This leadership blog is designed to
help and support you change the way you think about leadership and will provide
you with the tools and techniques to identify your leadership development
needs. I hope the blogs will add
value to your Leadership workshop experience on the Advanced Diploma in Management Practice with the Ulster Business School and your self - directed learning.
The path to effective
leadership begins in the mind. Leaders
THINK differently. They SEE the world
differently. Leaders are ordinary people
that understand that they make a difference.
We all possess the capacity for leadership, but only those who cultivate
it will ever become truly effective leaders.
By providing articles, features, books and other resources I would like
to encourage you to Awaken the Leader in YOU.
Check out this book by Jim Collins and Martin Hansen – Great by Choice – Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck – Why
Some Thrive Despite them all
Could you benefit from daily reflection?
Reflecting on what we believe, who we are in relationship to those we serve, and what it means to do what we do.
Check out this book by Daniel Patrick Forrester – Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking to help you get started a great read.
As I find myself approaching Easter it feels the perfect opportunity to reflect on the first part of 2012 and start to plan for the rest of the year ahead. Worklife balance is important to me and as my son journeys on with his GCSE's and A Levels my mind is made up to spend the rest of this year researching to identify a topic for a PhD I hope to start once I have completed my Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice this summer. Anyone have any innovative ideas around leadership let me know.
Have you taken time over the past year to reflect and notice your leadership achievements?
Northern Ireland Hospice Communications Manager, Claire Trainor, who has just graduated in a MSc in Executive Leadership with distinction from the Ulster Business School, would like to share with you her latest leadership achievement the proud owner of the Ambassador Award at the 2012 40 under 40 Awards hosted in Belfast.
Northern Ireland Hospice Communications Manager, Claire Trainor, who has just graduated in a MSc in Executive Leadership with distinction from the Ulster Business School, would like to share with you her latest leadership achievement the proud owner of the Ambassador Award at the 2012 40 under 40 Awards hosted in Belfast.
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| Ambassador for the Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon 2012. Claire will be running the full marathon for the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice. |
So as we move further into 2012, take a few moments to consider these questions?
What were your 2 greatest leadership achievements over the past year and how have you shared and celebrated them?
What difficulties have you faced...what are the most valuable lessons for you to learn?
Now just relax and allow yourself to imagine...where would you like to be in your leadership role this time next year? Allow yourself to visualise:
· where will you be?
· who will you be with?
· what learning and development will you need to get you there?
You may want to consider these questions on your own or sharing with a friend or colleague. You may even want to listen to Michael Jacksons Man in the Mirror to help you reflect.
Another book for you to consider is What to ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a more Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential Author: Robert Steven Kaplan
Great idea Janette, it well be very helpful to us as we progress through the assignment. Thank you.
ReplyDelete-- Sharon Clarke
Hey everyone thanks for your very complimentary emails about the blog but get posting i would love to see your comments and thoughts on the blog pretty please. watch out my next blog is iminent
ReplyDeleteListening to your lectures and reading articles you are writing, giving me a lot of confidence, an awareness and understanding of leadership.I learned many new things,but most important I have learn that a leadership can be learn.I would like to see your more, hope to continue studies. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLoreta Zigmantiene (Cavan).
Thanks Loreta really pleased you enjoyed the leadership workshop. This is the start of your leadership journey so enjoy.
DeleteJanette and colleagues, re daily reflecting, this is something I am doing more and more each day and luckily I am starting to do this unconsciously before I put myself into situations which is helping me solve problems before they start.
ReplyDeleteExample - Recently I was working closely with 2 of my staff on an important piece of work for our Director which involved lots of internal and external partners. I was overseeing this work and during the process there were lots of chopping and changing to the work, and various people were involved which resulted in lots of communication, duplication of work etc and we had to basically pull it all together . I thrived on this as did one of the staff members involved.
However another staff member found the constant chopping and changing of the work very frustrating which basically resulted in poor performance and stress for that person. My initial thoughts were this person should be able to deal with the changes we were making and act on things that needed to be done, bottom line i thought the staff member was being inflexible in her approach.
On reflection I changed my opinion and realised that the staff member wasnt being inflexible but she needed different support for this process. Rather than me just asking something to be done and expecting it to be sorted (as the case for one of my staff), i need to spend a few minutes explaining exactly what needed to change, what I wanted to happen and how she could help. I also needed to understand that the constant chopping and changing was a source of frustration to that person and I need to give her a bit more time to adopt to processing change.
Now I am spending more time with that person explaining reasons behind what we need to do and find this actually saves alot of time and also saves all of us being frustrated.
Is this also a sign of me showing emotional intelligence??
I would like to hear others examples on this and any advice on dealing with such issues as outlined above.
Absolutely Stevie - this is definitely emotional intelligence. Prior to undertaking this module I too would not have had the vocubulary to define or had any knowledge of EI. I work for a disability organisation and a large part of my role involves providing support to both the employer and employee. My role involves working closely with organisations across sectors and of various sizes and I liaise with management at various levels within the organisations. The skills I apply include negotiating, influencing, problem solving, planning, monitoring, decision making etc etc. I have to say that the support offered is not always welcomed and a relationship at some level must be formed in order move forward and make progress. I realise now that EI is very much involved in my role when employing the above skills. The problem you may trying to resolve may be the result of a variety of other issues underlying. Therefore it is key for me to understand and manage each situation - like you have in your example above.
ReplyDeleteHaving a Reflective learning style, plus the importance of reflective practice implicit in social work training - I thought I practiced reflective practice. The module has helped me focus on what reflective practice actually is and more importantly what it isn't, and I aint been doing it right. I now realise that I have been ruminating, rationalising and worrying, generating lots of negative energy. Have gone back to basics and it is nice to feel that I have taken control of this negativity and given my self permission to say something nice to myself and think of better ways to do things. Feel better able to bring this more positive energy into my supervision of staff.
ReplyDelete