Getting a Grip on

LEADERSHIP

Getting a Grip on

LEADERSHIP How to learn leadership without making all the mistakes yourself! A practical, proven leadership guide for business owners managers and employees volunteer and community leaders teachers and students aspiring leaders

Robyn Pearce (New Zealand) and

LaVonn Steiner (USA)

Copyright © 2004 Robyn Pearce and LaVonn Steiner The authors assert their moral rights in the work. Disclaimer Check with your legal, accounting and business advisers before implementing any advice in this book. While the best possible care has been taken in researching and presenting this material, practices vary in different countries, and from year to year. The authors and publisher take no responsibility for the operation of your business. First published in India 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, whatsoever without the written permission from the publishers, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews. Published in India by : EMBASSY BOOK DISTRIBUTORS 120, Great Western Building, Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce Lane, Fort, Mumbai - 400 023. Tel : (+91-22) 22819546 / 32967415 Email : [email protected] Website: www.embassybooks.in Project editor: Carolyn Lagahetau Edited by Brian O’Flaherty ISBN 13: 978-93-81860-11-3 Printed in India by Repro India Ltd., Mumbai

contents Introduction

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Part One: The Foundation who are you? to lead others, first know yourself 1 Let’s get it right from the start — who are you, and what’s your purpose?

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2 What do you stand for (or not stand for)?

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3 History is a great teacher

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4 The place of power

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5 Here I come, world — I’m good at this!

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Summary of Part One

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Part Two: The Vision and Strategy where are you and your organisation going? a good captain always has a plan 6 All planning is not the same — learn to think strategically

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7 Twelve steps in strategic planning

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8 Strategic planning for life

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Summary of Part Two

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Part Three: The Climate what’s it like to work here? how to build a positive workplace 9 The individual in the workplace — each one makes a difference

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10 Communication is king!

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11 How the leader impacts the climate

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12 Feedback, criticism and appraisals

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13 How to deal with conflict

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14 How to get the message not only delivered but also understood

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Summary of Part Three

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Part Four: The Synergy how to work well together 15 What are my team’s wants, needs and strengths?

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16 How do I get the best out of them?

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17 Into the future — leaders who can lead through change

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Summary of Part Four

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Last words Appendices Resources Bibliography About the authors Index

263 264 270 271 274 277

introduction If any of the following questions ring bells for you, you’ll be relieved to know that in your hands right now you have a blueprint — designed to help you learn leadership without making all the mistakes yourself. Are you your own worst critic? Do you get caught up in power struggles or turf battles at work? Are you a perfectionist and if you can’t do it right the first time, you don’t do it at all? Do you ever feel overwhelmed or out of control? Are you searching for more peace at work and at home? Have you ever heard yourself exclaim: ‘But I told them how to do it!’(or some variation on the theme)? Perhaps you’ve had staff members grumbling into their coffee cup, or the boss jumping up and down, or worse, key clients threatening to take their business elsewhere. Your staff don’t seem able to manage without your constant supervision; you’re overloaded with work; your family complains that they need a photo on the fridge to remind themselves what you look like; and you’re feeling increasingly frustrated with your role. Or maybe you’re running a voluntary organisation, and some of your committee have let you down. That’s even harder

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introduction

— you can’t get too tough or you’ll find yourself running the whole show! You rely on their good nature to contribute: there’s no pay packet to hold over their head as an ‘inducement’ to perform! Then, hard on the heels of your frustration, you begin to doubt yourself. What sort of leader are you? Should you give up and crawl under a rock? Take early retirement and disappear into the sunset? Go back to your old job and pretend you’ve no ambitions to succeed at a higher level? You start to wonder: was there some way you could have Y explained yourself better? But how to learn? If you’re like many people who find themselves in management or leadership positions, you’ve had minimal training for your role. You may have been very good at some part of the business, but that doesn’t automatically confer leadership brilliance. What both authors have learned through years of trial and error is the need for a practical ‘how-to’ guide for managers and leaders — but the shelves are pretty bare. So how have people learned these skills?

N Most people learn by trial and error, making mistakes as they go.

N In-house mentoring from other managers is valuable but usually fragmented, relevant mostly to specific topical issues. Volumes have been written on leadership attributes, N V Fortune 500 CEOs and leadership theory, but little on how to be a leader.

N Leadership is taught as knowledge but leadership is a competency: a competency includes not only knowledge, but also skills and attitudes.

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introduction

N Of the books that are practical, many of their examples are of top leaders, so far removed from the day-to-day experience of most folk that acquiring their skill seems like an impossible dream. We’ve used real examples of ordinary folk doing extraordinary work. This book won’t solve all your challenges. You will still make mistakes. But now you have an easy reference book with a stepby-step process, and real-life examples to encourage you when hidden alligators snap at your oars and threaten to tip your boat! We haven’t spent time debating semantics like the difference between leadership and management. In fact, we’ve chosen to use the terms interchangeably. Some pundits say management first, leadership second. Others vow the reverse. At the end of the day, does it really matter? The folk we work with just want the simple explanations; they’ve got jobs to do, and they just want to get on and do them to the best of their ability. The real question is: who have you inspired today? Managers and would-be leaders crave for a system; you’ve now got it in your hands. So, what’s this system? There are four essential commonsense components of leadership, four questions to answer. Apart from a few obvious shifts of emphasis, they’re the same commonsense basics for individuals in their personal relationships, people running teams within commercial organisations, and those who make a contribution with some form of voluntary service. 1 The Foundation: who are you? To lead others, first know yourself.

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introduction

2 The Vision and Strategy: where are you and your organisation going? A good captain always has a plan. 3 The Climate: what’s it like to work here? How to build a positive workplace. 4 The Synergy: how to work well together. Without these four fundamentals, lasting leadership will not take place. However, when they are bedded in, performance improves, profits increase, and people grow. A good leader does two things:

N Develops people N Gets results. Figure 1 • The ‘Getting a Grip on Leadership’ system

Effective Leaders

Synergy Climate

How to build a positive workplace

Vision and Strategy Foundation

How to work well together

A good captain always has a plan

To lead others, first know yourself

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part one

the foundation who are you? to lead others, first know yourself

1 let’s get it right from the start who are you, and what’s your purpose?

In this chapter you’ll consider: Yourself — the raw material N Y

N Purpose — your fingerprint on the world Like any good building, the foundation must be laid. About now you might be wondering what possibly could be the foundation blocks for leadership? Is it charisma, brilliant communication, amazing knowledge? Where do you start? No, it begins with something even more fundamental. We don’t go down to a store to buy starter materials for leadership — you’re the raw material, so let’s start there.

Foundation Block One: who are you? You might think: ‘But I just want to learn to lead. Why ask “Who Y am I?”? Give me the practical stuff — now!’

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let’s get it right from the start

Just trust us on this — you’ll reap the benefits soon! The better you know yourself, the better you lead. Your foundation is formed by what you believe, what you’ve learned and how you live. It’s your anchor in the midst of chaos. It’s the centre you seek to make decisions, take action, and influence others. When your foundation is rock-solid you create unity and trust. When your foundation is fragile or incongruent you create division and distrust. So, roll up your sleeves — you’re about to do some work! You might find it valuable to start a folder in your computer for Y the exercises you’ll work through. Or perhaps computers give you bad-hair days and you’d much rather enjoy the delights of a notebook you can carry around. Either is fine, but do yourself a favour and record your discoveries — the faintest pencil is more permanent than the sharpest mind. In the next few chapters you’ll do a series of exercises to unwrap some of life’s big questions, questions like:

N What do I stand for? N What lessons have I learned? N Where’s my power? N What am I good at?

Foundation Block Two: what is your purpose? Your personal purpose is a single sentence that defines your core Y gift to the world. Each of us is responsible for using our purpose to leave the world a better place than we found it. It’s your fingerprint on the world. Each of us has a unique combination

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part one: the foundation

of beliefs and talents: we each have our own individual life script. It’s not what we do in life; it’s not our role or job. Our purpose is what we bring to our role or job. It’s the big ‘Why am I here?’ question. Clue — to discover it, we must let go of our ego. As you seek clarity you’ll find the benefits apply not only to individuals, but also to organisations. Clarity starts from the inside: it only becomes visible to others if our actions are congruent with our mental vision of who we are. PPat is a nurse in a large school system of 2000 students. Any nurse could fill her position as school nurse, but no one could do the job just as Pat does it. PPat’s love, acceptance and delight in children are her uniqueness. She knows she cannot heal all the abuse, fill all the needs or address all the injustices she sees. However, when she’s with a child she can be totally present — a priceless gift. At work, at home, or anywhere in between, Pat lives the purpose she’s identified — To be present to each child. Because our purpose comes so naturally, we may not be able to see it easily. But someone watching Pat interact with the children she loves could help her identify her core purpose, if she didn’t know it. It’s what makes her unique. It’s what drives her. It’s the oil in the engine room of her soul, her reason to be at work. It would be easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of need in a job like Pat’s. However, by staying true to her own purpose, by not trying to be all things to all people, she makes a difference to far more individuals than if she tried to spread herself too thin. And she has great job satisfaction as well.

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let’s get it right from the start

Exercise: what is your purpose? Aim to reduce your thoughts to a single sentence. Use the following list for thought starters.

f What am I good at? f What do my friends say is my greatest gift? (If you’re stuck and can’t see it, ask a friend to help. We’re often too close to recognise it.)

f Where is my power? f What do I do because of my greatest hurt? f What do I care about? f Where’s my passion? (Clue: when you’re engaged in something you’re passionate about, time passes in a flash — you’re completely engrossed.)

f What brings me a strong feeling of satisfaction and joy? f What is it I do that makes the world a better place? Example Wayne found it hard to identify his purpose. One of his colleagues said, ‘Buddy, you bring out the best in others.’ However, that didn’t feel quite right to Wayne. While it was true that helping others achieve did drive him, he knew he had to dig deeper. So he asked himself how or why he ‘brought out the best’. He then realised that a positive environment was equally important to him, in all areas — home, work, and community activities. To bring out the best in the people around me, so we can all operate in a positive environment was his final sentence.

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250.00 ISBN: 978-93-81860-11-3