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Women in Leadership - How to Get Promoted
It is often much harder for women to get promoted than men. The most common characteristic of successful women is that they know how to express their excellence in a male dominated environment. How do they do it? Most of us are promoted to due to our excellence expressed through one or two opportunities. These were usually based on 'hard issues' that contributed significantly to the business in some critical period. In our promotion, was the assumption, that we could work out how to express our excellence universally. For most of us this has not been so straightforward. We have had difficulty getting our message to the right people at the right time. The 'critical periods' of the business generally took care of either the soft issues - the people based priorities, or the hard issues-the projects at hand, and we took care of the other. Now that period is past and our leadership is being assessed on a different foundation. We are expected to lead on the soft and hard priorities of the business with equal competence. The stock exchange intimately understands extraordinary performance to be leadership driven. Not all stocks command the same premiums, leadership and communication of the company vision is reflected in its stock price. When company management changes, stock prices reflect the mass perception of this change in leadership. There has long been intense interest in the competencies that consistently deliver outstanding performance! Our knowledge of what causes the differences has increased dramatically. However, our ability to impart the knowledge broadly, to enable more people to achieve these results, has remained about the same. There is some assumption we have about how people learn high-level leadership skills that is not true. There are three personal disciplines required of us to competently deliver results. All three are common knowledge, however only two are widely taught, externally measured and impartially assessed. The other is taught one-on-one and is measured objectively and subjectively. Firstly, physical discipline - the willingness to work hard. Most knowledge workers intimately understand this. They work long hours, continually strive to fit more into each day and achieve quality decision-making. Physical discipline can be readily assessed externally, it is what we might call the breadth or scope of the work; how many issues we can manage simultaneously and not lose sight of our contribution to the vision. Secondly, mental discipline - to be able to deal with the issue or meeting at hand, and handle it once. This requires us to leave other issues at the door. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes it is not. Mental discipline is the productivity of our leadership; how many sound decisions we are making that consistently support the vision. Both these issues can be measured quantitatively to assess performance. The measurements are impartial and allow considerable flexibility of leadership style. Both disciplines are well understood and we can develop them readily in others. Thirdly, we need emotional discipline. The ability to enable individuals, teams, or a community, to contribute to, or comply with our decisions. This requires us to: * Step aside from our own emotional reactions and so become unattached to the personalities and problems associated with the outcomes. * Understand the emotional nature of our team, community or Corporation, to enable communication of the meaning to each of them, and, * Through this be able to engage them to the vision in a meaningful and consistent way for delivery of the results. This is complex behaviour, with little common language. It has a powerful input to the results depending what is fuelled - engaging, disengaging or fence sitting! Women therefore need to be able define their emotional intelligence to express their contribution. Emotional intelligence is ability to express the above three competencies at the right time, the right place and to the right people. This expression is delivered through insightful moments. Leadership is measured by our ability to command insight in the critical moments of projects and personal interactions. This article may be reproduced in printed or web format, provided the resource box below is included. Rosemary Johnston is a professional corporate and personal coach. Working with executives from some of Australia's largest and most successful companies for over 15 years. Rosemary's new book, "How To Develop Your Leadership Style and Skills" is now available to download at her web site. Read about some of the success Rosemary has had coaching leaders in Australian blue chip companies. http://www.leadershipfirst.com.au
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Coaching Leadership Tips From My Dad Lee (L.B.) Weiss (Sept. 21/25 April 30/82) The SAMMER Test: Leading People To Get The Right Results At the Right Time In The Right Way As a leader, you do nothing more important than get results. But simply getting results can be easy. Partnership: Choose It or Lose It Charlotte decides to do good. Charlotte is a highly motivated worker. Something has been bothering her lately, something about the structure of the work flow that's causing redundancy, misallocation of resources, costly errors, and diminished productivity. On her own she does a careful study of the situation and convinced that she is on to something, she spends her evenings writing a detailed report that includes her observations, the apparent costs to the system, evidence of mismanagement (she is a bit caustic here), her vision of how the work flow should be structured, along with the steps she feels would turn things around and assure success. In the end, this is a detailed report, meticulously done, twenty-five single-spaced pages, with charts and graphs. Charlotte is proud of her work, the fact that she did this at her own initiative and on her own time, and she is truly excited about making a positive contribution to the organization. Charlotte finishes her report and sends it to the company president. And then she waits. And she waits. Certainly there will be a phone call, a meeting, some acknowledgment of her contribution, a bonus maybe, even a promotion wouldn't be out of the question. Something. But nothing comes. A week goes by. Two weeks. Still nothing. Hope wanes, and a bitterness begins to settle in. Those executives, she thinks, they go off to these programs on partnership or leadership or empowerment; they learn all the right words, but in the end it doesn't mean anything. It's more of the same old arrogance of top management. They really don't care. And this marks the end of Charlotte as a highly motivated worker. She is angry; she has her evaluations (all negative) of the president; she is feeling very righteous -- I did the right thing and what did it get me? -- and she has lost interest in pursuing her productivity project. What's the point? she asks. That's the last time I'll go out of my way for this company, The Incandescence Of The Human Spirit There lives within every individual a power, an energy, an incandescence of spirit that is being constantly held in check, like a dimmer switch turned way down. Learn How to Lead People "Who rules or guides or inspires others" Leadership For Deep Results: Without Them Are You Wasting Your Leadership And Your Life? (Part One) I've challenged all leaders I have worked with during the past two decades to achieve "more results faster continually." Leadership Push vs. Pull? At your next staff meeting consider leading your team through the following discussion. Communication Skills & Leadership - Organizational Communications Processes in Leadership Activity "Sooth 't were a pleasant life to lead, With nothing in the world to do But just to blow a shepherd's reed, The silent season thro' And just to drive a flock to feed,- Sheep - quiet, fond and few!" - Laman Blanchard Premature Articulation Ask anyone about what makes a good leader and they are sure to put the ability to communicate high on the list of necessary skills. Yet all to often communication is simply seen as the ability to speak. Steps to Becoming a Good Leader STEPS TO BECOMING A GOOD LEADER: 1. Develop a master plan. What are your goals? What are the organization's goals? How are you going to reach them? 2. Develop a leadership style. To manage people, you need to know how you are going to do it. Be comfortable with the leadership style you choose, and it will lead to future success. 3. Know the risks. Making any decision has its risks. Know the risks involved and whether the organization can afford to take them. 4. Get the authority you need. You need authority to achieve goals. If you don't have enough, get assertive. Tell your superiors you need more authority to make decisions. 5. Be decisive. Don't get caught saying, "Let me get back to you." Consult staff, but you make the decisions. 6. Be firm. If you believe in your decisions, then stick to them. However, be open to suggestions and be flexible. Heres The REAL Reason Bush Won: The Dark Night Of The Leadership Soul George Bush won the election because he was finally able to break out of the presidential bubble and give "leadership talks" on a consistent basis. Managing Monsters in Meetings - Part 3, Drifting From the Topic Although new ideas lead to creative solutions, they can be a challenge when they interrupt or distract the work on an issue. Peek Inside The Heads of Amazingly Successful Leaders Would you like to know what really goes on inside the heads of astoundingly successful leaders? Here is your chance. Part of the research for my book Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change? involved highly successful executives filling-out my Abilities & Behavior Forecaster? pre-employment test. A Good Leader Knows The Teams Colours Leadership can be a very challenging task. As leaders we don't always get to choose who is on our team. In fact very often a leader inherits a team, of which most of the members have been there far longer than the leader, and may even know more about the work than the leader. Whatever the situation, one of the responsibilities of a leader is to motivate the team to all work together towards the common goal. This can be a daunting challenge. So often the team is comprised of very diverse members, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and work styles. The team dynamics are also often complicated by internal disagreements and personal conflicts. The leader, not only has work with this group of people, but also needs to achieve the results expected by their superiors. Leadership Development and Jumping Out of Airships A German silent film melodrama depicts an airship bombing London during World War I. Lit up by searchlights and strafed by fighters, the crippled airship loses altitude as the captain frantically jettisons dispensable gear to lighten weight. Eventually, the only weight left is human. So the captain orders members of the crew overboard. A grisly scene unfolds as the airmen, one by one, without parachutes, step up to the hatch, salute the captain and the first mate, then jump to their deaths. Lightened, the airship returns safely to Germany. Five Steps Towards Greater Self Confidence We watch the star athlete calmly make the final shot, score the winning goal, or lead his team for a touchdown in the final minute of the game. We marvel at their talent and their determination, but what we value and admire most is the supreme confidence they display they know they will succeed. The Synergy Effect Have you ever considered that everything you want in life comes from someone else? The greatest minds in any field are keenly aware of the value of working with and involving others in life plans, business, work and personal commitments. The Seven Mistakes to Avoid when Organising Your Student Leadership Program How do you measure the success of a training or teaching program? There are many measures you can use including; focusing on learning outcomes, behavioural change, student engagement and even efficiency of delivery. Leadership Skills Training Empowers Problem-solving and Visioning Leadership skills training programs empower you to influence, persuade or inspire others. Well constructed training programs should result in improved, more effective leadership skills for your colleagues and you. Common Mistakes Extraordinary Leaders Dont Make When people make a decision (either consciously or unconsciously) to follow your leadership, they do it primarily because of one of two things: Your Character or your Skills. They want to know if you are the kind of person they want to follow and if you have the skills to take them further. Yes, there are other variables but these are the bulk of the matter. This week we focus on the kind of skills that cause people to follow your leadership, specifically things that an Extraordinary Leader doesn't do!
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