Monday, December 24, 2007

Mentoring Important for Jr and Sr Leaders

Leadership is about having a vision focused on the possibilities of the future.
And one way leaders can shape the future is through mentoring the next generation. Mentoring is a critical aspect of leader development.
Mentoring is an activity that mutually benefits junior and senior leaders because the mentoring relationship creates a safe learning environment through feedback.
Junior leaders benefit from the time and attention of more senior leaders as they glean wisdom from another person’s experiences without having to live through the same events. While at the same time senior leaders benefit by sharing their philosophies on leadership and listening to different perspectives on leadership issues from those they mentor.
Mentoring relationships can take on many forms. They do not always have to be formal, long term relationships. In fact great mentoring often occurs in rather informal settings.
But the best mentoring is guided. Guided mentoring provides an outline or theme, which facilitates discussion and encourages both parties to focus their attention to a defined topic. This method certainly is not meant to limit, rather like farming it helps to “loosen and prep the soil” of discussion, resulting in an enriched discussion and deepened development.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

H.A.L.T.


A few years ago I bought my first motorcycle but before riding it decided to take a basic riders course. This course taught fundamentals and principles essential to the development of good riding skills. The instructor taught that riding a motorcycle is much more involved that driving a car, and provided a simple memory aid to help us evaluate our riding capabilities in order to be safe riders. The mnemonic was H.A.L.T. and we were taught to skip riding if any of the following conditions true:
H- Hungry
A- Angry
L- Late
T- Tired
The reason these four conditions are bad is because they are personal distractions.
Well, just like bike riding, leadership is more involved than simply being part of an organization. So I suggest that as leaders we need to “halt” and consider conditions or distractions that may impair our judgment as leaders. By doing so it is possible to avoid simple pitfalls that can be leadership disasters.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Influencing Others

As a leader one is constantly influencing others, the real question becomes “Am I really influencing others the way I think I am or the way I want?” And before that question can be answered it is important to understand one of the strongest ways we influence one another; which is through our words. Our communication with others consists of words, actions, meaning, tone, and sentiment. Our words are an extension of whom we are inside and help share what we think and feel. The problem is that other people must rely on their personal interpretation of our outward expression, which is based upon their internal values and since each person is different, we each come to individual conclusions.
So to be an effective leader we need to be perceptive to the reactions of others as we interact so we can modify our communication and hopefully come to the same meaning. Often times this is called emotional intelligence, the ability to not only understand how people generally react but being able to understand how each individual reacts and then adjust accordingly. Leaders that influence well, communicate well because they care.