8
jan
0
leadership_styles

Looking at the Different Leadership Styles

Posted by Leadership, Leadership Style AssessmentNo Comments

Leadership is the process of influencing others to work toward predetermined goals. As a leader, knowing which of the leadership styles you are will help you navigate complex work situations with ease. Style is defined as the way a person usually behaves when he or she is able to do things their own way. If you put leadership and style together, leadership style is created: a person’s unique way of influencing others to work toward goals.

The most effective leaders adapt their leadership styles for each situation they encounter. They need to know when to be flexible, when to negotiate, and when to be firm. All styles have a degree of assertiveness and expressiveness. Assertiveness is how a person tries to influence other people’s thoughts and actions. Expressiveness is how a person displays their emotions when interacting with others.

Four Types of Leadership

There are four types of leadership styles. Some leaders can encompass more than one type – and people can also have varying degrees of assertiveness and expressiveness within the styles as well. The four types of leadership styles are:

  1. Direct – Direct leaders have high assertiveness and low expressiveness. They lead by taking charge.
  2. Spirited – Spirited leaders have high assertiveness and high expressiveness. They lead by inspiring.
  3. Considerate – Considerate leaders have low assertiveness and high expressiveness. They lead by building group harmony.
  4. Systematic – Systematic leaders have low assertiveness and low expressiveness. They lead by planning carefully.

Building Your Leadership Skills

Discovering what your leadership style is and how to apply it in certain situations is important. Develop your style with HRDQ’s webinar “Leadership Styles: Measuring and Refining Your Skills” on Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. EST. Attendees will learn how to identify their personal leadership style, gain tips on how to capitalize on style strengths, discover how to minimize style trouble spots, and see how to use their personal style to interact most effectively with others. Register today!

Further your leadership knowledge with “What’s My Leadership Style?” product by HRDQ. The tool is a leadership style assessment where learners are given 20 pairs of actions relating to leadership behavior. The scoring shows people’s preferred leadership style: direct, spirited, considerate, or systematic. “What’s My Leadership Style?” is ideal for training anyone who is in a leadership role or needs to influence others towards achieving a goal.

20
dec
0
Team_effectiveness_webinar

The Importance of Team Effectiveness

Posted by UncategorizedNo Comments

Nearly every workplace requires employees to be part of a team. Each team member needs to bring forth their best efforts to communicate effectively and work together, which hopefully leads to improved team effectiveness and more success. If a team doesn’t work well together, it can impact the entire organization.

Unfortunately, sometimes teams simply do not work efficiently. There can be “blockages” which cause issues leading to failures in projects. If teammates don’t get along, the entire team suffers – deadlines are missed, arguments take place, and stress builds. When there is a problem in a team, the issue should be addressed by the manager or colleagues immediately to prevent any further fallout. But oftentimes the problems are ignored and tension begins to build. However, if a team knows about the most important qualities they should possess, it’s easier to prevent blockages and grow together.

There are five areas that should be acknowledged when working as a team:

Mission, vision, and goals – The team should have a strong vision of the future and the organization should have a clearly defined and well-communicated mission statement and purpose. Plans are created as a team and work is managed against the goals or objectives.

Team roles – Work should be organized to support the team’s goals, and each team member should have a clearly defined role. If everyone knows what their own responsibilities are, the team can function well and move smoothly through complex projects.

Operating processes – Teams should be aware of the organization’s operating processes. Policies and procedures are used to manage the work or operations of the group, like problem solving, conflict management and decision making.

Interpersonal relationships – Team members needs to be able to work well with each other. Trust is key in a team where each person is responsible for both their own tasks and the achievement of the team as a whole.

Inter-team relationships – Teams also need to work with other teams in an organization. When teams are competitive or hostile it is a drain on the entire company and this often leads to serious failures. Teams must work cooperatively and collaboratively in order for an organization to succeed.

Why Work to Improve Team Effectiveness?

One of the biggest priorities for teammates should be the effectiveness of the team itself. Each team member should know what their responsibilities are, and communicate with others when there are any issues – and they should also keep the team’s objectives and goals in mind at all times. If a team works well together, there are less problems in the organization overall. The team can handle any task thrown their way and this leads to a better bottom line.

To learn how to improve team effectiveness, attend HRDQ’s webinar “Team Effectiveness: What is it Anyway?” On Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. EST. Attendees will learn about the HRDQ product Team Effectiveness Profile, and discover how to identify issues that block effectiveness, how to reduce or eliminate problems that can drain a group’s energy, and how to maximize the group’s productive efforts. Register today!

17
dec
0
diversity_in_the_workplace

Diversity is Essential for a Successful Workplace

Posted by DiversityNo Comments

Multiple studies have revealed that a diverse workplace yields more success — with happier employees and better finances. The hiring costs that result from high turnover can prevent company success. Devaluing and excluding employees because they are different places limitations on their contributions and ability to grow, as well as preventing the company from thriving.

According to Glassdoor, 57 percent of employees think their companies should be more diverse. And at its best, diversity is a business strategy that has been shown to increase an organization’s ability to achieve better bottom-line performance and sustain its growth and prosperity. It is most effective when it’s focused on increasing opportunity for personal and organizational achievement.

Appreciating diversity is important. Good managers will try to build a diverse team and encourage them to thrive. They know that it will benefit the team as a whole. According to a McKinsey study, racially diverse companies outperform others by 35 percent. This is because a more diverse staff brings more to the table, with differing ideas and talents.

A diverse workplace has more satisfied employees, a lot of creativity, better talent, varying perspectives, increased productivity – all resulting in greater financial success. These combined traits show how important diversity is in the workplace.

Learning More

Want to learn more about how important diversity is? HRDQ is hosting a webinar on diversity on Jan. 23 at 2pm. “Why Does Diversity Matter?” will explain how essential diversity is. After attending the webinar participants will be able to understand the subtle ways that bias occurs, identify instances of devaluing others through small, subconscious behaviors and micro-inequities, and establish a framework to increase inclusion at the organizational level.

Attendees will also be able to recognize different ways of conveying respect, address conflict productively and respectfully, and lead by example and be part of the solution. Click here to register.

14
dec
0
myths_in_workplace_learning

Why Myths Matter

Posted by HR TrainingNo Comments

I’ve called out a number of myths (and superstitions, and misconceptions) in my latest tome, and I’m grateful people appear to be interested.  I take this as a sign that folks are beginning to really pay attention to things like good learning design. And that’s important. It’s also important not to minimize the problems myths can create. I do that in my presentations, but I want to go a bit deeper.  We need to care about why workplace myths matter to limit our mistakes!

It’s easy to think something like “they’re wrong, but surely they’re harmless”.  What can a few misguided intentions matter?  Can it hurt if people are helped to understand if people are different?  Won’t it draw attention to important things like caring for our learners?  Isn’t it good if people are more open-minded?

Would that this were true. However, let me spin it another way: does it matter if we invest in things that don’t have an impact?  Yes, for two reasons.  One, we’re wasting time and money. We will pay for workshops and spend time ensuring our designs have coverage for things that aren’t really worthwhile. And that’s both profligate and unprofessional.  Worse, we’re also not investing in things that might actually matter.  Like, say, Serious eLearning. That is, research-derived principles about what actually works. Which is what we should be getting dizzy about.

But there are worse consequences. For one, we could be undermining our own design efforts. Some of these workplace myths may have us do things that undermine the effectiveness of our work. If we work too hard to accommodate non-existent ‘styles’, for instance, we might use media inappropriately. More problematic, we could be limiting our learners. Many of the myths want to categorize folks: styles, gender, left/right brain, age, etc.  And, it’s true, being aware of how diversity strengthens is important. But too often people go beyond; they’ll say “you’re an XYZ”, and people will self-categorize and consequently self-limit.  We could cause people not to tap into their own richness.

That’s still not the worst thing. One thing that most such instruments explicitly eschew is being used as a filter: hire/fire, or job role. And yet it’s being done. In many ways!  This means that you might be limiting your organization’s diversity. You might also be discriminatory in a totally unjustifiable way!

Myths are not just wasteful, they’re harmful. And that matters.  Please join me in campaigning for legitimate science in our profession. And let’s chase out the snake oil.  Please.

Join Clark Quinn for an engaging hour-long webinar: The Myths That Plague Us. Register today!

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