485 week 2
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BMGT485Week2LearningActivity1Instructionsandcoursereadings.docxLearning Activity #1
Identify three leadership skills that are unique to leading today. Explain why they are unique, why they are important, and why you chose them over others. Support your position with the course material.
Theme #1: What leadership skills does it take to succeed in business today?
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." --Warren Bennis
The twenty-first century has brought a unique set of challenges to the business leader. Driven by the onslaught of technology, leading a business today forces leaders to change their old skills to meet new challenges. As early as 1956, Peter Drucker labeled the managers of the 20th century as “knowledge workers.” Referring to the people who collect and control data as well as to those who are planners, product developers, programmers and researchers, Drucker saw the worker of the future to be people who manipulate information as opposed to those who are concerned with the production of goods or services. Davenport offers a more modern definition of the term: “Knowledge workers have high degrees of expertise, education, or experience, and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution or application of knowledge” (Mindtools, 2017, para. 7).
Today, the purpose of the knowledge worker is to innovate by creating new ideas, as opposed to implement by using managing existing processes. (“Managing Knowledge Workers”, 2017). Shortly before his death in 2005, Drucker declared that the most important contribution that management could make in the 21st century was to increase the “productivity of knowledge workers” (Wartzman, 2014, para. 5).
If Drucker’s prediction is correct in that management’s job for this century is to increase the knowledge of a business workers, what does that mean for leader? What skills do they need to accomplish the task? The themes for this gives definition to those skills and how to apply them.
Mindtools (2017). Managing knowledge workers: Getting the most from them. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_45.htm
Wartzman, Rick, (2014, October 16). What Peter Drucker know about 2020. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/10/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020
What Will 21st Century Managers Need to Succeed?
Kathleen Brush Shares 7 Skills for Competing Globally
Are the young, multiplying countries of Africa the next frontier? Which countries will be members of the EU in five years? Where is the ground safe in the Middle East? What will happen if things go awry in the South or East China Sea? Is Mexico going to replace Brazil as Latin America’s superpower? Is the debt-soaked, trade-o-phobic United States destined to be a country with meager growth, sidelined from the global growth party?
These questions and others like them will keep many managers awake at night as they contemplate how their businesses will survive and succeed in the 21st century. Those managers will sleep much better if they start now to build the global skills needed in the 21st century. Here are seven skills that I believe will be essential.
Create strategies with a global context. These are the strategies that can’t lose. In the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threat (SWOT) analysis, managers will have to discern between the threats and the opportunities. For example, Africa is the last continental frontier, but which of its countries will offer the best opportunities? Answering that question will go beyond assessing populations and demographics and into an analysis of workforce skills, labor regulations, availability of credit and health care, and the quality of the transportation infrastructure.
Know when affordability trumps innovation. The cardinal rule has been to always focus on products with superior innovation versus lowest price, because the former fetch a premium. That will no longer be a slam dunk. In many countries, successful products will deliver country-specific basic functions that are priced for the market. These consumers don’t care about innovation; they care about basic, affordable functionality.
Be more adept at building relationships than filing lawsuits. Businesses need to lose the crutch of legal systems to ensure contractual commitments are met. Cross border litigation is always expensive and time consuming. Worse, justice does not always prevail. Exchange the art of suing with the art of building relationships because that’s how most of the world outside the United States makes sure commitments are met.
Become fascinated with world events. The illusion that the world rotates around the United States is just that – an illusion. What happens in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Australia affects America.
Learn what motivates employees in different cultures. Motivating employees will be key to the productivity gains necessary to compete with rivals operating with lower costs. Managers will have to understand how cultural programming affects employee motivation in the nations where they’re operating, and how employees of modest means are motivated differently from most Americans.
Embrace new bottom lines. Maximizing shareholder value has been an American mantra. In other countries, businesses are expected to have multiple bottom lines that take into consideration shareholders, employees, the environment and the community. Managers in the 21st century will need to become super motivators who drive productivity and innovation, create competitive products, and generate more sales and increased profits. These will support higher wages, increased hiring, and investments in clean technologies – in addition to shareholder value.
Maintain a strong moral compass. In many countries, the norm is bribery, unsafe work practices, discrimination, and cutting corners on quality. Managers must have – and be guided by -- a strong moral compass, understanding that integrity is never locally defined.This will be essential to building trust and relationships, the business “currency” in many countries.
These are exciting times. The most attractive opportunities for growth are in the 162 countries of the world that are developing, or will be soon. These countries are/will be building costly infrastructures and institutions such as schools and banks, engaging in trade, creating competitive businesses, and watching their middle classes -- with all their attendant purchasing needs – grow.
Who will be the winners in the competition for the best opportunities? That’s easy -The companies who have managers skilled for the 21st century.
The Difference Between Influence and Leadership By STEVE GRAVES
Entire industries have developed around the exertion of influence.
The lobbying industry tries to influence the government. Advertisers persuade consumers to spend their money on certain products or services. Politicians employ nationwide telemarketing campaigns to sway last-minute voters. Parents attend seminars aimed at influencing the way they influence their children.
Business analysts do market research and hire focus groups to study what is influencing the customer. Doctoral students examine the hidden factors behind change in education, sociology, history, and many other fields.
It’s all influence.
Dictionary definitions of influence include “a power indirectly or intangibly affecting a person or course of events,” and the more vague “to cause a change in the character, thought, or action of; to have an effect upon.” I also ran across this one—“an occult ethereal fluid believed to flow from the stars and to affect the fate of men.”
I like that last one—influence is someone affecting us and we’re not exactly sure how.
Let me define it another way, though. Influence is a person’s ability to shape people and mold outcomes.
Influence is morally neutral (can be used for good or evil), but it always involves both relationships and results.
Difference Between Leadership and Influence
So is influence just a fancy term for leadership? No. We often put the two together, but they are two separate entities.
Sure, you have the Abraham Lincolns of the world who are influential leaders. But for every Abraham Lincoln, you have a Vincent van Gogh, Franz Schubert, and Karl Marx—people of massive influence who had no leadership position and even died in obscurity.
Summary: You can influence without being a leader, and you can lead without influencing, but you can’t be a good leader without influencing.
Leadership comes from a title whereas influence does not depend on education, position, or financial situation.
Here are some other distinctions between the two:
· Leadership is visible; influence is out of sight
· Leadership is usually conscious; influence is often unconscious
· Leadership is contained; influence crosses boundaries
· Leadership is immediate; influence is long-term
· Leadership is public; influence is often behind the scenes
· Leadership is formulaic; influence is mysterious
· Leadership captivates culture; influence drives culture
· Leadership is the tip of the iceberg; influence is the mass under the surface
· Leaders act on people; influence affects people and outcomes
Harvard Business Review spotlighted influence and leadership this summer. In “Connect, Then Lead,” Amy Cuddy and two others identify the importance of influence over leadership. Leadership rises from authority, but influence is born of connection. If people feel connected, they open themselves up to the influence of others.
To influence, you begin with connection. You connect with people and begin to affect their actions.
Conclusion
I draw a dotted line between leadership and influence because there is a lot of overlap between these two words. More and more people are recognizing that leaders can wield tremendous influence but that it is only potential. The best leaders strive not for leadership (which is given to them) but for influence (which is earned).
Ken Blanchard wrote, “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” Michael Hyatt says, “Aspiring leaders would do well to stop focusing on control and figure out how to expand their influence.” John Maxwell puts it plainly— “Leadership is influence.”
In this article, Joseph Grenny describes ways four keys to influential leadership. I love what he says about Tim Tassopoulos, the SVP of Operations of Chick-fil-A.
“Tim…understands that success comes down to whether one of his 50,000 front-line associates with a few discretionary minutes decides to lean against a wall or clean tables. Tim’s success or failure as a leader does not come down to whether he is charismatic, visionary, or inspirational but to whether people behave in ways that improve results. Period.”
Influence is about people and results.
Let me put it this way: Leadership and influence are both needed, but influence is bigger, deeper, and a more difficult skill to cultivate than stereotypical leadership. And if I had to choose between whether I could exert leadership or influence, I’d pick influence every time.
Jan 17, 2017,
Here Are 3 Leadership Skills That Managers Will Need In 2017
It’s cliché to say that "this is year is different." But I think most of us would agree that, yeah, this year is actually kind of different. And it’s not just all the political and societal changes we face; businesses are going to see changes, especially when it comes to their employees. And to successfully navigate all the disruptions, managers are going to need a few new leadership skills.
Leadership Skill #1: Performance management needs to happen, whether you’ve kept or ditched annual performance reviews.
Last year saw a big debate in HR circles about whether to keep or ditch annual performance reviews. And while there were several big companies who did away with the annual ritual, this debate continues unresolved. What got lost in the discussion, however, was the underlying need for employees to receive feedback about their performance. Frankly, the question of whether to deliver this feedback in a formalized annual conversation is much less important than the deeper question of “are we actually giving employees the feedback they need to do their jobs?”
Sadly, the short answer to that question is “no.” The following chart comes from my ongoing research at Leadership IQ, and specifically a report called “Fewer Than Half Of Employees Know If They're Doing A Good Job.”
More than 30,000 employees answered dozens of questions about their jobs, including the question “I know whether my performance is where it should be. You can see from the chart that only 29% of employees say they “always” know whether their performance is where it should be. And frankly, that number should be really close to 100%. One of the core functions of leaders is to provide feedback about employees’ performance and the data shows clearly that this just isn’t happening.
It doesn’t really matter whether you keep or ditch annual performance reviews. What does matter is whether your employees know whether or not they’re doing a good job.
Leadership Skill #2: Managing an increasingly remote and virtual workforce.
Depending on the estimate, somewhere between 13 and 40 million workers in the United States spend at least some of their time working remotely. There are lots of good reasons to embrace remote workers, including access to talent that may not be available in your local market. While this doesn’t apply to jobs like nurses, chefs, pharmacists and welders, it’s not that hard to employ a group of remote programmers or analysts.
But there’s an even bigger reason why many companies are going to see an increase in their ranks of remote, virtual or telecommuting employees; the data shows that people are happier when they work remotely!
Only 24% of people who work in an office say they love their jobs. But 38% of mobile workers and a whopping 45% of telecommuting workers love their jobs. More than 11,000 people have taken the online test called “Is Your Personality Suited To Working Remotely Or In The Office?”
After analyzing this data I’ve learned that people who work from home (i.e., telecommuting) are almost twice as likely to love their jobs than employees who work in traditional co-located work-sites (like office buildings). And mobile workers (i.e., using multiple workspaces, in and out of the office) are about 58% more likely to love their job than their office-based peers.
The implication here is that there is going to be increased pressure from employees to work remotely. And any company that wants to compete for the best talent will have to strongly consider this pressure or risk losing out on that talent. Because when potential superstar employees are happier working from home, even a few days a week, it’s a tough recruiting pitch when you’re forcing them into the office.
Leadership Skill #3: Conducting tough conversations when people are increasingly emotional.
It’s only been two months since the most contentious political season in most of our lifetimes. And a great many people are still feeling emotionally bruised and drained. One of my studies, called "Employees Need More Resilience," found that even before the election, too few employees were emotionally resilient. We asked more than 30,000 employees a question that’s a standard test of resilience: "When I really make a mistake, I immediately start looking for another chance to try again."
We learned that while 27% of employees say they Always start looking for another chance to try again, 20% say they Rarely or Never do. And that’s a very big problem, especially if you need to give those folks constructive criticism. Ideally we would give these folks some time to rest and recuperate. And maybe we would postpone some really tough conversations. But that’s not how life works. No matter how folks are feeling, we’ve got businesses to run and the need for conducting difficult conversations about employee performance continues unabated.
While nine out of ten managers have avoided giving constructive feedback to their employees for fear of the employees reacting poorly, there is evidence that some managers can effectively deliver feedback. And some employees can actually handle receiving feedback. For example, we know from the online quiz “How Do You React To Constructive Criticism?” that around 39% of employees react to constructive criticism by systematically dissecting every step leading up to the thing they just got criticized for. They don’t freak out, instead, like a process engineer looking to root-cause a product defect, they just want to understand and correct the underlying issues.
The lesson here is that even though people are feeling pretty fragile right now, managers need not fear giving constructive criticism if (and that’s a big "if") they can deliver feedback that helps the employee to systematically dissect the issue to understand and correct the underlying problem.
Conclusion
This year really is different. The bad news is that managers will need some new skills to thrive. The good news is that the leaders who develop these new skills will be light-years ahead of their competition.
The One Quality That Makes a Truly Great Leader
July 19, 2016
The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: What quality does every great leader have in common? is written by Sue Quackenbush, chief human resources officer at Vonage.
There’s no single quality that makes a great leader. Looking across industries, great leaders have different management styles, demeanors, skills, and experiences. However, the one quality I believe every great leader has in common is the ability to relate. Leaders can achieve that in three ways:
Active curiosity
First, leaders who can relate are naturally curious about other people. This allows them to engage people by truly listening to what they have to say and getting their perspective—why they think the way they think, what is important to them, and how they would approach a situation. This opens up great leaders to new ideas and creates lasting connections with the people who work for them.
Demonstration of humility
People can relate to leaders who show that they’re down to earth. Humble leaders are able to meet employees on common ground and build more meaningful dialogue, which fosters great relationships and a sense of commonality.
Commitment to kindness
If leaders show their employees that they care—and not just about the business or the task at hand—and take a personal interest in their employees’ well-being, they’ll establish a sense of commitment and loyalty.
There have been many great leaders who owned the ability to relate. An HR director I worked with at a media company, for example, took the time to get to know and understand people, which enabled him to assess and recruit other up-and-coming leaders into the organization. This had a positive impact on the organization’s business units, specifically those related to succession planning and sustainable financial growth.
Similarly, another great leader I worked with was the former CEO at a well-known global organization. He had the ability to relate to employees at all levels of the organization. His ability to connect generated amazing loyalty as well as tremendous organizational growth, in addition to strong financial performance. His championship of key talent has not only produced the organization’s current CEO, but has also produced 85% of the current organization’s executive team members.
When leaders relate to their employees, they can connect, influence, and inspire. All three of these abilities build compelling environments that attract and retain top talent. Great leaders enable organizations to achieve long-term, sustainable financial results through creating compelling environments for top talent. Without the ability to relate, leaders miss out on the potential to build an aligned, engaged, and committed workforce.
