Leadership Essentials

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I’d like to now introduce our presenter today: Shannon Kluczny, Vice President of Client Services at BizLibrary. Shannon has been with Business Training Library for over 8 years and is integrated in the training industry. You can connect with Shannon or BizLibrary on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Shannon, I think we are ready to start. Shannon: Thank you, Jennifer, and good afternoon to all of you that are joining us on the audio portion and web portions of this presentation.
********MAKE SURE ITS RECORDING*********** Today’s presentation is called “Leadership Essentials” The areas that we will cover are relevant for leaders at any level of the organization.
Today we will be defining leadership Discuss 7 essential areas of leadership and Talk about how to create a plan for success Let’s get started!
While there are numerous definitions of leadership, what it boils down to is, a leader effects directed change through a group of people that have given that person their complete trust. The leader earns the trust of his followers based on several character traits that foster the trust.
Are a leader and a manager the same? Not necessarily. While a manager can be a leader, not all leaders are managers. And the definition of a manager is quite different from our working definition of a leader. A manager tends to work to preserve the status quo. Think of your manager at work. They are there to make sure the assigned work gets done. A leader promotes change and moves his followers in a distinct direction. A true leader listens to the ideas and opinions of his followers and happily embraces them. A manger is focused on production and not imagination.
Sure there are people out there with natural leadership abilities. But leadership can also be learned. You can be a top-notch leader by gaining both knowledge and experience in the field you wish to lead. By maintaining your integrity and working to be open and fair minded to your followers, you will find leadership is not such a difficult trait to acquire after all.
Leadership is a group effort. A leader cannot lead without followers. So, followers must be included in your definition of leadership. Becoming a good leader is not a personal effort. You cannot become an effective leader on your own. Anyone can become an effective leader with a little hard work.
We all have leaders in our lives. Some are historical figures that have had profound impacts on many. Some are personal figures that have had personal impacts on you individually. Remember an effective leader garners the trust of his followers and to earn that trust They must behave with openness, fairness and be an inspiration to those around you. A great way to define leadership is to look at the world's greatest leaders.
Here are some examples of recognizable leaders of our past and present. All have had a vision. They possess integrity, honesty and the ability to inspire people.
Reflect for a moment on who your personal leaders are. Tell us in the chat their names!
There are 7 Characteristics that we are going to discuss today that are the essentials of leadership. The Motivating Leader Vision Building Influence Emotional Intelligence Business Execution Leading Change Innovation
We’ll talk first about Motivating. Motivation comes from many places. In fact, both internal and external factors can cause people to want to achieve goals and do their best. Motivation is a choice. A person makes a decision – consciously or subconsciously – to put the effort into accomplishing something.
Before learning what you can do to support your employees' motivation, it's important to first clear up some common misconceptions: your motivators are similar to my employees' motivators compensation is a great motivator fear is a great motivator, and leaders can motivate people It's very common, and accepted, to speak of motivating people, but the truth is, no individual can actually motivate another. That's because motivation comes from within. People are motivated by their own unique desires and goals. Even so, as a leader, you still have the most critical role in the motivation process. Your actions set the tone and create the environment that motivates – or fails to motivate – employees.
Motivators are generally categorized as being extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivators are enticements external to the individual. They represent the value the organization places on the employee's work and the outcome of that work. Extrinsic motivators only work if employees want them. Intrinsic motivators are based on internal feelings employees find personally rewarding, such as a sense of accomplishment, and can be harder to identify. These are things like the opportunity to take on greater responsibility, or interesting and challenging work.
Every individual has different motivators. To create a workplace that supports unique motivators for many individuals, you must learn how to stimulate motivation on an individual basis. Creating a motivating atmosphere involves three key steps: discover what motivates employees show them the benefits, and align the organization's goals with the employee's goals
The first step is to discover exactly what motivates each employee . You can use several techniques to do this: talk to the employee about motivators Have the employee list and rate his motivators discuss the employee's list Whatever approach you may take to discover personal motivators, consider how you'll modify your actions or behaviors to ensure that employees' needs are met. If you focus your actions on the specific things that motivate your employees, you'll be on the road to success.
The second step is to show employees the benefits of doing what you want them to do . The best way is to demonstrate how the task or behavior you want them to perform will enhance their feelings of participation and belonging self-esteem and recognition, and self-actualization and personal growth
The final step in motivating individuals is to align the organization's goals with the employee's goals . This is important because your employees might be highly motivated and working hard, but if they're not working toward organizational goals, their motivation doesn't help organizational performance. Ensure that employees know exactly what your organization's goals are so everyone can work toward these goals. When employees can actually identify how they're contributing to goals and making a difference, motivation is often increased. Show your employees how their work fits into the big picture, so they get a feel for how they contribute to something larger than their own positions. People can become complacent when they perform the same tasks over and over unless you show them how these tasks contribute to their own development and the success of the organization.
People like to feel they're an important part of the organization, which is why it's important to involve employees. A great way to foster a sense of involvement is by delegating, which gives employees a sense of choice and control over decisions. You can involve staff members in many ways: assign an employee or a team the responsibility for a complete process or unit of work make information directly available to employees without it first going through managers help employees become experts in specialized tasks all of these examples would make them feel like a trusted and valued part of the team Involving employees also means allowing them to set their own goals or participate in the goal-setting process. If you want people to be motivated, give them the opportunity to choose for themselves. Otherwise, they tend to become bored.
Demonstrate confidence in your employees – research has proven that when you expect people to perform well, they do. Involving employees also requires you to create an inclusive, collaborative atmosphere that fulfills your employees' need for belonging. Four tactics can help you do this: be confident – Employees feel at ease when you share your knowledge and skills and foster a lighthearted atmosphere. This helps them feel comfortable enough to share their own ideas. encourage a connection – Encouraging a connection among team members helps develop a sense of community as they keep in touch with each other's projects. take the focus off your own authority – Take a step back during discussions and avoid recommending any one position. Make sure you perform your duties as a leader, but let your employees have a voice – this will make them feel more equal. create a shared sense of cohesiveness – Meet with employees to analyze failures and celebrate successes. The goal is to make improvements together as a team, which helps everyone feel like their contributions are valuable.
The next strategy is to validate employees. People are motivated by recognition for the work they do, so it's beneficial to reward and acknowledge employees. Rewards should be tied to performance – If you've specified that reaching sales targets is important, you should reward performance relating to achieving targets and not, for instance, meeting deadlines. Also consider that not all employees find the same things rewarding, so tailor your strategies appropriately. Give feedback – Timing is important – immediate feedback is much more effective than tabling it for a formal meeting. Don't give negative feedback without stating how to improve performance. Catch employees doing something right and comment specifically on how you appreciate their efforts. It's more effective than simply saying &quot;keep up the good work.&quot; To help employees feel validated, create a climate of trust and openness. To establish this climate, be aware of the way you communicate with employees. Say things that encourage ideas and build self-esteem. By being encouraging, rather than belittling, you create an environment where employees trust you and feel confident.
Your efforts to involve, develop, and validate employees are supported by another important strategy: enlist the support of workplace systems . It's not enough to simply have good relationships with employees to motivate them; you must create a structure that supports motivation. Use your organization's performance management framework to link motivation and workplace systems. A good performance management framework can do the following: involve employees in setting goals and being accountable highlight their achievements and incorporate regular feedback help generate new challenges project a can-do attitude through clear support from leaders, and ensure that rewards and consequences are equitable, fair, and consistent
The 2 nd leadership characteristic is vision. As a leader, you guide and move others toward your vision of a common goal. Getting people going in the right direction may involve many types of communication. All the messages leaders send, communicating the vision is one of the most important ones. Affirming and promoting the future vision lets people know where the organization is headed and what it stands for.
Leaders visualize an ideal organizational future they want to achieve, and people follow leaders because of the vision. So, being skilled at communicating a compelling vision and a clear sense of purpose will increase your effectiveness as a leader. Good vision communication has the following important characteristics and results: it's persuasive, credible, and strikes a chord in people it points the way by identifying purpose and direction, allowing people to align their efforts toward a common goal it builds loyalty by involving employees actively in the vision it sets a worthy goal that reflects ideals, and demands high standards of excellence it inspires enthusiasm and encourages commitment by presenting goals as achievable it fosters courage and confidence by assuring people they're on the right track and goals are achievable, and it reflects the organization's character by focusing on its strengths and beliefs, such as integrity, ethics, or service
Leaders are usually effective communicators by nature. When communicating the vision, certain actions and traits can keep you from connecting with your followers: Form not substance – Rather than spending their time transmitting vital information, some leaders have a tendency to mistake form, style, dazzle, and lavish presentation for substance. underestimate the audience – Leaders sometimes underestimate their audience, either in terms of intelligence, interest level, or the degree to which they can be trusted with information. controlling communicators – Some leaders can be controlling, one-way communicators. This type of leader tends to be arrogant and patronizing, and overall, is less likely to motivate others. obsessed with their message – Some leaders tend to talk to others in a self-centered way, focusing on themselves and their own interests. They can be so obsessed with their message that they forget to concentrate on persuading their audience. lack of authenticity – Leaders' actions need to match their message. This is often referred to as &quot;walking the talk.&quot; When there's a disconnect between behavior and message, followers perceive this as a lack of authenticity.
keep the message simple and clear, to avoid misinterpretation and ensure employees get it – The formal vision statement of your organization should lay out the core values, purpose, and direction of the company in a short, memorable way. If your vision message is easy to remember, people will use it like a mantra, repeating it throughout the organization. Behaviors, statements, and actions at various levels of the organization will all be affected.
make sure you recognize the differences in audiences and personalize the message – Your audiences will vary because people vary, and different groups have different priorities. So you have to personalize, or customize, your message for each audience, focusing on the things that they value and understand. Personalizing the message involves both delivering it in a personal way and giving your audience a personal connection to the fulfillment of the vision. To deliver the vision message in a personal way, communicate the vision during personal engagements and interactions - not just through impersonal e-mails, promotional campaigns, large formal presentations, and Internet postings. You must break down the barriers between you and your audience by meeting with them in small enough numbers to allow for give and take
multiply the message to ensure it's taken in – Take every opportunity to explain and demonstrate a passion for the vision – live and in person – keeping the vision at the forefront of your communications. Multiply the message using as many avenues of communication as you can.
communicate your enthusiasm at every opportunity to &quot;infect&quot; your audiences with it – As a leader, you must be passionate about achieving the vision's goal and about the process of getting there as well. Remember to show your commitment and excitement at every opportunity. People fear the unknown and dislike change, even when they recognize that the new direction is an improvement. Your vision communication needs to stand out. Your job as a leader is to present the vision as being special.
get employees to take a personal interest in the vision, making the vision their own – A unique message format will not get your message and enthusiasm across if it lacks meaning for the listener. You must make the message a motivating one to others by making it meaningful to them. There must be a personal connection to the vision to make it attractive and motivating
be authentic, as employees value leaders who &quot;walk the talk&quot; – Speak from the heart, avoid platitudes, euphemisms, jargon, and office-speak – just be yourself. Employees watch leaders closely and won't get on board with a leader whose actions seem to contradict her words
The 3 rd Leadership Essential is Building Influence. As a leader, your job is to achieve organizational goals, but you can't do this by yourself. You need the help of others in your organization. You may have good ideas, but you can't force people to embrace them. Effective use of influence and persuasion will help you build trusting and respectful relationships. And in turn, you'll be better able to secure support for your ideas and lead successfully through change.
Three things provide the foundation for effective influence: communication – As a leader, your communication skills impact your ability to influence others. Skilled communicators are more effective influencers and better leaders. The key to successful persuasion is to show how the achievement of what you want will also help others achieve something they want. In this way, the purpose, goal, or objective becomes a common one. personal power – As a leader, your personal power is derived from a combination of your knowledge, abilities, and skills, as well as from your character and personality. These are the assets you can draw on in your leadership role. There are four key sources of personal power: referent power, expertise, previous success, and social competence. credibility – Your influence is also based on your credibility, which is derived from approaches and values like focus, flexibility, fairness, accountability, approachability, and honesty. When others know that you exhibit these attributes and apply them consistently, you build your credibility.
This process will help: First, prepare your case – Take the time to define exactly what you want. Clarify your purpose, position, and objective. This will help you be more clear and precise in your discussions with stakeholders – helping you to get what you want. Next, identify the stakeholders you want to influence. You can then prepare responses to anticipated points of resistance from these stakeholders. Then, ask for what you want – The most important thing to remember is to be clear. It will also help to create a unifying goal or objective to rally all the stakeholders. Next, make your case – You can use various techniques to make your case: customize the message, use questions to elicit or focus the discussion, acknowledge opposing perspectives then move on, use logic and evidence, and provide options that people can agree to without compromising their position or dignity. Finally, ask for commitment – Assess each stakeholder's readiness to commit. This will help you decide which approach to take. If you think a stakeholder is ready to commit, simply ask her to confirm her intention. And clarify what it is she will be responsible for. As a leader, you use influence to gain commitment and support for organizational goals. Following the four steps can help you do this. The steps are to prepare your case, ask for what you want, make your case, and ask for commitment.
The 4 th Leadership Essential is Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence comprises the ability to monitor, perceive, recognize, reason about, and understand emotions, and to use emotions to guide actions, solve problems, enhance thought, and promote growth.
Emotional Intellegance requires reasoning about emotions and understanding how they enhance thinking. This impacts intuition, integrity, and motivation, both of yourself and of others. Emotional Intellegance also includes communication and relationship skills, since it impacts the perception and recognition of emotions. A high Emotional Intellegance helps you monitor your emotions and use them so you can enhance emotional and intellectual growth
The social skills domain is at the intersection of the social and the skills competency areas. Competencies in the social skills domain include: Facilitating is the ability to identify how to meet the needs of others, and to meet those needs. Influencing others to inspire or motivate them through your actions and words, and leading through the use of tactics of persuasion. Developing others to bolster their abilities through the use of feedback, mentoring, and guidance. Cultivating relationships to allow you to confront and resolve disruptive or divisive emotions or issues. When you can genuinely express feelings, you can build rapport and maintain equitable and respectful relationships. Collaborating skills to allow you to get people to cooperate in an equitable way. In this way, you can progress toward mutual goals.
Having self-perception means you can read yourself, and you have self-confidence. It means you're aware of your emotions and capabilities. When you can read yourself, you know what you do well and what your limits are. You're open to what your feelings are trying to tell you. Certain characteristics and behaviors are indicators of poor self-awareness, including projecting emotions, associating emotions with memories or other unpleasant emotions, believing you should feel a different way than you do, refusing to acknowledge feelings or denying them, and blaming others for your feelings. When you have good self-awareness and can read yourself, you know that your emotions can affect your work and those you work with. Although some emotions hinder self-awareness, you can use many techniques to improve your ability to read yourself: Ask for feedback from people in your life. Only when you identify your strengths and weaknesses will you be able to take stock of your real self. You also need to identify your emotional triggers , which are situations or personalities that provoke an intense emotional response. Self-observation is enhanced by visualizing yourself as if you were observing someone else. Self-observation and self-curiosity will allow you to tune into yourself and identify even your more subtle moods. Recording your reactions and thoughts in an emotional journal gives you detachment.
Once you have the ability to read yourself, you need to become socially perceptive. Then you can understand and empathize with others and their emotions, and accurately read even potentially volatile situations and people. There are several techniques that can improve your skills at feeling empathy for other people: Listen first – A real conversation doesn't consist of just taking turns talking. For empathic listening, you need to hear the other person's side of the story first, and really listen, without interrupting or getting defensive. Stand in their shoes – Create empathy and understanding by trying to stand in someone's shoes for a while. Write down what you know about a person's interests, background, and situation. Write in the first person, as though you are the person. Find common ground – When you search for common ground, focus on the characteristics in someone that are the same as yours and that are positive. This helps raise your awareness of what the other person is feeling.
Negative emotions – especially from a leader – can have a big impact in the workplace. To avoid negative effects, you need the skills of self-management. These skills include controlling feelings and impulses, and being able to adapt to changing circumstances. Controlling emotions is the fundamental. This ability comes after you can identify your emotions – and the reasons for them. To help control your emotions, you can use several techniques: You can interrupt negative patterns You can reduce stress through self-care You can talk through the problem You can write a letter or e-mail you don't plan on sending . By expressing your emotions in writing, you can release the emotional charge
The 5 th Leadership Essential is Business Execution. Business execution involves taking the action needed to get results and transform your organization's vision into reality. Its a set of connected activities that enables you to take strategy and make it work. It's a systematic approach for effectively navigating an organization's capabilities, constraints, and strategic path in order to move forward toward achieving results. Successful business execution involves constructing a framework of activities that effectively uses resources to meet objectives, achieve goals, and achieve your organization's vision.
As a leader, you'll use business execution to drive the decision-making process and forge crucial links between business functions. Conceptual and practical business functions are linked by business execution as follows: strategy is linked to practice vision is linked to reality promises are linked to results, and ideas are linked to operations
A business execution culture has six key characteristics. The first three are action-oriented and help move you toward achieving goals and objectives, while the final three are change-oriented: Begin with a realistic assessment of what your organization is truly capable of achieving. You'll have to consider your organization's strengths, weaknesses, resources, and timelines. You're not going to effect change if you're not empowered to do so. In fact, your organization's internal processes have to allow people at all levels to make decisions that will ensure alignment of their actions with the strategic path. And with empowerment comes accountability . In a business execution culture, people are accountable for their actions. It's made clear to them what actions they're personally responsible for executing, and what criteria and measures will be used to assess their results. When you're a leader in a business execution culture, you don't just delegate. You follow through with actions and ensure that employees take responsibility for results. Agility is the degree to which your organization can anticipate, respond to, and keep pace with change. An agile business culture is structured to be flexible, and to respond quickly to market demands. In fact, a business execution culture not only accommodates change, but takes advantage of the opportunities change brings. A positive business culture is one that faces problems, but encourages solutions. Ask &quot;What can we do about it?&quot; and then devote resources and energies to the things you can control. A business execution culture is results-oriented . To be successful, organizations must have a business culture that supports and rewards success. In an execution culture, your goals are distilled into objectives and targets. Then, you identify desired outcomes and create step-by-step action plans to achieve them.
Your organization's business plan reflects a course of action that should achieve desired results, correctly matching solutions to problems. But even the most well-designed plan can't execute itself. The gap between an organization's potential and its performance level is known as the execution gap. Put simply, it's the difference between what should happen and what does happen. As markets and competitive advantages shift, successfully leading change becomes an organizational imperative. Your understanding of the vision that guides change is important, but so is your knowledge of the planning, practice, and people needed to execute change. All three elements of business execution have to work in sync to deliver success: Planning involves making decisions about how you'll execute business. You'll have to consider assigning activity steps or tasks to achieve your strategic goals and business objectives. People execute business through their skills and competencies. If you make sure the right people and programs are in place, those people will effectively execute your business strategy. Practice involves implementing, controlling, and measuring business processes. This is the actual &quot;doing&quot; part of business execution.
No strategy delivers results or returns unless it's converted into specific actions. Business execution is made up of hundreds of small operational decisions made by each and every person connected with your organization. Your employees practice business execution based on the information that flows through to them from you and other business leaders. All stakeholders need this information to understand how their day-to-day decisions move the organization along its strategic path. You can think about your vision, strategic plan, and business plan as maps for moving toward your goals and objectives. Practice is how you navigate through your journey. The practice element of business execution involves three particular leadership approaches: be realistic about your operations challenge assumptions follow through and follow up
The 6 th Leadership Essential is Leading Change. To bring about change, employees have to commit to it. To commit to it, they have to accept it. Part of your role as a leader is breaking down resistance to change, and showing employees that committing to change will be worth their while.
People resist change for a number of reasons: They make hasty assumptions about what the change might entail Many employees are pessimistic about change and the possible results Some employees feel they lack the knowledge, familiarity, or skills necessary to effect the changes that are requested lack of cohesion among team members a lack of leadership support for the change organizational policies that limit change
As a leader, you're responsible for breaking down barriers that may prevent change in your organization.
When it comes to doing things differently, most people are either resistant or apathetic, and that makes introducing change a real challenge. So before you can move toward company transformation, you must learn how to overcome the inertia of resistance, and build an organization that's oriented toward the change.
Communicating change effectively is a leaders responsibility. There are several important practices to bring to your communication as a leader: clearly explain the change – Providing a clear and complete explanation of what the change involves declare your message often – You can't overdo it when communicating the change. be empathetic – Being honest with employees gives them the credit they deserve as intelligent employees. exhibit passion and intensity – Being totally committed to the change will come across in your message and be infectious in your employees. make sure you walk the talk – You have to be in alignment with the changes you're expecting from your employees. In many cases, when change initiatives break down, it's because those at the top don't adhere to the changes themselves. When this happens, the ripple effect spreads quickly. Change leaders must be the first to set an example.
To keep employees motivated about change, you can also use several other approaches: actively removing obstacles to change as they arise aiming for early successes, and sustaining the momentum
Once you've drummed up support for your change initiative, communicated the change to everyone involved, and removed any obstacles, you'll want to aim for a few early successes . This will improve morale and confidence, and dispel lingering doubts about the change. If you're finding resistance in the form of pessimism among employees, arrange for some short-term wins to feed the faith in the change. Accomplishing some early victories will emotionally reward staff members diminish critical feedback, and add to momentum
The 7 th Essential is Innovation. Innovation is all about having new ideas. But it's more than this – it's also about successfully implementing these ideas. Innovation is often the result of gradual change. However, it can also be revolutionary, especially when you've already tried incremental improvements. Without a clear vision for the future, creativity remains stagnant. But when leaders show employees how working toward this vision can lead to success, innovation flourishes. Businesses with an innovation culture have several common characteristics. show organization-wide commitment to the business and to innovation – experiment manage risk implement ideas quickly produce and cultivate innovators
No matter where they're found in an organization, innovators are a vital part of a company's structure. They keep the organization focused on the future. Innovation leaders are often the people who really push their company to develop a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Bottom-up innovation happens when people at the operational level have ideas that are developed upward for management support. A key feature is the business culture – it's entrepreneurial and encourages risk taking. Top-down innovation is different. Management typically initiates it in response to a lucrative business opportunity. In this model, ideas flow downward to lower-level teams. The key feature here is the process – management makes an idea actionable, and then the idea is implemented. Because these models are different, each requires a different focus and style from innovation leaders. You might think that only bottom-up innovation is &quot;real&quot; innovation, but that's not the case. If your company has truly innovative leadership, both top-down and bottom-up innovation can coexist. They're actually complementary. Suppose a great idea is generated bottom-up. Management might think it could really work and turn it into a top-down project, giving it full support.
Characteristics of an innovation leader Leaders who are able to build and sustain an innovation culture share a few characteristics. Each of these characteristics of an innovation leader can be manifested in your actions as a leader – actions you can take to improve the business innovation culture in your organization: passionate about innovation – Innovation leaders are passionate about innovation. You can use this to improve the innovation culture by becoming emotionally involved. Show you care about the projects employees are working on. Then, communicate your passion and confidence to your staff. Use different techniques to motivate employees – when they care deeply about their work, their coworkers, and their company, they'll feel more like owners instead of employees. willing to experiment – Innovation leaders accept risks and uncertainty, modeling courage, and demonstrate willingness to think outside the box. They're passionate about innovation and are willing to experiment. realistic and informed – Innovation leaders know how to balance creativity and emotion with a realistic outlook and pragmatic risk management. Encourage creativity and passion, but don't recklessly pursue every idea that comes to mind, or constantly change course. Take calculated risks, but if it seems there's a strong chance the project will fail, pull the plug. One of the principles of risk management is to consider your organization's level of risk tolerance. If shareholders or upper management are risk adverse, you must be more careful than if they're risk tolerant. capable of rapid project execution – Innovation leaders have a knack for spotting opportunities. They identify good ideas and rapidly turning them into business ventures that can provide a time advantage over competitors. To rapidly execute projects, you need clear and achievable goals a view of the steps needed to accomplish these goals. Innovation leaders don't settle for who's available; they pick a &quot;dream team&quot; and leverage people's talents. able to attract and nurture innovators – Leaders should search for innovators in employment-related activities, such as recruiting, hiring, and developing employees. The best way to attract innovators to your company – and then allow them to flourish – is to create a workplace where new ideas take root and turn into success stories. As you reward creativity and work that leads to innovation, your reputation as an innovation leader will allow you to attract and retain the very best employees in your field.
You can use each of these best practices as a guide to helping you attract and nurture innovators in your organization. Remember – as you lead innovation, take a backseat and create an environment that allows others to flourish. expose employees to new ideas create a sense of ownership and responsibility make a space for innovation to occur see the best ideas and projects through celebrate and reward work that leads to innovation
Innovation leaders share a few characteristics. They're passionate about innovation, willing to experiment, realistic and informed about risk, and capable of rapid project execution. But perhaps even more important, innovation leaders have the ability to attract and nurture innovators.
Now that we’ve discussed the 7 essentials of leadership, we can put a leadership development plan in place.
A leadership development plan is a map that guides you on your journey to fulfill your leadership potential. You benefit because the plan keeps you disciplined, focused, and motivated to accomplish what you need to in order to grow in your leadership abilities. The first activity in creating a leadership development plan involves assessing yourself and your environment. This activity involves assessing yourself as a leader, establishing a vision of yourself in the future, and identifying obstacles on your leadership journey.
If you're going to become the leader you aspire to be, you must start with self-knowledge and assess yourself as a leader. Through self-assessment you'll get to know those dimensions of yourself that you'll call on in order to lead others and make others want to follow you – your values, leadership style, motivators, and key competencies.
Values are beliefs and attitudes that define who you are. They govern the practices you use every day in everything you do. Discovering what your values are is an important output of a leadership self-assessment. You can identify your values by using a four-step process: Make a list of everything in life that's important to you. Repeat the exercise, but this time, be selective and think about your values. Pick out the five most important values and list them in order of importance. Define what each value means to you.
Your leadership style grows out of your values; it's the way you interact with people to give direction, implement plans, and motivate your staff. Good leaders adapt their styles to suit specific situations. You need to know what your natural leadership style is so you can learn to adapt yourself to different situations. To identify your style, you can use one of the many questionnaires and survey instruments available. Three of the main ones are authoritarian, participative, and delegating: Using the authoritarian style, you, as the leader, make all the significant decisions, including how jobs are performed. With the participative style, you ask employees for their opinions before making the final decision. With the delegating style, you allow employees to make the decisions as appropriate.
Identifying your motivators is important. Some of the things that motivate leaders are compensation, titles, perks, social status, helping others, doing a good job, and winning. The process of identifying your motivators is similar to the way you brainstormed your values. First, you make a list of everything that motivates you. Then, evaluate your list and identify your top five motivators.
Successful people achieve success in part because they visualize who they'll become in the future. These visions are strong motivators for doing what needs to be done over the long term to make the vision reality. Important approaches to establishing a vision include imagining your future, talking to people to find out what they think a leader should be, and doing some long-range planning. You can begin the process with some focused daydreaming: Imagine it's ten years in the future. You've achieved your potential and become the leader you've always wanted to be. Write a story to describe your vision of yourself. Don't get hung up on milestones and plans, and don't worry about barriers. Use some of these questions to flesh out your image: What's your typical day like? Who do you interact with? What are you thinking about? What are you feeling? What skills do you possess? While you're dreaming, think about your legacy. Project your mind out to the end of your career. What do you want people to say about you after you're gone? How must you start living now in order for that to happen? When you've finished writing your story, summarize the vision so it's easy to remember. Think of something or someone that symbolizes it. Keeping your personal vision in mind is highly motivating. After creating your vision, you need to talk to other people about it. Other people can provide valuable feedback about things you might want to change about yourself as you go forward. Also, sharing your vision enables you to gain information that can help you progress. And, to become a leader that others will follow, you need to know what others think a good leader is.
In the first stage of creating a leadership development plan, you assess yourself and your environment, establish your vision, and plan to overcome obstacles. In the second stage, you determine how to achieve your vision. To do this, you'll need to set goals, objectives, and actions. Goal statements can help you, but it's your objectives that really drive you toward your vision. Objectives tell you what you must do, how you must do it, and sometimes when you must have it done.
Your goals and objectives form the outline of your development plan. Next, you identify the development actions you'll take to meet your objectives. These actions usually make up the greater part of the leadership development plan itself. Development actions are composed of a variety of formal, informal, directed, and self-directed tools, techniques, approaches, and methods: reading and using resource materials participating in training sessions, programs, courses, and internships hands-on practice journaling volunteering consulting with peer groups, role models, mentors, and coaches
When you've finished creating your plan, you should evaluate it to be sure it has each of these characteristics: A good leadership development plan supports your vision by aligning goals, objectives, and actions, with the vision. It's tailored to your needs . Some organizations use a generic format for leadership planning purposes, forcing all potential leaders to try to fit into the same mold. When it comes to leadership plans, however, one size doesn't fit all. It's grounded in real-world experience . When a plan integrates leadership development with on-the-job activities, you're able to practice skills in a hands-on way, while contributing to the productivity goals of the organization at the same time. To be successful, a development plan must not conflict with the organization's goals and priorities. When you create your leadership development plan, discuss your needs with your manager. It's important to strike a balance between your development needs and the organization's goals.
The final advice I’d like to give is to seek support. Talk to others, find leaders that you look up to and tell them about your vision and plans. Leadership is a journey. Walking into that journey with support and guidance will result in success.
Jennifer: Thank you, Shannon for a great webinar! And thank you all for attending. As a reminder, a recording of this presentation will be sent to you, along with the PowerPoint, worksheets and handouts. Included will also be a list of online courses, books and materials used for this presentation. Lastly, our next BizTopix Webinar will cover Time Management. It will take place on Wednesday, March 30 th at 1:00 Central. Look for emails and notification in several weeks.

Leadership Essentials

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