Leadership

Got leadership skills?

/ Susan Hendrich / 3 Comments

Leadership assessment resources

Carolyn Neblett, Senior HR Manager at Capital One, asks:
“Any thoughts for online assessments that would help with building stronger management skills?”

Susan’s response:
The Learning and Development Roundtable is a terrific resource for management skills training and development.

I’m also a big fan of the Lominger competencies (360 degree feedback). Lominger’s FYI book (For Your Improvement) is a strong and valuable resource with many examples and practical steps for improving management skills.

I highly recommend https://www.strengthsfinder.com/, which offers an online assessment as a complement to the classic “Now, Discover Your Strengths,” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.

For more ideas and inspiration…

Harvard Business Publishing has a great post from Bill Taylor, called “Memo to a Young Leader: What Kind of Boss Are You?”

Michael Watkins’ book, The First 90 Days, has some nice self-assessments.

Here’s another (albeit less rigorous) resource for quick feedback: http://college.hmco.com/business/griffin/fundamentals/3e/students/assessment/.

 

Eudaimonia

/ Susan Hendrich / 3 Comments

happy1.jpg A key to happiness and design success

Oprah’s been hanging out with best-selling author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, and their focus is happiness.  Tolle’s latest work, A New Earth, provides practical teachings for waking up to a new, enlightened mind-set.  So, what does this new-agey stuff have to do with learning, design, and leadership?  Enter eudaimonia. Research shows that genuinely happy people have something called “eudaimonia” in common:

Finding your (design’s) “most golden self.”

A combination of the Greek eu (“good”) and daimon (“spirit”), eudaimonia means striving toward excellence based on one’s unique talents and potential—Aristotle considered it to be the noblest goal in life.

In Aristotle’s time, the Greeks believed that each child was blessed at birth with a personal daimon embodying the highest possible expression of his or her nature. One way they envisioned the daimon was as a golden figurine that would be revealed by cracking away an outer layer of cheap pottery (the person’s base exterior). The effort to know and realize one’s most golden self—”personal growth,” in today’s lingo—is now the central concept of eudaimonia, which has also come to include continually taking on new challenges and fulfilling one’s sense of purpose in life.

I submit that, like life design, training design should pursue eudamonia. Let’s crack away the outer layer of extra words and elements that mask the true message we are trying to deliver. Whether that means using more white space in our layout or trimming content to only the most salient points, the search for eudaimonia is a mantra I’m willing to repeat. 

Tell us how you have experienced eudaimonia…

MBWA

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

20 Ways to Communicate With Employees

  1. Share credit. Always.
  2. Praise in public and give feedback in private.
  3. Include affected employees in goal setting. 
  4. Give frequent and meaningful recognition for a job well done.
  5. Interact with employees on an informal basis.
  6. Go to shared work areas. Meet them on their own turf.
  7. Ask for team members’ opinions and listen with an open mind. Try to understand their point of view.
  8. Share non-confidential information with team members, and ask for their input and response on issues.
  9. Offset demoralizing actions and events by emphasizing what went well, and use the experience as a learning opportunity.
  10. Listen 80% of the time and talk 20%.
  11. Ask team members what rumors they have heard, and address them.
  12. Get into the “trenches” with team members. Look for opportunities to understand employees’ jobs better.
  13. Give information to staff after management meetings.
  14. Ask team members. “Have I made our vision, mission, and goals clear and understandable?
  15. Ask team members, “What can I do to help you with your job, and what am I doing that gets in your way?”
  16. Ask team members”What is making our clients/customers the most and/or the least satisfied?”
  17. Find something to like about each team members with whom you work.
  18. Actively make a point of speaking to all employees seen each day.
  19. Build bridges with people with whom you are uncomfortable.
  20. Set goals each month on ways to accomplish “Managing by Walking Around.”
  21. Occasionally have lunch with team members.  Use this as an opportunity to build trust.

Adapted from “A Checklist for Managers,” by Robin Reid

Mindsets

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment

A Summary of Comparative Mindsets

Are you a boss or a coach?

Boss Coach
Pushes / Drives Lifts / Supports
Tells / Directs / Lectures Asks / Requests / Listens
Talks at people Engages in dialogue with people
Controls through decisions Facilitates by empowering
Knows the answer Seeks the answer
Triggers insecurity using fear  to achieve compliance Stimulates creativity using purpose to inspire commitment
Points to errors Celebrates learning
Problem solver / Decision maker Collaborator / Facilitator
Delegates responsibility Models accountability
Creates structure and procedures Creates vision and flexibility
Does things right Does the right things
Knowledge is power Vulnerability creates power
Focused on the bottom line Focused on process that creates the bottom-line results