Point Taken Summer Newsletter 2009: Issue 24

Follow the Leader

Let’s face it, we all fall into a pattern of communication that we are comfortable with. For some, this means a lack of confrontation and for other it involves never backing down. As we face communication challenges in the work place, there are tools that make us better team players and stronger leaders.

The Impact of Empowered Leadership:
Your team’s feelings about your leadership style are crucial to their performance and the outcomes of your workplace goals. Try these steps when working with your team and facing challenges as a leader:

  • Enabling: Trust your team to do their best and be sure that they know you have confidence in them.
  • Involving: Make your team a part of the decision making process as much as you can while controlling the process. Bringing them in on the process gives more ownership of their work.
  • Encouraging: Highlight what they do well, and give them praise when you can. Let them know that the challenges they are facing can be overcome.

To learn more about becoming a stronger leader, take a look at the information on Point Taken’s newest workshop, Empowered Leadership.


Quote of the month:

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
– Peter F. Drucker

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Her Point Exactly:

A message from the president

Sometimes it just pays to be in the right place at the right time. But is there anything you can do to improve your odds of this happening?

I’d like to share the story about the brother of one of our trainers. He was not an outstanding student, not a real ‘joiner’ of clubs, and not someone whose resume would immediately cause recruiters to swoon. Yet, just two years out of school, he is on the fast track; he’s been hired to a leading firm in his industry (at a hefty salary), tapped for a leadership management program that takes him on overseas assignments – and when his current employer saw his resume on a job search site, he was actually offered a raise and a promotion to get him to stay!

The intriguing part is how it all happened: he parlayed his tennis coaching connections into a job interview, and was hired. At his first corporate dinner, he sat down at the wrong table. Yes, instead of sitting with all the newbies, he sat with senior management. The next Monday, he was tapped for the leadership management program. Coincidence? I don’t think so. More like strategic planning.

It’s often those low level interactions, where people get to see the ‘real’ us, that connections are formed. It’s how we make friends, find spouses, and even get promoted. Big events like company presentations or job interviews make it feel like there are hurdles and tests for us to overcome. But a more accurate assessment of what colors others’ impressions of us is in those smaller situations – like, say, dinner conversation.

According to experts, the job interview is one of the least effective ways to evaluate a potential job candidate because performance in the interview is not strongly correlated with future job performance. Yet we spend all our effort on this, and ignore the real opportunities that may be right in front of us – at a dinner table, coffee shop, dog park, or any other location where we can interact with other humans.

Anyplace could be the next right place for you. Expand beyond your comfort zone, and sit at the wrong table, just once. It could change your life.

~Beth Rogers