Leadership development

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Ready. Fire. Aim!

November 11, 2011 in Leadership Coaching, Leadership development, Management Training by Marc Michaelson | No comments

 

Are your employees committed to the company, aligned with its goals, and anxious to contribute.

 

Are employees, leaders and managers  frustrated by barriers that exist in the work environment confronting them from being the best that they can be?

 

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What I often hear from team members is that  their expectations for their roles  are not properly defined which leads  these individuals to become disillusioned, frustrated, and sometimes very angry.  Most of them experience leadership and alignment on the fly!

 

Yes, we are living in a new world of work where READY, FIRE, AIM is the daily mantra for leaders and managers who are asked to climb mountains with their teams.

 

The new world of work requires organizations to equip their people who are now leaders without titles in the DO -MORE – BETTER – FASTER WITH LESS workplace that executes with the READY-FIRE-AIM approach.

There has never been a more important time to invest in the skills development that enhances critical thinking, resilience, collaboration and self management.  This is the short list–there are many more skill and tools required for today’s workplace that most leaders, managers and employees do not possess.

From my perspective as an executive coach, leadership development facilitator, and trusted advisor to many teams it is time for soft and hard skills to become one.  We call them Smart Skills, those skills that equip each and every worker regardless of their titles, to get the job done, offer discretionary effort and high levels of engagement under fire.

Time to remove the categories associated with skill acquisition and focus on a more holistic approach to leadership, management and employee development!

 

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How Present Are Your People?

November 7, 2011 in Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | No comments

Presenteeism is more complicated than absenteeism and is often not well understood by leadership and management.  Leaders and managers may see their team arrive for work, ready for a full day’s work but not recognize whether they are actually in the physical, mental and emotional space to deliver their best efforts.

Are your employees absent while being present in their job?

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Presenteesism costs are estimated to cost companies up to four times more than absenteeism through the loss of productivity on the job. Are your employees sitting around staring at the computer screen, unable to prioritize their tasks, unable to remain focused on important deliverables? Are they finding excuses for not performing well?

All levels of productivity can be affected by numerous influences namely their physical, mental and emotional states. An employee who is out of balance due to personal relationship issues, financial stressors, a poor relationship at home  will struggle to stay on  task at a satisfactory level.

Numerous studies have show that “the lack of presence” on the job costs US companies billions of dollars.

An assortment of preventable health problems contribute to such losses in productivity. For instance research has shown that inactivity can reduce productivity by 7%, excessive alcohol consumption by 4%, smoking by 10%, stress by 13%, neck and back pain by 20% and lack of sleep by a whopping 30% per employee

It is in the employers best interest to recognize the impact of presenteeism in their business and provide solutions to gain the best from employees.

Employees who are more focused, present, and healthy are those who lead their life well.  Make sure you provide an employee well-being program to foster higher levels of personal presence vs presenteeism.

Think about it this way…let’s say you pay your  team 500, 000 per year and they show up at 100% only half the time–you just lost 250,000-cash,  and an undetermined level of value related to innovation, problem solving and customer satisfaction.

We want our employees to be PRESENT, HEALTHY and ENGAGED

Well-Being = Presence, Presence =Engagement and Discretionary Effort –which is PRICELESS

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Where The Magic Happens!

October 29, 2011 in Change Leadership, L3 Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | No comments

 

Sit for awhile and think about your comfort zones.  Are your comfort zones keeping you from where the magic is?

Think about your work and your life!    How can your move from one circle to the other where the magic happens?

 

 

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Creating A Coaching Culture

October 25, 2011 in L3 Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | No comments

Creating a Coaching Culture

 

Every study of effective leaders concludes that those leaders, who get the most out of their teams, spend a high proportion of their time and energy coaching others. The effective Leader/Coach is able to delegate more, to create a stronger sense of purpose within the team and to motivate the performance of others. Even more importantly they free up time so that they can focus on the most important leadership responsibilities instead of fire-fighting or doing jobs that could be done by their direct reports.

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The stark reality is that most leaders and leaders and managers put very little effort into coaching. Even though the company may have provided coaching training for them, unless there is an active and supportive coaching climate, there will be very little overall impact on the performance of the business, on retention of talent, or on the achievement of strategic goals.

So what exactly is a coaching climate? You will know you have a coaching climate when:

- Personal growth, team development and organizational learning are integrated and the links clearly understood

- People are able to engage in constructive and positive dialogue vs. confrontation

- People welcome feedback (even at the top) and actively seek it

- Coaching is seen as a joint responsibility of leaders and managers and their direct reports

- Coaching is seen primarily as a opportunity for continuous improvement rather than as a remedial intervention

- People are recognized and rewarded for their activity in sharing knowledge

- Time for reflection is valued

- There are effective mechanisms for identifying and addressing barriers to learning

- There are strong role models for good coaching practice

So how do you create a coaching climate?

- By ensuring that all leaders and managers have at least the basic skills of coaching

- By equipping all employees with the skills to be coached effectively

- By developing a relationship with professional coaches who can provide coaching at the executive levels and for high potentials

- By recognizing and rewarding leaders and managers who demonstrate good coaching behavior and commitment to coaching

- By measuring and providing feedback on the quality, relevance and accessibility of coaching to all levels of the organization-By

ensuring that top management provide strong, positive role models

- By identifying cultural barriers to coaching and learning

How do you ensure that all leaders and leaders and managers have at least the basic skills of coaching?

Just running a training program on this topic isn’t enough. Leaders and managers need to put what they have learned into practice. Initial training needs to be reinforced with opportunities to review each coaching session and to reflect upon feedback from the coachee. Good practice typically involves either follow up sessions, and the use of a Professional Coach to sit in on coaching sessions and provide immediate feedback.

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Peter Drucker Makes It Sound So Simple!

October 18, 2011 in Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | 1 comment

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Peter Drucker was asked for his definition of leadership and this was his response…

” It is very simple. The task of a leader is to create an alignment of strength that makes people’s weaknesses irrelevant”

There are tens of thousands of books, millions of training programs, executive coaches and mentors who fail to get this simple message across to those they influence.

We here at Glowan are just as guilty of missing the mark on this simplicity.  People = Human Capital.  This is a wake up call for me personally.  I need to laser focus on this equation.

 

Take Time For Your Life

October 12, 2011 in Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | No comments

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Choose To Lead

October 10, 2011 in Change Leadership, L3 Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership development, Management Training by Marc Michaelson | No comments

With all of the focus these days on leadership skills and competencies, an additional question needs to be asked.  The issue is not so much how to lead, although that is important, but who should lead?

We have moved from “I decide” to  “We do”!

 

This change creates new opportunities for  new definitions and  a new context for embracing  leadership – now there is a need for focusing  on  “ the act of” leadership within organizations?

 

Who performs this act? Everyone!!

 

Perhaps “LEADERFUL” is a better context for us to embrace today.


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Leaderful offers a broader definition of  leadership for individuals and organizations. To be leaderful, you need not be the designated position leader of your organization. If you work with others in any capacity, you are capable of exerting leadership. All positions have leadership responsibility, most don’t have the authority!

Today’s leaders come from all levels of an organization and therefore companies need to rethink their approach to leadership development.  What is needed to provide development programs that touch each and every employee?  What needs to change in our thinking and behaviors to make this happen and how will we go about changing all that must change?  Working today means leading today!  We must all CHOOSE TO LEAD!

What are your thoughts?

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Leadership Challenges For 2030: The Competencies Required

October 5, 2011 in Change Leadership, L3 Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership development, Management Training by Marc Michaelson | No comments

 

According to Hay Group’s Leadership 2030 research the leaders of the future will need a host of new skills and competencies if they are to succeed

 

Leadership challenges of the future revealed by the Hay Group–Building Leaders: Leadership Challenges of the Future Revealed- You can download the white paper here.


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“Leaders of the future will need to be adept conceptual and strategic thinkers, have deep integrity and intellectual openness, find new ways to create loyalty, lead increasingly diverse and independent teams over which they may not always have direct authority, and relinquish their own power in favor of collaborative approaches inside and outside the organization.”

To successfully develop this combination of skills and qualities – and adopt what is, in effect, a ‘post-heroic’ leadership style – they may need to abandon much of the thinking and behavior that propelled them to the top of their organizations in the first place.

But if they want their businesses to survive and thrive over the next two decades they have no choice. Unless they dramatically change their leadership style, starting from today, their organizations will lose out in the race for innovation, the march to globalization and the war for talent. They will be, quite simply, unsustainable.

This is the conclusion Hay Group has reached after working with Germany-based foresight company Z-Punkt to identify the mega-trends they believe will affect organizations and their leaders profoundly over the coming decades and analyzing the implications of each at a corporate, organizational, team and individual level.

In short, the study determined that this short list of competencies are an absolute must for leaders, managers and influencers in the next two decades.

The new leadership competencies

The new business world order will challenge leaders on three levels: cognitive, emotional and behavioral.

Cognitive

Leaders need new forms of contextual awareness, based on strong conceptual and strategic thinking capabilities.

They need to be able to conceptualize change in an unprecedented way, again based on conceptual and strategic thinking.

Leaders need to exhibit new forms of intellectual openness and curiosity.

Emotional

Overall, leaders will need to be much more sensitive to different cultures, generations and genders.

They will need to demonstrate higher levels of integrity and sincerity and adopt a more ethical approach to doing business.

They must also tolerate far higher levels of ambiguity.

Behavioral

Leaders must create a culture of trust and openness.

As post-heroic leaders they must rethink old concepts such as loyalty and retention and personally create loyalty.

Collaboration – cross-generational, cross-functional and cross-company – will be their watchword.

They must lead increasingly diverse teams.

 

At Glowan we are proud of the fact that our  L3 Leadership Learning Process combined with our Smart Skills: Leading Without A Title program prepares leaders, managers, project managers and Individual contributors to ready themselves now and for the future. These two programs are directly mapped  to the above competencies called out in the Hay Group research.  As I am writing this blog post we are working on a new program and process that integrates the two programs mentioned here. This new program is called Choose To Lead™, and will be piloted in early 2102.


 

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Keys Skills for Increasing The Social Side of Emotional Intelligence

September 28, 2011 in Leadership Coaching, Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | No comments

Keys Skills for Increasing The Social Side of Emotional Intelligence

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1. Observe your specific interactions between you and others in various situations and settings both at work and home. The first step towards adjustments and needed change comes with awareness.

2. Make mental notes of various situations in which you are uncomfortable or feel things did not not go the way you would have liked. Think about what you could have done differently, and how your preparation might change.

3. Be aware of your “triggers”. What triggers in the way of behaviors you experienced with people set you off?  Are you being triggered because of your own biases, which are then interfering with your ability to communicate openly?

4. Learn to  ask for feedback about your interactions. Ask frequently. Make it clear you want honest feedback. Accept the feedback with an open ear.

5. Accept responsibility for your behavior. Don’t be afraid to apologize or acknowledge errors or insensitivity.

6 Become more aware of your body language and nonverbal communication. Try to notice when your words are not congruent with your feelings or intentions.

7. Practice “active listening”. Before jumping in with a suggestion or criticism, take the time to pause,  listen and ask for clarification. You want to make sure you are fully present and focused on what the other person is communicating.

8. Make Small Changes: Choose one or two interpersonal behaviors you would like to work on and focus on those over a period of time. If you take on too much you will become overwhelmed and discouraged.

9. Gain a good understanding of your interpersonal strengths and how you can maximize these. (For example, if you have a nice sense of humor, you can make a positive impact on others through your humor).

10. Actively work on social skills No special training or  theory will be as effective as good, solid authentic communication and listening — use your intuition and common sense –seek to understand first–let others know you value their openness and authentic communication.


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Leaders Take Time To Encourage Others

September 27, 2011 in Leadership development by Marc Michaelson | No comments

Leaders Take Time To Encourage Others

 

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“A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, “I am very discouraged. What should I do?” Soen replied, “Encourage others.” –Story from Essential Zen

Have you ever noticed that when you’re feeling discouraged, continuing to focus on your problems makes them worse? The reason is simple. When problems dominate your consciousness, they keep your energy in a negative place. They color everything you see. To turn your energy around, shift your attention.

A great way to do this is to encourage someone else. It takes you to a more positive place – and has a wonderful way of snapping you out of a funk.

Something we often tell our clients is that in addition to managing the activities of their organization, they’ve also got to manage the energy. As leaders, others take cues from them on how to think, act, and feel. “I’ve noticed that when I get down, everyone else gets down too,” a client recently commented. “It becomes an negative spiral around the office. And while there may be many ways to reverse it, I’ve found none more effective than simply taking the time to acknowledge and encourage others.”

The next time you feel discouraged about a certain problem:

1. Recognize you’re feeling discouraged (this is often the hardest step).

2. Physically move from where you are – take a walk.

3. Connect with someone who you know could use your help and lend an ear.

4. Help or encourage them.

5. Come back to your problem with a new perspective.

Questions to consider: How often to you encourage others? How do you do it?

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