Leadership a-z: S is for Skills

Wordle Created by Jennifer Britton at Wordle.com (1/14)

Over the last few months I've blogged on a variety of topics as we've moved through the Leadership A-Z - Prioritization to Kick off Meetings, Motivation to Delegation. Today's post is all about the range of skills needed for leaders. This, of course, is the tip of the iceberg. Here is a listing of some of the core skills needed for front-line leaders and above:
from

Team Leadership skills including

• Listening
• Communication
• Conflict Resolution
• Holding Difficult Conversations
• Relationship Building
• Emotional Intelligence
• Building trust and respect
• The ability to work flexibly and compromise
• The skill of influence
• and Collaboration

Check out one of my other projects this year which is the Teams 365 blog - daily tips, quotes and questions for each day of 2014 for teams and team leaders.

In addition to the skills listed above, additional skills for leaders are:

• Strategic thinking
• Technical Skills
• Administrative skills - budgeting, reporting, project management, financial management
• Stakeholder management (which may be part of relationship building)
• Change Management
• Leading through Uncertainty 

Activity:
Take stock of the skills you are using on a regular basis. Consider these questions:

•  What are the top five skills that you would include each and every day or week? 
• Which ones do you use less frequently? 
• As you consider team members or others who are being developed as leaders for the future, what skills do you think are going to be essential in their roles?
• What development activities will support you in enhancing your skills this year (training, studies, readings, conferences, mentoring, leadership, other?)

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)

Potentials Realized  - Leadership and Team Development | Coaching |  Retreats

Supporting teams and organizations through enhanced conversation and skills, more focused results to do their best work.

(416)996-TEAM (8326)

As an author, Jennifer Britton is known for her thought leadership in the area of group and team coaching. She is also a former leader and team builder who spent the first 13 years of her career working within the United Nations as well as the international aid sector. From Boardroom to jungle, beach and forest to mountains, Jennifer has worked to develop teams and leaders in more than 18 countries, and virtually many more. She founded Potentials Realized in 2004 and focuses on leadership, teamwork and coaching skills training.

Leadership a - z : O is for Optimism and Opportunities

Today's leadership a-z post takes us to the letter o.  Opportunities and optimism were two words that came to mind as I reflected on some of the most powerful leaders I've worked with in the international sector, as well as here, closer to home.


In today's business context it is easy to get lulled into the belief that everything is going poorly. Leadership plays a key role in encouraging their teams to find and sometimes create opportunities.

Optimism is one of the 21 competencies which make up Emotional Intelligence. As research continues to point to, the higher up we move in leadership, the more important our non-technical skills become, like building relationships, managing our emotions, and knowing ourselves. These are all part of the EI framework.

As Daniel Goleman writes in Primal Leadership,

"A leader who is optimistic can roll with the punches, seeing an opportunity rather than a trheat in a set back. Such leaders see others positively, expecting the best of them. An their "glass half full" outlook leads them to expect that changes in the future will be for the better" (Primal Leadership, pp 252).

Part of the skill set of optimism is about being aware of our perspectives around situations and being able to "reframe" how we see these. "Reframing" is a valuable skill, and moves us from a pollyanna-ish outlook where everything is great, to an acknowledgement of the current context, and a reframe in terms of how to view it.

Reflection Questions:
What is your current outlook towards business challenges you are facing?
What opportunities exist?
What topics/isues would benefit from you reframing?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPCC, CPT
Potentials Realized
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats

New Article - Six Essential Skills for Teamwork

2013 has started off with a strong focus on teamwork for many of the organizations I partner with. I have a new article available online entitled Six Essential Skills for Teamwork which I hope that you will find useful. You can read it over at EzineArticles.com here.

Whether I am working with a team during a retreat, training program or coaching session we will usually explore many of these six essential skills I mention in the article:

1. Communication
2. Adaptability
3. Appreciation of Differences
4. Trust and Respect
5. Emotional Intelligence
6. Commitment, Accountability and Follow-through

 These are not the only teamwork skills required to make teams exceptional, however, they are an important part of the foundation and fabric of successful teams. How does your team stack up in terms of these skill areas? Which ones are you strong with? Which ones could use a bit of development? What might that look like - retreat, training, coaching, other?


Each week this year I will be posing a question for teams and leaders at our new Potentials Realized Facebook page. I hope that you will join me there to continue the conversation.


Have a great week!

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized - Leadership, Teamwork, Retreats
Phone: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Leveraging Your Team Strengths: Questions to Consider

When was the last time you discussed the strengths individual team members bring to work? In today's busy context of "doing more with less" discussion around "the softer stuff" often gets pushed aside.

Here's what Emotional Intelligence author Daniel Goleman says:

"In hard times, the soft staff often goes away. But emotional intelligence, it turns out, isn't so soft. If emotional obliviousness jeopardizes your ability to perform, fend off aggressors, or be compassionate in a crisis, no amount of attention to the bottom line will protect your career. Emotional intelligence isn't a luxury you can dispense with in touch times. It's a basic tool that, deployed with finesse, is the key to professional success"

Gallup's research around strengths find that leaders support and invest in their team members strength the odds of the person being engaged increases 8x. How is disengagement showing up in your organization?

This past weekend I led a retreat for an organization which focused primarily on strengths, team development and strategic and immediate action planning. What people really enjoyed above all was the opportunity to share and connect. When did you last ask your team what they see as their own strengths? How often do they get to use these in their work every day?

Here are a few questions for team members to consider:
1. What do you view as your strengths? What are you good at?
2. How do you use your strengths at work, in your role?
3. What could you do to more fully use your strengths each and every day?
4. Looking at upcoming priorities, which of your strengths, skills and talents, can support this work?
5. What else do you need to share with the team?
6. What do you need to stop doing? In light of current priorities?

What other questions would be useful for your team to consider?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2012)
Potentials Realized
Leadership Development | Teamwork | Staff Retreats | Strategic Planning
Phone: (416)996-TEAM (8326)
Email: info{at}potentials realized{dot}com