Tag Archives: Leadership

Marco…

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Managing employees is a true feat of soft skills.  Communication, personality style, leadership, and  project and performance management are all put to the test on a daily basis.

Sometimes, the employees you manage might seem like they’re on another planet, even when they’re sitting right in front of you.  So, what if they’re in another building?  Another city?  Another country?  Actually ON another planet?  It happens.

Managing Offsite Employees

When employees are discreetly distributed, the manager’s position becomes more important and requires a broader skill set.  The manager may be the only link between employees – the one to set schedules, allocate resources, and synthesize production.  But he also needs to be the one to ensure alignment – making sure his employees are all aware of and working toward organizational goals.

Although it’s such a basic thing, the loss of face-to-face communication can have a huge impact on how things get done.  Written communication and phone skills become invaluable, and relationships need to be built more deliberately without the luxury of casual interactions.  Managers who are great face-to-face may find themselves struggling in this new system of information transfer.

Managing Offsite EmployeesThey need help filling in the gaps left by the demands of a discreet organizational system.  So help them!  Managing Offsite Employees is a new title from the Reproducible Training Library.  A complete, half-day program, it assesses and builds skills in all areas needed by managers of remote teams.

You can even make your training session into an example of efficient communication and teamwork across distances.  Have your managers print out their own participant materials and try an alternative means of meeting – like a webinar or phone or video conference.

Providing the appropriate supervision training is instrumental to a strong team – wherever they are.  Settling for resources in a convenient location is a thing of the past.  Build your team on a global scale – because you want the best; because it’s possible; because your supervisors know how to manage offsite employees.

Bridging the Leadership Divide

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The last thing leadership relationships should do is stand in the way of productivity.

At HRDQ, we often make the assertion that leadership is pretty straightforward – it’s a specific set of skills that can be learned by anyone. (And we’re right.)  But that doesn’t mean that every leader behaves the same way, or is regarded in the same way.

Bridging the Leadership DivideAnd when differing behaviors are perceived by others, they may come across as “incorrect” or non-beneficial.  They may be dismissed altogether.  Often, these differing behaviors are displayed by leaders of different generations – forming a rift in leadership teams.

With this in mind, it’s important to find ways of capitalizing on legacy strengths from incumbent leaders and new potential from emerging leaders without compromising one for the sake of the other.

It is possible to have the best of both worlds – it just takes effort from both sides.

Bridging the Leadership Divide is a self-assessment and soft-skills training program that addresses generational differences in leadership style to improve leadership practices within an organization.  It offers two models for addressing leadership skills in a multi-generational workplace.

Bridging the Leadership DivideOne model is about change (and transformation).  Improvement doesn’t happen without change, and this model shows leaders how to make positive changes in themselves, between individuals, and as members of an organization.  Transformation needs to occur within and between individuals to create new leaders – individuals need to “become” leaders and they need to establish leadership relationships with others.  This three-part model helps leaders choose a stance (a set of behaviors to practice) and reach across the divide (acknowledge and accept the leadership of others).

The second model illustrates six patterns of problem behavior between incumbent and emerging leaders and offers an approach to managing each.  With these problem patterns highlighted, leaders of any generation are able to recognize them in action, and replace them with productive behaviors – improving relationships between leaders and making strides in the overall quality of leadership in their organization.

Using one or both of the models presented by Bridging the Leadership Divide to create awareness of leadership behavior through experiential learning will place your leaders on level, common ground, and start them off on the best foot for leading – no matter how long they’ve been doing it.  You’ll improve performance, relationships, and culture in your organization while helping each individual participant better their work-life.

Get started with Bridging the Leadership Divide today!

Free Webinar: Building High-Performance Leadership Relationships Across Generations

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FREE WEBINAR
Hosted by HRDQ
Presented by Ron Carrucci and Josh Epperson
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
2:00pm – 3:00pm eastern time

Now more than ever, organizations are struggling with generational differences in the workplace. Transferring years of experience and knowledge from incumbent leaders to senior managers to the generation climbing the ranks is no easy challenge under normal circumstances. And when issues surrounding communication preferences, assumptions about authority, power, control, and lifestyle are present, that process is made all the more difficult. So what’s the best way for organizations to bridge the gap, so to speak?

Join subject matter experts Ron Carucci and Josh Epperson for an informative webinar that discusses the leadership issues persisting in today’s multi-generational organizations. Not only will you gain valuable insight and a new way of thinking, you’ll also learn a number of action-oriented techniques you can use to enable your leaders to work together harmoniously and create a positive impact on performance.

Ron Carrucci and Josh Epperson are co-authors of Bridging the Leadership Divide – a workshop that helps leaders of multiple generations to remove the inherent barriers to productive relationships between incumbent and emerging leaders.

What You Will Learn

  • Six patterns of cross-generational leadership relationships
  • The inherent (and sometimes assumed) challenges between incumbent and emerging leaders – The war of Legacy and Potential
  • Effective approaches for handling cross-generational leadership issues
  • The strengths, challenges, and outcomes of a real-world example of cross-generational relationship

Who Should Attend

  • Supervisors
  • Managers
  • Leaders
  • Human resources professionals
  • OD professionals
  • …and if you’re fortunate enough to participate with one of your cross-generational leaders even better!

About the Presenters

Ron Carrucci is a seasoned consultant with more than 25 years of experience in strategy formulation, global organization design, organizational change, and executive leadership development. He is a former faculty member at Fordham University Graduate School and he served as an adjunct at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Leadership Divided, What Emerging Leaders Need and What you Might be Missing, and Bridging the Leadership Divide. His clients include CitiBank, Corning Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, Deutsche Bank, ConAgra, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Johnson & Johnson, and ADP.

A consultant who specializes in large-scale organization and culture change, organization architecture, and leadership development, Josh Epperson is the co-author of Bridging the Leadership Divide, and Future in-Formation: Choosing a Generative Organizational Life. He earned a Master of Science degree in Organizational Development at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. Josh also holds a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Mars Hill Graduate School. Some of his clients include Cadbury Schweppes, The Hershey Company, Microsoft, McDonalds, Starbucks Coffee Company, and the CIA.

Register Here!

Social Media at Work

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Because of the pace of global culture in the 21st century, it kind of seems like social media just snuck up on us.  But, its roots are deep – reaching back to the late-modernist shift towards individualism.

In the face of insurmountable global conflict, individuals shifted their focus to a more digestible problem: “How can I fix myself? How can I become ideal?”  And through limited media channels, that question was answered by Betty Crocker, Proctor, Gamble, and Chiquita Banana. Products will fix you.

Products like those used by celebrities – by it-girls – approximations of the ideal that are elevated by limited exposure and by the combined abilities of many behind the mask of an effortless face.

Production, then, was always done by the “other.” And the self was less – a receiver of awe.

It's true...As technology advanced, production became possible for a wider (and now, almost universal) set of people.  It became easier to see that behind the mask was a collection, not one complete form.  So in order to become ideal, we’d each need to become collectors.  Not just of products, but ideas and symbols as well.  It seems so accessible – we just need to go shopping!  And then, working as independent (well, individual) producers, we get as close to that shock and awe as we can – we all become gladiators and let the crowd pick the losers.

We learn to make public versions of ourselves that are over-the-top and demanding of that kind of attention.  Through outlets like social, crowd-sourced, and DIY media, we all publish like it’s going out of style.

But, when everyone is a celebrity, everyone needs a handler (not all press is good press).  When a person agrees to become an employee of an organization, they become part of that organization’s brand.  And in the public channels used by the organization, the employee needs to maintain that brand standard – in all contexts that both organization and employee are represented, they should appear aligned.

But, it is the place of the organization to create a plan – and a set of expectations and boundaries – in order to maintain this alignment.

Social Media at WorkSocial Media at Work is a new title from HRDQ’s Reproducible Training Library.  It’s designed to guide employees at every level of an organization through appropriate and productive ways to benefit personally and a team from the opportunities presented by new media.  Don’t let your employees get eaten by a lion – train them!

Get started with Social Media at Work today!

Free Webinar: What Would You Do? – Ethics and the Decision-Making Process

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FREE WEBINAR
Hosted by HRDQ
Presented by Lorraine Ukens
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
2:00pm – 3:00pm eastern time

Now more than ever, the pressure to achieve results is on the rise. And when the drive becomes more about getting to the finish line than how you actually got there, collaboration, trust, and ethical decision making can be compromised. Not to mention, watching others cheat or behave unethically can have a negative impact on groups, teams, and organizations.

How do the people in your organization behave under pressure? Do they compete against others for their personal gain, or do they cooperate to create a synergy that achieves the best results for everyone? The answer may surprise you.

Join Lorraine Ukens for an exploration of the opposing but related concepts of collaboration and competition. She’ll discuss how decision making and individual choices affect relationships and performance in both the professional and personal worlds. Lorraine will also introduce you to effective methods and tools you can use to illustrate these concepts in the training classroom.

Lorraine Ukens is the author of What Would You Do? – a management development training game on ethical and moral decision making that teaches the benefits of acting ethically in the business world.

What You Will Learn

  • The impact of individual choices on group outcomes and ethical issues
  • The difference between cooperative and competitive decision making
  • How others can influence the personal decision-making process
  • The roles of trust and communication in making ethical decisions

Who Should Attend

  • Employees
  • Leaders
  • Human resources professionals
  • Trainers
  • OD consultants

About the Presenters

Lorraine Ukens is a performance improvement expert who specializes in team building and experiential learning. She is the author of What Would You Do?, an ethical and moral dilemma training game, as well as multiple training activity books, consensus survival simulations, and a team negotiation training game. Lorraine was an adjunct faculty member at Towson University, and she has presented at both industry-specific and national conferences.

Register Here!

Send Your Coaches to Camp!

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It’s not always apparent when one of your coaches is out of shape.  Glamour muscles might be hiding a bad habit, or a marshmallowy exterior might conceal a rock.  Sometimes you just need to take a closer look.

Everyone benefits from the coaching process.  Employees improve their skills, learn new things, and feel better about their place in an organization.  Coaches improve their relationships with teammates and benefit from improved employee performance.  And organizations flourish with highly skilled employees that are working together towards a common goal.

Make sure your team has all of these advantages by keeping your coaches at the top of their game.

Get Fit for Coaching

Coaches need to remember that competition on an organizational level starts with individuals – and that they have the opportunity to improve and align employee performance on an individual and team scale.

While coaching is sometimes necessary for targeted issues in the short term, it’s also an ongoing process in the relationship between coach and employee. Training doesn’t stop after the game – it picks up in anticipation of the next.  To stay competitive, everyone needs to keep the question “how can I be better?” on their mind all the time.

That’s not to say that coaching should focus on deficiencies and problems.  Of course, they need to be addressed in a timely manner but they shouldn’t dominate the relationship between coach and employee.  Coaching is about creating positive changes in an employee’s performance and work life.

The Get Fit for Coaching Assessment and Skill Practice Game introduce a cyclical model for the coaching process:

 Get Fit for Coaching

By assessing their current abilities and practicing the appropriate skills in a non-threatening experiential learning activity, coaches will not only know what they need to improve, but how – and how to measure the results of their development.

“Needs Improvement” is not a negative!  It means progress is being made, and that the benefits of that progress are proliferating.  So give your coaches a “needs improvement” and send them back to camp.

Get Fit for Coaching Trainers' Bundle

Bundle and save by pairing the Get Fit for Coaching Assessment and Skill Practice Game!

I Am Going To Train You To Be Accountable – NOT!

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Linda GalindoBy Linda Galindo, author of The Accountability Experience, first posted on her blog 12/14/12

Imagine yourself sitting with your leadership group as an Executive Retreat on the topic of Accountaility is about to start. In your mind it’s going to be some type of training. Are you bored, excited, nervous, ready to engage?

The speaker is introduced and begins with a question: “How many of you would experience a much better work life if the people that worked for you had a higher level of personal accountability?” Every hand in the meeting room goes up.

Why? Why would everyone around you demonstrating a higher level of personal accountability make your work life better? What benefits could possibly ensue if tomorrow you walk into your organization filled with employees who have upped their level of personal accountability?

If you cannot specifically answer this question as the CEO, COO, CAO, CIO, or C-whatever, don’t bother with accountability training in your organization.  WHY?! Everyone usually “senses” the better results in work culture that would emerge but only a rare and exceptional leader will brave the mirror being turned on her or him to ensure personal accountability starts at the top.  The shock and horror of learning that “I am remarkably unaccountable for a person of my status, when all this time I thought I was very accountable” is more than the run of the mill “leader” can take. They prefer spending resources to train everyone else to be accountable completely clueless that without demonstrating personal accountability themselves, they are on a fools errand.

There is no doubt in my mind (and experience) that accountability education is the foundation for long and sustainable success if leaders are willing to face the downsides that come with upping personal accountability. Yes, downsides.

Just as you can imagine all the great stuff that comes with people being more personally accountable, you must understand how dramatically your life will change as a leader when personal accountability really takes hold en masse among employees.

It’s similar to the out of control feeling as the roller coaster car crests then…DROPS. That fantastic, giddy, fun, scary RUSH!!  You know you will be fine (with that tiny doubt the whole thing could go off the rails).  Some won’t even get on the ride, positive they will never master their fear, or the urge to barf.

For those of us engaged in connecting personal accountability with desired results through educating and facilitating, not training, success is guaranteed. It’s a giddy, scary, wild ride. Accountability “training” is safe. If it’s the outcomes leadership can name that an organization is after, start with where you are using the Accountability Assessment and then educate and facilitate.  Be the personal accountability train to avoid getting run over by accountability training.

The Accountability ExperienceStart here: The 85% Solution, then here The Accountability Experience, and download the free recorded webinar Accountability Now! From Top to Bottom and you’ll find out how your organization can successfully instill and apply the mindset of personal accountability in the workplace!

Molding Consensus – Leading Across Differences

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“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.”

This past Monday, we celebrated one of our country’s greatest leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As one of many enduring gifts, Dr. King showed us the necessity for and effectiveness of direct recognition and action when faced with social conflict.  This type of conflict can shed light on overarching structural issues, and incite positive change.  Decisions may be coming from a perspective that seeks to retain power and control, regardless of the detriment that may be to an entire system (in the case of civil rights, certainly, but also on a smaller scale within a group or organization).

While we don’t all manage conflict on such a grand scale, we do experience the challenge of working with others whose goals do not match ours on a daily basis.  Diversity makes for a well-balanced, strong team.  But with a wide range of perspectives comes conflict.  And conflicts rooted in social identity differences can be emotionally charged and difficult to understand.

It’s hardest to understand diversity conflict when we are personally involved.  It isn’t always an easy or instinctual thing to do, but we need to look at how our own social identity shapes our goals, preferences, and reactions.

Self-awareness is the first step toward healthy and efficient diversity-based conflict management – awareness that we have socially-based perceptions and goals.  And so does everyone else.  Once that’s established, we can identify what, exactly, is conflicting and how we can work together towards the best result.  How do each party’s goals relate to organizational goals, and how can we create strong, common goals to work towards in the future?

Leading Across DifferencesLeading Across Differences is a self-assessment and training program that allows leaders at any level the opportunity to improve their conflict management skills.  It specifically addresses the challenges of leading a diverse team – what to expect, and how to manage conflict.  Promote diversity and leadership and help your diverse team work together for a better future for everyone.  Get started today!

Free Webinar: Leading Across Differences

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FREE WEBINAR
Hosted by HRDQ
Presented by Kelly Hannum
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
2:00pm – 3:00pm eastern time

Despite the growing opportunities created by our interconnected world, the dynamics of diverse social identity groups present an interesting challenge for organizations. Now more than ever, today’s leaders must be able to lead people of different nationalities, religions, races, and gender to work together effectively. But how can leaders develop the skills they need to master these tough situations—especially when the conflicts and misunderstandings are complex and emotionally charged?

Kelly Hannum, a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, will lead an hour-long webinar that will provide practical and relevant information about how to lead across social identity differences. She’ll discuss how diverse group dynamics affect organizations, reveal five common triggers of conflict, and introduce a framework leaders can use to gain better understanding and take appropriate action.

Kelly Hannum is co-author of Leading Across Differences – a training package that offers new ways of thinking about leadership challenges, providing participants with a framework and process for better understanding their context and taking appropriate action.

What You Will Learn

  • A framework for addressing social identity differences
  • The common triggers of social identity conflict
  • Who should take action—and what actions to take
  • Leadership practices for situations where multiple identity groups are present

Who Should Attend

  • Human resources professionals and consultants
  • Diversity trainers and facilitators
  • Change and OD strategists
  • Managers and executives
  • Leadership development trainers

About the Presenters

Kelly M. Hannum is a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership and a visiting faculty member at Catholic University’s IESEG School of Management in Lille, France. She holds a PhD in educational research, measurement, and evaluation from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Hannum is the recipient of multiple awards, including the prestigious Marcia Guttentag Award from the American Evaluation Association. She has been on the Advisory Board of the Leadership Learning Community since 2007, and she has been invited to speak at numerous conferences across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the World Bank are among Dr. Hannum’s clients.

Register Here!

You’re Already a Leader!

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You can be a leader.  It doesn’t matter what your job is, what your title is, how old or young you are, or what your field and specialties are.

But you may not feel that way.  You may feel that your rank or place within a hierarchy prevents you from stepping into a leadership role.

Learship

You’re wrong.  No one needs to tell you to be a leader.  Leadership is a set of skills, not an inherent state.  When you develop leadership skills and display leadership behaviors, you are a leader.  No question.

The Leadership Practices Inventory is a 360-degree assessment that not only shows how you and your peers view your current leadership skill level, but provides a model for developing your leadership further.

Authors Kouzes and Posner break down the behaviors into five categories:

  • Model the Way – determine and clarify values, adhere to them, and communicate them to others in a demonstrative, rather than prescriptive way.
  • Inspire a Shared Vision – communicate an image of the future, encourage others to see the possibility of that future, and highlight the communal benefits of positive change.
  • Challenge the Process – be willing to take risks and experiment, to learn from failure, but commit to possibility.
  • Enable Others to Act – create teams, build trust, and learn to rely on the abilities of others.
  • Encourage the Heart – give positive feedback, celebrate values and victories, and encourage happiness and enthusiasm.

The assessment shows if you think of yourself as a leader and how and why.  Does your view of yourself match with the views of your peers?  Are you identifying the correct behaviors as leadership abilities?  What actions can you take to display leadership behaviors more often?

The more leaders your organization has, the better chance it has of reaching its goals, and moving forward as a strong and well-aligned team.  And the Leadership Practices Inventory can help develop those leaders.

New to the 4th edition of the LPI are:

  • Leadership Practices InventoryA fresh, modern look to the materials (including the Feedback Report)
  • A group comparison report page
  • A shorter workbook – specifically designed for debriefing and understanding the Feedback Report
  • The latest data on the LPI’s model
  • An updated Facilitator’s Guide that focuses on LPI administration, debrief, and how a facilitator can develop one’s leaders from there.

Click here to get started with the Leadership Practices Inventory, 4th edition today!