LEARNING TO LEAD, LEADING TO LEARN
Why Take The Lead?
Leadership Shapes Performance: but you do not have to start as great leader to end up as one.
“No matter your role, what matters is your leadership!”
Welcome to Take The Lead.
This is a new periodic newsletter focused on exploring leadership from practice, principle, philosophy and perspective.
Why? Because there is always a need to take the lead!
Whether it is working through a problem or completing a project; travelling, planning, or playing: the pursuit of success or the route to safety; if people are involved, there is always a need to lead.
Being a leader can be as simple as being put into a position to lead. Other times we just naturally assume the lead because of initiative. Regardless of the purpose or the route, just being in the position does not mean you will succeed in the lead.
It is common, but crazy, that so many are put into leadership roles without any leadership education, training, or guidance.
Consider this: the most important asset a company has is its people. We train people to use machines, equipment and computers. We train teachers, trainers, and even managers, (sometimes). How often though do we get dedicated “leadership” training for those leadership roles?
Leadership shapes performance and the foundation of a team’s success is consistently decided on how well it is led.
TTL’s primary purpose will be to provide a dedicated leadership platform to help us all learn to lead and to learn from our lead. TTL creates a forum for leadership discussion and a format for learning good leadership skills to help us all improve our “teamwork, task-work and our personal development” (J. Adair).
We will examine models, explain theory, and interview others to explore leadership in practice. We will review leadership perspectives from parents to professionals, and as we do, we will discover what makes an effective leader for any walk of life.
Whatever role we have; at a desk, in a van, in the office, on a site, at home or in class: we can all excel in our leadership. It Is not about where we are, but who we are, so no matter your role, what matters is your leadership.
There is a big difference between being “in the lead” and “setting the lead” so whatever we do, wherever we go, for whoever is coming with us, let us lead well because there is always a need to Take The Lead!
Leadership For All!
Leadership is a life skill we can all learn
“Leadership is a natural & constant lead”
Not a leader?
Nonsense! We are all leaders.
We have all taken the lead somewhere, at some time, to do something. If there are people, there is leadership!
First off, you have to lead yourself: motivate yourself to get up and get on with stuff. Then, there are times when you need to persuade someone to help you get stuff done. On occasion, there may well be a few more to convince for the cause.
Leadership is everywhere; not just at work with colleagues, but at home with the family; in social groups with friends; at school with peers. Leadership is a basic requirement of all activity and achievement: leadership is a life skill!
Whether planning a holiday with your homies, or a party with your peeps; arranging a shopping spree with sidekicks, case working with co-workers or collaborating with colleagues: we all, at some time in our lives, need to influence others to achieve something or get somewhere. In its simplest form, this is leadership: inspiring to attempt and influencing to achieve.
Leadership is a natural and constant need. It is a fundamental life-skill that we all experience and experiment with, perhaps, more than we realise, and through these experiences and experiments we either excel or endure; celebrate it or suffer it.
With friends or family, colleagues or classmates: there is always a need to lead. So, why not take the lead, and learn to do it well?
When Is A Team Not A Team?
TEAMWORK
Valence: a cohesive quality & capacity to unite
“The allusion to a group can give the illusion of a team”
When is a team not a team?
When it is just a group!
To kick things off, we will share a discussion from a recent management meeting I held at work. The theme was: building team cohesion.
The allusion to a group often gives the illusion of a team. Just being in a group, however, does not automatically guarantee that that group works well together. Being part of a team requires cohesion and cooperation, at the very least, but to be part of a group you just need to be present.
It can be a dangerous illusion, too: a group of hard-working individuals, close in proximity with a common purpose: they seem to be a team.
That illusion can quickly fade once you get close: like a mirage thrown up in the heat of activity, once you close in, it vanishes, and you are left with the reality of sand and wind; nothing but hot spots and hot air: dislikes, disunity, arguments and aggression.
Too often we forget that if we want our group to become a team, we need to make an effort. That effort can take a lot out of us but working in a group of disparate, disunited and disjointed individuals will, and does, takes out an awful lot more!
We all work in teams, from administration to operation: with directly contracted, labour-only or sub-contracted personnel: and it is tempting to assume we all bond! Just because we are in the same room, on the same site, or even in the same van, does not make it safe to assume we are working in harmony. Presence is not cohesion, and proximity is not unity.
The challenge is, that for whatever “group” we are a part of, we need to do our part to forge it into a true “team”.
Turning a group into a team requires leadership. That leadership does not, however, have to exclusively come from the “Team-Leader” or the team senior!
Obviously, that one should take the lead to do so, but building a “team” is a group effort, and every member of that team has a responsibility to forge the team.
Now, you may not be “the” leader but you can still take “a” lead and show good leadership.
By doing so, others will follow your lead. You can influence or even inspire change by your actions.
How then, can you take a group and make, and maintain, a team?
Our management discussion centered on what I am calling my TEAM Valence model. Each letter stands for an action to be taken:
T is for talk. Talk with the team. Communication is the life blood of all relationships, and the quality of those relationships is defined by the quality of the communication. Talk with them: not to them, not at them, but with them.
E is for Example. Setting an example for what is expected is the spine of leadership. It certainly takes a backbone to “stand up and stand out” in demonstrating good practice, and to make a real difference we need to “be” what we want to see.
A is for Accept. First, accept the reality of individuality. Our colleagues do not have to be our best friends, nor do we necessarily have to like them much, but we do need to respect the role they play within the team. Then, accept the responsibility to act positively. No matter our role within the team, we need to take the lead and make the effort to build unity. Do not leave it to others, if we see a need, fill it: do not be a complainer, be a changer!
M is for Motivate. Be encouraging to our colleagues. Make an effort to understand them and their viewpoint. Offer support and empathy. Let them know they are valued!
I will expand on each of these four areas in detail over our next editions of Take The Lead, but for now, I offer the outline of the model to just get things rolling.
Apply it and see the difference. Perhaps you only need, or have the opportunity, to focus on one aspect, so pick what is needed most and try it this week.
The important thing to remember is that this is not just for the “Team-Leader” or the senior member, but for everyone. Someone clever once said: “Leadership is not position, but disposition.”
Teamwork is a group effort, and so is team building: all of us have a responsibility to forge our work group into a true TEAM.
What Is Valence?
Valence is the cohesive quality of an organism; its capacity to unite or interact. Medically, it is used for the combining power of an element, dictated by its ‘atomic weight’ that influences the whole. How much “weight of influence” do you have within your team? Does it unite, or does break apart?”
Can You? Will You?
MY LEADERSHIP
“Be ready: you never know when it is your turn to take the lead!”
“Some are born… some achieve… while some have it thrust upon them” (Shakespeare)
Titles can be misleading: ‘boss’, ‘manager’ even ‘leader’ itself, are often used simply as synonyms for seniority rather than assurances of ability. Having a title does not always guarantee leadership, and certainly gives no promises that if they do, they lead well.
There rises from this reality two types of leaders – as someone once put it – the ‘appointed’ and the ‘anointed’.
The first is usually promoted by management through tenure as one the group has to follow. The second is chosen by the group through trust as one the group wants to follow.
An appointed—or positional—leader can often just be the nominated head of some department of institution, while the anointed —the dispositional—leader can come from anywhere, or from any position, within.
Ideally the two would merge, but when they do not, those who actually set the lead for the group – the real leaders – are thus not always those who give instructions at the head of the group, but those with influence from within the group.
This means that if you are setting an example, doing the right thing in the right way, regardless of your title or role, you are leading, and your peers will choose to follow your lead as they see the benefit of your influence; thus, you become a leader.
Leadership is, therefore, multi-positional, multi-directional and multi-personal. It is not the exclusive possession of one person in a specific position. Leadership can, and does, come from anywhere and from anyone.
Just as horses are for courses, Leaders can rise from the ranks or grow out of the group. This is the power and promise of developing leadership skills. In any given situation, circumstance or scenario, anyone can be a leader. Be ready: you never know when it is your turn to take the lead.
So, it is not really a matter of can you, but simply, will you?
