PeopleTek’s Leadership Television is your online portal to everything you want to know about leadership development, PeopleTek, and the tips, tools, and ideas we want to share with you to help you develop into the leader you want to be.
The Leadership Journey – Tek Talks
Get to know what The Leadership Journey is all about. Learn more about the gap in communication between the technically savvy and the creatives, the effect that it can have on organizations, teams, and individuals, and what you can do to bridge this gap by adapting behaviors and learning to understand different personality types.
Yogi-isms For Leaders
This week we’re featuring a different type of leader. A man that was a legend as a professional baseball catcher/hitter, for his roles as coach and manager, and for his widely known (and often quoted) quips – Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra
Yogi’s wit was often viewed with humor, and his sayings are actually thought provoking and useful for leadership.
Yogi-isms For Leaders
Here are some of his most commonly quoted quips with additional thoughts that we added:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you wind up someplace else.”
Do you have a shared strategy? Do all behaviors support yours (or that of your organizations) vision, mission, and goals? Is there a development plan/road map in place that addresses gaps and obstacles?
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Things don’t always go as planned. What could you change? Persist and persevere until you obtain your desired results.
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
Expect and plan for change. What will inspire and increase results? Are you innovative? Are you keeping up with or better yet ahead of your competitors?
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
Pay attention to what’s going on around you. What’s happening in your organization? In your industry? How’s your staff? What about your customers, vendors, and co-workers?
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Make a decision and move forward. Indecisiveness will stifle progress and create complacency and stagnation.
“There are some people who, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell ’em.”
Not everyone is receptive to feedback and willing to learn new things. Pay attention to the resistors; tough decisions may need to be made.
Yogi was admitted to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1972, holds numerous World Series records, and ended his baseball career in 1992. While attending the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in New Jersey he said “It was fun. If I had to do it over, I’d do it again.”
Quite a character, quite the leader. RIP.
QwikTip and QwikCoach
QwikTips Powered by e-Coach – Frustrated by an unproductive team?
And for those with a QwikCoach license, refresh your existing skills and acquire new skills by visiting the QwikTips library for leadership ideas and techniques.
If you don’t have QwikCoach, it’s an excellent resource for growing your leadership skills remotely that you should consider.
Help turn your leadership knowledge into leadership action!
Assess Your Leadership Beliefs and Attributes
How often do you think about the skills and abilities that make you an effective leader and team member? How often do you assess what you do well, and where you could use additional development or a refresher?
Interacting with others effectively and efficiently is based on technique, experience, personal styles and temperament. What are your strengths? What are your areas for development?
Never neglect an opportunity for improvement.
–Sir William Jones
Leadership Assessment
Self Assessment – Rate yourself (1 = Never 3 = Sometimes 5 = Always)
I am committed to developing my staff, realizing it builds bench strength, grows the bottom line, reduces attrition, and overall makes the company stronger.
SCORE:
I hold others accountable, and address non productive behaviors in a healthy, honoring way.
SCORE:
I think strategically and take time to work on the bigger picture, not just day-to-day priorities.
SCORE:
I am very “self aware.” I understand my strengths and my areas requiring development, and leverage my strengths to support the attainment of goals.
SCORE:
I am inspired and energized while at work, and know how I contribute to the bottom line.
SCORE:
I clearly communicate my point of view/perspectives, and feel I am listened to (not necessarily agreed with).
SCORE:
I have an open mindset and don’t get stuck on how things used to be, versus how they “could” be.
SCORE:
I listen to opposing viewpoints and take time to process and reflect on them.
SCORE:
I solicit feedback, share the results, and take action against the results.
SCORE:
I maintain my composure regardless of how stressful the situation or antagonistic a person may be.
SCORE:
How many questions scored a 1 or a 3? Did other topics come to mind? As we enter the 4th quarter this is a great time to determine what you want to accomplish before year end, and update your development plan accordingly.
QwikTip and QwikCoach
QwikTips Powered by e-Coach – Want To learn more about self development?
And for those with a QwikCoach license, refresh your existing skills and acquire new skills by visiting the QwikTips library for leadership ideas and techniques.
If you don’t have QwikCoach, it’s an excellent resource for growing your leadership skills remotely that you should consider.
Help turn your leadership knowledge into leadership action!
Proactive Leadership
Can you answer the questions below? Whether you’re in an official leadership role, getting ready for one, or you simply influence others to improve results, answering these questions will help you increase your level of success.
Cultivate a Proactive Leadership Style
Good leaders are aware of their behaviors and the impact they have on others. When asking what makes a great leader, the most common responses include: “my leader cares about me,” “they know where they are going and how to get there,” and they have a “defined purpose.” In other words, they are employing proactive leadership techniques.
Here are a few exercises that strengthen desired leadership behaviors:
- Exercise 1 – The importance of self-reflection – do you know your top 3 strengths? Do you know what happens when you overuse them? How could the strengths of others complement yours?
- Exercise 2 – Are you in a position that uses your skills, abilities and talents to the fullest? If yes, how?
- Exercise 3 – What are your vision, mission, goals, and measures? Do your behaviors support these?
- Exercise 4 – Communication 1 – Are you an extrovert or an introvert? How does that impact your ability to lead others? What could you do to round out your preferred style?
- Exercise 5 – Communication 2 – Are you dominant, an influencer, steady, or cautious? What intensity of each do you exhibit? How does that impact your leadership?
Improve Your Results!
PeopleTek’s Leadership Journey prepares you to answer these questions and identifies optimal leadership skills, abilities, and behaviors.
I didn’t get here by dreaming or thinking about it. I got here by doing it.
–Estée Lauder, co-founder of Estée Lauder Companies
Don’t Ignore Strengths
A part of a leader’s role is to address negative behaviors and attitudes that are impacting the strengths and success of our team.
This requires a commitment and a lot of energy, but it must be done. Having said that, as leaders we must also understand, leverage, and build on the strengths of our team as a whole, and the individuals within it.
People improve more by magnetizing their virtues than by brooding on their shortcomings.
–J. Donald Walters
Walters, author of The Art Of Leadership provides the following tips:
- Work to strengthen a subordinate’s best qualities, rather than harping on his worst. You will accomplish far more by encouraging others than by belittling them.
- Work more with your organization’s strengths than with its weaknesses. Channel more energy to those people in it who are in tune with what you are doing than to those whose tendency is to resist you.
- Don’t invest a disproportionate amount of energy in addressing negative situations. Strengthen the positive side, rather, and any negative energy that exist will tend either to be dissipated, or remove themselves from the scene.
- Don’t allow subordinates to offer merely negative criticism. Teach them that they must earn the right to speak by offering solutions when they want to point out problems.
- Encourage the doers under you, not the mere talkers.
- Never court popularity for yourself. Be concerned with issues, principles, (and goals).
- Never speak from your own emotions or private prejudices, but always from a sense of justice, fairness, and truth.
Don’t ignore the strengths of each of your team members. Acknowledging their contributions will inspire continued success, and improve not only results but also satisfaction levels. Try it!
QwikTip and QwikCoach
PeopleTek’s Strategic partner, E-Coach, specializes in online coaching tools.
QwikTip Getting Along With Peers
And for those with a QwikCoach license, refresh your existing skills and acquire new skills by visiting the QwikTips library for leadership ideas and techniques.
If you don’t have QwikCoach, it’s an excellent resource for growing your leadership skills remotely that you should consider.
Help turn your leadership knowledge into leadership action!
More About EQ
Powerful and positive leadership behaviors obtain greater results and create an environment with higher satisfaction scores, increased productivity, and more collaboration across teams and organizations.
Awareness is key. As leaders we need to be aware of our behaviors and actions, understand how they impact others, and manage expectations in order to obtain the results we desire. We don’t just need to be intelligent and knowledgeable, we also need to be emotionally smart.
Psychologist Steven Stein and psychiatrist Howard Book state that strong leaders have both a high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and a developed EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient). Intelligence will only go so far; leaders must also be aware of how they present themselves, how they respond to others, and how others respond to them.
“Research shows convincingly that EQ is more important than IQ in almost every role and many times more important in leadership roles.”
–Dr. Stephen R. Covey
Our IQ is considered to be non-dynamic and is an indicator of how we perform intellectual tasks.
Our EQ on the other hand can increase through self development and consists of 4 areas: self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management.
- Self awareness is critical when engaging in communication.
- Self management is key for managing emotions in difficult situations.
- Social awareness leverages awareness of others to perform at your peak.
- Relationship management manages relationships to increase job performance and integrates EQ professionally and personally.
Emotional intelligence is the genuine ability to feel emotions, understand what you’re feeling and why, understand how others are feeling, and respond appropriately. Having a high EQ builds relationships and fosters communication even in the most difficult of times.
Some consider EQ to be the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. By developing our EQ, we position ourselves to more successfully cope with organizational demands and pressures, and obtain the results we desire.
What are you doing to develop your EQ?
QwikTip and QwikCoach
PeopleTek’s Strategic partner, E-Coach, specializes in online coaching tools.
QwikTip for Getting Along With Peers
And for those with a QwikCoach license, refresh your existing skills and acquire new skills by visiting the QwikTips library for leadership ideas and techniques.
If you don’t have QwikCoach, it’s an excellent resource for growing your leadership skills remotely that you should consider.
Help turn your leadership knowledge into leadership action!
How to Handle Conflict
Do you know how to handle conflict? Learn to use the right levels of cooperativeness and assertiveness to be the best leader that you can be in conflict situations. In addition, learn how the ‘Five Modes of Conflict’ can help you resolve conflicts based on the situation and your personality.
You Don’t Need Reports to Be a Leader-Part 4
Learn why leadership is not always about receiving direct reports. Mike Kublin discusses why leadership is not exclusive to bosses. He goes on to share his twelve components to achieving success as a leader, describes the importance of how you “show up”, why your vision, mission, and goals are so important to the transformation of yourself and your entire organization.
Strategic Organizational Transformation Is a Process, Not an Event – Part 1 – People, Process, Tools
In Part I of Mike Kublin’s speech “Strategic Organizational Transformation is a Process, Not an Event,” Kublin introduces what his listeners will learn–the tactics and strategies for individual and organizational transformation.
We tend to think of everything as disjointed pieces of the work we do. Strategic Organizational Transformation is all about taking a holistic approach to looking at these pieces–people, process, tools, methodology, and strategy–and putting it all together.
The Value of Communication & Different Perspectives
To start a dialogue, Kublin initiates an icebreaker where people answer a series of questions on a piece of paper, and then share it with a partner. The exercise highlights the value of human communication and learning about different perspectives.
People enjoy this because learning about someone new, talking about things you like, finding out things you have in common with others, and talking about yourself, are all, generally, experiences that people find pleasurable/fun because they are engaged.
Is engagement important from a workplace perspective?
It is! From a workplace perspective, when people are engaged they are also their most productive. Engagement and connection also build trust.
When people have bonds of trust with their team, feel engaged with the overall mission and their place in the organization, and are operating at peak productivity levels, it pays on every level–including financially.
People, Process, and Tools
The world of business today is people, process, and tools, all integrated, and if we all assume the role of leaders developing leaders, then our organization can transform for the better and continue to grow.
More Videos in This Series
If you enjoyed this video/found it helpful, check out the next video in this series!
Strategic Organizational Transformation Is a Process, Not an Event – Part 2 – Johari Window, VMGM=B, & Trust
Learn about the Johari Window, trust, vision, mission, goals, measures and behavior and how they all contribute to the process of strategic organizational transformation in Part II of Mike Kublin’s speech “Strategic Organizational Transformation is a Process, Not an Event”.
More Videos in This Series
If you enjoyed this video/found it helpful, check out the next video in this series!
Strategic Organizational Transformation Is a Process, Not an Event – Part 3
Learn about the Johari Window, trust, vision, mission, goals, measures and behavior and how they all contribute to the process of strategic organizational transformation in Part III of Mike Kublin’s speech “Strategic Organizational Transformation is a Process, Not an Event”.