Leadership

Hi Leaders Managers and Leaders: Are they different? Over the past 5 years the focus on being a leader has shadowed the importance of management, and this can be damaging to your business or company. To me, these two go hand-in-hand, and it is the key to the success of achieving the vision. Let's look at each separately and then combine these elements. This will give you insight, and you can decide if you agree with me or not. Managers: Managers are the people to whom this management task is assigned, and it is generally thought  that they achieve the desired goals through the key functions of planning and budgeting,  organising and staffing, problem solving and controlling. A manager has the mind, the rational and the persistence, consulting, analytical, deliberate, authoritative and stabilising. Leaders: Leaders on the other hand set a direction, align people, motivate and inspire. A leader has soul, the passion and the creativity. A leader is flexible, innovativ

Hi Leaders Many of frustrations among anyone in a leadership position is when tasks delegated are not completed or followed through. But, there is an art to delegating tasks, even to those ready for the next level. Delegate : entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself. synonyms: assign, entrust, give, pass on, hand on/over, turn over, consign, devolve, depute, transfer send or authorise (someone) to do something as a representative. synonyms: authorise, commission, depute, appoint, nominate, name, mandate, empower , charge, choose, select, designate, elect; detail What stands out in the description of delegating is that takes trusting someone and empowering someone. These are two of the qualities a great leader displays. The art of delegating is the first step in realising the vision you as a leader has laid before your team. As mentioned before, and the obvious, you cannot achieve the goal on your own. W

Hi Leaders An interesting leadership style that is becoming more prominent in the business arena is transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is a part of a style of leadership that focuses on supervision, organisation, and performance, in which leaders promote compliance by followers through both rewards and punishments. Unlike transformational leaders, those using the transactional approach are not looking to change the future, they look to keep things the same. Leaders using transactional leadership as a model pay attention to followers' work in order to find faults and deviations. Within the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, transactional leadership works at the basic levels of need satisfaction, focusing on the lower levels of the hierarchy. Transactional leaders use an exchange model, with rewards being given for good work or positive outcomes. Conversely, people with this leadership style also can punish poor work or negative outcomes, until the pro

Hi All In the previous post I covered 12 leadership styles. Being an expat in a country and company that employ more than 95 nationalities, working with different cultures, is not a choice, but a necessity. "The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people" Woodrow Wilson  With the march of globalisation and internationalisation growing louder and stronger, few successful businesses can now escape the need to work across cultures. Today's leaders need to be adapt at leading and managing people of different cultures; they need to listen to the "voices of the people" as well as understand what those voices may actually be telling them. This in essence is the crux of the challenge; when people perceive the world, communicate and view their leaders in different ways, the leader's ears may be ringing with misunderstood messages. The leader will come across cultural issues in many different guises. By way of illustrating the challenges of cros

Hi Leaders Leadership style is the way a leader uses power to lead others. Every situation calls for a certain style, and so too the person you are leading. There's no defined leadership style one can apply all the time to every person you are leading. In this post, I will introduce you to the different styles. You will note that you will use more than 1 style in the day-to-day operations. It will also depend on the skill set, emotional maturity and understanding those you are leading. Not everyone is at the same level. In short, the specific situation will determine the most effect style to apply. Here are the 12 leadership styles:  Autocratic Leadership Autocratic leadership style is centred on the boss. In this leadership the leader holds all authority and responsibility, making decisions on their own without consulting subordinates.  Autocratic work environment does normally have little or no flexibility. There are very few situations that can actuall

Hi Leaders During a debate between my partner and I on the reasons why Nokia failed, it was evident that perspectives were divided. On one hand the technology was inferior to Apple, and on the other the business model that was flawed. But, I couldn't help inspecting it from an operational view. A company's success is directly related to the leadership...and there is was...organisational fear! What is organisational fear? Fear is the ultimate culture killer. Most organisations have some level of fear that holds back the potential of their organisation on many fronts.It’s not always a major incident that thrusts the subject of fear and unacceptable behaviour into the limelight. Fear at some level and the lack of full alignment around values and expected behaviours is rampant in many organisations today.Fear slows organisations down, causes hesitation, drives stress, and keeps literally millions of individuals from reaching their potential in effectively supporting th