Responsibility for Choices

Personal Leadership: If It's to Be, It's Up to Me

We may not choose to be victimized, but we choose whether or not to be a victim. Leaders take responsibility for their actions in response to circumstances for which he or she is not responsible

. Choice, more than chance, determines our circum

stance. I choose whether to see the world through optimistic or pessimistic glasses. Either choice becomes my re

ality.

Leading Others: From Victim to Victor

When faced with difficult changes or problems, we have three choices. We can be a Survivor and just hang in there waiting to see what happens. Or we can choose to be a Victim, using the situation as one more example of how crap like this is always happening to us. The third choice – the leadership choice – is to be a Navigator. Leaders take initiative and navigate their team through doing what needs to be done rather then waiting for "them" to do something.

The Leadership Focus and Context

Personal Leadership: The Core of My Being

We find what we focus upon. The centre of my being starts with where I look, what I believe, and why I exist. Three core questions set the focal points and the context or main filters of my life. They also establish my magnetic field and attract the positive or negative people, circumstances, and events that I am experiencing in my life. Changing what's being attracted to me starts with changing my personal magnetic field.

Leading Others: Points of Origin

Highly focused leaders paint clear pictures of what success looks like for a project, the team, or the organization as a whole. Strong leaders "emotionalize" that picture and bring it alive for people. Powerful leaders impart a sense of trust and credibility by leading true to a core set of values or guiding principles. People respond to this leadership because they can clearly see the principles from which it flows.

Video

Leadership Excellence Workshop

Defining Leadership Objectively

The direct approach is oriented toward a specific leadership behavior which is clearly and objectively defined. The elements of leadership behavior are isolated as specific learnings which are systematically programmed into a long-term developmental process.

The direct approach ensures that appropriate and sufficient time is given the development of leadership skills, to bring about the desired change in behavior and to achieve leadership competence.

The SECOND concept is that, rather than being some nebulous characteristic which one has to be born with, leadership can be defined as a set of competencies which can be learned. Some eighty aspects of knowledge, skills, and attitudes have been taken into account in our research which have been clustered into competencies. To sum it up. an understanding of the concepts described here has helped us to bring into focus that the acquisition of leadership competencies should occur by plan and design, rather than by accident. Although leaders may emerge - as they do today - as by-products of group processes, this is neither an economical nor an effective way of developing leadership. Based on the concepts described above, in our experimental program:

Specific competencies of leadership--relevant to Scouting--have been identified...

Situational leadership workshop, with Videocon leadership team, Maharastra Pune.

Leadership

Click the link for video.

Training Profile: Ecstasy Consultants

Profile: Ecstasy Consultants

Ecstasy is Group of Consultants and Trainers, offering its services to several corporate on OD and HR. Applying training processes like competency mapping, TNA, CVS, Training calendar, Content development, certification and validation of training faculty and content, rolling out training programs, training effectiveness.

Ecstasy has hands on experience in instruction design, training delivery, Leadership Development, Talent Development, Knowledge Management, Employee Engagement., Organization Development etc.

Ecstasy has highly experienced and qualified trainers on its board. The talent pool comes from large & medium organizations including Fortune 500 companies.

Training Experience to following industries:

· Tele communications · FMCG · Retail · Chemicals · BPO · University/Institutions

· Engineering · Project Management · Hospitality · Pharma · Automobile · Premier B-Schools

Ecstasy has trained and coached thousands of people from all hierarchies, such as CEOs, Directors, VP, G.M. and Top, middle & junior managers and front line employees.

Ecstasy has devised new concept on Competency Assessment Centre and score card for each employee.

Ecstasy also has pool of visiting faculties to for business schools and technical institutions and is associated with following institutions:

Ø Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gandhinagar.

Ø Nirma University

Ø DDU, Nadiad

Ø LD Engineering College

Ø IIPM, Ahmedabad

Ø AMA, Ahmedabad

Training expertise in:

· Sales · Customer care & Customer Service · Situational Leadership · Leadership Skills · Team Building · Communication · Attitude Awareness · Interpersonal Relationship · Stress Management · Anger Management · Motivation · Time Management · Managerial Effectiveness · People Management

· Performance Management · Negotiation Skills · Assessment & Development centre · Competency Mapping · Train The Trainer (TTT) · Grooming skills · Business etiquettes · Interview skills · Goal Setting · Lean Manufacturing · Six Sigma · Kaizen · 5 S · 7 Habits of highly effective people

Ecstasy is comfortable in imparting training, organizing workshops using various training methodologies like PPT, Case studies, Role plays, Management games, Experiential Learning, Participant’s presentations etc.

NEERAJ BHARDWAJ

Consultant, Trainer & Coach

+91 9725479188

Email: neerajnis@gmail.com

Employee engagement a top business priority

Learning and development can help foster higher levels of employee engagement and improved business performance, but it's essential that the executive suite knows this.

 

Most learning and development professionals are likely already aware that a significant number of their employees are underperforming because of poor engagement. Heightened workloads, decreased confidence in corporate direction and growing mistrust of leadership have raised employee negativity while threatening productivity. Desiring better opportunities, many top performers have updated their resumes and begun looking for new jobs. In fact, in recent research studies undertaken by consultancy Right Management, more than half of employees reported they were approached to discuss a job opportunity with another employer in the past six months. Consider the findings of the Right Management research team:

 

a) Seventy-nine percent report workloads have increased due to layoffs.

b) About 2 out of 3 employees failed to take their allotted vacation last year.

c) As many as 4 in 5 workers say they want to leave their job this year.

d) Nineteen percent of employees rarely trust their manager to make good decisions.

e) Seventy-five percent usually work more than 40 hours per week.

f) Less than half usually take a lunch break.

 

The response to all of this? Employers need to make employee engagement a top business priority.

 

Opportunities for learning and development can help foster higher levels of employee engagement and improved business performance, but it's essential that an organization's executive suite realize this and allocate resources accordingly. Here are five tips to help make engagement a core business priority:

 

1. Keep it simple.

Don't overly complicate engagement with HR and training jargon. Be specific, relevant and pragmatic - not conceptual. Don't talk process, but rather focus on business results. Use a business-based dialogue to tie the people-related results to the financials. For instance, know the top companies or competitors the firm benchmarks its performance against. What is their cost of unwanted turnover, and how does it compare to yours? What makes the difference between your company and theirs? How does learning and development stem the tide and influence higher levels of engagement?

 

2. Make your case.

Demonstrate the importance of engagement with business-related, practical examples. Understand the hot-button issues for each member of the executive team. For instance, talk about a high-performing business unit and how it accelerated the time to market for a new product. Then, outline how it did this by linking the leadership behaviors that enabled improved people processes, such as demonstrating employees are valued and given a meaningful role in creating solutions. Higher engagement levels most likely contributed to the success achieved. In this way, you are linking engagement to meaningful data. Have a collection on hand of useful statistics and facts that relate engagement to business efficiency and improved organizational performance.

 

3. Build alliances.

Build a stronger business relationship with the CFO and put effort into measuring the impact of training on engagement and performance at your firm. Get comfortable with the language of business and understand the financials that are most meaningful to your organization. This most likely includes: What are your organization's top profit drivers? What are the expectations of shareholders? And how will a talent initiative impact the bottom line and show tangible returns? For instance, why does the company need to have a retention strategy? Is it a competitive necessity? Are there profit implications? What are the cost factors?

 

4. Hold leaders accountable.

Leaders at all levels need to be held accountable for engagement, and this includes the C-suite. Tie key leadership behaviors that foster higher engagement to performance expectations. This way, leader behavior and the measurement of leaders' alignment with engagement becomes a mechanism for accountability. Key leadership behaviors that have the most influence on employee engagement include demonstrating employees are valued and inspiring confidence in their ability to drive organizational success and effectively implement the organization's strategy.

 

5. Gain CEO ownership.

Help your CEO to "own" engagement and be an active participant. For instance, take the pulse on engagement every 12 to 18 months. Review the factors that are foundational to engagement and help the CEO drive these throughout the organization with action, communication and initiatives.

 

Without high levels of employee engagement driven by learning and development, organization performance, productivity and profitability are jeopardized. CLOs are in a prime position to elevate engagement to other C-level executives and make it a top business priority. Who can afford not to pay attention?

 

 

[About the Author: Michael Haid is senior vice president of global solutions at Right Management.]

Regards!

Neeraj Bhardwaj          +919725479188         +919924711714

http://neeraj-sales.blogspot.com/  ‡‡ http://melnaks.blogspot.com/   ‡‡http://neerajnis.blogspot.com/  ‡‡ http://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajnis   ‡‡ http://www.scribd.com/NEERAJB

The 13 “P” Requisites for Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

The 13 "P" Requisites

for

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

 

Michael Pryke, Managing Partner, EQ IMPACT

 

Standing at the fore-front of subservient workers, the leader of yesteryear inspired devotion, hard work and obedience to the corporate cause. As powerful and admirable as they may have been, these leaders would struggle to survive in the cut and thrust of today's business world. Characterised by virtuous intent and inspirational rhetoric, they would be out-witted, out-maneuvered and out-paced in a world of zealously driven and intellectually superior wealth seekers. This new breed of employee, bestowed with youth, mobility and technical prowess requires an adapted style of leadership – a leadership which draws heavily on 13 "P" requisites for emotionally intelligent leadership.

 

"There is such a strong correlation between leadership success and emotional intelligence that focusing leaders' efforts on the important aspects of EQ has delivered truly outstanding results," says Michael Pryke, former corporate MD who now coaches business executives and organisational leaders. He has distilled the 13 "P" requisites from the myriad of leadership "must haves" to help his clients focus on the essentials for leadership success

 

1.      The central core of this new leadership paradigm is Personal Awareness, the essential pre-requisite for emotional intelligence. Knowing one's self and being consciously aware of one's humanity is pivotal to the functioning of our knowing, thinking and feeling horizons. A deep awareness of our identity and beliefs plus an understanding of their impact on our perceptions is the primary driving force within every leader. It defines our very existence and purpose in life and adds meaning to our self-image and values. It provides the catalyst for the actualisation of our capabilities and competencies. An enhanced degree of self-awareness is one of the most significant determinants of leadership success.

2.      Radiating outwards from the central axis of Personal Awareness, like the supporting spokes of a wheel, are a further 12 "P" requisites which impact upon leadership competence in our business world of nano-second response and complexity. The new-age leader needs to be hugely People-oriented. Leaders who put strategy before people invariably fail. The cover article in Fortune magazine's June 1999 edition, entitled "Why CEO's Fail" highlights that successful CEO's are those who are people-oriented; they concentrate on trust-building behaviour, effective communication, and people acumen. This includes social skills such as assertiveness, conflict management and building strong relationships. Their emphasis on empathy, inspiration and motivation of their people, ahead of traditional bottom-line drivers ensures their longevity as leaders as well as the success of their organisations.

3.      Leaders who fail to seek constant improvement soon become extinct. They must be Progressive. As champions of change, today's leaders continuously inspire others to challenge the obvious by promoting initiative and "out-of-the-box" thinking. Innovation and experimentation are their credo. Being a change champion and challenging people to move out of their comfort zones requires emotional courage. Whilst many leaders might lack the flair of Sir Richard Branson, they share a common belief in the promotion of change as a necessity for renewal and sustainability. 

4.      New leaders are Persistent. They are resilient under pressure and quickly recover from setbacks. Unlike many who would see misfortune and mistakes as failure, they view them as powerful learning experiences. Indeed, they relish the challenge of trying again and again in the sure knowledge that they will ultimately be rewarded. This persistence is visible and becomes infectious within their teams who, in turn, are inspired to greater effort and energy. Aware of the folly in expecting different results from persisting with the same strategies, the persistent leader knows when to back off, re-evaluate and apply amended tactics as appropriate.

5.      They are Principled. Characterised by advanced levels of integrity, emotionally intelligent leaders are truthful and trustworthy. Ever respectful of others in every station of life, they acknowledge that principles are the building blocks of society. It is common for them to expect their people to uphold similar principles and uncompromising ethics in all their personal and business dealings. If absolute trust is their watchword, then surely the acronym Tolerance, Respect, Unselfishness, Sincerity and Time has equal significance.

6.      Being emotionally intelligent does not negate the leader's need for planning and strategy. However, what sets emotionally intelligent leaders apart from ordinary strategists is their ability to combine the influences of their emotional wisdom with their contemplative and cognitive competencies. Hence, they are highly Perspicacious. They are insightful and allow emotional clues to add meaning and depth to their thinking and planning. Furthermore, they are ever mindful of the human aspects of their plans, knowing that their plans will have an impact on the behaviour and performance of their people and therefore their willingness to implement the strategies.

7.      No true leaders lead from behind – they know the value of leading by example - of being Participative. A leader's willingness to share the load and participate in activities with the team demonstrates that they are not above getting their hands dirty. It keeps them in touch with the realities of the challenges in the workplace and allows their humility to shine as a beacon of hope when times are tough. A participative leader embodies all that is positive in the principle of catching people doing things right.

8.      Emotionally intelligent leadership demands Presence. Notwithstanding the impact of physical presence, new leaders are required to be "present" in every sense, including mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Truly authentic in their intentions, these leaders are engaging and attentive listeners. They display active patience when others are talking and encourage contribution with their genuine show of interest. They are attentive and acknowledge the input from their team members. The emphasis of this powerful leadership trait is undivided "one-ness" when engaging with their people.

9.      Never before has the need for human development been more relevant. Today's leaders embody a Passion for Growth. They are fiercely keen to develop both themselves and their people. Furthermore, they become actively involved in sharing their leadership talent by taking on the role of mentor to emerging leaders within the organisation. The growing and mentoring of team members has become recognised as one of the hallmarks of outstanding leadership.

10.  Seeing beyond the immediately visible in order to detect the real feelings of others requires that leaders become Perceptive. They need to use all their senses to uncover that which may be unspoken. They enquire at a deeper level to ensure an intimate understanding of the real motives behind people's actions and behaviour. Whether one-on-one or in a group environment they detect the true sentiments so that they are better equipped to respond to people with heightened sensitivity and interpersonal awareness. 

11.  Being a powerful and compelling communicator turns every message into a memorable performance. This helps people in organisations understand and retain important information. The role of the new leader as a Presenter is another essential competency for leadership success and healthy organisational dynamics. The presenter ensures that team and organisational strategies are understood, bought into and implemented by all participants.

12.  New leaders are Positive and recognise the enormous power of optimism. In his international best-seller "Learned Optimism", Dr Martin Seligmann provides conclusive evidence that optimistic expectations lead to significantly enhanced performance and outcomes. Having a positive outlook has provided a statistically measurable improvement in the results for both individuals and teams. The language used by positive leaders, as analysed from American Presidential speeches, has even had positive impact on the mindset of an entire nation.

13.  Finally, emotionally intelligent leaders have Purpose. Their visionary outlook ensures that they and their people find meaning in their individual and combined efforts. Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist incarcerated at Auschwitz with his fellow Jews recounts in his book, "Man's Search for Meaning", that those who survived had something significant yet to achieve – they had purpose. Today's leaders not only have a clear sense of their purpose but they also cascade this purpose into every niche of the organisation.      They create a common foundation for success within the mind of each individual with whom they have contact; in the spirit of truly emotionally intelligent leadership this means they touch the lives of every single person on whom their leadership impacts.           

 

Ongoing research into EQ continues to reinforce its enormous importance in all aspects of human success. The correlation between EQ and leadership is now focusing increasing attention on to those factors which produce emotionally intelligent leaders. The 13 "P" requisites for emotionally intelligent leadership provide leaders with an essential route map to guide them along this courageous journey.                                                                                                                                         

Regards!

Neeraj Bhardwaj          +919725479188         +919924711714

http://neeraj-sales.blogspot.com/  ‡‡ http://melnaks.blogspot.com/   ‡‡http://neerajnis.blogspot.com/  ‡‡ http://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajnis   ‡‡ http://www.scribd.com/NEERAJB

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Organizational Self Assessment for KM Tools

Abstract Over a decade there have been numerous works done in the area of knowledge management and number of knowledge management tools flooded into the market by different vendors. Knowledge management is significantly proven to be the most important key factor for survival of organizations and to retain the competitiveness in the industry of information technology. It is driven by a systematic procedure that in turn, leads to use certain tools and adaption of technological changes for effective management of intellectual assets within an organization. Here it comes to decide which tool and technology to choose that adheres suitably of an organization s needs. This paper focuses on knowledge management activities and explains how an organization can evaluate itself for acclimatizing a knowledge management tool. It provides a knowledge management platform which includes comprehensive classification of various knowledge management tools which are classified based on their functionality by using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Warehouse, Knowledge Management Platform, Categorization of KM Tools, Organizational Assessment for KM Tools Acquisition. 1. Introduction Knowledge management has floated into the wide horizons of information technology and the industry of wide spectrum; while knowledge warehousing deals with knowledge among diverse knowledge sources. It provides knowledge precision and is becoming a point of focus. Knowledge management tools are used for effective knowledge management and provide a mechanism to accomplish knowledge management activities with ease. Since knowledge management is a catch-all term which encapsulates various mechanism for knowledge management should be cultivated for effective knowledge management as explained in section 4. The main objective of this paper is to perform a self assessment for attaining a suitable knowledge management tool, based on qualitative research method. Furthermore, a knowledge management platform is proposed which an organization can adapt according to its infrastructure and it is based on qualitative plus quantitative research methodologies. The paper is organized as follows: a. In section 2 Knowledge Management process is overviewed. b. In section 3 Organizational Self Assessment criteria is proposed and discussed. 2. Knowledge Management Knowledge management is a systematic process forming a cycle of activities Efraim, T., Jay E.A. (2001), which progress step by step resulting in organizational benefits and competitive stability. Figure 1, given below illustrates the steps involved in knowledge management processes to achieve relative maturity of an organization as knowledge management activities continue to grow. Knowledge flow becomes smooth when these synergetic activities are frequent within the organization and it increases the maturity level of the organization. Knowledge sharing increases the knowledge visibility Prusak, L. (1999) i.e. to know what knowledge resides inside the organization and how efficaciously it can be used. According to Jackson C, the knowledge processes are multidimensional and provide value Jackson, C. (1999). 3. Organizational Self Assessment One of the key factors of successful organizations is the measurement and assessment of the resources they have and require. The realization of self assessment against acquisition of tools and technology can pave a smooth path towards organizational growth and beneficiary. Since, knowledge is intangible in nature Bornemann, M. and Sammer, M. (2003), which imposes certain implications to the context. In this paper confined assessment criteria is proposed for organizations to evaluate themselves to opt for a knowledge management tool. Table 1, is an illustration which draws a conclusion as explained later in this section. In the assessment criteria, the most critical factors have been considered from knowledge and management perspectives. 3.1. Knowledge Vision An organization is to be assessed for a vivid snap of knowledge, that intakes knowledge and related activities, and knowledge sources either in isolation or collaboration. In other words, knowledge vision is a virtual snapshot of knowledge assets demonstrating the strength of an organization and knowledge management related tasks. 3.2. Follow-up Activities Follow up activities are the process and systematic policies which are executed in terms of knowledge management initiatives. This can be an aid to improve the organizational learning and culture. 3.3. Knowledge Management Initiatives Knowledge culture is the most important factor which has the power to drive an organization to successful routes. A knowledge sharing culture induces rich flow of expertise within an organization which in turn fosters best practices. Though, each organization has its own culture which influences the way to work Zuhair, I. (2003), but it can be overcome by different management strategies, either appraisal or incentive etc. If an organization goes well by all of the knowledge management activities it can mould its culture into a knowledge sharing culture that is the key to leverage competitive stability and maturity. Therefore, the intellectual assets residing in silos will not bring any gain or profit until shared with others because of the implications of corporate culture Sumner, M. (1999). The only way to get more out of intellectual expertise is by means of sharing and collaboration. Thus, a healthy knowledge sharing culture brings high value and increase returns to an organization. 3.4. Appropriate Criteria for Selection KM Tool The subtle nature of knowledge and the contextual requirements of an organization make it very difficult to select a tool that is appropriate to satisfy their requirements effectively. Therefore, an adequate selection criterion is to be prepared for an optimum tool selection. During 1999 Summer M, has proposed a selection methodology that is quite significant in the selection process which escorts it to the right way Sumner, M. (1999). Knowledge management tools are comprehensive tools and often make use of artificial intelligence and intelligent agents. The hardware and software complexities are the major factors which may increase the cost of development and deployment of the tools. Further, the adoption of new tools and technology may also affect one or other organization entities. Strong risk analysis is required to be done prior to acquisition and deploying of KM tools. In both approaches sufficient budgeting, proper project management and risk factors are needed to be dealt with care. 4. KM Tools Categorization Knowledge management tools provide a mechanism to accomplish and track tasks with ease, but selection of the tool is not an easy job. The reason is that the organizations do not know exactly which of the various tools are appropriate for them without any self assessment or methodology for selecting knowledge management tools Patel, N. and Hlupic, V. (2002). 4.1. Knowledge Management Platform A systematic environment in terms of knowledge management tools and technology should be incorporated as a primary benchmark. Such an environment should act like an umbrella for various KM activities. The proposed model shown in Figure 3 depicts a knowledge management platform that coordinates all KM activities synergistically. This model incorporates comprehensive classification of knowledge management tools such as knowledge generation tools, knowledge organization tools and knowledge dissemination tools. Following is the brief explanation of these tools. 4.1.1. Knowledge Generation Tools Knowledge generation tools include all such tools which can be used for knowledge creation, discovery, capturing, codification and purification. The purpose of such related tools is same to the context. Therefore, they can be integrated into one platform which 4.1.2. Knowledge Organization Tools Knowledge organization tools look like a collection of tools used for knowledge representation, visualization etc. For example knowledge maps, groupware such as document management system to better organize knowledge assets. Similarly workflows demonstrate different process execution streams in a systematic way. Other tools can include knowledge storage tools such as knowledge repositories and knowledge bases. While knowledge search tools can effectively pin down various knowledge sources into indices for quick manipulation and retrieval as per query. Furthermore, query management is also an important feature which is to be considered in search tools. It is quite essential to well organize knowledge in order to build knowledge resources in a way that is ready to use and share with others. Hence, knowledge organization tools induce a glowing precision of knowledge. 4.1.3. Knowledge Dissemination Tools Knowledge dissemination tools are the most important category of KM tools. Though an organization might have abundant knowledge residing in repositories and other sources, however, it does not perform well until shared and transferred to other. An organization fosters rapidly if its knowledge assets are in action within the organization and appropriate utilization is being done. Knowledge dissemination in an organization s life is like the flow of blood in a human body. Thus, knowledge must be transferred and shared with others in the organization. Knowledge dissemination tools may include various collaborative and communication tools and technologies like intranet, workgroups and portals etc. These tools spread out knowledge most conveniently by exploiting the ample benefits of World Wide Web. Conferencing tools, messaging and chat applications can also be incorporated. Thus, a knowledge management platform interlinks all of KM activities aided by means of KM tools. This phenomenon not only brings ease to organization for knowledge management but also results in increased maturity as KM activities grow systematically, 5. Conclusion This paper focuses on knowledge management activities and organizational beneficiary in terms of competitive stability and maturity of intellectual assets by means of proper knowledge dissemination. This could be less toiled by use of proper knowledge management tools and innovative technologies. Furthermore, a confined assessment criterion for an organization s self evaluation is proposed by using qualitative research methods. The assessment criterion is probabilistic in nature and helps to assess the acquisition of knowledge tools. In the last, a knowledge management platform is proposed by using qualitative and quantitative research methods. The KM platform is in fact a packaged environment which incorporates several KM tools which are systematically integrated. This integrated platform links different tools to provide a 6. Future Work Here an assessment criteria is proposed which can be enhanced to accommodate more factors depending upon varying requirements and circumstances. The assessment criteria can be validated by analyzing data which may be collected from different organizations. Further, the KM platform can also be explored in depth to develop an algorithm or an AI agent for management of KM tools and KM platform. Love to Take HR Challenges Upen Chaturvedi