Positive Leadership: What is Good Leadership?

Jeremy Marchant of Emotional Intelligence discusses in this IOD video why good leadership means more than just glorified management.

Good leadership is actually a relationship of equals where the person leading recognises the most powerful way they can ensure the enterprise they are responsible for thrives is one in which they let go of their ego and essentially empower everyone else in the team to do the best job.

Positive Leadership: What is Good Leadership?

Positive Leadership: Tom Peters on Leadership

Tom Peters on the Definition of Leadership from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

Positive Leadership: Tom Peters on Leadership

Positive Leadership: What Makes A Leader

'What Makes A Leader?' was the title of the 1998 article Daniel Goleman wrote in the Harvard Business Review that the review calls one of its ten “must-read” articles of all time. He wrote about three abilities that distinguish the best leaders from average: self-awareness, which both lets you know your strengths and limits, and strengthens your inner ethical radar; self-management, which lets you lead yourself effectively; and empathy, which lets you read other people accurately. You put all those together in every act of leadership.

For more, see: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2011/09/15/daniel-goleman-on-leadership-and-the-power-of-emotional-intelligence/

Positive Leadership: What Makes A Leader

Positive Leadership: Pyramid of Values

The Values of Positive Leadership™ operate throughout the 5 levels of leadership depicted in Jim Collins' book Good to Great :

Positive Leadership: Pyramid of Values

Positive Leadership: What it Takes to be an Extraordinary Leader

After writing more than 50 books on topics ranging from Buddha to getting a good night's rest, Deepak Chopra recently turned his attention to leadership and entrepreneurs in The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness. While there's no shortage of spirituality in this book, readers -- Chopra hopes -- will get a healthy tutorial on how to practically start and build organisations and companies that thrive and possibly even inspire.

Here are his answers two important questions:

What are the keys to successful leadership?

'Any leader has one main goal: How to envision that future and how to create that future. So in order to be really effective, the leader needs to harness the intelligence, creativity, emotional engagement and also the emotional connection with the people that are part of his or her team in order to manifest that vision.'

Can leadership be learned?

'Leaders are not born that way. Circumstance, context, history, culture and precise timing bring out the leader. It's said the civil rights movement was born when Rosa Parks refused to get up from her seat. When asked why she did that, she said she was tired. It is really a mysterious phenomenon, but I believe that in any moment of crisis, there's a moment for leaders to emerge, and they usually do. Among the many, there are always one or two people who realise the opportunity and their potential. We all have the potential. We all may not have the desire. If you don't have the desire, then you're not a born leader. Inherent in the desire is the potential for leadership.'

Positive Leadership: What it Takes to be an Extraordinary Leader

Social Media and Leadership

Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead (J-B Warren Bennis Series) by Charlene Li argues that a new organisational structure is required to accommodate and benefit from the culture of sharing that social media has fuelled over the last four years. The information flow we all experience daily can no longer be organised into neat org-chart silos. Instead, it demands a new kind of leadership — one based on letting go of the command-and-control model and embracing openness and relationship building.

Information sharing and dialogue, both internal and external, are key to the openness Li prescribes. But how can leaders be open in a world where they need to be in control? “If you think you are in control, you’re fooling yourself. As soon as you start listening, you realise you’re not in control.” Li proclaimed. “And letting go will yield more and better results.”

Here’s a distilled version of the five steps she laid out for achieving open leadership:

1. Have an open — but not undisciplined — strategy. Align openness with your organisation’s strategic goals. Examine your 2010 goals, pick one in which both openness and social media can have an impact, and start there.  “Every organisation is both open and closed. You must be strategic with what you are open about and not,” Li advises.

2. Understand the upside. Clearly define your goals.  What is the value of an open approach — beyond ROI?  Customer lifetime value, for example, should include the value of new customers that come from referrals, the value that their new insights bring to your product offering and the value of their word-of-mouth support. New customers who come with valuable networks — which you can then tap into — are the most valuable. The more open and engaged you are, the more you’ll be able to get value out of these expanded networks.

3. Find and gather support from others who are realists/optimists. Seek out leaders on your team who are open, rather than the pessimists or worried sceptics who are conditioned to default to a command-and-control mindset. The stakes for embracing openness are high, but the costs of not engaging optimistic allies are also high.

4. Manage risk with ‘sandbox covenants’. Clearly define the outlines and risks of your experiments so your team members feel secure rather than threatened by change. At the same time, be sure to let them know that these experiments in openness are not going to stay small forever.

5. Embrace failure. In same way you have a success file, keep an accessible failure file.  This is an important way to stay authentic and open to the fact that not everything succeeds.  Team members will recognise that all true relationships involve failure and success. 

Social Media and Leadership

How Leaders Can Develop More Effective Thinking in their Organisation

"Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking." David Schwartz

Here are 5 ways for leaders to devlop more effective thinking within their organisations:

1. Cultivate big-picture thinking - this means clearly outlining the team vision and promoting teamwork in such a way that team members see the "big-picture" and how their individual roles fit with that of their teammates. Remember, big-picture thinking can keep you and your team focused (on target), striving for what many others cannot see (beyond the here-and-now), and ready to seize the moment at just the right time.
 
2. Engage in focused thinking - this means thinking about issues with a sense of clarity. In doing so, be sure to prioritise any short- and long-term goals, remove any potential and existing distractions, and maintain a "strength focus" (i.e., spend the majority of your time using your gifts, talents, and best skills). Take the time to focus your thinking (especially when surrounded by multi-taskers). In the long run, you will be more efficient and get more done by focusing on one task at a time.

3. Harness creative thinking - this means taking what you have learned and experienced in the past and turning these experiences into something even better. Your creativity (i.e., ideas) might very well be your most valuable coaching resource. And your ideas do not have to be original or new. Creativity generally has its seed from the past and is often modeled from those whom have gone before you. In the end, creative thinking will help you learn more, challenge the status quo, and draw others toward you and your ideas; especially those that are looking for "options" on the road to success.

4. Employ realistic thinking - this means understanding the difference between what you wish to happen and what is most likely to happen. It is absolutely necessary for you (the coach) to define reality and set the stage for what is to come. Realistic thinking takes away the "wish factor" and helps to provide a solid foundation from which to start. Realistic thinking also takes away the "hope factor" as it requires your team to face reality, better define their goals, and more clearly understand the strategies needed to carry out the game plan. In addition, you can help to alleviate unneeded worry and doubt by assessing the pros and cons of the situation and examining the "worst-case" scenarios (so that you are ready for things if they don't go as planned).

5. Utilise strategic thinking - this means planning beyond one day at a time. And it's more than planning one week at a time. Strategic thinking is about looking far enough "down the road" to have the needed time to develop the most direct path toward achieving your goals and objectives. Such thinking allows for efficiency in planning, time to maximise strengths, and time to customise the best plan of action. So, be sure to break down the long-term plan, identify the real issues ahead of you, match your resources and personnel, and build on the fundamentals that are already in place.

How Leaders Can Develop More Effective Thinking in their Organisation

Losing Touch - Power Diminishes Perception and Perspective

Thinking about recent problems in the banking sector, research just published by Kellogg School of Management suggests that people in power are prone to dismiss or, at the very least, misunderstand the viewpoints of those who lack authority. Such individuals anchor too heavily on their own perspectives and demonstrate a diminished ability to correctly perceive others’ perspectives.

The researchers offer the metaphor of driving a car to understand how power can be transformed into effective leadership. The agency of power is akin to pressing the accelerator pedal. Without acceleration, one is left standing still, unable to move forward. But one also needs a steering wheel to avoid crashing into obstacles along the way. Perspective-taking without agency is ineffective, and agency without perspective-taking is dangerous and irresponsible. Effective leaders require acceleration and prudent steering—power coupled with perspective-taking. The springboard of power combined with perspective-taking may be a particularly constructive force to develop socially responsible leaders.

For more, see - http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/losing_touch

Losing Touch - Power Diminishes Perception and Perspective

Four Things You Can Do to Become a Better Leader

Research clearly shows that transformational leaders - leaders who are positive, inspiring, and who empower and develop followers - are better leaders. They are more valued by followers and have higher performing teams. By working on the 4 key components of transformational leadership, we can all become better leaders (and better persons, in general).

1. Be a Positive Role Model. Set a positive example and don't ask others to do what you yourself are unwilling to do. Alexander the Great was a successful military leader who was adored by his troops, because Alexander was out in front leading the charge into battle.

2. Be Optimistic and Inspirational. Have a "can do" attitude, and use that attitude to motivate. Let followers know your positive vision for the work team or company and inspire them to achieve it.

3. Challenge, but Support. Transformational leaders challenge followers to be creative, innovative, and to take risks, and this is how they together achieve extraordinary results. But, it is critical to support innovation and risk-taking. Don't blame. Instead, use setbacks as positive learning experiences.

4. Listen to Followers and Be Genuinely Concerned. Research shows this may be most important. You can't be the type of leader who empowers and develops followers if you don't have genuine positive regard for your team members. You need to focus on their positive assets, be "in tune" with each member, and demonstrate that you care about each individual's performance and personal development.

OK, here's the "extra" factor: Be Honest and "Authentic" The truly exceptional leaders are straightforward, honest, and don't "play games." They don't use followers to achieve personal gains, but work together for mutually beneficial outcomes.

Being a great leader isn't easy, but we do know that these characteristics are the "recipe" for success.

Four Things You Can Do to Become a Better Leader

Are You a Transformational Leader?

One of the most popular theories of leadership today is transformational leadership. What is a transformational leader? Originally focused on leaders who "transform" groups or organisations, transformational leaders focus on followers, motivating them to high levels of performance, and in the process, help followers develop their own leadership potential.

There are 4 components to transformational leadership, sometimes referred to as the 4 I's:

• Idealized Influence (II) - the leader serves as an ideal role model for followers; the leader "walks the talk," and is admired for this.
• Inspirational Motivation (IM) - Transformational leaders have the ability to inspire and motivate followers. Combined these first two I's are what constitute the transformational leader's charisma.
• Individualized Consideration (IC) - Transformational leaders demonstrate genuine concern for the needs and feelings of followers. This personal attention to each follower is a key element in bringing out their very best efforts.
• Intellectual Stimulation (IS) - the leader challenges followers to be innovative and creative. A common misunderstanding is that transformational leaders are "soft," but the truth is that they constantly challenge followers to higher levels of performance.

Research evidence clearly shows that groups led by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders.

Why? Because transformational leaders hold positive expectations for followers, believing that they can do their best. As a result, they inspire, empower, and stimulate followers to exceed normal levels of performance and, transformational leaders focus on and care about followers and their personal needs and development.

See if you have transformational leadership qualities (Agree or Disagree).

• 1. I would never require a follower to do something that I wouldn't do myself.
• 2. My followers would say that they know what I stand for.
• 3. Inspiring others has always come easy to me.
• 4. My followers have told me that my enthusiasm and positive energy are infectious.
• 5. My followers would say that I am very attentive to their needs and concerns.
• 6. Even though I could easily do a task myself, I delegate it to expand my followers' skills.
• 7. Team creativity and innovation are the keys to success.. I encourage my followers to question their most basic way of thinking.

(Items 1 & 2 = II; 3 & 4 = IM; 5 & 6 = IC; 7 & 8 = IS)

To learn more about transformational leadership, read: Transformational Leadership

Are You a Transformational Leader?

The Principles of Leadership

Leaders shape the future. Leaders bring change and leaders challenge the status quo. If there is no need for change, there is no need for leadership.

Leadership is a choice. Leadership does not just happen. Leadership is a choice we make to live out a vision and purpose daily.

Leaders are made and not born. Leaders know who they are, understand their unique purpose, strengths and skills. They use who they are to bring their vision into the present.

Leaders live their vision. They become the change that they want to see in the world. They set the example and show the way.

Leaders stimulate conversation. Leadership is about making a difference and driving change which stimulates conversation and debate. The ideas that get talked about are the ones worth talking about.

Leaders understand that character matters. Character establishes the foundation for trust. Without trust you cannot lead.

Leaders invest in themselves. Leaders take care of their spiritual, emotional, mental and physical needs.

Leaders are results focused. Leaders initiate and make things happen.

Leaders inspire. Leaders cannot achieve their visions alone. They inspire others to come alongside and participate in the journey.

Leaders leave a legacy. Success is what we do for ourselves whilst legacy is what we do for others. The legacy of  leaders is what they do for others and how they have invested in and developed others.

The Principles of Leadership

The Means of Expression are the Steps to Leadership

According to US scholar, Warren Bennis, who is widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies, the means of expression are the steps to leadership. In other words, it all begins with reflecting on your successes and failures and building from there:

1. Reflection leading to resolution.

2. Resolution leading to perspective.

3. Perspective leading to point of view.

4. Point of view leading to tests and measures.

5. Tests and measures leading to desire.

6. Desire leading to mastery.

7. Mastery leading to strategic thinking.

8. Strategic thinking leading to full self-expression.

9. The synthesis of full self-expression = leadership.

The Means of Expression are the Steps to Leadership