Notes #49 A Look at Leadership Development

In this "issue" of Leaders Notes, we step back a little at take a more philosophical look at Leadership Development itself.  And at how one can approach leadership development.  I think this is an important topic to discuss.  This series was created to serve as a sort of informal, on-going “supplemental training” in leadership development, highlighting various resources (written mainly, but also videos and courses) that one may use to further their own and others leadership development.

Too often I find that many people, due to not being involved with more then one organization, have never bothered to take a look at how leadership development can be handled.  There are many ways one can approach leadership development, and it’s not a good idea to think that only one approach is the “right” one or the only one.  As I've been involved in leadership development with several organizations for many years, I've had discussions with others, especially as some of the groups I am involved in have revamped, in some cases extensively, their LD programs.

Notes #48 Habitudes

Habitudes are an interesting series of books (and resources) aimed to help students learn leadership.  There are 6 books in the series, which have the full title of Habitudes: Images that form leadership habits and attitudes.  These books were developed by Tim Elmore thru his company Growing Leaders, which aims to help students (high school and college age) develop as leaders.  Each Habitudes book has 13 images (the communications one has 16 images).  With each image is a short article on the leadership concept tied to that image.  This is then followed by a short Reflect and Respond section, then a self assessment, then an Exercise.  The communication volume uses different terms, but it’s the same purpose.

Notes #47 Change

Change is something that all of us must deal with in our lives.  As leaders, not only must we deal with change, but sometimes we need to be ‘change agents’, bringing about change in our organizations.  Change can be something that is looked forward to.  Change can be something that is feared and avoided.  We need to understand how to handle change and how to manage it.

A great quote from Einstein that is appropriate here: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.”  What is needed is a change in what you do to get the results you want.  If your group is stuck in a rut, keep that in mind.

Notes #46 Goal Setting

For leaders, there are several "soft skills" that is valuable for them to be comfortable with, both on a personal level as well as to use within their organizations.  As we have passed the New Years (and the idea of New Year’s Resolutions), I think it’s important to touch on one: Goal Setting.  This skill, along with time management and planning are important for all.

Goal Setting is something we all must face.  As individuals we should be setting goals for ourselves.  The organizations we are part of should be doing the same.  Many groups will have an annual planning session in which they review the accomplishments of the group in the past year, including how well they met their goals, set new goals for the coming year, and make plans for the organization.  As leaders, we should be comfortable with goal setting ourselves if we expect to lead our groups in setting and keeping their goals.

Notes #45 Situational Self-Leadership

In prior Notes, we covered the concept of Situational Leadership, which deals with how a leader needs to change their manner of leadership with a follower as the situation changes, and the concept of Situational Team Leadership, which applies the concept to the stages of Team Development (sometimes these are called the Team Development Model and the Team Leadership Model).  With this Note, we ‘complete the trilogy’, so to speak, by covering Situational Self-Leadership.  This applies the concept of Situational Leadership to “self leadership”.  This concept is covered by Ken Blanchard’s Self-Leadership and the One Minute Manager (2005) as well as in a chapter of his more recent Leading at a Higher Level (2006, 2009).

Notes #44 Jim Collin’s Level 5 Leadership

Jim Collins is a business consultant and researcher who has written (or co-written) several successful works on business, all based on extensive research.  His works include Built to Last (1994 with Jarry Porras) which looked at what caused some companies to be enduring successes; Good to Great (2001) looked at what enabled some companies to go from just a “good” company to a “great” one; How the Mighty Fall (2009) focused on what caused formerly great companies to fail; and most recently Great by Choice (2011 with Morten Hansen).

Notes #43 Empowerment

For those of us who work in a corporate environment, you may be familiar with the concept of empowerment, which was almost a fad a couple of decades ago.  But is it still relevant, and what does it matter for the people in our organizations?  Read on.

Within companies, empowerment was a new way of dealing with employees.  The idea basically was that employees would be “empowered” with the ability to make certain decisions on their own, rather than needing to go to a supervisor or manager.  There are several works on the topic, but some I feel are useful are by Ken Blanchard.  With co-authors, he wrote two books on the topic: Empowerment takes More than a Minute (1996, 2001) and 3 Keys to Empowerment (1999).  His recent work, Leading at a Higher Level (2006, 2009), which has been mentioned in previous Notes, also devoted a chapter to the topic.  The first book is probably most important, as it introduces the concept and three key elements that make it work.   It does so in the style of his One Minute Manager series, with a fictionalized story.  The second is a follow on giving further information on implementation.

Notes #42 The Leadership Challenge

The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner is now in its fifth edition (2012).  It’s proved to be a very popular work, spawning workshops, a conference, and various support materials, including a 360 degree assessment tool (the Leadership Practices Inventory) and a journal, a workbook and activities book.  It’s even lead to a version developed for students, which can be used in high school or college level programs.   The Student Leadership Challenge (2nd edition, 2014) has its own LPI and support material. (I plan to look at this in depth in a future Notes)  Information on all this can be found at the website www.leadershipchallenge.com, which has a variety of material available.

The authors of the LC set out to research and interview leaders about leadership itself.  From this research, which included leadership in both business and non-profit groups, they developed their model of leadership.  They make a big point that their work is based on 25 years of research.

Notes #41 Communication & Presentation

As leaders we need to be communicators.  This is important for many aspects of leadership.  As leaders we should develop a vision.  But what good is that vision if we are unable to convey that vision to those we lead such that they accept and buy in to that vision.  In leading people, we must be able to communicate with them, and that includes finding out what they need and want.  This communication could be one on one or small groups.

 Too often communication is seen as being totally separate from leadership.   There are programs and classes on speech and communication, but divorced from leadership.  On the flip-side, sometimes people think that leaders must be great orators.  Well, yes, some have been, for good or bad.  But there have also been quiet people who are great leaders as well, but they still were able to communicate.

And always keep in mind that communication can be written as well as verbal.  Can you organize your thoughts, put them down in a form that others can understand?  This, too is important.

Notes #40 Leadership at the Movies I

Most people probably love to watch movies.  They can entertain.  Make us laugh or cry (or both).  Many of them have a lesson to teach.  It’s in those we want to look at.  Often times with leadership, being able to show our students examples of leadership (sometimes good, sometimes bad) can be a powerful way of helping them understand leadership.

Movies are a great way to do so. In several leadership courses I've been involved in over the years, movies (or selections from movies) have been part of the program.

In your own group or organization, showing movies can be very useful, not just for the entertainment value, but from the lessons they show.  This will hopefully be the first of several Notes to illustrate movies (and maybe tv shows) that can illustrate lessons of leadership.  Doing so should not be strange.  In doing some of the research for this Note, I found a few books that are about that, such as Movies to Manage By and Reel Lessons in Leadership. (I have not reviewed these books, but would hope they could be valuable resources).

Notes #39 Stephen Covey and his 7 Habits

There are those works which are so popular that many people just blow them off.  The works of the late Stephen Covey fall into that category.  They've been around for so long that too often people overlook them.  And like most popular works, he has his detractors, who are put off by numbered lists and charts (6 these and 5 those and the like).  While his works seem to principally focus on managing your time, which is a skill that all leaders need, there is a lot more to his works then that.  There is a lot to his works that require more than a superficial reading.