Leadership: Practical Leadership Skills

There was a train crash in the UK a few years ago in which someone died, and immediately all eyes turned to the technician who went home early instead of being available for technical support. But... was the crash his fault? In this course we argue that actually his layers of management are the ones to blame, and at the end of every question is the answer "Everything is management's fault".

An important part of your role as a manager is to keep an eye on what your people are doing, where thing could be going wrong, and where your support might be needed.

In this lecture we'll look at ways you can do that without your team feeling like you're breathing down their necks. Some people may need more monitoring than others, and some simply need to be thanked and encouraged.

Remember - if something goes wrong it's YOUR FAULT for not knowing what's going on in your department, so monitoring and understanding are vital skills for a great leader.

Communication is a huge part of Leadership, and it's very likely that you're not doing enough of it. In this lecture we look at what type of communication you should be doing, how often, and in what manner.

This section will recommend that communication is done on a daily one-to-one basis, but also on a company wide scale at least once a year. It's important for people to feel part of a team progressing towards a bigger picture. You'll be amazed how much people draw on company goals for their own motivation and quality output. Make sure everyone in your team knows their own personal goals and path, as well as the wider corporate plan.

We'll cover 5 types of communication that you should be doing at some point between daily and annually.

An age old debate is about whether leaders are natural born talents, or it's a skill that can be learnt and honed. We examine how much of leadership is to do with management, and is a learned skill, and how much is the talent of people like Ghandi or Branson.

Who are the leaders you look up to, and why? Perhaps they are inspirational speakers and charismatic people, but perhaps they just always make time for you and give plenty of thanks to people for working hard. Maybe you can see the good and bad sides of your manager and draw advice from that too.

This lecture looks at the practical secrets behind what scientifically makes a great manager John Adair's study outlined the things you need to DO to be in the top percentage of managers,

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is the cornerstone of motivational theory and has been around for decades. This lecture explains the theory, how it applies to real life, and debunks some of the myths around it.

The hierarchy starts from basic survival needs like food and shelter which most people are lucky enough to have. Then it progresses to safety and security which is certainly a part you can offer as a manager by giving job security and adequate salary. Thirdly love and belonging (friends, networks, family) which many draw from their work community and managers can enhance with social events and communal spaces. Next comes esteem - a sense of importance and self capability - powerfully available from work is their leader is thanking often and giving challenging tasks. And finally, Self Actualisation, which simply means being your best and achieving long term progression.

It is very much possible for you as a leader to supply all these levels to your team, but it's also easy to let something slip and ruin the entire structure. One to watch!

Here is a little downloadable to help you apply Maslow to your working environment. It includes examples of how you can give your team each of the areas of need, and ensure they are motivated and happy long term.

This theory was invented by Chris Croft and explores how focusing on someone's worst feature can cause them to slowly shrink into work-depression until they are hardly functional. It's a problem that's extremely common, and when you hear these anecdotes you are likely to remember an occasion of it happening to you, or accidentally doing it to someone else. It's vital that you separate out praise and criticism, and focus on people's strength and potential. This lecture looks at how and gives plenty of practical advice.

In this lecture we look at a model grouping people into 4 broad categories. It's important to understand these to know what motivates people and what style of management they'll prefer. Everyone is differnet, so your management style should be changing continuously throughout the day.

Here's a downloadable of the 4 Types with some extra detail. Feel free to print it to keep for future reference.

Many people think money is an effective motivating factor - it's used to make people work harder, reward success, and even punish failure. However, in this lecture we debunk the myth and explain why money doesn't motivate people, and what other options you can use instead. Once you understand the full range of motivational reasoning and techniques you'll see why money is a very ineffective tool for this job.

Here are 20 quick fire practical tips. Whilst it's important to understand the academic theory behind tools, in this lecture we focus just on practicality. These are things you should be doing on a regular basis, often daily, and will vastly increase your staff's motivation and qualiy of work.

Knowing how much control to keep and how much freedom of decision making to give away is a tricky balance, and is demonstrated in this lecture on a sliding continuum. Different people will be at different places depending on the task so you should be constantly adapting your style to match that. Hopefully after following this lecture you will feel able to give your team extra responsibility, and help them grow to be ever more capable and trustworthy.

This is a downloadable visual representation of the Management Continuum. Feel free to print it as you wish, or simply save it on your computer for future reference.

There are many types of delegating, and many misconceptions. 'The Seagull' style is just one of the ones that we do not recommend, but is extremely common. In this lecture we'll examine some of the different types, when they are appropriate, and how to make the best of every situation.

Empowerment is a powerful tool, and gives your employees a huge motivation boost. However, it can take some trust on your part - and so you must believe in the people you've hired and your ability to support them and spot any downward trends in the project.

In this lecture we look at how to empower effectively and what the benefits can be to both you and your team.

There are many wonderful reasons to delegate, and in this lecture we'll paint a picture of what your working life could be like if you did it more. Your team would be happier, challenged, and motivated, and you'd have time to think, develop and lead effectively. It could honestly change your life, and that of your subordinates, and this lecture will peruade you that you should be doing a whole lot more of it.

Perhaps you have some objections to delegating? Maybe you've been burned before or are worried about the risks? This lecture looks at all the common reasons NOT to delegate, and explains how to over come them. You'd be amazed what quantity of work can be delegated, how much extra capacity your team has, and how liberating it will be for you. It's not possible to delegate too much, and the more you give away the more time you have for true leadership instead of doing other people's jobs and blocking progression.

In this rather harrowing story we look at the reality behind what would happen to your team or company if you weren't there. Are you really as important as you think, and are you spending your time on the right things? Perhaps you could delegate more and have increased trust in your team, but you'll never find out unless you try it. Hopefully this session will inspire you to constantly try and replace yourself, and help your team develop new skills and competencies. Remember - you can't be promoted if you're irreplaceable.

This story brings to life the idea of delegating. It's easy to get drawn in to answering questions and doing jobs yourself, but this is simply not sustainable. You'll draw yourself into a downward spiral and find yourself far too busy to 'steer the ship'. It's far better to let your staff do their job, and be trusted to make decisions. If you've hired great people, and trained them well, they may even do a better job than you would.

Hopefully by now you'll understand why delegating is so important and how much of a difference it can make to your working life. In this lecture we'll explain all the practical aspects of HOW you do it. We'll give 8 specific phrases and words to use to ensure your employee feels empowered, trusted and motivated to do a great job.

This theory (from the famous book The One Minute Manager) is a very visual and memorable one. When someone comes into your office asking for help on a task you're faced with the choice of either taking it from them, or throwing it back for them to fix themselves. If people can fix their own problems they'll gain self confidence and skills, as well taking tasks off your plate and leave you free to 'steer the ship'. It's a vital, and simple, technique to master, and can free up hours and hours of your time. Worth practising and mastering!

Determining the competency of an employee is more complex than it sounds. When deciding to delegate you need to consider more than just 'can this person do the task' but also 'do they want to'. Motivation affects quality hugely, so if you're going to see successful delegation reaping great rewards you'll need to make sure they are both competent AND motivated. This lecture looks at a diagram and academic tool called Situational Leadership and applies it in very practical terms to your business.

Situational leadership is a simple but highly effective concept that could just change your life. Having watched the video print off this downloadable and put it on your wall to refer to when you're considering delegating.

It is possible, when delegating, that a project will not turn out how you envisaged. In this example an employee fails to deliver a project on time or budget TWICE. However, we'll look at who's fault this truly is, and how it can be prevented in future. and for your own projects. We'll look at whether their manager should have chosen a different person, given different motivations, and supervised or supported in a different way. You'll certainly learn a lot from this story, and it could save you thousands in overrun project costs.

Determining how much freedom to give to your team is a vital and delicate balance. In order to get it right we suggest using The Freedom Ladder. Based on the competencies of your team and their experience with this type of task you can decide how often they need to report back to you, and how free they are to make their own decisions. It's important that you try to progress people along this ladder by giving praise, support and training, and this lecture looks at how to do all of the above.

Here is your downloadable version of the Freedom Ladder. You may find it useful to refer to when you're wondering if an employee can be left alone to be empowered on enacting a task, or whether they need some supervision.

Depending on how competent your team members are at their current tasks you may want to vary your level of grip. In some cases you'll want to know exactly what they are working on all the time, and in other scenarios you might be happy to just check in when they raise an issue. This lecture looks at options for doing these tactfully, and knowing when you use each style. If you have too loose grip then significant mistakes could be made, and you'll be to blame.

In this lecture we look at the combination of overlap and difference between the Freedom Ladder and Tannenbaum & Schmidt's theory. The conclusion is that one relates to planning your task - how much should you let your team influence the design and process of the plan; while the second relates to enacting the plan - how much freedom do they have to make decision on project management without checking back with you. This lecture will explain how to decide on your positioning for each axis, and how the two axis affect each other.

This section looks at the difference and overlap between the Freedom Ladder and Tannenbaum & Schmits theory. It enables you to determine what level of control you would like to give your team during the planning stage, and then how much freedom they should have for enacting the plan. These two are independant factors so you could have very rigid planning, but with lots of freedom to run the project, or significant involvement in planning and then no leeway when seeing out the plan.

Use this downloadable as a visual plan of how you want to balance the two factors to get the most out of your team and timeframe.

In order to not get trapped in a spiral of fire fighting it's important to have a regular agenda of tasks. In this lecture we look at what you should be doing every day, week, month and year to ensure you're keeping ahead of the game.

To keep yourself organised and in touch with your team you should create a jobs to do list every day, and walk around your entire office at least once.

For weekly actions you should be thanking everyone for at least one action, and coaching someone to develop new skills as a mentor.

Once a month you should think through all your team and decide whether they are being well nurtured, motivated and challenged. If not, now is the time to notice and change.

Finally, annually, you need to address everyone as a big team, conduct appraisals, and go 'back to the floor'

Here's your downloadable version of the previous lecture. If you need something to refer to make sure you're on track for management task targets. Which things should you be doing every day, week, month and year. Perhaps transfer this list into an electronic repeating diary, or leave it on your wall as a reminder.

In this lecture we want to challenge you to solidify all the learning you've done. Are you brave enough to make a public declaration to yourself and your team to improve? If so, print off this Management Charter and display it in your office. It says that you'll try to improve on a number of fronts, including delegating, thanking and listening, and asks others to remind you of it if you slip. Be brave, and give it a go.

Here is your downloadable Management Charter - print it off, display it in plain sight, and make a pledge to yourself and your staff to improve. You can do it!

Thank you for completing the course. We really hope you've learnt a lot and are now prepared to make some changes in your office and life. We'd highly recommend being proactive immediately, before improving just becomes a 'job to do'. You can be an incredible manager if you put your mind to it, and mastering these techniques will improve not only your work life, but also your home balance. Look forward to hearing all about your exciting progress on the message board.