Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk: Part 2
In Part One, I described the Leadership Talk and how it is a much more effective leadership tool than presentations or speeches. I also described two fundamental premises that the Leadership Talk is based on. In Part Two, I will show you the purpose of the Leadership Talk. You won't be able to give a Leadership Talk effectively on a consistent basis if you misunderstand its purpose. The Leadership Talk doesn't drive purpose. Purpose drives the Leadership Talk. There is one and only one purpose of the Leadership Talk: that's to motivate people to be your cause leaders in meeting the challenges you face. This is important in understanding the difference between Leadership Talks and presentations/speeches. You're a leader. You have a task to complete. Do you want the people you lead to simply do the task? Or do you want those people to actually take leadership of accomplishing the task? For the difference between doing and leading in terms of accomplishment is stock car and a formula 1 racer. Clearly, you can order them to accomplish the task; and if you're in a position of authority, they will most likely carry out the order. But they might not do it with full commitment. Or they may resent being ordered. Or they may be inclined to do nothing unless ordered, and so after accomplishing the task, they do little else but wait for the next order. However, their committing to take leadership involves your establishing a special relationship with them. For instance, going back to the example I used in Part One, if one is a floor sweeper, one does the best floor sweeping, not simply by doing it but by taking leadership of floor sweeping. Such leadership might entail: taking the initiative to order and manage supplies; evaluating the job results and raising those results to ever higher levels; having floor sweeping be an integral part of the general cleaning policy; hiring, training, developing other floor sweepers; instilling a "floor sweeping esprit"that can be manifested in training; special uniforms and insignias; behavior, etc.; setting floor sweeping strategy and goals. Otherwise, in a "doing" mode, one simply pushes a broom. You may say, "Listen, Brent, a job is a job is a job. This leadership thing is making too much of not much!" Could be. But my point is that applying leadership to a task changes the expectations of the task. It even changes the task itself. Think of it, when we ourselves are challenged to lead and not simply do, our world is, I submit, changed. Furthermore, though you may order people to do a job, you can't order anybody to take leadership of it. It's their choice whether they take it or not. This is where the Leadership Talk comes in. Using it, you set up the environment in which they make that choice. The Leadership Talk is not only the most important way to get cause leaders; it is the only way to get them on a consistent basis. In the final part of this three part series, I'll show you how to develop and deliver a great Leadership Talks. 2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. ? and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com.
For more on the Leadership Talk: http://www.theleadershiptalk.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Turn Your Speech Into A Leadership Talk
My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers.
Behavioral Interview Questions You Can Use Monday Morning
If past behavior is the best way to determine future behavior then behavioral interviewing is a requirement for anyone serious about hiring top talent. This skill isn't something that should be taken lightly, but everyone's got to start somewhere. Keep in mind that you're looking for specific examples rather than vague descriptions. A good communicator can dance around the question and sound very convincing if you don't insist that they give specifics. Here are a few questions that I have found to predict the future behavior of some of the most critical personality traits.
Know the Source of Business
One of the first questions we ask a prospect or new client is, "How did you get the business you have so far?" Some can answer exactly. Others aren't as certain.
Innovation Management ? how does the user benefit?
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Reducing the High Cost of Absenteeism
Employers pay a high price for absenteeism, often more than they may realize, in terms of both financial and production losses and employee morale. Managers may view the tasks of finding a substitute employee as a short-term inconvenience; however, absenteeism frequently has more serious long-term effects. Employers can, nevertheless, ensure that employees report in regularly and remain on the job.
Setting Clearer Performance Expectations
The annual performance review.
Making a Decision to Outsource: Driving Factors
Most executives view offshore outsourcing most of all as a source of cost reducing. The greatest savings are expected to come from lower labor cost and reduced project timelines. However offshore outsourcing also creates new challenges and expenses for the organization involved. Those may include vendor selection costs, legal costs, costs of transition and many others. That is why despite the evidence of possible major up-front cost savings many outsourcing vendors have yet to prove that they are able to provide positive ROI in a complex project.
Use Noncompete Agreements To Protect Your Business
Q: One of my former employees has launched an online business very similar to mine and is contacting my clients and trying to steal their business from me. Do I have any legal recourse against him?
-- Brad J.
Print Buying Consultant
Ten Money Saving Tips for Print Managers
Data Delivers Credibility
Over the past couple of days I've been setting up visitor counters, so people in another organization can accurately count the number of people who visit their event.
What are Your Best Practices?
Best Practices Studies
10 Critical Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Consultant
Talk to as many consultants as you can before hiring one. Even if you have one person or firm in mind, interview at least a few others as a sort of due diligence. You'll probably find that each interview helps you focus on the issues you're hiring a consult to help resolve.
Employees Commit Corporate Fraud
Imagine the following scenario; Ten years ago you decided to
quit your job and start your own company. For ten years you
worked hard, made sacrifices, and it paid off in the end.
One of your first employees, a loyal, hard working employee
has been by your side the whole way.
The Leaders Fallacy May Be Howard Deans Undoing
Howard Dean's tenure as chairman of the Democratic National Committee will be fleeting unless he avoids a common leadership trap I call it, the "Leader's Fallacy".
Safety Policy Sample Outline
Writing a safety manual is a tough job and most larger corporations outsource such jobs or they have someone on staff with the proper credentials in risk management. Imagine writing the safety manuals for NASA? I had the opportunity to be in the unique position of being able to imagine just such a thing when writing our company safety manuals. It takes lots of studying and review of case law to do it properly. Each industry is somewhat different and hopefully you know your industry and company well enough to give it a shot.
Innovation Management and Brainstorming Management ? why people hate to brainstorm!
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Hiring Productive Employees: A Checklist for Assessing Their Appeal
The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on whether or not they get hired. Their characteristics also indicate the level of their productivity. If you are about to hire employees, consider the characteristics listed below in checklist form. The candidates who possess them are probably the ones who will be readily accepted by your staff. This acceptance plays an important role in the team-building process and the productivity of the staff.
Finding Common Ground Through Consensus Decision-Making
It's clear to me that a workplace is a better place when employees truly work in teams, but the most familiar team models we have are those that are created to win wars and games. We have a commander or a coach who gives orders, and the soldiers or the players use those instructions to defeat the opponent. Mediator Bill Ury says, "People are realizing that adversarial, win?lose attitudes in an increasingly interdependent world, where I depend on you and you depend on me, just don't work anymore. Using those tactics is like asking, 'Who's winning this marriage?'"
Jewelry Use by Employees
Many companies have dress codes, which include jewelry. Some companies do this because they do not wish to offend customers who are of various faiths by employees who wear necklaces with religious symbols. Others out of practicality as some jewelry can get caught in machinery and cause severe injury or even death. You may wish to have a jewelry policy to prevent loss of your customer base and/or prevent employees from dying, which could inadvertently drive up your commercial insurance costs.
Outsourcing NOT Just for Big Business
Outsourcing has become a controversial issue and a hot topic among presidential candidates this year. But have you stopped to think how your business can benefit from the efficiency, functionality and cost savings of outsourcing? If you have, you might find that, like many others, you are already outsourcing-and enjoying its benefits.
|