Can we measure leadership?

A good balance?

Leadership is different to management. We can all agree on that. Much is written on this subject and I will not repeat it here.

What I do want to talk about is how Leadership is often about the balance that we maintain between the Tasks we need to do, the Team's ability to work together  and the needs of Individuals in their work context.

As a Leader we have to balance these three.

• Tasks - We all have a long list of tasks to do. If this is our first thought at work then we will be under-cooking our responsibilities in the other two categories. If a leader is doing a lot of the tasks it's a good sign they are a micro-manager. That does not go down well with the .....

• Teams - Often overlooked. The Team delivers the task. When the team is working well together they do more. If there is conflict or poor communication they might do less; or worse, more of the wrong stuff. Teams consist of ......

• Individuals - We all have our own needs and issues. If these distract us too much we can not devote ourselves to the team. Good leaders resolve issues for people leaving them motivated to take part.

Here is a simple test that you can do if you are a leader.

Ask team members to draw three overlapping circles, each representing their impression of how Task, Team and Individual needs are satisfied for their role. The size of the circles they draw should represent how satisfied they are with each aspect of their role.

The results might surprise you.

Communicate less, more

Extra Communications

This subject has interested me for some years.
As a change manager and a father of two I am constantly surprised by the difficulty we have in communicating effectively.
If I had a pound / dollar for every time a senior manager said “I cannot understand why my staff are not wholeheartedly embracing my changes” I would be a richer man.
Here are some techniques that have helped me as a change leader, (but I have not necessarily always stuck to, because THIS IS REALLY HARD stuff):

• START BY LISTENING. Let the person or group you are communicating with have their say first. Be supportive and show that you have heard them and will act if necessary. This gives them a chance to clear their minds of their own agenda and then they are able to listen to you.
• Make sure the listener is READY TO HEAR, are they mentally in a place to absorb what you are communicating? Fear of change, anxiety for their project / team and work overload are typical indicators to look out for. If these exist at the time of the communication, then assume that those listening will not hear.
• Keep it simple. Communicate ONE IDEA AT A TIME. As soon as we communicate a new idea recipients start to process the implications. This fills their heads with their own dialogue. – Not a great time to introduce another new idea. This takes patience and some bravery (when will you get another chance to communicate?)
• REPEAT YOURSELF, lots of times, in different formats. A simple message repeated at every opportunity works well. Team briefings, company wide emails, intranet, blogs, wiki’s, notice boards, email footers, etc. In fact anywhere you can repeat the message is useful – so long as you are consistent and simple.
• KEEP REPEATING the message until you hear that “so and so” has had a similar idea. At that point start supporting their idea.  (It is no longer yours).

Repeating myself  is a technique that I use a lot. Some staff get the message straight away, others take longer, some never really understand. When you are really bored with repeating yourself, don’t stop, keep it up until…..
…..you see team members explaining to each other in their own words.
Now you know that you have communicated.
In short, communicate, less, more. Plant a seed then support and steer any conversations that make it grow.


This weeks inspiration -  Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show.

There are plenty of complex ways to define Change Management.

I try to keep it simple and easy to understand.

Good things often come in threes, so here is change defined by the ‘Rule of Three’.

 Change Management is how we transform business.

We can change the person, the team structure and/or the organisation’s attitudes and behaviours.
 
We have to decide which of these three areas we are changing and then move from point X to point Y. 

This is where the fun starts.
  
Change success can be defined in these three areas;

1.  Business Strategy or the Vision - this is about communication and leadership
2. Business Process or How do we get from here to there – this is about motivating  people to go on the journey
3. Organisational Behaviour or What the teams and people do next - this is about making it stick

Successful change project leaders recognise the above from day one.

Memories are the things on which we hang our identity.

I heard the title of this blog on the radio this morning. And it made me consider just how much and how I remember things.
We live in a sea of stimulus and human brains have developed to filter and sort the visual, audio, touch, smell and taste signals that we receive.

Otherwise our long-term memories would soon overflow. Our brain filters important stuff from the useful and ignores the ephemeral (mostly).

Our long-term memories shape our identity and drive the way in which we interact.

Now, imagine a brain that records everything that you ever experienced or said and made it available for review or re-use. You would replace your selective, intuitive and spontaneous identity with a search based, analytical and undoubtedly more complete version of yourself.

But would this be better?

Perceiving Identity

In the real world the foundations of perceived identity are physical interactions and the important first impressions these make on others.

In the virtual world our identity is a mix of social networking links, published  profiles, comments on websites and what others are saying about us.

And because we can research people before we meet them, the virtual identity is becoming the first impression.

Remembering

I have read that the internet never forgets. Everything is apparently being saved for re-use.

Our “mistakes” in the real world are quickly forgotten and therefore forgiven, but if they are now permanently stored, should we take more care about what we post on the internet? I don’t know, but it is something to think about.

I do know that many people are not yet aware that their on-line activity is creating a permanent virtual identity. This lack of awareness means that many will come to regret the permanency and quality of their accidental on-line reputation.



Todays picture is an original pencil drawing by, and reproduced here with permission from  JD Hillberry. www.JDHillberry.com

Good Stuff from Unpromising Ingredients

I had the misfortune of being laid up recently with a bad back, so first, thanks to those who sent good wishes. If any of you ever need an excellent Osteopath follow the link below.

To pass the day I spent some time catching up on my reading and came across a speech made by Stephen Fry, who you will all know as a contemporary comedy genius. However this speech was a serious one.

He was musing on the subject of self-help and improvability and how different nationalities deal with adversity. It was a discourse on a common American dictum as follows:

“If life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade.”

He went on to say that this is not just a call to make the best of a bad situation; it is really a call to enterprise, initiative and self-help to find ways to transform a disappointment into a success.

To understand the full meaning of this one needs to consider the recipe for Lemonade. It’s really simple; the juice of a Lemon with added sugar and water. From an unpromising start, some near free ingredients and some personal effort we can make something that our friends really appreciate.

It reminded me that sometimes the simplest solutions in life are the best ones.

And this will be why you might hear me talking about Making Lemonade.

Mark Rush. Healing hands. – www.baileyandrushosteopaths.co.uk