by Mark Evenden at Developing People
A recent experience made me reflect on the impact that a leader’s behaviour can have on others. Like millions of others in the past week, I found myself stranded in a foreign country trying to get home, but unable to because all flights had been cancelled due to the volcanic explosion in Iceland.
I arrived at the airport to be informed that all flights to the UK had been cancelled, and I should report to the airline’s ticketing office for further information. I joined a queue of dejected travellers waiting to hear our fate.
We were clearly all very frustrated with the situation, as there seemed little hope that alternative arrangements could be quickly made. However, the gentleman in front of me decided to vent his own frustrations on the poor airline customer service representative. He clearly wanted her to know that he was a very “senior manager” with XYZ organisation, and should be treated as such. He was very curt and aggressive towards the airline representative, who to her credit remained calm throughout his tirade.
I wondered to myself if this “senior manager” really knew anything about leadership, whether he behaved in this way towards his staff, and whether he understood the impact that his behaviour might have on others?
While we all have a right to be angry, it should be directed at the right person for the right reason, at the right time and not simply as a vehicle for releasing our own pressures and frustrations. Consider a situation when this “senior manager” behaved in a similar way to a member of his staff. How would they react? What level of commitment would they give when a problem arose but it was “clocking off” time? How motivated would they be in the future to go the “extra mile”? How engaged will they be in delivering the organisations vision?
At the end of the day, people work for people, not for organisations, and the level of motivation, commitment and engagement that anyone gets from their staff is directly related to how they behave towards them. So before you “have a go” at a member of staff, are you angry with the right person for the right reason, or simply doing it to vent your own frustrations?
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Leadership Succession
By Mark Evenden at Developing People
Do you know who will be leading your business in the future? Do you have the people with the capability and potential you need? Or will you leave you leadership succession to chance?
Leadership succession is significant issue for many businesses, as too many do not have a systematic approach to succession planning and effectively leave it to chance. Succession planning is not just a business risk issue. In their research paper ‘Will Succession Planning Increase Shareholder Wealth?’ Shen, Cannella, and Albert, found that there is also evidence that that investors, employees and customers respond positively to companies who invest in planned succession management
Essentially the purpose of succession planning is to ensure that there is a ‘pipeline’ of people with the talent and capability to fulfil key roles and deliver the strategies of the business. Key roles are any role that drives a disproportionate share of the organisation’s performance. While traditionally, these roles are defined in terms of leadership roles, in reality these also include other roles such as technical, product or business development.
Succession planning is not a complex process. It starts with the organisation identifying what’s needed to deliver the strategy. For example:
• What are the ‘key’ roles needed to deliver the organisation’s strategic objectives?
• What capabilities do we need?
• Who might leave or retire?
• What gaps exist?
Once these questions have been answered the organisation can set about preparing specifications for roles and finding suitable people. Finding the right people means measuring and assessing a number of things, such as:
• Current levels of competence and performance.
• Technical skills - does the role require high, medium or low technical skill.
• Experience – for example industry and international experience.
• Cultural fit - personal style.
• Personal motivation.
• Potential.
Evidence to assess the above criteria can be collected from how a candidate has performed in their current/previous roles as well as through independent assessment. The advantage of using an independent assessment process is that decisions about who has/does not have the potential to fulfill a key role can be taken in a consistent manner across the business.
Once the business knows and understands the people it has and their own personal motivations, it can prepare a succession plan However, succession planning does not exist in isolation. For example, any gaps that exist may generate a requirement for recruitment. In addition, the performance of the successors will need to be regularly reviewed as well as appropriate development support provided such as leadership development or coaching to enable successors to reach their potential.
Ultimately, a highly tuned succession planning process cuts the risk to the future success of the business, succession is far too important an issue to leave it to chance.
Do you know who will be leading your business in the future? Do you have the people with the capability and potential you need? Or will you leave you leadership succession to chance?
Leadership succession is significant issue for many businesses, as too many do not have a systematic approach to succession planning and effectively leave it to chance. Succession planning is not just a business risk issue. In their research paper ‘Will Succession Planning Increase Shareholder Wealth?’ Shen, Cannella, and Albert, found that there is also evidence that that investors, employees and customers respond positively to companies who invest in planned succession management
Essentially the purpose of succession planning is to ensure that there is a ‘pipeline’ of people with the talent and capability to fulfil key roles and deliver the strategies of the business. Key roles are any role that drives a disproportionate share of the organisation’s performance. While traditionally, these roles are defined in terms of leadership roles, in reality these also include other roles such as technical, product or business development.
Succession planning is not a complex process. It starts with the organisation identifying what’s needed to deliver the strategy. For example:
• What are the ‘key’ roles needed to deliver the organisation’s strategic objectives?
• What capabilities do we need?
• Who might leave or retire?
• What gaps exist?
Once these questions have been answered the organisation can set about preparing specifications for roles and finding suitable people. Finding the right people means measuring and assessing a number of things, such as:
• Current levels of competence and performance.
• Technical skills - does the role require high, medium or low technical skill.
• Experience – for example industry and international experience.
• Cultural fit - personal style.
• Personal motivation.
• Potential.
Evidence to assess the above criteria can be collected from how a candidate has performed in their current/previous roles as well as through independent assessment. The advantage of using an independent assessment process is that decisions about who has/does not have the potential to fulfill a key role can be taken in a consistent manner across the business.
Once the business knows and understands the people it has and their own personal motivations, it can prepare a succession plan However, succession planning does not exist in isolation. For example, any gaps that exist may generate a requirement for recruitment. In addition, the performance of the successors will need to be regularly reviewed as well as appropriate development support provided such as leadership development or coaching to enable successors to reach their potential.
Ultimately, a highly tuned succession planning process cuts the risk to the future success of the business, succession is far too important an issue to leave it to chance.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Leadership and Ethics
To be a good leader, you need to have a strong sense of right and wrong. Leaders need to learn about ethics as part of their leadership development because they have real power in their organisations and a responsibility to execute it ethically.
Ultimately ethical awareness and decision making are important characteristics of leaders. However, many leadership development programmes focus on competence (i.e. developing specific skills such as strategic thinking) as opposed to developing a leader’s ethics and character. The business world is littered with people who were very competent but behaved extremely badly.
Leaders who visibly demonstrate ethical behaviour develop trust in their organisations. Trust leads to more effective working relationships, empowerment, individual responsibility and ultimately creates greater levels of commitment, engagement and performance.
To develop ethical behaviour, leaders need to understand how to demonstrate the importance of:
Teaching ethics can help leaders balance their personal concerns with professional and financial accomplishments.
At Developing People Ltd, we use discussions, scenarios and case studies to provide practical applications of ethics in business. This helps leaders to be more conscious of the ethics of their own business practices and to learn to assess their responsibilities as leaders and managers.
Ultimately ethical awareness and decision making are important characteristics of leaders. However, many leadership development programmes focus on competence (i.e. developing specific skills such as strategic thinking) as opposed to developing a leader’s ethics and character. The business world is littered with people who were very competent but behaved extremely badly.
Leaders who visibly demonstrate ethical behaviour develop trust in their organisations. Trust leads to more effective working relationships, empowerment, individual responsibility and ultimately creates greater levels of commitment, engagement and performance.
To develop ethical behaviour, leaders need to understand how to demonstrate the importance of:
- Integrity - doing what you say you will do
- Honesty - telling the truth
- Responsibility - fulfilling obligations of your role and accepting the consequences
- Respect - recognising diversity and worth of people
- Service - contributing to the welfare of others
- Justice - adherence to moral law, fairness and compassion
- Moral courage - willingness and commitment to do what is right despite uncertainty, risk and fear
Teaching ethics can help leaders balance their personal concerns with professional and financial accomplishments.
At Developing People Ltd, we use discussions, scenarios and case studies to provide practical applications of ethics in business. This helps leaders to be more conscious of the ethics of their own business practices and to learn to assess their responsibilities as leaders and managers.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Train your managers to manage sickness effectively
According to research, the first Monday in February is the day in the year when staff are traditionally most likely to take an unofficial day off work.
Peter Mooney, of the Employment Law Advisor Services (ELAS) conducted the research and believes that taking a ‘sickie’ is becoming easier as some employers are dispensing with the traditional requirement to phone in sick in favour of other means of communication such as text messaging.
According to the CBI, sickness is causing organisations big problems. For example, workers in the Heath and Social Care sector take an average of 12.6 days per year which is over double those taken by private sector employees (5.8 days per year).
The key to resolving this problem is for organisations to have clear sickness policies and procedures and to train their managers to deal with the issue.
Managers need to have management training to help them to understand the difference between short term and long term sickness absence.
For cases of short term absence managers need to ensure that they know how to conduct return to work interviews, to identify patterns in the individual’s absences (e.g. is it always on a Monday or Friday?) and to discuss with the individual whether there are any underlying reasons for the absence. If there are underlying reasons, managers need to now how to deal with them (e.g. by referring them to occupational health).
For cases of long term sickness, managers need to stay in contact with the employee and if appropriate, visit them at home, Managers should encourage those on long term sick to remain in contact with work and if appropriate drop into work for short periods to see their colleagues. They may also need to get an independent occupational health assessment made to determine whether the individual is fit for work.
When disciplinary issues arise, managers also need to have the skills, confidence and capability to discipline staff effectively.
Ultimately managers need to know how to manage both long term and short term sickness absence, and the best way for this to happen is for organisations to ensure their mangers receive the appropriate management training.
See original article here.
Peter Mooney, of the Employment Law Advisor Services (ELAS) conducted the research and believes that taking a ‘sickie’ is becoming easier as some employers are dispensing with the traditional requirement to phone in sick in favour of other means of communication such as text messaging.
According to the CBI, sickness is causing organisations big problems. For example, workers in the Heath and Social Care sector take an average of 12.6 days per year which is over double those taken by private sector employees (5.8 days per year).
The key to resolving this problem is for organisations to have clear sickness policies and procedures and to train their managers to deal with the issue.
Managers need to have management training to help them to understand the difference between short term and long term sickness absence.
For cases of short term absence managers need to ensure that they know how to conduct return to work interviews, to identify patterns in the individual’s absences (e.g. is it always on a Monday or Friday?) and to discuss with the individual whether there are any underlying reasons for the absence. If there are underlying reasons, managers need to now how to deal with them (e.g. by referring them to occupational health).
For cases of long term sickness, managers need to stay in contact with the employee and if appropriate, visit them at home, Managers should encourage those on long term sick to remain in contact with work and if appropriate drop into work for short periods to see their colleagues. They may also need to get an independent occupational health assessment made to determine whether the individual is fit for work.
When disciplinary issues arise, managers also need to have the skills, confidence and capability to discipline staff effectively.
Ultimately managers need to know how to manage both long term and short term sickness absence, and the best way for this to happen is for organisations to ensure their mangers receive the appropriate management training.
See original article here.
Monday, 11 January 2010
Identifying Talent in your Organisation
At Developing People Ltd, we help organisations to identify and assess their talented people. We believe that talent is a complex combination of an employee’s skills, knowledge, experience, behavior as well as other characteristics such as their personal preferences, values, and motivations. It is important to recognise that each organisation needs their own definition of what constitutes talent.
One way of thinking about talent is to consider it in terms of an individual’s potential. People with potential have by definition not reached their full potential. They have an ability to take on more complex, broader or senior roles to the one they are currently in. However, it is important to recognise that just because someone is currently a high performer they may or may not have potential. A high performer may consistently deliver results over time in relatively similar situations, but may struggle to deliver high performance under first-time, different, or non repeat situations. Such a person is clearly capable of fulfilling their current role effectively, but it is unlikely that they have the potential to fulfil a more complex or demanding role.
It is therefore important to clearly define the characteristics of someone with high potential. For example they may:
We have worked with Agusta Westland, (part of the Finmechanica Group), to help them define what constitutes talent as well as independently assessing over 100 of their managers to identify and validate their potential, motivations, strengths as well as development needs.
We provided the business with a summary report detailing the outcomes from the process identifying the high potentials and key development needs across the group. We also provided a detailed report for each participant detailing an assessment of their competencies against the job profile requirements, likely potential, key development needs and their performance benchmarked against managers from other organisations.
Our work helped the organisation to minimise the risk to its long term business by ensuring that there is a pipeline of people with the right skills, experience and behaviours to fulfil key positions in the future.
One way of thinking about talent is to consider it in terms of an individual’s potential. People with potential have by definition not reached their full potential. They have an ability to take on more complex, broader or senior roles to the one they are currently in. However, it is important to recognise that just because someone is currently a high performer they may or may not have potential. A high performer may consistently deliver results over time in relatively similar situations, but may struggle to deliver high performance under first-time, different, or non repeat situations. Such a person is clearly capable of fulfilling their current role effectively, but it is unlikely that they have the potential to fulfil a more complex or demanding role.
It is therefore important to clearly define the characteristics of someone with high potential. For example they may:
- Demonstrate superior leadership traits beyond their current work role.
- Learn very quickly and have the ability to change/modify their behaviour.
- Manage ambiguous circumstances extremely effectively.
- Have significant impact and influence outside of own work area.
- Think strategically across the whole of the business/organisation and not just about their own function
- Deliver superior performance under first-time, different, or not repeat situations with limited guidance.
We have worked with Agusta Westland, (part of the Finmechanica Group), to help them define what constitutes talent as well as independently assessing over 100 of their managers to identify and validate their potential, motivations, strengths as well as development needs.
We provided the business with a summary report detailing the outcomes from the process identifying the high potentials and key development needs across the group. We also provided a detailed report for each participant detailing an assessment of their competencies against the job profile requirements, likely potential, key development needs and their performance benchmarked against managers from other organisations.
Our work helped the organisation to minimise the risk to its long term business by ensuring that there is a pipeline of people with the right skills, experience and behaviours to fulfil key positions in the future.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
How do you get middle managers engaged in a culture change programme?
Developing People work with the leadership teams in many organisations, most of which are wrestling with the need to change.
This drive for change can come from a variety of sources both internal and external. Internal drivers can be a new vision and strategies for the business, new service approaches or new products, the need to up-skill managers and staff, or the need to replace employees who have left or for management succession planning purposes. External drivers can derive from marketplace changes, new technology, increased competition, Globalisation, changes in Legislation or relevant Regulations and last but not least the effects of the recession on business trading and finances.
Regardless of what these drivers for change are, they are usually first understood and articulated by the top leadership team in the organisation. After all it is a key part of their role and responsibility to develop their vision for future and the strategies and action plans that will produce the desired change. However the top team cannot bring about these changes by themselves and they need to enlist the support and commitment of all employees in the organisation - starting with the middle managers below them.
Recognising this need is a key first step and then comes the challenge of getting the middle management team on board.
The sorts of stages that the top team need to take the middle management through are these.
- Awareness of the need to change
- self-awareness of where they stand and their role in this change process
- an understanding of what, why, where, when and how things need to change
- involvement in supporting, challenging and agreeing the core changes
- commitment to playing their part in communicating and implementing these changes
- drawing up the change plans and timetable
- starting the journey of actioning and implementing these changes whilst bringing the rest of the employees and key stakeholders "on board".
This may all sound logical and straight forward but successfully implementing the change programme is far from being easy.
Friday, 4 December 2009
Developing a leadership team for business growth and performance.
Developing People were recently asked to help an established leadership team to assess and develop their management and leadership skills in order to help them step up to successfully take on the next stage of business growth.
The business is SE Electronics, a Global Distributor of high quality branded microphones and sound equipment. This UK based business has exclusive sourcing and distribution rights to market leading sound equipment. Manufacturing in China, SE Electronics is now broadening out its distribution network into the huge US, European and Far East markets.
The business was founded in 2002 and the senior leadership team comprises 3 young Directors, two of whom have been with the business right from the start. All three are passionate about music and have moved on from performing in bands and sound production to get deeply involved in the technical side of sound projection and production. They love the industry, they love the product and they are great friends. They have also been successful in growing the business to its current level, mainly through their passion, hard work and native intelligence but they recognise that this experience is probably not enough to ensure them success in achieving the business growth that they desire.
In approaching Developing People Ltd, SE Electronics were seeking help to achieve their aim of building their leadership and management skills and effectiveness as the executive team in order to achieve their business growth.
We did this through the process of:
The top team are keen to share this information with each other and to agree amongst themselves their roles and relationships in the business and the future vision, strategy, objectives and implementation plans to achieve their aim.
Further down the line the work we do with SE Electronics could also cover:
The business is SE Electronics, a Global Distributor of high quality branded microphones and sound equipment. This UK based business has exclusive sourcing and distribution rights to market leading sound equipment. Manufacturing in China, SE Electronics is now broadening out its distribution network into the huge US, European and Far East markets.
The business was founded in 2002 and the senior leadership team comprises 3 young Directors, two of whom have been with the business right from the start. All three are passionate about music and have moved on from performing in bands and sound production to get deeply involved in the technical side of sound projection and production. They love the industry, they love the product and they are great friends. They have also been successful in growing the business to its current level, mainly through their passion, hard work and native intelligence but they recognise that this experience is probably not enough to ensure them success in achieving the business growth that they desire.
In approaching Developing People Ltd, SE Electronics were seeking help to achieve their aim of building their leadership and management skills and effectiveness as the executive team in order to achieve their business growth.
We did this through the process of:
- assessing the strengths, weaknesses and personal development areas of the 3 Directors
- reviewing and guiding them on any skill gaps, role, relationship and communication improvements.
The top team are keen to share this information with each other and to agree amongst themselves their roles and relationships in the business and the future vision, strategy, objectives and implementation plans to achieve their aim.
Further down the line the work we do with SE Electronics could also cover:
- business vision, strategy and plans
- implementation of this business strategy.
- development of an effective organisation structure and culture for the business.
- selection, development, motivation and building of an effective team and individuals to support business growth.
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Being a Leader in tough times
Over the next few months, many organisations may face difficult times, but as a leader within your organisation what can you do to ensure your firm remains successful? The following are a number of tips that will help.
1. Don’t be fearful. To often individuals and organisations become paralysed by merchants of “gloom and doom”. However, the reality is that life still goes on; people and businesses still have needs. So its time to focus on your organisations uniqueness and adapt your offering to outsmart your competitors.
2. Focus on cash flow. The liquidity crisis has highlighted the importance of cash – if you have it you won’t go bust, so as a leader it’s vital that you are really on top of your cash position.
3. Avoid simply slashing costs. While it is prudent to review costs during difficult times, indiscriminate cutting of costs across the business are more likely to damage customer relationships and ultimately damage the business in the long term.
4. Don’t become internally focussed. As a leader it is easy to become distracted by internal issues such as restructuring, reorganisations and cost reductions. However, it is vital that you also give time to your key customers, their needs and generating as much revenue as possible.
5. Remember – you need people! Try to avoid making redundant people that are vital to the future success of your organisation. In addition, simply putting a freeze on all recruitment can lead to a shortage of good people in the future.
6. Keep people motivated. While employees are less likely to leave their jobs during difficult times, it doesn’t mean that they will be any more motivated. Identify ways that your staff can be more empowered, take greater responsibility and use their initiative more.
7. Support your customers. Understand what difficulties your customers may have. How can you help them? For example, what innovative pricing or payment terms can you agree on? Support will breed customer loyalty for the future.
Finally, it is also important to recognise that not all areas of the economy will be hit in the same way. Clearly anything related to domestic property and banking have been hit hard, but there will be other areas in both private and public sectors that will not be affected in the same way.
1. Don’t be fearful. To often individuals and organisations become paralysed by merchants of “gloom and doom”. However, the reality is that life still goes on; people and businesses still have needs. So its time to focus on your organisations uniqueness and adapt your offering to outsmart your competitors.
2. Focus on cash flow. The liquidity crisis has highlighted the importance of cash – if you have it you won’t go bust, so as a leader it’s vital that you are really on top of your cash position.
3. Avoid simply slashing costs. While it is prudent to review costs during difficult times, indiscriminate cutting of costs across the business are more likely to damage customer relationships and ultimately damage the business in the long term.
4. Don’t become internally focussed. As a leader it is easy to become distracted by internal issues such as restructuring, reorganisations and cost reductions. However, it is vital that you also give time to your key customers, their needs and generating as much revenue as possible.
5. Remember – you need people! Try to avoid making redundant people that are vital to the future success of your organisation. In addition, simply putting a freeze on all recruitment can lead to a shortage of good people in the future.
6. Keep people motivated. While employees are less likely to leave their jobs during difficult times, it doesn’t mean that they will be any more motivated. Identify ways that your staff can be more empowered, take greater responsibility and use their initiative more.
7. Support your customers. Understand what difficulties your customers may have. How can you help them? For example, what innovative pricing or payment terms can you agree on? Support will breed customer loyalty for the future.
Finally, it is also important to recognise that not all areas of the economy will be hit in the same way. Clearly anything related to domestic property and banking have been hit hard, but there will be other areas in both private and public sectors that will not be affected in the same way.
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
What can you do when there is a conflict of leadership in the executive team?
This conflict on leadership can and does arise from time to time in senior teams in organisations when a new member joins the team or when a new leader is appointed and the leader and a team member do not get on. This can be for any number of reasons such as different views about:
- the organisation’s products, services or marketplace
- the future vision, direction, business or financial strategy
- the key people, their deployment or potential.
However the other area where this difficulty can typically arise is in the leadership style and behaviours demonstrated by the leader versus their new team member and a difference of opinion about how this business should be led and managed. Quite often there is a large element of the view being taken by the subordinate manager that “I could do a better job” of running this organisation than my boss is doing – but they rarely if ever say this out loud – or that “things were running much better in the old days before Pat took over”.
When considering what to do about this, it does depend on where you positioned in this debate. If you are the leader and the boss then you could decide not to tolerate such dissent from within your team and request or demand that the team member stops complaining right now, gets on with it, gets into line with your style and expectations or moves on and out. (I have rarely seen a CEO in a substantial organisation take such decisive early action but it can and does happen occasionally).
More often today’s leaders will try to work it out with their dissenting manager and look for a change of style, an accommodation from them over time and hope for an improving relationship in the medium term. They may also feel able to look at their own style and approach.
If you are the team member who is dissatisfied with your leader's style then you need to decide if you can tolerate it and live with it or whether you or they can and will change. Of course you will recognise that the only person whose behaviour you can directly change is your own, and that by the definition more of the power and status in the team will reside with your boss. So expecting your boss to change radically is not likely option - why should they?
The best line for both parties is to find an agreed path where both acknowledge the differences in each others styles and preferences and agree to respect these differences and to work to increase their understanding of each other and to reduce the impact of their styles. This process can often be helped by the support of an objective, external facilitator who brings out these style differences and people's strengths in a positive way.
Monday, 14 July 2008
Retaining Talent
Retaining talent is a serious issue for many organisations. Each time a talented manager or member of staff leaves, they take valuable knowledge an expertise with them. But why do some organisations struggle to keep their talent, and why do talented people become disillusioned and leave?
One of the main reasons is that talent and their managers are often striving to climb what appears to them as the same ladder to reach higher levels in the organisation. The consequence of this is that they see themselves as “competitors” because they feel their personal career interests are in direct conflict. If the manager then resorts to “blocking“ behaviour, the talented individual quickly becomes disillusioned and leaves.
The second main reason why talent leaves is because they become “turned off” by their line manager. Talented people want stretch opportunities to prove themselves but managers can perceive that giving their staff stretch opportunities to learn and develop is a very risky business. As they are ultimately responsible for what the talent delivers, they do not want to risk their own reputation or career because a particular talent has failed to deliver. The result of this is that the talented individual feels that they are not stretched, they become frustrated and leave.
So how can organisations prevent this from happening? The key is to have a visible talent management programme that is owned by senior executives where these issues can be highlighted and dealt with. In addition, managers need to be given the skills to manage their talent appropriately and helped to understand the benefits of having talent for themselves, their team and ultimately the organisations success.
For more information contact www.developingpeople.co.ukMonday, 7 April 2008
Continuing your success as a Leader
Being a successful leader with valuable leadership skills can a be difficult role to maintain. Success can be a step towards stress and burnout as the pressure of being a high achiever drives us to try even harder. Here are a few ideas to help maintain balance and survive your own success.
1. Learn to relax. Give yourself a break and take time out to relax and enjoy your success – you deserve it!
2. Know your limitations. It’s important to remember that success doesn’t mean perfection. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to be good at everything can water down your impact.
3. Don’t be paralysed by indecision. Decisions lead to consequences and action, but not making decisions will lead to inactivity and organisation paralysis.
4. Give yourself a pat on the back. Leading a team can be a lonely experience and so it’s important to validate yourself. Note down your achievements and read them whenever you can to reinforce successful behaviour.
5. Learn to fail. At some point you will take a “fall” – this is inevitable. However, have confidence in your abilities, learn from it and move on.
6. Be a mentor. Establish yourself as a coach or mentor to others. Some may be jealous of your success as a leader, but by helping them to achieve will reduce their negativity towards you.
7. Don’t micro manage. Your success as a leader will not last if you over control your team’s tasks. It is vital to trust other people to do what you used to do. Delegate and give them freedom to achieve.
8. Have a laugh. A sense of humour is very important, particularly in difficult or stressful times. Being able to smile lifts others and shows your self deprecating style.
Maintaining success as a leader is difficult, but achievable by following these few simple tips. If you wish to find out more about how to be a successful leader try the following books:
- The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner.
- Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffery Somerfield and Andrew Ward.
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
The Role of Leadership Assessment
How can an organisation identify its future leaders today?
- Personality trails
- Behaviour and interactions with others
- Experience
- Self motivation
- Ability to learn.
Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching
Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training
Friday, 23 November 2007
So what are the benefits of Management Training?
Businesses that invest in management and leadership training and development will find that they are a range of financial and non financial benefits to be gained from it. For example recent research has demonstrated that:
- Firms with high levels of HR practices demonstrate up to 200% greater profit per employee (1, 2)
- Sustained management & leadership development improves organisational performance (3)
This arises from the fact that good leaders and managers have the skills to obtain ‘discretionary’ effort from their staff, which means that their staff will go the extra mile for example to win new business, give outstanding service to a customer, or to ensure that costs are properly controlled.
In addition, there are the real benefits in terms of reducing turnover of staff. People want to work for a good boss and are less likely to be tempted away by a few extra pounds if they feel that they get what they need from their work and their manager. The cost of a new hire can be anywhere between 1-3 times their annual salary by the time all of the associated costs are taken into account. These costs can include:
• The cost of training the organisation has invested in the leaver.
• The cost of lost productivity while the position is vacant.
• The cost of externally advertising the job.
• Recruitment agency costs. (these can be as high as 20-30% of annual compensation).
• Costs of internal or external assessments
• Costs associated with any external medicals, checks and other references.
• Costs associated with the time taken for a new employee to become ‘fully productive’.
There are also real benefits for the individual in terms of improving their own ability to manage conflicting demands on their time, improve performance of their team and as a consequence gain greater satisfaction from their work.
There is also evidence of less direct business benefits. Regular management training and development is seen as a sign of professionalism and helps to create a positive image for the business in its market place, which is an important selling point when recruiting new employees.
Whatever the benefits, it is important that an organisation is clear about the objectives of any management or leadership training and development. Ultimately they should ask themselves, ‘What is it that I want to see differently from this person or group of people?’ In this way it is possible to monitor the impact of training on individual performance and also on the company's bottom line.
References:
(1) Smarter Ways of Working Professor D Guest. Sector Skills Development Agency 2006.
(2) Commonalities and Contradictions in HRM and Performance Research. Boselie, Dietz and Boon. Human Research Journal, 15, 3,67-94. 2005
(3) Management Development Works: The Evidence. Chartered Management Institute January 2005.
- Firms with high levels of HR practices demonstrate up to 200% greater profit per employee (1, 2)
- Sustained management & leadership development improves organisational performance (3)
This arises from the fact that good leaders and managers have the skills to obtain ‘discretionary’ effort from their staff, which means that their staff will go the extra mile for example to win new business, give outstanding service to a customer, or to ensure that costs are properly controlled.
In addition, there are the real benefits in terms of reducing turnover of staff. People want to work for a good boss and are less likely to be tempted away by a few extra pounds if they feel that they get what they need from their work and their manager. The cost of a new hire can be anywhere between 1-3 times their annual salary by the time all of the associated costs are taken into account. These costs can include:
• The cost of training the organisation has invested in the leaver.
• The cost of lost productivity while the position is vacant.
• The cost of externally advertising the job.
• Recruitment agency costs. (these can be as high as 20-30% of annual compensation).
• Costs of internal or external assessments
• Costs associated with any external medicals, checks and other references.
• Costs associated with the time taken for a new employee to become ‘fully productive’.
There are also real benefits for the individual in terms of improving their own ability to manage conflicting demands on their time, improve performance of their team and as a consequence gain greater satisfaction from their work.
There is also evidence of less direct business benefits. Regular management training and development is seen as a sign of professionalism and helps to create a positive image for the business in its market place, which is an important selling point when recruiting new employees.
Whatever the benefits, it is important that an organisation is clear about the objectives of any management or leadership training and development. Ultimately they should ask themselves, ‘What is it that I want to see differently from this person or group of people?’ In this way it is possible to monitor the impact of training on individual performance and also on the company's bottom line.
References:
(1) Smarter Ways of Working Professor D Guest. Sector Skills Development Agency 2006.
(2) Commonalities and Contradictions in HRM and Performance Research. Boselie, Dietz and Boon. Human Research Journal, 15, 3,67-94. 2005
(3) Management Development Works: The Evidence. Chartered Management Institute January 2005.
 | Leadership Development | Developing Leaders | Programme Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training |
Management Training – The Essentials
Most people think that they are a good driver, whether they are or not, and the same can be said for many managers. Too many managers think that they are good at their job and able to motivate and get the best from their staff, when the reality is often very different.
Unlike driving, where you have to take a test to demonstrate your competence before being allowed to drive, anyone can be appointed to a management position without any formal management training or development.
So what are the essentials for success? The following is a guide to the types of skills needed to be an effective manager:
1) Communicate where the business is going. If you want your staff to be committed to
your organization, they need to know where they are going and why. People need to understand how their work contributes to the company's success. After all, having meaning and purpose in your work is highly motivating and rewarding. The ability to communicate effectively is one of the essential skills that all managers need.
2) Set clear expectations. Be clear with your staff both in terms of ‘what’ needs to be achieved and ‘how’ it should be achieved. Setting clear goals and targets with staff can help them understand what needs to be done and keep them focused. However, it is also important to talk to them about ‘how’ they should go about achieving their goals. For example it is not acceptable to achieve a target at any cost.
3) Regularly review performance. Employees need regular feedback about their performance to improve their skills and grow professionally. Make sure you regularly sit down with your staff (at least 6/7 times per year), to discuss with them what they do will and identify with them what they should do differently.
4) Deal with problems immediately. Stay in tune to your staff so you can be proactive and resolve situations before they escalate. If you notice a change in an employee's work habits, performance or behaviour, try to get to resolve the problem before it starts affecting the rest of your team.
5) Recognize people’s efforts. Everybody appreciates being recognized for a job well done. Monetary rewards aren't the only way to thank employees for a job well done. In fact the easiest way to recognize someone’s contribution is simply saying "thank you" — simple words but too often overlooked.
6) Delegate work. Don’t over control your staff’s work. The more you control others work it will only encourage behavior that necessitates control. Most people want the freedom to complete a task in the way that they think is best.
7) Be a coach and mentor. As a manager, one of the greatest things that you can give an employee is by sharing your knowledge and experience. Showing your employees firsthand how you deal a task, what works and what doesn’t is far more effective than just talking them through it.
8) Be firm but fair. For example, family emergencies other unplanned events will always arise, and its part of a managers role to show compassion by being flexible with work hours and time off so their staff can tend to important matters. Employees always appreciate a sympathetic boss, and as long as your work and business doesn’t suffer, make every effort to accommodate workers who have special needs.
Getting the ‘basics’ or ‘essentials’ right are critical to the success of any manager, and these elements should also provide the basic framework for all management training.
At the end of the day – you have to put in time an effort to be a manager. Too often managers forget their ‘management duties’ and concentrate on completing their own tasks. However, employees depend on their manager’s strength, guidance and support especially during tough times and this takes time, time to listen, time to discuss and time to coach.
Unlike driving, where you have to take a test to demonstrate your competence before being allowed to drive, anyone can be appointed to a management position without any formal management training or development.
So what are the essentials for success? The following is a guide to the types of skills needed to be an effective manager:
1) Communicate where the business is going. If you want your staff to be committed to
your organization, they need to know where they are going and why. People need to understand how their work contributes to the company's success. After all, having meaning and purpose in your work is highly motivating and rewarding. The ability to communicate effectively is one of the essential skills that all managers need.
2) Set clear expectations. Be clear with your staff both in terms of ‘what’ needs to be achieved and ‘how’ it should be achieved. Setting clear goals and targets with staff can help them understand what needs to be done and keep them focused. However, it is also important to talk to them about ‘how’ they should go about achieving their goals. For example it is not acceptable to achieve a target at any cost.
3) Regularly review performance. Employees need regular feedback about their performance to improve their skills and grow professionally. Make sure you regularly sit down with your staff (at least 6/7 times per year), to discuss with them what they do will and identify with them what they should do differently.
4) Deal with problems immediately. Stay in tune to your staff so you can be proactive and resolve situations before they escalate. If you notice a change in an employee's work habits, performance or behaviour, try to get to resolve the problem before it starts affecting the rest of your team.
5) Recognize people’s efforts. Everybody appreciates being recognized for a job well done. Monetary rewards aren't the only way to thank employees for a job well done. In fact the easiest way to recognize someone’s contribution is simply saying "thank you" — simple words but too often overlooked.
6) Delegate work. Don’t over control your staff’s work. The more you control others work it will only encourage behavior that necessitates control. Most people want the freedom to complete a task in the way that they think is best.
7) Be a coach and mentor. As a manager, one of the greatest things that you can give an employee is by sharing your knowledge and experience. Showing your employees firsthand how you deal a task, what works and what doesn’t is far more effective than just talking them through it.
8) Be firm but fair. For example, family emergencies other unplanned events will always arise, and its part of a managers role to show compassion by being flexible with work hours and time off so their staff can tend to important matters. Employees always appreciate a sympathetic boss, and as long as your work and business doesn’t suffer, make every effort to accommodate workers who have special needs.
Getting the ‘basics’ or ‘essentials’ right are critical to the success of any manager, and these elements should also provide the basic framework for all management training.
At the end of the day – you have to put in time an effort to be a manager. Too often managers forget their ‘management duties’ and concentrate on completing their own tasks. However, employees depend on their manager’s strength, guidance and support especially during tough times and this takes time, time to listen, time to discuss and time to coach.
| Management Training Course | Management Development Programme Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training |
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