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By Mike Krutza, Co-Author, Jodi Wiff

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By Mike Krutza, co-author, Jodi Wiff

High Achievers In The Workplace

In the workplace, we encounter different kinds of people who work with us. There is a stream of different personalities, different attitudes, different capabilities, and different competencies among employees. Along the way, as we dig deep and spend time with each other, we tend to know more about how to deal with specific personalities or potentials of people. In the case of an employee who is a high achiever, it is a challenge to keep and teach him or her.

As a leader, you must know how to deal not only with stubborn employees or poor performing individuals. But also, you need to know how to deal with the few high achievers in your organization. Unlike the former, high performing employees have only a few methods to keep them motivated and perform at their best.

Strategies To Deal With High Achiever Employees

• Identify the keen approach, styles, and practice of such individuals. Let them do their performances in their own methods. Remember that these people may not fully conform to the “controlled process” you set. They may have already done things using their own techniques to accomplish the tasks rather than follow your prescribed method. You may not teach them how to fish when they already know how to.
• Challenge them. Because they are the assets, maximize them. Give them tasks that challenge them more, those which trigger them more, make them more enthusiastic and more thrilled. Allow them to grow by feeding their strengths. They become more happy and satisfied if their strengths are well addressed. When they respond positively, do not forget to give them incentives and rewards for the efforts they shared.
• Know what induce them to work. As a leader, you need to discover the things that would help motivate your people. Understand the needs of your high achievers. If they need less supervision, innovative solutions, or freedom to choose and decide, give it to them. Do they want more complex tasks? More challenging endeavors? More difficult jobs? Give it to them to keep them at their feet and not get bored. Make sure that their tasks match or challenge even more their level of abilities.

High performing individuals in your organization are your assets. They need to be carefully tended and maximized to serve the business. Your goal is to retain the high achievers. Basically, dialogue with them about job satisfaction and together, discover how to make a profitable business hand in hand.

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From: Leading Effectively, Center for Creative Leadership

It’s no secret that good leaders are also good communicators. And the best leaders have learned that effective communication is as much about authenticity as it’s about the words they speak and write.

“Communication and leadership are inextricably tied,” says Susan Tardanico, CCL’s Executive in Residence. “How can you galvanize, inspire or guide others if you don’t communicate in a clear, credible, authentic way?”

The former broadcast journalist and 20-year corporate executive advises leaders to focus on these five essentials of leadership communication:

• Beware of the “say/do” gap. “This is all about credibility, which boils down to trust — one of the most potent, precious and fragile elements of leadership,” says Tardanico. “If your actions don’t align with your words, there’s trouble. And it can turn into big trouble if you don’t recognize and correct it swiftly and genuinely.” It is often difficult to see the say/do gap in yourself, so Tardanico says to rely on a few trusted colleagues to tell it to you straight and flag discrepancies. Of course, you have to be prepared to hear the feedback and address issues — which isn’t always easy. “Rule of thumb: it’s better to say nothing or delay your communication until you’re certain that your actions will ring true,” she advises.
• Take the complex and make it simple. “Being complex does not make you smart,” insists Tardanico. “There is power in clarity and simplicity.” She notes that people are already suffering from information overload, and your job is to distill complex thoughts and strategies into simple terms that your employees can relate to. “The more memorable, the better,” she advises. “If you’re having trouble distilling something to its essence, it’s a sign that you may not have a clear understanding of it. That makes it impossible for you to communicate it to others effectively.” Tardanico also notes that leaders find it easy to get mired in technical jargon and business-speak. “Beware of this trap. Just say what you mean,” she urges.
• Don’t fake it. Find your own voice. Use language that’s distinctly your own. Let your values come through in your communication. “I wrote for two executives who didn’t have a voice,” Tardanico recalls. “They wanted me to be the voice, to make them sound eloquent. They wanted to sound like someone else. Forget about eloquence — worry about being real. People want real. People respect real. People follow real. Don’t disguise who you are. People will never willingly follow a phony.”
• Be visible. Are you visible to the people who matter most — those who will help you achieve organizational goals? This is not about being seen on CNBC or making the rounds of the speaker circuit. “Visibility is about letting your key stakeholders get a feel for who you are and what you care about,” explains Tardanico. Today, it’s easy to hide behind a computer and transmit messages to others without seeing or interacting with them. Although e-communication serves a valuable purpose, it is no substitute for face-to-face communication. “In today’s environment, people are burned out, confused and stressed,” Tardanico says. “They need to feel a personal attachment to you and the work that you believe in. They need to feel valued.” Tardanico recommends doing a “calendar test” to make sure you’re allocating time regularly to be out on the floor, in the factory, in the call center, in the lab, in the store. Show your people that you care about them and their work.
• Listen with your eyes as well as your ears. Stop, look and listen. Remember that effective communication is two-way. Tardanico says that good leaders know how to ask good questions, and then listen with both their eyes and ears. “It’s easy to be so focused on getting your message out — or persuading others — that you don’t tune in to what you see and hear. Because you’re in a position of authority, you won’t always get direct feedback. You need to read between the lines,” says Tardanico. “Listen and hear what is coming back at you. Look for the nonverbal cues. Sometimes a person’s body language will tell you everything you need to know.”

From: Leading Effectively, Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)

Is being a leader worth the effort?

If you find yourself asking this question, you are not alone. Most of us have doubts about our choice to lead at some point in our lives. But if you find you are adrift — going through the motions but not moving forward — it’s time to make a change.

Many leaders have too few hours and too little energy to bring their best leadership to bear, according to Sara King, coauthor of Discovering the Leader in You: How to Realize Your Leadership Potential. “As a result, leaders have begun to question their abilities, the direction their life has taken and their hopes for future impact,” says King. “We call this the problem of drift.”

Leading by rote wastes good talent and energy

If you stay adrift for long, you find yourself making decisions by default rather than conscious choice. You may feel frustrated, conflicted or unhappy. It takes a toll on your enthusiasm, vision and energy – all characteristics needed to lead effectively. “Leading by rote wastes good talent and energy, dilutes the talent and energy that others muster to create results and creates drag on company resources,” coauthor David Altman explains.

To boost yourself out of leadership drift, first consider some fundamental questions:

• Are you currently in a leadership role? How did you get there?
• Do you see yourself as a leader? Are you a leader all the time?
• How comfortable are you with your identity as a leader?
• Did you choose to become a leader or did it somehow choose you?

Then, take time to explore five issues to understand why you may be adrift and provide insight into how to take action:

1. Current organizational realities. What’s your context? It can be as broad as the social, economic and global trends affecting leadership today. It might be more specific to your industry, your organization or your leadership role. The goal is to understand the broader circumstances that influence your current leadership situation.
2. Leadership vision. A vision for your life describes what you see as the overall purpose of your life: what dreams you want to achieve, what goals you want to accomplish, the people you want to be with, the kind of life you want to have. To specifically look at your leadership vision, you want to ask, “What is the role that leadership plays in my life?” Being purposeful about what you want in life is important to being purposeful about what you want in your leadership situation.
3. Leadership values. Values are the standards or principles that guide your beliefs, decision and actions. The ability to understand your values and leverage them as a foundational cornerstone of your leadership choices is a critical contributor to effective leadership.
4. Leadership profile. Your leadership profile is your personal leadership tool kit. What do you draw on to lead? Your answer might include many factors, such as competencies, styles and experiences. Through careful analysis of your profile, you can assess what you see as your strengths and developmental needs.
5. Current personal realities. You have a personal life that has an impact on your work life and a work life that has an impact on your personal life. How you integrate all aspects of your life with your responsibilities as a leader is one of the most challenging tasks you will face.

The book authors, who combined have nearly 100 years of experience assisting leaders in the development of their talents and careers, have written Discovering the Leader in You to guide people through the five issues in a practical, relevant way.

“The most effective leaders are those who commit themselves to getting better day by day and week by week and then apply their skills to improving the lives of other people in the organizations in which they work or their communities,” explains King. “Facing these issues will hopefully encourage you to make more conscious choices about why, when, how and where you lead.”

This article was adapted from Discovering the Leader in You: How to Realize Your Leadership Potential, by Sara N. King, David G. Altman & Robert J. Lee.

From: Leading Effectively, Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)

Every day, celebrities and politicians manage — and mangle — their public image. Business, education, nonprofit and community leaders are increasingly scrutinized, as well.

Here are eight common mistakes executives make – and you should avoid – that have a negative effect on their leadership image.

1. Too much seriousness. Leaders don’t need to be serious to be taken seriously. Leaders who are overly reserved look wooden, stiff and uncaring. A smile goes a long way. Show that you can take a joke or handle pressure with graciousness and warmth.
2. Weak speaking skills. In a media-saturated world, people know a good speaker when they hear one. The standard is high, and a leader with a flat or monotone vocal style, inappropriate volume or poor diction isn’t tolerated. Whether talking one-on-one or speaking to a crowd, pay attention to how you speak, not just what you say.
3. Lack of clarity. Of course, what you say is enormously important, too. Leaders who speak with clarity of thought and message convey an image of effectiveness in a way that a leader who rambles or speaks disjointedly does not. If the message is unclear and nonspecific, the listeners will tune out and assume you don’t know what you’re talking about.
4. Self-absorption. Leaders who overuse the words I, me and my are isolating themselves and not engaging their audience. People prefer to be a part of something, not just the recipient of your efforts. Even if something is your idea, your vision and your responsibility, keep in mind that your job as a leader is much bigger than yourself.
5. Lack of interest. Think back to when you were in school — which teachers captured your attention and imagination? The energetic teachers who seemed to loved their job or the ones who lectured dispassionately from the podium? Energy, interest and passion for your work are incomparable assets. Are you interesting and genuinely interested in what you are saying and doing?
6. Obvious discomfort. It’s painful to watch a leader who is uncomfortable in front of a crowd or awkward in conversation. If you are tentative or uncomfortable in the roles you play, people begin to doubt your ability to be an effective leader — especially in difficult situations.
7. Inconsistency. Over time, your image becomes tied to your larger reputation. If you have a reliable pattern of behavior — one that is reflected in what you do and how you do it — your leadership image will be seen as genuine. Inconsistencies, in contrast, form an image of a leader who is flaky, insincere or dishonest.
8. Defensiveness. Confidence and assurance are undermined when a leader is on the defensive. An unwillingness to consider other views, a knee-jerk defense of your position or decision, or an inability to seek and hear feedback all undermine your image as a capable, effective leader.

Learn more from the CCL guidebook Building an Authentic Leadership Image.

Stepping into a management role isn’t just a change of task — it’s a fundamental shift of identity.

“To be successful, first-time managers must make the transition from a person who gets the work done themselves to a person who gets work done through others,” says Kim Leahy, global portfolio manager of Center for Creative Leadership’s Maximizing Your Leadership Potential (MLP) program for managers of individual contributors. “It requires a different definition of success, a new level of self-awareness and an additional range of skills.”

Your definition of success must now include the success of others. Rather than focusing on your own performance, you need to be asking, “How does the group or team accomplish its work?” “Are they effective as individuals?” “Do they collaborate?” “Are team members committed and engaged?” “How are individual motivations and needs connected to the work and the organization?”

At the same time, you should take stock of your own strengths, weaknesses and patterns. “Who you are drives how you lead,” Leahy explains. “Even though the emphasis is no longer on your individual performance, you need to understand your behaviors, preferences and tendencies — and consider that the most effective way to lead others may not always be your default approach.”

For example, you might be a person who thrives on the pressure of a tight deadline and, as an individual contributor, earned a reputation as someone who will roll up your sleeves and get the job done. As a manager of others, these same practices and preferences could lead to poor planning, micromanaging or inadequate use of resources. If you assume everyone operates the same way you did as an individual contributor, you won’t see or leverage the array of talent on your team.

Build a foundation of four leader competencies

To make the transition from an individual performer to leading a team, you’ll want to build a foundation of what CCL calls the “Fundamental Four” leader competencies: self-awareness, learning agility, influence and communication.

Other key competencies for leading others at this stage of your career are:

•Delegating.
•Building and maintaining relationships.
•Resolving conflict.
•Leading team achievement.
•Coaching and developing others.
•Confronting problem employees.
•Embracing change.
•Innovative problem-solving.
•Adapting to cultural differences.

“In today’s flattened and downsized organizations, many skilled people are put into team leadership or management roles with little preparation and support,” says Leahy. “But these emerging leaders are crucial for the implementation of the organization’s day-to-day work. When they understand what is required to manage others and learn — in a practical way — how to be effective leaders, they can be powerful agents for organizational success.”

From Leading Effectively Newletter, Center for Creative Leadership

Five Leadership Skills You and Your Organization Cannot do Without…

Leaders today live in an age of remarkably complex challenges. They range from expanding into volatile international markets, to dealing with the fallout from natural disasters, to navigating their organizations through a broken global economy while preparing for future opportunities. Complex challenges, our research has shown, don’t yield to quick fixes. They don’t respond to standard approaches or conventional knowledge. In fact, 92 percent of executives surveyed by CCL said the challenges their organizations face are more complex than they were just five years ago. On average, they take two years to solve.

Our research also tells us this: you and your colleagues at every levelof your organization do not have all the skills needed to lead effectively in the future. CCL surveyed more than 2,000 leaders from15 companies in the U.S., India and Singapore. We asked these leaders to rate 20 leadership skills in terms of how important they are rightnow for success and how important they will be for success over the next five years.

The upshot: the four most important future skills – leading people, strategic planning, inspiring commitment and managing change – are weak points among today’s leaders. There exists, in other words, a glaring gap between the skills leaders have now and the ones they will need in just a few short years. At CCL, we call it the “leadership gap.”

In a world of increasingly complex challenges that demand leadership traits many of us do not yetfully have, there’s no time to waste in developing ourselves and the men and women in ourorganizations. Based on CCL’s research and practical experience over the past 40 years, we believethe leadership gap can be closed by focusing on these five areas:

Teamwork and collaboration

Managing change

Communication

Learning agility/growth mindset

Judgment

Printed with permission of Center for Creative Leadership. The complete white paper from which this Executive Summary is taken, is available in its entirity on the Center for Creative Leadership website… www.ccl.com.

From Leading Effectively

Does your company expect the “natural” leaders to rise in the organization? Does it offer periodic leadership development courses or coaching for select employees? Or, does it have a well-considered strategy for growing the leaders and the type of leadership it needs to make the business strategy succeed?

“Knowing the best way to develop your people and grow organizational leadership begins with clarifying your business strategy and asking, what should leadership look like to get us there?” says CCL’s Bill Pasmore. “Then, you create a leadership development strategy with specific recommendations for developing current and future leaders, as well as the collective capabilities of the organization’s leadership.”

A comprehensive leadership development strategy will address multiple avenues for learning and growth, says Pasmore, including:

• On-boarding processes: New leaders must be socialized into the company and leadership culture and must be made aware of the expectations and developmental requirements that come with each promotion.
• Individual and organizational assessments: Assessments are used to help individuals gain self-awareness, but also to provide information that allows the organization to identify talent that is a good fit with available positions. On the organizational level, assessments determine how the organization and its leaders are performing, or the impact of development activities on business results.
• Individual development plans: These are plans that leaders make for their learning and growth over time. The best plans are comprehensive, covering work as well as program activities; and they’re discussed by the individual leader with his or her HR representative and manager.
• Work assignments and action learning: Work assignments are often overlooked as an opportunity to help leaders develop specific competencies or practice key behaviors. To enhance the focus on learning from work assignments, it’s important to have specific goals, opportunities to receive feedback on progress and a coach or mentor with whom to discuss learning strategies. Action-development projects tie special assignments to learning objectives.
• Team-based, cross-functional learning and relationship-building: Many organizations cite the inability of their executives to work together on teams and across boundaries as a major obstacle to success. The way to learn these things is by doing them, but with the supports that make learning powerful: learning objectives, content inputs, assessment, observation and feedback.
• Leadership meetings and events: Leadership meetings and events are sometimes overlooked as opportunities for people to learn, as well as to receive information. Given the high costs of assembling people these days, every effort should be made to leverage these meetings and events for multiple purposes, including learning.
• Executive engagement in talent development: Many of the benefits desired from executive development will not occur unless senior executives buy into the process, support the investments being made and model the behaviors that are desired. The creation of a different leadership culture starts with those at the top stepping up and stepping forward to demonstrate their personal engagement and support for change.
• Employee-engagement activities: Many employees are informal leaders, whose help is indispensable in achieving organizational objectives. Engaging them also helps leaders continue to develop, as they receive feedback on what does or doesn’t work as they attempt to create direction, alignment and commitment.
• Leadership by level, function and location: The leadership development strategy should take into account differences in requirements by level, function and location. Lawyers, accountants and marketing professionals need special attention just as leaders in China need different inputs than those in India or Brazil.
• Development over time: Rather than the one-year outlook driven by budget cycles that is typical in most leadership-development curricula, the leadership-development strategy should look out three to five years from the perspectives of both the organization and individual executive.

With a solid leadership strategy and an equally strong implementation plan in place, there’s a much better chance that your organization will successfully implement its business strategy, according to Pasmore. But, he warns, “Don’t mistake a checklist for the work. Leadership development doesn’t end with the strategy and plan; it’s an important beginning.”

Printed with permission of Center for Creative Leadership.

By Jeffrey Yipp

Nothing teaches leadership like experience, but often those powerful lessons don’t have a place on a resume or performance review. In fact, they can easily be overlooked.

In a new book, Return on Experience: Learning Leadership at Work, Jeffrey Yip pulls together key themes of CCL’s leadership development expertise to introduce a new framework for learning from and leveraging work experience.

By acquiring what Yip calls “a Return-On-Experience mindset,” you are able to understand and clarify accomplishments that may not be measured easily, but are essential for leadership success. The ROE approach allows you to evaluate and communicate important lessons from previous experiences. Just as important, it can drive your on-the-job learning from today forward.

Think of your experience as having value in three ways: mastery, versatility and impact.

Mastery is about sharpening existing skills, building greater depth of skill or knowledge. To increase leadership mastery, the first step is to identify what needs to be learned or improved. You’ll want to look at this from two perspectives: the needs of the organization and your own needs. Then ask yourself, through your work, what skills are you building? How can you sharpen your existing skills and ability to lead? To heighten your skills, seek experiences that offer challenges that will stretch your capabilities and deepen your expertise, such as job rotations or strategic assignments.

Whereas mastery represents a move toward more expertise, versatility represents a move toward breadth of capacity. It is about the expansion of your capacity through learning. If your experience is too narrow, you can begin to expand your repertoire of skills and abilities by working across different organizational boundaries:

• Go vertical. What assignments require you to work across organizational boundaries of level and hierarchy? Examples include supervisory responsibility, mentoring roles, managerial responsibilities with hierarchical-reporting relationships and special assignments with senior executives.
• Reach across. Horizontal assignments require managers to work across organizational boundaries of function and expertise. Examples include job rotations, working on a cross-functional team and action-learning projects involving different subject matter experts.
• Engage with outsiders. Stakeholder assignments require managers to work across the boundaries of the firm, to interface with stakeholders. Examples include managing joint ventures, working with vendors and being responsible for public affairs or corporate citizenship functions.
• Cross geographic boundaries. Assignments that require managers to work across geographically-defined boundaries of regions and nations also enhance versatility. Examples include international assignments, regional or global management responsibilities and management of geographically-dispersed teams.
• Discover new demographics. Some assignments require managers to lead or work with members from different demographic groups: age, ethnicity, gender, nationality. Where geographic crossings involve cultural boundaries by location, demographic crossings often occur in the same location, with members of different cultures. Examples include working in or managing a culturally diverse team, being responsible for organizational diversity initiatives and mentoring employees of a different culture.

Finally, the true measure of learning is impact — your ability to apply it. To have value, learning must be transferable to different situations and to other people. Consider how your lessons learned have (or can be) applied in other ways. Pursue strategies for transmitting your knowledge to others in the organization. Look beyond your current scope and seek out relationships or processes to help you capture and disseminate lessons learned.

Printed with permission of Leading Effectively, Center for Creative Leadership.