Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

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Inspiring leadership what does it mean?

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
inspiring-leadership-what-does-it-mean

Inspiring leadership what does it mean?

So often we read about transformational leadership and the words that go around it.
One of the most bandied about word is inspirational.
This word translates into a whole lot of different things depending on the listener.

I was recently talking to a very successful leader who is leading a transformation process and was to talk to his leadership team. When I suggested the team would like him to be inspiring he said “I can’t stand that word”.

On asking for more information I found he thought that being inspiring meant he needed to ‘act’ and have a show almost with balloons. He is a very effective quietly spoken leader and it was not how he wanted to be portrayed.

For me the word inspiring and giving an inspiring presentation to your team means being you. Speaking from the heart as well as the head is essential. It means giving real life examples –the stories the team can believe in.

We humans connect with stories it goes back to our cave dwelling days. There is something magic in the ability to tell a story that resonates with truth and connects the listener to the message.
That to me that is inspirational…not ‘putting on a show’

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So much rapid change! How on earth do we support our leaders/managers?

Monday, October 19th, 2009
so-much-rapid-change-how-on-earth-do-we-support-our-leadersmanagers

At Communicate, we are often asked –

“What are some useful tools and tips available to our managers and our organisation to respond to this?”

The answer –

Develop your managers to be good coaches. Why? – Good coaching supports change.

Coaching has been rising in popularity – due to the recognised link of its support in accelerating the learning process. We no longer have time to learn on the job (as we did when I started working). We now need to get up to speed quickly, with the required skills and behaviours that will be critical to our success. Good coaching provides on the job feedback to help individuals raise their awareness to their strengths and what they need to do differently to be more effective.

Today, businesses and educational institutions are valuing the relationship between coaching and leader effectiveness – seeing a strong link between coaching skills and employee retention and engagement.

Coaching is a broad range of behaviours – from being a good listener to being able to challenge assumptions and mindsets.

Being a good coach is therefore a learned set of skills. If you want you’re organisation to keep on top of their game – teach your managers to be good coaches. Good coaching will support your investment in training and ensure your people maximise their potential quickly!

A useful book resource, regardless of your experience and understanding of coaching is – Coaching for Performance, Third Edition, by John Whitmore.

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Taking on a leadership role, not necessarily through work

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
taking-on-a-leadership-role-not-necessarily-through-work

Recently I joined the board at my son’s school and the experience is causing me to reflect on leadership beyond work and family. True leadership is broader than just what we experience in business or our professional vocation. There are fantastic opportunities to develop leadership skills via our communities. Through the application of leadership skills in different environments we deepen our understanding of what constitutes effective leadership – we can then take this back into our professional roles.

As a facilitator of learning in the area of leadership, the experience will give me a wider range of stories and experience to draw from. All the current research on leadership is telling us that we need to be more flexible, resourceful, adaptable to different environments and comfortable with people who see things differently to us. I am certainly learning about this in the process of learning the governance role in a school.

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Presenting to different types of people

Monday, May 11th, 2009
presenting-to-different-types-of-people

When planning a presentation, make sure you think about the mindset of the main group in your audience. Don’t present as you would be presented to; your audience might not like that!

A simple form of four quadrant behavioural style is a very practical way to look at four key different types of needs in an audience. There is a good summary of a four quadrant framework at: What planet is my audience from? .

1. Work out roughly which of the four types fits you. Whilst you no doubt have a wonderfully subtle personality, this main style is how you instinctively communicate – it is your default option. Unless you stop and think about it, you will use that main style.

So the solution is clear – stop and think about it!
2. Think about the most common type in your audience and prepare your presentation on the basis of their needs, not yours. Sometimes you will know the personalities of the key decision makers and can use the right approach for them. On other occasions, certain types dominate in particular jobs – IT attracts analysis driven people, social work attracts people who are very focused on how people feel and so on.

Some occupational groups attract certain types. If you are presenting to a group of farmers, many in the audience will be very task-focused and interested in the end point, not the journey along the way. Of course, not all of them will be like this, but this type will cover a fair proportion of the group. With such groups, give them the facts, get to the point quickly and give them room to make up their own minds.

Catering for some of the various types may require you to get creative. However, we can all communicate in a way that suits the other types, but for some of the styles we need to really consciously think about it.  The key is to present in the way the audience wants.
Try it out and enjoy the increase in audience engagement.

Posted in Communication Tips, Conflict Resolution, Customer Service, Leadership, Personal Presence, Presentation skills, Public Speaking, Relationship Management, Speeches, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Leadership guru makes good use of story

Monday, March 9th, 2009
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Earlier this week, via the Leadership Development Centre, I attended a seminar by the leadership guru Ron Heifetz. He was an interesting study as a presenter partly because he made very effective use of story and metaphor.  Any of us could adopt his approach just by putting in some work:

  1. Heifetz showed he had done his homework before coming ‘Down Under’. He discussed Winston Churchill as a leader.  Heifetz had a New Zealand version relating to the iconic events of Gallipoli, rather than choosing an aspect of Churchill’s life less close to our hearts.
  2. He used simple local anecdote – using a visit to a local cafe to develop a metaphor for routine technical leadership.  Plus he complimented us about NZ coffee at the same time!
  3. An ancient story from Heifetz’s Jewish background made another important point.  People said to me that they found the story intrinsically interesting, plus it gave Heifetz a chance to share something of himself with us.
  4. A couple of current New Zealand metaphors showed he was up to date with things Kiwi. One of these metaphors, the Whale Rider story from the New Zealand film, took a central role in his development of his approach to leadership.
  5. Heifetz also connected to us, ‘parent to parent’ by using events surrounding his son’s bad skiing injury.

Okay, we may not all be Harvard University leadership gurus, but each of us could create valuable stories from our own and our audience’s worlds.

Posted in Leadership, Presentation skills | No Comments »

Courageous networking in tough economic times

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
courageous-networking-in-tough-economic-times

A lot of people don’t take naturally to networking and some even have an aversion to it.  It is, however, imperative to forge deliberate connections to achieve success in your role.

When the economy is tight and job losses a distinct possibility, you need your networks. These simple steps will help you so take courage and network!

(more…)

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Analysis of Obama’s election night speech

Monday, November 24th, 2008
analysis-of-obamas-election-night-speech

People are still discussing the Obama election night speech.  A surprising number of generally cynical Kiwis seem very impressed.  That’s got to be some sort of sign of Obama’s effectiveness!

Last week a guy on one of our courses told me about attending the speech.  He and a group of friends, decided to go from New York to Chicago to experience it for themselves.  He said that Obama’s presence reached out across the massive bullet proof glass shield and seemed to speak to every single individual in Grant Park and the surrounding streets.

No doubt the speech will be analysed right through future generations, but here is one analysis from Bert Decker and here is the hard copy of the speech, courtesy of the interesting presentation blog: Pivotal Speaking

Posted in Communication Tips, Leadership, Public Speaking, Speeches | No Comments »

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