Coach Train Learn

The Leadership Skill Of Nurturing Talent

Above all, leaders need good people to surround them.

No organisation – large or small – can operate productively when the boss is doing all the doing and they are surrounded by people who cannot deliver the highest quality performance themselves.

So it’s imperative to ensure that any team has members that deliver the very best results as individuals, as well as contributing to team outputs overall too.

Whilst having a whole range of leadership skills are important, one of the most productive is to be able to ensure that there is a constant pipeline of capable people in your team. In a bigger picture, leaders of the very biggest businesses need to have talent research and acquisition high on their agendas.

At local level, team leaders can have even more vital impact on those they can influence to become dynamic and useful members of their team. Sometimes  development of individuals already in place is where the value gets added; in other situations, finding and recruiting potential is where the biggest rewards come from.

As leader, the role is to create the best environment for talent to flourish and this really requires good leadership to set the scene for such opportunities to be found and utilised, for the benefit of all.

Meetings That Deliver

When you think about the time you’ve sat there and wondered just what you could be doing, it’s hard to appreciate the value of meetings sometimes.

The dynamic of working closely with a bunch of like-minded individuals, bouncing thoughts and ideas off each other, isn’t the way we’ve typically developed this useful opportunity in many cases.

To ensure that the best comes from those times that meetings are used, there are a few guidelines that will help to make them work efficiently as well as effectively.

1) Use and Circulate an Agenda – this enables attendees to appreciate what will happen and prepare all they can in advance.

2) Invite only the People Necessary – to ensure that value is added and individuals feel that they are necessary, be focused in getting who you want at the meeting; and those who you don’t need don’t show up unless they can add value with their presence.

3) Use a Facilitator – this will allow the meeting leader to focus on leading the team and ensure that processes get followed and timescales achieved. They can be formal and external, or a member of the team who is able to dissociate themselves from the content.

4) Keep on Track – will make sure that the meeting sticks to it’s agreed purpose, that a place is found to park off-topic items and agreed meeting length will be achieved.

5) Collate Action Points – to ensure that accountabilities agreed by particpants actually happens, identify actions and timetables for completion.

Pull these five tactics off and you are much more likely to make effective progress in the least time – and have your people agreeing that the meetings you are responsible for are worth the time taken.

Better Leaders Get The Best From Everyone

Every team has a make up of a variety of people, all of whom have different skills, characteristics and above all styles. If you have balance, you will have a blend of types so that each complements the team as a whole.

For many teams, the biggest contributors are those outgoing characters who think out loud, introduce ideas and are seen to be active and lively.

There will also be quiet people who are able to contribute fully and yet often are overshadowed by their more boisterous colleagues.

This is something of a shame because the seemingly more reluctant ones can often be the deepest thinkers, who so often have solutions to problems well thought out and considered.

For a leader, this can create a challenge. The liveliness of some of the team is a valuable quality, because it usually engenders a positivity that is enjoyed by many and helps create a sense of team achievement too.

Smart leaders need to find ways to engage with those who take the quieter line, whilst also keeping the value that those less reluctant to be visible provide to the team.

Certainly there are tactics that will bring out the best from those less keen to be in the limelight. For example, using different styles of communication, using all the senses, rather than just auditory might be one way. Facilitating ways that the more introverted can contribute – perhaps simply by asking them what suits them best could be another.

Ignoring the contribution potential of those less extroverted is a big risk, in a world where the smallest egde can have the highest value.

For a leader who is able to harness all the individual styles in their team, much reward above and beyond that expected might well be the valued outcome achieved.

What Are Your Leadership Goals?

Whilst the words ‘goal’ and ‘leadership’ are two words that sit together as comfortably as two peas in a pod, it can be challenging when asked what sort of goals leaders need to have in mind when they are going to achieve success.

Partly because the goals that leaders set can be of a bigger nature than those expected from managers and partly because leaders goals tend to be a more planning and strategic, it can be difficult to get the balance right.

The need for any leader to deliver results is inherent in the role they hold. It’s no good a leader in an organisation having the most brilliant ‘blue-sky’ thinking, if the business cannot be sustained and be financially healthy.

Leadership goals have to be a function of what’s vital for a range of stakeholders, from those wanting a relatively simple financial return, to those who have the security of employees top of mind. And there are a whole host of stakeholders sitting between those as well.

The best leaders are able to balance the returns that investors want in the short-term, with the capacity to ensure that the strategic goals for future growth and stability are acheived as well.

Often, key deliverables that meet shareholder expectations can be delegated down the line to managers whose role it is to achieve financial goals, which are typically driven by sales growth as well as operational efficiency and effectiveness. Whilst leaders are accountable for this, the responsibility can feed down the line.

What can be more challenging is trying to ensure that resources for short-term deliveables are balanced with investment needed for the future, when there may initially be little or no return. Indeed, operational losses from startup will need to be held up by the rest of the business delivering healthy – or even healthier – returns.

So, the key roles for leaders are ensuring that the goals they accept from those who measure their performance are both long and short-term, whilst ensuring that they as leader, focus on what they themselves are good at, whilst delivering the best returns from their people at the sharp end too.

Perceptions à la Covey

As I left my client in Cumbria earlier today, we were sharing our understanding of Stephen Covey’s ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ he had just started reading.

I explained that one of my favorite anecdotes from the book was when Covey misinterprets the actions of unruly children on the New York subway (I’ll not spoil it for you!).

As I approached one of the Costa Coffee hatches (there seem to be three or four at most of the service stations these days – hence the potential for Whitbread to float them off eventually, they’re everywhere!), I was anxious to get my coffee (medium skinny, extra hot to go) and be on my way – it’s a 5 hour journey for me, so I wasn’t keen to hang around.

Grumpily, I pondered on why there were 5 people ahead of me and only one person serving – and that was some complicated frappuchino thing that required as much crushed ice as the iceberg that sunk the Titanic might have provided.

In a huff I wandered off moaning (and considering Tweeting) that they could do with a bit of better staff planning.

To seemingly cut my nose off to spite my face, I had to cross the motorway via a bridge to get to the only other drinks provider at this services, to see two Costa employees returning with a portable wheelchair. It seems that someone had collapsed and they had been required to take them to the other side of the motorway to get expert assistance.

And there was me being grumpy. The irony and parallel with the Covey story were not lost on me and my wry smile.

Perceptions come up to bite you even when you least expect it, I reflected.

Leadership: 5 Tips for Emerging Leaders

In this new blog post, Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements, shares some important tips for new Leaders as they begin their exciting journey. You can find out more at his excellent blog at goalsandachievements.com

Leadership: 5 Tips for Emerging Leaders

If you are currently in a management role, chances are that your next career move will be in to a leadership role.  For most this is probably the most significant step that they will make.

At first it can feel like you go from being the person who was totally in control to the person who is struggling.  So what, based on experience would be my 5 top tips for emerging leaders?

Tip 1: Recognise it is a different role

It might seem like stating the obvious but often many people fail to recognise that doing the job of a leader is very different to the role of the manager.

Management is primarily about ensuring that things run smoothly, people do what they are expected to do and resources are used effectively.

Leadership on the other hand is more about creating and driving things forward.  That said there are areas of overlap but don’t let this stop you from recognising that the roles are fundamentally different.

Tip 2: Be ready for the feeling of insecurity

Stepping into a leadership role can sometimes be unsettling.  You go from a peer group where you were probably one of the top rated people in that group to feeling a bit like a novice again.

Don’t let this de-stabilise you.  Remember you got selected for a leadership role because you demonstrated that you had what it took to achieve success.

Tip 3: Get support

Being a leader can sometimes be a lonely existence and there are not always people that you can easily turn to for support and guidance.  You need to have someone either a coach or mentor who can act as a sounding board and create the space for you to reflect.

Tip 4: Get the best deputy that you can

The person who is your number two is probably the most important person in your team.  If that person cannot deliver and take care of things day to day, your ability to achieve success is greatly diminished.  Make finding a great number two one of your top priorities.

Tip 5: Continually develop yourself

It is really easy to think that you have made it when you become a leader and become complacent.  Avoid this at all costs and make the time to put in place a plan for continued development that sets you up for success.

Duncan Brodie is a leadership and management expert who can help you and your people achieve extraordinary success. Check his website out at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk