How To Be An Engaging Leader: How Power-Hungry Bosses Keep Their Power

How To Be An Engaging Leader

How Power-Hungry Bosses Keep Their Power

Source adapted and credited to Link

Charleen Case and Jon Maner, researchers at Northwestern’s Kellogg School, surveyed university students to identify individuals who like to wield authority over others. They then showed that when those individuals felt insecure about their positions, they tried to prevent highly skilled “subordinates” from bonding and forming cooperative relationships. When asked to choose seating arrangements, for example, these leaders separated the most capable of the subordinates from all the other people. In doing so, they blocked the kinds of peer-to-peer interactions that foster group success—even though they had been instructed that cooperation among subordinates would enhance the group’s performance.

Read more in : Source:Link

How To Be An Engaging Leader:Holding People Accountable When They Don’t Report to You

How To Be An Engaging Leader

Holding People Accountable When They Don’t Report to You

Project managers sometimes face the problem of working with people who don't report to them administratively. If such a person falls through on a promise to get something done for your project, then holding her accountable can be a touchy issue.

You may not try to hold her accountable because you think it’s inappropriate (after all, you’re not her boss) or because you don’t know how to do so. But remember: Holding people accountable is appropriate and necessary when they’ve accepted a responsibility.

Accountability helps people know that they’re on the right track, and it enables you to acknowledge when they’ve completed the promised assignments. You don’t need authority to hold people accountable; the people just have to have accepted the responsibility.

Use the following approaches to hold people accountable when you don’t have direct authority over them:

• Find out who has direct authority over the person and bring that supervisor into the process: Consider soliciting the approval of the person’s boss when you ask the person to accept responsibility for a task. When you do so correctly and at the right time, you can improve the chances for success.
  If a person’s boss is unaware that her staff member agreed to perform a task for you, your chances of getting the boss’s help when the person fails to perform as promised are small. However, if the boss supported her staff member’s offer to help you when it was made, the boss and her staff member shouldn’t be surprised if you solicit the boss’s help when the staff member doesn’t do the task.
• Put it in writing: Put your agreement in writing to formalize it, to clarify the terms, and to serve as a reminder to both you and the person agreeing to do the task. If the person asks whether you want to have a written agreement because you don’t trust that she’ll do what she promises, explain to her that if you didn’t trust her, you wouldn’t work with her at all!
• Be specific: The clearer you make your request, the easier it is for the person to estimate the effort she needs to respond to the request and to produce the right result the first time. You may feel that being too specific is inappropriate because you have no direct authority over her. But recognize that putting a request in writing doesn’t make it an order; it just clarifies its specifics and makes it easier to perform.
• Follow up: Negotiate a schedule to monitor the person’s performance and to address any issues or questions that arise. Be sure to
  • Negotiate a follow-up schedule at the outset of the agreement. If you call unannounced at random times, you appear to be checking up because you don’t trust the person.
  • Base your follow-up schedule on when the person plans to achieve certain intermediate milestones; this timeline gives you more objective criteria for an assessment.
• Make the person accountable to the team: Your most valuable professional asset is your reputation. When a person promises to do something for you, let others on your team know about the promise. When the person lives up to that promise, acknowledge her accomplishment in front of her colleagues. If the person fails to live up to the promise, let her know you’ll share that information with others.
• Get commitment: When a person indicates that she’ll help you out, be sure to get a firm, specific commitment that the desired result will be achieved by a specific time and for a specific cost. Beware of vague declarations like “I’ll give it my best effort” or “You can count on me.”
• Create a sense of urgency and importance: You may want to minimize any pressure the person feels by offering to understand if she can’t perform to your expectations because of one reason or another. Unfortunately, this approach suggests that the work you’re asking her to do isn’t really that important and actually increases the chance that she won’t complete it. Instead, let the person know how her work influences other activities and people on the project. Let her know why she needs to perform to expectations and what the consequences will be — to the project and the organization — if she doesn’t.

Source credited to  : Link

How To Be An Engaging Leader:This List Helps To Spot If Your Team Is Healthy?

How To Be An Engaging Leader 

This List Helps To Spot If Your Team Is Healthy?

 ***********

Working in a group can be enjoyable or frustrating, perhaps both. These feelings are linked to the health of your team. Not unlike an individual, a team needs to grow and develop in order to increase its effectiveness and confidence. As a manager, how do you know if your group doing well and is healthy? What are some of the areas of development that you can work on with your team members?

Here are five areas of development in teams to work with:

1. Climate
2. Involvement
3. Interaction
4. Cohesion
5. Productivity

See below for more details....

By observing, understanding, and giving attention to these five areas, groups can improve their processes, accomplish more goals, and provide more satisfaction for the members.

Climate:  This includes both the physical and the emotional climate that are important to the well-being and growth of the team. Seating arrangements, lighting, ventilation and closeness of members can affect the group. Emotional climate determines the security and ease of the members. There is a feeling of "something is in the air" when you walk into the room that can help you determine your teams´s emotional climate. Is it formal or informal? Friendly? Competitive?

Tip:  Table and chairs can create a separation between the members; try an open circle of chairs to facilitate a more personal communication and free expression.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

********

Involvement: Is determined by the draw of other members in the team to each other and to the activities or product of the team. Some key questions in assessing involvement are: Why are the members here? What level of commitment do they have to the team?  Levels of involvement show up in lateness, absenteeism and lack of energy.

Tip :  Allow for opportunities for members to participate in setting their own work goals and procedures.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

********

Interaction : This is a key dimension in your group´s health. If more members interact with one another, the more likely the team will develop and accomplish its task. Key question in assessing your group´s level of interaction are: What is the distribution of participation?  Who has the power in the group? Are their sub-groups or cliques? What is the balance of roles in the group (see note)? Are people listening and building on the idea of others?  Emotional climate and interaction are closely linked. Members who feel secure and accepted can express their feelings freely and frequently.

Tip:  Encourage group decision-making activities, small group projects and coffee breaks to promote closeness and discussion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

********

Productivity: The accomplishment of goals provides motivation and pride for in the group as a whole. This involves areas of goal setting, goal clarification, gaining member commitment, and implementation.

Tip: A simple step to help your group reach its goals is by following up and planning ahead. If decisions from previous sessions were carried out then your group can create momentum by planning ahead for the next session. In the best circumstances, you can trust that group members will be able to do additional work that will have an impact on the overall goal.


Source adapted and credited to : Link

How To Be An Engaging Leader: How To See If You Have Workplaces that Work:Signs Of Productive Work Teams

How To Be An Engaging Leader

How To See If You Have Workplaces that Work

Signs Of Productive Work Teams

************

A team focuses its work on common objectives and finding solutions to shared problems. It uses formal processes such as record keeping, facilitation and scheduled meetings to achieve its objectives.All these can be seen in an effective team that will:

1. Retain valuable organizational knowledge that comes with the continuity of staff and sharing of information
2. Enhance the power and feeling of satisfaction of individuals working on the team
3. Establish trust relationships that lead to better sharing of knowledge and understanding
4. Achieve objectives because individuals are working together
5. Hold team members accountable to one another accountable
6. Combine the talents of many individuals and therefore contribute more than the sum of its parts
7. Create an environment where the input from people at all levels is valued
8. Create new knowledge through working and learning with others
9. Provide a process and place for multiple perspectives to be applied to complex problems and issues
10. Generate new ideas and insights
11. Turn knowledge into practical results that improve the organization´s services
12. Use a variety of communication processes (including technology) to support the sharing of information, knowledge and experience
13. Create a climate where innovation and new ideas are supported and members listen to diverse points of view
14. Multiply impacts while maintaining or reducing the resources needed to do the job
15. Promote a culture that questions the status quo and looks for innovative ways to improve services and reach goals
16. Empower individuals, the team and the organizations

Source adapted and credited to : Link

Here are two short videos on what teamwork can achieve: Amazing results!

How To Be An Engaging Leader: New Careers for Older Workers | AIER

How To Be An Engaging Leader

New Careers for Older Workers | AIER

Most older workers who seek career changes are successful, especially when they were able to use their skills from their old careers, according to a new survey released today by the American Institute for Economic Research.

AIER research shows that pursuing a new career is a viable option for workers later in their careers. Eighty-two percent of survey respondents reported making a successful transition to a new career after age 45.

A successful career change does not come without some challenges. Some respondents reported that they initially took pay cuts. However, successful career changers reported that after a period of hard work and persistence, they worked their way up the income ladder.

The study offers valuable lessons for older workers, employers and higher education leaders. Whether the decision is voluntary or forced on them, older workers can and do shift their career paths. The vast majority is successful in making the change and most find that it that it helps them achieve their financial goals and personal goals.



Source: New Careers for Older Workers | AIER

How To Be An Engaging Leader: Institut Integriti Malaysia

How To Be An Engaging Leader

Institut Integriti Malaysia

Source Link

How To Be An Engaging Leader: What Is Integrity?

How To Be An Engaging Leader

What Is Integrity?

What is Integrity

Public or organisational integrity is the set of characteristics that justify trustworthiness and generate trust among stakeholders. Integrity creates the conditions for organisations to intelligently resist corruption and to be more trusted and efficient.

Integrity Action takes integrity to be the alignment of four factors:

Accountability

Competence

Ethics, and

Corruption control

Accountability is both the ability of key stakeholders to check that we do what we say we do, and responsiveness to legitimate internal and external claims. Public  institutions have to be held to account.

Competence is the ability to do something well. If an organisation doesn’t deliver good infrastructure, healthcare or education for example, it would not, ultimately, be acting with integrity. 

We define Ethics as behaving with honour and public purpose. Engaging with values and issues such as the environment, access to justice, public infrastructure is intrinsically bound to the question of organisational integrity.

The final factor that undermines organisational integrity is corruption. The abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Eliminating corruption requires dedicated resource and institutional mechanisms that must be complemented by other institutions.

Integrity Action’s approach to integrity is this formula:

Integrity = Accountability + Competence + Ethics - corruption

Source adapted and credited to  http://www.integrityaction.org/what-integrity#sthash.w3NqC8wf.dpuf