I am speaking about leadership development, coaching and mentoring at the Human Resource Directors Forum in Sydney, Australia on April 2nd 2009. If you or your company requires any leadership development training/consulting or executive coaching, I currently have April 1st and April 3rd available. Please contact Self Leadership International if you are interested.
Is their a difference between leadership and management? Can managers lead and can leaders manage?
These are perennial questions in the field of leadership development and the answers vary depending on who you talk to.
The concept of a leadership pipeline is that as we start supervising/managing we will be more transactional (performance management) and as we move up through the organisation we will become more transformational (visionary/inspiring). Continue Reading »
A key principle of self leadership is the ability to notice and then respond effectively to feedback.
As I write this blog post I am aware of the pain in my wrist from playing tennis. I have only just started to play tennis; I used to play squash and so I am used to flicking my wrist to get the shot. Flicking your wrist in tennis is not the correct technique and doesn’t deliver the required result; in fact, the result is pain. Now I can focus on the pain or I can focus on the message it is giving me – “correct your grip.” Continue Reading »
I have been an executive coach in Australia and Singapore for some years and I have seen some significant changes in the acceptance and application of executive coaching.
Harvard Business Review (HBR Jan 09) has just published a review of the field of executive coaching and makes some significant points on how to effectively use executive coaching as a self-leadership or business tool. Continue Reading »
I think you would agree with me that to create a better world we need to teach our children self-belief, and the confidence to to do the right thing. Further to my post on Self Leadership for Children I have come across another article that inspires me a as a parent to make a difference. Continue Reading »
A lack of effective presentation skills (public speaking) will seriously harm your career prospects. Whether you are starting out in a company or are the CEO, you will be judged on your ability to present ideas in way that engage the audience.
But fear not! The ability to present or speak well is within everyone’s grasp. I have coached the most boring of CEO’s and the most timid of junior staff to speak and present with impact. Continue Reading »
If you go to the leadership section in your local book store you will be overwhelmed by the number of book with “Leadership” as part of the title. It is obvious that leadership is a term that means different things to different people and in different contexts. In addition there are numerous opinions of what Leadership Qualities are required to be successful. Continue Reading »
Many training and change initiatives including coaching are a waste of time and money because they don’t deliver results. Organisations tend to measure people in terms of performance and potential and so any investment in people should show results in either or both of these.
In Singapore, Self Leadership International transforms people’s performance and potential by impacting how they think and how they feel about what they do and by assisting the organisation to create a culture that will support the behaviours required for success.
There are many approaches to ‘leadership development.’ but what makes the difference is the methodology. Continue Reading »
The Singapore Ministry of Manpower states (Sept 2008) that whilst most CEO’s in Singapore expressed a willingness to develop the next generation of leaders, very few of them are proactive and strategic in doing so.
This NATO (no action talk only) will result in Singaporean managers being unable to cope with the dynamic state of today’s marketplace and workforce.
For Leadership development in Singapore, what is sadly lacking are the culture and skills of mentoring and coaching. Senior leaders in Singapore are, by upbringing,either traditionalists or baby boomers and their values differ markedly from the Gen X and Gen Y managers who need developing. The former usually value ‘a job well done’ and the the ‘trappings of success’, whereas the latter are hungry for meaningful work and are very open to coaching and mentoring as they value personal development.
A Gallup study showed that whilst most CEO’s ‘mentored’ by taking employees to lunch, very few had any formal mentoring programs in place. It is my experience, having worked with many Singapore companies, that most current leaders, whilst tactically very proficient, have received little or no coaching or mentoring training.
Leaders are ‘made not born‘ and most develop their leadership during adverse work situations – just like what is happening now! Unfortunately a number of organisations are currently cutting their leadership development budgets rather than focusing on what will make the difference in the long-term.
What do you think? Please comment.
BTW: I shall be speaking on this very issue at the Global HR Leadership Congress 2009
(Copyright Andrew Bryant – No reproduction without permission, thank you )
Coaching is the “in” methodology for personal development, but what exactly is coaching?
Here are a few definitions:
