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It is Ken Blanchard who said that feedback is the breakfast of champions. But it always seems so stressful. Whether you’re giving it or receiving it, few people are comfortable around it. It has got to the point where organisations are questioning the validity of appraisals and one company, GE, are calling feedback Insights so people feel less antsy about it. Why?
Managing your own stress, your performance and productivity is one thing. Managing these factors in others is something else. Trying to achieve results through others brings its own stresses to add to your already burgeoning collection. But we don’t need more stress, we need less.
Most people rely on others to a certain degree to get things done. Whether you manage a team who work directly for you, or outsource some of your work to others, they can all bring their challenges as well as their rewards.
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How do you know if you are a manager or a leader?
There are few job titles with the word “leader” in them. Manager or Director (depending on your level of seniority) seem to be the titles of choice – Customer Services Manager, Finance Director, Marketing Manager, Human Resources Director, etc. Yet, the title is not an indication. Being a manager is as important as leadership. However, without leadership, you are missing a crucial element in business success – winning people’s hearts and minds.
Management can be thought of as being the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your role, with duties such as:
All of these are absolutely essential and create a framework, structure and systems to achieve results which are monitored and course-corrected on a regular basis.
A leader, by contrast will be more of a visionary and will motivate and inspire people to follow. Their focus will be on the long-term and they will be concerned with:
Creating a vision will usually require change and a good leader will inspire the team to be motivated for that change which might otherwise be met with resistance. A leader paints a picture that people want to be part of and want to help make happen.
Managers deal with “shoulds” (the realms of necessity) while leaders deal with “coulds” (the realms of possibility).
Of course, leadership and management are not mutually exclusive. There is a lot of overlap between the two. A good leader will need good management qualities. A good manager will require good leadership qualities. If you tend to be a good leader but are not good at the planning, implementation and problem solving, it’s essential to have a very good, reliable and loyal team to do this for you. If you are a good manager without the leadership qualities, you will need a good leader managing you to help you pass on the vision to your team. Both skills can be learned and, with both skills, you will be a rounded professional contributing fully to the success of your team and your business.
And, to close, off, the wonderful Stephen Covey said “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” You have to have your vision right, otherwise you are managing the wrong things.
If you would like to have greater insight into your leadership and management skills, book a psychometric profile session. This helps overcome blind spots and highlights development opportunities for you. Call 0845 130 0854 to find out more.
© Tricia Woolfrey 2012
About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.
The ability to positively influence others with integrity is a key skill in business. It affects your ability to have people buy into you, your business, your product and your ideas. It impacts your leadership style and your ability to build constructive relationships. It can also be incredibly stressful if you are unable to influence people constructively, impacting your productivity, your sales and even your profitability.
Influence is about your ability to have a positive effect on someone. It differs from manipulation in that it is undertaken with integrity and regard to the interest of the other party. It’s about having people buy in to your ideas and perspectives, so that they say ‘yes’ to you more.
The talent for influence requires flexibility in style, clarity of outcome, the ability to understand a situation from several perspectives, and creating and maintaining a resourceful state, particularly during times of conflict, or when the stakes are high.
It is not about imposing but inspiring someone to take a particular action, while maintaining strong rapport and building positive relationships.
There are numerous language patterns which enhance your capacity to increase your powers of influence which are too numerous to go into in this short article but which I teach to many of my clients and which I include on my Influencing Skills training course. The issue, though, is not what the skills are, but the effect that they can have on your success. They can help you deal with objections and concerns so that you are able to transform potentially negative situations elegantly. It’s the YES factor!
Whether your intention is to create change, elicit support or diffuse potentially contentious situations, influencing skills can be a real boon to you in your business.
For further details, please contact Tricia Woolfrey on 0345 130 0854.
© Tricia Woolfrey 2012
About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.
