Leadership for Leaders

Leadership for Leaders

Objectives• What is leadership• Why / how did they become our leaders?• How can we support them?• What do we want from our leaders?• How do we train leaders?• How do we ensure learning success?• What are our roadblocks?• How do we engage leaders? • What can up and coming leaders teach us?• How can we facilitate continual learning?

What is leadership?

• lead·er·ship/ˈlēdərˌSHip/Noun:– The action of leading a group of people or an

organization.– The state or position of being a leader.

Book definitions are not very helpful

• Who is a leader?A person who:– Is accountable for a project or outcome,– Manages others,– Tells people what to do,– Organizes work,

Functional definitions are not very helpful either…

So how do we identify a leader?

Functional Definitions are not very helpful either…

We need to be able to articulate

the intuitive knowledge skills, abilities and characteristics a leader brings to the

organization .

A leader is someone who:

• Has Courage,• Displays Conviction,• Is Organized,• Shows Patience,• Can motivate others,• Is Knowledgeable• Has Vision,

• Is Reliable,• Is a Coach,• Mentors others,• Is Ethical and Moral,• Is Trustworthy,• Can get things done,• LISTENS

What do our leaders have that is hard to replace?

• Institutional knowledge?– How are we capturing this?– How can we capture it and share it in an effective

way?• Experience – Intuitive knowledge– How do we capture this?

How did they become leaders?

They practice all of the leadership skills we listed earlier.

They put these skills into action.

What do we want from our leaders?

• Ensure their group is in alignment with the organization as a whole,

• Shares best practices and lessons learned,• Identifies weakness and develops solutions,• Shares problems so that others can see the

issue and provide direct or indirect assistance.• Mentoring of the next generation of leaders.

What else do we want from our leaders?

• Knows the mission of the organization• Shares their knowledge through words and

action,• Uses knowledge of and loyalty to the

organization to engender support from others,• Help in defining specific tasks to achieve goals,• Ability to delegate,• Consistency.

How can we support them?

We facilitate collection and sharing of all those knowledge skills and abilities we

just said were so important to our leaders!

How do we collect all of this info?

ASK

We are all teachers

So how do we train leaders?

We Don’t

So how do we train leaders?

We make sharable knowledge easy to access!

So how do we train leaders?

We help them to teach us!

So how do we train leaders?

We provide the tools and methods to share knowledge and experience.

So how do we train leaders?

We do not dictate

We engage and support

Ensuring a successful learning experience?

• Define metrics that give us information on where we are, how we are doing, and when we have achieved our goals,

• Act as the facilitator, and knowledge repository,

• Develop multiple modes of sharing the knowledge we capture,– ILT, Distance, Blended, Wiki, CBT / recorded

webinar, seminars, etc.

What are our roadblocks?• Telling a leader that you are going to train them is like

saying “you don’t know what you are doing”

• TIME! – We need to make it easy for them to give and to

share,

• Some people may not feel like they have the ability to “Conduct training”,

• What are our other roadblocks…?

How do we engage leaders?

• Teachers want to share and teach so we facilitate,

• We make opportunities for members to provide input,

• We develop training based upon the input of our leaders,

• Share how we use their input, • Provide feedback and thanks.

What do we train?

• All of the best practices and lessons learned,• Orientation for new members,• Continuing education that our leaders have

identified as important to developing members,• Ways to appreciate those who give generously of

time and resources,• Ways to appreciate those who continuously

provide their best efforts and who we can depend upon.

Do we have the right tools?

• How can we make it easy?– If it is hard to share people won’t,– If it is frustrating they will stop,– If no one participates no one else will join,

• What are the tools that will allow us to make it easy?

• Do we have members that can help?!

What can our up-and-coming leaders teach us?

• New ideas,• New technology,• New ways of thinking about problems and

solutions,• How are we using technology now?• Are we making use of mobile aps, communities of

practice, Linked in, FACE BOOK, ETC…• Close the generation gap engage new up and

coming leaders,

How can we facilitate continual learning?

• Provide Clarity – It conveys clear and honest messages in a timely

manner, and answers the who, what, where, when and why.

• Listen – It encourages information to flow up the channel as

well as down, and sideways too, if that’s appropriate. • Relevance – Good communication provides not only the vision but

also the logistics so people know what needs to be accomplished… and their individual roles in attaining that success.

What other knowledge is important to our leaders?

Attracting new leaders!

How do we attract new leaders?

• Ask them,• Be open to including new people,• Make the job attractive,• Make it fun,• Match their interests to our needs.

Summary and Review

• We cant force training,• We are all teachers, • Solicit input, • Leaders define what needs to be trained, • Engage members in documenting both best

practices and lessons learned,

Summary and Review

• Training must be dynamic and interactive, • Remove roadblocks, • Provide tools that make knowledge capture

and sharing easy,• Younger members and up and coming leaders

are a great resource for ideas and tools.

Summary and Review• By creating a learning strategy, standardizing and

systematizing we create quality and reduce defects,• Engaging the membership – especially leaders,• Listening:

– Sharing best practices and lessons learned,• Understanding and avoiding roadblocks,• Making it easy to collect and share knowledge,• Including and fostering emerging leaders,• Using metrics to continually assess ourselves we can

create a more efficient and effective organization that is able to do more with less more successfully

Thank you and have a good day!