Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organization goals. It is the process of providing the direction and inspiration necessary to create or sustain an organization.
The 21st century has already spawned a sizable volcano of daunting new challenges to leadership. Deregulation, digitization, ecosystems, strategy life cycles, and competition at present, represents change have permanent rhythm for every business firm. This change process gives a role of decision making initiative for the leaders such as:
- Broadening the scope of employee freedom by managing less, without sacrificing focus, discipline, and order.
- Creating an organization where the spirit of shared values and community dominate, not programs and policies.
- Providing for a mission that justifies extraordinary contribution .etc
The best effective decisions made within the available limited resources and constraints to provide an optimum solution for the change process makes a leader and a manager to achieve their objectives in many change process. Further to handle the change initiatives efficiently an organization must recognize that succession planning and leadership development are two elements of the same process that of ensuring there are leaders now and in the future who can implement the organizational vision .while succession planning can identify those individuals who have the abilities ,talent and potential to turn the vision of the organization into reality, the alignment to leadership development can ensure that this potential is realized .In so doing, an organization can ensure that there is indeed long term leadership sustainability and opportunities of entrepreneurship this will be a source of having competitive advantage of developing next generation leaders in the years to come for an organization to succeed .
Introduction
Leadership is the energetic process of getting people fully and willingly committed to a new and sustainable course of action to meet commonly agreed objectives whilst having commonly held values. Leader's values must offer 4E's frame work-envision, enable, empower and energize, for establishing a climate for creative thinking and promote innovation.
21'st century has already experienced with deregulation, digitization, globalization,
Strategic business management, the result is familiar to every business firm "Change",
Change is a common occurrence in business today. Leading change describes the role of leaders in accepting and managing many change process .many of the change initiatives fail to achieve their objectives because (1) Absence of a definition of what actually would constitute organizational success. (2) "Results" a powerful concept if left unmanaged, poses a risk in future. (3) Intransparency ie, lack of clarity of the changing situation. (4) Lack of succession planning and building bench strength.
Leadership attempts to have integrated systems to solve the problems of change process.
"Leadership is about being adaptable to change and uncertainty" (Mark .A. Morgan MD of citigroup private bank).
An organization to develop the next generation leaders should consider the following important points such as (1) Identifying core set of skills to equip leaders of next generation. (2) Tracking and networking alumni of young professionals. (3) Determining the value of pooling program evaluation efforts. (4) Recognizing the key challenges in finding the resources and enhancing youth programes.
Key words: Leadership sustainability & roles, change process, toxic leadership etc.
Contemporary Leadership Roles
The 4 contemporary leadership roles that are important for the organization to achieve its objectives are:
Providing team leadership
Leadership is increasingly taking place within a team context .as teams grow in popularity; the role of the leader in guiding team members takes on heightened importance.
Mentoring
Organizations have formal mentoring programs where mentors are officially assigned to new or high –potential employees to present ideas clearly, and empathize with problems of their protégés.
Self leadership
Self –leadership propose that there are a set of processes through which individuals control their own behavior and effective leaders help their followers to lead themselves.
Online leadership
To lead the people who are physically separated from you and with whom your interactions are basically to written digital communications like telecommuting with employees you need online leadership.
Factors for effective leadership
(1) Follower. (2) Leader (3) Communication (4) Situation
Figure showing factors of effective leadership
Factors influencing changes in organizations environment
Globalization and developments in the field of information and technology.
New management strategies and the competitiveness in the business environment.
Implementation of news business processes.
New goals and performance standards established in the business
Structural changes in the economy. Etc
Need for implementation of change in the organization's environment
Based on Michael E Porter's five forces of competitive position we can analyze that there is a need for "change" in the organization to survive in the competitive modern business.
Michael Porter's five forces:
- Existing competitive rivalry between suppliers
- Threat of new market entrants.
- Bargaining power of buyer
- Power of suppliers
- Threat of substitute products (including technology change)
Leadership role and responsibility in implementing change in organization
Organizational culture is the primary source of resistance to change a leader should understand the organization culture and then plan the change process.
The use of value based management model 0f 7-s model can be helpful in implementation of change by coordinating 7-s namely, shared value, strategy, structure, system, staff, style and skill. (MC Kinsey's 7-s framework)
Leadership should determine clear decision making framework to ensure the organization has means and resources to achieve its goals.
Analyzing the change process through a experimental project with the five factors such as project duration, the project teams performance ,integrity of management commitment, employee commitment and employee effort required to cope with the change that are essential to be implemented.
Change can be implemented through organizational transformation by ensuring succession planning initiatives are closely aligned to leadership and development and organizational vision
Ensuring that succession planning process occurs in such a way that it is in itself a transforming experience.
Drawbacks of implementation of changes in the organization.
Some the reasons why change initiatives fail to achieve their objectives are:
Absence of clear definition of what actually constitute organizational success
Lack of knowledge about changing situation in business environment.
Lack of integration between succession planning and leadership with organizational vision.
Toxic leadership performance.
Lack of planning premises and constraints, inadequacy of resources and means to implement the planned change process.
Toxic leadership and organization
Toxic /Bad leadership is one of the main reason we can point out for the failure to implementation of change in the organization. "A Toxic leader is someone who has responsibility over organizations employees but abuses the leader –follower relationship by leaving the organization in a worse condition than when he/she first found them". (Barbara Kellerman)
Barbara Kellerman analyzes Toxic/bad leadership into seven different types:
(1)Incompetent (2) Rigid (3) Intemperate (4) Callous (5) Corrupt (6) Insular (7) Evil.
Toxic leadership can effect organization in change implementation by following way:
Lack of definition of vision, strategy and business plan.
Inappropriate execution of the vision, plan strategy and business plan.
Lack of team building skills and business ethics.
Lack of sponsoring, supporting, measuring results.
Destruction of organizational culture, values and employees trust and confidence.
Understanding the change process
Understanding the change process helps the leader of present and future generation to develop the suitable technique to solve problems in initiating change process in organization. To understand problems, determining the characteristics of the difficult problem is key to initiate change process.
Dietrich Dorner and Joachim Funke have elucidated typical characteristics of difficult problem they are as follows:
Intransparency-lack of clarity of situation.
Polytely-multiple goals which have
a) Inexpressiveness.
b) Opposition
c) Transience
complexity- large number of items interrelations and decisions which have
a) Enumerability.
b) Connectivity(hierarchy relation ,communication relation, allocation relation)
c) Heterogeneity.
Dynamics- time considerations, which have
a) Temporal constraints
b) Temporal sensitivity
c) Phase effects
d) Dynamic unpredictability
Problem Solving Techniques
Abstraction: solving the problem in a model of the system before applying it to the real system.
Analogy: using a solution that solved an analogous problem.
Brainstorming: (especially among the groups and teams)suggesting a large number of solutions or ideas and combining and developing them until an optimum is found.
Divide and conquer: breaking down a large complex problem into smaller, solvable problems.
Hypothesis testing: assuming a possible explanation to the problem and trying to prove the assumption
Lateral thinking: approaching solutions indirectly and creatively.
Means-ends analysis: choosing an action at each step to move closer to the goal.
Method of focal objects: synthesizing seemingly non-matching characteristics of different objects into something new.
Morphological analysis: assessing the output and interactions of an entire system
Reduction: transforming the problem into another problem for which solutions exist.
Research: employing existing ideas or adapting existing solutions to similar problems.
Root cause analysis: eliminating the cause of the problem.
Trial and error: testing possible solutions until the right one is found.
Developing The Leaders Of Next Generation
Michael G.Winston who has been working with fortune 50 companies partnering with key executives in developing the next generation of leadership explains how they develop the next generation of leaders.
Seeking and securing top management support
Leadership development initiatives are launched with clear communication from the senior executives explaining the mission, strategy, objectives and expectations for participant's .later stage measurement tools are designed to assess and reinforce leadership accountability for results.
Determining required skill sets.
Firstly you define key leadership requirement and develop a plan to improve critical skills and competencies required to implement the current and projected business strategy and review both current and prospective markets, competitors, customers, channels and determine critical success factor.
Building Best-in-class leadership development initiatives
An integrated and highly focused set of initiatives is crafted that should reflect the company's strategic agenda, address critical challenges and opportunities and strengthen leadership capability ,programs are generally used as a combination of company's presenters, external world-class subject matter experts,E-learning technologies and post-program project work to reinforce key strategic initiatives.
Launching a tiered Talent Identificfation,Assessment and Succession process
Succession management is a critical activity in business organizations must serve to identify, develop and retain those people who are able to deliver superior performance both individually and as a part of team. This can be done like:
Alignment of top performers to most critical jobs.
Identification of successor candidates for key roles
Assessment of strengths across key competencies
Identification and development of high potentials.
Identification and elimination of key succession gaps.
Figure showing how to strengthening talent development in the organization.
Developing an enterprise perspective
The CEO can ensure a balanced focus on leadership development and business
Needs as well as movement of people across organizational boundaries. This will
Promote sustainable leadership in the organization
Integrating the organization
Creation of an organizational integration function provides diagnostic processes to identify and eliminate or reduce the overlap and duplication that often emerges in decentralized structures. High impact instruments can be created and implanted to identify and build upon key organizational, structural process and leadership elements to strengthen and enhance business performance.
Metrics for driving accountability
Systems are then installed to hold line managers accountable for building leadership.
Leadership development and succession becomes an unavoidable "gate" for promotion and significantly affect compensation, this can be understood with the diagram given below
Figure showing metrics for driving accountability
Institutionalizing the process
Ultimately the objective is to institutionalize a simple consistent process across the enterprise which promotes leadership and succession cycles
Leadership and Entrepreneurship
It is leadership style that creates the appropriate climate for entrepreneurship and innovation in an organization.successfull leaders are not only good executives they are also great entrepreneurs .a entrepreneur today has to face several changes in the organization .he has to adapt the change process efficiently and convert the disadvantages of changes into advantages of business for which entrepreneur needs strong leadership qualities mentioned in above paragraphs leadership ,creativity, ability to solve problems makes a leader successful entrepreneur.
Source: articlesbase.com
Is Barak Obama enjoying the loftiest leadership stage any leader can reach? What about Nelson Mandela? Who between the two has reached the highest leadership stage? How can we know this? How do the leaders gain public fame? How did they take on the stage of public arena? Is there some defining moments that demarcate the leaders' walk to public arena? If indeed there can be such moments, can these moments be captured? If so, can they be lessons for current and future leaders? What can current and future leaders learn from such moments? Yes, there are indeed defining moments and, these defining moments can be traced and captured. Besides, they can be used as learning lessons to current and upcoming leaders.
The loftiest leadership stage in the ten defining moments in leadership is Entitlement, when a leader has gained the public fame. The other stages stretching from when a leader is virtually unknown to when he or she is widely known are Emptiness, Experimental, Experiential, Endeavour, Engagement, Endorsement, Endearment, Endowment, Entrenchment, and the loftiest, Entitlement stage.
Whether positive or negative, fame is seen as increasing at the same level as the influence a leader exerts in the public domain. Thus, the more a leader is known and recognised, the more he or she exerts influence to the led. This simply means that if a leader is not known, his or her influence is small or none-existent. If he or she is a known public figure, his or her influence is great. In this way, a leader is able to affect the public agenda even more. With the ten stages, the book traces the leaders' life's journey from the time a leader is virtually unknown to when he or she becomes a household name. It traces the struggles, the huddles, the joys, the power and glory, of each stage, as well as the temptation accompanying each stage along the way. The book can be used as a leadership mirror to evaluate where the leader currently is, where he or she is going, and what such a leader needs to do as well as avoid during the current stage. The book also prepares a leader of what to expect in the next leadership and subsequent stages.
Why base leadership on fame? Simply put, a leader can simply be described as a dealer with people. At every level, from the home front to the national and indeed international front, leaders affect people either positively or negatively and many time a mixed grill of both. People rejoice when good leadership is in place or likewise mourn when the bad leadership is in place. Therefore, one cannot divorce leadership with follower-ship, and in the latter is where people are. For good or for worse the higher one climbs in the leadership ladder, the more people one affects, influences and touches. This means a man with a wife and three kids will adversely affect his family if that is the only influence he has. A business leader with a thousand people under him or her will adversely affect those people, and so will a president with a country of thirty million people. Then there are those leaders who have no geographical borders. They are bound to affect very many people in one way or another, for good or for worse.
Leaders everywhere occupy one of the ten stages of leadership ladder. The ten stages are further divided into four phases. Phase one is known as survival phase when the cup of fame is empty.
Phase two is known as success, a phase of relative fame when the cup of fame is half-empty. The third phase is called Success-Significance when a leader is enjoying wide fame, thus the cup of fame is full to the brim. The fourth and last, the highest leadership can go, is called Significance phase when the cup of fame is overflowing cup and the leader enjoys wider fame. Let us see this one further:
Emptiness - A LEADER WITH A FLEDGING VISION & UNTESTED VIRTUE
Phase one is known as survival phase-The empty Cup of Fame. This phase has three stages, Emptiness, Experimental and Experiential.
The first stage of section 1 entitled Survival- The empty cup of Fame is Emptiness. This is a stage where and when a leader is little or not known at all. Both the position such a leader holds and influence he or she wields is limited or non-existent. It is when a leader holds only a fledging vision in mind and untested virtue at heart. This stage is promising, has all potential, but troubles abound and hindrances abide. Nothing but hope and faith is vested in such a leader, hope that he or she will make something out of his or her life or will turn out to be or somebody in the society, and faith that he or she will not disappoint. Therefore, the ‘public' expectation of a leader in such a stage is courageous leadership.
Experimental - A LEADER TESTING THE WATERS
Two words form the basis of the second stage called Experimental stage. The words are ‘try' and ‘risk' because the stage has bottlenecks which include uncertainty and let downs, misunderstandings and threat posing, rejections and regrets. Well, these are enough to keep the leader's diary full and his or her life occupied. But with all the odds in this stage, and though they do not come easily, there are payoffs as well. This includes baby steps and vision test, exploiting the unexplored potential, knocking doors, building networks and collecting a basketful of learning experiences. This is the stage where the public expect authentic leadership, enough to overcome the let downs on the way to public leadership.
Experiential - A LEADER TASTING THE FRUITS
The third and last stage in this first phase is called Experiential. This when and where a leader tastes the fruits of his or her labour. The bottlenecks include intense competition as well as a leader settling on laurels by reducing the vision originally cast. It is in this stage that the road branches somewhere, one fork of that road leads to virtue, and the other expediency. This throws such a leader in a dilemma of which to choose from the two forks of the road. Will the leader choose virtue or expediency? This presents a crisis to the leader for both of them offer opportunities or danger. Having been in the field of leadership and having built some following, people's expectations towards such a leader are rising. The most important expectation is that a leader in such a calibre shows some principle standards in all his or her dealings.
Endeavour - A LEADER FORGING ON
Phase two is known as success -The Half-Empty Cup of Relative Fame. This phase has two stages, the Endeavour and Endorsement. Though both the position and influence are on the increase, position is still greater than influence. Because of this, a leader in this phase is therefore ruling.
This phase begins with Endeavour stage, when a leader feels that enough is not enough and decides to move on in leadership ladder. The first characteristic in this stage is that the leader has more than enough, described as successful and that both the position and influence of a leader is on the increase and the leader is desirous to leave a mark in his or her leadership. But there are at least three bottlenecks in this stage, the naked and un-tempered ambition and greed and grabbing as well as the urge to exterminate or at least smoothen out the enemies on the way. The public expect a leader in the endeavour stage to offer integrity leadership, much needed at this stage.
Endorsement - A LEADER GAINING PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE
Overall the fifth stage, second stage in this phase is known as Endorsement a stage where and when a leader is gaining public acceptance. The dangers in this stage involve setting a secure leadership base or solidify this endorsement for he or she may still feel insecure and in so doing take the path of revenge, settling scores on personal vendetta, surrounding self with cronies, rewarding those who helped the leader up as well as taking people for granted. Opportunities of Endorsement Leadership include proving his or her saltiness and building bridges and mending walls as well as seizing this opportunity to serve the people who voted or put him or her there. Therefore, the led expect such a leader to offer responsible leadership.
Engagement - A LEADER GETS SOMETHINGTO DO
The third phase is called Success-Significance- The full to the Brim cup of Wide Fame and contains Engagement, Endearment and Endowment stages. For the first time, the leader's influence surpluses his or her position.
In the Engagement stage, a leader is engaged, he or she gets something to do. His or her diary is full. The stage is transactional in nature, that is, there is a business-like transaction taking place between the leader and the led. Therefore, there are discussions, communication, concessions, and mutual agreements reached between the two parties. However, transaction work well when every party plays their part and work wrongly when one does not play his or her part well. Transactions being in the business world, it follows the characteristics of misuses found in that world, like underhand and shady deals, as well as breaking promises and lack of integrity. Three requirements needed in this stage are, the minimum requirement, the leader keeping the promise, the optimum requirement, the leader uplifting the virtue of integrity, and, the maximum requirement, the leader raising the level of leadership offered in this stage from transactional to transformational. Taken together, the public expectations of leaders in this phase are public accountability, positive influence, and a show of integrity. The public expectations of leaders in the Engagement stage are transformational leadership, a more superior leadership than mere transactional one.
Endearment - PEOPLE'S EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO A LEADER
The seventh stage is Endearment stage. While the fifth stage, the Endorsement stage was rather rational in nature, Endearment one goes beyond that to involve and invoke the emotional side of people. In Endearment, people exhume great love and pride and admiration of their leader. However, this may produce the flip side situation where the leader yearns to consolidate all the adoration directed to him or her and yearn to remain the centre of attention. The public expectation of Endearment stage is to offer steward leadership. Thus, their main responsibility and test of leadership to be effective and faithful stewards of the resources they have been entrusted with and the greatest resource being people themselves.
Endowment - A LEADER CROWNED BY THE PEOPLE
The eighth stage of leadership and fame is Endowment stage, a very high stage indeed and prone to all kinds of dangers and vanities. Crowned by the people either by votes or by increase of customer or client base, or even fans, the next stage, the Endowment leader, believes he or she has special knowledge to lead, and thus taken as a gift of God to the people and not the other way round, is a beneficiary and not the other way round, can enter in the realm of metaphysics and not the other way round. The feeling of nuli secundus, the Latin word for second-to-none may dominate in such a leader. This builds the leader's greatest weakness. Such leaders can capture leadership opportunities by serving a higher cause, and giving people glory. People's expectations of their leaders increase at every level, and become more serious. People expect empowerment leadership, a kind that will improve their lot, not that kind of leadership that will only enrich the leader.
Entrenchment - A LEADER IN PEOPLE'S PHYSIC
The fourth and last, the highest leadership can go, is called Significance phase- The overflowing cup of Wider Fame which contains two stages, the Entrenchment and the Entitlement stage. While Endorsement stage leaders were approved rationally, and Endearment types approved emotionally, the ninth stage of leadership, Entrenchment stage, leaders' transcendence beyond all these and enter into peoples' physic. This means that such leaders has too great influence that even if they leave the position of leadership, without use of force or arms they still influence any decision to be taken or made.
For good or for bad, Entrenchment leaders are very hard to replace and the obvious gap exists between them and any thought replacement. For good or for bad again, everything around these leaders is public. Holding the world to the sway of their influence and power, and using their larger than life space, if these leaders climbed all the way while they are dwarfed inside, they can misuse this honoured position of leadership in more ways than one. The potential and real danger surround Entrenchment leaders are insecurity and power abuse, moral compromise and lapse, breaking of rules, pride, vanity, fantasy and fanaticism all rolled into one. Such can subsequently combine to produce false beliefs in a leader which can lead to the dangers of human rights violations. On the positive side, Entrenchment leaders' influence is so great that their virtues are felt widely and deeply. They should serve the high office better doing two things, one serving the people, and two, mentoring others in leadership. This is encapsulated in shepherd leadership expected of them by the public.
Entitlement - A LEADER TAKEN AS A GIVEN
When the queen of Sheba parked her train caravans full of gold, camels and precious stones and crossed over from Egypt to Jerusalem to see for herself of the fame she heard of King Solomon, she was responding to King Solomon's last form of leadership, Entitlement leadership, a leadership that makes other kings and queens travel far and wide to witness for themselves the glory associated it. This last and highest stage of leadership rides on greatest fame, greatest power and loftiest glory.
However, even such a leader can be larger than life but internally dwarfed. Some of the characteristics of such a leadership are pride, aloofness and a don't care attitude, manipulating and misusing people, squandering state or business resources and, smoothening his or her way through by removing opposition and competition on the way. His or her conscience may die and can transcend from a fellow human being to a demi-god. Once these leaders consistently maintain the negative trends of leadership, they have a final and permanent place for them to go in history- back into permanent and irredeemable obscurity.
In such a high position as this, leaders ought to have nothing to prove or lose, nothing to hide or hold back and, at the same time everything give and gain. Even as people offer them permanent entitlement for leadership, the best Entitlement leaders can do is to have no entitlement on their side. They should portray a sense of selflessness as they lead people. Virtues like to nurture and mentor new leaders, to help humanity, to empower others and to leave a positive, lasting legacy are virtues that such leaders are expected to maintain while in such a stage in leadership. The overall public expectations of this phase are a showcase of more wisdom and model to them, portray more of genuine humility and service, shower more praise and appreciation to people struggling with hard life and concerns and, probably a culmination or a combination of all, a more display of greatness that kisses goodness. This is a leadership that can rightly be called servant leadership.
Source: articlesbase.com
The reason we have interest in Next Generation Leadership is because the last generation of leadership interpretations were inadequate. They didn't deliver the goods of enabling actual leadership and leadership results, however captivating the leadership framework and stories.
Leadership is a field that needs some clarity and usefulness where we outgrow our appetite for "next generation leadership" because the last generation didn't produce satisfaction and effectiveness. We need an understanding of leadership that is fundamental, clear, observable, necessary, executable, rigorous, and learnable. We need an interpretation that brings us closer to the "eternally valid aspects" of leadership, regardless of culture or historical era.
Leadership, as with any other field of human endeavor, is a field of distinctions, practice, and discourse. As a discourse, leadership shows up for us based on what story and distinctions we have for it, and these shape and enable the actions we take as leaders. Our personal discourse of leadership may be rich and enabling, or sparse and remote. For many people "leadership" is just a word that names something that is not clear, a bit mysterious, but seems important. They lack the distinctions to see, learn, or carry out effective leadership, though they do experience occasional moments where it seems to happen anyway.
Leadership draws tremendous attention with many books, programs, and approaches, as we try to explain, show, inspire, and enable effective leadership. The wide diversity of interpretations and approaches is also a symptom that we don't have a clear shared interpretation of what it is. We don't have, for example, such a wide diversity of interpretations for basic chemistry– it's pretty settled as a field of understanding, interpretation, and practice. We still lack such a foundational understanding of leadership. The diversity of approaches to understanding leadership is reflected in a wide diversity of business leadership programs, business management courses, executive leadership programs, and offers of leadership coaching.
"Generative leadership" is the name of the field that has been focused on developing just such a fundamental set of leadership interpretations and practices, to find identifiable fundamental structures and regularities of the ways that effective leaders observe, act, and generate results. We don't believe that generative leadership is the only, final, or right interpretation of leadership, but rather that it provides a fundamental and permanent dimension of leadership interpretation that addresses what is missing in the mainstream common sense. It provides a focus on what is fundamental and non-discretionary about leadership and also provides a frame which allows for variations in style, culture, situation, and historical moment. It acts as a foundation and cross check on other interpretations to increase the value they can provide by addressing the generative aspects of: what is observable, executable, learnable, and produces leadership outcomes.
The roots of generative leadership extend back into a discipline called ontological design, developed by Dr. Fernando Flores, and it is related to the field of ontological coaching, developed by Julio Olalla. The discipline draws from many other fields including neuroscience, linguistics, somatics and embodiment, cognition, biology, psychology and emotions. Developed by Bob Dunham since 1981, generative leadership comes from the original questions of "what is action?", and "how do human beings produce action and coordinate action?" These questions are so fundamental that they also provide powerful new answers to other questions including "what is leadership," "what is management," "what is a team," and "what is an organization."
These generative answers - which mean ones that are observable, executable, learnable, and that produce the outcome that is named – are based on focusing attention and action on phenomena that are not part of our mainstream awareness. These include commitment based management and coordination, the power of conversations to generate action and results, the role of care in producing passion and ownership, and practice based learning. Some of the key areas of focus of these interpretations include the role of emotions, body, and language in generating action, the role of care in value and satisfaction, and the essential aspects of coordination that underlie effective team performance.
In generative leadership acts of commitment, like requests and promises, produce the generative power of language and conversation. All action is understood to be preceded by conversations that shape and determine its outcomes, both through performance and coordination, and through the assessments of the outcomes. All conversations produce some kind of commitment that shapes future action, and the impact of every conversation is based on the coherence of its language, emotional tone, presence and body language. What people listen when others speak is based on their history and background. Leaders know how to connect to the historical listening and the care of others, and to provoke commitment for future actions.
The point about these distinctions is that they are all generative – observable, executable, learnable, and always are part of generating the results. This is the power of the generative way of "observing." This way of being an observer - of what one sees and pays attention to - enables being an actor that takes different kinds of action based on these fundamental aspects of human communication, coordination, leadership, management, and teamwork.
Although these distinctions are not yet part of our mainstream education and training, they address phenomena that are always present and in which we are always moving as human beings. We are in a situation similar to medicine hundreds of years ago when doctors didn't know or study anatomy, but anatomy was always there determining what was happening as a result of their actions. Physicians became more effective when they became aware of and skillful with what was already there – anatomy, biochemistry, and the systems and dynamics of the body. We believe that leadership and management face a similar historical moment: that practitioners are conscientious, hard-working, and dedicated, but are blind to the anatomy and dynamics of their domain of action, which is there all the time and determining their outcomes whether they pay attention to them or not.
To address this Bob Dunham founded the Institute for Generative Leadership in 1998 based on work he and his colleagues have been involved in since 1981. The Institute has trained hundreds of executives, business owners, managers, and professionals through its Generative Leadership Program (the GLP program). Bob's experience includes being an executive in multiple companies, including as Vice President of Motorola Computer Systems, Vice President of Business Design Associates, and Chief Operating Officer of Action Technologies. He actively consults with client companies in management and leadership development.
A bit more about Bob: he is co-author of the book The Innovator's Way, the Essential Practices for Successful Innovation with Dr. Peter Denning, published by MIT Press. He designs and delivers multi-year programs in leadership in the US and South America, including the Generative Leadership Program (GLP). He also delivers the Coaching Excellence in Organizations (CEO) program in a joint venture with Newfield Network, one of the leading schools of coaching in the world. He is a guest lecturer in the Executive Certification Program for Presidio Graduate School and in the Leading by Design Fellows Program for the California College of the Arts, and was Adjunct Faculty, Executive in Residence, in the Presidio MBA program in Sustainable Management for three years. Bob has also been published with a chapter in the book Being Human at Work, edited by Dr. Richard Strozzi Heckler, as well as in numerous publications, including Communications of the ACM, Training Magazine, the International Journal for Coaching in Organizations, and the Center for Quality of Management Journal.
The intent of the GLP Program, the CEO program, and others that are in development is to provide generative leadership training that enables people to become more self-generating as leaders, managers, team members, and human beings. These programs provide what is not currently available from other forms of traditional and mainstream education and development: as an MBA leadership program, providing a new dimension to current forms of management leadership training, management development, and organizational performance development. We believe that we provide an essential element to what may someday be a degree in leadership that offers actual leadership skill, not just leadership studies.The results of the programs are being demonstrated by our GLP participants and graduates and our CEO participants and graduates that now number in the hundreds.
Source: articlesbase.com
Positive connotations of power come when we hear people saying, 'I want to empower my team', 'I feel a powerful urge to try something new' and 'In business, Knowledge is power'. Negative connotations of power are identified when we hear people saying, 'The government is getting too powerful', 'Powerful multinational corporations steam roller the interests of the man in the street' and 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' (Francis Bacon).
So let us look at the legitimate and the illegitimate uses of power. Good uses of power are when power means the capacity to do something. To know that it is within my power to do something about a situation. This is a good use of power, which means you should continually strive to develop your ability power.
So how do you develop your ability power? This can be done by developing your knowledge of leadership and management technique, your communication skills, and your self confidence.
The physicist's definition of power is the work done divided by the time. So in basic terms the amount of work you can do per an hour. How much capacity for work do you have per unit of time? You should develop your power to do more productive work per hour.
This can be achieved by maximising your time management skills and your powers of mental concentration. The opposite of this would be inactivity or inefficiency.
Power can also mean economic power. Think about how much money you have saved and invested in the last five years. Those who have accumulated wealth have gained economic power. Those who have spent every penny, have no economic power. You should strive to increase your economic power.
So how do you do this? Figure out ways in which you can add more value to the marketplace. Invest your money into those things which will gain value in the long run, for example, property, business and gold. Don't spend all your money on things which will depreciate in value in the long run, like holidays and cars.
The three good uses of power are, ability power, work done divided by time resulting in efficiency power and economic power.
There are a number of bad uses of power which include the power over people. You shouldn't try to gain power over others. Some people use a powerful voice to talk over other people. They use their powerful character to rule over meetings and their powerful physical presence to intimidate others. This could be seen to be social bully, which in the long run is bad for everyone.
Power can be constructive or destructive. You shouldn't use your power to destroy and breakdown as it should be used to construct and build. Just think a nuclear bomb is powerful but destructive while a nuclear power station is powerful but constructive. In a business context it is better to construct rather than destroy. By working with others and not against them you can use your power to construct.
The misuse of political power is to unfairly use a position of political authority to personal advantage at the expense of others. Examples of misuse of political powers include a politician feathering his own nest by passing government contracts to a family member's company or a journalist bending the truth for their own ideological purposes.
All of these are examples of corrupt uses of power which will lead to failure for the individual concerned in the long run.
To recap, three wrong uses of power are, power over others (social bully), power to destroy, and corrupt political power. Three good uses of power are ability power, work done divided by the time resulting in efficiency power and economic power.
Source: articlesbase.com
Leadership skills can play a large role in career development. Often, your technical skills can only take you so far. To help you move forward in your career, you need soft skills such as the ability to be a good leader. Therefore, leadership skills are considered to be important traits which can help you get to the top of your career field. You're more likely to be hired or get a promotion if you've been successful in leadership roles in your professional or personal life.
Few people are born to be leaders. Most of us need to practice being a good leader, and that's why leadership development is so important. There are many different types of leadership, and there are many skillsets that can help you become a successful leader.
Taking Initiative
Most bosses will assign their employees tasks that the employees have proven to be adept at. Therefore, don't wait to take on more responsibilities. Go above and beyond at your current position. A good way to develop your skills is to take on extra projects outside of your job description. Remember, the more work you do, the more you are learning. Learning more and taking on more responsibility can help move you into a leadership role in your workplace.
Critical Thinking
To be hired for a high-profile job, you will need to be a critical thinker. Good leaders are able to foresee potential problems before they happen. They can then develop ways to prevent the problems from happening. Good leaders are also aware of potential opportunities and take advantage of them to benefit the company and employees.
Listening Effectively
One of the most important skills for a leader is listening. Without listening skills, you are not able to get feedback from others and get a sense of what team members like about the projects they work on. Feedback is key. To listen effectively, you need to maintain eye contact, avoid distractions and respond appropriately. Keep in mind, communication is not only about verbal communication. Be aware of body language and gestures to determine what people are really saying.
Motivate Others
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader," said John Quincy Adams. A true leader should positively influence people. When employees or coworkers lose their ambitions and passions, a true leader can energize and motivate them. How do leaders motivate people? First, they know what people need and want. For example, if an employee loses motivation because he or she thinks his or her hard work is not being recognized, a good leader will talk to that person and offer the recognition that is deserved.
Sometimes, people lose their motivation because they are facing difficulties, tired of doing the same repetitive tasks or disappointed they are not being asked to get involved. As a leader, you should talk to him or her, ask him or her what's going on, and share your personal stories with him or her to encourage him or her to get involved.
Discipline
Discipline is required to achieve goals. Even if you have a vision or a good idea, it's useless without discipline. If you want to execute a plan effectively, you need discipline. Take the following scenario into consideration. You and your team want to create a business plan to attract investors. You have lots of ideas for the business plan, but none of you did the actual work. When it's time to present the proposal, you will have no actionable goals to present to potential investors. To be a good leader, you need to be self-disciplined and make sure others on your team are disciplined too.
Constant Learning
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other," said John F. Kennedy. When things are changing rapidly, it is important to constantly learn and challenge yourself.
Know How to Delegate
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it," said Theodore Roosevelt. A successful leader won't micro-manage. Delegate work to your employees and let them feel empowered. If you do this, they will feel more involved and have more opportunity to develop new skills. Delegating will allow you to better concentrate on the goals you need to achieve yourself. If you are a project leader, you are still responsible for the work in the end. This is why it is important to oversee the project when delegating.
Handling Conflicts
Leaders have to know how to handle difficult people and resolve conflicts. If an employee doesn't work to the best of his or her ability and brings a negative attitude to work, leaders have to step up and talk to that person in private. Leaders have to be honest and straight to the point. This requires a lot of courage. It is not easy to point out a problem or fire someone. Always listen to the employee's side of the story before you reach a conclusion.
Be a Follower
Leaders should learn to recognize the value of team members, learn from them and encourage other team members to learn from them. Learn things that you didn't know from a person who specializes in that area.
The Bottom Line
Good leadership skills are essential to career development. "The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority," said Ken Blanchard. If you want to improve your leadership skills, think about what actions you can take to be more influential. If you are already a leader, think about how you can influence others.
Original story - How To Improve Your Leadership Skills
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360 multi-rater feedback assessments are now used by more than 85% of Fortune 500 companies. They’ve become a foundation of leadership development efforts because they’re like a GPS unit showing leaders their current leadership effectiveness (“you are here”) and mapping a route to increased effectiveness. 360 feedback tools derive their name from getting feedback in all directions; boss, peers, direct reports, and others working with that leader.
Another reason 360s have become so widely used is outlined in Zenger Folkman’s new book, How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths:
” … very few people have an accurate perception of either their strengths or their weaknesses. This is why we often comically read such facts as “80 percent of American drivers consider themselves above average” and “65 percent of people surveyed believe they are better than average looking in appearance.” Indeed, our research shows that self-perceptions tend to be only half as reliable as those from either peers or direct reports.“
BUT, we’re also seeing a growing backlash against 360 survey feedback tools. Like any tool, the design of the tool and how it’s used makes a huge difference in its usefulness. Traditional assessments and needs analysis look for gaps. And most 360 feedback tools focus on finding and fixing weaknesses.
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Author:
Jim Clemmer
