| |
| |
|
Leadership Information |
|
|
|
Leaders ARE; Are you?
Identity Crisis It's not only the knowledge you carry around in your head. More important to your effectiveness as a leader is your character - who you ARE. In an interview of Harvard Business School Professor, Scott A. Snook, conducted by, Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge Senior Editor Martha Lagace, they exposed a truth that will help you guide your leadership development program. The main thrust of this interview is how effective the Army has been in transforming the professional identity of its leaders after the end of the Cold War. Professor Snook explained what created the need for a transformation. The end of the Cold War brought about an "identity crisis" for the Army. It was no longer in a "bipolar world (that) had shaped a very strong and static sense of professional identity," he explained. "Such an identity crisis manifested itself in a variety of symptoms: low morale, high turnover, waning commitment, missed recruiting goals, and officer retention nightmares." Character: Most important AND Most Challenging to Develop One of the highlights of the research is that the character of a person is not only the most important "component of leader development," but also, "the most challenge(ing)." In order for the Army to re-align the professional identity of its leaders, and arguably solve the negative manifestations of the crises, the hard, high-payoff work had to be focused on leader character. The negative results of the identity crisis are challenges in the civilian sector also. We experience and fear low morale, high turnover and waning commitment. We fight with it every day, though leader identity is not typically cited as the cause. It goes without saying that leadership should be considered the source of all good and conversely the lack of it a factor in all negative. In order to increase the positive, which for corporate America comes in the form of higher profit margins and a more cohesive and pleasant work atmosphere, strong consideration needs to be given to Snook's suggestion. "Our contention (is) that the real leverage in developing leaders has to do with the BE component." The BE component is explained as the, "who you ARE." The paper uses BE and character interchangeably. This, of course, is our key area of focus for groups like Leading Concepts who get beyond the academic into the actual immersion experience of leader and team development. Snook went on to say, first, "we build our understandings of ourselves from our experiences. Second, we progress through a finite series of universal and progressively more complex stages in how we construct our understanding." Experience For Change As we dig into this idea of leader development and getting to the heart of it through a concentration on character, these two areas deserve more attention. It is interesting to see how our experiences have to be progressively more complex. It has been a trend, perhaps a plateau in civilian leadership development that has kept us from designing meaningfully complex learning vehicles. I believe that the reason is due to a concentration on the complexity instead of the experience. An experience is infinitely more complex than the most difficult concept. Simply add up the number of senses involved in a walk through the woods verses a day in a classroom. The properly designed and guided experiential leadership development course will go much farther to influencing the character of a person than will a stack of the most deeply researched papers. To acknowledge the order of accomplishment, the deeply researched papers must precede the properly designed and guided course. Professor Snook's "research has several implications for organizations and those interested in leadership development." "Adhering to a traditional learning model is fine if you are primarily interested in improving your employees' knowledge and skills. However, should you decide, as we did, that the leverage lies much deeper, in the BE component, be prepared to think differently about what development really means and how to go about measuring and influencing it." "I am currently studying how both life experiences and designed interventions contribute to our development as leaders. At this point it seems clear that it's not only the nature of the experience itself, but rather a complex interaction of an individual's readiness beforehand and sense-making afterwards that ultimately determines how much impact such events or programs will have on one's development." ROI The lessons of Professor Snook's research were taken from the success that he observed in over 10 years of the Army's transition from a Cold-War institution to a highly flexible, service-oriented and powerful organization ready for undetermined conflicts of the future. For everyone who downplays the power of this value (soft-skill) training, we have seen the ROI a thousand times over on our televisions over the past several years. Without this training and development in such a purposeful and planned way, the victories in Afghanistan and Iraq would not have been possible and the loss of life and resources would have been much greater. Soldiers have always been able to shoot straight. They've had the technical abilities, as do your workforce. The difference between success and failure comes in the ability of the leader to activate that ability in conjunction with others in the team towards a common goal. Crisis Free? Notice that the Army undertook this transformation a decade prior to their need. They were forward thinking enough to know that their need for this enhanced flexibility would be necessary during some future conflict. Granted, the Army always knows that there is a next crisis. Don't you?! Are you looking at today and thinking that everything is fine, or are you looking down the road to the next crisis? The Army was successful in transforming the professional identity of its members because it focused on character development through experiential training. Find the full interview "How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders" at http://www.hbswk.hbs.edu To learn more about how immersion team building and leadership training can help you visit: http://www.leadingconcepts.com Copyright 2005 Brace E. Barber Brace E. Barber works extensively with Leading Concepts, Inc. http://www.leadingconcepts.com in the field of immersion soft-skill training with a focus is on how to develop leaders, who are prepared for and can succeed under stressful circumstances. He is the author of the book No Excuse Leadership. http://www.noexcuseleadership.com
MORE RESOURCES:
leadership - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Four Laws Of Leadership (Part Two) In Part One, I described the laws of motivation. In Part Two, I'll examine the laws in more detail. Hidden Self Confidence Peer independence is arguably the least understood aspect of self confidence. Many people who are shy, or suffer from social anxiety, tell me that they lack confidence. The Ten Commandments of Leadership A poem hangs on the wall at Mother Theresa's orphanage in India. For all who are called to lead, it is a great reminder of what we should do:1. Are You A Leader in the Chrysalis? Let's get this straight at the outset?Leadership skills can be found in their droves on an Internet search. Lists? dozen of them; and if you want to define yourself and tick the box by a pre-set, ready made standard based on what 'experts' in business and the church think, then go right ahead and look because I am not going to reproduce it here and encourage you to pigeon-hole yourself. Follow My Leader - To Effect Change, Leaders Must Walk the Talk! A leader's roleIn any change project, a leader must wear many hats, however his/her role can be split into two key areas:1. Set the strategic direction of the change and;2. Building Teams and Teamwork A tight knit team is a group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other and are fiercely committed to their mission. They are highly motivated to combining their energy and expertise to achieve the common objective. Seven Personal Characteristics Of A Good Leader How often have you heard the comment, "He or she is a born leader?" There are certain characteristics found in some people that seem to naturally put them in a position where they're looked up to as a leader.Whether in fact a person is born a leader or develops skills and abilities to become a leader is open for debate. Teen View of Leadership From Around the World It has been stated that the world of tomorrow will be shaped by the leaders of today. This is certainly true when you stop to think that the great leaders of the past, Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, King, and Reagan did not get to see the lasting impact their leadership had on the future. Wanted: A Dictionary-Perfect Leader Answers are often before our very eyes or in front of our noses - particularly if we read the American Heritage Dictionary!Explore with me how some of the multitude of definitions for the word "leader" actually serve as a performance standard for leadership.Leaving behind the standard definition of "one who leads or guides", consider the second definition: "one who has power or influence". Why Not Lead With Emotions? Studies have shown that companies that have acquired competencies to lead with emotional excellence are far more productive and efficient because of the impact emotional excellence has on employee morale, loyalty, retention and overall performance of the organization to name a few.Since the early 1990's and especially after the internationally renowned author Daniel Goleman's book "Working with Emotional Intelligence" hit the bestseller's list, the business world began to pay close attention to this competency and began to incorporate it in their employee training programs. What Does Exceptional Business Success Require of Us? To excel in business we need conscious command of all our faculties, mind, body and heart to ensure our work/life balance. Then we can seize the moment of opportunity and create exceptional results. To Be An Effective Leader, Do A Check-up From The Neck Up Before we can effectively lead anyone, we must take an introspective view of ourselves. We must do a check-up from the neck up. 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.But to do it, he had to face the dark night of his leadership soul. Leadership Skills - 10 Ways to Beef Up 10 Ways to Beef Up Your Leadership SkillsHave you ever heard someone say, "Actually, I have to admit that I think I am really bad at managing other people. My staff all hate me and I'm incapable of doing my job". Are You The Most Powerful Leader You Can Be? As someone who teaches, manages, parents or influences you'll probably already be aware that powerful leadership is not just about the boss, it's about the team, irrespective of whether that team is in the classroom, in the office or around your home.In a driven world of instant access and fast everything the view of leadership being top down has become dated, and dare I say it, dangerous. Creating Unlimited Belief for Success! What's holding your team back from experiencing "breakout performance"?It may be those Old beliefs and Personal Insecurities. (aka: conceptual barriers)Conceptual barriers are the barriers that are right behind the eyes, DEEP within the brain. Character Traits of Extraordinary Leaders 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. A Winning Choice for Leadership! "The only way to enjoy anything in this life, is to earn it first." -Ginger RodgersOne bad apple can spoil the bunch! As a leader, we cannot allow "bad apples" to interrupt our efforts toward achieving our goals. The Three Faces of Leadership This article was published in the Nov. 2003 edition of Hamilton, Ontario's BIZ Magazine under the title "Leadership's Triple Crown" LMWhat does it take to be the head of a small business, a department manager, or even a corporate CEO? The effective director isn't one persona but three: a Visionary, a Manager, and a Mentor/Coach. People Problems -- Understanding the Dueling Paradigms You've spent the last 12 years riding your technical skills up the corporate ladder.Now the payoff -- you're a manager.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |
