HCI Blog

Upon receiving a promotion, employees that become managers typically expect to have their functions modified. This means that besides having to do tasks which are expected from them individually, they must oversee the execution of tasks performed by those who they supervise.

Surprisingly, many senior executives might laugh at this idea.

Despite what they may think, managers are of central importance to the work process. In the end, the assume responsibility for how those under them perform and are held accountable for results.

Author Ken Blanchard introduced the concept of Servant Leadership. According to it, leaders must serve the needs of his people rather than his own. This relates to the idea that managers need to be mentors rather than kings that need to be served by others so that his needs are met.

Some traits of servant leadership include:

1. Listening – This is the most important of all. Without listening, which is the first step towards good communication, servant leadership becomes a one way street.
2. Empathy – Understanding is very important to a leader. The problems and needs of other need to be comprehended.
3. Healing – Empower others to remedy their problems and mistakes.
4. Awareness – Being honest regarding what you see around you.
5. Commitment to the Growth of People – Instead of helping those around him only grow professionally, servant leaders should help others grow as a person.

1. Be the best you can in your current position – Before you go any further in your career path, you have to get work done in the position you currently find yourself in.

2. Provide support to your leader– Other than executing the tasks which are naturally required by your function, make sure you also offer your boss a helping hand. This can go a long way, as you will be perceived as helpful and soliciting.

3. Lead when possible – Try to assume the position of a leader when possible in any given situation, independent of its size or importance. With this, you will be able to display what you have in you in terms of leadership.

4. Approach problems and issues others are unaware of – Every organization has needs nobody is paying attention to, or people are actively ignoring. When you take on a task that no one else is willing to do, you prove your potential and make yourself stand out.

5. Show that you are a capable leader – Being a leader isn’t only imposing your will over others. You must be understanding and proactive! Show that you can lead others in the best way possible!

6. Keep your ambitions to yourself – Share your ambitions only with those whom you can completely trust. Keep a close grip of how you execute your current work but at the same time keep a foresight on what you want to reach.

7. Find role models – Learn from others’ successes and failures. Find individuals who have the roles you want and learn from them. Identify behaviors you can emulate while being true to yourself, but don’t forget to look at those who are stuck in their career as a lesson of what not to do.

8. Relationships and networking – Networking is essential in any business sphere. Make sure you meet and greet as well as become well known within your company and among your external work circles.

BASED ON: TLNT

As previously talked about on our blog, ethics is something that must permeate entirely through a company, meaning that leaders must be a starting point as to setting a positive example too all those under their chain of leadership.

Overall, the difference that can be made when ethical leadership is put into practice can be astounding!

Here are six tips on how to exercise ethical leadership in practice:

• Analyze all the factors involved in making ethical decision: Know and admit that taking an ethical decision may not be as simples as it sounds. Make sure that all of the players involved participate and discuss openly all the possible scenarios and outcomes of making a certain decision.

• Make ethics and everyday business dealings go hand in hand: Ethics must be a modus operandi! It must be incorporated into everyday habits and practices, rather than looking pretty on paper.

• Make respect part of the company culture: Respect must become part of a value which is held highly in your company. Respecting others boundaries and opinions is required to have a respectful environment.

• Ethics must be practiced by all, no exceptions: Allow no excuses. Make sure that no one is exempted from meeting the ethical standards that are adopted. Make everyone accountable for their ethical (or unethical) behavior.

• Reward ethical behavior: Leaders must recognize positive ethical behavior. Other than simply exemplifying what would be a positive ethical behavior,  when a positive behavior is displayed it must be recognized.

• Expose ethics as a long term journey: Ethics is a long path which must be trailed for as long as someone is part of a company. Leaders must make it seem that ethics is a path which is followed on constantly and it is the leader’s role to put those who deviated from the path of ethics back on track.

BASED ON: Business News Daily

Leadership is a characteristic which is a must for executives and managers. But many times, the way I which they exercise their leadership may lack in quality and consistency.

But let’s imagine that we put all of these leaders into a same team, which is a common scenario for any board meeting, for example. These leaders will take decisions which will decide the direction and the future of the organization they manage.

Therefore, a team composed of such people must have these seven characteristics in order to be highly successful in their leadership skills:

1. Every decision is argued from the top

All decisions should be debated. If a problem or an issue arises, the focus of everyone should be on resolving it, using a 360 view, which is the sum of all the different points of view.

2. Putting the team before oneself

Achieving a team goal is more important than achieving individual goals which can help one rise quickly or obtain some personal advantage.

3. The highest priority in the company will be the highest priority of the team

This means that team members do not prioritize their functional team’s action items as more important than the leadership team’s action items.

4. They all have a unique goal and can give their point of view clearly

Each team member will have a different way of seeing things, rather than being redundant and repetitive. This will contribute strongly towards getting decisions done!

5. Each individual can conform to not having things their own way

This is central to having a good outcome in a highly efficient team. All must conform that their own way is not necessarily the best way.

6. Support and back up each other

Knowing that others are there for you is very reassuring. Back up your colleagues as they most likely will do the same for you.

7. Communicate openly and socialize well amongst themselves

Open and frank communication is very important, as well as socializing among colleagues in order to discuss ideas.

Based on: TLNT

Nowadays, coaching has become a fundamental centerpiece to the development of leaders within companies. Even so that many companies include in the job description of its new leaders “the ability to coach and develop others”. Unfortunately, many of today’s managers and leaders don’t live up to this.

The 2010 Executive Coaching Survey has shown that 63% of organizations use some form of internal coaching, and half of the rest plan to. But even still, coaching is a small fraction of the job requirement for most managers; half of the interviewed managers spend 10% of their time coaching others.

The central purpose of coaching is to assist individuals on how to retain focus and improve the activities they perform. The growth that coaching stimulates is done by provoking thought rather than giving directions and on holding a person accountable for his or her goals.

In other words, the purpose is to increase effectiveness, broaden thinking, identify strengths and development needs and set and achieve challenging goals.

Here are the five main skills that managers should be able to coach others on:

1)     Constructing a relationship

Simply put, your coach needs to be somebody you trust. Once there is a true link of trust established, learning and coaching will be a smoother process.

2)    Adequate assessment tools

Coaching is no good if you don’t have the right tools to measure the yielded results. This is part of the process of self-awareness that comes from the changes that occur due to coaching. This type of feedback should show all aspects of change (or lack of it).

3)    In depth questioning

This process can be summarized as “the art of thinking about thinking”. In other words, a coach should make the coachee ask himself the correct questions through the usage of open ended questions.

4)    Full support

A coach must always allow for employees and coachees to vent their emotions without judging them. Also, they should encourage them to reach their goal through the recognition of progress which has been made and recognize their success.

5)    Establishing goals

This step is central to coaching. The establishment of reachable and realistic goals is the central pillar of coaching. Reaching each of the set milestones will make the coachee and the coach truly visualize how far they have come since the beginning. Milestones should be set in order to keep tabs on how things progress through time.

You should seed your organization with coaching role models. The key is to create a pool of manager-coaches who can be role models, supporters and sustainers of a coaching mindset.

Always link the purpose and results of coaching to the business. Managers have to know the business case for coaching and developing others if they’re to value it and use it effectively. Where is the business headed? What leadership skills are needed to get us there? How should coaches work with direct reports to provide the feedback, information and experiences they need to build those needed skills? Set strategic coaching goals, tactics and measures for the organization as well as including coaching as an individual metric.

Finally, give it time. It’s not surprising that managers feel they don’t have enough time for coaching. Even if you make learning and coaching explicit priorities, time is tight for everyone. But as your coaching processes and goals become more consistent and more highly valued, in-house coaching will take root.