Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Leadership Development: Communication and Relationshps

This post is part of a series on leadership development.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently participating in a Leadership Development Program (LDP) as part of my work at Franklin University. This week, I attended a presentation by Dr. Mike Posey, the Chair of the Public Relations Program at Franklin University. I have worked with Dr. Posey in the past and it was good to hear from him in this format. 

Dr. Posey shares his insights on the importance of relationships in leadership.


Dr. Posey presented on the importance of relationships in leadership. He started the session by having us view a presentation on leadership styles of orchestra conductors. I enjoyed the video and have embedded it below.


Below are some of my notes from the meeting. Note that these are likely some of my own ideas mixed in with Dr. Posey's.


A Cool "Warm-Up" Activity
Dr. Posey started out the session by having each member individually roll a die and answer one of 6 questions on the slide, based on what they rolled. Here are the questions that were answered:
  1. Describe in one sentence your professional life.
  2. What are your hobbies?
  3. What makes you happy?
  4. What don’t you now that you would like to know more about?
  5. One thing you want to do professional before you die?
  6. One thing you want to do personally before you die?
Dr. Posey observed that people tend to become more excited and animated about their personal goals and less excited about their professional goals. The take-away message was that we should be sure that our work life aligns as much as possible with our interests and passions in life. It was also a really good way to learn more about the others in the group.

Three People You Admire
Dr. Posey then asked us to write down three people we admire. I was thinking of the list in terms of public figures, and here is who I wrote down (I acknowledge that I wrote more than three, here):
Characteristics of Good Leaders
The following were shared as positive characteristics of leaders, which strongly correlates to the people we admire:
  • Motivator
  • Colleague
  • Passionate
  • Listener
  • Authority
  • Controlled
  • Teacher
I would say that the people that I wrote down as admirable certainly possess many or all of these attributes.

It's All About Relationships, Empowerment, and Communication
Dr. Posey’s belief is that despite the many different theories related to leadership, it all comes down to three major components: relationships, empowerment, and communication.
  • Relationships – everything we do in leadership (and in life) has to do with relationships. We are constantly asking ourselves “How do I relate to this person, object, idea, or environment?” Managing human relationships is absolutely critical. Human beings are relational beings - we must interact with other people to exist and to thrive. For positive interaction, we must have a self-awareness and awareness of other people. The key to relationships to find out what motivates them, what gets them excited, and help them see how they fit within the organization.
  • Empowerment – we empower others by giving them responsibility and ownership. This leads to higher trust, productivity, and a positive working relationship. Let people do what they love and are good at.
  • Communication – in the workplace, communication is very often extremely disjointed. There are means of communication, which disrupt how we communicate. A leader should communicate in ways that they are good at. In addition, communication should not take place as a monologue - it should be two-way. Listening is absolutely critical.
“The hard stuff is easy – the soft stuff is hard. The soft stuff makes all the difference!”
The people/relationships side of things is perhaps the most difficult, yet it can have the most profound impact on our success as an organization. People need to feel empowered, cared for, supported, protected, and trusted.

30 Seconds of Reflection
We have been doing 30 seconds of reflection at the end of each leadership session. Here is what I wrote down: "I continually think about whether I am on the right track with my profession. Am I doing what is truly important to me? I believe so. I enjoy my work - I am learning and growing, and I love higher education.  Ultimately, I want to live an incredible life and have a positive impact on the people I work with and interact with."

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Leadership Development: Leadership Theories and Decision-Making

This post is part of a series on leadership development.

As noted in a previous post, I have been attending leadership development presentations on a monthly basis at Franklin University. Today we heard from Dr. Timothy Reymann, the Chair of the Business Administration, Management and Applied Management Programs at Franklin. Below are my notes on his topics of discussion, as well as some reflections.


What is leadership? 

A leader has the ability to influence others. It isn’t directly linked to a position within an organization. Simply sharing ideas with others can have a great impact on others and on an organization. Leadership also includes helping move others toward a specific or shared common goal. Importantly, great leaders start off as great followers. Dr. Reymann shared an example of Dr. Tom Seiler, the Dean of the College of Business at Franklin, who exemplified followership at many levels as he progressed in his career.

Leadership Styles

Dr. Reymann outlined some of the major theories of leadership being discussed today. I'll give a brief outline of these below.
  • Transformational Leadership – transformational leaders focus on helping the people they lead to change and improve. They do the following:
    • Build Trust – Work hard and pull through for your people.
    • Act with Integrity – Work hard, stick up for your people, own your mistakes.
    • Inspire Others – Show what is possible. Encourage the growth mindset.
    • Encourage Innovative Thinking – Model and reward creative thinking.
    • Coach Individuals – work with specific people individually to help them move forward
  • Authentic Leadership – The focus here is leadership that is transparent, ethical, and worthy of the trust of the followers. Apparently the Millennial generation wants leaders who are transparent and trustworthy.
  • Transactional Leadership - this is typically seen as less-effective, today. I see this as a remnant of past societal needs - in the industrial society, this kind of management style was probably important, but in our current society, people need to be able to do their work without constraint. Transactional leadership tends to employ micro management strategies wherein they are "all up in their employees' bidness" and don't allow them to move forward with faith and confidence.
  • Servant Leadership – The servant leader’s goal is to develop others and not to develop his or her own interest. Listening, empathy, and foresight are key skills. It is based on principles of Christianity – the leader is there to develop others and have them carry on as leaders.
  • Full Range Leadership – This model seems to show the big picture and help leaders move from totally apathetic to passive, to transactional, to transformational. Transformational seems to be the best fit for the knowledge society, according to this model. I tend to agree, though I might mix in a little servant leadership (as they appear to be very similar). 

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim is fulfilled, his followers will say “We did it ourselves.” Lao-tsu

Decision-making in Leadership

Reymann identified 8 steps for decision-making. These align well with the “scientific” or “analytical” approach to decision-making. Very often we are making split-decisions instead of using critical thinking approaches. The main thing is to take enough time to make the right decisions.
  1. Identify relevant facts – gather solid data.
  2. Identify ethical issues for the decision – make sure you take care of your ethical obligation.
  3. Identify stakeholders – who will be affected by the decisions? How?
  4. Identify possible consequences and alternatives – predict what will happen when decisions are made and actions taken
  5. Think long-term – how does this decision affect our people and our organization in the long-term? Come up with a 3-5 year plan for increasing your successes.
  6. Identify relevant obligations – what are you obligated to do? What if your decision was published in the newspaper? Would you be comfortable with it?
  7. Think creatively about courses of action – create many options.
  8. What does your gut say? – Get a sense of what your instincts tell you to do. Decisions will tell you what the right decision is.

Other Notes

Self-awareness– without an awareness of your own thinking strategies, emotional intelligence, communication abilities, you will not be able to make the changes necessary to affect positive change.

Risk-taking – leaders must encourage risk-taking among the people they lead. They must not point out when errors are made because this will encourage “playing it safe” and hiding mistakes.

 Leadership Development – to develop yourself toward increased leadership, do the following:
  • Have a clear goal – know where you want to go and how you want to impact the world.
  • Have a clear path forward – evaluate yourself and identify what you need to do to prepare yourself to move forward effectively. Map out how you will do it and get moving!
  • Obtain a mentor – find someone you can go to lunch with, someone that you can rely on for guidance. Ideally, this should be someone who has done what you wish to do in your career. Perhaps have several mentors!
  • Risk-taking – do scary things and do your best. Take risks, try your best, learn from the experience, and try again! If you never take the leap, you will always remain where you are.

30 seconds of reflection

(In these leadership development meetings, we are always directed to reflect for 30 seconds. This is my reflection). I would like a clear path forward toward the fulfillment of my goals. Much of this includes gaining an objective view of my current abilities so that I can identify how to really change and improve myself. I've realized that I really need to get clear feedback and guidance from the people that I work with so I have a clearer picture of what my strengths and weaknesses are. This will be scary and potentially painful, but it may yield a practical path forward.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The 7 Competencies of Self-Leadership

A few months ago, I jotted down some notes on what I think it means to take leadership over your own development, and here I flesh out some of those ideas. In the knowledge society, change occurs quickly. This means that you must be constantly learning, adapting, changing, and improving to succeed and thrive. And you must lead ourselves through the ambiguous, unclear paths ahead. 

Self-Leadership
I believe the following are critical components and competencies of self-leadership:
  1. Set goals - you must know how to set meaningful, intrinsically motivating goals to work toward. 
  2. Motivate yourself - You must learn to motivate yourself to accomplish your goals. 
  3. Work toward goals - you must have a sense for how to work toward your goals effectively and efficiently. 
  4. Evaluate and adjust - you must assess how well you are doing at reaching your goals and change your approach as needed.
  5. Learn constantly - you must continually develop yourself. Your knowledge should be both broad (across several areas) and deep (expert in one area). Learn knowledge and skills that will help you reach your goals. 
  6. Have fun - you must do work that you love and love your work. Learn how to enjoy your daily work.
  7. Practice ethically - you must work ethically - be honest, carry your weight, and do your best to contribute to bring about goals (yours and others). 
These are, in my opinion, some of the most fundamental competencies for leading yourself in today's volatile, shifting society. Without each of these in place, it will be difficult to succeed and move forward in today's complex society.

Rate Yourself
How are you doing in these areas? Take a minute to rate yourself on each of these competencies. What are your strengths? What should you work on to improve? How could you develop yourself to improve on your weaknesses and maximize our strengths?

In the final analysis, you are the most important resource in your life. You must improve yourself.