Lessons from nature

Lessons from Geese

There are times when as individuals or teams of individuals could take a real lesson from nature, too often we squabble about this and that, if only we just got on with it like the geese we would all be better off.

Geese flying in V-formation have always been a welcome sign of spring, as well as, a sign that heralds the coming of winter. Not only is this a marvelous sight, but there are some remarkable lessons that we can learn from the flight of the geese…because all they do has significance…

1.   As each goose flaps its wings, it creates uplift for others behind it. There is 71% more flying range in V-formation than in flying alone.  Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of purpose can get there more quickly.

2.  Whenever a goose flies out of formation, it feels drag and tries to get back into position. Lesson: It’s harder to do something alone than together.

3.  When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies at the head.  Lesson: Shared leadership and interdependence give us each a chance to lead, as well as an opportunity to rest.

4.  The geese flying in the rear of the formation honk to encourage those upfront to keep up their speed.  Lesson: Encouragement is motivating. We need to make sure our “honking” is encouraging and not discouraging. 

5.  When a goose gets sick or wounded and falls, two geese fall out of formation and stay with it until it revives or dies. Then they catch up or join another flock. Lesson: We may all need help from time to time. We should stand by our colleagues in difficult times.

 At allen partnership we offer none physical team building days and embed the lessons from geese into activities contact us to find out more.

Managers v Leaders

We often promote our staff to management positions but how often do we consider their leadership abilities within the job specification? Though often seen as part and parcel of the same role, leadership and management require very different aptitudes.

You might say that leaders lead people while managers manage things. Leaders have a vision for the future and are constantly challenging the system to improve. Managers on the other hand make the system work. Stephen Covey says that “management is problem-orientated and leadership is opportunity-orientated.”

Many roles require both an ability to lead and an ability to manage. Others may require mostly leadership or mostly management skills. Either way, one without the other is doomed to failure.

A leader without management skills, or a manager to support them, is unable to bring about the changes they envision. They deal with the big picture and not the details.

Whereas a manager without leadership skills, or a leader to lead them, can at best keep it all ticking over.

When are you required to lead and when are you required to manage? Imagine that there is a major change around the corner. At such a time your team needs a leader to inspire them with the vision of what this change will do for them and for the company.

This inspiration will need to be supported by management of how the change will come about. As a manager you need to make sure that everyone knows what is expected of them, how it will be measured and what results they might expect. This supports the inspiration offered by removing many of the insecurities about change that we all have.

Or suppose the company is facing troubles. The team needs leadership to re-establish the vision and inspire them. The leadership position must be to protect the team as much as is possible, allowing them to get on with sorting out the problems.

Management is needed to identify the exact problem, prepare a plan to deal with it and assign tasks. Clearly leadership without management will not solve the problem. But management without leadership may lead to low morale among the team members.

Without management, even the most inspirational leadership cannot create sustainable change. On the other hand, without leadership, the best that management can do is maintain the status quo.

We offer an array of leadership tool, techniques and training helping your leaders lead and providing management with leadership skills; in order that they can take, people to where they ought to go but do not necessarily want to go.

Caged Leaders?

  Caged Leaders?

 As we begin 2011, this year more than most brings new challenges, new beginnings and new adventures, for business or do they?





As we have found out already this year it’s evident that today leaders or potential leaders are still not given adequate training or development opportunities. The attitude of “I’ve turned out alright without this so called training and anyway the business can’t afford you to be away”. Sadly even in this first month of this new year I have heard this comment and no force on earth is going to change the persons mind, training is a waste of time.


The average cost of a competent trainer / leadership coach is less than £1200 who will deliver improved performance solutions that match individual and organisational needs. Measure this against performance, behavioural and tactical errors made by an individual leader over a period of one year can be around five times as much.

How to recognise a caged leader, they demonstrate to a greater or lesser degree the following characteristics:

• passive/aggressive behaviours
• are frustrated
• they feel their ideas are not listened to
• communication can be sarcastic

This year look at your leaders are they performing to their best and is there still latent potential within. Do you know who has the potential to go further in other words these are your eagles and should be nurtured, coached and mentored, these are your future.

Our leadership coaching methodology has proven to have measurable benefits to both the individual and organisation.
http://www.allenpartnership.co.uk/services/coaching/leadership_coaching.htm



Are your leaders trusted

Trust (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) is the ‘firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something’. In other words, trust is something that we, individually, decide, based on how we view other people.

Trust is integral to effective leadership – leaders must motivate and inspire people to follow them. Trust creates more efficient organisations, reducing staff turnover, absenteeism, stress and the costs of doing business. And it is leaders who build trust. At times of great uncertainty and threat, only the most trusted leaders will inspire the confidence and commitment needed to ensure success.

Trust affects relationships between individuals and groups. It helps to bind people together and create real teams. Trust also encouraged people to feel more committed to their organisation, to stay longer rather than change jobs, and to feel less stressed.


Measuring trust
It is easy to ask people ‘Do you trust your manager?’ but this is not a very reliable indicator or trust - the question on its own allows people to choose their own criteria.

Six dimensions of trust identified by the Institute of Leadership & Management are:
1. The ability to perform their role competently
2. Their understanding of the jobs of the people they lead and manage
3. The fairness with which they treat people
4. Their openness to others' ideas and opinions
5. The integrity with which they behave, being principled, honest and not hypocritical.
6. Their consistency, predictability or reliability in their behaviour.

No one can say ‘I trust him or her without some measurement of behavioural measurement e.g.

• Did the leader intend to do what she or he did?
• Did the leader intend the outcomes of their behaviour?
• How likely is it that the next time the leader intends these same outcomes, that they will occur?
• How likely is it that, in other situations, the leaders’ intentions and the results will match in the way they did this time?

Some of the questions we may ask ourselves which will project our future behaviours towards a leader or team members and affect our working relationships.

How can we predict behaviours of others? How can we help leaders to become emotionally aware of themselves and their impact on others?

Whilst there are many personality profiling tool in the market place Allen Partnership utilise the DiSC Dimensions of Behaviour profiling tool which will enable you to authenticate and support the decision making process about people, their behaviours and development opportunities.

How someone perceives your behaviour is difficult to control; how they will attribute motives and intent to your behaviour is even harder to control.

If you want to bring out the best in people, understand how to manage them more effectively, understand your behavioural leadership profile, know how to influence other behavioural styles and create win win relationships follow the following link to our profiling tool and download a sample profile report.

http://www.allenpartnership.co.uk/services/behavioural_profiling/behavioural_profiling.htm  

Call or email and enquire about how we can help your leaders build trusting relationships with others, impact on day-to-day performance and build effective teams that will enable your company to grow in these difficult economic times.

Good Leadership

Leadership

"I think it's very difficult to lead today when people are not really truly participating in the decision. You won't be able to attract and retain great people if they don't feel like they are part of the authorship of the strategy and the authorship of the critical issues. If you don't give people an opportunity to really be engaged, they won't stay."

Leadership is not a position but a process; no one has ever woken up one morning and acquired competent leadership skills. These skills are acquired over time through both successes, failures and it is the failures, and lessons learnt and how we apply them will determine future leadership competence.

John Maxwell puts it clearly:

“The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.”

My question is how good are your leaders, do they take responsibility for their actions and do they inspire others to achieve more?

Four simple steps to know if you are on the right path.

Step 1 good leaders are listeners.

They take time to listen to the suggestions and concerns of those they endeavour to lead.

Step 2 good leaders are encouragers.

They don't try to do it all themselves. Neither do they motivate by force or guilt. They encourage others and help bring out their best.

Step 3 critically good leaders are assertive.

They say what needs to be said without being unkind. They tell the truth as they see it, openly and frankly.

Step 4 good leaders are decisive.

They know what needs to be done and they make timely, even difficult, decisions when necessary. But they can also take charge without running over the people in their lives.

In short, good leaders L-E-A-D!

Do your leaders LEAD or do they follow showing few leadership skills such as vision, motivation, inspiration, team working, creativity or communication.

If they do it cost no more than a call +44 (0) 1902560427 or

email to enquiries@allenpartnership.co.uk to find out how or if we can help you to help your leaders lead.

Transformational or Inspiration

Transform, transforming or transformational ~ meaning to change somebody or something completely.

Inspire, Inspirational or Inspiration ~ meaning to motivate, to stimulate or provide encouragement.

In recent survey of more than one and a half thousand managers, people were asked what they would most like to see in their leaders. The most popular answer, mentioned by 55% of people, was ‘inspiration’.

When asked if they would describe their current leader as ‘inspiring’, only 11% said yes.

The two attributes that people actually mentioned most often when describing their leaders were ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘ambitious’.

Companies that invest in developing their leaders equipping them with strategic interpersonal skills know that their leaders perform better because they inspire and transform others to achieve more.

In today’s competitive environment, are your leaders equipped with the right transformational skills to equip, inspire and transform your people for the future? Alternatively, do they continue regardless unaware of their impact on others and don’t see the danger behind them.

Transforming leaders to inspire others is our aim if you cannot see it’s like "the blind leading the blind, both shall fall in the ditch."

Open the eyes of your leaders or potential leaders to lead effectively from the front to transform and inspire people and impact on business performance, call to find out how we can help you and your business achieve more.

W: www.allenpartnership.co.uk
E: enquiries@allenpartnership.co.uk

Transformational Leadership

Effective leaders have the ability to consistently move themselves and others to action because they understand the invisible forces that shape individuals and teams.

Relationship Leaders use interpersonal skills beginning long before a disaster looms to create an environment of mutual trust and respect and to influence others to work towards common goals.

Building the right relationships is key to success?

"The goal of transformational leadership is to “transform” people and organizations in a literal sense – to change them in mind and heart; enlarge vision, insight, and understanding; clarify purposes; make behaviour congruent with beliefs, principles, or values; and bring about changes that are permanent, self-perpetuating, and momentum building."
- Steven Covey,


Quotes from previous delegates.

Training Manager NHS
“The program has been an inspirational, thought provoking and a valuable experience that
helps you to think about yourself and the way in which you work/interact with colleagues”

Snr Manager Hotel Group
“Helped me not only to reflect and set improvements to professional relationships but also
relationships in my own life”.

Sales Manager
“Very valuable, have been on other leadership courses but this was the best learnt a lot”.

Further details click this link