How to Develop Leadership Qualities
Leadership qualities the most valuable items are of any organization. If you have a great leader, you have a great organization. Leadership development, your business, organization and community is critical to the success.
Great leaders know that their own leadership qualities are not enough to carry the day. Success working as a team needs all hands on deck. These will help you develop leadership qualities in the people around steps. Difficulty: Medium Challenge Instruction
1. Build a leadership development culture
Leadership qualities of leadership development a culture of values and desires of the community to help improve their leadership. Leadership development organization for it to be woven into every aspect of life led to a culture of growth and development.
2. Success as a Leadership Development Award
Results for the prize most often exist in the business world, of course. But one outcome is often overlooked … Personal development. Leadership development efforts and lessons learned from taking risks Reward. If you risk punishment, you limit the success of leadership development, and stunts.
3. Paying people for leadership development
If you try to create a culture of leadership development as preaching but people always learn on your own money you are fighting an uphill battle is expected. Leadership skills to give people time to pay.
4. Creating regular opportunities for leadership development
Keep your personal and organizational leadership development on the calendar. To develop and enhance leadership qualities of a regular meeting schedule. Have leadership skills seminars put on by an expert in the field. Bring in guest speakers to refer to the key leadership concepts. Every few years led to pay a consultant to analyze the culture of leadership.
5. Guardian Leaders Promise
There is no bigger than the one on the way to promote leadership development consulting. The leaders did not shrink wrapped and can be mass produced. Many leadership concepts and theories at a time can be learned from a large group. But leadership requires application of knowledge, and guided by the individual person.
The ABC of Foreign Affairs–The Bible of World Leaders
As a former diplomat, I had the opportunity to observe the behavior of nations at close range and from a commanding view.
The complexities and challenges facing America and other countries in today’s multi-polar, interdependent, tumultous, and fast-moving world is mind-boggling. But the art of statecraft remains unchanged since the birth of nation-states and can be reduced to five basic rules or principles, all of which are closely related.
Together, these rules constitute the playbook by which the leaders of the world operate to accomplish their goals in the dangerous arena of foreign affairs.
Rule No. 1: The first duty of a state is to survive
Survival is paramount. Everything else is secondary. Values and morality are expendable in the altar of survival. All important acts of a state, herein defined simply as an organized political community operating under a government, are aimed at preserving itself. In other words, to defend and promote its system and way of life.
This rule was invoked by the United States when president Truman ordered atomic bombs to lay waste the civilian centers of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It was a carnage of unprecedented magnitude on non-military targets but it was justifiable on the ground that it was necessary to force Japan to surrender without further delay. The nuclear bombs in fact did just that and thus saved perhaps as many as a million American lives.
The end (the survival of an inordinately large number of American lives) justified the means ( the massive destruction of two Japanese cities).
Rule No.2 : Foreign Policy is an extension of a country’s domestic policy
When world leaders go to the negotiating table they bring with them the hopes, fears, and dreams of their peoples. Specifically, what every leader is willing to give (in return for what the other side wants) depends on how each item on the table impacts on his country’s domestic policy and interests. In a very real sense, every leader is a hostage to this reality.
Take the war in Afghanistan where the US and its ally Pakistan can’t see eye-to-eye on the problem of Taliban insurgents operating from their sanctuaries in Pakistan. To the US military leaders, the Talibans continue to survive and mount attacks aimed at American targets because Pakistan is coddling the insurgents.
Why is Pakistan, an ally that received billions of US aid in recent years, protecting the Talibans ? Because it’s greatest security fear is its big neighbor, India. Pakistan needs a friendly Afghanistan buffer that will act as a counterweight to India’s growing power. This fear overrides it’s discomfort of displeasing Washington.
Both have been allies for many years but due to divergent, conflicting national interests, Pakistan and the US see the Taliban problem through different lens.
Rule No. 3: We cannot Escape Geography
Geography is the nourishing mother of nations and its first line of defense against invaders. Woe to a nation that neglects this reality.
The US is not called “fortress America” for nothing. Fortunate to have a continental size country bounded on its Eastern and Western flanks by two of the world’s largest oceans, the US is geographically endowed with great protective barriers against the terrible land wars that ravaged continental Europe during two world wars.
On the other hand you have a small country like Israel, surrounded by hostile states committed to its destruction. Lacking adequate and secure natural boundaries to assure its safety and well-being, Israel cannot escape the severe constraints of its geography. It must live constantly under its fearful shadow. It’s foreign policy always reflects that reality, for better or worse.
A nation’s foreign policy, being a continuation of its domestic policy, should never lose sight of it’s geographic interest: the wealth on its shores or lack of it, and the same reckoning of its neighbors. This accounting and inventory of a nation’s assets and liabilities, from its military, manpower, land, internal waters, natural resources, intellectual infrastructure, etc. is consistent with the dictum, “know yourself, your friends, and your enemies.”
A leader that goes to negotiations without a firm grasp of his country’s strengths and weaknesses is an unprepared leader with a weak and shaky hand.
Rule No. 4: Size (Power) Matters
Powerful, triumphant states write (or rewrite) history. In war and in peace, size matters. From the Roman empire to post-war, Pax Americana, power (military, ideological, political, psychological, and economic) dictated the course of history.
But although most often, big states get what they want, directly or indirectly, smaller states who know how to play the power game can sometimes make up for their smaller size. One simple way is to have strong relations and partnerships with powerful states, like the US, Russia, or China, an alliance that protects weak states from the predatory machinations of stronger ones.
Short of war, most of the time, powerful states accomplish their foreign policy goals through a combination of quiet diplomacy, persuasive leverage, and rewards and punishment (carrot and stick).
A rare example of a small state wielding respect and power far beyond its shores is Singapore. This tiny island city-state, lacking any natural resources, earned its spurs by replacing its underdeveloped status with a powerhouse, high-end economy that is the envy of many nations. In international forums, Singapore’s voice is always accorded respect.
Rule No. 5: There Are No Permanent Friends, Only Permanent Interests
Foreign policy is governed by the morality of hard-nose pragmatism. To paraphrase strategic thinker Leslie H. Gelb, idealism, reason, and values are fine but ” they are only foreplay.”
Today’s friends may be tomorrow’s enemies and vice-versa. Consider the following :
China and Russia, once America’s nasty cold war enemies could now be considered relatively viable partners in international relations.
Germany, a formidable and hated American enemy during the last two World Wars, is now a reliable US ally.
Similarly Japan, the country that inflicted a near mortal blow against US naval forces in the Pacific theater, has been a close American ally for decades.
Again, the end (economic and security partnerships) justifies the means (sleeping with a once hated enemy).
Statecraft recognizes that the world is neither black or white but a combination of both. A wise leader quickly learns that it’s best to be as self-reliant as possible and not to expect too much from other nations.
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Leadership Coaching Skills – Educational Leadership
There are many types of leadership, and each of them works best in specific situations. While we are familiar with transformation, transactional, and strategic leadership, many of us have not quite heard about educational leadership. In this type of leadership, a leader must be open to learning and helps his or her team to learn. And in this case, one would need to have effective leadership coaching skills if you seek to help develop the skills of both leaders and subordinates.
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Having effective leadership coaching skills is quite necessary, especially in organizations that are serious about having effective leaders and motivated employees. Leaders also need their share of coaching and without effective coaching skills; one can easily fail at helping leaders develop their different skills.
What makes leadership coaching so challenging is that many people get intimated by leaders. And many people think that leaders already know what they are doing and there is nothing else to learn. When this happens, it can indeed be difficult to help leaders improve their skills, and it is almost impossible for leadership coaching to take place.
And this brings us to thinking that effective coaching skills stem from having an open mind towards continuous development and training, which is quite true and important. Without a firm conviction about continuous development and training, leadership coaching would not exist. And if you cannot find a good leadership coach within the office, there is still an option left – seeking help from career development firms that have experts in leadership coaching.
Improving leadership coaching skills apart from leadership alone is quite important in every organization. It is not always that you will need to bring in help to improve the skills of your leaders. In many cases, the very help you need is lurking within the organization and simply needs to be motivated to come out of their shells.
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Elearning Online Courses for Women ? Helping Women To Be Their Best
It’s not a sexist comment when women say that life is harder for them. For the most part, it is the truth and we just have to look at the many factors that women have to deal with on a daily basis to prove this. Women of this century have to juggle so many tasks at the same time – being a mother, a career woman, a wife, and a homemaker – and aside from handling such responsibilities, there are other pressures that they have to put up with like the dictates of media on how a woman should look and the constant clamor for equality of men and women in society. This is why many women organization push for career education and personality development seminars for women. On the other hand, not everyone can attend such classes because most do not have the luxury of time and resources to invest on such. To catapult and deliver these important lessons to women, many of these organizations have used the power of elearning online, hence the birth of online courses targeted to help women survive the challenges of the modern world.
Here is a rundown of some of the online courses for women that you can find on the web. Let’s take a closer look at the overview of these programs and their benefits to help women be their best in whatever they do.
1. Women Negotiation
These elearning online courses help women learn skills on how to get what they truly deserve especially in the workplace. These types of courses offer lessons on getting the salary they want, negotiating for a better deal with clients or superiors, and improving working relationships with colleagues. These are perfect for career women on the move and those who want to climb the corporate ladder.
2. Online Business Opportunities
Courses like these focus on how women can get paid for their skills and interests. They teach women on how to find the right niche that can generate them income. It is surprising how many online business opportunities are out there that fit women. There’s direct selling for major companies like Avon and Mary Kaye. There are businesses that capitalize on specialized skills that require a keen focus on details, a characteristic that women possess, like medical transcription and web design.
3. Health and Beauty
A woman’s health is fragile and working in a stressful environment and dealing with gender responsibilities do not do a thing to help females get in better shape. This is why online courses and products relating to health and beauty really sell. Mostly, these courses offer tips that are scientifically proven to improve overall wellness.
4. Self-Confidence for Women
With all the magazines and television shows that dictate what women should look like and be like, 95% of the time, females find it hard to build their self-esteem and feel confident about themselves. And from self-confidence for women courses, they will find the push they need to live a healthy life emanating with newly found confidence. These online programmes and software give specific steps that participants and users can do to get out of their shells and live the life they deserve.
Models of Leadership under Scrutiny
What are the variables through which leadership potential can be identified? Over the years innumerable studies have focused on everything from situational leadership to the contingency approach to leadership. In other words, researchers continued to look for links between leaders’ behavior, their personality characteristics and situational variables. The question as to whether different situations required different kinds of leaders continued. Meanwhile, Hoy and Miskel focused their attention on the contingency approach, attempting to “specify the conditions or situational variable that moderate the relationship between leader traits or behaviors and performance criteria” [1987: 274].
Prior to that, in 1967, Fiedler attempted to differentiate between behavior and leadership styles. He concluded that there was a clear link between leaders’ specific actions and leadership behaviors. Furthermore, he noticed a similarity between the motivational system of leaders and a corresponding leadership style. From this he concluded that the style of leadership, taken together with the kind of situation they were in, resulted in how effective the group was at fulfilling tasks. Situational characteristics, in conjunction with leaders’ effectiveness, were the subject of House’s research in 1971. From this House came up with the Path-Goal Theory that expressed how an appropriate interaction between the behaviors of leaders in conjunction with situational characteristics resulted in the effectiveness of leaders’ effectiveness.
Using the Path-Goal Theory, House isolated four leadership qualities:
Directive
Achievement-orientated
Supportive
Participative
Furthermore, House identified two variables, both situational:
The personal characteristics of those who were in subordinate positions
The rules and regulations of the relevant organization. This could also be identified as environmental demands.
In truth, House’s Path-Goal Theory failed to answer some questions. The Contingency Models, of which the Path-Goal Theory was a part, was still unable to fully explain how personality characteristics, leaders’ behaviors and situational variables could combine to provide the most effective leadership material. Bearing this in mind, Barnes and Kriger [1986] suggested the idea of organizational leadership. They explained the reason for this particular model. No conclusion had yet been reached about effective leadership because the previous models:
“…deal more with the single leader and mult-follower concept than with organizational leadership in a pluralistic sense” [Barnes and Kriger, 1986: 15].
Barnes and Kriger cite the importance of the whole organization, emphasizing that leadership should not be focused on an individual’s personality or the skills of one person. Rather, attention should be focused on the whole organization where leader roles overlap, each being complemented by the other. They go on to explain that these leadership roles become: “…shifted from time to time and from person to person…” [p.16].
From this Barnes and Kriger suggest that their theory exhibits a “more inclusive concept of leadership” [p.16]. Studies by Slater and Doig [1988] seem to reinforce the opinion that the organization should be at the centre of studies involving leadership skills. Their work appears to go along with the suggestions made by Barnes and Kriger that, within organizations, leadership roles often tend to overlap and complement each other, with leadership often shifting from one leader to another, depending on the situation that is appropriate at any given time. Slater and Doig make this quite clear by stating that a ‘team of individuals’ could also be used for leadership within an organization [1988: 296]. Murphy, too, advocates the effectiveness of organizations with multiple leaders at different positions within the organization’s hierarchy [1988: 655].
Over the years four main classifications of leadership theories have emerged. These include Trait Theories; Behavioral Theories; Contingency Theories; together with Power and Influence Theories. The first of these groups refers to the best kind of person that has the makings of a good leader; the second of the groups relates to the kinds of things a good leader does to establish that hierarchy; the third group refers to how circumstance may affect the quality of leadership; whilst the final group explains the relationship between the accepted leader and where that actual recognition of leadership qualities emerged from.
Black Women Entrepreneurs : the 7 Traits to an Exceptional & Successful Business
How often have you either referred to or considered the expression, “Success is a journey and not a Destination?” Probably many times, yet often being in a hurry to get there, we forget that success is not an end unto itself, but is instead an ongoing process.
Though some people seem to have the Midas touch and easily turn everything to gold, most of us have to give our endeavors lots of time, effort and the sweat of our brow before seeing things come to fruition. The simple truth is that the majority of us are simply not born leaders, but become leaders by who we are and the actions we take. Consequently, whether or not you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out on your journey, there are particular traits you’ll usually find operating within the exceptional women entrepreneur. In fact there are 7 particular traits you’ll generally discover deeply embedded within the exceptional and successful businesswoman.
If you’ve already taken the plunge as an entrepreneur, you know that it takes a great deal of planning, development and strategic marketing to succeed. At any given time, there are changes to be considered and new directions to examine. In which case, whether you’re the CEO, CFO, Chief Marketer or Chief Solutions Officer of your company, your journey to success is probably full of trials and tribulations.
To support you in your journey to success, be willing to open your mind and sense of reasoning as you consider whether these traits are part of your driving force. If they are not yet ingrained within you, I recommend that you give them some thought.
THE 7 TRAITS TO SUCCESS
1) Successful Entrepreneurs Gain the Respect of their Peers
One of the first and most obvious characteristics you’ll see operating in an exceptional entrepreneur is an equitable and unbiased disposition . Plain and simple the successful entrepreneur recognizes that no one is above or below. With an attitude of respect for others, the successful entrepreneur gains the respect from everyone they encounter. Strategies, attitudes and methods filter down to each person and reflect on all actions and activities. A successful entrepreneur gives everyone the space to be great. No matter how effective or beneficial your expertise, becoming a successful entrepreneur requires building up of your character muscles, traits and habits, which correspondingly make your dreams a reality.
2) Successful Entrepreneurs Believe and Trust in Themselves
The savvy entrepreneur is good at trusting her own ideas and instincts. Starting out as an entrepreneur requires persistence, determination and a high level of self-discipline. Continuing as a successful entrepreneur requires even more persistence, determination and self-discipline. The wise and successful entrepreneur knows this and works hard at developing their level of confidence. If you have a strong code of ethics and believe in yourself, then your ideas can work. Having the desire and passion are the first steps on your journey; getting there requires believing in yourself.
3) Successful Entrepreneurs Follow a Plan
The successful entrepreneur follows a plan. Haphazard or trial and error have no place for the triumphant entrepreneur, for no one gets to her destination without a map or a guide to follow. That doesn’t mean you won’t go off course if another road seems better, but it’s still more effective to have a plan in place. Most successful entrepreneurs start out by writing a basic business plan that acts as the impetus and guide for their endeavors. It doesn’t have to be fancy or lengthy but it should include marketing strategies, goals, intentions, ideas and why you can do better than your competition. A business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically for each new idea stirs and inspires other ideas.
4) Successful Entrepreneurs Think Creatively
Successful entrepreneurs are not afraid of thinking creatively. Whether a business idea has already been tried makes no difference to the exceptional entrepreneur. She sees better ways of doing things and knows that every idea can be expanded upon, made better, enhanced or broadened . The successful entrepreneur is willing to think outside or the proverbial box, which means using imagination, trying new things and expanding on a vision. The savvy entrepreneur pays careful attention as to whether a particular strategy is working. If after giving it her best shot the entrepreneur realizes the particular strategy isn’t working, they know there’s no point in continuing to invest energy, time and effort in the strategy. They move on to another approach and idea.
5)Successful Entrepreneurs Explore Their Exceptional Skills
Successful entrepreneurs realize that we each have our strengths and weaknesses as well as a multitude of skills and talents. Successful people ask themselves often what skills they have that no one shares in quite the same way. An exceptional and successful entrepreneur explores their particular skills until they find the ones that match most closely with their ideal. They don’t try to be and do everything. If the successful entrepreneur needs help, they’re willing to find someone who can do it better, and allows in the support. The successful entrepreneur stays open to change for they recognize that as they move forward, doors open in unexpected places that carry them to their next level of success.
6) Successful Entrepreneurs Envision Their Success
The successful entrepreneur gives time to envisioning how they want their business to look and how they want it to be. Intention is a powerful and dynamic tool. For those who are not inclined towards intention and visualization, talk to a successful athlete and you’ll discover that before each sporting event, the successful athlete envisions exactly how he or she wants things to turn out. Imagine what it will feel like when you’ve reached a particular set of goals. Get in touch with the feelings, you’d have as a successful entrepreneur. Practice and conceive of the sense of empowerment and the joy of having succeeded. The successful entrepreneur knows they have the power to live life the way they want, but to make it a reality, they know it has to be seen first.
7) Successful Entrepreneurs Never Give Up
Giving up is never in the vocabulary of the successful woman entrepreneur. Of course there may be days when a successful entrepreneur feels discouraged or disappointed, but giving up is not an option. Having faith, trust, confidence and determination are the qualities needed for the successful entrepreneur. To keep their focus on track, they seek out the support of those that know them, encourage them and bring out their natural enthusiasm. The smart and successful entrepreneur realizes that there will be good days and not so good days.
Being a successful woman entrepreneur requires accepting the ebbs and flows of business for it is in fact what separates the exceptional and successful entrepreneur from the one who gives up far too soon.