You need goals to get things done. However, not every goal is effective. The way that you word your goals will determine whether or not you reach them. When establishing goals, it is important to remember the Four P’s of goal setting. They need to be positive, personal, possible, and prioritized.

They Need to Be Positive
When you are creating goals, remember to make sure that they are positive. This means that you focus on what you want to achieve rather than what you want to avoid. For example, you would write, “I will achieve a promotion.” rather than “I will no longer work at this horrible job.” Staying focused on the positive will help improve your outlook and remove any negativity. This, in turn, will improve your chances for success. Reaching your goals will automatically help you avoid your present circumstances. When creating positive goals, remember to be as specific as possible.

They Need to Be Personal
When creating goals, they need to reflect your dreams and desires. Goals that are not personal are ineffective. Your goals should be about you and only you. For example, “My boss will appreciate me.” is an ineffective goal because it is not about you. It is possible to be a wonderful employee and still be unappreciated. A better goal would be, “I will find a supervisory position where I am appreciated for my talent.” If your goals are not personal, you will never achieve them. Making goals personal places the burden of responsibility on you, but it also means that other people do not determine when you reach your goals.

They Need to Be Possible
When creating goals, you need to make sure that they are possible. When you set impossible goals, you set yourself up for failure and disappointment. Creating possible goals demands that you be honest with yourself. Some goals may require continued education or experience to achieve while others will remain out of reach. For example, it is not possible for someone to become a famous singer without any talent whatsoever. You need to assess your talents and determine what you can achieve with hard work and what will be impossible for you to accomplish. Once you have determined which goals are possible for you to achieve, success will be within reach.

They Need to Be Prioritized
Brainstorming goals can become overwhelming. You will probably have more goals than you can handle. This is the time to prioritize your goals. Begin by numerically ranking your goals and choosing the five goals that are the most important to you. Choose these goals based on your passions, and make sure that they cover all areas of your life: professional, health, personal growth, finances, etc. All of your time and energy should be spent working towards these goals.

You should place your other goals on the back burner. It is not possible to focus on 20 goals at the same time. In fact, you should avoid the other goals at all cost. You risk becoming side tracked with less important goals if you continue to entertain them. You will need to reprioritize your goals periodically. For example, you can reprioritize after you achieve one of your top five goals.

To learn more on the topic of “Four P’s of Goal Setting”, buy our acclaimed self-directed training manual on Goal Setting and Getting Things Done for only $9.99. Delivered as downloads, it includes the training manual, action plan template, podcast, and digital badge.

The steps outlined in our previous post to set the stage towards consensus-building. When it comes to the actual decision point, it helps that a facilitator knows ways to guide a group towards optimal decision-making. In this post, we will discuss ways to identify options, create a short list, and choose a solution. We will also use a way of deciding not often considered by many, called the multi-option technique.

Identifying the Options
The following are some ways groups can identify options during decision-making. Some of these ways are also the ways of gathering information discussed earlier.

Brainstorm. Brainstorming is the process of coming up with as many ideas as you can in the shortest time possible. It makes use of diversity of personalities in a group, so that one can come up with the widest range of fresh ideas. Quantity of ideas is more important than quality of ideas in the initial stage of brainstorming; you can filter out the bad ones later on with an in-depth review of their pros and cons.

Round Robin. Ask each member of the group to suggest one option for consideration. All members must contribute an idea.

Facilitated SWOT Analysis. Some teams create each option as a group, and they do so by conducting a facilitated analysis of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as they relate to the problem.

The most import thing about these processes is that they are conducted in a consultative fashion.

Creating a Short List
There are many criteria a facilitator use to help a group create a shortlist. The following are just some of these ways:

Costs and benefits. An ideal solution is one that has the least costs and most benefits.

Disagreeing parties’ interests. An ideal solution has factored in the impact on all parties concerned and has made adjustments accordingly.

Foresight. An ideal solution doesn’t have just short-term gains bit long term ones as well.

Obstacles. An ideal solution has anticipated all possible obstacles in its implementation and has made plans accordingly.

Values. An ideal solution is one that is consistent with the mission-vision of the organization and or its individual members.

Choosing a Solution
There are many ways a facilitator can guide a group in creating a shortlist. The following are just some of these ways:

Decide on a criterion (or criteria). Ask the group to come up with the criteria to be used to evaluate each option. These criteria could be costs and benefits, consistency with the values of the organization, feasibility, etc. Once criteria are set, the facilitator can guide the group into weighing each option according the criteria.

Survey which options members like. A facilitator can also conduct a quick survey of what each group members like in the list. You can select the solution either by strict consensus or by majority vote.

Survey which options members don’t like. Similarly, a facilitator can ask the group which options from the short list are no-no’s and eliminate them from the list.

Using the Multi-Option Technique
When coming up with solutions to an issue, you are not limited to choosing one best one. You can also pick several solutions to a problem, and follow through on these many solutions simultaneously. This is process called the multi-option technique.

For instance, in addressing a problem about lagging sales, approaches can be related to poor advertising, poor market selection, or a problem in the product itself. A group following the multi-option technique will assign a person or team to follow through on each option. One team can create a better advertising campaign; another team can look for a better market; while another team can improve the product. In succeeding meetings, each team will report their results as separate teams.

The solutions followed through in a multi-option technique are not necessarily complimentary to one another, although groups have the option to follow through on only complimentary ideas. But if the group wants to see two opposing scenarios with different assumptions, they can do so.

How can a facilitator conduct the multi-option technique? The group can brainstorm several options, and the facilitator can help the group select which of the many options they want to pursue further.

This post is from November’s topic on Facilitation Skills.

The aim of facilitated discussions is to create participatory groups: one where the goal is cooperative rather than competitive decision-making. All members should have equal input in the process, and equal opportunity to voice opposition to an idea or conclusion. In this post, we will briefly discuss the key facilitation skills needed to build consensus.

Encouraging Participation
Consensus is more likely to happen if members feel encouraged to contribute. The following are some of the ways a facilitator can encourage participation in small groups:

Provide preparation guidelines in the meeting agenda. Participants are more likely to contribute, if they feel confident that they have something to add to the discussion. It’s helpful then to send out a meeting invitation with guidelines what to review and study in preparation for the meeting. It is also better if you can also send out guide questions ahead of time.

Before starting a group meeting, check on everyone’s comfort level. Some people are at ease being in meetings; others have difficulty. There are also situational factors, such as an uncomfortable seat or a poorly ventilated room, which can hamper group participation. Inquiring if group members are comfortable before starting a meeting can help a facilitator establish rapport with the group, and address hindrances to group participation.

State at the start of the meeting that members’ participation is not just welcome, but is integral to the process. Sometimes, all it takes is for the facilitator to explicitly say that members are allowed and encouraged to participate for the discussion to be a lively one. These guidelines can be made part of the orientation process.

Acknowledge responses. Show that you have heard and understood a contribution. You can do this in non-verbal and verbal ways. Non-verbal ways include eye contact, nodding, and leaning forward towards the speaker. Verbal ways include praising (“I’m glad you brought that up.”, “That’s a good point.”), clarifying (If I may reiterate what you just said, you suggested that, is this correct?), and requesting for more information (“Tell us more.”, “Please go on.”).
Avoid discounting responses. Similar, make sure that you’re careful not to give a response that might be interpreted as devaluing a contribution, or even ignoring it. Examples of discounting responses are “That was said already.”, “That’s irrelevant.”, “That’s it?, Is there anything else?”

Solicit group members’ responses. You can encourage participation by directly asking everyone their opinion on a subject matter. Example: “Can I get everyone’s opinion about this proposal?” or “Let’s share all our ideas. We won’t react until we’ve heard them all.”

Build on responses. A good way to encourage participation is to integrate each member’s response with that of other members or with the whole group. Similarities and differences are surfaced, and the way each point relates to another is verbalized. This way, the discussion is moving and the individual contributions are seen as relevant to the whole.

This post is from November’s topic on Facilitation Skills.

What is Situational Leadership?

Now we get to the nuts and bolts of leadership. The definitive leadership style research comes from Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard, which they expressed in their Situational Leadership Model. The Hersey-Blanchard model addresses the key to practical leadership development: the attributes and styles of the followers.

Not everyone is on the same intellectual, maturity, compliance, or motivational level.To be a great leader, one must take into account that different people have different motivations. Communications experts consider it critical to tailor your message to your “target audience.” It is the followers that you want to motivate and influence and you cannot do that if you don’t know whom you are trying to motivate or influence.

What are the different styles of Situational Leadership?

The Situational Leadership model addresses four types of leadership styles, based on the follower:

Situational Leadership: Telling
Telling is the lowest level of leadership style. Most new employees require direct instructions, so leaders utilize the “Telling” or “Directing” style. The follower, characterized by low competence and high commitment, may struggle to comply and may experience feelings of insecurity.

The leader must focus highly on tasks, rather than a relationship with the employee, as a relationship does not yet exist.

When an employee can’t do the job because they are unknowledgeable, the leader must spend much more time working with the employee, offering clear instructions and regular follow up. The leader must be encouraging and motivational, offering praise for positive results and correction for less than positive results. The idea is to motivate the follower to rise to the next level of ability.

This is a very leader-driven stage.

Situational Leadership: Selling
Selling addresses the follower who has developed some competence with an improved commitment. The follower, although not yet convinced, remains open to becoming cooperative and motivated.

The leader must still focus highly on tasks and this still requires much of the leader’s time, but the focus now also includes developing a relationship with the employee. Hence by Continuing to build upon the trust that has begun to develop and the demonstrated encouragement. The leader must spend more time listening and offering advice, scheduling the follower for additional training if the situation requires it.

The goal is to engage the follower so they can develop to the next level. There is less “telling” and more “suggesting” which leads to more encouragement, acting as a coach. It is recognition that they have progressed and motivates them to progress even further.

This is a very leader-driven stage.

Situational Leadership: Participating
Participating addresses the follower who is now competent at the job, but remains somewhat inconsistent and is not yet fully committed. The follower may be uncooperative or perform as little work as possible, despite their competence with the tasks

The leader must participate with and support the follower. The leader no longer needs to give detailed instructions and follow up as often, but does need to continue working with the follower to ensure the work is being done at the level required.

The follower is now highly competent, but is not yet convinced in his or her ability or not fully committed to do their best and excel. Hence, The leader must now focus less on the tasks assigned and more on the relationship between the follower, the leader, and the group.

This is a very follower-driven, relationship-focused stage.

Situational Leadership: Delegating
Delegating is the ultimate goal: a follower who feels fully empowered and competent enough to take the ball and run with it, with minimal supervision. The follower is highly competent, highly committed, motivated, and empowered.

Lastly, The leader can now delegate tasks to the follower and observe with minimal follow up, knowing that acceptable or even excellent results will be achieved. There is a low focus on tasks and a low focus on relationships. While it’s unnecessary to compliment the follower on every task, it’s important to provide continued praise for outstanding performance as appropriate.

This is a very follower-driven stage.

To learn more on the topic of Situational Leadership, buy our acclaimed self-directed training manual on Leadership and Influence for only $9.99. Delivered as downloads, it includes the training manual, action plan template, podcast, and digital badge

It’s hard to feel happy at work when we focus on the negative. Making the small shift to accentuate the positive can go a long way toward greater happiness at work. Finding ways to focus on the positive aspects of your life, your job, and your workplace, even when negative things happen, can foster your workplace happiness. Positive thinking is in many ways a choice – when we choose to see the positive rather than the negative, it attracts positive experiences to us.

Use a Daily Affirmation
One way to start your day off on a positive note, and to focus on positivity throughout the day, is to use a daily affirmation. Affirmations are simple, positive statements that you repeat throughout the day, either mentally or out loud. A simple affirmation could be, “Today is going to be a great day.” You can write your own affirmations, or use affirmations written by others – there are many books and websites that offer up daily affirmations. You might use the same affirmation each day, or choose a new affirmation every morning, once a week, or once a month. An affirmation gives you something to focus on when you are tempted to drift into negative thinking or you are faced with other people’s negative attitudes. Some people find it helpful to print out or write their affirmation and keep it somewhere visible. There are also beautiful pieces of art with affirmations available, if you choose to put your affirmation in your office.

Surround Yourself with Positive People
One way to stay positive is to surround yourself with positive people. While you may have to interact with people who are less than positive in order to accomplish tasks at work, you can choose to surround yourself with positive people whenever possible. Choose to interact with coworkers and colleagues who have a positive outlook. When you put together your support team, choose people who have a consistently positive outlook. This doesn’t mean choosing people who will never tell you hard truths or who never have a bad day, but it does mean choosing people who attempt to find the positive in even difficult situations, who act with compassion, and who seek to lift others up rather than bring them down.

Limit Your Negative Interactions
Another way to keep yourself focused on the positive at work is to limit your negative interactions. There will be times when you will have to interact with negative people, but it is important to limit these interactions if at all possible. Avoiding office gossip is another way to limit negative interactions. Once you have a list of positive people to surround yourself with, seek them out instead of engaging in negative interactions. It can be tempting to vent or join in when others complain, but this can bring negativity into your day. It’s understandable to want to vent frustrations, but if possible you should find a way to turn this into a positive interactions. If there are people in your workplace that are consistently negative and with whom you do not have to interact, keep your interactions with them professional and pleasant, but brief. Another way to limit negative interactions is to be aware of the type of media you consume – we can’t avoid bad news and negative images totally, but being sure to also feed your mind positive images is key to staying positive and happy.

Build Friendships
Building friendships at work also helps keep you focused on the positive. Having strong friendships at work gives you a built in support network. When you choose positive people to build friendships with, it is easier to avoid negative interactions and choose positive ones instead. The time you spend socializing with colleagues helps to lay the groundwork for work friendships. Seek out colleagues and coworkers who share your interests, who make you smile or laugh, or who appear to share your goals and values. Collaborate with these people when possible, and seek to spend time with them that is not focused on work.

Do One Thing Every Day That You Love and Enjoy
Taking time each day to do one thing you love and enjoy goes a long way toward fostering happiness. Whether you do yoga in the morning, drink a cup of your favorite tea, visit a funny website, or engage in a rewarding hobby, finding something you love and making time to do it is key to your well-being. It is not even necessary to do the thing you love in the context of work – just knowing it will be part of your day fosters happiness. When we don’t take time to do things we love, our lives become a series of obligations. Taking time to engage in something you love and enjoy activates parts of your brain associated with joy and pleasure, and this fosters an overall sense of mental and emotional well-being.

Seek to Make Positive Changes
Happiness is a process. Even when we decide to choose happiness, it won’t happen overnight. Seek to continuously make positive changes in your life, and you will find your happiness growing. Whether it’s implementing the suggestions from this post such as doing something you love each day or limiting your interactions with negative people, every step you take towards a more positive life leads to greater happiness. Adopt a continuous improvement mindset and constantly look for ways in which you can make positive changes. Also reward yourself for making changes.

Happiness is a journey!

This post is from Septembers’s topic on Increasing Your Happiness.

Evolution of Leadership- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader!”
John Quincy Adams

 As long as there have been leaders, there have been those who tried to determine how and why they were successful. When we talk about The Evolution of Leadership, Leadership itself has not evolved, but our understanding of it has. It is important to understand why very different leadership styles can be effective, why the same leadership techniques will not work in every situation, and which leadership style fits your personality best. Everyone has leadership potential within them, but understanding these concepts will help you maximize your leadership ability. Welcome to the evolution of leadership.

Defining Leadership

Before we dive into The Evolution of Leadership, It is important to define leadership first. Simply speaking, “leadership” is defined as “the ability to lead.” Unfortunately, this is not very helpful. A better definition comes from the BNET online Business Dictionary: “The capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance.” Although this is more descriptive, it is not substantial. It does not tell us what leadership actually is, but rather what it does.

Characteristics of a Leader

The mark of a true leader is not a position or title held, but it is how many people are willing to follow them. Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters group outline the following leadership characteristics:

The United States Army offers 11 Leadership Principles:

You will notice that none of the above actually tells you how to lead in a practical manner. They don’t address what to do or say in any given situation. That is because there is no real formula to being a leader. Leadership must come from within and it is based on your personality.

A Brief History of Leadership

Evolution of Leadership- Historical Leaders:
Throughout the centuries, there have been leaders. We are social animals who bond together, but we look for order against the chaos of life. Society looks to organize itself to accomplish tasks that individuals cannot perform individually. As a result, someone inevitably ends up in charge.

The evolution of leadership gave rise to different types of leaders. Leaders in the past have generally belonged to one of three categories: Political, Military, or Religious. 

Evolution of Leadership- Modern Leaders:
With the rise of the Industrial Revolution, We have also seen an Evolution of Leadership, a new kind of leader emerged: Economic. The so-called Captains of Industry found they could build an empire based on modern technology instead of swords. Oil barons, railroad magnates, and factory owners amassed large fortunes without relying on armies; often, this occurred at the expense of the people they employed. This situation prompted the emergence of union leaders and various movements aimed at promoting justice where perceived abuses existed.

The Industrial Revolution also increased the number of Scientific Leaders, as scientists now had easy access to a wide range of new materials for their work. Psychiatry and Psychology came into prominence with studies on the workplace, in regards to improving productivity and the effect on the workforce.

Studies have shown consistently that workers are more productive when they are in a “positive work environment.” The attitude and influence of the boss is a major factor in this productivity. If employees feel they are listened to, respected, and treated fairly, they are happier in their work and perform better than those who feel they are disrespected and unappreciated. Which kind of work environment would you prefer?

Three Theories of Leadership

The Great Man Theory:
The Great Man Theory was abandoned in favor of the theories of behavioral science. It’s easy to be inspired by stories of great men and women who did great things in their lives. Alexander the Great conquered the known world. Genghis Khan then ravaged most of it. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Harriet Tubman saved hundreds from slavery in the Underground Railroad. Mother Theresa aided and comforted thousands in Calcutta who were abandoned by society. Theory goes that these people did great things because they were simply great people determined by fate and fulfilling their destiny.

The Trait Theory:
Generally, People often say, “Great leaders are born, not made.” Trait Theory takes this saying literally. If you have the ability to lead, you were born with it, with no way to learn those skills. This theory expands on the Great Man Theory by defining what makes great leaders “great.”

Today, we recognize that true leadership seems to come from a combination of both theories and a wide variety of other leadership qualities. Everyone has some ability in at least one or more of these areas. Consequently, This means that under the right circumstances, anyone can rise to a leadership role and be successful based on the leadership style that best matches their personality if they know how to use that ability to properly address the situation at hand. Other leadership skills can indeed be learned, developed, and mastered.

Transformational Leadership:
In 1978, James MacGregor Burns introduced the idea of transformational leadership as he researched political leaders. Burns theorized that “transformational leadership” is a process where leaders interact with their followers and inspire each other to advance together. Moreover, His characteristics and behaviors demonstrated the differences between “management” and “leadership.” The leadership style and abilities of the leader transform both people and organizations, as the leader conveys a vision and guides the transformation.

Bernard M. Bass, in 1985, added to Burns’ transformational leadership theory by shifting the focus to the followers. It is not the individual traits and vision of the leader that matter as much as it is their ability to influence the feelings, attitudes, and commitment of their followers. As mentioned before in productivity studies, when followers believe they can trust a leader (or even better, when they admire a leader who can inspire loyalty and respect), they exceed their original expectations and do so willingly. Consequently, productivity and unity increase resulting in a charismatic, motivational leader transforming the followers.

To learn more on the topic “Evolution of Leadership”, buy our acclaimed self-directed training manual on Leadership and Influence for only $9.99. Delivered as downloads, it includes the training manual, action plan template, podcast, and digital badge.

Discover new insights and best practices on leadership-related topics.

They say that leaders are born, not made. While it is true that some people are born leaders, some leaders are born in the midst of adversity. Often, simple people who have never had a leadership role will stand up and take the lead when a situation they care about requires it. A simple example is parenting. When a child arrives, many parents discover leadership abilities they never knew existed in order to guide and protect their offspring.

Once you learn the techniques of true Leadership, you will be able to build the confidence it takes to take the lead. The more experience you have acting as a genuine leader, the easier it will be for you. It is never easy to take the lead, as you will need to make decisions and face challenges, but it can become natural and rewarding.

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