Leading People

Leading is not just being in command

If we understand leadership from personal attributes, we could understand that the leader is born as a leader. It would be that person who knows how to guide and lead the group, organize, and solve the problems that arise and who also approve of the rest of the people as such.

 

If we talk about leading by its position, we will have a leader who “becomes” which is going to shape with the passing of time and experiences, such as going to occupy high positions.

 

When we refer to a leader for his behavior, we could look at those aspects which devote attention to their actions.

 

Leadership and management are not the same things, but they go hand in hand. Leaders inspire and motivate people, focusing on people and setting new directions for a group to follow. Managers plan, organize, coordinate, and facilitate, organizing people, materials, and budgets to pursue objectives. You can be a leader and a manager in the same role.

Good leaders will have a strong vision and an ability to influence and unite people behind them, which makes them valuable to an organization. A leader can be radical and inspire change and development. Successful leaders know which approach and tools are best for each situation and they amend their behavior after careful analysis of themselves, their team members, the organization, and other outside factors.

To be a good leader you need to know and apply:

 

Different leadership styles

How to coach to improve performance

How to develop your team’s culture

The importance of diversity and inclusion and what you can contribute to it

How to create your unique style as a leader and adapt your style depending on the situation.

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Leadership Styles

“What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility.”

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leader

•  This article dives into the theory and technical aspects of the model.

Fiedler’s Contingency Model

•  What is your natural leadership style?

This article explores Fiedler’s Contingency Model and looks at how it can highlight the most effective leadership style to use in different situations.

JOHN ADAIR’S ACTION-CENTRED LEADERSHIP

READ ON TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS MODEL FOR TEAM LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT.

COACHING FOR PERFORMANCE

CMI Knowledge Bank – Coaching for Improved Performance

Coaching is a two-way process where the team member takes an active part and the coach acts as a facilitator.

•  This eWorkout will explore the universal, everyday behaviors that make the biggest difference both within and outside of coaching conversations.

 

12 Innovative Tools and Techniques Every Coach Can Benefit From

•  Here are some of the most innovative coaching tools and processes wholeheartedly recommended by 12 members of the Forbes Coaches Council.

Want To Get Great At Something? Get A Coach! 

 

“How do we improve in the face of complexity? Atul Gawande has studied this question with a surgeon’s precision. He shares what he’s found to be the key: having a good coach to provide a more accurate picture of our reality, to instill positive habits of thinking, and to break our actions down and then help us build them back up again. “It’s not how good you are now; it’s how good you’re going to be that really matters,” Gawande says.”

Diversity and Inclusion

What is the difference between equality and diversity? Find out in this article by the General Assembly.

 

What’s the Difference Between Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity?

This article from the General Assembly contains some thought exercises to really provoke inquiry into this topic. Have a pen and paper (actual or virtual) at the ready!

 

No Holding Back: Breaking Down the Barriers to Diversity

This 20-page report from PwC looks at why diversity in all its forms – from gender, generation, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability to people with a broader range of skills, backgrounds, and experiences – is increasingly important to business success and how your organization can harness the full competitive potential. It poses some pertinent questions for all organizations to consider.

 

Acas: Equality and Discrimination – Creating Fair Workplaces

The Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (Acas) is a public body of the UK government. Its purpose is to improve organizations and working life through the promotion and facilitation of strong industrial relations practices. Its website is a goldmine of useful information!

HOW TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE

 

“Imagine a workplace where people of all colors and races are able to climb every rung of the corporate ladder — and where the lessons we learn about diversity at work actually transform the things we do, think, and say outside the office. How do we get there? Speechwriter and Exec Comms Manager Janet Stovall share her thoughts in this TED Talk.”

Developing Team Culture

Understand Handy’s Four Types of Organisational Cultures.

 

•  This is a quick guide to the types of organisational culture and the impact it has on team performance.

Organisational culture is a set of unwritten rules that will affect how employees and other stakeholders behave and perform.

 

Building a High-Performance Culture

 

The increasing recognition of the importance of culture in creating sustained high performance raises important questions: What is organisational culture? Why is it important? And, most importantly, how can you make your culture conscious? In other words, how do you measure it?

 

Handy’s Four Types of Organisational Cultures

 

This chapter of a management course from the OU presents the four types in detail, with useful graphics and space for reflection.

Organisational Culture 

 

This video explains the four classifications of organizational culture identified by Charles Handy and examines the difference between person, task, role, and power cultures.

Duration: 12m26s.

PERFORMANCE COACHING

“The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what they want to be done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Build trust

Psychological safety

For a productive coaching conversation, we need to build an environment that is honest, transparent, and trusting, creating psychological safety.

Frame it

Promote work as an opportunity for learning, not a task to be executed

We’re all human

Share the mistakes you’ve made, and what you learned from them

Take a back seat

Invite innovative ideas and solutions by letting your coachee drive the agenda

Focus

Listening well is a skill that every successful coach needs to master. Here are four top tips to help you achieve exactly that.

 

Use verbal cues to demonstrate listening

Focus on the coachee, maintaining eye contact

Summarise what you’ve heard appropriately and sensitively

Reflect back on tangible examples of success

Explore

Use scaling to focus on what we are already doing well to build confidence and identify how to improve (0 = couldn’t be worse, 10 = couldn’t be better).

 

|——–|——-|——-|——-|——-|——-|——-|——-|——-|——-|

0          01       02       03       04       05       06       07       08       09       10

 

Where are you now?

How do you know?

What does 10 out of 10 look like?

What are you already doing well that means your score isn’t one point lower?

What would be different if you scored yourself one point higher?

Progress

Goal setting

Ask them to set goals and commit to specific actions following the conversation.

Goals should be specific and challenging.

Commit to action

Ask your coachee to rate their commitment to the goal out of 5.

If it’s less than 5, ask them what their doubts are. This can uncover important issues they haven’t raised already.

Roadblock ahead

Looking ahead helps us plan for obstacles to success.

Ask them what might get in the way of achieving their goal, and how they’ll manage this.

5 TIPS FOR SUCCESS

  1. Review your processes to emphasize progress and minimize wasted work.
  2. Help your team connect more to have a positive impact on each other.
  3. Use strengths-focused coaching to develop more helping behaviors.
  4. Share stories to regularly connect people to the impact of their work.
  5. Work with other managers to develop a positive culture of purpose across the business.

LEADING PEOPLE

Make it matter

 

  • Three ways to make it matter
  • Making daily progress
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Highlight progress:

 

  • Give regular feedback that focuses on positives
  • Review goals regularly, highlighting their achievements and ensuring that goals are still stretching
  • Make it public, encouraging the team to celebrate individuals’ success
  • Share success stories regularly with the team

Reduce wasted work:

 

  • Clarify goals, roles, and responsibilities for each project
  • Communicate changing circumstances around projects ASAP with all project members
  • Encourage progress updates from your team on the work you have delegated
  • Learn from every opportunity, drawing insights from projects where the focus has shifted.

Helping others

Strengthen peer networks

Provide opportunities for helping each other, thanking each other, and sharing the impact it had.

Identify obstacles

The spot where rules, processes, or systems are in place that threatens collaboration. Replace them, where you can, with opportunities for helping.

Help from the start

At the beginning of projects, signpost the areas where a particular person might help, and loop this person in from the beginning.

 Giving back

Seek out success stories

Find them from all areas across the organization and share them with your team.

Find out what drives your team members

Use this to identify the right part of the wider impact to inspire them.

Make the wider impact an everyday topic

Connect their everyday work to the wider impact and normalize talking about it.

Helping others

Strengthen peer networks

Provide opportunities for helping each other, thanking each other, and sharing the impact it had.

Identify obstacles

A spot where rules, processes, or systems are in place that threatens collaboration. Replace them, where you can, with opportunities for helping.

Help from the start

At the beginning of projects, signpost the areas where a particular person might help, and loop this person in from the beginning.

Giving back

Seek out success stories

Find them from all areas across the organization and share them with your team.

Find out what drives your team members

Use this to identify the right part of the wider impact to inspire them.

Make the wider impact an everyday topic

Connect their everyday work to the wider impact and normalize talking about it.

Being in it together

1 – Knowing the shared  goal

2 – Create a line of sight

At the start of a project, ensure everyone knows how their role aligns with team goals.

A – Embed team goals

Define your success as a team, incorporating this into individuals’ goals.

B – Champion success

Publicly acknowledge people’s contributions towards achieving those team goals.

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5 Tips for success

• Acknowledge coaching as part of your role as a manager.

• Build trust: create a safe environment and align expectations.

• Focus: give your undivided attention to the coaching conversation.

•  Put techniques in place to help you focus.

• Explore: dig deeper into the coachee’s situation and perspective.

• Progress: ensure the conversation has practical outcomes.

find out more

•  Courageous conversations

•  Goal setting

•  Great feedback

•  Shaping futures

 

Books

 

•  Starr, J. (2016). The coaching manual

•  Whitmore, J. (2002). Coaching for performance

•  Gawande, A. (2007). Better: A surgeon’s notes on performance