Complete Leadership: A Practical Guide For Developing Your Leadership Talents

Foreword - by Daniel Goleman Introductory Chapter: The Boss - Everyone who works spends a part of their day talking about their boss. This ranges from the positive "She wants me to head that major project!" to the quizzical "He spent ages on the phone again" to the negative "You won't believe what he did this time!" Such snippets of every-day life appear to be the stuff of gossip the froth that floats on corporate life, but it now transpires that they tell us a great deal about the ability of teams and organisations to succeed. Section One: How to assess how effective you are Chapter 1: The different management stylesDifferent ingredients go into making the complete leader. Firstly there are the personal skills, characteristics and motives that underlie a person's effectiveness. Secondly there are the specific job requirements: those critical tasks and activities that must be performed. Thirdly, there is managerial style. This is the area that Hay research shows has most impact on organisational climate. It is one that, contrary to legend, can be improved, sometimes dramatically, provided the individual is willing to undertake the self-analysis and development necessary. This book will focus on this area, and break this grand-sounding personal task down into manageable tasks. For ease of reference we have categorised managerial styles are:* Authoritative * Affiliative * Coercive * Pace-setting * Coaching * DemocraticChapter 2: How to build your own personal scorecard To build a map of your management style, you complete a questionnaire asking such questions as: "I feel that close supervision is not necessary in a situation where employees have participated in discussions of job-related issues". These result in a relative score on each of the six styles, set out on a chart. Then you ask your employees to rate you with the same questionnaire. Their scores are also plotted, giving you a map of the differences in perception.Chapter 3: Absorbing the lessons There can be surprises from the score that results. Not only may there be differences between the result of your team's chart and your own but your own map may highlight styles that you were not aware of. We describe in this chapter how your dominant style may be just right, depending on your colleagues and the nature of the job. The best leaders, however, are strong in all areas and can switch between different styles. We recognise that there is more to leadership than six neatly defined styles. In this chapter we discuss also the importance of one's personal qualities, and those of the particular skills for your industry. This encourages a rounded, three-dimensional view of oneself. Section Two: The quantum leap Chapter 1: Developing self-awareness 'To know ourselves is the most difficult of enterprises because it involves not reason alone, but our fears and our passions too. If we are capable of truly knowing then we will be able to understand others and the reality that surrounds us,' Alexander the Great The personal scorecard you developed, as described in Section 1, gives valuable information on your strengths, and your awareness of them compared with the perception of your team. This section directs you to the training and coaching needed to improve in key areas.Chapter 2: The development required Once you have built your scorecard, you will need to begin thinking about what training will help you to develop and grow in the required areas. This might focus on specific functional areas, such as finance, strategy or marketing or focus on understanding conceptual issues around organisations, culture and structure. Some of the training might also require you to become a non-executive director, trustee or chair of a charity, or a school governor. It also might include joining a professional network. It might also include you playing an active role in professional bodies like the CBI.Chapter 3: The coaching required It is important to review why you want coaching and how it will help you in your personal development. This also includes a questionnaire to help you in your own view of your "readiness for coaching" and how to be active in the coaching process. It will also help you with the selection criteria for choosing a coach, and how to know if it will work for you. Section Three: Leading the performance of your people Chapter 1: Putting it all together The personal scorecard described in Section 1, and the improvements made as set out in Section 2, provide the building blocks for a rounded way of improving your team. You are now ready to establish a process for setting objectives and measuring the performance of your team and of yourself on a continuing basis. This can be set out on a simple grid: Your leadership performance Your team performance Assess x x Improve x x Manage x x Chapter 2: A follow-up assessment After six months, you simply repeat the questionnaires that formed the original scorecard, and ask your team to do the same. This provides a graphic illustration of how effective your coaching and training has been.Chapter 3: Further work for yourself and your team This sets out the disciplines that leaders and teams who seek the highest performance establish. It shows how, once established, the good habits have high rewards and develop a momentum of their own. Chapter 4: Can I change? Do I want to? There can still be problems. For some managers, it is conceptually difficult to accept that changing behaviour can have such dramatic effects. Once they accept this intellectually, there can remain doubts about one's willingness to adapt. We can believe, falsely, that we 'cannot change' if we are from a particular profession, or we are over 40, or if we are married, or some other reason. This chapter explores the fears and doubts that inhibit us and encourages a belief in relentless improvement. But What If ...? Everyone's situation is unique, and many organisations feature dysfunctions such as difficult office politics. Common dilemmas include demanding schedules, autocratic bosses, and staff who refuse to meet deadlines. This section will illustrate how development on your management style will help with these problems too and that time can always be found to do it (it will quickly start to save you time). To illustrate this, we include the following real-life case studies, each of which incorporates at least one "nightmare" problem that the executive was faced with. Case studies Conclusion Three-dimensional leadership is about realising business success through people. It is about releasing the hidden potential in oneself to inspire and empower that in others. Good management is learnable, measurable and based upon evidence. Miracles come through a thousand small steps.