Natalie Schneider Leadership

Archive for the ‘leadership development’ Category

There is no shortage of leadership experts. Peruse a list of what various coaches, consultants and trainers offer and you’ll find many different subjects, but they all seem to have something like “and leadership” somewhere in the mix. Browse the shelves in your library or favorite bookstore for books on leadership and you’ll find no shortage of volumes on the subject. In fact, a search of the word “leadership” on Amazon.com returns 81,285 titles. So, there are plenty of answers available. But are you asking the right questions. Here are 6 questions you should ask about leadership development in your organization. With these questions, and maybe a couple of your own, you can narrow that search.

1. What do we really need? Are we looking for one-time training for a person who has a problem or do we need something a little more robust? If we need something for just one individual, why? Is it really just an issue with one person or does that issue indicate a more organization-wide problem? No single shot or short-term effort will produce lasting results. First time supervisors and managers need a different level of training than executives.

2. Are we, as an organization, taking leadership development seriously, or is it a hit and miss proposition? Should we have a leadership development program that is part of the organization’s culture?

3. How complex should our leadership development program be? Are we trying to create professors or practitioners?

4. Do we have a sufficient pool of more senior leaders who can be mentors? If not, what do we need to do to develop those senior leaders?

5. What is the best delivery method? Will an on-line type training program really meet our needs? Can we depend on people in the organization to actually accomplish training programs on-line? Would real-time, in-person training be more beneficial and provide a better return on our training investment?

6. If there is already a leadership program in place, is it effective? Does the program provide real training with follow-up and on-going support or does it seem like a bottomless pit into which we’re constantly throwing money to buy the latest thing?

When you have seriously considered these questions you’ll be in a much better position to critically evaluate the many options that are available. Note that these questions refer to a leadership development program. Developing leaders is an on-going effort, not a one-shot requirement to be accomplished with a single seminar or motivational book. Leadership development should be part of your organization’s culture. Is it?

In performing leadership functions, managers sometimes make attempts to change over from one leadership style to another with changes in the situation. This is rather difficult to do for most people and unless one learns to do it effectively, it may only make matters worse. What really matters from the point of view of effective direction is that the leader provides the lead to the satisfaction of the led.

A manager must be very careful in his conduct in the presence of his subordinates. Every little act, gesture, expression and movement on his part is watched and interpreted by the subordinates in relation to their own work. In exercising leadership functions in his formal position, a manager must avoid all kinds of false impression formation on the part of his subordinates. He must strive to develop and maintain morale by evoking confidence and zeal.

The leader can win and maintain his subordinate’s confidence in him by establishing his superiority in knowledge and his ability to provide psychological support when needed. According to experts, leader should make use of orientation, which consists in providing the subordinate with the required information about his functions and its relationship with other functions, follow it up with training in managerial skills and continued supervision and provide his subordinates with job security assuming that he is efficient.

In addition, the other important function of managerial leadership is to create and sustain enthusiasm for organizational goals and activities. This is somewhat complicated. The manager exercising leadership in motivating his subordinates towards organizational goals should try to determine the conditions of factors in the organizational situation which prompt a subordinate to put in efforts beyond the acceptable minimum. The function of creating enthusiasm for the enterprise goals can be performed by the use of two techniques: inspiring subordinates and strengthening personal qualities.