 |
|
The source of the best business, financial and legal news |
|
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
 | |
| |
 |
Business Informations |
|
|
|
Leadership Development and Jumping Out of Airships
A German silent film melodrama depicts an airship bombing London during World War I. Lit up by searchlights and strafed by fighters, the crippled airship loses altitude as the captain frantically jettisons dispensable gear to lighten weight. Eventually, the only weight left is human. So the captain orders members of the crew overboard. A grisly scene unfolds as the airmen, one by one, without parachutes, step up to the hatch, salute the captain and the first mate, then jump to their deaths. Lightened, the airship returns safely to Germany. That scene is not a relic. It's happening in corporations frequently these days, clearly not as fact but metaphor. Companies, shot up in the cross fires of increasingly competitive markets, must lighten their loads to get earnings' growth buoyancy. The captains are jettisoning all but the indispensable employees. Commonly, one of the first functions to be ordered out is the training function -- in particular, leadership training or leadership development. Many company heads view such training as dispensable as the airship crew in the melodrama. Yet leadership isn't dispensable to business success. It's absolutely indispensable. Good leaders are far more important to the long term success of companies than good products. All organizations that fail to get, keep, and develop good leaders eventually founder. This isn't a secret. Most leaders know this. Here's the secret: The fact that leadership development is viewed as dispensable is not the captain's making. It's the crew's making. The blame lies with the people in charge of the leadership development. They simply have not defined leadership development in indispensable ways for results. Sure, they have defined such development for training results but not for the results that really count, business results. And when training people focus on training results not business results, they are always put at the front when the superfluous are told to line up to leap. What is leadership but results -- not training results, business results. If leaders are not getting their business results, they are not leading. Results can be defined in many ways, productivity, operating efficiencies, sales growth, cost reductions, etc., but leadership development has no real value unless it is helping the leaders get those results. Here are two simple ways to position your role to notably increase your value to your company. 1. Define results. Forget about training results. Forget about training objectives. They're dispensable gear. Throw them overboard. What are the business results of the leaders you are developing? If you are dealing with people in manufacturing, then focus on having your development programs help improve operating efficiencies. If you have sales people in those programs, focus on their getting increased sales results within a certain time after they complete your program. Whoever has signed up for your programs, challenge them to use the tools you give them to get results short and long term. For instance, at the beginning of your programs, ask participants, "What results do you have to get? And what are the most important challenges you have in getting them?" Then bring them the tools to help them get those results. What they learn is worthless unless it is tied to what is most valuable in their jobs and careers. It's worse than worthless, it's a downright stumbling block since that learning demands that they spend their time away from pursuing their real job objectives. 2. Measure those results. There is no value in business without measurements. Trainers who ignore this truth are put in the line before the open hatch when the company starts going down. Those trainers typically show their value by demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of their programs. Cost-effective, baloney! I don't know of any organization where "cost-effective" ultimately doesn't mean "cheap." Cost-effectiveness is the worst way to position leadership development programs. Cost-effective programs are the least valuable programs of all. Once we start defining our programs by how cheap they are, we show that we don't understand leadership or development -- and so cheapen our value to the company. Don't make leadership programs inexpensive. Make them expensive! -- expensive to the company if those programs are not instituted. We can only show their true importance by demonstrating the hard, measured, business-focused results participants achieve after taking the programs. At the end of your sessions, have participants write a "value received" letter in which they detail the hard measured results that they intend to get when they use your leadership tools. Follow up 35-days later to insure they have gotten those results or are about to get them. If participants in a leadership course don't receive an R.O. I. that is at least five to ten times greater than the investment they made in that course, give them their money back. And why not? If they can't get big increases in their hard, measured results, it's the course's fault. It hasn't helped them develop as leaders. Without results, leadership has no meaning. Leadership development is too important to be demeaned by having it fulfill training objectives. Enhance its importance by having it fulfill business objectives. In doing so, we will change the scenario on our metaphorical airship. Instead of ordering the crew out, the captain will say, "We can't afford to lose this crew member. Stay here! First mate, jump!" 2004 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com About The Author The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at www.actionleadership.com
MORE RESOURCES:
leadership - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Lead People...Manage Things Master The Five Key Facets of High Performance LeadershipMany people in leadership positions struggle with understanding what makes a great leader. While billions of dollars are spent annually on leadership development, quality leadership is still in short supply. Women in Leadership - How to Get Promoted It is often much harder for women to get promoted than men. The most common characteristic of successful women is that they know how to express their excellence in a male dominated environment. The Metamorphosis of the Successful Executive . . . Overcoming Professional Stagnation You're a bright, successful business executive making good money and managing a capable staff of accomplished professionals. You are successful beyond your wildest business school dreams. Listening Like a Leader Our studies of the most effective people in corporate America show that the top 2 percent are effective not because they executed best practices well. They did not make the most phone calls or have the best processes. Ten Ways Women Can Visualize Themselves As Leaders Women should not be afraid of or feel guilty about taking a leadership role--in their organization, in their community, in their own lives. What could you accomplish if you were leading your life instead of simply living your life?1. Professional Organizations: Join or Fold? All of us join professional organizations for a reason--a friend belongs, we need to for credibility, etc. Many times we let years slide by and we don't stop and review those reasons. Chris Top 7 Favorite Leadership Books 1. The West Point Way of Leadership. The Qualities of Skillful Leadership If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. The Goals of Leadership Coaching and Partnerships Webster's Dictionary describes a "partner" as an ally or an association built around common interests and goals.A partnership denotes a joint venture, a relationship built on equal status (rather than inequality). Leadership Is Action?Not Position! People respond to good leadership! Period! It is in all aspects of our lives, not just business. A mother is a leader in her home; a son may be leader of a team sport or a daughter the leader of the debate team. Leadership Development and Jumping Out of Airships A German silent film melodrama depicts an airship bombing London during World War I. Lit up by searchlights and strafed by fighters, the crippled airship loses altitude as the captain frantically jettisons dispensable gear to lighten weight. How to Become a Great Leader & Improve Your Leadership Skills A great leader is able to inspire his/her workers to work harder. Instead of firing workers, great leaders know how to fire his/her worker up to do their best. The Top 10 Questions for Socially Responsible Leaders The assets of your business traditionally include property, plant, equipment, and your customer base. Progressive organizations understand that business assets also include their good reputation, responsiveness to change, the ability to conduct a constructive dialogue with stakeholders, the ability to take advantage of networked resources, and a host of other non-traditional assets. Value Driver Leadership CHAPTER 1 ************ VALUEThose qualities regarded by a person or group as important and desirable of standards and principlesWhat is value driven leadership? Have you ever considered having a value driven leadership team? Or even a team driven by values and not a team having to be driven by the leader? That thought alone made me consider looking into the way I ran my teams and how I could do things better; this is the driving force behind writing this book. When you think about it, in everything we do as individuals or a team we should always be 'values driven' not impulse or need driven! If we are driven by values then we will always have a "why" in everything we do, and then we will do what we do with everything that is in us, come hell or high water (test, trials, pressure, set back or circumstances). Leadership - Connect to Engage! It's been said many times that true leadership is measured by ones ability to motivate and influence others.Leaders must work hard at motivating people to take action necessary to drive change and to ultimately increase results. The Essence of Leadership What is more important, leadership or teamwork? Leadership or consensus management? Today we hear frequently about teams, team-building, and teamwork on the one hand and management by consensus on the other. Although both teamwork and consensus building are critical skills in a leader, neither are substitutes for capable leadership itself. Reveal the Leader Within A Leader is not a certain type of person or position of power. It is not the one at the top of the golf leader board at any specific time or the person at the top of an organisation. Strengthening Leadership Development with Employees Within every business lies a network of people who are working to make their employer successful. Because growing business requires more employees, employers need to seek prospective candidates who will align well with their business. Why the Squirrel Kept Winning! I had the good fortune (or misfortune depending on your climate perspective) of living in Minnesota for ten years. The Summers were beautiful, Fall was spectacular with the changing colors of the leaves on trees and winter was,?well, damn cold. A Winning Choice for Leadership! "The only way to enjoy anything in this life, is to earn it first." -Ginger RodgersOne bad apple can spoil the bunch! As a leader, we cannot allow "bad apples" to interrupt our efforts toward achieving our goals.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
||||
|
Comment by Frank O'Donnell
