Emotional Intelligence - a leadership mentoring and coaching performance framework

In this blog I would like to take you to the exciting topic of Emotional Intelligence and with this present a leadership mentoring and coaching performance framework. There are several types of intelligence that human beings are equipped - with some more, with some less. Most leaders believe that the logical-mathematical type of intelligence (the IQ rating that many people focus on) has the most impact on whether you have success in their leadership. That is absolutely wrong. If you want to do something that can really help you improve the quality of your leadership style (in every way) - there is one thing that comes first: strengthen and cultivate your emotional intelligence as much as you possibly can.

Research has revealed that being successful or being a peak performer can be learned. We know that many organizations have a small number of peak performers carrying the main responsibility for revenue targets for the entire team or company. Peak performers can be made and replicated. Their skills, attitudes, and habits can, by mentoring and coaching be taken to new heights. We initiated exploratory research with 1500 leaders: one-third executives, another third directors or managers, and the rest primarily business owners and consultants.

The research revealed our findings of average emotional intelligence scores for different job titles. The sharp decline for director titles and above reveals the incredible deficit in emotional intelligence among senior leadership in organizations.

For every title above, emotional intelligence has more influence on job performance than any other skill. Furthermore did the research revealed three important things:

1. The personalities of leaders directly and significantly influence employee satisfaction and job performance

2. When employee satisfaction is high, positive business outcomes result

3. When employee satisfaction is low, negative business outcomes result

In addition we asked participants to choose the five most and least valued leadership competencies from a list of twenty, which included items that reflect both Emotional Intelligence and general leadership competencies. This study finds that leaders consider Emotional Intelligence competencies (such as Relationship Building and Adaptability) more important to leadership success than traditional leadership competencies (such as Planning and Financial Acumen).

Major Findings
Striking Agreement

Participants in this study were asked to evaluate a set of standard leadership competencies, including both Emotional Intelligence competencies, such as relationship-building and self-awareness, and non-Emotional Intelligence leadership competencies, such as execution and financial acumen.

l Vision topped the list of critical leadership competencies – across nearly all levels, experience, and personality types. Also ranked in the top five are Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Execution, and People Development. Our respondents, then, view successful leadership as a combination of Emotional Intelligence and non-EI skills.

l Emotional Intelligence competencies are viewed as essential to successful leadership, especially the complex competencies of Vision, Relationship Building and People Development.

l Of the remaining items, leaders rated all the EI competencies– including Adaptability, Optimism, Empathy, and Self-awareness – as more important than all other general leadership competencies presented.

Findings: What’s Important to Successful Leadership
All Respondents (n=1500)

Some Notable Differences

We did find, however, that differences in job classification and level, leadership experience, personality type, and gender reveal important distinctions regarding the competencies seen as crucial to successful leadership.

· Experienced leaders rated certain competencies somewhat differently than leaders at earlier stages in their careers. For example, the more experienced the leader, the more value placed on Change Leadership and Optimism and the less value placed on Execution.

· Women and men ranked items quite similarly, with just a few differences. Women rated Strategic Thinking and Relationship Building more highly than did men, who rated Achievement Drive more highly.

· While participants from all job levels valued EI competencies, they varied in which ones they consider important. For example, of all job levels, far more Executives (34%) valued Optimism as a leadership competencyy than did Managers/Directors (14%), Founder/ Owners (18%), or Consultants (13%). At the same time, far fewer Executives (31%) valued Relationship Building than did Managers/Directors or Consultants (50-70%).

Our study found a strong correlation between business performance and EI, but no information on how leaders themselves view elements of EI relative to other aspects of leadership and thereby how your managers and executives mentor and coach their team.

Here some other research examples that come to the same conclussion:

· 70% of employees’ perception of the organizational climate is associated with the emotional intelligence of the leader (Goleman, 2008)

· Positive mood of the leader promotes worker productivity and retention (George & Bettenhausen, 2003)

· Team members tend to share moods whether positive or negative with more positive moods associated with increased performance (Totterdell et. Al, 2008)

· A study by National Insurance Company found that agents low in EI sold policies of $54,000 compared to those high in EI worth $114,000 (Hay McBer, 2009)

For your company culture of how your managers and executives mentor and coach their team and how your teams perform, is symbiotic. It will be illustrated how each part of value the enterprise delivers to a customer, employee or shareholder, comes from how an manager and executive has mentored and coached their employees to handle or optimize the processes. There is scientific proof between the relationship of poor employee, team, department and company performance. This is reflected in a recent study by the International Coach Federation. The report documents improvements for those who received professional mentoring and coaching from their managers:

· Increased productivity awareness 68%

· Enhanced communication skills 40%

· More balanced work life 61%

· Lower stress levels 57%

· Enhanced innovation 53%

· Increased employee satiesfaction 52%

· Improved quality/less mistakes 43%

· Better goal setting/operationel excellence 62%

All in all mentoring and coaching from the leader is reported to produce more than a 500% return on investment and significant intangible benefits to the business as well.

The factors that Makes a Leader:

1. Effective Leaders are distinguished by a high degree of EI


2. Identifying individuals with the “right stuff” is more an art or a science


3. Without EI, a person can have the best training, an incisive, analyitical mind, and an endless supply of smarts but still won’t make an effective leader.


4. The list of ingredients for highly effective leaders ranged in length from 7 to 15.

- Intellect was a driver of outstanding performanc

- Cognitive skills such as big picture thinking and LT vision were important

5. The erhe rank of a person considered to be a star performer, the more EI capabilities showed up as the reason for their performance.

6. Star performers compared to average ones had 90% more attributes of EI.

7. EI increases with age and experience; sincere desire and concerted effort

• Self Awareness- the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions and drives as well as their effect on others. Self confidence, self assessment, sense of humor

ü Will be frank in admitting to failure

ü Are comfortable talking about their limitations/ weaknesses as well as their strengths

ü Have a thirst for constructive criticism ( thick skin)

ü Can be easily recognized

• Self regulation- the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods; to suspend judgment; think before acting. Trustworthiness, integrity, OK with ambiguity

ü Everyone has bad moods and impulsive emotions at time but find ways to control them

ü Are able to create an environment of trust and fairness easily

ü Politics and infighting are sharply reduced

ü T/O in the organization is sharply reduced

ü Enhances integrity this strengthening the organization

• Motivation- a passion to work/ achieve for reasons that go beyond $ or status, hi energy, strong desire to achieve, persistent, does not fear failure

ü The one trait ALL effective leaders have

ü The drive to achieve beyond expectations is “over the top”

ü Forever raising the performance bar for themselves and the organization and keeping score

ü Always remain optimistic regardless of the situation

• Empathy- the ability to understand the emotional make-up of others. Sensitive to others needs/ emotions

ü Is the most easily recognized

ü Thoroughly consider EE feelings along with all other factors when making decisions

ü Important for the growing need to develop and retain good people

ü Cross cultural dialogue can sometimes be easily misunderstood

ü Creates an effective ability to manage relationships

• Social Skills- proficiency in managing relationships & build a strong network. Change agent, lead people where you want them, wide circle of acquaintances

ü Friendliness with a purpose

ü have a wide circle of influence

ü get work done thru people

NO LONGER A “NICE TO HAVE” IT IS NOW A “MUST HAVE”, for increasing your Emotional Intelligence can truly help you improve in all areas of leadership; in all aspects of communication, negotiation, and objection handling as well as the important motivational abilities.

I know that when we talk about the Leadership mentoring and coaching performance framework, that these are very psychological soft skills we are talking about and as you can read from my different article, do I strongly believe that leadership excellence is made, not born. That's why I actually wanted to create this Blog and Forum and I'm dedicated to helping you leadership grow beyond where you are today. If you need help in better understanding and exploit your potential in order to turn you into action mode and help you break through self imposed limitations that are holding you as an organization or leader back from the power, balance, growth, and success that you strive for. Let’s us talk about how I can help you explore how it is possible to build new levels of performance - helping you to remove the mental and emotional obstacles that are limiting your leadership and professional growth, power and leadership development.

If you are interested in a course that can strengthen this ability this could be an option:
1) www.rosenteam.com/leadership-performance/emotional-intelligence-in-leadership/

2) www.rosenteam.com/leadership-performance/become-a-mentor-and-coach/

3) www.rosenteam.com/leadership-performance/advanced-leadership-coaching-program/

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email: mvr@rosenteam.com

Regards your moderator

Mark von Rosing

Recession Sales Strategy

A recession is possibly the best time to launch a new business or to sell more through your sales people and your partners in an existing one. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, so let me x’splain.

 

As we all know………first, the media goes nuts during a recession. They turn a little bit of negativity into a mountain of pessimism and then it really starts to get going. This makes a lot of companies financially paranoid. Both companies and individual people become socially conditioned to expect the worst.

 

If you buy into this social hysteria, you become a victim too………..you might really get stuck - please read some of these articles to get out of that trap: http://personaldevelopmentforum.blogspot.com/

 

But if you tune out such negative traps and maintain a grip on rational and emotional thought, you’ll can build some amazing sales opportunities for your sales people and your partners.

 

How……..well, during such times people get scared and start cutting back on expenses. We have already seen this happening as we see companies cut some of the fluff away. They stop buying so much stuff they want, but don’t need. So what really happens is that they go away from “want” based buying to only “need” based buying).

 

This causes some of your sales people and your partners sales people to do poorly, especially salespeople that don’t provide stuff the prospects really need or are not able to package it in a way that the prospects think they need it. We all have acted in this way…………. as we all can live without new credit cards, shoes, cloths and gas-guzzling SUVs for a while. Those non-essentials can be put off for some time.

 

We also become more sensitive to receiving genuine value. When we spend money, we want to make sure we’re getting a fair deal in buying what we believe we need (even if we don’t need it).

 

Consequently, your sales people and your partners sales person that provides genuine value in his sales process can actually do better during a recession. More people will flock to those your sales people and your partners sales people in tough times, while the fluff your sales people and your partners sales person and channel businesses will become more and more paranoid.

 

Instead of focusing on trying to make more money as a Partner Manager, put your time and energy into making sure that your partner will sell real value to the  customer (the sales process). Find a way to give people what they want (which in these times is what they believe is there need).

 

Take note that the keywords here are CREATE and DELIVER VALUE – which for many small your sales people and your partners is not what they do.

 

Creating value means expressing your unique talents and skills in a way that can potentially benefit others. Delivering value means ensuring that your customers are actually receiving and benefiting from the value you’ve sold (so don’t oversell).

 

If your partner is not doing both in some fashion, then it’s going to be hard for you to generate sustainable sales income, especially during a recession. I’ll explain why.

 

If your partner oversells and thereby they have only create value but didn’t deliver it, then their value isn’t being received by anyone – at least that is what the customer feels. Believe it or not……this is what the your sales people and your partners have difficulties in adapting to in such times.

 

What is money? Money is simply a medium for exchanging value. Money is what you receive in exchange for the value you create and deliver. If you can increase your outflow of value creation and delivery, you can increase your inflow of money received.

 

If, however, your partnertries to increase the inflow of money without increasing the outflow of value, they are trying to get something for nothing and that strategy does not work, especially in these recession times . This approach is untenable and will ultimately collapse – as we see in so many your sales people and your partners and channels.  

 

It doesn’t matter what happens to the economy — if you get your sales people and your partners to sell need based value. in the recession times, you’ll do just fine.

 

I just thought that I wanted to share this, especially since we are in troubling times. Times where your sales people and your partners need to do more in the sells process. As a consequence, here’s the principle: Your sales people and your partners salespeople who can present their products or service (a need) in the way that their prospect wants to perceive it will be more likely to make the sale. That is Recession Selling, let’s put it another way: Prospects are more likely to buy what they need from prospects who understand what they really want, for then they fell you can provide them with value.

 

You as an Executive must have seen it many times………the most effective sales professionals or partners help clients fulfill their values. So your sales strategy should be to help your sales people and your partners differentiate them self’s in selling Need Based Value - not want based value as in growth times.

 

Regards your Moderator – Mark

PS:I hope this has provided some value (little smile)

 

Mergers and acquisitions is not strategy

Based on the many customer engagement I work with in the field of Mergers and Acquisitions, I would like to write about some of the ideas, benefits, critical success factors and pitfalls. However let me start with saying that  M&A is not strategy in and of itself, but a vehicle for executing a strategy and delivering shareholder value. A Merger and Acquisition is a tool used by companies for the purpose of expanding their operations often aiming at an increase of their long term profitability. There are 15 different types of actions that a company can take when deciding to move forward using M&A. Usually mergers occur in a consensual (occurring by mutual consent) setting where executives from the target company help those from the purchaser in a due diligence process to ensure that the deal is beneficial to both parties. Acquisitions can also happen through a hostile takeover by purchasing the majority of outstanding shares of a company in the open market against the wishes of the target's board. In the United States, business laws vary from state to state whereby some companies have limited protection against hostile takeovers. One form of protection against a hostile takeover is the shareholder rights plan, otherwise known as the "poison pill". Historically, mergers have often failed (Straub, 2007) to add significantly to the value of the acquiring firm's shares (King, et al., 2004). Corporate mergers may be aimed at reducing market competition, cutting costs (for example, laying off employees, operating at a more technologically efficient scale, etc.), reducing taxes, removing management, "empire building" by the acquiring managers, or other purposes which may or may not be consistent with public policy or public welfare.

 

M&A is buying smart and integrating successfully. Although they are often uttered in the same breath and used as though they were synonymous, the terms merger and acquisition mean slightly different things. When one company takes over another and clearly established itself as the new owner, the purchase is called an acquisition. From a legal point of view, the target company ceases to exist, the buyer "swallows" the business and the buyer's stock continues to be traded. In the pure sense of the term, a merger happens when two firms, often of about the same size, agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated. This kind of action is more precisely referred to as a "merger of equals". Both companies' stocks are surrendered and new company stock is issued in its place. For example, both Daimler-Benz and Chrysler ceased to exist when the two firms merged, and a new company, DaimlerChrysler, was created.

 

In practice, however, actual mergers of equals don't happen very often. Usually, one company will buy another and, as part of the deal's terms, simply allow the acquired firm to proclaim that the action is a merger of equals, even if it is technically an acquisition. Being bought out often carries negative connotations, therefore, by describing the deal euphemistically as a merger, deal makers and top managers try to make the takeover more palatable.

 

 

M&A is challenging and requires focused  and sustained effort. The dominant rationale used to explain M&A activity is that acquiring firms seek improved financial performance. The following motives are considered to improve financial performance:

Synergies: This refers to the fact that the combined company can often reduce its fixed costs by removing duplicate departments or operations, lowering the costs of the company relative to the same revenue stream, thus increasing profit margins.

Increased revenue/Increased Market Share: This assumes that the buyer will be absorbing a major competitor and thus increase its market power (by capturing increased market share) to set prices.

Cross selling: For example, a bank buying a stock broker could then sell its banking products to the stock broker's customers, while the broker can sign up the bank's customers for brokerage accounts. Or, a manufacturer can acquire and sell complementary products.

Economies of Scale: For example, managerial economies such as the increased opportunity of managerial specialization. Another example are purchasing economies due to increased order size and associated bulk-buying discounts.

Taxes: A profitable company can buy a loss maker to use the target's loss as their advantage by reducing their tax liability. In the United States and many other countries, rules are in place to limit the ability of profitable companies to "shop" for loss making companies, limiting the tax motive of an acquiring company.

Geographical or other diversification: This is designed to smooth the earnings results of a company, which over the long term smoothens the stock price of a company, giving conservative investors more confidence in investing in the company. However, this does not always deliver value to shareholders (see below).

Resource transfer: resources are unevenly distributed across firms (Barney, 1991) and the interaction of target and acquiring firm resources can create value through either overcoming information asymmetry or by combining scarce resources.

Vertical integration: Vertical Integration occurs when an upstream and downstream firm merge (or one acquires the other). There are several reasons for this to occur. One reason is to internalise an externality problem. A common example is of such an externality is double marginalization. Double marginalization occurs when both the upstream and downstream firms have monopoly power, each firm reduces output from the competitive level to the monopoly level, creating two deadweight losses. By merging the vertically integrated firm can collect one deadweight loss by setting the upstream firm's output to the competitive level. This increases profits and consumer surplus. A merger that creates a vertically integrated firm can be profitable.

 

However, on average and across the most commonly studied variables, acquiring firms’ financial performance does not positively change as a function of their acquisition activity.Therefore, additional motives for merger and acquisiiton that may not add shareholder value include:

Diversification: While this may hedge a company against a downturn in an individual industry it fails to deliver value, since it is possible for individual shareholders to achieve the same hedge by diversifying their portfolios at a much lower cost than those associated with a merger.

Manager's hubris: manager's overconfidence about expected synergies from M&A which results in overpayment for the target company.

Empire building: Managers have larger companies to manage and hence more power.

Manager's compensation: In the past, certain executive management teams had their payout based on the total amount of profit of the company, instead of the profit per share, which would give the team a perverse incentive to buy companies to increase the total profit while decreasing the profit per share (which hurts the owners of the company, the shareholders); although some empirical studies show that compensation is linked to profitability rather than mere profits of the company.

 

The failure rate among M&A deals is very high:

·         58% of mergers failed to reach goals set by top management (Survey by AT Kearney)   

·         Deal costs were recovered within 10 years in only 23% of all transactions (The Economist Survey)

·         In almost 60% of all cross-border transactions, the acquiring company did not earn back its cost of capital (Business Week Research)

·         50% of transactions result in same or lower profits (Business Week Research)

·         Of 150 recent deals about half destroyed shareholders wealth (Business Week Research)

 

I have looked over the numerable M&A projects I have worked with and have come to the overall conclusion that M & A failure occur during different stages of the transaction^:

·         About 30% Strategy development, candidate screening, and due diligence

·         About 20% Negotiation and closing

·         About 50% Post-merger integration

 

The classic M&A challenges:

 

Rewards:

• Produces rapid growth
• Adds capabilities
• Builds scale
• Expands geographic markets

 

Regrets

• Adds significant risk
• High probability of failure
• Very expensive
• Effects on management

 

Effects on management:

A study published in the July/August 2008 (Mergers and Acquisitions Lead to Long-Term Management Turmoil Newswise) issue of the Journal of Business Strategy suggests that mergers and acquisitions destroy leadership continuity in target companies’ top management teams for at least a decade following a deal. The study found that target companies lose 21 percent of their executives each year for at least 10 years following an acquisition – more than double the turnover experienced in non-merged firms. In order to change that, three major assumptions determine the content of the change management work streams:

1.    Strategic rationale behind a merger has to determine the focus of the post-merger transition and integration tasks

2.    Merger is never one merger, but made up of tens of hundred of mini-mergers. Each mini-merger needs its own reconciliation process

3.    Cultural clashes and differences in management processes and styles reflect different mind-sets of two organizations. Recognition of this fact and the necessity of professional expertise in addressing these problems is blocked by perception of their vagueness and invisibility

 

However often forgotten is that there has to be a link between change management and the critical value drivers (critical success factors). E.g. here are six critical success factors to make a Merger and Acquisition a success:

1.    Wisdom of the deal - as seen by the marketplace and the merger partners

2.    Soundness of the due diligence - understanding what you face

3.    Preoccupation with driving the value of the deal

4.    Moving as fast as possible

5.    Thoroughness of the post merger integration programme and its implementation

6.    Utilisation of scarce leadership talent: effecting the merger while leading the existing businesses

 

In order to get these and other important critical success factors throughout the M&A lifecycle in place, real success demands a value-creating approach. I have over the years developed such a  M&A value-creating approach/method and if you need help in better understanding and exploiting such a value-creating approach. Let’s talk about how I can help you explore the levels of value creation you are looking for in your merger and/or acquisition.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email: mvr@rosenteam.com

 

Regards your moderator

 

Mark von Rosing

something to ponder about

In psychology as well as in spirituality, it is argued that one most find the balance in and between the extremes. I always felt that leadership had a lot to do with that as well.

 

So when I feel over this quote, I was really happy and want to share it:

 

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. The difficulty is to communicate and live this in word and in action”

 

In the many years I have worked with coaching and helping people in growing and developing, have I realized that a weakness is often a missing balance/opposite of a big strength one might posses.

 

Not always applicable, but maybe it gives you something to ponder about

 

Regards Mark

Leadership Growth and Development through strengthening your Character traits

I will try to summaries’ how you as a manager or executive can grow through a Leadership Character Development Model. The Leadership Character Development Model is a prescriptive leadership growth development theory developed in 2006 by Cay Clemmensen and myself in a Leadership Development Coaching engagement we had in our company Rosen Team for a large Global Company.

Why work on your Leadership Development? Well, let’s face it........ all of us know that there are certain things in our leadership skills, that we should or could do in a better way, but too often we don't know how - or don’t really get started on the change process we should be going through. So we all actually work against some barriers that somehow keep us from doing what is best for us and the people we lead- and from realizing and living our true leadership potential.

The leadership Character Development Model that we believe that could be useful for each manager or executive, could actually in a simplistic way be visualized as a scale, where integrity is the strong and solid base, and respect and responsibility are balanced on either side. A leader with integrity is honest, trustworthy and authentic. They are also respectful of others and have a strong sense of leadership responsibility. Relationship and respect is developed by the component qualities of Empathy, Emotional Mastery, Lack of Blame and Humility. Responsibility is developed by the component qualities of Accountability, Courage, Self Confidence and Focus on the whole (as a leader with the abilities).

The 10 Social Competences of the Leadership Character Development Model that a each leader should have:
1. Social Competence skill - Respect
2. Social Competence skill - Empathy
3. Lack of Blame
4. Emotional Intelligence skill - Humility
5. Emotional Intelligence skill - Emotional Mastery
6. Emotional Intelligence skill - Responsibility
7. Emotional Intelligence skill - Accountability
8. Emotional Intelligence skill - Self-Confidence
9. Emotional Intelligence skill - Courage
10. Social Competence skill - Focus on the whole

1. Respect
The leader, that demonstrates Respect show’s unconditional high regard for others, acknowledging their value as human beings, regardless of their behavior (and isn't that what it is we wish from others). The respect comes through in all situations, even during times of conflict or criticism. Demonstrating respect for others requires developing and refining the following core leadership qualities (not faking it).

2. Social Competence skill - Empathy
Treating everyone in the organization with empathy helps leaders earn trust. Leaders who are empathetic create strong bonds and are seen as less political. The leader who demonstrates the core quality of empathy:
• Can understand others’ points of view, including the views of those who are different
• Shows genuine concern for others
• Listens with understanding
• Is respectful even when he or she has nothing to gain from the relationship

3. Lack of Blame
The leader who doesn’t blame others is not defensive. They are able to reflect honestly on their own behavior and are willing to admit mistakes. When things go wrong, they don't spend time assigning blame; they spend time fixing the problem. A leader who demonstrates the core quality of lack of blame:
• Admits fault when appropriate – even to customers
• Does not look for a scapegoat in a crisis
• Spends time fixing problems, not assigning them

4. Humility
Humility is a lack of pomposity and arrogance. It is the recognition that all leaders are fallible, that we are all combinations of strengths and weaknesses. Each one of us who demonstrate humility, as someone has said, "don't think less of themselves; they just think more of others." Arrogance derails more leaders than any other factor. A leader with the core quality of humility:
• Listens to others with an open mind
• Doesn't brag or name drop
• Clearly sees and admits their own limitations and failings
• Is not afraid to be vulnerable

5. Emotional Intelligence skill - Emotional Mastery
Leaders’ who have developed emotional mastery recognize that, as Epictetus said 2000 years ago, "It's not the facts and events that upset man, but the view he takes of them." For those in positions of formal power, the most important aspect of emotional mastery may be controlling anger. Outbursts of anger have no spot in the workplace, and can quickly destroy a sense of organizational equity and partnership. A leader with the core quality of emotional mastery:
• Says what he or she thinks, but never berates others
• Stays calm even in crisis situations (which makes him or her active rather than reactive)
• Doesn't let anxiety interfere with public speaking or with other things that need to be done
• Reflects before reacting and is able to consciously and actively choose an appropriate response (which is different than 90% of all leaders)

6. Responsibility
Responsibility is the acceptance of full responsibility for leadership success and for the success of the chosen partner and kids.

7. Accountability
The leader who is truly accountable expand their view of organizational responsibility. At all levels, accountable leaders do what they can to get done what needs to get done, no matter where in the organization they have to go. They NEVER say, "It's not my job." They also hold themselves accountable for making their team and relationships work - they don't say, "Well, I'll go halfway if they will." They take 100% responsibility for making any relationship work. A leader with the core quality of accountability:
• Takes the initiative to get things done
• Is not afraid to hold others accountable
• Is willing to cross departmental boundaries to help with a meaningful company development
• Takes leadership responsibility for organizational success

8. Emotional Intelligence skill - Self-Confidence
The leader who is self-confident feels that they are the equal of others, even when those others are in positions of much greater formal power. The leader who is self-confident also recognize the value of building the self-confidence of others and won't be threatened by doing so. Self-confidence in everyone builds a sense of partnership and helps the organization get maximum effort and ideas from everyone. A Leaders’ with the core quality of self-confidence:
• Has a self assured bearing
• Is flexible and willing to change
• Easily gives others credit
• Isn't afraid to tell the truth

9. Emotional Intelligence skill - Courage
The leader with courage is assertive and willing to take risks. They ask forgiveness rather than permission, and are willing to try even though they might fail. They are willing to risk conflict to have their ideas heard, balancing that with the respect that makes constructive conflict possible. A leader with the core quality of courage:
• Champions new or unpopular ideas
• Talks to others, not about others, when there is a problem
• Accepts feedback and really hears what others say
• Takes the ball and runs with it, even when there are obstacles

10. Focus on the whole
The leader that focuses on the whole think in terms of the good for the entire organization, not in terms of what's good for them, their team or their department. They can see interdependencies and can see beyond what is immediately observable. They have an understanding of and enthusiasm for the business and an understanding of their industry. For example, if working on a software project, they consider the implications of the whole project and commit to an outcome that works for the customer rather than focusing on just their piece of the project. A leader who demonstrates the core quality of focusing on the whole:
• Realizes that they represent their company (not themselves)
• Sees how the work in their area affects the entire project and the entire organization
• Gathers information from people involved when making important decisions
• Shares information throughout the company and understands the value of a knowledgeable workforce

I know that when we talk about the Leadership Character Development Model necessary for leaders’ to influence the way they manage their leadership development process, that these are very psychological soft skills we are talking about and as you can read from my different article, do I strongly believe that leadership excellence is made, not born. That's why I actually wanted to create this Blog and Forum and I'm dedicated to helping you leadershiply grow beyond where you are today. If you need help in better understanding and exploit your potential in order to turn you into action mode and help you break through self imposed limitations that are holding you back from the power, balance, growth, and success that you strive for. Let’s us talk about how I can help you explore how it is possible to build new levels of a character - helping you to remove the mental and emotional obstacles that are limiting your leadership and professional growth, power and leadership development.

If you are interested in a course that can strengthen this ability this could be an option:
1) www.rosenteam.com/leadership-performance/emotional-intelligence-in-leadership/

2) www.rosenteam.com/leadership-performance/become-a-mentor-and-coach/

3) www.rosenteam.com/leadership-performance/advanced-leadership-coaching-program/

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email: mvr@rosenteam.com

Regards your moderator

Mark

 

Different qualities of a leader

A very interesting realization I have made is that on nearly each leadership coaching I have, there are a lot of different discussions about what leadership really is and what different qualities of leadership are there? Surly there will be so many different answer, some go in the direction that you are ether a leader or not (the born leader theory), which is basically not true. But the question remains what is a leader and or what makes a leader and what are some of the qualities?

 

Studies of leadership have suggested qualities that people often associate with leadership. They include:

·         The ability to get a vision of something or a vision of direction

·         A clear sense of purpose (or mission) - clear goals - focus - commitment

·         Charismatic inspiration - attractiveness to others and the ability to leverage this esteem to motivate others

·         Ability to encourage and nurture those that report to them - delegate in such a way as people will grow

·         Results-orientation - directing every action towards a mission - prioritizing activities to spend time where results most accrue

·         Preoccupation with a role - a dedication that consumes much of leaders' life - service to a cause

·         Cooperation - work well with others (this is a part of social competence)

·         Role models - leaders may adopt a persona that encapsulates their mission and lead by example (it should always be – do as I do, not only do as I say)

·         Technical/specific skill at some task at hand

·         Self-knowledge (in non-bureaucratic structures)

·         Self-awareness - the ability to "lead" (as it were) one's own self prior to leading other selves similarly (emotional intelligence competence)

·         Social-Competence (this has become a more and more demanding task in leadership)

·         Optimism - very few pessimists become leaders

·         Rejection of determinism - belief in one's ability to "make a difference" (your mindset, is in reality will make the difference)

 

I know we talk about traits, but in the end the end I would like you to think about what the Leadership business guru -David McClelland said about leadership skills. He believed that it was not so much as a set of traits, but as a pattern of motives (very interesting thought). He claimed that successful leaders will tend to have a high need for power, a low need for affiliation, and a high level of what he called activity inhibition (one might call it self-control). The rest they need to learn

 

I'm looking forward to read some inspiring thoughts about this subject

 

Regards – Mark von Rosing