Peter F. Drucker

1. A leader has to show curiosity. He has to listen to people outside of the “Yes, sir” crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn’t put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he’s right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don’t care.

2. A leader has to be creative, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. Leadership is all about managing change — whether you’re leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt.

3. A leader has to communicate. I’m not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I’m talking about facing reality and telling the truth.

4. A leader has to be a person ofcharacter. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

5. A leader must have courage. I’m talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn’t courage. Tough talk isn’t courage. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

6. To be a leader you’ve got to have conviction — a fire in your belly. You’ve got to have passion. You’ve got to really want to get something done.

7. A leader should have charisma. I’m not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It’s the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That’s my definition of charisma.

8. A leader has to be competent. That seems obvious, doesn’t it? You’ve got to know what you’re doing. More important than that, you’ve got to surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing.

9. You can’t be a leader if you don’t have common sense.

THE BIGGEST C IS CRISIS. Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis.

From Michael McKinney at http://www.leadershipnow.com

1. Set clear boundaries for your relationship. Tell the chatterer that you don’t have time to listen to long stories about her child’s potty-training experiences each day or the angry co-worker that you won’t be an audience to his outbursts. When you follow through, you’ll likely gain the respect of the drainer and cause the person to back down.

2. Provide honest, caring feedback. Tell the truth and explain how you are feeling. For example, tell a poor communicator that you are having trouble understanding what he or she wants from you. Bringing a problem to a person’s attention can prompt him to work on it.

3. Don’t apologize for your words. Depersonalizing your feedback by telling someone not to take it personally diminishes your message.

4. Be alert for drainers and intervene early. Nipping the bad behavior in the bud makes your feedback more meaningful and effective. Confrontation is never pleasant, but you don’t want the person to grow accustomed to interacting with you in a certain way.

5. Deal with drainers at all levels. Confrontation with you boss may indeed be risky, but telling it like it is may increase your credibility with a difficult manager

From www.computerworld.com.au

Active listening involves paying attention, holding judgment, reflecting, clarifying, summarizing and sharing. Each skill includes various techniques or behaviors.

Paying attention. A primary goal of active listening is to set a comfortable tone and allow time and opportunity for the other person to think and speak. Pay attention to your frame of mind, your body language and the other person. Be present, focused on the moment and operate from a place of respect.

Holding judgment. Active listening requires an open mind. As a listener and a leader, you need to be open to new ideas, new perspectives and new possibilities. Even when good listeners have strong views, they suspend judgment, hold their criticism and avoid arguing or selling their point right away. Tell yourself, “I’m here to understand how the other person sees the world. It is not time to judge or give my view.”

Reflecting. Learn to mirror the other person’s information and emotions by paraphrasing key points. You don’t need to agree or disagree. Reflecting is a way to indicate that you heard and understand. Don’t assume that you understand correctly or that the other person knows you’ve heard him.

Clarifying. Use questions to double-check on any issue that is ambiguous or unclear. Open-ended, clarifying and probing questions are important tools. Open-ended questions draw people out and encourage them to expand their ideas (i.e., “What are your thoughts on …” or “What led you to draw this conclusion?”).

Clarifying questions ensure understanding and clear up confusion. Any who, what, where, when, how or why question can be a clarifying question, but those are not the only possibilities. You might say, “I must have missed something. Could you repeat that?” or “I am not sure that I got
what you were saying. Can you explain it again another way?” By asking probing questions, you invite reflection and a thoughtful response instead of telling others what to do. You might ask, for example, “More specifically, what are some of the things you’ve tried?” or “What is it in your own leadership style that might be contributing to the trouble with the team?”

Summarizing. Restating key themes as the conversation proceeds confirms and solidifies your grasp of the other person’s point of view. It also helps both parties to be clear on mutual responsibilities and follow-up. Briefly summarize what you have understood as you listened (i.e., “It sounds as if your main concern is …” or “These seem to be the key points you have
expressed…”). You could also ask the other person to summarize.

Sharing. Active listening is first about understanding the other person, then about being
understood. As you gain a clearer understanding of the other person’s perspective, you can then introduce your ideas, feelings and suggestions and address any concerns. You might talk about a similar experience you had or share an idea that was triggered by a comment made previously in the conversation.

More info can be found in the following book (see www.ccl.org)
Active Listening: Improve Your Ability to Listen and Lead, CCL Press, 2006
Michael H. Hoppe

- George G. Williams
]]> http://fantastx.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/quote-success-2/feed/ 0 kschoena http://fantastx.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/the-psychology-of-leadership-improve-your-presence/ http://fantastx.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/the-psychology-of-leadership-improve-your-presence/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:56:00 +0000 kschoena http://fantastx.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/the-psychology-of-leadership-improve-your-presence/ ]]> As a general rule during meetings or conversations, don’t let other people talk over you or have side conversations. If this happens while you were talking, just stop. Remain calm and silent. Look at them in a non aggressive way as if you have all the time in the world. Don’t interrupt them because you do not want to be interrupted yourself!

What will happen is that most of the times people will stop and apologize. Then it is up to you to if you want to recognize this or not. Take up your sentence where you left off. Probably no one will interrupt you again during this conversation or meeting.

And guess what … you have improved your presence!

Their 12 main characteristics are:

First E: Energy
People who have energy, love life. They thrive on action, make friends easily, are extrovert and optimistic, they love to work and rarely complain.

Second E: Energize others
The ability to get others energized, to inspire them to take on the impossible.

Third E: Edge
The courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions. They know when to stop assessing and when to make a tough call even without possessing total information.

Fourth E: Execute
The ability to get the job done, to put a decision into action and push foreward to completion, through resistance, chaos or obstacles.

If the candidate possesses all four E’s, Welch looked for the P of Passion. People with passion care about work, colleagues and love to learn and grow.