Successful Leadership
Overview
The team management program -The key foundation step for overall leadership learning pathway.
The team management program -The key foundation step for overall leadership learning pathway.
This module addresses the fundamentals of the leadership pathway, in particular it examines the role of team leader and how participants transition to this role. This module looks at some of the key challenges faced by team leaders as they seek to become effective in their role. In particular we talk about the development of self awareness and awareness of the impact of their personal behavioural style on others. We also look at ways of modifying their impact on others as they continue their journey to becoming effective leaders.
- Insights.
- Leadership.
- Managerial decide making
- Business strategy
- How does context matter?
- Charismatic and transformational leadership
- Resistance and reactions to change
- The phases of transformation
- Harnessing emotions
- Making change stick
- Extrinsic motivation and rewards
- Beyond money - intrinsic motivation
- Power - getting it and keeping it
- Key levels of power
- Influence - tools of persuasion
- Give and take
- Negotiating as a way of life
- Avoiding the zero-sum game
- Building and leading teams
- Guiding teams as they evolve
- Observation and organizational learning
- Deliberate practise and experiments
- Stimulating creativity
- Learning innovation
- Developing leadership.
The Managers
The manager is responsible for activities such as planning, budgeting, organizing and coordinating tasks and activities within and across the organization. Managers also manage the performance of others, ensuring people achieve goals and results. The way they do this depends on the nature of work being done. In situations where performance depends on following strict procedures and processes, managers oversee work, looking to minimize mistakes.
Team leaders
They are more externally focused. Leaders search for order in uncertainty and unpredictability of change and progress, and in that order see opportunity. They communicate those opportunities and in doing so, ensure that the team changes and readies itself to take advantage of opportunities. This can create uncertainty within the team. Leaders absorb this uncertainty by listening and reacting to what people are saying and feeling. They communicate with compassion showing respect and understanding. In doing this they set and communicate directions. Their actions articulate the culture and values of the organization. In acting with confidence, they provide a source of assurance and a sense that the needs of each individual in the team or in the organization will be met.
Leadership is concerned with strategies, vision and direction. One without the other is insufficient. Strong leadership without proper management leads to chaos. Management without leadership breeds bureaucracy. Management focuses on organizational processes and structure. It is about organizing and staffing, job structures, communicating the organizational plans.leadership focuses on alligning people with business -having the right people on board, being clear about intent, ensuring that people are committed and accountable to where we are trying to go. Alignment is primarily a communication challenge, and proper alignment allows greater adaptability.
Finally, management is concerned with controlling and problem-solving, while leadership is focused on motivation and inspiration.
Leadership is concerned with keeping people moving in the right direction, despite obstacles and appealing to basic, yet untapped, human values, need and emotions. Good leaders always find ways to engage people, they recognize and reward success.
They are responsible for creating long term values. They can observe and interpret their environment both internally and externally- and identify business opportunity. This involves looking for and being sensitive to patterns and relationships between apparently unconnected events, as well as continually looking for new and different interpretations. The ability to do these things generates opportunities.
They are experimental, visionary, flexible, unfettered and creative.
Use the power of intuition.
Nurture culture, sense opportunities, pursue visions, correlate
Search for alternative solutions, serve people, lay out sweeping strategies and build on strategic strengths.
Leadership skills
Trust
Positive results
Credibility
Concern for the individual
Ability to articulate a vision
Identify and support key priorities
Focus
In the work place we have know for years that a high IQ is far form a reliable predictor of success. Emotional intelligence, the ability to be intelligent about yours and others emotions, is now acknowledged as the key ingredient in a successful leader. Leadership includes the ability to:
Articulate and arouse enthusiasm for a shared vision and mission.
Step forward to take a position - courage.
Guide the performances of others while holding them accountable.
Establish trust and relationships that lead to conversations of action.
Demonstrate high ability in attributes of emotional intelligence: self awareness, self-control, empathy, motivation and social skills.
Team Leaders
I also encourage you to think about what it means to be an inspiring team leader, and ask yourself :
Are you values led?
Values-led means striving everyday to make decisions in line with the organization's values and encouraging and expecting others to do the same.you should already be aware of your company's values. Values are a shared understanding of what you stand for, and how youbdo things. They describe the things an organization is not willing to compromise on in any situation with our customers, our shareholders, the community and each other.
Are you well rounded ?
Well-rounded means having a breadth of experience and balanced set of behaviours that will help you to demonstrate exceptional performance. Critical experiencs have been identified as key opportunities for you to develop a rich understanding of you business fundamentals. They are also experiences that strengthen your overall leadership capability. It is not critical that each of you ticks all of the boxes, but rather that you focus on ensuring that you look for new and different opportunities to help broaden your skills and knowledge. Building the core competencies, which are grouped into three clusters of Action, Insight and Engagement, will also help you to do this.
Do you have a wide angle lens?
A wide angle lens means stepping outside of your comfort zone,embracing diversity of perspective and continually looking for new and different ways of doing things. It also enables us to keep an 'outside-in' focus, continually asking ourselves 'where is the customer?' In this decision or course of action.
Role of a team leader.
Keeping in mind the three attributes of inspiring leaders, what does it mean to be a team leader:
- What you do?
- How you do it?
- Why is it important?
- What are the benefits for you, if you do this well?
- How can you do this in a way that brings tonlife the inspiring leader attributes of values-led, well rounded and operating with wide-angle lens?
Role of Team Leader
A role of a team leadership means
- Embracing a shift from doing things yourself to getting work done through others.
- Taking into account the importance on the company values as the compass for leadership, determining how team leaders go about their work.
- Modelling the organisation's value.
- Unleashing the discretionary effort of the team members, which enables them to always strive to their best, go the extra mile, and engages their hearts and minds. Consciously recognising the value of diversity in perspective, experience, ideas and styles.
- Developing the less tangible, interpersonal/people management skills- compared to the more tangible , technical skills that you already have.
- Creating 'Line of sight' for others in their day to day work.
- Being curious and open to new way of doing things- being adaptive.
- Pro actively seeking opportunities to broaden your skills and knowledge.
- Connecting and collaborating with others.
- There will be many tasks on the 'what' list and therefore team leaders need to be able to effectively manage their own time and priorities too.
- Identify when you need to refer or escalate issues to your own manager.
One of the challenges often faced in transition is about establishing your presence as a team leader or a supervisor.
Presence is often differentiating yourself from others. This particularly the case when you're leading others who used to be your peers and maybe even your friends.
Central to establishing your presence as a team leader is the mindset you adopt and one of the most important aspects of the mindset you adopt is having a proactive focus. Having a proactive focus means we focus on what we can do, rather than what we can't do.
Reactive leaders focus their time and energy in the circle of concern on things they cannot change or do or has less potential.
Proactive leaders focus their time and energy in the circle of influence on the things they can do something about.
Importance of self awareness
The staring point for effective leadership is self awareness. Effective leaders know who they are, what they believe in, what drives them band what work styles and environment suits them best. This understanding allows them to make conscious choices about how they behave in order to maximize their effectiveness in working with and leading others.
Social styles
Assertiveness and Responsiveness are the two clusters of behaviour helpful in predicting how individuals are likely to behave.
Assertiveness
Is the degree to which a person is seen by others to be forceful or direct.
At one end of the assertive range are those who 'tell' and at the other are those 'ask'.
Other characteristics of people who are more assertive include:
- Often speaking louder than others.
- Speaking more rapidly and more often.
- Exerting pressure for a decision.
- Taking action.
- Expressing opinion
- Making requests
- Giving directions
- On the other hand , less assertive people will tend to
- Ask questions
- Be more subdued in their expression and posture.
- Speak more softly
- Have less intense eye contact
- Want to study a situation before making any decision.
It's about how people express themselves and his they react. some people are more reserved, controlling their emotions while others tend to let their feelings and emotions show.
On one end of the range we have a more responsive person. We refer as emotive. They :
- Appear friendly
- Have expressive face
- Use hand gestures freely
- Engage in small talk
- Share personal feelings
- Have less structured concern for time
- Are likely to be disciplined
- Could appear preoccupied
- Tackle the job at hand with a deliberate, systematic approach
- Have limited to visit
- More controlled manner
- Structured or formal approach.
Each one of these styles can be effective. They are not about the right or wrong ways of being. Indeed. Our behaviour styles need to vary so that they can match the styles of others. This is because the behaviour styles of our colleagues and customers vary.as the styles vary, to communicate effectively we too need to vary our style.
Our ability to be flexible in our style means that we understand what our style of behaviour is in the first place. Your team members generally demonstrate a diverse range of styles. As a team leader you have the opportunity to t recognise these preferences and draw on the benefits they can bring when your team needs to analyse and solve problems, create ideas and complete tasks.
Driver -
- Impatient, restless, collaborative.
- Task oriented, decisive
- High self image, may not engender empathy
- Like prestige and power
- Likes to achieve, Rather than talk about it
- Result oriented, independent
Analysts-
Your learning partner is one of the key learning and support mechanism built for your development. The purpose of learning partner is to:
Provide mutual support for other participants' leaning
Share significant experiences during the program
Transfer learning to on the job performance
Foster Cross-function/business unit relationships among participants.
In finding a learning partner, we suggest that you find someone:
You don't know or never worked with
Works in a different area/business unit to yours.
In order to be effective it is intended that you both take responsibility for building and maintaining the relationship. This will require demonstrating values like integrity, collaboration, accountability, respect, excellence.
In establishing your learning partner relationship you may wish to consider the following issues:
To be an effective team leader we need to be able to manage our time well. We need to be able to organise ourselves to effectively get work done through others, this means we need to plan, solve problems and make decisions.
Time management is a driver that underpins the foundation of being a team leader. With good time management skills you can be in more control of your time,your life and of your stress and energy levels.
The ability to make good decisions is another driver of workplace efficiency.
Decision making can be difficult as most decisions involve elements of weighing up pros and cons. The difficulty comes in selecting a solution that has more positive outcomes than potential losses.
A significant part of good decision making is in knowing and abiding in good decision making techniques. Following a format you trust provides you with a degree of confidence in you final decision. There will always be times when you need to escalate an issues to yoyr line manager. Following a format you ensure you consider the issues fully before escalat
An Italian economist who observed in the early last century that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Other countries showed similar results. Hence the rule 'law of the vital few'. States that 80% of the value comes from 20% of effort. But how do you identify this potential?
Plan and set goals
Connect to strategy>understand you role>set long term goals>set weekly goals to achieve long term goals and planning>plan daily,set target and goals>re-evaluate previous week.
This is about understanding the business unit and your team.
Goals are a very important factor. If you cannot clearly visualise your goals and are not reminded of them every now and then, it's likely that you'll never do anything about them.
While setting goals be specific on what will be done and how well . make sure its measurable and achievable meaning realistic and within reach of the employee's capacity. Should be relevant and time bound, clarity on when it should be achieved.
The key to daily planning is to spend some time at the begining of the day by previewing the day .
Start by revisiting your weekly plan worksheet and looking at your day in the context of the week. Further, there may be tasks incomplete from the previous day which needs consideration. Refer to the daily planning worksheet which allows you to see all items for the day. This breaks the day into appointments and action items.prioritize your day,identify your tasks and activities, thus gives you additional opportunities to ensure any unexpected activity hasn't slipped into your schedule.
Identifying and Managing time wasters.
Meetings
When you are arranging a meeting :
The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to recognise when you start procrastinating, understand why it happens, and take active steps to better manage your time and outcomes.
Whatever the reason behind procrastination, it must be recognised and dealt with and controlled before you miss opportunities or your career is derailed.
Recognise that you are procrastinating :
If you are honest with yourself , you probably know when you are procrastinating.
Work out why. It depends on you and your task. Select the best approach for overcoming it.
Get over it. Make up your own rewards. Ask someone else to check on you. Identify the consequences of not doing the task.work out the costbof your time to your employer.
Interruptions
Minimize interruptions on incoming calls:
An untidy working environment can have a significant impact upon time management . a few minutes spent now keeping things tidy and filings things correctly, could save hours later, trying to refind list documents.
These are a part of life for all organisations and it is inevitable that systems problems will occur from time to time . when it happens:
Use the 6 step problem solving process
1. Define the problem
2. Analyze the problem
3. Identify the possible solutions
4. Choose the best solution
5. Plan action
6. Implement solution and review progress.
Define the problem
Defining the problem is the first important step. The more clearly a problem is defined, the easier you will find it to complete subsequent steps .
Analyze the problem
This is all about digging to the root cause of the problem, and detail the nature of gap between where you are and where you want to be. You need to get to the heart of the problem.
Identify possible solutions
This step involves brainstorming creatively- ask a lot of questions about who , what, where, when, and how of the causes to point to various possibilities. It's important here that we don't limit ourselves by considering practicalities at this stage.
Choose the best solution
Evaluate the various options we have generated to determine which one makes most sense given our circumstances and constraints.
Plan action
Determine what steps must be taken, designating tasks where necessary. Decide on dead lines for completing the actions and estimate the cost of implementing them. Create a contingency plan in case of unforeseen circumstances so that if anything goes wrong with your plan, you havea 'plan b' in place.narrow down the possible ways to implement the solution you have chosen, based on any constraints that apply.
Implementing the solution and review progress
This is an ongoing process. You need to ensure the required resources remain available and monitor progress in solving problem. Otherwise, all the work you've done might be for nothing.
Decision making
Strategic decision making entails simultaneous activity by people at multiple levels of the organization. We can't look only to the chief executive to understand why the company embarked on a particular course of action.
Much of the real work occurs "offline" in one on one conversations or small subgroups, not around a conference table.the purpose of formal staff meeting often to simply to ratify decisions that have already been made.
High-stakes decision are complex social, emotions and political processes. Social pressures for conformity and human beings' natural desire for belonging affect and distort our decision making. Emotions can sometimes either motivate or at times paralyze us when we make important decisions. Political behaviour such as coalition building, lobbying and bargaining play an important role in organizational decision making.
Strategic decisions unfold in a nonlinear fashion, with solutions frequently arising managers define problems or analyze alternative.
Decision making process rarely flow in linear sequence, as many models suggests.
Sometimes, solutions go in search of problems to solve.
Strategic decisions often evolve overtime and proceed through an iterative process of choice and action. We often take some actions, make some sense of the actions, and then make some decisions about how we want to move forward.
We make poor decisions because of cognitive biasesuch as overconfidence and the sunk cost effect. Our intuition can be very powerful, but at times, we make mistakes as we match what we are seeing to the patterns from our past.
Groups hold great promises, because we can pool the intellect, expertise and perspectives of many people. That diversity holds the potential to enable better decisions than any particular individual could make.
The point about choosing the best solution is important. As a team leader, one of your core responsibility is to manage, make and communicate decisions. When you are problem-solving, and weighing up the options, ask yourself:
Once you are confident make your decision.
Before executing your decision just ask yourself , is this decision in the best interest of my organisation? What would I do if it were my money?
Working with others collaboratively
Importance of communication.
Communication is one of the key tools for achieving results in a workplace. Studies shows that 70% of the mistakes in the workplace happen because of poor communication. Therefore communication has a profound impact on the quality of our daily lives and relationships and the nature and quality of the results that we produce.
Which brings us to :
Open questions
Are questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Generally less effective. However useful in certain situations.
Active listening skills.
Active listening is a way of listening that enables you to concentrate on and understand the other's meaning, without judging,sending signals or any other kind of so-called 'interference' listening.
Guide lines for active listening
- A perfectionist, well organised
- Likes detail, order and precision
- Analytical of people and figures
- Gather and evaluate before acting
- Likes time to decide
- Sees problem ahead of others
- Needs facts and assurances
- Mature, methodical and trusting
- Empathetic, understanding of others
- Good listener
- Low key, well prepared
- Dislikes change
- Loyal,honest and has integrity
- Outgoing, sociable, people person
- Likes short presentations
- Poor organiser of time and information
- Poor listener
- Misses detail, prefer the big picture
- Likes talking , uses humor
Your learning partner is one of the key learning and support mechanism built for your development. The purpose of learning partner is to:
Provide mutual support for other participants' leaning
Share significant experiences during the program
Transfer learning to on the job performance
Foster Cross-function/business unit relationships among participants.
In finding a learning partner, we suggest that you find someone:
You don't know or never worked with
Works in a different area/business unit to yours.
In order to be effective it is intended that you both take responsibility for building and maintaining the relationship. This will require demonstrating values like integrity, collaboration, accountability, respect, excellence.
In establishing your learning partner relationship you may wish to consider the following issues:
- What do we need to do to get to know each other more?
- What agreements do we need about confidentiality to keep this relationship a 'safe ' place?
- How will we offer each other support?
- How will we offer each other feedback?
- No one will be completely true to one style.
- The average person will have most of the characteristics of one of these styles, but not all of them.
- Therefore when working with someone you need to be alert to the characteristics of their predominant style but you should also look for behaviours that may be an exceptions to the ruke .
- It is extremely important to not allow your initial perceptions is somone to be carved in stone- we must continue to be curious about and absorb new information about each individual styles.
Time management is a driver that underpins the foundation of being a team leader. With good time management skills you can be in more control of your time,your life and of your stress and energy levels.
The ability to make good decisions is another driver of workplace efficiency.
Decision making can be difficult as most decisions involve elements of weighing up pros and cons. The difficulty comes in selecting a solution that has more positive outcomes than potential losses.
A significant part of good decision making is in knowing and abiding in good decision making techniques. Following a format you trust provides you with a degree of confidence in you final decision. There will always be times when you need to escalate an issues to yoyr line manager. Following a format you ensure you consider the issues fully before escalat
An Italian economist who observed in the early last century that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Other countries showed similar results. Hence the rule 'law of the vital few'. States that 80% of the value comes from 20% of effort. But how do you identify this potential?
Plan and set goals
Connect to strategy>understand you role>set long term goals>set weekly goals to achieve long term goals and planning>plan daily,set target and goals>re-evaluate previous week.
This is about understanding the business unit and your team.
Goals are a very important factor. If you cannot clearly visualise your goals and are not reminded of them every now and then, it's likely that you'll never do anything about them.
While setting goals be specific on what will be done and how well . make sure its measurable and achievable meaning realistic and within reach of the employee's capacity. Should be relevant and time bound, clarity on when it should be achieved.
The key to daily planning is to spend some time at the begining of the day by previewing the day .
Start by revisiting your weekly plan worksheet and looking at your day in the context of the week. Further, there may be tasks incomplete from the previous day which needs consideration. Refer to the daily planning worksheet which allows you to see all items for the day. This breaks the day into appointments and action items.prioritize your day,identify your tasks and activities, thus gives you additional opportunities to ensure any unexpected activity hasn't slipped into your schedule.
Identifying and Managing time wasters.
Meetings
When you are arranging a meeting :
- Ensure you need the meeting
- Prepare agenda with time allocated for each topic
- Invite the right people
- Start on time
- Dismiss those who don't need to stay on any longer
- Stick to agenda
- Prevent interruption
- Make clear decision
- End on time
- Go just the portion just relevant to you, but tell the chair in advance
- Decide on things without a meeting
- Send a substitute
- Send a document with your review/decision
- Suggest to begin in time
- Start the meeting when the chair is late
- Resist temptation to open your inbox at unscheduled times
- Turn the notify off
- Clean out your mailbox daily
- Read item once , use a philosiphybof read, reply, next for most of your emails
- Apply the 4d concept - do it now, determine when, delegate it, delete it
- Create storage or folder
- Set 3-4 times a day aside to look at your emails.
The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to recognise when you start procrastinating, understand why it happens, and take active steps to better manage your time and outcomes.
Whatever the reason behind procrastination, it must be recognised and dealt with and controlled before you miss opportunities or your career is derailed.
Recognise that you are procrastinating :
If you are honest with yourself , you probably know when you are procrastinating.
Work out why. It depends on you and your task. Select the best approach for overcoming it.
Get over it. Make up your own rewards. Ask someone else to check on you. Identify the consequences of not doing the task.work out the costbof your time to your employer.
Interruptions
- When a drop-in visitor coming to you consider the following:
- Set time limit
- Refer visitor to someone else.
- When some one stops in to talk, stand up
- Send a clear message you need an uninterrupted time by posting a notebin your workstation
- Confer in colleague' workspace- offer to meet in their workspace.
Minimize interruptions on incoming calls:
- Keep your answer short and to the point and end the conversation politely when it has achieved its purpose.
- Screen your calls with caller I'd
- Let the voicemail taken your calls during the day when your busy.
- Consider others prime time
- Group them together
- Keep a list of things you want to discuss. Address everything in one call
- Arrange specific time to call
- Listen ,summarise, and make legible notes.
An untidy working environment can have a significant impact upon time management . a few minutes spent now keeping things tidy and filings things correctly, could save hours later, trying to refind list documents.
- Usebstaples or bullfrog clips
- Clear your workspace of anything not related to the task at hand
- Clear everything once you are done
- Use the bin option
- Handle each of paper as few times as possible
- Use a highlighter to highlight key points
These are a part of life for all organisations and it is inevitable that systems problems will occur from time to time . when it happens:
- Don't wait ,do something else
- Reschedule work
- Use the time to do some non urgent, important tasks.
- Share information
Use the 6 step problem solving process
1. Define the problem
2. Analyze the problem
3. Identify the possible solutions
4. Choose the best solution
5. Plan action
6. Implement solution and review progress.
Define the problem
Defining the problem is the first important step. The more clearly a problem is defined, the easier you will find it to complete subsequent steps .
Analyze the problem
This is all about digging to the root cause of the problem, and detail the nature of gap between where you are and where you want to be. You need to get to the heart of the problem.
Identify possible solutions
This step involves brainstorming creatively- ask a lot of questions about who , what, where, when, and how of the causes to point to various possibilities. It's important here that we don't limit ourselves by considering practicalities at this stage.
Choose the best solution
Evaluate the various options we have generated to determine which one makes most sense given our circumstances and constraints.
Plan action
Determine what steps must be taken, designating tasks where necessary. Decide on dead lines for completing the actions and estimate the cost of implementing them. Create a contingency plan in case of unforeseen circumstances so that if anything goes wrong with your plan, you havea 'plan b' in place.narrow down the possible ways to implement the solution you have chosen, based on any constraints that apply.
Implementing the solution and review progress
This is an ongoing process. You need to ensure the required resources remain available and monitor progress in solving problem. Otherwise, all the work you've done might be for nothing.
Decision making
Strategic decision making entails simultaneous activity by people at multiple levels of the organization. We can't look only to the chief executive to understand why the company embarked on a particular course of action.
Much of the real work occurs "offline" in one on one conversations or small subgroups, not around a conference table.the purpose of formal staff meeting often to simply to ratify decisions that have already been made.
High-stakes decision are complex social, emotions and political processes. Social pressures for conformity and human beings' natural desire for belonging affect and distort our decision making. Emotions can sometimes either motivate or at times paralyze us when we make important decisions. Political behaviour such as coalition building, lobbying and bargaining play an important role in organizational decision making.
Strategic decisions unfold in a nonlinear fashion, with solutions frequently arising managers define problems or analyze alternative.
Decision making process rarely flow in linear sequence, as many models suggests.
Sometimes, solutions go in search of problems to solve.
Strategic decisions often evolve overtime and proceed through an iterative process of choice and action. We often take some actions, make some sense of the actions, and then make some decisions about how we want to move forward.
We make poor decisions because of cognitive biasesuch as overconfidence and the sunk cost effect. Our intuition can be very powerful, but at times, we make mistakes as we match what we are seeing to the patterns from our past.
Groups hold great promises, because we can pool the intellect, expertise and perspectives of many people. That diversity holds the potential to enable better decisions than any particular individual could make.
The point about choosing the best solution is important. As a team leader, one of your core responsibility is to manage, make and communicate decisions. When you are problem-solving, and weighing up the options, ask yourself:
- How will I thoughtfully make and communicate what may be a challenging decision. First understand the risks and potential impact associated with the decision.
- Be conscious that you are making a decision on behalf of the organisation.
- Think: do we really understand this customer, team member or situation?
- Have we thought through the decision in terms of its impact on the customer, people, financial and process matters?
- Are we practising 'outside-in' thinking? Where is the customer in this decision?
Once you are confident make your decision.
Before executing your decision just ask yourself , is this decision in the best interest of my organisation? What would I do if it were my money?
Working with others collaboratively
Importance of communication.
Communication is one of the key tools for achieving results in a workplace. Studies shows that 70% of the mistakes in the workplace happen because of poor communication. Therefore communication has a profound impact on the quality of our daily lives and relationships and the nature and quality of the results that we produce.
Which brings us to :
Open questions
- Are the most useful questions for gathering information. They encourage the respondent to provide lots of information. For ex-
- What do you think of this?
- How can I help you?
- Why is this important to you?
Are questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Generally less effective. However useful in certain situations.
Active listening skills.
Active listening is a way of listening that enables you to concentrate on and understand the other's meaning, without judging,sending signals or any other kind of so-called 'interference' listening.
Guide lines for active listening
- Know why you are listening
- Calm yourself
- Listen with your while body. Monitor your body language. Look at the speaker . express interest with your face.
- Give feedback if you agree with the other person say so.
- Show empathy
- Encourage the other person
- Forget about talking while you are listening
- Put the other person at ease
- Look for positive points.
A useful way of remembering these guidelines is to think about 2 key concepts in communication.
Intention- knowing why you are listening and really wanting to listen well
Attention- the way in which we attend to the person while they are speaking.
Delivering effective feedback
The purpose of providing feedback to somebody is so they can maintain and/or increase positive aspects of their capabilities or improve it to an acceptance.ll level if it has fallen below the required standards.
Positive feedback draws attention to desirable behaviours and results. It reinforces the outcome and encourages repetition of those results and behaviours. As a team leader it's really important that we catch people doing the right things and acknowledge them for this.
Constructive feedback supports the development and enhancement of the desirable performance and behaviours. It clarifies and reinforces expectations with the focus on future outcomes. The intent by which you deliver your feedback should always focus on the positive and on improvement.
A positive feedback pathway
Intention- knowing why you are listening and really wanting to listen well
Attention- the way in which we attend to the person while they are speaking.
Delivering effective feedback
The purpose of providing feedback to somebody is so they can maintain and/or increase positive aspects of their capabilities or improve it to an acceptance.ll level if it has fallen below the required standards.
Positive feedback draws attention to desirable behaviours and results. It reinforces the outcome and encourages repetition of those results and behaviours. As a team leader it's really important that we catch people doing the right things and acknowledge them for this.
Constructive feedback supports the development and enhancement of the desirable performance and behaviours. It clarifies and reinforces expectations with the focus on future outcomes. The intent by which you deliver your feedback should always focus on the positive and on improvement.
A positive feedback pathway
- Behaviour- describe the behaviour being recognised/performance observations in concrete and specific terms.
- Impact- describe why it is positive - the effect on their performance, the team and the organisation.
- Appreciate- express your personal appreciation.
- Behaviour - describe the behaviour being recognised/performance observations in concrete and specific terms.
- Impact- describe the effect and the. Consequences of the behaviour.
- Response - invite a response.
- Listen by focusing on the issue without personal judgement.
- Resolution- find a solution together.
We will also discuss about
- The conscious mind in using language
- The conscious mind and emotions
- The development of sense of self
- Self attachment and self esteem
- Protecting the self in face to face talk
- Conscious self- talk and self-management
- Challenges to effective communicating
- Talking to connect and build relationships
- Differences, disagreement and control talk
- Commands, accusations and blames
- Healing relationships with dialogue talk
- Focus on the other- the heart of dialogue
- Assertive dialogue to manage disagreement
- Compassion confrontation
- Communication, gender and culture
- Talking our way to lasting relationships
- Leadership, appreciation and productivity
- Dialogue and appreciation: engaged employees
- Dialogue-ethical choices behind our talk
Managing conflict at workspace
Benefits of conflicts in an organisation:
- Better understanding of how to achieve your goals
- Better relationships with those you work with
- Clearer focus of what is most important
Responses to conflict
Competing - a response which is assertive and less cooperative.
- Used when quick, decisive action is crucial, e.g. in crisis.
- On important issues where unpopular actions need implementing - e.g., cost cutting or disciplinary action.
Collaborating - An approach that acknowledges the importance of all the points of view and aims to meet the needs of everyone involved. It is an assertive yet cooperative response.
- In situations to find a solution that integrates diverse and equally important views
- When your aim is to learn.
- To get commitment through consensus.
Compromising - an approach where all parties are willing to give up something in order to come to a mutually satisfying agreement
- In cases when parties with equal power are at a standstill.
- To reach temporary solutions to complex issues.
- When you're under time pressure to arrive at a solution.
- When collaboration or competition is unsuccessful.
Avoiding - a response where someone doesn't want to get involved in conflict or simply ignores it. It is unassertive and uncooperative.
- In this case the chances of winning are really bleak.
- Happens when the issue is of least importance.
- When emotions are high
- When the disruption of dealing with conflict will cause more good harm than good.
- When you need more information.
Accommodating - A response which is not assertive but very cooperative. One party is willing to sacrifice their wants and give in to the demands of the other party.
- In cases when the issues is of more importance to the other party.
- When wanting to be courteous and go a favor.
- When you realise you are at fault and want to rectify a situation.
- To reduce losses when you are outmatched or losing.
A well known method to resolve conflict is to be collaborative . Taking a collaborative approach to a conflict is very important in order to connect and work as one for our customers and shareholders.
In general collaboration is the most effective response to a conflict and should be used whenever possible.
With this'win win' approach , you include all parties to try to find solution that satisfy everyone.
Collaboration creates partners than opponents- its based on an 'us versus the problem' rather than 'you versus me' mindset.
The key steps required to effectively collaborate to resolve conflict situations:
- Listen acceptingly
- Describe your view in a constructive manner.
- Solve problems to mutually find a solution.
We will also discuss about
- Why conflict management matters ?
- The concept of win-win
- Perception.
How do you get a team to succeed? You start with the basics. Here are the foundations of a successful team:
Commitment: Members should view themselves as belonging to the team rather than as individuals. They place team goals over personal goals.
Trust: Members should respect each other to honor their obligations, maintain confidence, support one another and behave in a consistent, acceptable and fair manner.
Mission: the team should understand its role within the organization. Members feel a sense of ownership and accomplishment.
Communication: interactions between members with those outside the team should be constructive. All members should know and use technique for handling conflict, decision making and routines effectively. Information shared openly.
Participation: individuals' roles within the team are clearly defined members view others as partners. They value and make most of the team's differences. Contributions respected and encouraged. Consensus is established before committing the team to action.
Team processes: The team will use agreed-upon methods to achieve its mission or goal. Norms and values that are clearly defined. Members will understand and use effective meeting skills, problem solving tools, planning techniques and conflict resolution strategies.
The 4 steps for work done or a task:
- Define and prioritise task
- Decide who should complete the task
- Communicate the task
- Monitor and feedback
Step 1
Involves defining and prioritising the task. It is essential that you can describe the task, defining what needs to be done as well as prioritising the task for the person who needs to complete it.
Step 2
Involves defining who to get to complete the task you need done. This involves assessing who can complete the task to the required standard and ensuring that they have the resources, including time , to complete the task.
Step 3
Involves communicating the task. We need to be able to communicate the task effectively to the person responsible for completing the task, what needs to be done, by what time and sometimes involves instances that includes how the task should be completed. It is important when we communicate that we ensure that other person understands our instruction, so always check with the person that they understand. We can ask them to paraphrase the instructions given.
Step 4
Involves us monitoring the task and giving feedback to the person responsible for completing the task.
Define and Prioritise Task
Defining the task is a crucial step that involves ensuring that you can effectively communicate the task to another person so that they understand why the task email s being done and what the required standards of performance of the task is.
The more clearly a task is defined, the easier it will be to complete. We need to communicate the priority of the task so that the person can effectively manage their time and workload.
The three questions that need to be addressed:
- What needs to be done ?
- What does success look like?
- Where does this fit in the overall priority of the other work?
Decide who should complete the task
In assessing an individual's capability and capacity to receive a delegated task there are 3 factors of primary importance:
Knowledge, skill and experience
Interest and motivation
Availability and workload
Knowlegde, skill and experience
When consideration the knowledge, skull and experience component there are number of questions you should ask:
Does the team member have a track record of completing similar tasks?have that done it successfully before?
What are the pre-requisite knowledge or qualification required for this task and do they have them?
Is there a good match of their skill level to task, for example it is important not to allocate tasks for which they are either over-skilled or under-skilled.
Interest and motivation
When considering interest and motivation the key factors to take into account are:
The team member's professional interests and goals
Their general motivation and openness to learn
Their attitude.
Uncovering motivation
The list below provides some further questions you can ask :
What do you find particularly enjoyable about your role?
What activities don't you enjoy?
What is the best way for me to work with you to help you stay engaged and interested in your role?
What advise would you give me (as your team leader) about how best support your motivation?
What's really important in your day to day work?
What factors help you feel like you are making progress and contributing something meaningful at work?
Availability and workload
Consider the following factors:
Current work load- how much is he/she currently doing? How well is the workload handled?
Project future workload- what new work is coming up that will need their attention?
Planned absence due to leave - is the person due to be on leave or away for further training etc.
Balance if workflow across team- how does his/her workload compare to others in the department? Is the workload fairly and equitably distributed?
Developing others
A related aspect to consider in deciding who to allocate the task to is to consider the decision in light of the need to continually develop skills and capability within the team.
Therefore, when choosing who should complete the task, another factor to consider is the urgency and importance of the task.
For high urgent and important task, it may be better to choose someone who has a high level of knowledge, skill and experience and therefore reduce the risk that the task won't be done correctly.
For lower urgent and high importance tasks, this may be a development opportunity for other team members to develop their knowledge, skills and experience.
Communicate the task
This entails clearly communicating to the other person what they are being asked to do. You can prepare for communication usiing this model:
Context : Set clear context ( big picture issues/variables, why task is being assigned)
Purpose : provide a focused and simple purpose (what the task is to achieve)
Quantity : quantify/specify scope of the output
Quality : set standards for output(include safety)
Resources : allocate resources to complete the task.
Time : agree maximum completion time and monitoring and review points.
Task monitoring and feedback
Task monitoring is an essential part of the overall process. After all, if we don't monitor we doing know if the task has been completed, or completed to the appropriate standards of quality within the required time.
So, if it is the case that we need to monitor the tasks, then we must set up a system in advance with the team member to agree the monitoring process.
A monitoring process includes:
- Checking the agreed milestones
- Confirming the overall due date of the task
- Checking the quality standards required of the task.
- Agreeing the format/template to be used in completing the task.
- Agreeing which problem or issues the team member should discuss with you and which they can make a decisions on.
In doing the above it is important that you create an environment of trust where team members feel they can come back to you if they are having any problems or concerns with the task.
The other component of this step is providing feedback by using behavior impact feedback model.
REGARDS
K SHARATH CHANDER
ASSISTANT MANAGER
REPAP SYSTEMS PVT LTD
