Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Becoming Effective Business Leaders

An organization's goal to achieve success can be achieved by developing a clear mission and vision, and also communicating them effectively so they can be clearly understood by the staff. It's also a must for the leaders of the organization to serve as idols and impress a culture that is centered on achieving the most satisfactory results.

The organization's vision should be clear, challenging, and quantifiable ; the staff should also see the vision as achievable and can easily be related to. The feat of the vision should be split into key stages. It's the leader's responsibility to plan, identify, and set these stages. The leaders should convey the importance and importance of the vision to the organization's future.

Plans to attain the vision should serve as a platform that staff can relate to. Staff should be in a position to obviously identify the roles they'll play in attaining the vision. With correct analysis and support from the leaders, the staff should be made ok with the knowledge of what is being predicted of them.

The organization's Mission Statement should guide it towards is purpose in society, values, and standards, the way that it will function and how it'll deliver its products and services to consumers. The values should be a mirrored image of the organization's commitment to its customers and stakeholders. It offers steering on the behavior and culture if the business.

When the Mission and Vision statements are set, the leader should take it on himself to show a private inclusion in the development of the organizational structure. It's the leader's responsibility to convey the explanation behind a chosen system of management and to show that in spite of being subjected to occasional change, the management structure will generally deliver a dependable approach throughout the business.

A good leader actively involves himself with customers, suppliers, the local popularion, trade associations and stakeholders of the business. This involvement permits the leader to improve the organization's reputation, grow the business thru increased exposure, expedite settlement of tough issues, act as a idol for the business, permit other corporations to see the organisation as a company they'd like to deal with.

Video: Stephen Covey Video on Choosing Success

 


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Monday, July 30, 2012

How Executive Coaching can help in Leadership Development

Did you ever wonder why the output or the capacity of your staff is so low? Most managers often think about this topic because the more output every employee has the more benefit they will give to the company. That is why; there are many kinds of executive coaching programs that you can select for your employees in order to develop key skills, which they require in order to do their jobs in a better manner. Enlisting your staff for such trainings and coaching programs can eventually help to increase their efficiency.

How Executive Coaching Helps


Having a business degree is often not enough for efficiently doing a job. This is because, at a job, employees have to develop the required skills in order to contribute in the development of the business. However, developing skills also requires some knowledge, which is provided by the coaching programs. Such trainings are designed to hone specific skills. For instance, leadership skills are not always born; sometimes people have to develop this skill in order to lead a team of professionals.

Importance of Executive Coaching for Professionals


One of the key skills that a professional must possess is leadership qualities. In order to succeed in your professional life, you have to meet all the challenges and emerge victorious from them. Whether it is about the new business deal, or a wedge in the road to the success of the company you work for, you need to be able to utilize your knowledge, along with the required skills in order be successful in your professional career. Now, as mentioned earlier in this article, you might not have the required skills to prove your metal in every field of your job. However, there are executive coaching programs that can help you develop the required skills. If you lack leadership qualities, then leadership development program might be able to help you.

Benefits of Executive Trainings


Leadership development is something that you should work on from the start of your career. If a professional wants to succeed in his or her career, he or she must show such qualities and skills, which your line manager is looking for. Leadership is one of the key skills that are required in all aspects of life these days. Therefore, getting leadership development training is something that you should get as soon as you start your professional life. Having this quality in particular, can help you excel quickly in your career. Before you know it, you will be assigned a team, or ranked as assistant manager of the entire department and if you continue to hone your leadership skill of yours, you might become the youngest manager in your company.

Leadership is something, which is required in every aspect of life. Leadership development programs benefits both aspects of your life, professional and personal. Therefore, it is important that you start on a leadership coaching program as soon as possible, regardless of where you stand in your life or your career.

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Friday, July 27, 2012

Fine Tuning your Leadership Development Skills

Every leadership development program ought to take into consideration some simple facts, that should be put at the disposal of the person interested in mastering his abilities and techniques as a leader. Every person has their own individual talents and abilities. But by attending a course with the proper coach, the qualities and skills needed for the role of a leader can be developed. There are a handful of institutions that can help an individual improvise on his abilities.

Leadership Quality

The quality that is thought to be crucial is leadership quality. This quality is a must in every job. The variety of jobs can range from a managerial post to a secretary, but the need for leadership quality remains. Taking the right decision is another quality that an individual ought to possess.

It's easier to learn the secrets of leadership quality if you take the courses for leadership development. These courses are held daily and, after all, are meant to help you. Becoming a leader does not rest completely on your ability to be bold; a leader must also excel in team work, possess the ability to create strong bonds between the team, and be understanding. The leader can sustain a high level of team spirit by taking advantage of the scores of hints and tricks available to them. It is critical to gain the acceptance of the team members in order to become a good team leader, and a bond must be developed with each person in order to ensure their support. However, lack of leadership qualities is certainly not cause for worry since there are many colleges and institutions that can help you expand on these abilities.

Handling a crowd and lessening the terror you feel when you have to face one is simple. Leadership development is needed in all organizations because it helps people establish a good rapport with other team members. You can look on the internet if you are trying to find organizations which offer the development of leadership class. Everybody ought to take this course in order to improve the atmosphere around the office. This course will help you not only at work, but in your personal life as well.

The training must handle the deliberations on leadership adequately, and by doing that, it states that the term shouldn't be understood by its limited sense. Anything that may suggest the use of conventional typecast leadership ought to be shunned. The training ought to incorporate a detailed understanding of the virtues of the leader as associable to individual requirements, and should also differentiate the differences between management and leadership has.

The leadership program should consider the personal feelings of the public about what traits they believe a good leader should possess. Instead of looking for specific abilities in candidates, leadership programs should consider the accomplishments of the individual and build on them.

It's often been said that the best leaders don't conform to a set pattern or follow a standard routine. One of the primary goals of the leadership development programs is to instill this independent streak in potential leaders.

The program also tries to firmly state that collective requirements are much more important than individual necessities. The ability to look to the future, have a vision and development of aspirations and ambitions are some of the goals that the training tries to achieve.

A personal characteristic which the leadership development program believes to be key and therefore reinforces, is the skill of determining how details come together to make the big picture. This instruction also underscores the importance of maintaining an openness to looking at things from another person's perspective, and in doing so, to recognize in an appropriate way the best course on which to meet them.

Source: articlesbase.com

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Leadership Development Workshops for True Leaders

Being a leader is more difficult than being a simple employee. There are additional responsibilities that you have to handle, and you must perform these duties in a way that motivates those in your department to do better as well. There are leadership development workshops that equip new leaders with the necessary knowledge and skills.

Some seminars tackle a wide range of topics on business and leadership management, such as the role of communication in leadership and the importance of effective communication in achieving organizational goals. These trainings are specifically designed for upper-management employees and executives who want to improve their leadership abilities.

Leadership trainings are diverse because there are many aspects of leadership. A single seminar can touch on one aspect extensively or discuss multiple facets in a broader context. To find the perfect leadership development program for you and your company, you must first determine the needs of your executive team. This way, you will know what leadership areas you need to improve.

Attending a leadership development training session has many benefits. First off, you will learn how to apply your leadership skills in particular situations. You will also be able to assess your current leadership behavior and determine what changes you need to implement to generate better results. Most importantly, you will learn how to communicate with your team. A leadership training seminar also gives you a wider overview of your entire organization's leadership setup, so you are not only focused on one aspect of operations.

Often, a leadership development workshop covers understanding leadership styles and situations, emphasizing the importance of vision in aligning team performance, integrating your leadership and managerial skills, and examining the leader's role as motivator and coach. It also involves distinguishing the different types of teams and the best way to handle each one.

Several leadership training programs contain presentations on leadership abilities. These presentations focus on innovative ideas and techniques that leaders can use in their environment. By attending leadership development workshops, you get a chance to meet other leaders in the field. These seminars allow you to take a peek into different leadership strategies so you can come up with your own.

Source: articlesbase.com

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Leadership Development Process: Assess - Develop - Practice - Refine

Leadership Development is a lifelong process: an endeavor that takes courage and commitment, an awareness of oneself and the need to foster one's own skills.  The process of development is a cycle of continuous, lifelong learning.  Leaders that choose to take on the challenge of leadership and their own personal growth and development as a leader are able to achieve more.  It is a process, an intentional one.

Most every leader is challenged in some way.  Leadership is a people sport:  people dynamics and when you involve people then there are challenges.

Assess:

It begins with awareness or assessment:  knowing where you are currently at. Awareness is a gift, knowing that you are not perfect, that there is room for growth and that you don't know all of the answers for interacting with your team.  Completing a leadership assessment can be a tool for digging a bit deeper into your current skills.  Leadership assessment can be individual or with input from constituents.  The goal is to see where there are strengths and where there is room for growth and focused skill development.  Every leader possesses some skills and every (honest) leader has areas that could improve and areas for learning and growth.

Develop:

Skill development is the next step: learning what the skills of excellent leadership are.  Leadership skills can be learned especially with practice and refinement.  True leadership skill acquisition can be accomplished through highly effective training.  Participating in experiential training that includes time for learning and skill practice is important.  Experiential because it will more likely give you the time to learn and practice.

Practice:

Your workplace is your practice ground. Yes, you should try new skills on at the training.  The training should be long enough to give participants enough time to practice, but once back in the workplace there are daily opportunities to use new skills.  Executive Coaching following the training helps to ensure that new skills are used, new behaviors are adopted.  It is so easy to move back into old behavior patterns.  Behavior is habitual.  Even the most conscious leaders regress back to previous behaviors. Coaching or continued follow up is designed to give leaders a resource for receiving honest feedback and additional support in taking on new skills.  Leaders are often alone.  The executive coach provides a neutral person for the leader to consult with.

Refine:

Leadership development is a lifelong learning process.  Staff will always throw unexpected curveballs for leaders to work through.  Periodic assessment of skills is a great strategy for determining whether the leadership development plan has been effective in addressing the areas that needed attention.  Assessment begins the cycle again.  With a continuous plan for improving leadership and improving the workplace companies can achieve more than they set out to.

Leadership development is not just the responsibility of the company but also that of the leader.  Leaders, themselves, have to recognize the need and the benefit to their leadership development.  Leaders can create their own leadership development plan and review it each year.  By implementing an intentional and focused leadership development plan, leaders improve the results they achieve for the businesses, their staff and teams.  Investing in leadership development just makes sense.

Source: articlesbase.com

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Importance of Leadership Development

It's easy to discount the importance of leadership development, assuming that corporate leaders either have what they take or they don't and if they do they'll learn as they go. If they don't...well, if they didn't have what it took they wouldn't have been given a leadership role to begin with, right?

Not necessarily. Sometimes all that's needed is a little leadership development.

There is no such thing as a natural born leader, which is why leadership development is so important. Anyone can have the fundamental requirements necessary for the leadership role. It's how they develop them that matters.

Leadership development is defined as an effort to enhance a learner's ability to lead, an endeavor focused on developing the leadership abilities and attitudes of the individuals sitting at the top of the chain of command. Successful leadership development requires a lot more than the ability to give orders. It also requires diplomacy, top of the line people skills, a certain level of ruthlessness and an understanding of how much space there is and there isn't between the executive suite and the mail room. A good leader doesn't just lead. He or she leads by example.

Leadership development within a company should be addressed at both the individual and group level. Individual leadership development can be undertaken in both a hands-on and a classroom environment, and which method your organization chooses is entirely up to you. Through various exercises the individual learns to identify their strengths and weaknesses, using both to shape and mold their successful leadership style. Individual leadership development is very important for individuals first entering the field and those who are having a difficult time taking up the reins of command. Additional leadership development offers them the opportunity to hone their skills, smooth over their weaknesses and learn to make the most of their current position rather than finding themselves stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder to success because of a lack of knowledge and personal resources.

Group leadership development is absolutely vital in any company, regardless of industry, because it teaches an executive team how to look, think and act like a team. For a business to run smoothly it's essential that the executive team be able to operate like a well oiled wheel, cognizant of each other's patterns, strengths, weaknesses and goals and able to work together to achieve success. Any leadership team that is rapidly "slapped" together and tossed into the ring is going to fail almost instantly. It takes time and practice, and leadership development offers the opportunity for both.

Leadership development through books, activities, conferences and classroom studies is a vital part of any company's success, which is why there are hundreds of books, seminars, conferences, workshops, boot camps and personal coaches devoted to that very goal. Never underestimate the importance of the team of people holding the reins in an organization, and don't discount the need to allow those individuals to develop their leadership skills both inside and out of the office.

Source: articlesbase.com

Monday, July 23, 2012

Body Language of Leadership - Leadership Development Video

Excellent video:


The body language of leadership development. How is evocative leadership embodied? Business trainer Mark Walsh speaks on the body and leadership at the Nowhere Group's leadership dialogue and training event. Embodiment ideas of Richard Strozzi Heckler, Paul Linden, Stuart Heller and his own are presented, including the ABC centring technique from a grab. The Sierra Leone reference was that he was just introduced as "when we first met him he'd just come back from working with soldiers in Sierra Leone".

Are Leaders Born Or Made?


For centuries people have debated whether leaders are born or made. Several decades ago researchers started trying to answer the question. The debate goes on, even though we know the answer.

It turns out to be a little of both. Leaders are sort of born and they're always made. Knowing the details will help you develop effective leaders for your company.

Leaders are Sort of Born

It seems like there's only one thing that a person needs to actually be born with in order to be a leader later in life. That's intelligence. A leader needs to be smart enough.

Effective leaders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room or the company or even on the team. But they have to be smart enough to do the job they're assigned.

What's more important is what kind of person the potential leader is when he or she becomes an adult. The person who emerges from adolescence into young adulthood has the psychological and character traits they'll demonstrate for the rest of their life. Some of those matter for leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they can help other people achieve results. That, after all, is what we expect leaders to do. We expect them to achieve success through a group. We expect them to help their subordinates grow and develop.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they want to achieve objectives or if they just want to go along and take it easy. We expect leaders to be responsible for achieving results. You can have a marvelous life without a results focus, but if you're going to lead successfully you have to have the drive and willingness to be measured by the results of your leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they are willing to make decisions or not. Lots of people wake up every day and let the world happen to them. But leaders must be able and willing to make decisions that affect themselves and others.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they have the basic qualities that we expect leaders to have. We can determine if they're smart enough to do the job. We can tell if they are willing to help others to achieve results as a group. And we can tell if they will make decisions.

Those things are essential. People who have them can learn the multiple skills it takes for them to become effective leaders.

No matter how they measure up on the key essentials, no one emerges from the womb or from adolescence with all the skills in place to be an effective leader. Everybody has to learn the job. That's why leaders are always made.

Leaders are Always Made

Leadership can be learned by anyone with the basics. But an awful lot of leadership cannot be taught.

That's because leadership is an apprentice trade. Leaders learn about 80 percent of their craft on the job.

They learn from watching other leaders and emulating their behavior. They choose role models and seek out mentors. They ask other leaders about how to handle situations.

Leaders improve by getting feedback and using it. The best leaders seek feedback from their boss, their peers and their subordinates. Then they modify their behavior so that they get better results.

Leaders learn by trying things out and then critiquing their performance. The only failure they recognize is the failure to learn from experience. In their book, Geeks and Geezers, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas identify the special power of what they call "crucibles." These are trials which teach hard lessons that leaders use as the basis of their strength in later crises. Many of these events can be called "failures," but leaders turn the bad situation to good by learning from it.

Effective leaders take control of their own development. They seek out training opportunities that will make a difference that will make a difference in their performance.

Effective leaders look for training programs that will help them develop specific skills that they can use on the job. Then, they when they return to work, they devote specific, deliberate effort to mastering in real life what they learned in the classroom.

Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied the progress of 88,000 managers who had been to leadership development training. The people who returned from the training, talked about it, and did deliberate work to apply their learning were judged as becoming more effective leaders. The ones who didn't showed no improvement.

If you're responsible for leadership development for your company, you should structure your support for your leaders to recognize that most leadership learning happens on the job. Help people develop leadership development plans. Help them select specific skills training and then work on transferring skills from the training to the job. Help them find role models, mentors and peers to discuss leadership issues.

Help your leaders get feedback from their boss, peers and subordinates. Work to create the culture of candor that will make that feedback helpful and effective.

Don't stop there. Make sure that you evaluate your leaders on their leadership work. Reward them and hold them accountable for accomplishing the mission through the group. And hold them accountable for caring for their people and helping them grow and develop.

A Leader's Growth is Never Done

Leadership learning is a lifetime activity. You're never done because there's always more to learn. There are always skills you need to improve.

Effective leaders seek out development opportunities that will help them learn new skills. Those might be project assignments or job changes. What they have in common is that the leader develops knowledge and skills that can be used elsewhere.

Effective leaders also seek out opportunities that will increase their visibility. The fact is that great performance alone will not propel you to the top in your career. You also have to be visible to people who make decisions about promotions and assignments.

If you're responsible for developing leaders in your company, set up programs to give your leaders both kinds of development opportunities over the course of their careers.

There's no magic formula for developing quality leaders in your company. But if you select potential leaders with the essential traits, then support them with training, feedback, on-the-job learning and development experiences and hold them accountable for results, you'll have the leaders you need to shape your company's future.

Source: articlesbase.com