Discovering the Leader in You

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2 Discovering the Leader in You

3 Course Objectives This course will equip you with strategies and skills necessary to craft and deliver both strategic and everyday communication and leadership for your team, your peers, and your bosses It will help you effectively articulate the path forward meet day-to-day challenges deliver expected results.

4 Metaphor a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract. If you picked a metaphor to describe your leadership and/or the impact you want to have with those you lead, what would it be?

5 A Lighthouse The purpose of a lighthouse is to guide, to warn, to lead, to protect, to reassure, and to persevere. The very presence of a lighthouse on a shoreline sends a message that others have been here before and are attendant to share what they ve learned; to offer warning, but also to reflect, and to provide guidance and ensure safe passage along a productive journey. The light it provides is stable and predictable, encouraging, inspiring, abiding, illuminating, comforting, and knowing, I think of the lighthouse as a metaphor to my own style of leadership. The light of a lighthouse never goes out the deep and abiding commitment demonstrated by the light is how I feel towards the people in my life that they can count on me to be there to enable them and equip them for their journey. The lighthouse is a symbol of faith and perseverance, of comfort and reassurance, ready and willing to help, constructed wherever people need it most, and always available. Like the lighthouse lamp, made of thousands of tiny mirrors, I want my leadership to be reflective, helping others to see the best in themselves-- understanding that they re better than they think they are, and to help them grow in self awareness so they can improve. The light from a lighthouse shines outwardly, cutting through the fog, helping to clarify the darkness, and to provide an anchor to hopefulness when things are going badly. The lighthouse serves an important purpose, makes a positive impact on people s lives, and its influence reaches far beyond what it ever knows. Lighthouses have provided employment and a comfortable, happy lifestyle for their keepers and their families for centuries, and many travelers have been nurtured by their presence. I want to inspire others to also lead in this way, metaphorically spreading the light of positive leadership through service, trustworthiness, and caring. I want to be persistent and consistent: guiding around the rocky areas and also providing inspiration on the journey through the ever-changing sea. To me, the lighthouse represents enduring, ethical and effective leadership, rooted in concern for others success. I want to help illuminate the way for others by sharing what I ve learned, following leaders who have gone before me and consistently modeling the values that I ve relied on to get me this far.

6 Personal Leadership Strategy If I asked your co-workers (or others) what metaphor they would use to describe your leadership and impact, what would they say? What s your next step to close the gap?

7 Lollipop Moments Leadership Video

8 Influence Leadership is influence. Who influences you? Who will you Influence?

9 Scale of Scope & Benefits Change and Transformation Transformation Fundamental changes in strategy and direction Leading Change End to end changes in processes and capability Know the Difference Incremental Change (Change Management) Performance improvement of existing processes and capability Time to Achieve

10 Know the Difference Change Management Managing the tasks necessary to move from point A to point B Control the Change Change Leadership Leading through the (intended and unintended) impacts of moving from point A to point B Enable the Change John Kotter, Leading Change, Harvard Business Press, 1996

11 Performance Change Model Fear of things to come Performance drop Performance recovery Change management is a process used to prepare an organization and its people to implement and sustain a new capability Typical reactions throughout a change effort are depicted below Time Leaders seek to: Minimize negative performance impacts (people and business) Influence how an organization 11 responds to and adapts to change

12 Commitment to Change Change Curve Purpose: Organizational change management is focused on assimilation and adoption. Goal: To move stakeholders along the Adoption Curve throughout the lifecycle of a change in order to sustain the new normal Desire/Understanding Awareness Sustain/Reinforcement Adoption Acceptance Go Live Time

13 Commitment to Change The Other Change Curve Stakeholders are unaware of the vision, scope, impact, and outcomes, etc. for capability Misunderstanding of vision, objectives, outcomes, impacts of capability Stakeholders believe capability may present a negative impact to them (loss of control, capabilities, etc.) Stakeholders allow the project to progress, but do not provide additional resources or assistance Support (time/resources/i nvolvement) that was previously allocated to the project is now retracted by stakeholders Stakeholders commit to termination of the project either openly or covertly Time Unaware Confusion Negative Perception Launch Support Withdrawn Capability Terminated

14 People do things for two reasons Motivation - because they want to Ability - because they can

15 Approach We act as if profound, persistent and resistant problems have only one cause. With one cause in mind, we look for one simple solution. All projects, initiatives, strategies are change and must be approached with leadership.

16 Create a Sense of Urgency Help others feel a gut-level determination to move and win, now Complacency False urgency True urgency Usually the urge (tendency) is to skip to the doing rather than spend the required time it takes to get a significant number of employees rallying towards the sense of urgency. Kotter International

17 Connect with Beliefs Leaders who know what they are doing will "aim for the heart." They will connect to the deepest values of their people and inspire them to greatness. They will make the business case come alive with human experience, engage the senses, create messages that are simple and imaginative, and call people to aspire. Kotter International

18 Creating the Guiding Coalition The team as a whole needs to have enough power to lead the change Position Power: Enough key players should be on board so that those left out cannot block progress. Expertise: All relevant points of view should be represented so that informed intelligent decisions can be made. Credibility: The group should be seen and respected by those in the firm so that the group s pronouncements will be taken seriously by other employees. Leadership: The group should have enough proven leaders to be able to drive the change process. Kotter International

19 Developing a Vision A vision must provide real guidance. Focused, flexible and easy to communicate. It must both inspire action and guide that action. It should be a touchstone for making relevant decisions, but not be so constricting as to reduce the possibility of empowering action. Finally, it must be communicable. Imaginable Desirable Feasible Focused Flexible Communicable Kotter International

20 Communicating for Buy-in Simple: No techno babble or jargon. Vivid: A verbal picture is worth a thousand words use metaphor, analogy, and example. Repeatable: Ideas should be able to be spread by anyone to anyone. Invitational: Two-way communication is always more powerful than one-way communication. Kotter International

21 Keep it Simple In pursuit of simplicity, fewer words are better. Consider the following: Version 1: Our goal is to reduce our mean time to repair parameters so that they are perceptually lower than all major competitors inside the United States and out. In a similar vein, we have targeted new product development cycle times, order process times, and other customer-relevant processes for change. Version 2: We are going to become faster than anyone in our industry at satisfying customer needs. Kotter International

22 Empower Action An organization that claims to want to be customer focused finds its structures fragment resources and responsibilities for products and services. Companies that claim to want to create more local responsiveness have layers of management that second guess and criticize regional decisions. Companies that claim to want to increase productivity and become a low-cost producer have huge staff groups that constantly initiate costly procedures and programs. The list is endless. Kotter International

23 Eliminate Barriers Often, these are the most difficult barriers to get past because they are part of the internal structure of the company. Realigning incentives and performance appraisals to reflect the change vision can have a profound effect on the ability to accomplish the change vision. IT can also have a big impact on the successful implementation of a change vision. Kotter International

24 Short Term Wins Planning not Praying Short-term wins rarely simply happen. They are usually the result of careful planning and effort. People may not try because they believe that you can t produce major change and short-term performance results. The lack of short-term wins can often be traced back to insufficient management expertise on the Guiding Coalition or a lack of commitment by key managers to the change initiative. Pressure to Perform Clearly the need to get short-term wins adds a great deal of pressure to an organization in the midst of a transformation effort. However, when done skillfully, the need to create short-wins can actually increase the sense of true urgency and actually accomplishing these goals does much to cement the change initiative. Kotter International

25 Persistence Address the elasticity of the status quo --Linda Finley, Leadership Advantage Leadership is invaluable in sustaining change. Instead of declaring victory and moving on, these transformational leaders will launch more and more projects to drive the change deeper into the organization. They will also take the time to ensure that all the new practices are firmly grounded in the organization s culture. Managers, by their nature, think in shorter timeframes. It is up to leaders to steer the course for the long-term. Kotter International

26 Social Forces Culture is composed of norms of behavior and shared values. These social forces are incredibly strong. Cultural change comes last, not first You must be able to prove that the new way is superior to the old The success must be visible and well communicated You will lose some people in the process You must reinforce new norms and values with incentives and rewards including promotions Reinforce the culture with every new employee Kotter International

27 Both Thinking and Feeling THINKING differently can help change behavior and lead to better results. Collect data, analyze it Present information logically to change people s thinking Changed thinking, in turn, can change behavior FEELING differently can change behavior MORE and lead to even better results. Create surprising, compelling, and, if possible, visual experiences The experiences change how people feel about a situation A change in feelings can lead to significant change in behavior Kotter International

28 Tying it Up Make a compelling story Use of metaphors, analogies and imagery Use simple language and avoid jargon and acronyms Communicate with what you DO not just what you Say Frequent, consistent and aligned communication Energy and enthusiasm are infused throughout Careful use of data don t overuse Do your homework to understand what people are feeling Clear channels of communication so important messages come through High level of visibility Kotter International

29 Thank You! Linda R Finley Leadership Advantage, LLC finleylinda@gmail.com

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