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Carl Robinson, Ph.D. on Leadership Store February 2, 2012
 
We help maximize the effectiveness of individuals and organizations by helping them improve their ability to lead, work together, select and develop their people.  Some of our related business services include: executive coaching, executive team coaching and executive assessments for development and selection.


Carl Robinson, Ph.D., Managing Principal
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Seattle, Washington
206-545-1990
carl@leadershipconsulting.com

In This Issue:

Read in President & CEO Magazine

Foster Self-Discipline in Yourself & Your Team

Create Change & Sustain Performance!

Situation Room






Training on Trial

Training on Trial (Amacom, 2010) by Jim D. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Wendy Kayser Kirkpatrick will give all readers who are connected to adult learning a wake-up call. This thoughtfully written book is meant to help all of us remember that training programs are just one component to a successful learning experience.
 
By citing recent studies and research, we learn that pre-training preparation and post-training follow-up activities are just as important to accomplishing employee development goals as the quality of the curriculum and trainer experience. 
 
The Kirkpatricks offer many real world examples of organizations that have realized success with their employee development programs,and show the reader how to integrate those practices in their own organization.
 
This book does not sugar coat the status of the training industry. The Kirkpatricks' tough love stance helps all of us understand that the training landscape has changed, and shows us how to take advantage of the new training paradigm.
>Buy at Amazon.com

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Read in President & CEO Magazine

Read The Science Side of Motivation, in my bi-monthly column in President & CEO magazine.
>Click here to read the article

Foster Self-Discipline in Yourself & Your Team

"Unless you change how you are, you'll always have what you've got."
— Jim Rohn
 
Whatever your personal or career goals are, self-discipline is the single most important tool to help you accomplish them. Put these daily practices into action to accomplish your own goals and become a more effective leader in the meantime!
 
Revisit your goals each day. Visualize yourself accomplishing your goals. The power of a clear vision will help jettison you toward your career goal.  Take that vision seriously by doing something to help that dream become a reality. 
 
Enlist a network. Start to use networks of friends and colleagues in your goals. Their support, encouragement and insight will aid your persistence.  It might even help you find a connection that you need!
 
Recover quickly. Force yourself to recover from failure. It is unlikely that you will reach your goal without any failed attempts or risks, so jump in and be ready to bounce back.
 
How do you transfer your acumen for self-discipline into a work environment that promotes self-discipline on its own? You are probably like most managers, in that taking disciplinary action is one of the least favorite parts of your job. That is why promoting an environment of self- discipline is so valuable.
 
How to foster an environment of self-discipline:
 
1. Provide a thorough training program. By providing and fostering a comprehensive training program you are setting the tone for continuous improvement. If chosen strategically, you will get the return on your training investment and much more—a demonstration of your priorities as a manager and organization.  
 
2. Clarify expectations. This seems obvious, but clarifying expectations in this case expands on the expectations you have for job performance and task completion. It also means that you should clarify your expectations of continuous improvement, employee initiatives, and problem solving.
 
3. Fan the flame of positive behavior. Catch people handling situations positively and taking action on their own. Reward them in whatever way you can, even if all you can do is give praise.
 
4. React positively to new ideas. Is your workplace open to new ideas?  Give any new idea some air time, whether it is implemented or not. This encourages people to take ownership over their work domain and pursue their own goals, without you driving their motivation. 
 
5. Keep a beat on your staff members. Do this by meeting with them regularly. These weekly meetings are typical, but often get pushed aside during busy periods.This sends the message that the meeting is unimportant. Emphasize how much you care about meeting with your staff members by setting their weekly update meeting in stone.

Create Change & Sustain Performance!

Certain kinds of change are always easy to make; increasing and decreasing budgets, maintaining strategic alliances, arranging a merger—The fact is that these bold strokes are not what create sustainable change in the organization; it is the long marches that pay off.
 
Long-term, effective organizational change requires people to adjust their behavior.  You can allocate resources for new product development or reorganize as a unit.  Regardless, you cannot order people to use their imagination to solve the budget crunch or to work collaboratively with other members on the team, in the department, or within cross-departmental problem-solving teams.  
 
Here are 7 Techniques for bringing about change in any organization:
 
1. Tuning in to the environment, through creating a network of listening posts, such as partnerships and alliances that allow you to gather and share information.
 
2. Challenging the prevailing organizational wisdom, through what is called “kaleidoscope’ thinking; a way of constructing patterns from fragments of data available and manipulating them to form different patterns.  Can you look at all of the available information and consider it in a new way? 
 
3. Communicating a compelling aspiration.  Changing anything requires a strong and genuine conviction, since there are so many forces to overcome.
 
4. Building Coalitions through the involvement of people who have the resources, knowledge and political clout to make things happen.
 
5. Transferring ownership to a working team.  Once your coalition is in place, you can enlist others in the implementation.  As a leader, you must remain involved, and don’t expect your managers to take over all of the proceedings. 
 
6. Learning to persevere.  Everything can look like a failure in the middle.  One of the major mistakes that leaders can make is to launch plans and then leave them.  Stay with your crew.
 
7. Making everyone a hero.  Recognition brings the change cycle to its logical conclusion, and also motivates people to attempt change again. 
 
Use these techniques not only to facilitate change but also to sustain performance in turbulent times

Situation Room

An executive team for a large company sent their senior managers to a seminar on quality.  Understandably, the executives were fully expecting that quality, productivity and overall performance would improve as a result of having sent their senior managers to the seminar. 
 
As time marched on, enthusiasm for the seminar waned, because the executive team could not identify any quantifiable quality-related improvements.  They couldn't figure out why the such a well-known and respected program didn't work for their own organization.  They even resorted to sending a subgroup of managers back for a refresher course, but the results remained flat. 
 
Why did this initiative fail?  What could have been done to avoid the disappointing outcome in this situation?
 
Send in your solution!


Featured Tool

The Complete Mentoring Program

The Complete Mentoring Program is a comprehensive, unified, video-based mentoring system.
Key Benefits:
By developing managers into mentors, an organization can create a credible succession strategy built on a foundation of inclusion, self-improvement, and loyalty.
This program provides all the tools you need to establish a system that nourishes high performers, who, in turn, will help develop the next generation.
 
Key Features:
The number one video-based mentoring program in the world. Over 90 minutes of video realistically models essential mentor behaviors in 6 dimensions. A series of organization readiness inventories enables the OD professional or trainer to ensure smooth integration of mentoring into the organizations unique environment.
An assessment for mentors prepares them for their role by evaluating their own skill readiness to take on mentor responsibilities. All the materials the program coordinator/leader needs to competently implement this mentoring—solution!
 
Description:
The Complete Mentoring Program is an all inclusive, turnkey package of tested materials for use by program coordinators, managers and trainers. This program offers a mentoring self-assessment inventory and provides the mentor and the mentee each with a separate handbook to guide them as informed participants. This program is centered on the mentoring model of interpersonal learning as a planned collaborative initiative.
 
This program includes:
1 copy of Becoming a Mentor: A Video-Based Workshop Series (6 videos)
1 copy of The Step-by-Step Guide to Starting an Effective Mentoring Program
1 copy of the Assessment of Organizational Readiness for Mentoring
10 copies of the Principles of Adult Mentoring Inventory
10 copies of The Manager's Pocket Guide to Effective Mentoring
10 copies of The Mentee's Guide to Mentoring
10 copies of the Guide to Mentee Planning
1 copy of the Principles of Adult Mentoring Inventory
Leader's Guide PowerPoint Presentation
 
 
Learn More.



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http://www.leadershipconsulting.com/
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