UNF Executive News Brief - Leadership Development

Great Leadership is the Only Sustainable

Competitive Advantage

However...you're not a leader if no one is compelled to follow you.

By Rusty Bozman

Throughout my career I've read many books and articles written by smart people who all tried to define what great leadership is. The very fact that there are so many different opinions on how best to define leadership suggests that "leadership" can be a relative attribute and express itself in many forms. For example, Mike Kryzewski, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bill Gates are all examples of great leaders, and yet they each lead very differently. Regardless of how one defines great leadership, a universal truth remains for all leaders - you are not a leader if no one is compelled to follow you. 

During my twenty-five years of human resources leadership, I found most people want three basic things from their job: a purpose, the ability to master challenging work, and an appropriate level of input, recognition and autonomy (aka respect). These elements are a direct result of great leadership. I've seen employees turn down competing job offers for more money if their current workplace offered these three elements. While great leaders may come in many different styles, backgrounds and personalities, I've noticed people tend to follow leaders who:

Set a compelling vision:  Great leaders set a vision that inspires many people to achieve more together than they could ever achieve alone. They paint a picture of a desired future state that points the way forward. Visions must be shared and understood by everyone, yet research tells us they are almost always under-communicated by a factor of ten. Some leaders only share their vision with a select few while others mistakenly assume their vision is effectively cascading down to all employees through their management teams. This compromises performance because widespread understanding of a leader's vision provides employees with a purpose, a cohesive culture and serves to align their behavior, effort and action. 

Connect with the people they lead. Great leaders have high emotional intelligence and know they need others to accomplish anything. Without followers, a leader is just a person with a good idea. Consider the best leaders you chose to follow in your own life and career. It's likely that all of them cared about your well-being and success. They earned your respect by respecting you first, and earned your trust by acting with integrity, fairness and leading by example, consistently over time. They appreciated your contributions and demonstrated their gratitude by serving as your advocate, always putting the interests of the team before their own. Great leaders understand leadership is not about them.

Develop expertise and management skill. Human beings want to learn. Great leaders work to gain a personal understanding of their business, their function within the business and develop an expertise within that function or area. Then they teach others what they know (ideally this includes teaching others how to lead). Skills in areas such as problem-solving, decision-making, negotiation, communication, conflict management, goal setting, and the use of the most appropriate leadership style for each situation enable leaders to fully leverage their organizational impact and the impact of their teams.

Are competent and effective. Great leaders are accountable and are trusted to reliably deliver positive results. They must be personally organized. Effective leaders plan, schedule and control their own time and the time of their key people so that everyone is optimizing the best use of his or her time*. Effective leaders are also transparent communicators who share information, organizational results, changes and even challenges as appropriate. They are effective budget managers and ensure their teams have the tools and support they need to be successful.

Are confident and positive. People naturally follow competence. The greatest leaders are comfortable with who they are - leveraging their strengths while understanding and accepting their own shortcomings. Great leaders are confident enough to hire team members who complement their own deficiencies and ensure the capacity and competence of the group is always better than that of the best individual in the group. Great leaders can give honest feedback without creating an emotional charge in themselves or their employees because they have the employee's growth at heart. They are also able to receive criticism in the same way. Great leaders have the confidence to accept the brutal truth about a situation and remain positive and optimistic for those around them. Joe Badaracco, a professor at Harvard Business School, wrote, "If leaders disclosed all their concerns and doubts, stock prices would plummet, their competitors would be all over them, and employees would be jumping ship."

There is a difference between doing, managing and leading. At each stage the focus shifts from the task to the people completing the tasks. There is a significant chasm in learning between doing and leading, just as there is a significant chasm between being a leader and a great leader. May you lead greatly.

*Steven Covey developed one of the most effective models for personal organization through his four-quadrant urgency versus important dimensions and is taught in our Leadership Development Program. 

RSVP to Info Session Here: http://www.unf.edu/ce/RSVP_-_Leadership_Development_Program.aspx

Join us for the UNF 2017 Invitational Leadership Development Program!

Make great leaders in your organization. Join us for the UNF 2017 Invitational Leadership Development Program!

Enrollment is now open for UNF's 2017 Leadership Development Program.

This invitational program enables participating companies to send as few as one and as many as five managers from their organizations to participate. Enrollment is capped at 30 participants for the entire group. 

Program content is based on a validated development model – nine formal one-day modules over nine months, and includes insights from psychological and management assessment tools, supportive informal learning activities and on-the-job applications between instructional modules. 

To learn more or to enroll today, please visit the UNF LDP site!

2017 Professional Development Catalog has Arrived!

Our 2017 Professional Development Catalog has arrived!

We're excited about our winter line-up and think you will be, too! We have several new programs selected to match regionally relevant workforce needs.

The world does not stand still, neither should you!

Fast track your career and business with us at UNFCE!

Our Professional Development courses vary from logistics, leadership, project management, human resources, management, test prep, finance, healthcare, and many more!

Did you know we also offer a vast array of online certificate programs?

Check out our new courses, programs, and opportunities here!

Leadership for Women - Confidence vs. Courage

By Anita Abjornson

In a recent keynote address given at the NYU's School of Business commencement, General Electric's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, made a call to action for the graduates to have courage and venture into the unknown. He shared, "You are entering into a volatile global economy, the most uncertain I have ever seen. This is a world that needs better leaders, with new skill sets. The playbook from the past won't cut it today. My advice for you as you enter this world is to be flexible, be bold and don't fear criticism."

 

As women move into leadership positions in this volatile global economy, there is greater visibility, responsibility and a need for flexibility, boldness and a thick skin. We must prepare ourselves for greatness. That preparation starts with self-awareness and an understanding of how our unique behaviors, personal branding and even our work-life balance can tip the scales.

In the book "Standing at the Crossroads - Next Steps for High Achieving Women," the authors discuss the extensive research completed during The Women's Leadership Program at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). They spotlight five key themes (needs) that are essential to guiding women's development:

1. The need to act authentically
2. The need to make connections
3. The need to control one's destiny
4. The need to achieve wholeness
5. The need to gain self-clarity

As part of UNF's Leadership for Women program, we will use these five themes as a basis for exploring how we can enhance our self-awareness with DiSC, which will improve the flexibility as recommended by Mr. Immelt. We will learn to leverage our personal and professional brand to present our best, bold self and how to create balance in our lives by considering the themes discussed above. By using what makes us unique as women and developing our skills for current and future leadership roles, we will be taking necessary steps to set ourselves up for continued growth and success. 


If you're ready to take your leadership skills to the next level, attend University of North Florida's Leadership for Women program on June 22, from 8 a.m. to noon. Click here to learn more.

Trust and Verify

By Harold Resnick

All relationships are based on trust. Trust makes it easier and faster to get business done. Trust is a characteristic we look for when choosing vendors and project associates.

Lack of trust in the work environment can be devastating. When employees do not trust their organizations or their managers, they become cynical. They reduce their commitment and work efforts to the minimum required for compliance, rather than the maximum that comes from true commitment.

Trust is essential for strong relationships, high performance, a culture of candor and long-term commitment. Yet a McKinsey study entitled “The War for Talent”, which surveyed 23,000 employees, revealed that only 20 percent of those questioned indicated that they fully trusted the organization in which they were employed.

To strengthen one’s reputation for being trustworthy, practice these six trust-building commitments:

1. Examine Your Own Intentions and Communicate Them

When people do not trust individuals or organizations, it is often because they do not trust their intentions. This is often seen vividly in the political arena. Politicians ask their constituencies to trust that they are working on behalf of their interests and those of the country. Yet the public rarely believes them, often with good justification.

In the work environment, employee feedback sessions to address behavioral issues are often fraught with tension and defensiveness. Yet, the manager who begins the feedback session with the stated intention of helping the employee succeed – rather than deliver punitive action or termination – has a much better opportunity to create an open environment in which positive behavioral changes can result.

The first step to gaining trust is to be clear about your own intentions and to share them with the other person.

2. Behave With Integrity

Integrity is the act of maintaining consistency through one’s beliefs and values, thoughts, words and deeds. Individuals who act with integrity are clear about their personal values, espouse those values and then act in accordance with them.

Lapses of integrity are quickly caught. Leaders who espouse that employees are their most important asset and then withhold raises from employees while distributing large bonuses to top executives are demonstrating a lack of integrity between words and deeds. Companies that claim they stand for customer service and then establish automated call centers that make it impossible for a customer to reach a live employee similarly reflect lack of integrity between words and actions.

3. Maintain Authenticity

Authenticity is one of the most fundamental conditions for creating trust. Authentic people have high self-awareness and share their true selves with others, characterized by candor and consistency. Individuals who are not authentic put up a false front. The problem is that everyone sees through the false front and does not trust either the individual or what they have to say. Lack of authenticity often comes from lack of self-confidence. It doesn’t work and destroys trust.

4. Honor Commitments

Honoring commitments is essential for building a trust-based relationship. Fulfilling promises reflects the integrity of thoughts, words and deed; it also demonstrates the competence and willingness to perform. Leaders who say they are going to do something – particularly if it requires a hard or courageous conversation or decision – and then fail to do so lose the trust of their employees. Honoring promises and commitments is one of the powerful ways to build trust.

5. Speak the Truth

“The Emperor has no clothes” is the classic example of the unwillingness of a group to speak the truth. Another common expression is “the elephant in the room.” When no one is willing to acknowledge the elephant in the room there is a lack of truthfulness in the environment. Speaking the truth is more than the absence of lying. It is speaking the whole truth even when the topic may be awkward. Individuals who are known to speak the truth – with thoughtfulness and sensitivity – become the most highly respected and trusted individuals in an organization.

6. Empathy

For an individual to trust someone else they must believe that their thoughts and feelings will be treated with respect and dignity. Empathy – understanding how the other person is feeling – is the tool that generates this respect. When sensitive or emotional information is shared and handled with empathy the bonds of trust are enhanced.

When individuals are clear about their intentions, behave with integrity and authenticity, speak the truth and honor their commitments and promises, they create a trustworthy environment that generates honesty, high performance and accountability.