Leadership For Dummies

Only a lucky few of us are natural born leaders. It takes time and effort to develop a range of leadership styles which work for you and those around you as well as discovering how to become comfortable leading others. Leadership can be a lonely occupation; Leadership For Dummies is your ideal companion. John Marrin explores the fine line between managing and leading and the book is full of tips for making the most of your leadership experiences and how to cope with the dilemmas and discomfort all leaders at some point experience.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You’re Not to Read 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organised 3

Part I: Introducing Leadership 3

Part II: Leading Yourself 3

Part III: Leading Others 4

Part IV: Leading People Through Change 4

Part V: Leading Different Types of Team 4

Part VI: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go from Here 5

Part I: Introducing Leadership 7

Chapter 1: Taking the Lead 9

Appreciating Why the Work of Leaders Isn’t Easy 9

Looking for Leadership and Leaders 10

Cooking the stew rather than being in one! 11

Experiencing leadership or perhaps not! 12

Seeing Yourself as a Leader 13

Filling the vacuum with the right fluff (stuff) 14

Transforming starts with you 14

Rising to all leadership occasions 15

Leading People and Teams 17

Knowing what you’re about 17

Engaging people in work and change 18

Leading all types of teams 20

Excelling in leading your senior leadership team 21

Chapter 2: Pinning Down the Meaning of Leadership 23

Spotting the Differences between Leadership, Leading and Leader 24

Leadership is a process 24

Leading is an activity 26

Being a leader can be a role and/or position 28

Deciphering the Language of Leadership 30

Diving into the soup of leadership jargon 30

Sampling leadership competences 32

Sampling a Few Tasty Bits of Leadership 34

Becoming an engaging leader 34

Being an active leader 35

Leading through serving others 37

Coming Up with a Meaning that Works for You 39

Chapter 3: Leadership and Management: Two Sides of the Same Coin 41

Flipping Through Your Experiences of Leadership and Management 42

Choosing and working with a new boss 42

Working through your own experiences 44

Listing your expectations of leaders and managers 48

Understanding Society’s Changing Expectations of Leaders 50

Jump! Yes sir, how high? 50

Jump! Why should I? 50

Pinpointing the Differences between Leading and Managing 51

Describing the key differences 52

Getting people to follow you 53

Earning the right to lead 54

Leading and managing together 55

Part II: Leading Yourself 59

Chapter 4: Leading ‘Inside Out’: Knowing Yourself to Become a Better Leader 61

Leading Others Starts with Leading Yourself 62

Becoming an authentic leader 62

Looking through the Johari Window 65

Developing Self-Confidence 68

Leaving Thomas to doubt himself 69

Being your best critic 70

Learning from adversity 71

Discovering How to Lead from Your Experiences 72

Achieving more by learning quickly 72

Harnessing the power of reflection 74

Developing skills in reflecting 75

Using leadership learning logs 76

Finding and working with your own coach 78

Chapter 5: Singing Your Leadership Song: Being in Tune with Your Values 79

Recognising When You’re Out of Tune 80

Acknowledging when ‘it just doesn’t feel right’ 81

Questioning what underpins your leadership 81

Leaving your old baggage behind 82

Composing Your Own Leadership Tune 84

Working out what’s important to you 84

Questioning your assumptions 86

Singing Your Leadership Song 87

Communicating your values 87

Harmonising with others 88

Chapter 6: Stepping Up to Leadership: Handling Dilemmas 91

Dealing with Dilemmas 91

Surviving being thrown in the deep end 93

Being chosen for the right wrong reasons: Few new leaders arrive fully trained 94

Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable 96

Getting caught in the middle 99

Accepting that leadership can be lonely 100

Avoiding the imposter syndrome 101

Leading Friends 101

Achieving success while keeping your friends 102

Knowing where and when to draw the line 102

Part III: Leading Others 107

Chapter 7: Developing a Sense of Purpose 109

Having Clarity of Purpose 109

Avoiding being a busy fool 110

Being bold: leading with conviction 111

Clarifying how you add value 112

Focusing on your key results 116

Spending the right time on the right job 119

Becoming a Visionary Leader 119

Valuing having a vision 120

Creating your own vision 121

Expanding Your Sphere of Influence 123

Discovering that you have more influence than you think 123

Questioning whether something really is outside your control 124

Targeting the people you want to influence 126

Chapter 8: Employing the Power of Engaging Leadership 127

Engaging People: The Key to Unlocking Commitment 127

Avoiding the black hole of meaningless work 129

Making work meaningful 129

Realising that engaged people go the extra mile 131

Building the Foundations for Engaging People 132

Relating to people 133

Being Captain Courageous: Speaking your mind 136

Switching on your senses 138

Creating shared meanings 139

Knowing the Secrets of Engaging Leaders 140

Being open to everything 140

Building strength through vulnerability 141

Chapter 9: Becoming an Engaging Leader 143

Recognising Your Existing Skills 143

Enhancing Relating to People 145

‘Working with’ and not ‘doing to’ people 145

Having a genuine interest in others 146

Building strong connections 148

Being non-judgemental 149

Developing the Courage to Speak Your Mind 150

Standing out from the crowd 151

Remaining aware of being dishonest 152

Asking searching questions 154

Inviting challenge 156

Coping with embarrassment and threat 156

Sensing for Success 157

Being in the moment 157

Seeing what others miss 158

Listening for meaning: Getting behind language 159

Being Brilliant at Building Commitment 160

Starting from pole position 160

Beginning from their grid position 162

Focusing on winning together 162

Agreeing actions to drive success 163

Avoiding meaningless language 164

Keeping on track 164

Chapter 10: Modifying Your Leadership Style 165

Appreciating the Need for a Range of Styles 165

Wondering why you seem to get the problem people 166

Choosing horses for courses 167

Working with chameleon people 168

Understanding Different Styles of Leadership 169

Exploring leadership styles 169

Realising how styles impact on people and performance 171

Modifying Your Leadership Style So That It Works for You and Others 173

Being true to yourself 173

Assessing first, choosing second 174

Focusing on outcomes 174

Excelling through trial and error 175

Chapter 11: Leading People to Peak Performance 177

Being a Great Role Model 177

Flying your flag on the summit 178

Avoiding the crevasse of double standards 179

Acting Before Avalanches 180

Appreciating the dangers of delay 180

Applying the golden rule of ‘Now’ 181

Leading Under-performers Towards Your Peak 182

Working on commitment and capability 183

Approaching cliffhanger conversations 185

Roping people into improvements 187

Mapping progress towards peak performance 187

Coaching the Good Towards Greatness 188

Taking a time out to coach 189

Choosing the right role 190

Practising what great coaches do 191

Part IV: Leading People Through Change 193

Chapter 12: Diving into a Sea of Change 195

Dealing with New Changes but Perennial Problems 196

Appreciating what gets up people’s noses 197

Swimming with sharks – and surviving! 198

Riding the waves successfully 199

Being a Change Agent 200

Cruising with your crew 201

Implementing decisions that aren’t yours 202

Leading change you disagree with 203

Leading Change, Transforming Culture 204

Looking out for icebergs 205

Diving deep to uncover culture 206

Hanging onto the diver’s lifeline: Stop, think, breathe! 208

Chapter 13: Transforming Workplace Culture: A Leader’s Approach 209

Knowing Where and How to Begin 209

Spotting the opportunity for change 210

Starting from where you are 211

Creating a Plan for Your Change 212

Experiencing initiative fatigue! 212

Celebrating people past and present 213

Clarifying the start and end points 214

Bridging the gap between old and new 215

Adopting Approaches for Minimising Resistance to Change 217

Choosing the right pace for change 217

Uncovering people’s objections 218

Getting buy-in from everyone 218

Making change tentative 219

Handling resistance to change 220

Chapter 14: Reinforcing a New Culture: Maintaining Your Workplace Changes 223

Walking the Talk: Leading by Example 224

Being a visible leader 224

Using the power of story-telling 226

Spotting people straying from the path 228

Paying Attention to the Right Things 230

Remembering that what gets measured gets done 230

Keeping everyone up-to-date 231

Reacting positively to crises 232

Promoting good practice 233

Part V: Leading Different Types of Team 235

Chapter 15: Leading Your Own Team 237

Creating a High-Performing Team 237

Dealing with ‘we’re okay: leave us alone’ 238

Separating the great from the good 239

Harnessing the power of team purpose 241

Valuing team values 242

Assessing the Effectiveness of Your Team 244

Rating your team 245

Conducting a team self-assessment 246

Striving for Continuous Improvement 248

Developing a high-performance atmosphere 248

Making the un-discussable discussable 249

Chapter 16: Taking on a Project Team 251

Getting Your Team Up and Running 251

Avoiding ‘project-itis’: The scourge of organisations 252

Appreciating and using the stages of team development 253

Accelerating through the stages 254

Leading Team Members with Multiple Commitments 256

Investing time in the project’s purpose 256

Challenging unhelpful behaviour: Sorry, wrong room, wrong team! 257

Developing a Sense of Shared Accountability 258

Avoiding slopy shoulders 259

Remembering the team process 262

Appreciating the power of distributed leadership 262

Chapter 17: Facilitating Virtual Teams 265

Understanding Virtual Teams 265

Naming a team 266

Defining virtual teams 266

Comprehending the challenges of being a virtual team leader 268

Facing up to ‘we’re not a team because we never meet’ 269

Establishing Clever Ways of Working 270

Getting your ‘ducks in a row’ 270

Tackling ‘out of sight, out of mind’ 271

Appreciating differences in language 272

Working across different cultures 273

Accommodating larks and owls 274

Ending Your Virtual Team 275

Chapter 18: Leading Your Senior Management Team 277

Developing a Collective Sense of Responsibility 277

Breaking the dependency cycle 278

Helping managers out of their silos 279

Encouraging Courageous Conversations 280

Keeping your managers’ heads up 281

Critiquing each other’s thoughts and ideas 282

Being strong by being vulnerable 282

Sharing Accountability for Success 284

Stopping the blame game 285

Creating a healthy environment 285

Embedding the behaviours you cherish 287

Preparing Others for Leadership 288

Spotting potential high flyers 288

Part VI: The Part of Tens 291

Chapter 19: Ten Tips on Taking the Lead 293

Making Leadership Common Sense Your Common Practice 293

Believing that Everyone Wants to Make a Difference 294

Rising to Every (Leadership) Occasion 294

Building Up, Not Putting Down 295

Listening Before You Leap 295

‘Working With’ People Rather Than ‘Doing To’ People 296

Being Uncomfortably Comfortable 296

Speaking Up and Speaking Out! 297

Expanding Your Sphere of Influence 297

Keeping Your Head When Everyone Is Losing Theirs 298

Chapter 20: Ten Tips for Leading Yourself 299

Leading Yourself First 299

Being Authentic 300

Looking Out! You’re Always Being Watched 300

Avoiding Being a Busy Fool 300

Knowing Where to Draw the Line 301

Raising Your Hand High 301

Being a Healthy (Self) Critic 302

Talking Yourself Up 302

Modelling Yourself 303

Avoiding the Lonely Hearts Club 303

Chapter 21: Ten Tips for Engaging People 305

Earning People’s Respect 305

Being Bolder 306

Making Things Meaningful 306

Striving to Gain Commitment 307

Getting the Most from Measurement 307

Avoiding Being a Victim of Change 307

Celebrating People’s Contributions 308

Striking While the Iron’s Hot 309

Making a Good Team Great 309

Creating Time for Coaching 309

Index 311

Dr John Marrin is founder of Marwel & Co., which specialises in leadership development and employee engagement. He is a leading authority on how leaders of organisations totally engage their directors, managers and employees to enhance their commitment to deliver improved performance. He is a leadership coach and organisation development specialist to a wide range of clients including large multinationals, privately owned businesses and public sector organisations.