| |
| |
|
Leadership Information |
|
|
|
It's Not All About Cheese: The Missing Component in Employee Development (Part 1)
Spencer Johnson really hit a nerve when he wrote Who Moved My Cheese? The book, a best seller still, is a wonderful allegory of the things that drive and motivate us. I personally loved the book, perhaps because I read it in one night. But, I was left wondering if the most important part of the cheese story was ever addressed profoundly enough. I am talking about the idea that it is not all about the cheese! If the books we are buying are any indication of the change we are seeking, then our ideas for what drives and motivates people are in deed changing. A majority of the "success" books I see on the shelf are significantly different from those a year ago. From trying to become a "Rich Dad" to just being a good dad; from becoming a "One Minute Millionaire" to learning how to go from "Good to Great". The bulldog mentality is giving way to the "Love Cat" lifestyle. The last ten books I purchased have the words accountability, trust, or integrity on the title. Even books relating to business success in highly competitive markets have changed in focus from "becoming" successful to the "attributes" of successful people; foremost among them, by the way, is integrity. We are longing for more than the traditional learning about leadership or motivation. We are realizing that true leaders (at every level) share traits we would love to package into a mandatory training program for all our employees. Unfortunately, our existing model for training people has become as segmented as the business strategies we use in our companies. Partly, because of the emphasis we place on identifying the cheese (the environmental and monetary drivers), not the things that drive us to chase after them. In spite of the valuable lessons behind principle-centered and integrity-based leadership, we keep overlooking the overwhelming influence of individual values upon the workplace. What keeps us from speaking honestly about values is the misguided fear that, if we talk about values at work, we will cross the invisible line where business and personal life should separate. Yet, when you deeply examine what motivates people to do the right things (to support customers, to be accountable to their employers) you find the values that drive them. You find THEM. Businesses that can shift their focus from purely strategic planning, to values-driven mission and vision, build a stronger foundation for long-term success. That foundation also becomes a catalyst for leadership training programs. Remember that employees are people, and people are ultimately driven by their core values and influenced by yours. You have to make a conscious effort to understand the values of your employees (understanding the values that drive them, you, and your organization; and establishing common ground for communicating and dealing with conflict). Teach Them How To "Drive" Building a leadership training program that addresses values will strengthen the core of your company and will help develop employees into leaders. The tough part is doing it. So instead of teaching people how to behave, why not teach them how to drive? There are many analogies I use to illustrate how people learn and interact with each other. My favorite is something my business partner Troy Darling and I call the "Merge Point Method", or Merge Point. If you have ever driven in a busy city like Miami, you know that driving brings out the best and worse in people. While I am the type of driver that courteously allows others to seamlessly merge into my lane, there are plenty of others who, for their own reasons, will cut me off or drive like maniacs to get ahead of me in traffic. How we interact with others on the road (and elsewhere) is a direct expression of our values and how we negotiate the "merge points" of life; those places at the end of two merging lanes when both you and the adjacent motorist have to decide who will volunteer the right of way. Merge Points are where we decide how to act, based on our sense of civility and cooperation. At the Merge Point we integrate or disintegrate. And for many of us that means knowing how to make the right choices at the Merge Points of: ? Mission Based on Goals VS. Mission Based on Values When you evaluate honestly the patterns of behavior and the supporting tactics and strategies that make relationships "stick", you will notice a pattern of conscious choices at these Merge Points. These are the choices that keep marriages together, build life-long friendships, and enable organizations to work cohesively and safely. They are the same enablers that improve the quality of work, and life at work; the patterns that consistently increase productivity, efficiency, and customer care. Find them in individuals and you find genuine and wise people who lead with empathy and trust. Take time to evaluate your current leadership training programs. Are they achieving the right results? Are they building leaders? Or are you getting stuck at the Merge Point? More about Merge Point in part II of this article. Julio Quintana is a writer and speaker based in Weston, Florida. Learn more about his practice and The Merge Point Method at http://www.merge-point.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Leadership - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Give Your Valentine A Very Special Gift - Empowerment Delegating is a commonly misunderstood concept. Delegating is not about dumping problems or chores you dislike doing onto the shoulders of others, it is an invaluable tool for "motivating and training your team to realize their full potential. How To Party Like Leonardo Da Vinci After studying scores of great thinkers like Leonardo Da Vinci, I think I've stumbled upon what really set them apart from the rest of the folks living (and thinking) at the same time.It's remarkably simple. Leadership In The Zone! "You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only one who does what you do. 7 AAA Ways To Succeed! [Abounding Abundant Ample Ways To Boost Your Growth!] This may come as a surprise but there are reliable,effective and powerful ways to improve your ability to learnnew things. If you will allow me to use leadership skills training asour example, you will see how poor learning forces us tosuffer through any one or more of the following problems: - leadership training programs usually cost serious money -in fact, some programs are outrageously expensive - leadership training programs last for a very short time -quite a few of them run for only one or two days - many leadership training programs fail to give studentsways to confidently resolve problem situations or meet andovercome their daily challenges - less than 1% of all leadership training programs combinecoaching and mentoring follow-ups with classroom lessons - most leadership training programs like to do 'raw datadumps'- the vast majority of them do NOT give you chances to'blend' your learning experiences with supervised support orpractical feedback In this article you will discover how to find, use and takeadvantage of every kind of performance improvement learningopportunity you encounter. Building Teams and Teamwork A tight knit team is a group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other and are fiercely committed to their mission. They are highly motivated to combining their energy and expertise to achieve the common objective. Leadership Tips From My Dad Lee (L.B. Ten Qualities Of A Great Leader - Plus 1 Great Leaders are optimists first and foremost. Their tendency is to interact according to Henry Ford's observation, "whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right. Leadership Skills and Ability What is true Leadership.Is leadership something we are born with or is it learned. 5 Human Capital Asset Enrichment Strategies for Leaders! Here's a really simple way to think about the ins and outs, the doing and practice or attitudes and behaviors of being a leader.Many times I get asked certain questions that tell me that there seems to be some confusion concerning these critical areas of the leadership mission:1) When and who can, should or will leaders need to lead?2) What do leaders actually do?3) How and in what ways do leaders appear to lead?This article will show you how to analyze, define and perform the most important task of a leader's job - that is, to enrich human capital. Chris Top 7 Favorite Leadership Books 1. The West Point Way of Leadership. Dont Be a Complainer Complaining. There's room for legitimate complaining, but if you let this deadly disease of attitude - complaining - loose, it will conquer you. Two Leadership Traps: How To Get Out Of Them and How To Avoid Them (Part 1) You've heard of the Peter Principle: "People are promoted to their level of ultimate incompetence". But what the Peter Principle doesn't tell you is the nature of the incompetence. Two Vital Abilities Any Leader Must Have As a business owner, you are a leader whether you like it or not. Whether you like it or not you have to guide your group in order to expand your organization. Leadership and Power - Being the Boss Doesnt Guarantee Either of Them Some people mistakenly associate supervisory positions, or seats of power, with leadership. They presume that these two things are synonymous. Is Your Life Ready For Groundhog Day? In the hit comedic movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character, Phil Conners, is caught up in a time warp, doomed to live the same day over and over until he gets it right. Hilarious as the ensuing mayhem may be on the big screen, it is a poignant and not too thinly veiled metaphor for how most of us live our own lives - mindlessly occupied with our own issues and concerns, stumbling through life (often over the toes of others) with little if any conscious direction or critical thought. Ten Steps To Effective Leadership Many people end up in a supervisory position or SOHO ownership almost by default. In today's workplace, if someone stays on their job long enough, they will probably be promoted as others, more senior to them or higher up the chain of responsibility, leave for other opportunities. Always Be Open To Learning "We should not only use all the brains we have, but all we can borrow." -Woodrow WilsonLeave it to a child to remind you of the importance of humility and the willingness to learn from everyone. Asking for Help For many of us, asking for help is a difficult concept. It can require a certain amount of vulnerability. Celebrating Successes: The Power Of Compliments Years ago, when I was new in management circles, a veteran administrator decided to share his self-described secret of success. He said: You have to be careful, Bill. What We Can Learn From J. Paul Getty J. Paul Getty planned to enter the U.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
