competition. An empowered workforce can make things happen, rather then let things happen.

Emotional Intelligence: Everyone has this priceless gift but never understand it!

2010-05-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

The four drives are intrinsic and universal, found in some physical form in our brains. While independent, the drives are highly interactive with each other. Each drive also has a “dark side,” as when the drive to acquire becomes excessively competitive and diminishes respect for others, or when the drive to defend one’s current thinking diminishes the drive to learn new perspectives.

These four drives exist in each of us; no one is immune. They determine the choices we make. In some people, one drive will be more developed than others, creating an imbalance. And in some jobs, specific drives will be emphasized over others. Understanding how each of these drives manifests in your life can help you understand how and why you make particular choices. Working with a professional coach can help you identify your strongest drives so you can understand yourself better.

You may be relying too much on your drive to acquire or be placing too much emphasis on the drive to bond, while neglecting your drive to learn. Often, the drive to defend can overwhelm other important drives that must be satisfied to achieve and enjoy a well-balanced and successful life.

Which drives are guiding your choices—and which drive do you neglect?

The answers to these questions lie in acknowledging that all four drives are basic to human nature—and that a balanced life must include some satisfaction in all four areas. As Lawrence and Nohria write: “The challenge is to find a course forward that fulfils all of our basic drives in some creative, balanced way…The way forward must be to use the best side of each drive to check the dark, excessive potential of human nature.”

Emotional Intelligence: Understanding Human Nature

2010-05-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

In Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (Jossey Bass, 2001), Harvard Business School professors Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria draw evidence for their four-drive theory from evolutionary psychology and Charles Darwin’s teachings, as well as the social sciences and organizational life.

Human beings seek ways to fulfill the following drives because our evolutionary heritage compels us to meet basic survival needs:

1.The drive to acquire objects and experiences that improve our status relative to others. We’re driven to seek, take, control, and retain objects and personal experiences. In the course of evolution, humans have been naturally selected to compete for food, water, shelter and sexual fulfillment.

We’re driven to acquire material and positional goods, as well as social status. But the drive to acquire is rarely satisfied; we always seem to want more and seek even greater status.

2.The drive to bond with others in long-term relationships of mutual care and commitment. Human beings have an innate drive to form social relationships and develop commitments with others—drives that are fulfilled only when the attachment is mutual.

Groups of individuals who bond to one another have always had a better chance of surviving environmental threats. This drive induces us to cooperate with others.

3.The drive to learn and make sense of the world and of ourselves. Humans have an innate drive to satisfy their curiosity—to know, comprehend, believe, appreciate, and develop understandings or representations of their environment and themselves through a reflective process.

This drive, without doubt, has enabled mankind to survive the elements and has given us distinct advantages over other creatures.

4.The drive to defend ourselves, our loved ones, our beliefs and our resources. Humans have an innate drive to defend themselves and their valued accomplishments whenever they perceive them to be endangered. The fundamental emotion manifested by this subconscious drive is alarm, which in turn triggers fear and/or anger. This drive has obvious survival value and quite possibly may have been the first drive to have evolved in our earliest ancestors.

In modern life, the drive to defend manifests in many ways. Much of human activity is generated by this drive. It is activated by perceived threats to one’s body, possessions and bonded relationships, as well as by threats to one’s own cognitive representations of our environment and self-identity. Understanding our emotions is the root of good emotional intelligence. Real leaders are those who inspire and motivate others, create teamwork, and achieve results. They model the behavior they want to see in their employees. Emotional Intelligence provides you with the understanding of what motivates those around you. It can move you from management to leadership.

Benchmark Trend Analysis

2010-05-01T11:19:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Benchmark Trend Analysis

View more documents from Dr. Doreen McGunagle.

Emotional Intelligence: Motivations That Drive You

2010-04-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

There are four basic drives are common to all human beings, but which ones affect your daily life and behavior? How do they influence the choices you make?

At the start of the 20th century, psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud proposed that people are driven by sex and power—but there’s much more to it than that. By the 1950s, psychologist Abraham Maslow identified our “hierarchy” of basic needs, which include shelter, food, clothing, ego and belonging. After these needs were met, he said, we’re driven toward self-actualization—a state very few achieve.

In the 1960s, MIT management professor Douglas McGregor applied Maslow’s ideas to the business world. He asserted that once basic salary needs were met, workers had higher drives that weren’t contingent on rewards or punishments. If managers could tap into people’s inner motivations by granting more autonomy and respect, they would spur greater performance.

Harvard psychology professor David McClelland later identified three motivators in leaders: drives to achieve, attain power and affiliate with others.

Despite all of these studies, businesses continue to use monetary incentives instead of tapping into employees’ intrinsic motivations. Perhaps one can chalk this up to fuzzy, anachronistic notions about what motivates people.

A new theory suggests each of us has four basic drives that have existed since our cavemen days. These drives, which have allowed us to survive, are embedded in our DNA and actively chart the course for our daily behaviors. Working with a professional coach can help you identify your strongest drives so you can understand yourself better. By finding out more about your personal DNA and how each of these drives manifests in your life, can help you understand how and why you make particular choices will provide self awareness of your emotions.

Developing Talent: Does it impact your business performance?

2010-04-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Worldwide we have found that by providing career development, it creates a positive impact on employee engagement and is directly related to organizational performance. A large amount of research has established a link between engagement to retention, productivity, and organizational performance. Organizations that fail to engage their employees never perform at their best. They actually risk losing talented employees and their competitive edge in the market.

Disengaged employees do only what is asked, lack alignment with the mission and values, and remain in their jobs due to lack of job opportunities. In 2008, the estimated annual financial loss in the U.S. due to disengaged employees was approximately $300 billion. In the Herman Trend Alert: 2010 Workforce/Workplace Forecast, the report states that 54 percent of today’s employees are ready to jump as soon as the economy improves. This could cause many organizations to face a retention crisis.

We have found that offering career development not only meets the organizational challenges with engagement but employees take ownership of their work. Career development provides the employees with tools to help them do their job well. Career development drives engagement, productivity, and performance of your employees.

Culture: Creating High Performance Organizations

2010-04-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Becoming a high performance firm means being the best at something. This is achieved through modeling behaviors of firms that are top performers. By focusing all of its energy on providing all the tools necessary for its employees to excel at their jobs high performance firms develop dynamic thinking will keep their most talented employees. In providing a culture that anticipates the next change the organization can strive towards becoming a high performing firm. Effective change involves improvement within the organization that focuses on the customer, improving and managing work processes, and strengthening employee’s involvement.

The biggest challenge for a company today lies in being able to adapt to the sudden changes in today’s business environment. Companies must be able to react quickly to the markets to compete in a global economy and in order to do so it will be necessary for firms to establish a continual improvement within their organization. The top issues in the driving force of change are people, culture, and tasks. In order for a firm to survive, they need to be positioned to adapt to a shift in the organizations goals and direction to meet with the current market demands. The proper alignment between the relationship of culture, processes, and people allows the organization to integrate the knowledge which will improve their performance.

Strategy: Improving Organizational Performance

2010-04-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

Why is it important to look at the process relationship of an organization to improve the performance? As the business environment changes, the survival of firms will depend on their ability to understand and manage their key asset. In the 21st century, it has become increasingly important for firms to create the ability to exploit their intangible assets. There should be a fit between the goals and strategies of the organization and their knowledge assets. There is a major impact to the success of firms when knowledge is used to create corporate strategy. When there is proper alignment between the knowledge management and business strategy, then organizations move towards superior performance in stock value, revenue, and income.

As we peel back the onion of an organization it brings us to the successful crafting of the vision that is shared with employees. However, the culture of the organization plays a major role in the impact to improving the performance within the organization. The understanding of the organizations culture, brands, and employee’s identities should be reviewed. Proper testing and analyzing can assist your organization in creating a healthy organization by aligning beliefs, practices, and goals. Additionally, it creates a smooth transition for mergers and acquisitions while allowing the company to recruit and empower effective leaders.

Leadership: Do you have the right people you need to sustain growth?

2010-03-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Companies today are facing new challenges regarding the strategic and economic impact of leadership. The leadership models that made them successful in the past may not be adequate or adaptive enough for emerging challenges and opportunities.

•Effectively navigate through the current economic downturn while continuing to develop leadership capabilities for sustained success.
•Create leadership mindsets, capabilities, and practices that will increase accountability and competitive advantage.
•Ensure that leaders are ready at all levels in the organization.
•Ability to communicate the company vision and strategy to everyone.

Leadership Development tools focus on developing leaders who create superior value for the business today and tomorrow. Leadership is the motivating factor in an organization that will change its conception of ideal performance.

Leadership: Inspiring Change

2010-03-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

What does it take to transmit bold new ideas to people who don’t want to hear them? How can the language you use facilitate enthusiastic, energetic implementation?
Transformational leaders:
•Generate enduring enthusiasm for a common cause
•Present innovative solutions to solve significant problems
•Catalyze shifts in people’s values and ideologies
•Demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice personal interests for the greater good
•Help others get through crisis moments
•Inspire people to want to change, creating a positive energy that sustains the change
•Generate followers who will ultimately become leaders
The what of transformational leadership is reasonably clear. It’s the how that’s usually obscure.
*How do leaders communicate complex ideas and spark others into enduringly enthusiastic action?
*What words do they use to inspire others to become new leaders?
*Why are some leaders able to accomplish the feat while others fail miserably?
Stephen Denning, a senior scholar at the University of Maryland’s Burns Academy of Leadership, makes the case for transformational communications in his book The Secret Language of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2007). More than anything, it’s what leaders say — and the way they say it — that generates sustained energy and exponential results.

Do you agree that change is happening everywhere?

2010-03-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

The traditional command and control mold allows a company to respond to plans under certain times. However, during times of change it requires you to evolve your thinking. Training of new leadership capabilities is necessary for managing change well. Emotional intelligence (EI) is encouraged for a more creative approach to change because it uses logic and feelings. EI is the ability to deal with relationships and meanings of emotions while applying reasoning in social interactions and problem solving. Real leaders are those who inspire and motivate others, create teamwork, and achieve results. Check out our March 1st newsletter for action steps and exercises on emotional intelligence.

The winning formula requires being open to the new opportunities of the present and future. When you change your thinking, you change your experience in the world. When you think differently, it improves your success and happiness. Success is not always about being in control but it is about being wise. The ability to embrace change and transform problems into opportunities allows you to be successful.

Dr. Karl Menninger said that the real challenge of adversity and suffering is that “the voice of intelligence is drowned out by the roar of fear”. The better you manage fear, the better that you manage the situation. Fear prevents you from moving forward with this challenge. Is the fear of rejection, speaking out, or failure? You should listen carefully to some of your fears because they carry wisdom but some are just fear. What fear is at the heart of the problem? Escaping your comfort zone is a mental game. Stepping out of your comfort zone is anything but business as usual. Check out our February 22nd newsletter for action steps and exercises on managing change.

Ways to Ensure Your Success

2010-02-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

You success is not a matter of chance but rather a matter of choice. This concept reflects why it is important for you to have a clear strategic direction. You access where you currently are, decide where you want to go, and create a plan for how you are going to get there. If you are not intentional about your direction, you are not likely to get there.

Everyone wants to achieve better results. Those results could be to earn more money, to use resources better, to create a more effective and efficient team, or to improve your work/life balance. The results of a recent study by M3 Planning, reflect the impact that strategic planning has on both your sales volume and net income of an organization.

Impact on sales volume:
•Top management that had a high commitment to execute strategic planning, 80 percent reported that their sales volume increased during that year.
•Top management that had a lower commitment (average or below) to execute strategic planning; only 59 percent reported that their sales volume had increased during the year.
•Firms whose top management had a high commitment reported 12 percent greater increase in sales volume than did those with a lower commitment.

Impact on net income:
•Top management that had a high commitment to execute strategic planning, 33 percent reported that their net income had increased during the year.
•Top management that had a lower commitment (average or below) to execute strategic planning; only 19 percent reported that their net income had increased during the year.
•Firms whose top management had a high commitment reported 11 percent better net income than did those with a lower commitment.

Good ideas are great but there is often a challenge to make them happen. Growth and high-performance are the result of a good strategic plan that was executed. Golfer Vijay Singh hits thousands of balls a day to prepare for a tournament. Olympic gold-medal winner Michael Phelps swims fifty miles a week to prepare for a competition, and Steve Jobs spends hours of grueling practice before a keynote presentation. Superstar performers in all fields have plans that were executed, they leave nothing to chance.

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Creating the Winning Presentation

2010-02-16T05:16:00.000-08:00

If you are serious about improving your presentation skills, record yourself on video and replay it with someone else in the room. Carmine Gallo shared in his book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs that watching yourself on TV, especially a wide screen will probably not be a pleasant experience but it is essential for improving your presentation. Recording your presentation and playing it back for objective friends and colleagues are a critical way to receive honest feedback. To have effective communication, what the other person hears (verbal message) and sees (nonverbal message) must match. In a recent study, 93 percent of individuals were influenced by non verbal message vs. only 7 percent by verbal messages. As you watch the video, pay close attention to your nonverbal messages:

• Eye Contact: Commit most of your presentation to memory to avoid reading your notes. Your slides should act as your cue. Public speaking expert Andrew Carnegie observed that notes destroy the intimacy between the speaker and the audience and make the speaker appear less powerful and confident. Notes can still be used but keep them unobtrusive and simple.

• Body Language: Is your body language strong, confident, and commanding? Are your arms crossed or open? Are you keeping your hands out of your pockets? Are all your gestures natural? Remember that body language and verbal delivery account for the majority of the impression you leave your listeners.

• Filler words: Are you using “um” “ah” and “you know” to fill the spaces between thoughts? Just as text should not fill every inch of the slide, your words should not fill every pause between sentences. Awareness is 90 percent of the solution.

• Vocal Delivery: Vary the volume and inflection of your voice to keep the attention of the audience riveted on your words. Raise and lower your volume at different points in your presentation. Varying the speed will keep it from sounding monotone. Speed up at certain points and then slow down. Pause for impact. There is nothing more dramatic then a well placed pause. Do not sound rushed, let the presentation breathe.

• Energy: Do you appear vibrant, enthusiastic, and genuinely thrilled to be sharing your story with the audience? We all enjoy being around people with energy. They inspire us. They are stimulating, fun, and uplifting. An energetic person has passion in his voice, a bounce in his step, and a smile on his face. Energy makes a person likable, and likeability is a key ingredient in persuasive communication. Many business professionals underestimate the energy level required to generate enthusiasm among their listeners. Practice leaving your comfort zone. In the playback of your tape, ask yourself and your observer “Where was I on the energy scale?” Next time, breakout of your comfort zone by raising your voice, using broader gestures, and a big smile on your face. Get to the point that you feel slightly awkward and uncomfortable.

Relentless preparation is the single best way to overcome stage fright: know what you are going to say, when you are going to say it, and how you are going to say it. Too many people focus inward during their presentation. Instead go from “me” to “we” by shifting the focus to what your message means to your audience. Golfer Vijay Singh hits thousands of balls a day to prepare for a tournament. Olympic gold-medal winner Michael Phelps swims fifty miles a week to prepare for a competition, and Steve Jobs spends hours of grueling practice before a keynote presentation. Superstar performers in all fields leave nothing to chance. If you want to thrill any audience, start practicing! Check out Carmine Gallo’s his new release, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs for other great ideas about creating your award winning presentation.