Carnival of Leadership Development

Welcome to the November 6, 2007 edition of carnival of leadership development.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Cognitive Fitness @ Harvard Business Review posted at SharpBrains, saying, "A new area of leadership development: cognitive fitness."

Anna presents A Brand Story ....Starring You posted at The Engaging Brand

Louise Manning presents From a town called Searchlight posted at The Human Imprint.

GreatManagement presents Great Inspiration Articles posted at The GreatManagement Blog.

Tupelo Kenyon presents Choose Excellence and Lose Mediocrity posted at Tupelo Kenyon,

Daryl Furuyama presents The Prehistoric Leader posted at darksociologist{dot}com, saying, "This article describes the first leader-follower relationship in history and what we can learn from it."

Hueina Su presents Deadly Conversations posted at Intensive Care for the Nurturer's Soul.

Warren Wong presents How To Be Genuinely Interested In People posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "Why you should show genuine interest in people and how to go about doing it."

Scott Fusco presents Thinking big vs. Thinking small posted at Personal development coaching | Scott Fusco . net

Warren Wong presents The Weakness Of Overconfidence posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "Why overconfidence is a weakness and tips to overcome the dangers of overconfidence."

GreatManagement presents Come On, Be An Effective Manager posted at The GreatManagement Blog.

Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents What Do You Really Want? posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat

Philippe De Ridder presents List of Crowdsourcing Examples posted at Open Innovators, saying, "A lot is happening in the area of open innovation, making it difficult for managers to stay on top of this trend. This article provides an overview of the leading and best practice examples in the field of open innovation and crowdsourcing."

Christopher J. Brunner presents Brainstorming Motivation for Your Employees posted at GreatFX Business Cards, saying, "Have you ever been to a business meeting that, though the intention was to come up with great ideas for the progression of the business, turned out to be a total flop?"

Alex Marlin presents I Am Not Trying To Belittle No One posted at Life Improvement Tips For Thin and Small People.

John Crenshaw presents Are You Proactive or Reactive? posted at Dominate Your Life, saying, "You can learn a lot about how to be successful in life and business by studying what works for people in really intense situations. Am I ever going to be so bombarded with information that I’m incapable of processing it all?"

Charles H. Green presents Trust vs. Incentive Compensation: What Joe Torre and the NY Yankees Have to Teach Business posted at Trust Matters

Erek Ostrowski presents Leverage Your Time and Energy - Untie Your Shoes! posted at Verve Coaching, saying, "Let’s face it, time and energy are precious resources. I’ve never worked with anyone in small business who has extra time and energy to spend revisiting issues they solved once already..."

Jay Gordon Cone presents Why Meet? posted at Interaction Associates - Thought leadership and practical tools for collaboration.

James D. Brausch presents Act Or Don´t Act… There Is No Try posted at jamesbrausch.com.

Arin Vahanian presents How to Change or Develop a Belief System posted at Super State.

Warren Wong presents Focus On One Thing At A Time To Completion posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "Learn to focus on one thing at a time to save time and get more done."
Dr. Joe Capista presents A Mentor Can Change Your Life posted at Success Triangle

GreatManagement presents The Simple Top Management Skill and Technique you’ve got to Have! posted at The GreatManagement Blog.

Leon Gettler presents The downside of charismatic leaders posted at Sox First

Alex Marlin presents Dealing With Bitter People posted at Life Improvement Tips For Thin and Small People.

Ralph Jean-Paul presents Start Meaningful Conversations posted at Potential 2 Success

Jason Jacobsohn presents How to Become Memorable When Business Networking posted at Networking Insight.

Marco Richter presents Learning to Say No posted at Self Improvement Emporium.

Christopher J. Brunner presents Finding An Employee That Matches Your Leadership Style posted at GreatFX Business Cards

Steven Silvers presents Rockies ticket sales fiasco a case study in bad news. posted at Scatterbox at stevensilvers.com

Randy Nichols presents The Job Burnout Cure posted at Career Advice by Randy, saying, "The daily grind of working for someone else and being on a limited income takes it’s toll, What in the world is the cure?"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of leadership development using our carnival submission form.

The Role of the Director....lessons from the film industry

Robert Altman says the the role of the film director is

"to create a space where the actor or actress can become more than they've ever been before, more than they've dreamed of being"

Now if you replace actor/actress with employee...isn't that what business is all about? You are a dream creator, a dream coach, a dream maker.....now tell me that you have no power!

The dreams are inside people, they were there as a child but then life has made them give them up - be realistic! Your role is to dig deep, find those dreams, engage them again and relight the fire inside.....are you a dream maker or a dream breaker?

3 Tips of Reducing Stress within your Team

People at work need to feel that they have a degree of control, remember outside of work they are parents, or adults running their own lives.....so if they don't feel they are in control at all then stress will follow. So here are 3 key management techniques that help reduce stress within your team.

1. Be approachable.....ensure people can come and talk to you about problems both at work and at home.
2. Remember your role is remove barriers which prevent them from doing a great job. To do this you need to be approachable, so that you know what the problems are!
3. You need to care about them as an individual, care that they succeed, care that they are feeling strong, care that they understand their role.

Key tools that you need to succeed with the above 3 points, and don't worry they are FREE -

YOUR HEART AND YOUR EARS

AND EVERY PERSON HAS THEM SO NO EXCUSE!

Creating a Mental Map

The biggest problem most employees face is just not understanding what is expected of them, not understanding what the company is trying to achieve.

You need to create a mental map for each person through the managers, supervisors, team leaders etc

One question that I have used is asking each person to finish this sentence..."I dream about..."

I then work with them to understand how we can make that dream a reality, linking it to the business. It is a great way of showing rather than telling, and consulting rather than informing.

What is your role as a manager of talent?

We keep hearing that our focus should be to bring out the talent in others - but what does that mean?

Well for me it is not about "creating talent" that is not possible, it is about how to match the person and their talents to a role that will allow them to thrive.

That mean as you get to know people better, you may move them. Every person has strengths - it is your role to find them and match them to a role that will allow them to fill their potential. Talented people need a great manager, talent needs someone who wants to - and finds the time to match the talents to the role.

Mentoring and Building Credibility

Just because you are a parent, manager, leader does not mean that you are an ideal mentor. The title does not consititute the skill, and people are assessing you as a potential mentor they will ask 3 questions

1. Have you been successful at what I am trying to do or become?
2. If not, have you coached someone else succesfully to achieve the success?
3. If not, do you know what you are talking about i.e what is your knowledge like, do you keep yourself up to date technically and professionally?

These are great questions to ask yourself, and also to ensure that you are expanding your skills. It helps you understand what gaps you need to fill, and also a chance to celebrate your personal progress.

Teamwork beats individualism

Quick story, from Aesop. A farmer who had a quarrelsome family could not find a way of reconciling their differences. So he called his sons together and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. He tied the sticks together in a bundle, and asked one son after another to pick them up and break them. They all tried but in vain.
He then untied the bundle and handed a stick to each and invited them to break it. Each son did it easily. He then turned to his sons and said
My sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for all your enemies, but differ and separate and you are undone"

I think this stands for itself...

Learning from the New Generation

On The Engaging Brand, yesterday I published an interview with Billy Smith (Show 39) about how the new generation feel about work and life.

I think we can learn from our children, the younger people at work. Yes, we have the experience but they also have fresh ideas, see things that we don't see. It reminded me of a quote

"Always listen to the young monks: they know all the things that you have forgotten" St Benedict

We can learn about the new technologies but also creativity. When we were younger we were more creative, somehow along the way it gets drained from us. So don't ignore the new starters - listen to what they have to say. Don't ignore because you tried it 5 years ago and it failed. It might be that it will work now.