Tag Archives: Leadership Styles

The Leader’s Way: Business, Buddhism and Happiness in an Interconnected World – Leadership Lessons from the Dalai Lama

Posted on 14 May 2012 | Leave a comment

Effective leadership is an underlying theme throughout the teachings of the Dalai Lama.

Cover of "The Leader's Way: Business, Bud...

International managerial consultant Laurens van den Muyzenberg identified the business leadership undercurrent in the 1990s after he was hired to advise the Dalai Lama.

Realizing the great potential in combining their respective expertise, van den Muyzenberg and the Dalai Lama co-authored The Leader’s Way, applying Buddhism to business practices.

“Most of my clients do face difficult ethical problems,” says van den Muyzenberg, who consults leaders. “It’s hard to find somebody with the kind of ethical prestige that [the Dalai Lama] has.”

Professor  C.O. Herkströter, former CEO of Shell and Chairman of the Board of ING wrote this when reviewing the book.

“This book examines capitalism and Buddhism in a fascinating way. Everybody in business who is seriously interested in responsible entrepreneurship will recognise the issues. The book adds a valuable dimension to the values and ethical standards that form the basis for responsible leadership in business.”

The approach represents the synthesis of East and West and provides an inspiring manifesto for business change. The first part of The Leader’s Way two-part message is this: in order to lead, you must understand the reasons for our actions then you can act to  solve problems through integrity, respect and sensitivity toward others.

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Posted in Ethics, leadership, Leadership styles, Leading Change

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Leadership Styles – Now Discover Your Strengths

Posted on 4 April 2012 | Leave a comment
The Ritz Carlton logo at the former Hong Kong ...

For decades, Gallup scientists have researched the topic of leadership. They’ve surveyed a million work teams, conducted more than 50,000 in-depth interviews with leaders, and  interviewed 20,000 followers to ask what they admired in the most important leader in their life.

The results of that research are set out in the book, Strengths-Based Leadership.

Using Gallup’s discoveries, authors Tom Rath and Barry Conchie identify three keys to being an effective leader

  1. The most effective leaders are always investing in strengths. In the workplace, when an organization’s leadership fails to focus on individuals’ strengths, the odds of an employee being engaged are a dismal 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organization’s leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%). When leaders focus on and invest in their employees’ strengths, the odds of each person being engaged goes up eightfold.
  2. The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team. While the best leaders are not well-rounded, the best teams are! Strong, cohesive teams have a representation of strengths in each of these four domains: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.
  3. The most effective leaders understand their followers’ needs. People follow leaders for very specific reasons. When asked, thousands of followers were able to describe exactly what they need from a leader with remarkable clarity. This was trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Tom Rath and Barry Conchie used firsthand accounts from highly successful leaders to show how each person’s unique talents can drive their success. The leaders included the founder of Teach for America and the president of The Ritz-Carlton.

Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment is available to readers with an access code that accompanies the book. This helps you discover your own special gifts, and specific strategies show you how to lead with your top five talents and how to plot the strengths of your team based on the four domains of leadership strength;

  • Executing,
  • Influencing,
  • Relationship Building
  • Strategic Thinking.

The second theme in this work is identifying the followers “Four Basic Needs”; Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope which should inspire us all!

If you would like to buy the book you can find it at this link.

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have
the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career. You can email her atwendymason@confidencecoach.me or ring ++44(0)2084610114 

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Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Posted on 30 March 2012 | 1 Comment

Robert Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions

Using emotional intelligence can help you succeed as a leader. But what is emotional intelligence, and why is it that success in life sometimes seems unrelated to intelligence and how hard you are prepared to work?

In 1996 Daniel Goleman wrote his groundbreaking book “Emotional Intelligence“. His exhaustive research had confirmed that success in life is based more on our ability to manage our emotions than on our intellectual capability or our physical strength.

Dr Goleman describes five main elements of emotional intelligence:

  1. Self-awareness.
  2. Self-regulation.
  3. Motivation.
  4. Empathy.
  5. Social skills.

The ability to call on these five qualities can help you to succeed as a leader.

  1. Self-awareness means you are in touch with your own feelings and emotions. You understand how they affect your behaviour and how they influence those around you.  You can strengthen your self-awareness by keeping a daily journal where you record how you feel each day and then reflect on what you have written.  Take time during the day to monitor yourself, your feelings and how you are reacting to things.
  2. Self-regulation means you don’t let fly with negative emotions or make rushed judgments about things or people.  Successful leaders stay in control of themselves and they are prepared to be flexible while being accountable. To help you do this, you need know your values and where you are not prepared to compromise. Spend some time thinking about what really matters to you.  Make a commitment to be accountable for what you do and practice staying calm. A relaxation technique can help – try this technique on our sister site WiseWolf’s Your Happiness Factor.
  3. Motivated leaders have a clear vision and work consistently towards their goals. Do you have that clear vision and is it still appropriate to you and your organization?  Find out more about developing the right vision at this link. If you get to the point where you are responding to events, rather than being proactive, then take action because your lack of motivation could put your organization at risk.
  4. For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful organization or a successful team.  Empathy means you can put yourself in someone else’s situation. Leaders with empathy help develop their teams as they develop themselves. They make sure that people are treated fairly, and they listen.  As a result they earn respect and loyalty. Practice imagining yourself in someone else’s shoes – put yourself in their position.  Listen carefully to what people say and pay attention to body language – respond to feelings!
  5. Leaders with social skills are good communicators – they communicate well and often. They’re just as open to hearing bad news as good news!  Leaders who have good social skills have the confidence to resolve conflicts before they threaten the team or the organization. Learn to talk to your team and if necessary do some formal training in communication skills and conflict resolution.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage both your own emotions, and those of the people you lead.   Having a high EQ means  knowing what you are feeling, what this means, and how your emotions can affect other people. For leaders, having emotional intelligence is essential for success. Take time to work on self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.  They will certainly help ensure that you succeed as a leader.

If you would like to know more about emotional intelligence and how it can help you in job search go to our sister site WiseWolf Leaving the Public Sector.  If you would like to know what emotional intelligence might mean for you in your life outside work then please visit WiseWolf’s Your Happiness Factor.

If you would like to read Dr Goleman’s book click on the picture link below

You can try out an EQ test at this link http://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/3038

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach.  She helps people have the confidence they need to be successful at work and to change career. You can email her atwendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com or ring ++44(0)2084610114 

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10 simple ways to become a better leader starting now

Posted on 2 March 2012 | Leave a comment

Troy Lum is founder and president of Wired2Lead and a proud graduate of Bellevue University’s Master of Arts in Leadership program.  He works to develop leadership skills with businesses large and small. With support from his wife, he found the commitment, time, and cost of pursuing additional education opened new doors. At Bellevue University, he found a program that provided him with the tools and resources to work around his life.

His post on Make it Happen Now provides 10 invlauable tips on how to develop your leadershhip skills.

“Throughout my life, I have been inspiring individuals to become a voice in their community and create change.  While I believed my leadership skills were well tuned, I am a lifelong learner and wanted to expand my knowledge on leadership development. My problem was that I was newly married, welcomed my son into the world and started a new job.  No way was I going to have the time needed to go back to school.

This is where my thinking all changed.  I started to research graduate programs, learning toward an MBA because that is what I was told to get to work in the business community.  While conducting my research on graduate schools and programs, I discovered a school in Nebraska named Bellevue University that had an interesting degree in Leadership.

My degree opened my eyes to new and exciting leadership development skills.  I took these skills and started my own organization working with individuals to develop strong leadership skills.  My passion is to make positive change in the world by developing individuals to change their own community.

 Regardless of your aspirations, becoming a better leader is sure to pave the way.  To become a great leader, a person needs to utilize all the resources available to expand their knowledge.  Leadership lessons are all around us and can be learned from watching movies, reading books and from our peers. The following 10 steps will get you on your way for a successful career and fulfilling life… you can find the 10 steps at this link

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Leadership Styles – the joys of participative leadership?

Posted on 27 February 2012 | Leave a comment
English: Dark forest track

Everyone loves participative leadership.  Or do they? Usually, most of us would prefer to follow a leader who took our views into account.  Most of us find it easier to commit to something if we have had an opportunity to have our say and to be involved in making important decisions that affect us.

Generally, when a number of people contribute to a decision, that decision gains in quality and there is a better result.

Let us imagine we are walking in a forest with a group of friends.  Suddenly our little path comes out into clearing and there is a fork.  The path on the left disappears off into the trees and so does the one on the right. Sadly, the map we’ve been following is out of date and we can’t even see a clearing.  Which way do we go?

It is getting dark.  A chilly wind is getting up and all we want is to be at home again sitting in front of the fire with a warm drink.  So we argue a bit and realise we are lost – we don’t know north from south.  Then John, who hasn’t said much, reminds us that in the northern hemisphere moss grows more often on the north side of trees. We have lots of trees to check and there we are – we take the left fork.  We’re on our way – home again in half an hour – just as the rain starts!

Well, decisions in organizations can be like that! Sometimes, you, the leader, aren’t really sure you know the best way forward.  You haven’t lost your way exactly but you’d like more information before you make that key decision. Your team would love the opportunity to contribute.  If quiet John in the back office has enough confidence in you he might speak up!  He might just know something you don’t about a new technology or the needs of a particular customer. That information could be invaluable.

Without participative leadership, John would not have opened his mouth. And he certainly wouldn’t have committed to all those late nights working on that new technology to make it work for you and the team.

But, at the end of the day, of course, you are the leader!  What happens when a very urgent or very unpalatable decision has to be made?  Does participative leadership work then?  Or does it have its limits?  I’d love to hear your views

Wendy Mason is a Life and Career Coach. She works with all kinds of people going through many different kinds of personal and career change. She offers coaching by phone and Skype as well as face to face, particularly for those wanting to increase their confidence. If you would like to know more you can contact Wendy at wendymason@confidencecoach.me  or ring ++44 (0)2084610114.  Her Skype ID is wendymason14.
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