Leadership

19
jun
0 0
leadership_style

Leadership Styles in the Workplace: Benefits and Drawback to Each Style

Posted by Leadership, Leadership Style AssessmentNo Comments

Knowing your leadership style – and the styles of people around you – is important. If you are aware of your own style you can work with others better by adapting your style to meet the requirements of individual situations and personalities. If you can read others’ leadership styles you can handle workplace relationships with ease.

“Leadership style” is defined as a person’s unique way of influencing others to work toward goals. Within the specific styles there are also measurements of assertiveness and expressiveness that add to your own unique style. Assertiveness measures the degree to which a person tries to influence other people’s thoughts and actions. Expressiveness measures the degree to which a person displays his or her emotions when interacting with others.

These are the four leadership styles and their assertiveness/expressiveness levels:

  1. Direct – Direct leaders have high assertiveness and low expressiveness. They tend to lead by taking charge.
  2. Spirited – Spirited leaders have high assertiveness and high expressiveness. They usually lead others by inspiring them.
  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 usually lead by planning carefully.

One style isn’t necessarily better than the others, and you could have traits of more than one style. The key is to know which one you are most like, and which ones your colleagues are. If you know these things you can use your style to interact with people better.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Each Style

Each type of leader has a time to shine. There are moments at work when being a specific kind of leader can be beneficial. Similarly, there are times when a certain kind of leader could have difficulty.

Direct: When there’s a work crisis, a direct leader’s take-charge style can help others push through tough situations. However, when delegating tasks to others is necessary, direct leaders may have trouble giving up control.

Spirited: If a group’s energy starts running low, a spirited leader’s spontaneity can provide a vital spark. However, their tendency to live in the present can be a problem in situations that require careful, long-term planning.

Considerate: Team harmony is vital, and a considerate leader has the ability and empathy to accommodate everyone. However, this could cause issues when one person pushes for a special interest and the considerate leader easily caves.

Systematic: Accuracy and objectivity at work are important, and they are strengths of a systematic leader. Their analytical style can be a valuable asset. However, when time pressures build their thoroughness may slow down projects.

Learning More About Leadership Styles

Learn more about leadership with HRDQ’s webinar “Leadership Styles: Measuring and Refining Your Skills”. Attendees will learn how to identify personal leadership style, learn how to capitalize on style strengths, discover how to minimize style trouble spots, and learn how to “flex” personal style to interact most effectively with others. Register here.

The webinar is based on What’s My Leadership Style by HRDQ. This leadership style assessment is ideal for training anyone who needs to influence others towards achieving a goal, and it’s appropriate for both new and experienced leaders. Learn more about the product.

22
apr
0
courageous_leadership

3 Ways to Harness Fear

Posted by LeadershipNo Comments

This post is from Bill Treasurer. He will be presenting the upcoming webinar Courageous Leadership: How to Build Backbone, Boost Performance, and Get Results. Register today, and you’ll learn a lot more about courage.

Why do some people confront their fears and others avoid them? I grappled with this question during the writing of my first book, Right Risk. Through the writing of that book, and after consulting with many leaders and experts since, I have learned that people face their fears when they are so physically and psychologically prepared that they are able to convert fear into excitement.

The goal of harnessing fear is putting fear’s energy to good use. Fear, like electricity, can be paralyzing. But properly harnessed, it can provide workers with the energy they’ll need to sustain them when facing challenging situations. Here are three things you can do to put fear to work for you:

1. Normalize it.

Worse than fear is its emotional corollary, shame. Workers, particularly men, feel embarrassed about feeling fearful. When comparing themselves with more confident coworkers, fearful workers see themselves as inadequate, wondering, “What’s wrong with me that I can’t be more fearless?” When shame enters the room, confidence walks out the door.

In dealing with fearful workers, it is tempting to want to discount their fears by telling them, “Don’t be afraid.” But doing so is silly and ineffective. They are afraid. So why not acknowledge that instead? Acknowledging fear makes it more ordinary, lessening workers’ feelings of shame. “Of course you’re afraid,” you might say, “why wouldn’t you be?”

During Giant Leap’s courage-building workshops, we often include a segment where each participant shares a fear that he or she is facing at work. The ensuing conversations are rich and profound, and for me the most important and gratifying aspects of our work. Fear, when exposed to the light of day, loses its potency. When workers voice their fears, the fears become more normal and mundane. These conversations, which often last a few hours, help mitigate workers’ feelings of shame because they begin to realize that at any moment nearly all people are dealing with some type of work-related fear. By far the most common thing participants tell me after these conversations is that by hearing the fears of their coworkers, they feel “less screwed up” than they did before the workshop. The fact that so many people are contending with a workplace fear shows them that fear is a normal part of the work experience. Once workers start to see fear as normal, they give it less attention, which allows them to shift their focus away from it.

2. Tie Fear to Courage

Many people wrongly exclude fear from the definition of courage, believing that courage is the absence of fear, or fearlessness. The reality, though, is that courage is fearful. When we are acting courageously, we are, most typically, very afraid. But we don’t allow the fear we’re carrying to stop us. Instead, we press on. This is the signature feature of courage: to carry on despite being afraid. Fear, thus, is an essential element in the definition of courage. You can’t be courageous unless you are afraid.

When fear is included in the definition of courage, fearful situations turn into opportunities to demonstrate courage. The best evidence that a worker is being courageous is that she shows all the signs of being afraid but is taking action anyway. People who press on despite being full of fear epitomize what it means to be courageous. This is exactly the type of behavior that you as a manager want to acknowledge and reinforce. Few things stiffen the spine with pride as much as hearing your boss say things like “I’m impressed with how courageous you’re being” or “Thanks for being so courageous.”

Former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani underscored how closely courage and fear are tied together in a talk I attended. He was reflecting on the lessons that his father had given him about courage, and how he drew on those lessons during the days immediately after 9/11. He said, “If you don’t have a fear, you’d better go get one. Dealing with fear is how you find your courage.”

3. Use Fear’s Energy

The best way to deal with fear is to use it against itself. Fear is not inert. It has energy. When properly harnessed, fear’s energy can provide momentum for facing challenging situations.

Much of my company’s work involves designing and developing comprehensive leadership programs for emerging and experienced leaders. As part of the design process, we gather input from many sources, including the organization’s most senior executives. While designing of one of our programs, I asked the CEO what he considered to be the single the most important leadership message he wanted to reinforce among the leadership ranks. He said, “The most important thing people need to know is that leadership depends on having sweaty palms.”

“Huh?” I said.

He explained, “For our leaders to grow, and for our company to be most successful, our leaders need to regularly be doing things that are so scary for them that it causes their palms to sweat. Challenge provokes fear, and having sweaty palms shows you, physiologically, that fear is energizing the body. You get sweaty palms by moving outside of your comfort zone and into your courage zone. It’s inside your courage zone where the learning and growing happens.”

For workers, having sweaty palms means learning to carry fear with them when facing challenges. Again, courage is not about being fearless. It’s about taking your fear with you. Part of your job as a leader is to help people to stop fearing fear. Fear is a business reality. Fear is. Harnessing fear helps workers to capitalize on fear’s energy so that they can do challenging and courageous things.

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.

Page 1 of 4
1234