Tag Archives: Team Leadership Training

The Power of the Leadership Training and Leadership Coaching Duo

Posted on January 12, 2012 by leadership

Every leader needs leadership training. Right? Have you ever had a boss who didn’t? Every player needs a coach. Right? Have you ever met a sports star without?

In fact, leaders are in constant need of leadership training. It’s the nature of the beast. To be truly effective to the best of their abilities, leaders must continuously analyze their behavior, seek feedback from those around them and constantly work on improving their leadership skills.

Leadership training is one way to gain new knowledge and learn new skills. It’s focused and intense. And the usual training getaway from being in the saddle 24/7 is much needed by any and all leaders.

The best types of leadership training include grappling with real-life situations. The latest and greatest theories are important, but they are no substitute for tackling tough, complex leadership challenges as though one’s life depended on it. Because it does.

Top notch leadership training not only teaches critical skills, but also gives participants the opportunity to practice what they’re learning through role plays and other training techniques. People need to “feel” the problem and wrestle with the solution to truly learn.

But leadership training is not enough. As Edwin Friedman wrote in A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, “Mature leadership begins with the leader’s capacity to take responsibility for his or her own emotional being and destiny.” Understanding one’s emotional being and harnessing it for powerful leadership is a process, not a skill.

That’s where leadership coaching enters the scene as the powerful partner of leadership training. Coaching is an ongoing process that helps leaders build on lessons learned in leadership training and apply them in real life situations.

Behavior is driven by emotion. Yet leaders rarely take time and seek assistance to understand their emotional selves that drive their behavioral selves. It is much easier to attend leadership training workshops, read books about leadership skills and commit to implementing what one has learned. But understanding one’s emotional self and emotional intelligence is precisely what one must do to move from being a good leader to great leader. Coaches are worth their weight in gold when they help school leaders understand their emotional selves and take responsibility for changing.

In a coaching relationship, the coach helps the coachee understand his or her emotional self and the ways in which that self drives behavior. One excellent tool that coaches can use to help school leaders understand and improve their emotional selves and intelligence is the EQ-i (Emotional Quotient Inventory). It measures emotional intelligence in the following areas: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Stress Management, Adaptability and General Mood. All are critical to being a great leader.

Leadership training combined with ongoing leadership coaching is a powerful combination that helps school leaders become truly great leaders. Through training, leaders hone skills, but most importantly, through coaching they learn to execute the critical plays under pressure.

By J Daniel Hollinger

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Team Leadership Development

Posted on October 22, 2011 by leadership

True team leadership development is one of the most fulfilling human activities. Corporations along with small businesses want to harness this wonderful activity. Where most businesses have great intentions, developing leadership ability is not always the easiest of tasks.

What makes a team?

A team is not merely a group of people who work together in a company, a true team consists of people where they are unequally experienced on various levels yet are equal in their commitment to the company. This commitment is what leads them in achieving company goals while improving the aspect of their company in various ways.

What is success and how do you achieve it?

If your team desires success, you cannot view the company as divisions, departments or branches. You must view the larger picture while working together to solve issues in which have never been performed before. Sometimes, this entails cooperation with your competition. In case you have not noticed, there have been tons of acquisitions and merging of companies recently. Unbelievably, your largest competitor could someday become your partner.

Workplace relationships and personal relationships are similar

Teamwork does not occur by accident. This activity requires dedicated staff to exhibit effort, commitment and willingness for tolerance of others in the workplace. Team should be constructed in companies in the same way that people construct their personal relationships with friends, family and coworkers. High-functioning teams are great representations of reliability not only in our professional lives but also in ones personal lives. This type of company image can be displayed to vendors, competitors, communities and most importantly, customers.

Team commitment and responsibility should be priority

Many companies are restructuring and downsizing with executive managers being held responsible for as many as three-hundred people. Now, more than ever, executive managers must build committed and responsible team members if they desire high-performance from their staff.

Taking the time to construct a “real” team will result in “real” results. This cannot be performed with cheap talk and company directives. As an executive manager, you can begin by respecting your staff’s individuality and their contributions to the company as you guide them in team leadership development. Allow your staff to view how much you appreciate them. This will motivate them in striving for more responsibilities and achievements. Share with your staff how you feel about their ideas, their achievements while working together on team leadership development for even larger potential in the future. Continue reading →

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School Leadership Training

Posted on September 2, 2011 by leadership

Charter school leaders face daunting challenges compared to their private and public school counterparts. That said, public and private school leaders also have very complex and demanding jobs. Executive coaching can provide leaders with the support they need to meet the challenges and strengthen their leadership. Here we focus on executive coaching for charter school leaders.

Charter school principals do not have central office services like public schools or the financial resources enjoyed by most private schools, yet they have similar responsibilities. They are responsible for all aspects of running a school, nurturing trust between adults and students, managing limited financial resources, and balancing the inescapable demands of multiple constituencies school communities. They must recruit students and teachers, supervise and support teachers, secure and manage facilities, raise money, manage school finances and work with boards, to mention a few.

Inadequate facilities, recruiting excellent teachers, high teacher turnover, low faculty morale, constant fundraising, low student achievement, discipline problems, and balancing the budget are a few of the issues that keep charter school leaders awake at night. Furthermore, while taking care of the urgent, time for the important is rarely found. Strategic planning, quality review, schoolwide improvement planning and new initiatives are lost in the dust.

Despite the plethora of challenges, charter leaders are deeply devoted to the missions of their schools. They find satisfaction in the passion they feel for the mission of the school, the opportunity to make lasting change in students’ lives and the autonomy they have as leaders. Many passionate, talented people are stepping up to the challenge of charter school leadership.

While passion and devotion to a school’s mission are necessary, they are not enough to be a successful charter school leader. Experience and leadership training are critical.

Executive coaching is perhaps the most effective way for charter school leaders to learn and get support on the job. Research shows that leaders perform better when they are coached rather than “supervised”. Clearly, someone who has made it into a school leadership role has demonstrated considerable skill already. Yet the overwhelming demands faced by charter school leaders can quickly lead to burnout or pushout.

Coaches can help leaders avoid burnout and pushout, continue to be successful, and become more effective. Through careful listening and effective questioning, executive coaches provide support and guidance as leaders negotiate the complexities of headship and improve their leadership skills. Coaches also provide resources and advice as appropriate. However, more often than not, school leaders arrive at their own answers with assistance from the coach. That’s the beauty of coaching and being coached. Continue reading →

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Team Leadership Training

Posted on July 4, 2011 by leadership

Whoever believes that leaders are born and not made, never heard of team leadership training. Companies spend millions of dollars each year coaching managers to become better leaders of people. Why is team leadership training so important, and what can one hope to gain by participating in such a program?

Who needs someone breathing down one’s neck at the workplace? Employees of all organizations need their bosses to be more than mere supervisors. An effective boss is one who plays the role of mentor when required; he must “know the way, go the way and show the way”. Leaders must therefore be sensitive to the developmental needs of their subordinates and committed to mentoring them to achieve success.

A wise man once said, “A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” This is at the heart of team leadership training. Such programs use a variety of techniques to impart better personnel management skills to managers and leaders at all levels. Would-be leaders are taught the importance of understanding subordinates’ needs; they are guided on the different approaches that are appropriate in diverse people-related situations, so that they do not employ a “one size fits all” tactic. Team leadership training programs are tailored to the specific requirements of the audience – thus, a new supervisor might be introduced to the dynamics of leadership, whereas an experienced manager will be guided on how to hone his or her leadership skills.

The broad objectives of team leadership training can be set out as follows:

o To help leaders understand each employee’s distinctive personality and their need for supervision
o To train leaders to develop their subordinates into competent and committed professionals
o To equip leaders better so that they can easily take on challenges
o To align the leadership style of participants with that of the rest of the organization

This is achieved by following a scientific process along the following lines:

o Helping participants assess their leadership strengths and identify areas of improvement. Generally this involves a written self assessment exercise, discussions, and group activity.
o Guiding participants to identify the skills and attributes of an effective team leader. Participants also learn why different skills are needed to manage different employee interactions, and the appropriate style of leadership to be employed in each situation. Once the participants are able to identify their individual leadership styles, they are guided on how to make certain adjustments depending on the circumstances.
o Teaching participants best practices in managing relationships with their teams. Useful practical tips such as how and when to schedule group meetings and how to review the team’s progress are also shared.
o Helping participants identify their comfort zones, and potential sources of team conflict. The training imparts insight into how different group members make decisions, communicate with each other and process information. Leaders are taught to manage interpersonal differences for the overall benefit of the organization.

While we have generally talked about what goes on in a team leadership training seminar, such training need not necessarily be on-site – one can also access a wealth of resources in terms of books and videos.

Whatever be the format, ultimately, all team leadership training aspires to create leaders who are ” … close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” Continue reading →

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