Fast–Track Your Leadership

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an “Audit & Strengthen Your Leadership” survey. It gave you an opportunity to scrutinise your leadership and intensify your effectiveness.

I’ve received a great response to the survey. And I’ve noticed some thought–provoking patterns.

Let’s have a look at a summary of the responses before we take a birds-eye view of you and how you can fast-track your leadership…

A Summary Of The Survey

• The stand-out, high-scoring item (with a mean of 3.20 on our 1—4 scale) was “100% of the time, I think much more broadly than a ‘silo’ that is only focused on my team’s/business unit’s needs.”This is a cool item to score highly! It’s so important that an organisation’s leaders work together on scoring common goals, rather than protectively focusing on their own silos.

• The next highest-scoring item was “I’m ambitious, passionate and ceaselessly energetic. I regularly take the initiative, put creative ideas on the table and instigate solutions and enhancements—rather than just waiting for things to happen.”I’m wondering if this question’s fairly high score was due to a biased sample of respondents. Those leaders who don’t often “take the initiative…and instigate solutions and enhancements…” would have been less inclined to answer the survey :-).

• The lowest scoring item was “I plan, prioritise and delegate extremely effectively. Following each delegation, team member/s and I agree our review-checkpoints, which are always honoured.“This isn’t too surprising. Many leaders struggle to delegate effectively, I think because they don’t have a great model to use when it comes to delegating. These two Leadership Bulletins, Delegation—It Causes Leaders And Their Teams A Lot Of Heartache and Great Leaders Are Like Great Conductors should help. If not, give me a yell.

• This low-scoring item was closely followed by “I’m highly influential with others. I’m always clear about my targeted outcomes. I genuinely hear and carefully consider the other party’s wants, needs, fears and concerns. I, almost always, authentically disclose my thoughts and feelings about the topic on the table.”This is THE issue that leaders I coach put on the table most often. Predictably, pretty much everyone wants to be a more effective influencer.
  
  A leader’s job is about persuading others—downwards, sideways and upwards. They can’t do a great job until they have that mastered.(It’s also my most favourite topic! I’ve got lots of tools to help you get that one sorted :-).

• And finally, a quick summary of the open-ended questions:
  

  …the most likely “positive word or phrase” people would use to describe a leader is “passionate”, “fair” and “caring”.…the most likely “less-positive word or phrase” people would use to describe a leader is “not assertive”, “busy” and “indecisive”.

  …nearly everyone said it’s “very important”, “extremely important” or “imperative” that they strengthen their leadership.

  …the survey tells me that potential costs of you not strengthening your leadership are “career will suffer”, “high turnover in a demotivated team”,”job security” and “self-esteem”.

  …the “What else would you like to say” question elicited, (a) heart-warming responses about how my Leadership Bulletins are valued, and (b), appreciation for the survey’s “pearls of wisdom” and “opportunity for reflection”.

  No huge surprises from those five questions. Again, conversations with leaders I coach highly align with your comments.

How Do You Compare To Other Leaders?

Recall answering your survey—where did you score close to 4? And where did you score closer to 2?

Then…

Imagine, just for a moment, you’re looking down at you from above—from a birds-eye view…

From this disassociated perspective you’re noticing the great and the not-as-great qualities of your leadership.

What do you see?

Where is your leadership admirable?

What are you doing that demonstrates mastery?

Where is it less admirable?

Where are your opportunities to be more masterful?

 

Fast-Tracking Actions

I’m hoping that the question in your mind at this point is the one that’s in mine…

Which aspects of your leadership are you going to refine so that—at the start of 2017—you’re an even more impressive leader than you are now?

Don’t think for a minute that those highly impressive leaders you meet stop looking for ways they can refine their leadership!

They know they don’t have to be broken to get better. They know there’s always value in polishing their approach.

What fast-tracking actions will you take?

“I recommend Carolyn’s coaching because, (a) it is personal and always relates to my situation,
(b) it is easy to talk to Carolyn and she nudges one gently to keep developing, and
(c) the access to resources provides good backup to our conversations.”

—University Course Director