Your Career as a Leader

Leadership skills are always valuable in moving you through your
career and ultimately possibly to being the leader an organisation
(possibly your own). So one of the key questions are what skills leaders
have that others do not – and how to cultivate these skills.

We all need to improve our leadership skills and some practical
advice for this is presented here.

Leadership starts with having an interest in the outcome of a
situation. By being enthusiastic and seeking to contribute to a
situation – you differentiate yourself as someone that takes on
challenges. If you take on tasks you must complete with an absolute
sense of dedication and urgency. These small successes make others want
to be part of this too.

Approach tasks positively. While it is certainly possible to lead
with a negative attitude – it is easier to build a positive environment
in which people contribute to a positive outcome and everyone carries a
part of the load. By spending your time working out how to involve
others you create a positive environment in which challenges are
socialised and solved.

Be creative. By finding a better way to do something, or linking
someone to a situation you show your creativity. Creativity and
innovation are highly valued skills for leaders. By getting involved in,
and understanding problems and working on potential solutions you create
a natural attraction point for others and you have the stage for
leadership.

Encourage creativity. If you give people the opportunity to make a
contribution to a situation – they will often go the extra mile for you.
If you fail to recognise the potential contribution of a person – it
often leads to frustrated potential. the institution views leadership as a
platform on which you liberate the potential of others – which speaks to
our motto of Awakening Potential.

Cooperate. It is easier to lead people that you also make a
contribution to. Leadership is a little bit like a bank account – if you
only withdraw and do not deposit – your potential followers find this
relationship unfair. If you do not let others contribute – you are
viewed as elitist and seen as excluding others.

So how do you get started?

Explore leadership in theory and in practice.

Understanding the theories of leadership with practical examples is
always important. A lot can be learnt from how others approach
leadership and historical leaders.

Understand your personal strengths and
weaknesses

Knowing what you can and cannot do is very important if you are to
harness these skills

Recognise achievements and how to use these to create future
success

Reward and challenge is very important in mapping the
requirements.

Understand the impact of leadership styles on those who are
being led

Different people are led differently and it is important to
understand how your leadership style will impact others.

Influence people towards a common goal and
purpose

Understanding the goal and purpose and influencing skills all
contribute to this key ability. Building your vision and having a clear
understanding of how to get there makes your leadership effective.

Recognise personal values and how these affect
decisions

Decision-making is a function of weighing many variables. All your
past experience and outlook all contribute to the decisions that we
make. Followers are very close to our decisions and scrutinise them
carefully. By understanding what shapes your decision making you can
achieve more positive impacts – especially in multi-cultural
environments.

Build a support structure

The most effective leaders use the best skills of people that they
lead to achieve the potential of both parties. Understanding how to
maximise the value of this support structure goes a long way in changing
the leadership game.

The the institution New Managers Development programme

New managers need structured support as they move from individual contribution into the responsibility of leading others.

• The first module of this course, Lead Self, is
  geared to equip you with a solid grounding in the skills and techniques
  you need to manage yourself – essential before you begin to lead others.
  You will start with spiritual and emotional intelligence – needed for
  the most important part of your job, which is dealing with people – and
  go on to communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and stress
  and time management.

• In the second module, Lead Team, you will be
  introduced to what is needed to tackle team development and management
  as part of fundamental human resource requirements.

• With the final module, Lead Organisation, you
  will tackle the essentials of business management, gaining an
  understanding of the economic system and business environment into which
  your organisation fits.

Organisations that would like to put teams of delegates through this
New Manager Development Programme may opt to do Marketing, Financial
Management or Project Management instead of Strategic Business
Management as their Lead Organisation module.

Upon completing this programme, you should be able to:

• Develop emotional and spiritual intelligence to foster success in
  your personal life and in the business world;

• Apply individual and organisational approaches to manage
  stress;

• Manage time effectively and efficiently;

• Understand the basic tenets of good written and verbal
  communication;

• Explain and apply creative thinking to business
  practices;

• Develop and implement the problem-solving cycle to identify and
  address the root causes of problems;

• Understand the processes of recruitment, selection, effective
  performance appraisal and motivation in the context of the work
  environment;

• Know the important role that organisational culture and reward
  systems perform in an organisation;

• Understand factors contributing to the successful management of
  people and group dynamics in the work environment;

• Understand the principles and processes of conflict
  management;

• Define business management terminology, concepts and
  principles;

• Know the basic economic systems and describe the business
  environment in which organisations operate; and

• Understand the role corporate social responsibility plays in
  organisations and society as a whole.

These three core modules will be delivered over three months. The
first, Lead Self, runs over four days; the second, Lead Team, will run
over two days a month later; and the third, Lead Organisation, will run
over two days a month after Lead Team. [Must get dates for
these]

Should you be interested to register for this programme – contact us
today.