Leadership

11
mar
0
remarkable_leadership

Remarkable Leadership: The traits that help people grow

Posted by LeadershipNo Comments

What makes for remarkable leadership? Qualities like honesty, integrity, courage, and dedication are part of being a notable leader. They inspire their team and encourage them to achieve the organization’s goals. A remarkable leader is someone who people want to follow.

Being a remarkable leader doesn’t come down to just one trait. There are quite a few parts of being a remarkable leader:

  • Learning Continually. As a leader, a person must recognize that they need be continual learners. The learning process never stops, and good leaders grow and change as time goes on.
  • Championing Change. Change is the currency of leadership. Leaders must be champions of change – planning it, approaching it, introducing it, working it, and following through on it.
  • Communicating Powerfully. Every part of the leader’s role requires communication skills. Leaders must become powerful communicators to get what they want to express across to their team.
  • Building Relationships. Leaders have to cooperate with people. They must build relationships to gain respect from others and work toward success.
  • Developing Others. Coaching and giving feedback are two skills that leaders need to perform continually. To reach organizational goals, there needs to be individual growth of everyone on the team.
  • Focusing on Customers. Without customers there is no business. Leaders recognize that all efforts exist for the customers, so customer focus needs to be a priority.
  • Influencing with Impact. Leaders know that to engage others and make things happen they must be able to influence. Leaders build their ability to influence with impact.
  • Thinking and Acting Innovatively. Leaders know that they must think and act innovatively as things change in an organization. They need to think outside of the box as they approach problems with unique solutions.
  • Valuing Collaboration and Teamwork. Leaders know that it’s not all about them – individual team members must collaborate and work together to achieve goals set before them. Leaders must value and support collaboration and teamwork.
  • Solving Problems and Making Decisions. Problems will occur and decisions must be made daily. Leaders who are skilled in these areas will help their organizations make more progress faster. Leaders must become problem solvers and decision makers.
  • Taking Responsibility and Accountability. In a successful company, people must take responsibility and accountability for their actions. Effective leaders recognize their role in it, and they take and share responsibility and accountability.
  • Managing Projects and Processes. All work in all organizations is classified as a project or process. Leaders must recognize the value of each and organize them accordingly.
  • Setting Goals. Leaders are responsible for setting goals for themselves, their team, and the organization. Setting and working to meet goals is an integral part of a company’s evolution to success.

With these traits, a person can develop into a more remarkable leader – one who a team will want to follow. Becoming a remarkable leader is a journey, but it can become easier with “Remarkable Leadership: A Learning Series.” This tool offers a flexible and practical learning experience for leaders at all levels. Based on the acclaimed book, “Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time,” author Kevin Eikenberry challenges participants to be more intentional about what, when, and how they learn. The 12-module program allows organizations to target specific leadership skills. Click here to learn more: https://www.hrdqstore.com/remarkable-leadership.

To learn more, attend HRDQ’s webinar “Leadership Development: 12 Ways to Develop Remarkable Leaders” on March 13 at 2 p.m. EST. The webinar is based on Kevin Eikenberry’s workshop Remarkable Leadership. Participants will learn the reasons why many leadership development processes fail, keys to a successful organizational leadership development process, strategies for developing targeted leadership skills in a relatively small period of time, and how to create relevant learning experiences to build leadership skills. Register today!

4
mar
0
leadership_skills

Leadership Skills: Successful Leaders vs. Derailed Leaders

Posted by LeadershipNo Comments

The line between a successful leader and a derailed leader can sometimes be very thin. Common work occurrences can cause a good leader to get off track. But a failure of leadership skills can fortunately be predicted and be prevented. There are a red-flag behaviors that can send any leader’s career into a tailspin, but knowing what they are can help.

Researchers have identified personal traits and skills that differentiate between successful leadership skills and derailed leaders. These traits include:

  • Diversity of Experience. Having a limited range of experiences derails leaders and can create behavior challenges. A lack of experience creates issues with problem solving, working with others, learning effectively, and addressing the emotional climate of different groups.
  • Emotional Stability and Composure. Being emotionally volatile derails leaders and can lead to challenges with working with others, teaming up, and having supportive coaching behaviors. Leaders need to have awareness and effective management of the emotional climate.
  • Handling mistakes. Mistakes happen, and successful leaders need to handle them. Managing mistakes by blaming others, demonstrating defensiveness, and refusing to move beyond failure is a major issue. Poor mistake management creates problems with working with others, learning applications, awareness of emotional issues with the team, attending to ethical challenges, and problem-solving.
  • Interpersonal skills. Being insensitive to others is a big source of derailment. Manipulative and insensitive behaviors interfere with building networks, fostering cooperation, and getting the most from team members. When communicating in ways that others experience as abrasive and intimidating, the leader is unable to develop them. These behaviors affect information sharing, working relationships, coaching opportunities, feelings awareness, and emotional climate reading.
  • Integrity. Integrity breaches like betraying trust, promise breaking, and being duplicitous result in behavior challenges in the ability to build and mend relationships, the ability to understand the emotional needs of others, and the ability to make choices that foster commitment from others to achieve goals.
  • Technical and cognitive skills. While leaders often have excellent technical and intellectual abilities, if overused, these behaviors may come across as overconfident and arrogant. Overplaying behaviors can generate difficulties with problem solving, relationships, learning new skills, and career opportunities.

For more information on how to prevent leadership derailment, and develop better leadership skills, check out Leadership Unlimited Profile by HRDQ. It serves as an “early warning” leadership development tool by quickly identifying trouble spots and building the skill sets leaders and managers need to stay on track and take charge of their careers. Participants will learn how to measure key career behaviors, understand the management skills needed to maintain and ensure success, learn how to predict problems and avoid career derailment, develop and align critical competencies, and create an individual personal development plan.

Learn more about this product in the free webinar Leadership Skills That Are Critical to Success. Register today!

9
jan
0
transformational_leadership

The Top 5 Qualities of a Transformational Leader

Posted by LeadershipNo Comments

Technology and market innovations continue to disrupt the global economy, forcing companies to rethink how they organize their business, manage their workforce, and engage with customers. In order to confront and surmount these challenges, organizations must identify weaknesses and inefficiencies in their operations and implement changes quickly and effectively to stay competitive. Without visionary, transformational leadership, however, any effort to implement changes is likely doomed to failure.

Transformational leaders are able to facilitate change initiatives effectively, building consensus and achieving buy-in to ensure that transitions are carried out as smoothly as possible. Not every leader is well-suited to this task, however. Far from a caretaker of the status quo, transformational leaders need to develop and implement strategies that can push a company to where it needs to be for sustained success. These leaders tend to have a number of key qualities in common.

The Top 5 Qualities of a Transformational Leader

Good Listener

Transformational leaders may have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish, but they’re also humble enough to realize they don’t always have all the answers. They understand that listening is the foundation of many other leadership skills; it helps them better understand their teams and opens the door to productive collaboration. Effective leaders refine their active listening skills to both demonstrate attentiveness and avoid misunderstandings. Furthermore, when people feel like their concerns, feelings, and ideas are being genuinely heard and taken into consideration, they are more likely to be engaged and committed in their work. Given that high engagement is strongly connected to productivity and retention, listening skills are essential for any leader hoping to succeed in the long run.

Adaptable

In today’s fast-moving business environment, leaders need to be agile enough to identify changing dynamics and make rapid adjustments to overcome challenges without compromising strategic goals. They must have the situational awareness to understand how external and internal events, such as shifts in the market or an administrative shake-up, might impact an organization’s performance. When changes require them to act, they need to know how systems within a company interact with each other so their solutions don’t end up creating more problems than they solve. Prioritization can help leaders be more adaptable because it helps them manage multiple needs, which may even conflict, while still keeping larger organizational goals in sight.

Inspiring

Truly transformational leaders find ways to inspire, creating an enthusiasm and passion that causes others to aspire for better performance and effort. When employees are inspired, they’re more likely to be highly engaged, which in turn leads to lower rates of absenteeism, higher productivity, and diminished turnover. Inspirational leaders are effective at creating a sense of purpose for their teams. They communicate goals and challenge employees in ways that make people want to rise up to meet, or exceed, expectations. Their combination of emotional appeals and active communication helps these leaders to get to know their team members and better understand how to motivate them. By aligning strategic goals with people’s pre-existing values, transformational leaders can create a work environment in which everyone understands why their role is vital to the organization’s success.

Accountable

Few things undermine a leader faster than deflecting blame and refusing to take accountability for their actions. Employees need to know that a leader is not only willing to hold themselves responsible for outcomes, but will follow through on the commitments they make. When leaders hold themselves accountable, they communicate that accomplishing the team’s collective goals is their highest priority, not fulfilling some personal agenda. This also sets a strong example for employees, encouraging them to accept the same degree of accountability in their work. Building an organizational culture that emphasizes accountability helps to lay the groundwork for a workplace that thrives on communication, trust, and consistent engagement.

Integrity

Leaders who struggle to build trust, loyalty, and support will find it almost impossible to succeed. Effective leaders must demonstrate that they are honest, ethical, and worthy of trust. They can build this reputation by keeping promises and honoring commitments while setting an example for behavior that is in keeping with the organization’s stated values. Employees need to know a leader is credible and willing to “speak the truth.” When leaders are able to build trust in their teams, they’re better able to secure commitment and buy-in from people on important initiatives that are needed to drive organizational change.

With today’s complex and competitive business environment challenging companies like never before, there is a huge demand for truly transformational leadership. Unfortunately, not all leaders are equipped to deal with the obstacles before them. In order to find enduring success, companies must continue to focus on instituting development strategies that allow them to identify and prepare high-potential employees who can step into leadership roles when the time comes. Simply perpetuating the status quo will no longer be enough.

 Attend the free webinar What Makes Great Transformational Leadership? This webinar is based on the HRDQ product, Transformational Leader, and will be presented by Rick Lepsinger, President of OnPoint Consulting. Rick’s career has focused on helping organizations and leaders identify and develop leaders, work better virtually, enhance cross functional team performance, and get from strategy to execution faster.  He conducts numerous seminars and workshops on succession management, leading from a distance, leading cross functional teams, and enhancing execution.  Rick has written numerous articles and is the author or co-author of several books, including his most recent Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results.

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.

8
nov
0

Comments on Change November

Posted by LeadershipNo Comments



The act of changing is not difficult for most people … the required adjustment in attitude, behavior and/or approach is difficult. Changes carries a sense of loss. The consequences of “loss” can be devastating and take a very long time to accept. A loss at its most extreme for people is the death of a loved one. However, there are many other “losses” people endure, such as moving from a home, a city, state, changing job location (company, floor, new colleagues, etc.), or a new route to work, learning a new process or computer program. People adjust to change at their own pace when they establish a comfort level with the proposed or expected change.

Understanding “how” individuals manage change is critical to the success of acceptance of change. Often individuals are viewed as resistant, defiant, or uncooperative when presented with a “new” idea, process or direction; however, this may not be the case. Some people need more time to think it through; others need to see how it will affect his or her ability to be effective, others still need time to determine in their own mind if the change is needed or necessary at all.  Each individual may move in the desired direction, given some time.

written by Alberta Lloyd

HRDQ-U and Alberta are hosting a free webinar on November 28th at 2pm ET. Save your seat here! 

 

 

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