Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 7 ~ Strategy Maps:
A Tool for Getting Everyone on the Same Page

Previous 7 Ideas Coach sessions have discussed how DIRECTION, PERFORMANCE, INNOVATION, STRUCTURE, and CULTURE are core leadership concerns of any organization. How can leaders put them all together into a coherent whole? Try Strategy Maps.

Strategy Maps originated as a key part of the Balanced Scorecard model developed by Norton and Kaplan of the Harvard Business School in the 1990s, and is widely used in business, non-profit, and public organizations.

A strategy map, or strat-map, is a one page document that shows how specific high level objectives - financial, customer outcomes, operations, and learning - link strategically in accomplishing the organization’s mission and vision.

This session covers seven things you will want to know about strat-maps, and how you can use them to get everyone in your organization on the same page.


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7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Lead Organizations, Work ON Your Biz - overview article

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*******

additional resources
About Strategy Maps
One Page Way Consulting and Leadership Team Facilitation

Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 6 ~ Cultivate Culture

Previous 7 Ideas Coach sessions have discussed how DIRECTION, PERFORMANCE, and INNOVATION are core leadership concerns of any organization. How do leaders to attend to these concerns?

Two tools that leaders can use to influence direction, performance, and innovation within their organization are STRUCTURE and CULTURE. I think of structure as the banks of a river, giving direction to the water’s flow. I think of culture as the current in that river that pulls people along, unless they make an effort to do otherwise. We focused on structure in the last session - this session focuses on important strategies leaders use to shape their company culture so it adds value.

Culture is what people do when the boss isn’t looking. Organizational culture is the behavior, attitude, and atmosphere that happen by default - unless there is intention and effort to do otherwise. If you aren’t paying attention to the company culture, you might be missing a powerful means to accelerate productivity, profitability, employee retention, and customer satisfaction – in short, your organization’s success. Listen to this session for practical ideas for cultivating your organization’s culture...


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7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Lead Organizations, Work ON Your Biz - overview article

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Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 5 ~ Initiate Structure

Previous 7 Ideas Coach sessions have discussed how DIRECTION, PERFORMANCE, and INNOVATION are core leadership concerns of any organization. How do leaders to attend to these concerns?

Two tools that leaders can use to influence direction, performance, and innovation within their organization are structure and culture. I think of structure as the banks of a river, giving direction to the water’s flow. I think of culture as the current in that river that pulls people along, unless they make an effort to do otherwise. We’ll focus on structure in this session, and on culture in the next.

Structure is the tangible and intangible architecture of how your organization is constructed - and structure drives human behavior. Listen to this 7 ideas Coach session to hear about four categories of structure important for leaders to understand, and three important ideas to consider when thinking about the structure of your organization.

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7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Lead Organizations, Work ON Your Biz - overview article

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Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 4 ~ Initiate Innovation

The great business advisor Peter Drucker spoke of innovation as a new dimension of performance.

Previously we described how organizational leaders need to articulate direction - i.e. communicate why the organization exists, what it needs to do, and how it should go about doing it. Leaders then need to attend to how well the organization performs moving it that direction, i.e. measure performance.

In a fast changing world, ensuring DIRECTION and PERFORMANCE is not enough. Leaders must initiate INNOVATION... yet innovation requires change, which may directly contradict direction and performance. Savvy leaders find ways to attend to them all.

In this 7 Ideas Coach session, we cover 7 ideas that are important to consider for attending to innovation in your organization.


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7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Lead Organizations, Work ON Your Biz - overview article

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Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 3 ~ Measure Performance

Performance - the work of the organization - is one of the 5 core concerns of organizational leadership that need focus, alignment, and attention (direction, performance, innovation, structure, and culture).

In this 7 Ideas Coach session, we cover...

• three ideas to keep in mind when thinking about your organization’s performance;
• four categories of performance you will want to include when determining performance measures.

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7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Lead Organizations, Work ON Your Biz - overview article

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Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 2 ~ Articulate Direction

As the great Yogi Berra so artfully observed, “if you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.”

Establishing the direction of your organization and communicating that direction is an essential task of leadership. It is one of the five core concerns of organizational leadership: direction, performance, innovation, structure, and culture.

In this 7 Ideas Coach session, we cover the WHAT and HOW of articulating direction...

• WHAT - four essential elements that need to be included when leaders establish direction;
• HOW - three things that are essential to keep in mind for communicating, for articulating direction.

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7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

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One Page Way leadership article

Leadership OF an Organization
Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

Session 1 ~ What Experience Do You Create?

Great pricing, quality, and customer service alone won’t accelerate your business.

In today’s marketplace, businesses need right-priced quality products and services along with great customer service just to be in the game. For non-profits, NGOs, and public entities, doing good work and operating efficiently is a baseline. Organizations that win our attention are those that meet our higher-level needs – personal attention, belonging, identification, meaning, and image... in short, they create a distinct experience.

This ‘coachcast’ explores why asking “What experience Do We Create?” is essential for working ON your business and being a leader OF your organization. Experience is the unifying factor for the 5 core concerns of a leader that will be discussed in future sessions.

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Keywords for this 7 Ideas Coach session...

• Distinction of Value
• Customer POV
• Don’t Stop at the Customer
• This Means You
• Consistent - Dependable
• Congruent - Authentic
• Coherent - the Story

7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders


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Conventional wisdom suggests we live in a service economy, evolved from an industrial economy, having evolved from an agrarian one. Success comes to those providing excellent customer service at a winning level of price and quality.

Don’t count on it. Go beyond conventional thinking. If you want to stand out and win customers, ask of your organization, What is the experience we create?

Here’s why. Technology, globalization, and a relentless 24/7 pace have pushed productivity, lowered prices, and turned many products and services into commodities. But these same factors have also stimulated an increased desire to find expressions of individuality and meaning. Much of the world has moved into a post-service economy where value is created by knowledge and creating experiences. In today’s marketplace, you need right-priced quality products and services along with great customer service just to be in the game. The businesses that win our attention are those that meet our higher-level needs – personal attention, belonging, identification, meaning, and image.

Melinda Davis, in her thought-provoking book The New Culture of Desire makes a case that seeking ‘bliss’ will be the new driver for consumer buying decisions. Increasingly in today’s marketplace, people seek experiences, not simply products or services. Valued experiences may include:

• Belonging to an identified group or community;
• Symbols of status;
• Representations of a desired lifestyle;
• Affirmations of self-image or personal values;
• Personal relationships with the people with whom we conduct business.
  

Innovative thinking about the experience your business creates could lead you to the most effective way to reach customers.

An experience can be defined as the sum of interactions that people have with your business combined to form a coherent and meaningful whole in the mind of the customer. Case example: Starbucks makes excellent coffee, with friendly and expedient service – but where the company really cashed in was in marketing the experience of a daily dose of luxury accessible to the common soul. The growth of Starbucks is now legendary, and their stores are ubiquitous. As Starbucks becomes identified as a national chain, independent shops everywhere gain their success by contrasting themselves as the authentic local coffee shop - Cup-A-Joe*, Weaver Street Market, and Caffe Driade are just some of the fabulous coffee spots in this writer’s local environment. Meanwhile Starbucks is now promoting itself as a great place not only for the coffee but also for the music – in short the place for an experience of getting away from it all. The lesson here is that for both national and local businesses, attention to the experience of the business plays a marketing role far beyond simple price, quality, or service considerations.

You don’t have to be a national or global enterprise in order to create an experience that gives you a competitive edge. Quite the reverse, small businesses and sole proprietors that carefully craft their customer experience can gain an edge over larger companies. My favorite local wine shop, Hillsborough Wine Company, has more than competitive prices and good service - they excel at making customers feel both knowledgeable about wine and part of a special community. In spite of competition from national chains, they have seen substantial sales growth.

Just as size doesn’t matter, asking “what experience do we create?” is relevant to organizations from all sectors - public and non-profit, as well as business. The experience that my small town creates has enormous influence on tourism, economic development, and quality of life. Much of the success of Habitat for Humanity can be attributed to their strategy of creating a hands-on experience of physically working to build a home - an experience shared by the new home owners, individual volunteers, and corporate donors alike.

By asking, “what is the experience we create?” you think differently and deeply about both your organization and your customers. Answering the question fully requires meaningfully connecting multi-faceted associations that customers make with your industry, product, or service to important aspects of customers’ emotions, thoughts, and values. Important: answer the question from the customer’s point of view, otherwise your thinking won’t go beyond simply listing what your organization does for customer service and quality. (see a related 7 Ideas Coach Podcast)

Businesses that are intentional in how they create customer experiences are relentless in shaping their behaviors, communications, marketing materials, and surroundings in order to evoke a personal experience in the mind of the customer. If you simply think of what you offer you customers as a mix of price, quality, or service, you might easily be missing out on real success. In fact, you might be unintentionally creating an experience of your business as simply average or mediocre. In contrast, when you are intentional about delivering your products and services packaged in a creative and coherent experience, you give yourself a powerful edge to maximize the value you offer – and therefore the value that comes back to you.


* Cup-A-Joe as mentioned in a NYT op-ed article by novelist Lee Smith

***
by Tom Stevens (c)2010
Tom Stevens helps leaders create and sustain exceptional organizations. To contact him, visit www.ThinkLeadershipIdeas.com

This article may be freely reprinted in your company, association, or publication (or website) under the following terms: that the author attribution, copyright notice, contact information, and this reprint notice be included; and that you inform us that you are using the article (samples appreciated).

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New Series
Leadership OF an organization
is more than leadership IN it

Executive Overview Session

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Working ON your business, not just IN it... and make it exceptional

You want your business or organization to be exceptional - of course! But are you feeling pulled in so many directions that your efforts get lost? Are you so caught up in day-to-day routine of operating your organization, there’s little energy left for taking it where you want it to go?

It’s a common problem, not just with small business entrepreneurs but with leaders in organizations of every size and every sector - business, non-profit, and pubic.

This new 7 Ideas Coach series is designed to get you back on track. In the next 7 weeks we’ll cover:

• Five Core Concerns - the 5 elements that need attention and alignment for any organization to thrive
• One Key Question - perhaps the most important question a leader needs to answer to keep an organization focused
• One Exceptional Tool - a tool that any organization can use to align efforts and get everyone on the same page

7 Ideas Coach... 7 tips in 7 minutes for busy leaders

THINK! Subscribers Receive the PDF Versions of related leadership articles - FREE
Get this article in PDF immediately when you subscribe.
get articles now

Has your board or leadership team scheduled a planning retreat or meeting?

This 7 minute “coachcast” reviews:

• 3 all-too-common errors that organizations make while creating their strategic or action plans;
• 3 best practices that will help a group avoid these mistakes;
• Plus the single most important thing to get right so everything else falls in place.

In short, 7 ideas that will help make your planning effort a success.


7 Ideas Coach is an ongoing series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

[This is a repeat of a popular session while we are on summer break - look for a new 7 Ideas Coach series in September.
Our THINK! subscribers will receive a free PDF article based on this podcast - become a subscriber now]


Related Resources
Get on the Same Page - Podcast
THINK! leadership article: Possibility Thinking
THINK! leadership article: Resolving Persistent Issues
THINK! leadership article: One Page Way
About Strategy Maps
10 ways professional facilitation adds value consulting and facilitation

If you liked this coachcast, you'll love the resource guide for productive meetings...

Foster Development and Growth
Essential Practices for Managing People... session 7

If you want people to be the best, then help them be better!

Conventional wisdom says don’t send a duck to eagle school. For that matter, you also shouldn’t send an eagle to swimming lessons, or a fish to basketball camp. But you DO want to foster development and growth for all your people.

This 7 minute session provides uncommon insight about avoiding the biggest mistake most organizations make in developing their people, along with essential strategies for providing your people with development and growth experiences that make a difference - to their future, and the future of your organization.


click the image below to hear this week’s coaching session



see the executive summary article for the Practices for Managing People series


Additional Resources

Leadership Development Tools Empowerment Readiness



7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Get 7 Ideas Coach each week via email or through Apple iTunes

Essential Practices for Managing People... session 5

Extraordinary managers help their people see how work efforts impact the greater good.

Do this well and you help bring out best performance.

Fail to make this link and you not only miss a motivation opportunity, you risk people focusing on doing their job even when that job isn’t relevant to the organization’s goals.

This 7 Ideas Coach session provides uncommon insight into the practice of making visible how the efforts of your people contribute to organizational success.
Read More...

Essential Practices for Managing People... session 4

If you want your people to be champions at what they do, then performance feedback is essential...let me repeat, essential.

This week’s “coachcast” explores what managers need to do in order to master the two “flavors” of feedback, and use performance feedback to create and sustain champion organizations.
Read More...

Essential Practices for Managing People... session 3

You don’t rise above mediocrity, you don’t become an exceptional performer, by doing everything well enough. You do so by investing in what you already do exceptionally well to keep getting better. Likewise as a manager, if you want exceptional performance from your people, you invest your attention in understanding what your people do well, and matching this to their role in the organization.

This week’s “coachcast” explores how managers can identify the unique strengths of the people they work with, to match these strengths to organizational needs... Read More...

Essential Practices for Managing People... session 2

What’s the value you add as a manager? Sometimes value is very tangible, only because of something you do that your people now are able to do their work. Much of the time, the value you create is intangible - as in providing motivation - although the impact on results is very real.

This week’s “coachcast” explores the paradoxical nature of motivation, and offers seven ideas for enabling, motivating, and empowering the people you work with...
Read More...

Essential Practices for Managing People... session 1

People have a mind of their own. It’s unleashing that mind of their own which makes people so valuable in organizations, and what makes managing people so challenging. One of the most essential practices of managing people is communicating expectations. The more expectations are clarified, the more people can apply themselves effectively.

After exploring what a manager needs to know and be able to do to communicate expectations, this session outlines seven essential things a managers will want their people to understand.

Read More...

Managing People... overview coaching session

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7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Get 7 Ideas Coach each week via email or through Apple iTunes

THINK! Subscribers Receive the PDF Version FREE

7 Essential Practices to Bring Out Best Performance and Achieve Results

Managing is a fundamental dimension of leadership. Simply defined, managing is organizing people, processes, and things to achieve established goals. Relative to organizing processes and things, many find managing people to be a mysterious art fraught with seemingly unlimited challenges.

With good reason - between people, processes and things, it is people that have the widest range of unpredictability. When you arrange the furniture in your office, it tends to stay put. People, on the other hand, have a mind of their own. It’s that mind of their own that allows them to make greater contributions to your organization than you might ever expect - or create problems and headaches you never imagined.

Many organizations have grown beyond trying to make people into machines, they value the creativity, passion, and brainpower that people contribute, and therefore recognize good people management as essential. However, these same organizations often overvalue personality and positive individual qualities (e.g. friendliness, determination, open-mindedness, etc.) as drivers of good people management, and don’t really understand what good people managers actually DO beyond achieving functional goals or keeping up morale. Yes, an awareness of one’s own personality as differentiated from others and development of positive interpersonal qualities both significantly impact how well one manages people. However good people management also involves specific practices.

Whether you are in a high “command-and-control” organization, a formal corporate office setting, among professional peers, leading a cross-matrixed team, or coordinating volunteers for a non-profit event, the essential tasks you must do to manage people well to achieve organizational goals are essentially the same. Master these tasks, and you create an environment where people contribute their best.

The following are seven essential practices that, conducted with good interpersonal skill and in the context of sound organizational structures and planning, bring out the best that people have to offer.

communicate expectations
Communicate what the person is supposed to accomplish and the parameters they must follow. Provide relevant information about current processes and any anticipated changes. Remember communication needs to be ongoing, with lots of “contacts” if the person needs to understand and work with a substantial body of information.

enable and empower action
Facilitate people acquiring needed resources, tools, materials, and equipment they need to do their work. This is where you connect the logistical side of management, organizing processes and things, to the human side - the people who need to use those processes and things. Empowerment at its most basic form is clarity about permissions - what actions can people expect to do on their own, relative to actions that require more direct supervision or coaching.

match assignments to strengths
This practice has three components. The first is understanding a person’s strengths and personal goals. The second, is understanding the organization’s needs. The third, is putting these together to leverage results. It’s easy for people to give their best when their assignments are congruent with both what they are good at doing and want to do.

provide performance feedback
This practice answers the question, “how am I doing against expectations?” Provide regular performance feedback to the worker, both positive and constructive, as close to the time they are doing it as possible. If the only feedback is an annual performance review (or being yelled at when something goes wrong) then you are missing the boat big time.

link contributions to success
Great managers not only communicate how someone is performing, but also how that person’s effort contributes to the overall success of the organization. Don’t assume it’s obvious, articulate how this particular person’s work advances the mission, vision, and cause of the organization.

facilitate communication across boundaries
Facilitate the interface and communication between people inside and outside of the unit and organization. Your people are not only communicating with you, but with each other, with peers and colleagues across organizational boundaries, with customers, vendors, and other stakeholders. Be an active force to facilitate that communication, open channels, and help resolve miscommunications.

foster development and growth
Help people connect to opportunities where they can learn, develop, and grow. Deep understanding of both what the organization is trying to accomplish and what the individuals goals are, then matching those to growth opportunities creates the greatest “bang for the buck.”

***
by Tom Stevens (c)2010
Tom Stevens helps leaders create and sustain exceptional organizations. To contact him, visit www.ThinkLeadershipIdeas.com

This article may be freely reprinted in your company, association, or publication (or website) under the following terms: that the author attribution, copyright notice, contact information, and this reprint notice be included; and that you inform us that you are using the article (samples appreciated).

** ** **
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Speak Powerfully... coaching session 7

Some experts say that 95% of people feel some fear or anxiety when called upon to give a speech or presentation. Feeling fear when giving a speech is normal, and it doesn’t have to stand in the way of making a great presentation. This new 7 minute coaching session quickly reviews seven techniques to reduce fear and boost your confidence when making that business speech or presentation.
Read More...

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 6

Humor is your weapon to win attention. Humor is your tool to stand out. Humor is your winning edge. For those who need a less aggressive metaphor, humor is the icing on the cake that makes your message attractive and a pleasure to consume. 

This new 7 minute coaching session quickly reviews seven actions you can take to add humor to your business speech or presentation.

Read More...

Avoid despair by Powerpoint

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 5

Not only is poor speaking is widely tolerated in business, poor use of presentation software is practically encouraged. Well it doesn’t have to be that way. You can avoid death, despair, and boredom by powerpoint.

This 7 minute coaching session offers seven actions for using Powerpoint, Keynote, or other presentation software to make your presentations stand out.

Read More...

How Do You Solve Problems?

As a small town mayor I recently had the opportunity to address a class of smart 5th graders who are launching a Future Problem Solvers group - based on an international program founded in 1974 by the late Dr. E. Paul Torrance. Future Problem Solvers serves to help students learn to think creatively and productively about critical issues. These youngsters are bright, concerned about our future world, and ready to make a contribution now. They are learning a model of problem solving to help them think through issues.

As useful as it can be to follow a set procedure to solve problems, there are some things I suggested the students keep in mind as they proceeded... things that can be useful in your organization as well.
Read More...

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 4

A speech is like a dance, with the speaker and audience as dance partners. Sometimes leading, sometimes following, effective speakers engage - dance with - their audiences. Engagement both takes energy and builds energy.

This 7 minute coaching session outlines seven ways that you can maintain and increase the engagement and energy of your audience while making your presentation.

7 Ideas Coach is a weekly series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes
Read More...

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 3

How you start your presentation or speech sets the audiences expectation. If you begin with a strong opening, end with a powerful close, and have relevant material in the middle, listeners will forget and forgive any parts that are uninteresting or less than well done. They will perceive the entire presentation positively as a whole.

This 7 minute coaching session covers the essentials of crafting a powerful opening, and includes seven different ways to do it.

listen to the summary podcast of the Powerful Speaking series
Read More...

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 2

If you want to stand out and be heard, then you need to make sure your speech or presentation is organized so it can be followed by the listener. The following are seven things you would do well to pay attention to...
Read More...

Speak Powerfully... coaching session 1

Poor speaking is so tolerated as normal for business that perhaps no other skill gives as quick a payback for effort as learning to speak with clarity, brevity and energy. Small and basic improvements in speaking in front of others will typically elevate one well above the crowd. Plus effective speaking is one of the best tools for cultivating influence.

Acquiring the skills to improve speaking is not actually difficult to do, but takes time, practice and discipline. The following are a seven key practices to develop speaking mechanics and delivery.
Read More...

We are taking a break this week to prepare for the launch of our new 7 Ideas Coach series, with the accompanying e-book,

Powerful Speaking - Stand Out and Get Your Message Across

The topics we’ll cover in the next 7 weeks include...

• 7 Essential Mechanics of Speaking to Develop
• 7 Strategies to Organize What You Say
• 7 Ideas for Openings That Grab Attention
• 7 Ways to Engage and Energize Your Audience
• Resisting Powerpoint Mediocrity
• Using Humor and Stories
• 7 Tips to Build Confidence and Project Professionalism

To receive the summary leadership article in PDF format and email links to all the podcasts - FREE - then be sure to sign up on our email list for both THINK! e-zine and 7 Ideas Coach. Bonus - 101 Leadership Quotes and summary articles for the three previous series topics when you subscribe.

Leadership Momentum... session 7

A fundamental paradox of effective leadership is getting people to pursue excellence without thinking about it, eliciting top performance on “autopilot.”

Most people have had the experience of driving and arriving at a destination without remembering the trip. Much of human thinking and behavior is unconscious, essentially on “automatic pilot.” Expert marketers, politicians, and stage magicians are known for how they use unconscious “default” behavior to exert influence in what people think, perceive, and choose. Savvy leaders do well to adopt the same influence tools.

There can indeed be a fine line between manipulating and tricking people on the one hand, and nudging and influencing with integrity and transparency on the other. But as Thaler and Sunstein note in their book, Nudge, rarely is there a “neutral” option in choices and decisions. Leaders will invariably find themselves to be choice architects, influencing others whether they want to or not.

Listen to hear seven ways that leaders can consciously influence unconscious “automatic” behavior...

read the summary leadership article on Leadership Momentum




7 Ideas Coach is an ongoing series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Subscribe to 7 Ideas Coach via email or through Apple iTunes

Leadership Momentum... session 6

Organizations and individuals alike are constantly implored to develop a competitive advantage. Paradoxically, what may give you a real edge is a well-honed capacity to collaborate. In an increasingly complex world, leaders are more likely to face the challenge of collaborative projects and partnerships - efforts that will require different professions or different organizations to work together, including endeavors that span business, nonprofit, and public sectors.

There is hardly a better competitive advantage than being comfortable and effective in working across boundaries to achieve mutually beneficial results. Collaboration is not for the faint of heart. The following outlines seven essential ingredients leaders should include to assure success in collaborative projects.

read the summary leadership article on Leadership Momentum

Read More...

Leadership Momentum... session 5

Your network is the sum of connections you have with other people that might be used to share benefits. Networking is the intentional actions you take to build your network.

Networking is a lifelong endeavor, likely to play a vital role in making the achievements you desire a reality. There is no time like the present to take the initiative, and begin networking wisely. This session outlines seven fundamental principles of successful networking for long-term value.
Read More...

Leadership Momentum... session 4

Poor speaking is so tolerated as normal for business that perhaps no other skill gives as quick a payback for effort as learning to speak with clarity, brevity and energy. Small and basic improvements in speaking in front of others will typically elevate one well above the crowd. Plus effective speaking is one of the best tools for cultivating influence.
Acquiring the skills to improve speaking is not actually difficult to do, but takes time, practice and discipline. This session gives leaders seven key points to remember...

Listen to the new 7 Ideas Coach series that expands the material covered in this session > Powerful Speaking Series

Read More...

Leadership Momentum... session 3

Effective leaders develop agility in understanding themselves, interacting with others, and managing their life endeavors by intentional development and application of specific modes of thinking. This coaching session outlines seven modes of thinking that are of particular importance to leaders.
Read More...

Seven Practices To Accelerate Influence and Achievement


How Do You Learn Leadership? Through experience. There is no other way.

So how do you get the kind of experience that builds your leadership skill faster and with better results? How do you find leadership opportunities, and how do they find you? Through regular cultivation of the right practices, habitual activities related to a particular purpose.

Skill in the following seven practices help you benefit your organization, field, or profession, and at the same time foster opportunities for you to gain important leadership experiences. These practices often go beyond the minimum requirements of your job or role. Cultivate them anyway, and over time watch them accelerate your ability to influence others and achieve results. (Note: each practice described in this article is explored in more detail in a corresponding 7 Ideas Coach audio podcast (available free on the web at www.ThinkLeadershipIdeas.com and from Apple iTunes. An e-book, Leadership Momentum - 49 Ideas to Accelerate Leadership Influence and Achievement includes the podcasts, a 7-point executive summary of each practice, and links to related articles).

Leadership competency is gained through a developmental process, i.e. occurring through experiences over time, passing through a predictable series of stages. For leadership, this entails learning to become...

• a contributing individual
• an effective team member
• a competent manager
• a results-effective leader
• a shaper of the “ecology” of one’s organization or field of endeavor.
  

Moreover, the developmental process of becoming a leader parallels the developmental process of maturing your character. These practices are applicable wherever you are in your development of leadership and character. They are lifelong endeavors, worth polishing no matter how well you already do them.
Seven practices to gain Leadership Momentum...

Generate Credibility
Credibility generates an assumption of your capacity to accomplish objectives. Moreover, credibility generates trust, which automatically gains a leader the benefit of the doubt. People carry on with their efforts, look beyond mistakes, and work around annoyances and inconveniences. go to podcast

Focus on Strengths
Individuals and companies alike still persist in approaching development and performance management by identifying relative weaknesses and then trying to shore them up. The trouble is, if you do everything generally well, you will probably avoid failing but certainly fail to achieve excellence.
go to podcast

Sharpen Thinking
Thinking comes in many forms, and effective leaders develop agility in their thinking by intentional development and application of specific kinds of thinking: e.g., critical, emotional, disciplined, ethical, strategic, possibility, and reflective thinking. go to podcast

Speak Powerfully
Poor speaking is so tolerated in business as a norm, perhaps no other skill gives as quick a payback for effort as learning to speak with clarity, brevity and energy. Small simple improvements in speaking will typically elevate one well above the average, as well as build capacity for influence.

Cultivate Your Network
Your network is the sum of connections you have with other people that might be used to share benefits. Networking is the intentional actions you take to build your network. Not all networks are created equal, and what will make the difference in the value of your network is following essential principles that make networking effective.

Develop a Collaborative Advantage
Organizations and individuals alike are implored to develop a competitive advantage...but what may give you a real edge is a well-honed capacity to collaborate. In an increasingly complex world, leaders are more likely to face the challenge of collaborative projects and partnerships - efforts that will require different professions or different organizations to work together, including endeavors that span business, nonprofit, and public sectors.

Leverage Automatic Behavior
A fundamental paradox of effective leadership is encouraging people to pursue excellence without thinking about it. Savvy leaders accomplish this through careful design of organizational structures, cultivating the company culture, and attention to psychological “defaults” of human behavior.

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by Tom Stevens (c)2010
Tom Stevens helps leaders create and sustain exceptional organizations. To contact him, visit www.ThinkLeadershipIdeas.com

This article may be freely reprinted in your company, association, or publication (or website) under the following terms: that the author attribution, copyright notice, contact information, and this reprint notice be included; and that you inform us that you are using the article (samples appreciated).

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Leadership Momentum... session 2

If you truly are driven by escaping mediocrity and accelerating achievement, you have to resist what most people do, which is focus on weaknesses.

Most people have been introduced to the idea that they should emphasize building on their strengths. Even so, Individuals and companies alike still persist in approaching development and performance management by identifying relative weaknesses and then trying to shore them up. The trouble is, if you do everything generally well, you will probably avoid failing but certainly fail to achieve excellence. This session offers seven ideas to focus on strengths as a way to generate Leadership Momentum.
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Leadership Momentum... session 1

Credibility generates an assumption of capacity to accomplish objectives. Moreover, credibility generates trust, and trust automatically gains a leader the benefit of the doubt. People carry on with their efforts, look beyond mistakes, and work around annoyances and inconveniences.

Savvy leaders know that multiple credibility indicators are more compelling than any single credential or quality. The seven assets and qualities discussed in this session are not exhaustive, but certainly among the most likely to broadly gain leaders credibility.
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Arriving Soon...

We are in the last stages of preparations to launch our new 7 Ideas Coach series, with the accompanying e-book, Leadership Momentum - Strategies to Accelerate Influence and Achievement.

The topics we’ll cover in the next 7 weeks include...

• 7 Strategies for Generating Credibility
• Actions to Resist Mediocrity and Focus on Strengths
• Seven kinds of thinking that leaders must know and sharpen
• Rev up your Speaking Power and Influence
• 7 Essential Principles of Networking
• Gaining a Collaborative Edge
• Secrets to Leveraging Automatic and Default Behavior

To receive the summary leadership article in PDF format and email links to all the podcasts - FREE - then be sure to sign up on our email list for both THINK! e-zine and 7 Ideas Coach. Remember, only subscribers receive the PDF articles free, you can unsubscribe anytime, and we never, never share our list with anyone else.

Trust is not neutral - it either accelerates or decelerates what you can accomplish.

If you engender high levels of trust as a leader, you get the benefit of the doubt. People carry on with their efforts, look beyond mistakes, and work around annoyances and inconveniences.

On the other hand, if trust is low or absent, people will question everything. They do just enough to get by in relative safety. They won’t believe information you provide and will ascribe negative intention to your actions.

Effective leaders constantly and consciously act in ways that cultivate trust. How? This leadership article describes seven strategies that you can start using today.

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Change Leadership... session 7

Culture is what people do when the boss isn’t looking. It’s the behavior, attitude, and atmosphere that happen unconsciously.

Want a culture that embraces change and innovation? Then cultivate an appreciative culture.

I use the word appreciative to describe a company culture where people both contribute to a positive climate AND take care of the business. Appreciative cultures highly value competency, excellence, and results as much as feeling good about their workplace. Two meanings of appreciative fit: to recognize with gratitude, and to increase in value.

Appreciative cultures are resilient to change, not resistant. They seek and reward change that adds value. This session outlines seven actions leaders can take to encourage and reinforce a culture of change...


7 Ideas Coach is an ongoing series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

see THINK leadership article on cultivating an appreciative culture
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Change Leadership... session 6

In the 21st century, increasing complexity is a hard fact for almost all organizations - whether large or small, or business, public, or non-profit.

The combination of knowledge-based work plus increased complexity calls for a different kind of action to move organizations forward, which in turn impacts what kind of leadership styles are most effective and what kind of leaders are needed for the future.

The ideas in this session explain 3 different kinds of complexity, as well as appropriate leadership responses to varying levels of complexity...
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Change Leadership... Series Overview

Essential Competencies for Shaping Your Organization’s Future
Change touches the essential core of leadership. Nothing tests leadership acumen like surviving and thriving the waves of change while shaping your organization’s future.

Do you need people to work well beyond minimum effort? Do you want them to stick with changes once they are implemented? Do you need people that embrace innovation, and are ready for the next change when it comes down the road?

Then crank up your skill in change leadership!

This leadership article outlines seven essential actions explored in my e-book, Change Leadership: 49 Ideas for Mastering Organizational Change and Transition. Each action is further explored in a corresponding 7 Ideas Coach audio podcast. (links provided in article)

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Change Leadership... session 5

Too many change initiatives suffer from what preeminent executive coach Marshall Goldsmith calls the 1 2 3 7 problem - implementing change is a 7 step process, but leaders often leave out steps 4, 5, and 6.

To detail, leaders too often (1) Assess the Situation, (2) Identify Solutions, (3) Plan Action, but then leap to (7) Implement Changes - leaving out efforts to (4) Seek Buy-in Up, (5) Seek Buy-in Across, and (6) Seek Buy-in Down. Oops.

Effective leaders are intentional about creating buy-in for expected change. This podcast covers seven things leaders need to know...

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Change Leadership... session 4

There is fundamental paradox of effective leadership - people make their best effort only when they voluntarily choose to do so. Leading is the art of giving people a genuine choice to follow, while making the choice to follow irresistibly compelling.

A true act of leading is determined not by the “leader” but by the person who chooses to “follow”. Leading can be defined as the act of gaining willing followers for a course of action when the way forward is uncertain or unknown. At its core, leading is about creating conditions where people willingly change - this session reviews seven ways how...

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