Team Development/Employee Engagement

Empowering Leaders Are Passionate About Achieving Their Vision

Leaders Are Passionation About Their Vision

Effective leaders make their vision a reality by sharing it with others and gaining others commitment to achieve it. The purpose of this article is to discuss two ways empowering leaders make their vision a reality:

They are very clear about their vision of the future organization; and
They have a driving passion to achieve it.

Getting Clear About Their Vision

Great leaders are not more talented than the majority of people, but they are generally more clear about what they want and what their vision of a new and improved organization looks like. In our consulting practice over the years, we have worked with many leaders to help them clarify their vision. When they are unclear about their vision, it makes it difficult to share it with others or to ask them to work toward it. Sometimes it takes a lot of thinking and discussion to clarify the vision of the future. In other cases, leaders intuitively know what they want and are able to express it. Either way, when leaders are able to identify their vision, and make it concrete for others, it opens the door to share it with them and ask for their commitment to make it happen. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Leadership, Team Development/Employee Engagement

The Leadership Imperative

By Dr. Roger K. Allen Leave a Comment

“Leadership is the critical force behind successful organizations. To create vital and viable organizations, leadership is necessary to develop a new vision of what they can be and then mobilize the organization to change towards that vision.” –Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders, Strategies for Taking Charge, 2007

Leadership (from the senior suites to the front line) is a primary driver of business success. Leaders set the tone, define direction, design the architecture, build the culture, execute plans, monitor results, manage resources, develop people, and so on. In short, leaders touch and shape every aspect of organizational life. And yet doing this is more challenging than ever, due to the accelerating pace of change and escalating complexity of the world around us.

The leadership paradigm that worked for centuries is no longer adequate to manage in today’s fast-paced and complex times. The traditional leadership model is based on hierarchy and such principles as centralization, uniformity and control. Such principles were useful during the early days of the industrial revolution when management had to manage and control masses of untrained people in rather predictable and stable markets. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Leadership, Team Development/Employee Engagement

People Make CRM Succeed

By Center Consultants 1 Comment

A client recently shared a story with me that represents an important lesson in understanding technological change.

General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., who acted as commander of the allied forces during Operation Desert Storm, tells the story of teaching one of his promising lieutenants about leadership. The lieutenant, a recent graduate of West Point Academy, was talking about the advanced technology of the United States military when General Schwarzkopf invited him to accompany him outside. Not knowing what to expect or where they were going, the lieutenant followed his leader. Schwarzkopf and the young man walked up to one of the newest Air Force fighter jets and told the young man to command the jet to fly. Of course, nothing happened. Schwarzkopf and the young man then walked over to a tank and Schwarzkopf told the young man to command the tank to “move.” When nothing happened, General Schwarzkopf commanded the young man to give the order again.

Leading Teams Today

By Center Consultants 2 Comments

A great deal of writing on leadership today focuses on the capabilities and behaviors formal leaders of large divisions or enterprises need to be effective. We read about such important characteristics as transparency, vision, authenticity, and optimism, and behaviors such as setting big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs). These are no doubt critical, but many firms have been increasingly relying on teams to help solve business problems and drive results, and leaders of these teams need other things. Teams are not a new trend. However, based on my experience working for several different Fortune 500 companies, what’s different about many teams today are the following:

Humans Are Not Capital

By The Center for Organizational Design Leave a Comment

Image of various workers

Some business owners, leaders and managers have denigrated the value of people by referring to them as expendable assets instead of contributing individuals. While the denotation of “human capital” remains innocent enough, the term’s connotation echoes master-servant ideology.

Consider how terminology referring to people in the workplace fluctuates between various levels of respect:

Empower Your Employees by Involving Them in Decisions

By Center Consultants 1 Comment

I learned about the importance of involving people in making decisions (as well as teamwork) many years ago when managing a group of 13 HR specialists in a 2000 person electronics company. The welcome I received after being hired as HR director was not exactly warm. The staff was upset their previous boss was gone and that a new, young manager was brought in to replace him. One who didn’t have HR experience to boot.

Seven Ideas to Get the Most From Your People

By Center Consultants 6 Comments

In spite of our amazing technological advances, the work of an organization is accomplished by people. People interface with the customer, make the product, deliver the service, plan and coordinate how work gets done, improve processes and systems, ensure quality standards, and return a profit. Technology has provided us with better tools and made us far more efficient and productive. But it is still people who do the work of an organization and are ultimately responsible for its success.

Unruly Group to a Team

By The Center for Organizational Design Leave a Comment

Teamwork

I have just been promoted in my company and am now running a unit that has become known for a history of problems working as a team and with other divisions. There are a number of bright, creative but strong-willed employees. My bosses have told me it is a priority to get this division working more effectively together. Where do I begin? How do I get this group on track?